Reading section 103

268 Kauśalyá and Sumitrá.

269 A king of the Lunar race, and father of Yayáti.

270 Literally _the chamber of wrath,_ a “_growlery_,” a small, dark, unfurnished room to which it seems, the wives and ladies of the king betook themselves when offended and sulky.

271 In these four lines I do not translate faithfully, and I do not venture to follow Kaikeyí farther in her eulogy of the hump-back’s charms.

272 These verses are evidently an interpolation. They contain nothing that has not been already related: the words only are altered. As the whole poem could not be recited at once, the rhapsodists at the beginning of a fresh recitation would naturally remind their hearers of the events immediately preceding.

273 The _śloka_ or distich which I have been forced to expand into these nine lines is evidently spurious, but is found in all the commented MSS. which Schlegel consulted.

274 Manmatha, Mind-disturber, a name of Káma or Love.

275 This story is told in the Mahábhárat. A free version of it may be found in _Scenes from the Rámáyan, etc._

276 Only the highest merit obtains a home in heaven for ever. Minor degrees of merit procure only leases of heavenly mansions terminable after periods proportioned to the fund which buys them. King Yayáti went to heaven and when his term expired was unceremoniously ejected, and thrown down to earth.

277 See _Additional Notes_, THE SUPPLIANT DOVE.

278 Indra, called also Purandara, Town-destroyer.

279 Indra’s charioteer.

280 The elephant of Indra.

281 A star in the spike of Virgo: hence the name of the mouth Chaitra or Chait.

282 The Rain-God.

283 In a former life.

284 One of the lunar asterisms, represented as the favourite wife of the Moon. See p. 4, note.

285 The Sea.

286 The Moon.

287 The comparison may to a European reader seem a homely one. But Spenser likens an infuriate woman to a cow “That is berobbed of her youngling dere.” Shakspeare also makes King Henry VI compare himself to the calf’s mother that “Runs lowing up and down, Looking the way her harmless young one went.” “Cows,” says De Quincey, “are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young, when deprived of them, and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these gentle creatures.”

288 The commentators say that, in a former creation, Ocean grieved his mother and suffered in consequence the pains of hell.

289 As described in Book I Canto XL.

290 Parasúráma.

291 The Sanskrit word _hasta_ signifies both _hand_, and the trunk of “The beast that bears between his eyes a serpent for a head.”

292 See P. 41.

293 The first progeny of Brahmá or Brahmá himself.

294 These are three names of the Sun.

295 See P. 1.

296 The saints who form the constellation of Ursa Major.

297 The regent of the planet Venus.

298 Kuvera.

_ 299 Bali_, or the presentation of food to all created beings, is one of the five great sacraments of the Hindu religion: it consists in throwing a small parcel of the offering, _Ghee_, or rice, or the like, into the open air at the back of the house.

300 In mythology, a demon slain by Indra.

301 Called also Garuḍ, the King of the birds, offspring of Vinatá. See p. 53.

302 See P. 56.

303 See P. 43.

304 The story of Sávitrí, told in the Mahábhárat, has been admirably translated by Rückert, and elegantly epitomized by Mrs. Manning in _India, Ancient and Mediæval_. There is a free rendering of the story in _Idylls from the Sanskrit_.

305 Fire for sacrificial purposes is produced by the attrition of two pieces of wood.

306 Kaikeyí.

307 The chapel where the sacred fire used in worship is kept.

308 The students and teachers of the Taittiríya portion of the Yajur Veda.

309 Two of the divine personages called _Prajápatis_ and _Brahmádikas_ who were first created by Brahmá.

310 It was the custom of the kings of the solar dynasty to resign in their extreme old age the kingdom to the heir, and spend the remainder of their days in holy meditation in the forest:

“For such through ages in their life’s decline Is the good custom of Ikshváku’s line.”

_Raghuraṅśa._

311 See Book I, Canto XXXIX. An Indian prince in more modern times appears to have diverted himself in a similar way.

It is still reported in Belgaum that Appay Deasy was wont to amuse himself “by making several young and beautiful women stand side by side on a narrow balcony, without a parapet, overhanging the deep reservoir at the new palace in Nipani. He used then to pass along the line of trembling creatures, and suddenly thrusting one of them headlong into the water below, he used to watch her drowning, and derive pleasure from her dying agonies.”—History of the Belgaum District. By H. J. Stokes, M. S. C.

312 Chitraratha, King of the celestial choristers.

313 It is said that the bamboo dies after flowering.

314 “Thirty centuries have passed since he began this memorable journey. Every step of it is known and is annually traversed by thousands: hero worship is not extinct. What can Faith do! How strong are the ties of religion when entwined with the legends of a country! How many a cart creeps creaking and weary along the road from Ayodhyá to Chitrakúṭ. It is this that gives the Rámáyan a strange interest, the story still lives.” _Calcutta Review: Vol. XXIII._

315 See p. 72.

316 Four stars of the sixteenth lunar asterism.

317 In the marriage service.

318 The husks and chaff of the rice offered to the Gods.

319 An important sacrifice at which seventeen victims were immolated.

320 The great pilgrimage to the Himálayas, in order to die there.

321 Known to Europeans as the Goomtee.

322 A tree, commonly called _Ingua_.

323 Sacrificial posts to which the victims were tied.

324 Daughter of Jahnu, a name of the Ganges. See p. 55.