Reading section 115

957 The name of one of the mystical weapons the command over which was given by Viśvámitra to Ráma, as related in Book I.

958 One of Sítá’s guard, and her comforter on a former occasion also.

959 The preceptor of the Gods.

960 Ráma’s grandfather.

961 The Gandharvas are warriors and Minstrels of Indra’s heaven.

962 “It is to be understood,” says the commentator, “that this is not the Akampan who has already been slain.”

963 Rávaṇ’s son, whom Hanumán killed when he first visited Lanká.

964 Níla was the son of Agni the God of Fire, and possessed, like Milton’s demons, the power of dilating and condensing his form at pleasure.

965 An ancient king of Ayodhyá said by some to have been Prithu’s father.

966 The daughter of King Kuśadhwaja. She became an ascetic, and being insulted by Rávaṇ in the woods where she was performing penance, destroyed herself by entering fire, but was born again as Sítá to be in turn the destruction of him who had insulted her.

967 Nandíśvara was Śiva’s chief attendant. Rávaṇ had despised and laughed at him for appearing in the form of a monkey and the irritated Nandíśvara cursed him and foretold his destruction by monkeys.

968 Rávaṇ once upheaved and shook Mount Kailása the favourite dwelling place of Śiva the consort of Umá, and was cursed in consequence by the offended Goddess.

969 Rambhá, who has several times been mentioned in the course of the poem, was one of the nymphs of heaven, and had been insulted by Rávaṇ.

970 Punjikasthalá was the daughter of Varuṇ. Rávaṇ himself has mentioned in this book his insult to her, and the curse pronounced in consequence by Brahmá.

971 Pulastya was the son of Brahmá and father of Viśravas or Paulastya the father of Rávaṇ and Kumbhakarṇa.

972 I omit a tedious sermon on the danger of rashness and the advantages of prudence, sufficient to irritate a less passionate hearer than Rávaṇ.

973 The Bengal recension assigns a very different speech to Kumbhakarṇa and makes him say that Nárad the messenger of the Gods had formerly told him that Vishṇu himself incarnate as Daśaratha’s son should come to destroy Rávaṇ.

974 Mahodar, Dwijihva, Sanhráda, and Vitardan.

975 A name of Vishṇu.

976 There is so much commonplace repetition in these Sallies of the Rákshas chieftains that omissions are frequently necessary. The usual ill omens attend the sally of Kumbhakarṇa, and the Canto ends with a description of the terrified Vánars’ flight which is briefly repeated in different words at the beginning of the next Canto.

977 Kártikeya the God of War, and the hero and incarnation Paraśuráma are said to have cut a passage through the mountain Krauncha, a part of the Himálayan range, in the same way as the immense gorge that splits the Pyrenees under the towers of Marboré was cloven at one blow of Roland’s sword Durandal.

978 Rishabh, Śarabh, Níla, Gaváksha, and Gandhamádan.

979 Angad. The text calls him the son of the son of him who holds the thunderbolt, _i.e._ the grandson of Indra.

980 Literally, weighing a thousand _bháras_. The _bhára_ is a weight equal to 2000 _palas_, the _pala_ is equal to four _karśas_, and the _karśa_ to 11375 French grammes or about 176 grains troy. The spear seems very light for a warrior of Kumbhakarṇa’s strength and stature and the work performed with it.

981 The custom of throwing parched or roasted grain, with wreaths and flowers, on the heads of kings and conquerors when they go forth to battle and return is frequently mentioned by Indian poets.

982 Lakshmaṇ.

983 I have abridged this long Canto by omitting some vain repetitions, commonplace epithets and similes and other unimportant matter. There are many verses in this Canto which European scholars would rigidly exclude as unmistakeably the work of later rhapsodists. Even the reverent Commentator whom I follow ventures to remark once or twice: _Ayam śloka prak shipta iti bahavah_, “This _śloka_ or verse is in the opinion of many interpolated.”

984 Narak was a demon, son of Bhúmi or Earth, who haunted the city Prágjyotisha.

985 Śambar was a demon of drought.

986 Indra.

987 Devántak (Slayer of Gods) Narántak (Slayer of Men) Atikáya (Huge of Frame) and Triśirás (Three Headed) were all sons of Rávaṇ.

988 The demon of eclipse who seizes the Sun and Moon.

989 Lakshmaṇ.

990 In such cases as this I am not careful to reproduce the numbers of the poet, which in the text which I follow are 670000000; the Bengal recension being content with thirty million less.

991 The discus or quoit, a sharp-edged circular missile is the favourite weapon of Vishṇu.

992 To destroy Tripura the triple city in the sky, air and earth, built by Maya for a celebrated Asur or demon, or as another commentator explains, to destroy Kandarpa or Love.

993 The Lokapálas are sometimes regarded as deities appointed by Brahmá at the creation of the word to act as guardians of different orders of beings, but more commonly they are identified with the deities presiding over the four cardinal and four intermediate points of the compass, which, according to Manu V. 96, are 1, Indra, guardian of the East; 2, Agni, of the South-east; 3, Yáma, of the South; 4, Súrya, of the South-west; 5, Varuṇa, of the West; 6, Pavana or Váyu, of the North-west; 7, Kuvera, of the North; 8, Soma or Chandra, of the North-east.

994 The chariots of Rávaṇ’s present army are said to have been one hundred and fifty million in number with three hundred million elephants, and twelve hundred million horses and asses. The footmen are merely said to have been “unnumbered.”

995 It is not very easy to see the advantage of having arrows headed in the way mentioned. Fanciful names for war-engines and weapons derived from their resemblance to various animals are not confined to India. The “War-wolf” was used by Edward I. at the siege of Brechin, the “Cat-house” and the “Sow” were used by Edward III. at the siege of Dunbar.

996 Apparently a peak of the Himalaya chain.

997 This exploit of Hanumán is related with inordinate prolixity in the Bengal recension (Gortesio’s text). Among other adventures he narrowly escapes being shot by Bharat as he passes over Nandigrama near Ayodhyá. Hanumán stays Bharat in time, and gives him an account of what has befallen Ráma and Sítá in the forest and in Lanká.

998 As Garuḍ the king of birds is the mortal enemy of serpents the weapon sacred to him is of course best calculated to destroy the serpent arrows of Rávaṇ.

999 The celebrated saint who has on former occasions assisted Ráma with his gifts and counsel.

1000 Indra.

1001 Yáma.

1002 Kártikeya.

1003 Kubera.

1004 Varuṇ.

1005 The Pitris, forefathers or spirits of the dead, are of two kinds, either the spirits of the father, grandfathers and great-grandfathers of an individual or the progenitors of mankind generally, to both of whom obsequial worship is paid and oblations of food are presented.

1006 The Maruts or Storm-Gods.

1007 The Heavenly Twins, the Castor and Pollux of the Hindus.

1008 The Man _par excellence_, the representative man and father of the human race regarded also as God.

1009 The Vasus, a class of deities originally personifications of natural phenomena.

1010 A class of celestial beings who dwell between the earth and the sun.

1011 The seven horses are supposed to symbolize the seven days of the week.

1012 One for each month in the year.

1013 The garden of Kuvera, the God of Riches.

1014 The consort of Indra.

1015 The Swayamvara, Self-choice or election of a husband by a princess or daughter of a Kshatriya at a public assembly of suitors held for the purpose. For a description of the ceremony see _Nala and Damayantí_ an episode of the Mahábhárat translated by the late Dean Milman, and _Idylls from the Sanskrit_.

1016 The Pitris or Manes, the spirits of the dead.