Book II

, Canto LIV, we meet with a saint of this name presiding over a convent of disciples in his hermitage at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna. Thence the later author of these introductory cantos has borrowed the name and person, inconsistently indeed, but with the intention of enhancing the dignity of the poet by ascribing to him so celebrated a disciple.” SCHLEGEL.

46 The poet plays upon the similarity in sound of the two words: _śoka_, means grief, _śloka_, the heroic measure in which the poem is composed. It need scarcely be said that the derivation is fanciful.

47 Brahmá, the Creator, is usually regarded as the first person of the divine triad of India. The four heads with which he is represented are supposed to have allusion to the four corners of the earth which he is sometimes considered to personify. As an object of adoration Brahmá has been entirely superseded by Śiva and Vishṇu. In the whole of India there is, I believe, but one temple dedicated to his worship. In this point the first of the Indian triad curiously resembles the last of the divine fraternity of Greece, Aïdes the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. “In all Greece, says Pausanias, there is no single temple of Aïdes, except at a single spot in Elis.” See Gladstone’s Juventus Mundi, p. 253.

48 The _argha_ or _arghya_ was a libation or offering to a deity, a Bráhman, or other venerable personage. According to one authority it consisted of water, milk, the points of Kúsa-grass, curds, clarified butter, rice, barley, and white mustard, according to another, of saffron, bel, unbroken grain, flowers, curds, dúrbá-grass, kúsa-grass, and sesamum.

49 Sítá, daughter of Janak king of Míthilá.

50 “I congratulate myself,” says Schlegel in the preface to his, alas, unfinished edition of the Rámáyan, “that, by the favour of the Supreme Deity, I have been allowed to begin so great a work; I glory and make my boast that I too after so many ages have helped to confirm that ancient oracle declared to Válmíki by the Father of Gods and men:

Dum stabunt montes, campis dum flumina current, Usque tuum toto carmen celebrabitur orbe.”

51 “The sipping of water is a requisite introduction of all rites: without it, says the Sámha Purána, all acts of religion are vain.” COLEBROOKE.

52 The _darhha_ or _kuśa_ (Pea cynosuroides), a kind of grass used in sacrifice by the Hindus as _cerbena_ was by the Romans.

53 The direction in which the grass should be placed upon the ground as a seat for the Gods, on occasion of offerings made to them.

54 Paraśuráma or Ráma with the Axe. See Canto LXXIV.

55 Sítá. Videha was the country of which Míthilá was the capital.

56 The twin sons of Ráma and Sítá, born after Ráma had repudiated Sítá, and brought up in the hermitage of Válmíki. As they were the first rhapsodists the combined name Kuśílava signifies a reciter of poems, or an improvisatore, even to the present day.

57 Perhaps the bass, tenor, and treble, or quick, slow and middle times. we know but little of the ancient music of the Hindus.

58 Eight flavours or sentiments are usually enumerated, love, mirth, tenderness, anger, heroism, terror, disgust, and surprise; tranquility or content, or paternal tenderness, is sometimes considered the ninth. WILSON. See the _Sáhitya Darpaṇa_ or _Mirror of Composition_ translated by Dr. Ballantyne and Bábú Pramadádása Mittra in the _Bibliotheca Indica._

59 Saccharum Munja is a plant from whose fibres is twisted the sacred string which a Bráhman wears over one shoulder after he has been initiated by a rite which in some respects answers to confirmation.

60 A description of an Aśvamedha or Horse Sacrifice is given in Canto XIII. of this Book.

61 This exploit is related in Canto XL.

62 The Sarjú or Ghaghra, anciently called Sarayú, rises in the Himalayas, and after flowing through the province of Oudh, falls into the Ganges.

63 The ruins of the ancient capital of Ráma and the Children of the Sun may still be traced in the present Ajudhyá near Fyzabad. Ajudhyá is the Jerusalem or Mecca of the Hindus.

64 A legislator and saint, the son of Brahmá or a personification of Brahmá himself, the creator of the world, and progenitor of mankind. Derived from the root _man_ to think, the word means originally _man_, the thinker, and is found in this sense in the Rig-veda.

Manu as a legislator is identified with the Cretan Minos, as progenitor of mankind with the German Mannus: “Celebrant carminibus antiquis, quod unum apud illos memoriæ et annalium genus est, Tuisconem deum terra editum, et filium Mannum, originem gentis conditoresque.” TACITUS, _Germania_, Cap. II.

65 The Sál (Shorea Robusta) is a valuable timber tree of considerable height.

66 The city of Indra is called Amarávatí or Home of the Immortals.

67 Schlegel thinks that this refers to the marble of different colours with which the houses were adorned. It seems more natural to understand it as implying the regularity of the streets and houses.

68 The _Śataghní_ _i.e. centicide_, or slayer of a hundred, is generally supposed to be a sort of fire-arms, or the ancient Indian rocket; but it is also described as a stone set round with iron spikes.

69 The Nágas (serpents) are demigods with a human face and serpent body. They inhabit Pátála or the regions under the earth. Bhogavatí is the name of their capital city. Serpents are still worshipped in India. See Fergusson’s _Tree and Serpent Worship_.

70 The fourth and lowest pure caste whose duty was to serve the three first classes.

71 By forbidden marriages between persons of different castes.

72 Váhlí or Váhlíka is Bactriana; its name is preserved in the modern Balkh.

73 The Sanskrit word Sindhu is in the singular the name of the river Indus, in the plural of the people and territories on its banks. The name appears as _Hidku_ in the cuneiform inscription of Darius’ son of Hystaspes, in which the nations tributary to that king are enumerated.

The Hebrew form is _Hodda_ (Esther, I. 1.). In Zend it appears as _Hendu_ in a somewhat wider sense. With the Persians later the signification of _Hind_ seems to have co-extended with their increasing acquaintance with the country. The weak Ionic dialect omitted the Persian _h_, and we find in Hecatæus and Herodotus Ἴνδος and ἡ Ἰνδική. In this form the Romans received the names and transmitted them to us. The Arabian geographers in their ignorance that Hind and Sind are two forms of the same word have made of them two brothers and traced their decent from Noah. See Lassen’s Indische Alterthumskunde Vol. I. pp. 2, 3.

74 The situation of Vanáyu is not exactly determined: it seems to have lain to the north-west of India.

75 Kámboja was probably still further to the north-west. Lassen thinks that the name is etymologically connected with _Cambyses_ which in the cuneiform inscription of Behistun is written Ka(m)bujia.

76 The elephants of Indra and other deities who preside over the four points of the compass.

77 “There are four kinds of elephants. 1 _Bhaddar_. It is well proportioned, has an erect head, a broad chest, large ears, a long tail, and is bold and can bear fatigue. 2 _Mand_. It is black, has yellow eyes, a uniformly sized body, and is wild and ungovernable. 3 _Mirg_. It has a whitish skin, with black spots. 4 _Mir_. It has a small head, and obeys readily. It gets frightened when it thunders.” _Aín-i-Akbarí._. Translated by H. Blochmann, Aín 41, _The Imperial Elephant Stables_.

78 Ayodhyá means _not to be fought against_.

79 Attendants of Indra, eight Gods whose names signify fire, light and its phenomena.

80 Kaśyap was a grandson of the God Brahmá. He is supposed to have given his name to Kashmír = Kaśyapa-míra, Kaśyap’s Lake.

81 The people of Anga. “Anga is said in the lexicons to be Bengal; but here certainly another region is intended situated at the confluence of the Sarjú with the Ganges, and not far distant from Daśaratha’s dominions.” GORRESIO. It comprised part of Behar and Bhagulpur.

82 The Koïl or _kokila_ (Cuculus Indicus) as the harbinger of spring and love is a universal favourite with Indian poets. His voice when first heard in a glorious spring morning is not unpleasant, but becomes in the hot season intolerably wearisome to European ears.

83 “Sons and Paradise are intimately connected in Indian belief. A man desires above every thing to have a son to perpetuate his race, and to assist with sacrifices and funeral rites to make him worthy to obtain a lofty seat in heaven or to preserve that which he has already obtained.” GORRESIO.

84 One of the Pleiades and generally regarded as the model of wifely excellence.

85 The Hindu year is divided into six seasons of two months each, spring, summer, rains, autumn, winter, and dews.

86 It was essential that the horse should wander free for a year before immolation, as a sign that his master’s paramount sovereignty was acknowledged by all neighbouring princes.

87 Called also Vidcha, later Tirabhukti, corrupted into the modern Tirhut, a province bounded on the west and east by the Gaudakí and Kauśikí rivers, on the south by the Ganges, and on the north by the skirts of the Himálayas.

88 The celebrated city of Benares. See Dr. Hall’s learned and exhaustive Monograph in the _Sacred City of the Hindus_, by the Rev. M. A. Sherring.

89 Kekaya is supposed to have been in the Panjáb. The name of the king was Aśvapati (Lord of Horses), father of Daśaratha’s wife Kaikeyí.

90 Surat.

91 Apparently in the west of India not far from the Indus.

92 “The Pravargya ceremony lasts for three days, and is always performed twice a day, in the forenoon and afternoon. It precedes the animal and Soma sacrifices. For without having undergone it, no one is allowed to take part in the solemn Soma feast prepared for the gods.” Haug’s _Aitareya Bráhmaṇam_. Vol. II. p. 41. note _q.v._

_ 93 Upasads_. “The Gods said, Let us perform the burnt offerings called Upasads (_i.e._ besieging). For by means of an _Upasad_, _i.e._ besieging, they conquer a large (fortified) town.”—_Ibid._ p. 32.

94 The Soma plant, or Asclepias Acida. Its fermented juice was drunk in sacrifice by the priests and offered to the Gods who enjoyed the intoxicating draught.

95 “Tum in cærimoniarum intervallis Brachmanæ facundi, sollertes, crebros sermones de rerum causis instituebant, alter alterum vincendi cupidi. This public disputation in the assembly of Bráhmans on the nature of things, and the almost fraternal connexion between theology and philosophy deserves some notice; whereas the priests of some religions are generally but little inclined to show favour to philosophers, nay, sometimes persecute them with the most rancorous hatred, as we are taught both by history and experience.… This śloka is found in the MSS. of different recensions of the Rámáyan, and we have, therefore, the most trustworthy testimony to the antiquity of philosophy among the Indians.” SCHLEGEL.

96 The _Angas_ or appendices of the Vedas, pronunciation, prosody, grammar, ritual, astronomy, and explanation of obscurities.

97 In Sanskrit _vilva_, the _Ægle Marmelos_. “He who desires food and wishes to grow fat, ought to make his Yúpa (sacrificial post) of Bilva wood.” Haug’s _Aítareya Bráhmanam. Vol. II._ p. 73.

98 The _Mimosa Catechu_. “He who desires heaven ought to make his Yúpa of Khádira wood.”—_Ibid._

99 The _Butea Frondosa_. “He who desires beauty and sacred knowledge ought to make his Yúpa of Paláśa wood.”—_Ibid._

100 The _Cardia Latifolia_.

101 A kind of pine. The word means literally the tree of the Gods. Compare the Hebrew עצי יהוה “trees of the Lord.”

102 The Hindus call the constellation of Ursa Major the Seven Rishis or Saints.

103 A minute account of these ancient ceremonies would be out of place here. “Ágnishṭoma is the name of a sacrifice, or rather a series of offerings to fire for five days. It is the first and principal part of the Jyotishṭoma, one of the great sacrifices in which especially the juice of the Soma plant is offered for the purpose of obtaining Swarga or heaven.” GOLDSTÜCKER’S DICTIONARY. “The _Ágnishṭoma_ is Agni. It is called so because they (the gods) praised him with this Stoma. They called it so to hide the proper meaning of the word: for the gods like to hide the proper meaning of words.”

“On account of four classes of gods having praised Agni with four Stomas, the whole was called _Chatushṭoma_ (containing four Stomas).”

“It (the Ágnishṭoma) is called _Jyotishṭoma_, for they praised Agni when he had risen up (to the sky) in the shape of a light (_jyotis_).”

“This (Ágnishṭoma) is a sacrificial performance which has no beginning and no end.” HAUG’S _Aitareya Bráhmaṇam_.

The Atirátra, literally _lasting through the night_, is a division of the service of the Jyotishṭoma.

The Abhijit, _the everywhere victorious_, is the name of a sub-division of the great sacrifice of the Gavámanaya.

The Viśvajit, or _the all-conquering_, is a similar sub-division.

Áyus is the name of a service forming a division of the Abhiplava sacrifice.

The _Aptoryám_, is the seventh or last part of the Jyotishṭoma, for the performance of which it is not essentially necessary, but a voluntary sacrifice instituted for the attainment of a specific desire. The literal meaning of the word would be in conformity with the _Prauḍhamanoramá_, “a sacrifice which procures the attainment of the desired object.” GOLDSTÜCKER’S DICTIONARY.

“The _Ukthya_ is a slight modification of the Ágnishṭoma sacrifice. The noun to be supplied to it is _kratu_. It is a Soma sacrifice also, and one of the seven Saṇsthas or component parts of the Jyotishṭoma. Its name indicates its nature. For _Ukthya_ means ‘what refers to the Uktha,’ which is an older name for Shástra, _i.e._ recitation of one of the Hotri priests at the time of the Soma libations. Thus this sacrifice is only a kind of supplement to the Ágnishṭoma.” HAUG. _Ai. B._

104 “Four classes of priests were required in India at the most solemn sacrifices. 1. The officiating priests, manual labourers, and acolytes, who had chiefly to prepare the sacrificial ground, to dress the altar, slay the victims, and pour out the libations. 2. The choristers, who chant the sacred hymns. 3. The reciters or readers, who repeat certain hymns. 4. The overseers or bishops, who watch and superintend the proceedings of the other priests, and ought to be familiar with all the Vedas. The formulas and verses to be muttered by the first class are contained in the Yajur-veda-sanhitá. The hymns to be sung by the second class are in the Sama-veda-sanhitá. The Atharva-veda is said to be intended for the Brahman or overseer, who is to watch the proceedings of the sacrifice, and to remedy any mistake that may occur. The hymns to be recited by the third class are contained in the Rigveda,” _Chips from a German Workshop._

105 The Maruts are the winds, deified in the religion of the Veda like other mighty powers and phenomena of nature.

106 A Titan or fiend whose destruction has given Vishṇu one of his well-known titles, Mádhava.

107 The garden of Indra.

108 One of the most ancient and popular of the numerous names of Vishṇu. The word has been derived in several ways, and may mean _he who moved on the (primordial) waters_, or _he who pervades or influences men or their thoughts_.

109 The Horse-Sacrifice, just described.

110 To walk round an object keeping the right side towards it is a mark of great respect. The Sanskrit word for the observance is _pradakshiṇá_, from pra pro, and _daksha_ right, Greek δεξίος, Latin dexter, Gaelic deas-il. A similar ceremony is observed by the Gaels.

“In the meantime she traced around him, with wavering steps, the propitiation, which some have thought has been derived from the Druidical mythology. It consists, as is well known, in the person who makes the _deasil_ walking three times round the person who is the object of the ceremony, taking care to move according to the course of the sun.”

SCOTT. _The Two Drovers._

111 The _Amrit_, the nectar of the Indian Gods.

_ 112 Gandharvas_ (Southey’s Glendoveers) are celestial musicians inhabiting Indra’s heaven and forming the orchestra at all the banquets of the principal deities.

_ 113 Yakshas_, demigods attendant especially on Kuvera, and employed by him in the care of his garden and treasures.

_ 114 Kimpurushas_, demigods attached also to the service of Kuvera, celestial musicians, represented like centaurs reversed with human figures and horses’ heads.

_ 115 Siddhas_, demigods or spirits of undefined attributes, occupying with the _Vidyádharas_ the middle air or region between the earth and the sun.

Schlegel translates: “Divi, Sapientes, Fidicines, Præpetes, illustres Genii, Præconesque procrearunt natos, masculos, silvicolas; angues porro, Hippocephali Beati, Aligeri, Serpentesque frequentes alacriter generavere prolem innumerabilem.”

116 A mountain in the south of India.

117 The preceptor of the Gods and regent of the planet Jupiter.

118 The celestial architect, the Indian Hephæstus, Mulciber, or Vulcan.

119 The God of Fire.

120 Twin children of the Sun, the physicians of Swarga or Indra’s heaven.

121 The deity of the waters.

122 Parjanya, sometimes confounded with Indra.

123 The bird and vehicle of Vishṇu. He is generally represented as a being something between a man and a bird and considered as the sovereign of the feathered race. He may be compared with the Simurgh of the Persians, the ’Anká of the Arabs, the Griffin of chivalry, the Phœnix of Egypt, and the bird that sits upon the ash Yggdrasil of the Edda.

124 This Canto will appear ridiculous to the European reader. But it should be remembered that the monkeys of an Indian forest, the “bough-deer” as the poets call them, are very different animals from the “turpissima bestia” that accompanies the itinerant organ-grinder or grins in the Zoological Gardens of London. Milton has made his hero, Satan, assume the forms of a cormorant, a toad, and a serpent, and I cannot see that this creation of semi-divine Vánars, or monkeys, is more ridiculous or undignified.

125 The consort of Indra, called also Śachí and Indráṇí.

126 The _Michelia champaca_. It bears a scented yellow blossom:

“The maid of India blest again to hold In her full lap the Champac’s leaves of gold.”

_Lallah Rookh._

127 Vibháṇdak, the father of Rishyaśring

128 A hemiśloka is wanting in Schlegel’s text, which he thus fills up in his Latin translation.

129 Rishyaśring, a Bráhman, had married Śántá who was of the Kshatriya or Warrior caste and an expiatory ceremony was necessary on account of this violation of the law.

130 “The poet no doubt intended to indicate the vernal equinox as the birthday of Ráma. For the month _Chaitra_ is the first of the two months assigned to the spring; it corresponds with the latter half of March and the former half of April in our division of the year. _Aditi_, the mother of the Gods, is lady of the seventh lunar mansion which is called _Punarvasu_. The five planets and their positions in the Zodiac are thus enumerated by both commentators: the Sun in Aries, Mars in Capricorn, Saturn in Libra, Jupiter in Cancer, Venus in Pisces.… I leave to astronomers to examine whether the parts of the description agree with one another, and, if this be the case, thence to deduce the date. The Indians place the nativity of Ráma in the confines of the second age (tretá) and the third (dwápara): but it seems that this should be taken in an allegorical sense.… We may consider that the poet had an eye to the time in which, immediately before his own age, the aspects of the heavenly bodies were such as he has described.” SCHLEGEL.

131 The regent of the planet Jupiter.

132 Indra = Jupiter Tonans.

133 “_Pushya_ is the name of a month; but here it means the eighth mansion. The ninth is called _Asleshá_, or the snake. It is evident from this that Bharat, though his birth is mentioned before that of the twins, was the youngest of the four brothers and Ráma’s junior by eleven months.” SCHLEGEL.

134 A fish, the Zodiacal sign _Pisces_.

135 One of the constellations, containing stars in the wing of Pegasus.

136 Ráma means the Delight (of the World); Bharat, the Supporter; Lakshmaṇ, the Auspicious; Śatrughna, the Slayer of Foes.

137 Schlegel, in the _Indische Bibliothek_, remarks that the proficiency of the Indians in this art early attracted the attention of Alexander’s successors, and natives of India were so long exclusively employed in this service that the name Indian was applied to any elephant-driver, to whatever country he might belong.

138 The story of this famous saint is given at sufficient length in Cantos LI-LV.

This saint has given his name to the district and city to the east of Benares. The original name, preserved in a land-grant on copper now in the Museum of the Benares College, has been Moslemized into Ghazeepore (the City of the Soldier-martyr).

139 The son of Kuśik is Viśvámitra.

140 At the recollection of their former enmity, to be described hereafter.

141 The Indian nectar or drink of the Gods.

142 Great joy, according to the Hindu belief, has this effect, not causing each particular hair to stand on end, but gently raising all the down upon the body.

143 The Rákshasas, giants, or fiends who are represented as disturbing the sacrifice, signify here, as often elsewhere, merely the savage tribes which placed themselves in hostile opposition to Bráhmanical institutions.

144 Consisting of horse, foot, chariots, and elephants.

145 “The Gandharvas, or heavenly bards, had originally a warlike character but were afterwards reduced to the office of celestial musicians cheering the banquets of the Gods. Dr. Kuhn has shown their identity with the Centaurs in name, origin and attributes.” GORRESIO.

146 These mysterious animated weapons are enumerated in Cantos XXIX and XXX. Daksha was the son of Brahmá and one of the Prajápatis, Demiurgi, or secondary authors of creation.

147 Youths of the Kshatriya class used to leave unshorn the side locks of their hair. These were called _Káka-paksha_, or raven’s wings.

148 The Rákshas or giant Rávaṇ, king of Lanká.

149 “The meaning of Aśvins (from _aśva_ a horse, Persian asp, Greek ἵππος, Latin _equus_, Welsh ech) is Horsemen. They were twin deities of whom frequent mention is made in the Vedas and the Indian myths. The Aśvins have much in common with the Dioscuri of Greece, and their mythical genealogy seems to indicate that their origin was astronomical. They were, perhaps, at first the morning star and evening star. They are said to be the children of the sun and the nymph Aśviní, who is one of the lunar asterisms personified. In the popular mythology they are regarded as the physicians of the Gods.” GORRESIO.

150 The word Kumára (a young prince, a Childe) is also a proper name of Skanda or Kártikeya God of War, the son of Śiva and Umá. The babe was matured in the fire.

151 “At the rising of the sun as well as at noon certain observances, invocations, and prayers were prescribed which might under no circumstances be omitted. One of these observances was the recitation of the Sávitrí, a Vedic hymn to the Sun of wonderful beauty.” GORRESIO.

_ 152 Tripathaga_, _Three-path-go,_ flowing in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. See Canto XLV.

153 Tennyson’s “Indian Cama,” the God of Love, known also by many other names.

_ 154 Umá_, or _Parvatí_, was daughter of Himálaya, Monarch of mountains, and wife of Śiva. See Kálidasa’s _Kumára Sambhava_, or _Birth of the War-God_.

_ 155 Stháṇu_. The Unmoving one, a name of Śiva.

156 “The practice of austerities, voluntary tortures, and mortifications was anciently universal in India, and was held by the Indians to be of immense efficacy. Hence they mortified themselves to expiate sins, to acquire merits, and to obtain superhuman gifts and powers; the Gods themselves sometimes exercised themselves in such austerities, either to raise themselves to greater power and grandeur, or to counteract the austerities of man which threatened to prevail over them and to deprive them of heaven.… Such austerities were called in India _tapas_ (burning ardour, fervent devotion) and he who practised them _tapasvin_.” GORRESIO.

_ 157 The Bodiless one._

158 “A celebrated lake regarded in India as sacred. It lies in the lofty region between the northern highlands of the Himálayas and mount Kailása, the region of the sacred lakes. The poem, following the popular Indian belief, makes the river Sarayú (now Sarjú) flow from the Mánasa lake; the sources of the river are a little to the south about a day’s journey from the lake. See Lassen, _Indische Alterthumshunde_, page 34.” GORRESIO. _Manas_ means mind; _mánasa_, mental, mind-born.

_ 159 Sarovar_ means best of lakes. This is another of the poet’s fanciful etymologies.

160 The confluence of two or more rivers is often a venerated and holy place. The most famous is Prayág or Allahabad, where the Sarasvatí by an underground course is believed to join the Jumna and the Ganges.

161 The botanical names of the trees mentioned in the text are Grislea Tormentosa, Shorea Robusta, Echites Antidysenterica, Bignonia Suaveolens, Œgle Marmelos, and Diospyrus Glutinosa. I have omitted the _Kutaja_ (Echites) and the _Tiṇḍuka_ (Diospyrus).

162 Here we meet with a fresh myth to account for the name of these regions. _Malaja_ is probably a non-Aryan word signifying a hilly country: taken as a Sanskrit compound it means _sprung from defilement_. The word _Karúsha_ appears to have a somewhat similar meaning.

163 “This is one of those indefinable mythic personages who are found in the ancient traditions of many nations, and in whom cosmogonical or astronomical notions are generally figured. Thus it is related of Agastya that the Vindhyan mountains prostrated themselves before him; and yet the same Agastya is believed to be regent of the star Canopus.” GORRESIO.

He will appear as the friend and helper of Ráma farther on in the poem.

164 The famous pleasure-garden of Kuvera the God of Wealth.

165 “The whole of this Canto together with the following one, regards the belief, formerly prevalent in India, that by virtue of certain spells, to be learnt and muttered, secret knowledge and superhuman powers might be acquired. To this the poet has already alluded in

## Canto xxiii. These incorporeal weapons are partly represented

according to the fashion of those ascribed to the Gods and the different orders of demi-gods, partly are the mere creations of fancy; and it would not be easy to say what idea the poet had of them in his own mind, or what powers he meant to assign to each.” SCHLEGEL.

166 “In Sanskrit _Sankára_, a word which has various significations but the primary meaning of which is _the act of seizing_. A magical power seems to be implied of employing the weapons when and where required. The remarks I have made on the preceding Canto apply with still greater force to this. The MSS. greatly vary in the enumeration of these _Sankáras_, and it is not surprising that copyists have incorrectly written the names which they did not well understand. The commentators throw no light upon the subject.” SCHLEGEL. I have taken the liberty of omitting four of these which Schlegel translates “Scleromphalum, Euomphalum, Centiventrem, and Chrysomphalum.”

167 I omit, after this line, eight _ślokes_ which, as Schlegel allows, are quite out of place.

168 This is the fifth of the _avatárs_, descents or incarnations of Vishṇu.

169 This is a solar allegory. Vishṇu is the sun, the three steps being his rising, culmination, and setting.

170 Certain ceremonies preliminary to a sacrifice.

171 A river which rises in Budelcund and falls into the Ganges near Patna. It is called also _Hiraṇyaráhu_, Golden-armed, and _Hiraṇyaráha_, Auriferous.

172 The modern Berar.

173 According to the Bengal recension the first (Kuśámba) is called Kuśáśva, and his city Kauśáśví. This name does not occur elsewhere. The reading of the northern recension is confirmed by Foê Kouê Ki; p. 385, where the city _Kiaoshangmi_ is mentioned. It lay 500 _lis_ to the south-west of _Prayága_, on the south bank of the Jumna. _Mahodaya_ is another name of Kanyakubja: _Dharmáraṇya_, the wood to which the God of Justice is said to have fled through fear of Soma the Moon-God was in Magadh. Girivraja was in the same neighbourhood. See Lasson’s I, A. Vol. I. p. 604.

174 That is, the City of the Bent Virgins, the modern Kanauj or Canouge.

175 Literally, Given by _Brahma_ or devout contemplation.

176 Now called Kośí (Cosy) corrupted from Kauśikí, daughter of Kuś]a.

“This is one of those personifications of rivers so frequent in the Grecian mythology, but in the similar myths is seen the impress of the genius of each people, austere and profoundly religious in India, graceful and devoted to the worship of external beauty in Greece.” GORRESIO.

177 One of the names of the Ganges considered as the daughter of Jahnu. See Canto XLIV.

178 The Indian Crane.

179 Or, rather, geese.

180 A name of the God Śiva.

181 Garuḍa.

182 Ikshváku, the name of a king of Ayodhyá who is regarded as the founder of the Solar race, means also a _gourd_. Hence, perhaps, the myth.

183 “The region here spoken of is called in the Laws of Manu _Madhyadeśa_ or the middle region. ‘The region situated between the Himálaya and the Vindhya Mountains … is called _Madhyadeśa_, or the middle region; the space comprised between these two mountains from the eastern to the western sea is called by sages Áryávartta, _the seat of honourable men_.’ (MANU, II, 21, 22.) The Sanskrit Indians called themselves Áryans, which means _honourable_, _noble_, to distinguish themselves from the surrounding nations of different origin.” GORRESIO.

184 Said to be so called from the Jambu, or Rose Apple, abounding in it, and signifying according to the Puránas the central division of the world, the known world.

185 Here used as a name of Vishṇu.

186 Kings are called the husbands of their kingdoms or of the earth; “She and his kingdom were his only brides.” _Raghuvaṅśa._

“Doubly divorced! Bad men, you violate A double marriage, ’twixt my crown and me, And then between me and my married wife.”

King Richard II. Act V. Sc. I.

187 The thirty-three Gods are said in the _Aitareya Bráhmaṇa_,