Book I
, Canto XVI.
521 Or as the commentator Tírtha says, Śilápidháná, rock-covered, may be the name of the cavern.
522 Pampá is said by the commentator to be the name both of a lake and a brook which flows into it. The brook is said to rise in the hill Rishyamúka.
523 Who was acting as Regent for Ráma and leading an ascetic life while he mourned for his absent brother.
524 The Indian Cuckoo.
525 The Cassia Fistula or Amaltás is a splendid tree like a giant laburnum covered with a profusion of chains and tassels of gold. Dr. Roxburgh well describes it as “uncommonly beautiful when in flower, few trees surpassing it in the elegance of its numerous long pendulous racemes of large bright-yellow flowers intermixed with the young lively green foliage.” It is remarkable also for its curious cylindrical black seed-pods about two feet long, which are called monkeys’ walking-sticks.
526 “The Jonesia Asoca is a tree of considerable size, native of southern India. It blossoms in February and March with large erect compact clusters of flowers, varying in colour from pale-orange to scarlet, almost to be mistaken, on a hasty glance, for immense trusses of bloom of an Ixora. Mr. Fortune considered this tree, when in full bloom, superior in beauty even to the Amherstia.
The first time I saw the Asoc in flower was on the hill where the famous rock-cut temple of Kárlí is situated, and a large concourse of natives had assembled for the celebration of some Hindoo festival. Before proceeding to the temple the Mahratta women gathered from two trees, which were flowering somewhat below, each a fine truss of blossom, and inserted it in the hair at the back of her head.… As they moved about in groups it is impossible to imagine a more delightful effect than the rich scarlet bunches of flowers presented on their fine glossy jet-black hair.” FIRMINGER, _Gardening for India_.
527 No other word can express the movements of peafowl under the influence of pleasing excitement, especially when after the long drought they hear the welcome roar of the thunder and feel that the rain is near.
528 The Dewy Season is one of the six ancient seasons of the Indian year, lasting from the middle of January to the middle of March.
529 Ráma appears to mean that on a former occasion a crow flying high overhead was an omen that indicated his approaching separation from Sítá; and that now the same bird’s perching on a tree near him may be regarded as a happy augury that she will soon be restored to her husband.
530 A tree with beautiful and fragrant blossoms.
531 A race of semi-divine musicians attached to the service of Kuvera, represented as centaurs reversed with human figures and horses’ heads.
532 Butea Frondosa. A tree that bears a profusion of brilliant red flowers which appear before the leaves.
533 I omit five _ślokas_ which contain nothing but a list of trees for which, with one or two exceptions, there are no equivalent names in English. The following is Gorresio’s translation of the corresponding passage in the Bengal recension:—
“Oh come risplendono in questa stagione di primavera i vitici, le galedupe, le bassie, le dalbergie, i diospyri … le tile, le michelie, le rottlerie, le pentaptere ed i pterospermi, i bombaci, le grislee, gli abri, gli amaranti e le dalbergie; i sirii, le galedupe, le barringtonie ed i palmizi, i xanthocymi, il pepebetel, le verbosine e le ticaie, le nauclee le erythrine, gli asochi, e le tapie fanno d’ogni intorno pompa de’ lor fiori.”
534 A sacred stream often mentioned in the course of the poem. See Book II , Canto XCV.
535 A daughter of Daksha who became one of the wives of Kaśyapa and mother of the Daityas. She is termed the general mother of Titans and malignant beings. See