Book VI

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576 The Aśvins or Heavenly Twins, the Dioskuri or Castor and Pollux of the Hindus, have frequently been mentioned. See p. 36, Note.

577 Called respectively Gárhapatya, Áhavaniya, and Dakshiṇa, household, sacrificial, and southern.

578 The store of merit accumulated by a holy or austere life secures only a temporary seat in the mansion of bliss. When by the lapse of time this store is exhausted, return to earth is unavoidable.

579 The conflagration which destroys the world at the end of a Yuga or age.

580 Himálaya.

581 Tárá means “star.” The poet plays upon the name by comparing her beauty to that of the Lord of stars, the Moon.

582 Suparṇa, the Well-winged, is another name of Garuḍa the King of Birds. See p. 28, Note.

583 The God of Death.

584 The flag-staff erected in honour of the God Indra is lowered when the festival is over. Aśvíní in astronomy is the head of Aries or the first of the twenty-eight lunar mansions or asterisms.

585 Indra the father of Báli.

586 It is believed that every creature killed by Ráma obtained in consequence immediate beatitude.

“And blessed the hand that gave so dear a death.”

587 “Yayáti was invited to heaven by Indra, and conveyed on the way thither by Mátali, Indra’s charioteer. He afterwards returned to earth where, by his virtuous administration he rendered all his subjects exempt from passion and decay.” GARRETT’S C. D. OF INDIA.

588 The ascetic’s dress which he wore during his exile.

589 There is much inconsistency in the passages of the poem in which the Vánars are spoken of, which seems to point to two widely different legends. The Vánars are generally represented as semi-divine beings with preternatural powers, living in houses and eating and drinking like men sometimes as here, as monkeys pure and simple, living is woods and eating fruit and roots.

590 For a younger brother to marry before the elder is a gross violation of Indian law and duty. The same law applied to daughters with the Hebrews: “It must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the first-born.” GENESIS xix. 26.

591 “The hedgehog and porcupine, the lizard, the rhinoceros, the tortoise, and the rabbit or hare, wise legislators declare lawful food among five-toed animals.” MANU, v. 18.

592 “He can not buckle his distempered cause Within the belt of rule.”

MACBETH.

593 The _Ankuś_ or iron hook with which an elephant is driven and guided.

594 Hayagríva, Horse-necked, is a form of Vishṇu.

595 “Aśvatara is the name of a chief of the Nágas or serpents which inhabit the regions under the earth; it is also the name of a Gandharva. Aśvatarí ought to be the wife of one of the two, but I am not sure that this conjecture is right. The commentator does not say who this Aśvatarí is, or what tradition or myth is alluded to. Vimalabodha reads Aśvatarí in the nominative case, and explains, Aśvatarí is the sun, and as the sun with his rays brings back the moon which has been sunk in the ocean and the infernal regions, so will I bring back Sítá.” GORRESIO.

596 That is, “Consider what answer you can give to your accusers when they charge you with injustice in killing me.”

597 Manu,