Book I

, Canto XVI.

650 The numbers are unmanageable in English verse. The poet speaks of hundreds of _arbudas_; and an _arbuda_ is a hundred millions.

651 Anuhláda or Anuhráda is one of the four sons of the mighty Hiraṇyakaśipu, an Asur or a Daitya son of Kaśyapa and Diti and killed by Vishṇu in his incarnation of the Man-Lion _Narasinha_. According to the Bhágavata Puráṇa the Daitya or Asur Hiraṇyakaśipu and Hiraṇyáksha his brother, both killed by Vishṇu, were born again as Rávaṇ and Kumbhakarṇa his brother.

652 Puloma, a demon, was the father-in-law of Indra who destroyed him in order to avert an imprecation. Paulomí is a patronymic denoting Śachí the daughter of Puloma.

653 “Observe the variety of colours which the poem attributes to all these inhabitants of the different mountainous regions, some white, others yellow, &c. Such different colours were perhaps peculiar and distinctive characteristics of those various races.” GORRESSIO.

654 Susheṇ.

655 Tára.

656 Kesarí was the husband of Hanúmán’s mother, and is here called his father.

657 “I here unite under one heading two animals of very diverse nature and race, but which from some gross resemblances, probably helped by an equivoque in the language, are closely affiliated in the Hindoo myth … a reddish colour of the skin, want of symmetry and ungainliness of form, strength in hugging with the fore paws or arms, the faculty of climbing, shortness of tail(?), sensuality, capacity of instruction in dancing and in music, are all characteristics which more or less distinguish and meet in bears as well as in monkeys. In the _Rámáyaṇam_, the wise Jámnavant, the Odysseus of the expedition of Lanká, is called now king of the bears (rikshaparthivah), now great monkey (_Mahákapih_).” DE GUBERNATIS: _Zoological Mythology_, Vol. II. p. 97.

658 Gandhamádana, Angad, Tára, Indrajánu, Rambha, Durmukha, Hanumán, Nala, Da mukha, Śarabha, Kumuda, Vahni.

659 Daityas and Dánavas are fiends and enemies of the Gods, like the Titans of Greek mythology.

660 I reduce the unwieldy numbers of the original to more modest figures.

661 Sarayú now Sarjú is the river on which Ayodhyá was built.

662 Kauśikí is a river which flows through Behar, commonly called Kosi.

663 Bhagírath’s daughter is Gangá or the Ganges. The legend is told at length in