Book I

Canto XLIV. _The Descent of Gangá_.

664 A mountain not identified.

665 The Jumna. The river is personified as the twin sister of Yáma, and hence regarded as the daughter of the Sun.

666 The Sarasvatí (corruptly called Sursooty, is supposed to join the Ganges and Jumna at Prayág or Allahabad. It rises in the mountains bounding the north-east part of the province of Delhi, and running in a south-westerly direction becomes lost in the sands of the great desert.

667 The Sindhu is the Indus, the Sanskrit _s_ becoming _h_ in Persian and being in this instance dropped by the Greeks.

668 The Sone which rises in the district of Nagpore and falls into the Ganges above Patna.

669 Mahí is a river rising in Malwa and falling into the gulf of Cambay after a westerly course of 280 miles.

670 There is nothing to show what parts of the country the poet intended to denote as silk-producing and silver-producing.

671 Yavadwipa means the island of Yava, wherever that may be.

672 Śiśir is said to be a mountain ridge projecting from the base of Meru on the south. Wilson’s _Vishnu Puráṇa_, ed. Hall, Vol. II. p. 117.

673 This appears to be some mythical stream and not the well-known Śone. The name means red-coloured.

674 A fabulous thorny rod of the cotton tree used for torturing the wicked in hell. The tree gives its name, Śálmalí, to one of the seven Dwípas, or great divisions of the known continent: and also to a hell where the wicked are tormented with the pickles of the tree.

675 The king of the feathered creation.

676 Viśvakarmá, the Mulciber of the Indian heaven.

677 “The terrific fiends named Mandehas attempt to devour the sun: for Brahmá denounced this curse upon them, that without the power to perish they should die every day (and revive by night) and therefore a fierce contest occurs (daily) between them and the sun.” WILSON’S Vishṇu Puráṇa. Vol. II. p. 250.

678 Said in the _Vishṇu Puráṇa_ to be a ridge projecting from the base of Meru to the north.

679 Kinnars are centaurs reversed, beings with equine head and human bodies.

680 Yakshas are demi-gods attendant on Kuvera the God of wealth.

681 Aurva was one of the descendants of Bhrigu. From his wrath proceeded a flame that threatened to destroy the world, had not Aurva cast it into the ocean where it remained concealed, and having the face of a horse. The legend is told in the _Mahábhárat_. I. 6802.

682 The word Játarúpa means gold.

683 The celebrated mythological serpent king Sesha, called also Ananta or the infinite, represented as bearing the earth on one of his thousand heads.

684 Jambudwípa is in the centre of the seven great _dwípas_ or continents into which the world is divided, and in the centre of Jambudwípa is the golden mountain Meru 84,000 yojans high, and crowned by the great city of Brahmá. See WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 110.

685 Vaikhánases are a race of hermit saints said to have sprung from the nails of Prajápati.

686 “The wife of Kratu, Samnati, brought forth the sixty thousand Válakhilyas, pigmy sages, no bigger than a joint of the thumb, chaste, pious, resplendent as the rays of the Sun.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_.

687 The continent in which Sudarśan or Meru stands, _i.e._ Jambudwíp.

688 The names of some historical peoples which occur in this Canto and in the Cantos describing the south and north will be found in the ADDITIONAL NOTES. They are bare lists, not susceptible of a metrical version.

689 Suhotra, Śarári, Śaragulma, Gayá, Gaváksha, Gavaya, Susheṇa, Gandhamádana, Ulkámukha, and Ananga.

690 The modern Nerbudda.

691 Krishṇaveṇí is mentioned in the _Vishṇu Puráṇa_ as “the deep Krishṇaveṇí” but there appears to be no clue to its identification.

692 The modern Godavery.

693 The Mekhalas or Mekalas according to the Paráṇas live in the Vindhya hills, but here they appear among the peoples of the south.

694 Utkal is still the native name of Orissa.

695 The land of the people of the “ten forts.” Professor Hall in a note on WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 160 says: “The oral traditions of the vicinity to this day assign the name of Daśárna to a region lying to the east of the District of Chundeyree.”

696 Avantí is one of the ancient names of the celebrated Ujjayin or Oujein in Central India.

697 Not identified.

698 Ayomukh means iron faced. The mountain is not identified.

699 The Káverí or modern Cauvery is well known and has always borne the same appellation, being the Chaberis of Ptolemy.

700 One of the seven principal mountain chains: the southern portion of the Western Gháts.

701 Agastya is the great sage who has already frequently appeared as Ráma’s friend and benefactor.

702 Támraparṇí is a river rising in Malaya.

703 The Páṇḍyas are a people of the Deccan.

704 Mahendra is the chain of hills that extends from Orissa and the northern Sircars to Gondwána, part of which near Ganjam is still called Mahendra Malay or hills of Mahendra.

705 Lanká, Sinhaladvípa, Sarandib, or Ceylon.

706 The Flowery Hill of course is mythical.

707 The whole of the geography south of Lanká is of course mythical. Súryaván means Sunny.

708 Vaidyut means connected with lightning.

709 Agastya is here placed far to the south of Lanká. Earlier in this Canto he was said to dwell on Malaya.

710 Bhogavatí has been frequently mentioned: it is the capital of the serpent Gods or demons, and usually represented as being in the regions under the earth.

711 Vásuki is according to some accounts the king of the Nágas or serpent Gods.

712 Śailúsha, Gramiṇi, Siksha, Suka, Babhru.

713 The distant south beyond the confines of the earth is the home of departed spirits and the city of Yáma the God of Death.

714 Suráshṭra, the “good country,” is the modern Sura

715 A country north-west of Afghanistan, Baíkh.

716 The Moon-mountain here is mythical.

717 Sindhu is the Indus.

718 Páriyátra, or as more usually written Páripátra, is the central or western portion of the Vindhya chain which skirts the province of Malwa.

719 Vajra means both diamond and thunderbolt, the two substances being supposed to be identical.

720 Chakraván means the discus-bearer.

721 The discus is the favourite weapon of Vishṇu.

722 The Indian Hephaistos or Vulcan.

723 Panchajan was a demon who lived in the sea in the form of a conch shell. WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, V. 21.

724 Hayagríva, Horse-necked, is the name of a Daitya who at the dissolution of the universe caused by Brahmá’s sleep, seized and carried off the Vedas. Vishṇu slew him and recovered the sacred treasures.

725 Meru stands in the centre of Jambudwípa and consequently of the earth. “The sun travels round the world, keeping Meru always on his right. To the spectator who fronts him, therefore, as he rises Meru must be always on the north; and as the sun’s rays do not penetrate beyond the centre of the mountain, the regions beyond, or to the north of it must be in darkness, whilst those on the south of it must be in light: north and south being relative, not absolute, terms, depending on the position of the spectator with regard to the Sun and Meru.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 243. Note.

726 The Viśvadevas are a class of deities to whom sacrifices should be daily offered, as part of the ordinary worship of the householder. According to the _Váyu Puráṇa_, this is a privilege conferred on them by Brahmá and the Pitris as a reward for religious austerities practised by them upon Himálaya.

727 The eight Vasus were originally personifications like other Vedic deities, of natural phenomena, such as Fire, Wind, &c. Their appellations are variously given by different authorities.

728 The Maruts or Storm-Gods, frequently addressed and worshipped as the attendants and allies of Indra.

729 The mountain behind which the sun sets.

730 One of the oldest and mightiest of the Vedic deities; in later mythology regarded as the God of the sea.

731 The knotted noose with which he seizes and punishes transgressors.

732 Sávarṇi is a Manu, offspring of the Sun by Chháyá.

733 The poet has not said who the sons of Yáma are.

734 The Lodhra or Lodh (Symplocos Racemosa) and the Devadáru or Deodar are well known trees.

735 The hills mentioned are not identifiable. Soma means the Moon. Kála, black; Sudaraśan, fair to see; and Devasakhá friend of the Gods.

736 The God of Wealth.

737 The nymphs of Paradise.

738 Kuvera the son of Viśravas.

739 A class of demigods who, like the Yakshas, are the attendants of Kuvera, and the guardians of his treasures.

740 Situated in the eastern part of the Himálaya chain, on the north of Assam. The mountain was torn asunder and the pass formed by the War-God Kártikeya and Paraśuráma.

741 “The Uttara Kurus, it should be remarked, may have been a real people, as they are mentioned in the Aitareya Bráhmaṇa, VIII. 14.… Wherefore the several nations who dwell in this northern quarter, beyond the Himavat, the Uttara Kurus and the Uttara Madras are consecrated to glorious dominion, and people term them the glorious. In another passage of the same work, however, the Uttara Kurus are treated as belonging to the domain of mythology.” MUIR’S _Sanskrit Texts_. Vol. I. p. 494. See ADDITIONAL NOTES.

742 The Moon-mountain.

743 The Rudras are the same as the storm winds, more usually called Maruts, and are often associated with Indra. In the later mythology the Rudras are regarded as inferior manifestations of Śiva, and most of their names are also names of Śiva.

744 Canto IX.

745 Udayagiri or the hill from which the sun rises.

746 Asta is the mountain behind which the sun sets.

747 Himálaya, the Hills of Snow.

748 Canto XI.

749 Hanumán was the leader of the army of the south which was under the nominal command of Angad the heir apparent.

750 The Bengal recension—Gorresio’s edition—calls this Asur or demon the son of Márícha.

751 The skin of the black antelope was the ascetic’s proper garb.

752 Uśanas is the name of a sage mentioned in the Vedas. In the epic poems he is identified with Śukra, the regent of the planet Venus, and described as the preceptor of the Asuras or Daityas, and possessor of vast knowledge.

753 Hemá is one of the nymphs of Paradise.

754 Merusávarṇi is a general name for the last four of the fourteen Manus.

755 Svayamprabhá, the “self-luminous,” is according to DE GUBERNATIS the moon: “In the _Svayamprabhá_ too, we meet with the moon as a good fairy who, from the golden palace which she reserves for her friend Hemá (the golden one:) is during a month the guide, in the vast cavern of Hanumant and his companions, who have lost their way in the search of the dawn Sítá.” This is is not quite accurate: Hanumán and his companions wander for a month in the cavern without a guide, and then Svayamprabhá leads them out.

756 Purandara, the destroyer of cities; the cities being the clouds which the God of the firmament bursts open with his thunderbolts, to release the waters imprisoned in these fortresses of the demons of drought.

757 Perceived that Angad had secured, through the love of the Vánars, the reversion of Sugríva’s kingdom; or, as another commentator explains it, perceived that Angad had obtained a new kingdom in the enchanted cave which the Vánars, through love of him, would consent to occupy.

758 Vṛihaspati, Lord of Speech, the Preceptor of the Gods.

759 Śukra is the regent of the planet Venus, and the preceptor of the Daityas.

760 The name of various kinds of grass used at sacrificial ceremonies, especially, of the Kuśa grass, Poa cynosuroides, which was used to strew the ground in preparing for a sacrifice, the officiating Brahmans being purified by sitting on it.

761 Sampáti is the eldest son of the celebrated Garuḍa the king of birds.

762 Vivasvat or the Sun is the father of Yáma the God of Death.

763