Part II

. p. 166.

848 Svayambhu, the Self-existent, Brahmá.

849 Vṛihaspati or Váchaspati, the Lord of Speech and preceptor of the Gods.

850 The Asurs were the fierce enemies of the Gods.

851 The Rudras are manifestations of Śiva.

852 The Maruts or Storm Gods.

853 Rohiṇí is an asterism personified as the daughter of Daksha and the favourite wife of the Moon. The chief star in the constellation is Aldebaran.

854 Arundhatí was the wife of the great sage Vaśishṭha, and regarded as the pattern of conjugal excellence. She was raised to the heavens as one of the Pleiades.

855 The Gods do not shed tears; nor do they touch the ground when they walk or stand. Similarly Milton’s angels marched above the ground and “the passive air upbore their nimble tread.” Virgil’s “vera incessu patuit dea” may refer to the same belief.

856 That a friend of Ráma would praise him as he should be praised, and that if the stranger were Rávaṇ in disguise he would avoid the subject.

857 Kuvera the God of Gold.

858 Sítá of course knows nothing of what has happened to Ráma since the time when she was carried away by Rávaṇ. The poet therefore thinks it necessary to repeat the whole story of the meeting between Ráma and Sugríva, the defeat of Bálí, and subsequent events. I give the briefest possible outline of the story.

859 DE GUBERNATIS thinks that this ring which the Sun Ráma sends to the Dawn Sítá is a symbol of the sun’s disc.

860 Śachí is the loved and lovely wife of Indra, and she is taken as the type of a woman protected by a jealous and all-powerful husband.

861 The mountain near Kishkindhá.

862 Airávat is the mighty elephant on which Indra delights to ride.

863 Vibhishaṇ is the wicked Rávaṇ’s good brother.

864 Her name is Kalá, or in the Bengal recension Nandá.

865 One of Rávaṇ’s chief councillors.

866 Hanumán when he entered the city had in order to escape observation condensed himself to the size of a cat.

867 The brook Mandákiní, not far from Chitrakúṭa where Ráma sojourned for a time.

868 The poet here changes from the second person to the third.

869 The whole long story is repeated with some slight variations and additions from