The Ramayana Part 202

At Venus aethereos inter dea candida nimbos Dona fereus aderat;...

Arma sub adversa posuit radiantia querc.u.m.

Ille, deae donis et tanto laetus honore, Expleri nequit, atque oculus per singula volvit, Miraturque, interque ma.n.u.s et brachia versat Terribilem cristis galeam flammasque vomentem, Fatiferumque ensem, loricam ex aere rigentem.

(_aeneidos_, lib. VIII)" GORRESIO.

Page 489.

_Agastya came and gently spake._

"The Muni or saint Agastya, author of several Vedic hymns, was celebrated in Indo-Sanskrit tradition for having directed the first brahmanical settlements in the southern regions of India; and the Mahabharata gives him the credit of having subjected those countries, expelled the Rakshases. and given security to the solitary ascetics, who were settled there. Hence Agastya was regarded in ancient legend as the conqueror and ruler of the southern country. This tradition refers to the earliest migrations made by the Sanskrit Indians towards the south of India. To Agastya are attributed many marvellous mythic deeds which adumbrate and veil ancient events; some of which are alluded to here and there in the Ramayana." GORRESIO.

The following is the literal translation of the Canto, text and commentary, from the Calcutta edition:

Having found Rama weary with fighting and buried in deep thought, and Rava? standing before him ready to engage in battle, the holy Agastya, who had come to see the battle, approached Rama and spoke to him thus: "O mighty Rama, listen to the old mystery by which thou wilt conquer all thy foes in the battle. Having daily repeated the adityahridaya (the delighter of the mind of the Sun) the holy prayer which destroys all enemies (of him who repeats it) gives victory, removes all sins, sorrows and distress, increases life, and which is the blessing of all blessings, wors.h.i.+p the rising and splendid sun who is respected by both the G.o.ds and demons, who gives light to all bodies and who is the rich lord of all the worlds, (To the question why this prayer claims so great reverence; the sage answers) Since yonder(1073) sun is full of glory and all G.o.ds reside in him (he being their material cause) and bestows being and the active principle on all creatures by his rays; and since he protects all deities, demons and men with his rays.

He is Brahma,(1074) Vish?u,(1075) Siva,(1076) Skanda,(1077) Praj.a.pati,(1078) Mahendra,(1079) Dhanada,(1080) Kala,(1081) Yama,(1082) Soma,(1083) Apam Pati _i.e._ The lord of waters, Pitris,(1084) Vasus,(1085) Sadhyas,(1086) Asvins,(1087) Maruts,(1088) Manu,(1089) Vayu,(1090) Vahni,(1091) Praja,(1092) Pra?a,(1093) Ritukarta,(1094) Prabhakara,(1095) (Thou,(1096) art) Aditya,(1097) Savita,(1098) Surya,(1099) Khaga,(1100) Pushan,(1101) Gabhastiman,(1102) Suvar?asadrisa,(1103) Bhanu,(1104) Hira?yaretas,(1105) Divakara,(1106) Haridasva,(1107) Sahasrarchish,(1108) Saptasapti,(1109) Marichiman,(1110) Timironmathana,(1111) Sambhu,(1112) Twashta,(1113) Martanda,(1114) Ansuman,(1115) Hiranyagarbha,(1116) Sisira,(1117) Tapana,(1118) Ahaskara,(1119) Ravi,(1120) Agnigarbha,(1121) Aditiputra,(1122) Sankha,(1123) Sisiranasana,(1124) Vyomanatha,(1125) Tamobhedi,(1126) Rigyajussamaparaga,(1127) Ghanavrishti,(1128) Apam-Mitra,(1129) Vindhyavithiplavangama,(1130) atapi,(1131) Mandali,(1132) Mrityu (death), Pingala,(1133) Sarvatapana,(1134) Kavi,(1135) Visva,(1136) Mahatejas,(1137) Rakta,(1138) Sarvabhavodbhava.(1139) The Lord of stars, planets, and other luminous bodies, Visvabhavana,(1140) Tejasvinam-Tejasvi,(1141) Dwadasatman:(1142) I salute thee. I salute thee who art the eastern mountain. I salute thee who art the western mountain.

I salute thee who art the Lord of all the luminous bodies. I salute thee who art the Lord of days.

I respectfully salute thee who art Jaya,(1143) Jayabhadra,(1144) Haryasa,(1145) O Thou who hast a thousand rays, I repeatedly salute thee.

I repeatedly and respectfully salute thee who art aditya, I repeatedly salute thee who art Ugra,(1146) Vira,(1147) and Saranga.(1148) I salute thee who openest the lotuses (or the lotus of the heart). I salute thee who art furious. I salute thee who art the Lord of Brahma, Siva and Vish?u. I salute thee who art the sun, adityavarchas,(1149) splendid, Sarvabhaksha,(1150)and Raudravapush.(1151)

I salute thee who destroyest darkness, cold and enemies: whose form is boundless, who art the destroyer of the ungrateful; who art Deva;(1152) who art the Lord of the luminous bodies, and who appearest like the heated gold. I salute thee who art Hari,(1153) Visvakarman,(1154) the destroyer of darkness, and who art splendid and Lokasaks.h.i.+n.(1155) Yonder sun destroys the whole of the material world and also creates it. Yonder sun dries (all earthly things), destroys them and causes rain with his rays.

He wakes when our senses are asleep; and resides within all beings. Yonder sun is Agnihotra(1156) and also the fruit obtained by the performer of Agnihotra. He is identified with the G.o.ds, sacrifices, and the fruit of the sacrifices. He is the Lord of all the duties known to the world, if any man, O Raghava, in calamities, miseries, forests and dangers, prays to yonder sun, he is never overwhelmed by distress.

Wors.h.i.+p, with close attention Him the G.o.d of G.o.ds and the Lord of the world; and recite these verses thrice, whereby thou wilt be victorious in the battle. O brave one, thou wilt kill Rava?a this very instant."

Thereupon Agastya having said this went away as he came. The glorious Rama having heard this became free from sorrow. Raghava whose senses were under control, being pleased, committed the hymn to memory, recited it facing the sun, and obtained great delight. The brave Rama having sipped water thrice and become pure took his bow, and seeing Rava?a, was delighted, and meditated on the sun.

Page 492. Ravan's Funeral.

"In the funeral ceremonies of India the fire was placed on three sides of the pyre; the _Daks.h.i.+?a_ on the south, the _Garhapatya_ on the west, and the _ahavaniya_ on the east. The funeral rites are not described in detail here, and it is therefore difficult to elucidate and explain them. The poem a.s.signs the funeral ceremonies of Aryan Brahmans to the Rakshases, a race different from them in origin and religion, in the same way as Homer sometimes introduces into Troy the rites of the Grecian cult." GORRESIO.

Mr. Muir translates the description of the funeral from the Calcutta edition, as follows: "They formed, with Vedic rites, a funeral pile of f.a.ggots of sandal-wood, with _padmaka_ wood, _usira_ gra.s.s, and sandal, and covered with a quilt of deer's hair. They then performed an unrivalled obsequial ceremony for the Raxasa prince, placing the sacrificial ground to the S.E. and the fire in the proper situation. They cast the ladle filled with curds and ghee on the shoulder(1157) of the deceased; he (?) placed the car on the feet, and the mortar between the thighs. Having deposited all the wooden vessels, the [upper] and lower fire-wood, and the other pestle, in their proper places, they departed. The Raxasas having then slain a victim to their prince in the manner prescribed in the Sastras, and enjoined by great ris.h.i.+s, cast [into the fire] the coverlet of the king saturated with ghee. They then, Vibhisha?a included, with afflicted hearts, adorned Rava?a with perfumes and garlands, and with various vestments, and besprinkled him with fried grain. Vibhisha?a having bathed, and having, with his clothes wet, scattered in proper form _tila_ seeds mixed with _darbha_ gra.s.s, and moistened with water, applied the fire [to the pile]."

Page 496.

The following is a literal translation of Brahma's address to Rama according to the Calcutta edition, text and commentary:

"O Rama, how dost thou, being the creator of all the world, best of all those who have profound knowledge of the Upanishads and all-powerful as thou art, suffer Sita to fall in the fire? How dost thou not know thyself as the best of the G.o.ds? Thou art one of the primeval Vasus,(1158) and also their lord and creator. Thou art thyself the lord and first creator of the three worlds. Thou art the eighth (that is Mahadeva) of the Rudras,(1159) and also the fifth(1160) of the Sadhyas.(1161) (The poet describes Rama as made of the following G.o.ds) The Asvinik.u.maras (the twin divine physicians of the G.o.ds) are thy ears; the sun and the moon are thy eyes; and thou hast been seen in the beginning and at the end of creation.

How dost thou neglect the daughter of Videha (Janaka} like a man whose actions are directed by the dictates of nature?" Thus addressed by Indra, Brahma and the other G.o.ds, Rama the descendant of Raghu, lord of the world and the best of the virtuous, spoke to the chief of the G.o.ds. "As I take myself to be a man of the name of Rama and son of Dasaratha, therefore, sir, please tell me who I am and whence have I come." "O thou whose might is never failing," said Brahma to Kakutstha the foremost of those who thoroughly know Brahma, "Thou art Naraya?a,(1162) almighty, possessed of fortune, and armed with the discus. Thou art the boar(1163) with one tusk; the conqueror of thy past and future foes. Thou art Brahma true and eternal or undecaying. Thou art Visvaksena,(1164) having four arms; Thou art Hris.h.i.+kesa,(1165) whose bow is made of horn; Thou art Purusha,(1166) the best of all beings; Thou art one who is never defeated by any body; Thou art the holder of the sword (named Nandaka). Thou art Vish?u (the pervader of all); blue in colour: of great might; the commander of armies; and lord of villages. Thou art truth. Thou art embodied intelligence, forgiveness, control over the senses, creation, and destruction. Thou art Upendra(1167) and Madhusudana.(1168) Thou art the creator of Indra, the ruler over all the world, Padmanabha,(1169) and destroyer of enemies in the battle. The divine Ris.h.i.+s call thee shelter of refugees, as well as the giver of shelter. Thou hast a thousand horns,(1170) a hundred heads.(1171) Thou art respected of the respected; and the lord and first creator of the three worlds. Thou art the forefather and shelter of Siddhas,(1172) and Sadhyas.(1173) Thou art sacrifices; Vasha?kara,(1174) Omkara.(1175) Thou art beyond those who are beyond our senses. There is none who knows who thou art and who knows thy beginning and end. Thou art seen in all material objects, in Brahmans, in cows, and also in all the quarters, sky and streams. Thou hast a thousand feet, a hundred heads, and a thousand eyes. Thou hast borne the material objects and the earth with the mountains; and at the bottom of the ocean thou art seen the great serpent. O Rama, Thou hast borne the three worlds, G.o.ds, Gandharvas,(1176) and demons. I am, O Rama, thy heart; the G.o.ddess of learning is thy tongue; the G.o.ds are the hairs of thy body; the closing of thy eyelids is called the night: and their opening is called the day. The Vedas are thy Sanskaras.(1177) Nothing can exist without thee. The whole world is thy body; the surface of the earth is thy stability."

O Srivatsalaksha?a, fire is thy anger, and the moon is thy favour. In the time of thy incarnation named Vamana, thou didst pervade the three worlds with thy three steps; and Mahendra was made the king of paradise by thee having confined the fearful Bali.(1178) Sita (thy wife) is Lakshmi; and thou art the G.o.d Vish?u,(1179) Krish?a,(1180) and Praj.a.pati. To kill Rava?

thou hast a.s.sumed the form of a man; therefore, O best of the virtuous, thou hast completed this task imposed by us (G.o.ds). O Rama, Rava?a has been killed by thee: now being joyful (i.e. having for some time reigned in the kingdom of Ayodhya,) go to paradise. O glorious Rama, thy power and thy valour are never failing. The visit to thee and the prayers made to thee are never fruitless. Thy devotees will never be unsuccessful. Thy devotees who obtain thee (thy favour) who art first and best of mankind, shall obtain their desires in this world as well as in the next. They who recite this prayer, founded on the Vedas (or first uttered by the sages), and the old and divine account of (Rama) shall never suffer defeat."

Page 503. The Meeting.

The _Bharat-Milap_ or meeting with Bharat, is the closing scene of the dramatic representation of Rama's great victory and triumphant return which takes place annually in October in many of the cities of Northern India. The Ram-Lala or Play of Rama, as the great drama is called, is performed in the open air and lasts with one day's break through fifteen successive days. At Benares there are three nearly simultaneous performances, one provided by H. H. the Maharajah of Benares near his palace at Ramnaggur, one by H. H. the Maharajah of Vizianagram near the Missionary settlement at Sigra and at other places in the city, and one by the leading gentry of the city at Chowka Ghat near the College. The scene especially on the great day when the brothers meet is most interesting: the procession of elephants with their gorgeous howdahs of silver and gold and their magnificently dressed riders with priceless jewels sparkling in their turbans, the enthusiasm of the thousands of spectators who fill the streets and squares, the balconies and the housetops, the flowers that are rained down upon the advancing car, the wild music, the shouting and the joy, make an impression that is not easily forgotten.

_Still on his head, well trained in lore_ _Of duty, Rama's shoes he bore._

Rama's shoes are here regarded as the emblems of royalty or possession. We may compare the Hebrew "Over Edom will I cast forth my shoe." A curiously similar pa.s.sage occurs in LYSCHANDER'S _Chronicon Greenlandiae Rhythmicon_:

"Han sendte til Irland sin skiden skoe, Og bod den Konge. Som der monne boe, Han skulde dem haederlig baere Pan Juuledag i sin kongelig Pragt, Og kjende han havde sit Rige og Magt Af Norges og Quernes Herre."

He sent to Ireland his dirty shoes, And commanded the king who lived there To wear them with honour On Christmas Day in his royal state, And to own that he had his kingdom and power From the Lord of Norway and the Isles.

_Notes & Queries, March 30, 1872._

Final Notes.

I end these notes with an extract which I translate from Signor Gorresio's Preface to the tenth volume of his Ramayan, and I take this opportunity of again thankfully acknowledging my great obligations to this eminent Sanskritist from whom I have so frequently borrowed. As Mr. Muir has observed, the Bengal recension which Signor Gorresio has most ably edited is throughout an admirable commentary on the genuine Ramayan of northern India, and I have made constant reference to the faithful and elegant translation which accompanies the text for a.s.sistance and confirmation in difficulties:

"Towards the southern extremity and in the island of Lanka (Ceylon) there existed undoubtedly a black and ferocious race, averse to the Aryans and hostile to their mode of wors.h.i.+p: their ramifications extended through the islands of the Archipelago, and some traces of them remain in Java to this day.

The Sanskrit-Indians, applying to this race a name expressive of hatred which occurs in the Vedas as the name of hostile, savage and detested beings, called it the Rakshas race: it is against these Rakshases that the expedition of Rama which the Ramayan celebrates is directed. The Sanskrit-Indians certainly altered in their traditions the real character of this race: they attributed to it physical and moral qualities not found in human nature; they transformed it into a race of giants; they represented it as monstrous, hideous, truculent, changing forms at will, blood-thirsty and ravenous, just as the Semites represented the races that opposed them as impious, horrible and of monstrous size. But notwithstanding these mythical exaggerations, which are partly due to the genius of the Aryans so p.r.o.ne to magnify everything without measure, the Ramayan in the course of its epic narration has still preserved and noted here and there some traits and peculiarities of the race which reveal its true character. It represents the Rakshases as black of hue, and compares them with black clouds and ma.s.ses of black collyrium; it attributes to them curly woolly hair and thick lips, it depicts them as loaded with chains, collars and girdles of gold, and the other bright ornaments which their race has always loved, and in which the kindred races of the Soudan still delight. It describes them as wors.h.i.+ppers of matter and force. They are hostile to the religion of the Aryans whose rites and sacrifices they disturb and ruin ... Such is the Rakshas race as represented in the Ramayan; and the war of the Aryan Rama forms the subject of the epic, a subject certainly real and historical as far as regards its substance, but greatly exaggerated by the ancient myth. In Sanskrit-Indian tradition are found traces of another struggle of the Aryans with the Rakshas races, which preceded the war of Rama. According to some pauranic legends, Karttavirya, a descendant of the royal tribe of the Yadavas, contemporary with Parasurama and a little anterior to Rama, attacked Lanka and took Rava?

prisoner. This well shows how ancient and how deeply rooted in the Aryan race is the thought of this war which the Ramayan celebrates.

"But," says an eminent Indianist(1181) whose learning I highly appreciate, "the Ramayan is an allegorical epic, and no precise and historical value can be a.s.signed to it. Sita signifies the furrow made by the plough, and under this symbolical aspect has already appeared honoured with wors.h.i.+p in the hymns of the Rig-veda; Rama is the bearer of the plough (this a.s.sertion is entirely gratuitous); these two allegorical personages represented agriculture introduced to the southern regions of India by the race of the Kosalas from whom Rama was descended; the Rakshases on whom he makes war are races of demons and giants who have little or nothing human about them; allegory therefore predominates in the poem, and the exact reality of an historical event must not be looked for in it." Such is Professor Weber's opinion. If he means to say that mythical fictions are mingled with real events,

Forsan in alcun vero suo arco percuote,

as Dante says, and I fully concede the point. The interweaving of the myth with the historical truth belongs to the essence, so to speak, of the primitive epopeia. If Sita is born, as the Ramayan feigns, from the furrow which King Janak opened when he ploughed the earth, not a whit more real is the origin of Helen and aeneas as related in Homer and Virgil, and if the characters in the Ramayan exceed human nature, and in a greater degree perhaps than is the case in a.n.a.logous epics, this springs in part from the nature of the subject and still more from the symbol-loving genius of the orient. Still the characters of the Ramayan, although they exceed more or less the limits of human nature, act notwithstanding in the course of the poem, speak, feel, rejoice and grieve according to the natural impulse of human pa.s.sions. But if by saying that the Ramayan is an allegorical epic, it is meant that its fundamental subject is nothing but allegory, that the war of the Aryan Rama against the Rakshas race is an allegory, that the conquest of the southern region and of the island of Lanka is an allegory, I do not hesitate to answer that such a presumption cannot be admitted and that the thing is in my opinion impossible. Father Paolino da S.

Bartolommeo,(1182) had already, together with other strange opinions of his own on Indian matters, brought forward a similar idea, that is to say that the exploit of Rama which is the subject of the Ramayan was a symbol and represented the course of the sun: thus he imagined that Brahma was the earth, Vish?u the water, and that his avatars were the blessings brought by the fertilizing waters, etc. But such ideas, born at a time when Indo-sanskrit antiquities were enveloped in darkness, have been dissipated by the light of new studies. How could an epic so dear in India to the memory of the people, so deeply rooted for many centuries in the minds of all, so propagated and diffused through all the dialects and languages of those regions, which had become the source of many dramas which are still represented in India, which is itself represented every year with such magnificence and to such crowds of people in the neighbourhood of Ayodhya, a poem welcomed at its very birth with such favour, as the legend relates, that the recitation of it by the first wandering Rhapsodists has consecrated and made famous all the places celebrated by them, and where Rama made a shorter or longer stay, how, I ask, could such an epic have been purely allegorical? How, upon a pure invention, upon a simple allegory, could a poem have been composed of about fifty thousand verses, relating with such force and power the events, and giving details with such exactness? On a theme purely allegorical there may easily be composed a short mythical poem, as for example a poem on Proserpine or Psyche: but never an epic so full of traditions and historical memories, so intimately connected with the life of the people, as the Ramayan.(1183) Excessive readiness to find allegory whenever some traces of symbolism occur, where the myth partly veils the historical reality, may lead and often has led to error. What poetical work of mythical times could stand this mode of trial? could there not be made, or rather has there not been made a work altogether allegorical, out of the Homeric poems? We have all heard of the ingenious idea of the anonymous writer, who in order to prove how easily we may pa.s.s beyond the truth in our wish to seek and find allegory everywhere, undertook with keen subtlety to prove that the great personality of Napoleon I. was altogether allegorical and represented the sun. Napoleon was born in an island, his course was from west to east, his twelve marshals were the twelve signs of the zodiac, etc.

I conclude then, that the fundamental theme of the Ramayan, that is to say the war of the Aryan Rama against the Rakshases, an Hamitic race settled in the south, ought to be regarded as real and historical as far as regards its substance, although the mythic element intermingled with the true sometimes alters its natural and genuine aspect.

How then did the Indo-Sanskrit epopeia form and complete itself? What elements did it interweave in its progress? How did it embody, how did it clothe the naked and simple primitive datum? We must first of all remember that the Indo-European races possessed the epic genius in the highest degree, and that they alone in the different regions they occupied produced epic poetry ... But other causes and particular influences combined to nourish and develop the epic germ of the Sanskrit-Indians. Already in the Rig-veda are found hymns in which the Aryan genius preluded, so to speak, to the future epopeia, in songs that celebrated the heroic deeds of Indra, the combats and the victories of the tutelary G.o.ds of the Aryan races over enemies secret or open, human or superhuman, the exploits and the memories of ancient heroes. More recently, at certain solemn occasions, as the very learned A. Weber remarks, at the solemnity, for example of the Asvamedha or sacrifice of the horse, the praises of the king who ordained the great rite were sung by bards and minstrels in songs composed for the purpose, the memories of past times were recalled and honourable mention was made of the just and pious kings of old. In the _Brahma?as_, a sort of prose commentaries annexed to the Vedas, are found recorded stories and legends which allude to historical events of the past ages, to ancient memories, and to mythical events. Such popular legends which the _Brahma?as_ undoubtedly gathered from tradition admirably suited the epic tissue with which they were interwoven by successive hands.... Many and various mythico-historical traditions, suitable for epic development, were diffused among the Aryan races, those for example which are related in the four chapters containing the description of the earth, the Descent of the Ganges, etc. The epic genius however sometimes created beings of its own and gave body and life to ideal conceptions. Some of the persons in the Ramayan must be, in my opinion, either personifications of the forces of nature like those which are described with such vigour in the _Shahnamah_, or if not exactly created, exaggerated beyond human proportions; others, vedic personages much more ancient than Rama, were introduced into the epic and woven into its narrations, to bring together men who lived in different and distant ages, as has been the case in times nearer to our own, in the epics, I mean, of the middle ages.

In the introduction I have discussed the antiquity of the Ramayan; and by means of those critical and inductive proofs which are all that an antiquity without precise historical dates can furnish I have endeavoured to establish with all the certainty that the subject admitted, that the original composition of the Ramayan is to be a.s.signed to about the twelfth century before the Christian era. Not that I believe that the epic then sprang to life in the form in which we now possess it; I think, and I have elsewhere expressed the opinion, that the poem during the course of its rhapsodical and oral propagation appropriated by way of episodes, traditions, legends and ancient myths.... But as far as regards the epic poem properly so called which celebrates the expedition of Rama against the Rakshases I think that I have sufficiently shown that its origin and first appearance should be placed about the twelfth century B.C.; nor have I hitherto met with anything to oppose this chronological result, or to oblige me to rectify or reject it.... But an eminent philologist already quoted, deeply versed in these studies, A. Weber, has expressed in some of his writings a totally different opinion; and the authority of his name, if not the number and cogency of his arguments, compels me to say something on the subject. From the fact or rather the a.s.sumption that Megasthenes(1184) who lived some time in India has made no mention either of the Mahabharat or the Ramayan Professor Weber argues that neither of these poems could have existed at that time; as regards the Ramayan, the unity of its composition, the chain that binds together its different parts, and its allegorical character, show it, says Professor Weber, to be much more recent than the age to which I have a.s.signed it, near to our own era, and according to him, later than the Mahabharat. As for Megasthenes it should be observed, that he did not write a history of India, much less a literary history or anything at all resembling one, but a simple description, in great part physical, of India: whence, from his silence on literary matters to draw inferences regarding the history of Sanskrit literature would be the same thing as from the silence of a geologist with respect to the literature of a country whose valleys, mountains, and internal structure he is exploring, to conjecture that such and such a poem or history not mentioned by him did not exist at his time. We have only to look at the fragments of Megasthenes collected and published by Schwanbeck to see what was the nature and scope of his _Indica_.... But only a few fragments of Megasthenes are extant; and to pretend that they should be argument and proof enough to judge the antiquity of a poem is to press the laws of criticism too far. To Professor Weber's argument as to the more or less recent age of the Ramayan from the unity of its composition, I will make one sole reply, which is that if unity of composition were really a proof of a more recent age, it would be necessary to reduce by a thousand years at least the age of Homer and bring him down to the age of Augustus and Virgil; for certainly there is much more unity of composition, a greater accord and harmony of parts in the Iliad and the Odyssey than in the Ramayan. But in the fine arts perfection is no proof of a recent age: while the experience and the continuous labour of successive ages are necessary to extend and perfect the physical or natural sciences, art which is spontaneous in its nature can produce and has produced in remote times works of such perfection as later ages have not been able to equal."