High destiny is clear impressed
On massive jaw and ample chest,
His mighty shafts he truly aims,
And foemen in the battle tames.
Deep in the muscle, scarcely shown,
Embedded lies his collar-bone.
His lordly steps are firm and free,
His strong arms reach below his knee:[1]
All fairest graces join to deck
His head, his brow, his stately neck,
And limbs in fair proportion set:
The manliest form e'er fashioned yet.
Graced with each high imperial mark,
His skin is soft and lustrous dark.
Large are his eyes that sweetly shine
With majesty almost divine.
His plighted word he ne'er forgets;
On erring sense a watch he sets.
By nature wise, his teacher's skill
Has trained him to subdue his will.
Good, resolute and pure, and strong,
He guards mankind from scathe and wrong,
And lends his aid, and ne'er in vain,
The cause of justice to maintain.
Well has he studied o'er and o'er
The Vedas [2] and their kindred lore.
Well skilled is he the bow to draw,[3]
Well trained in arts and versed in law ;
High-souled and meet for happy fate,
Most tender and compassionate ;
The noblest of all lordly givers,
Whom good men follow, as the rivers
Follow the King of Floods, the sea :
So liberal, so just is he.
The joy of Queen Kauśalyá's [4] heart,
In every virtue he has part :
Firm as Himálaya's [5] snowy steep,
Unfathomed like the mighty deep ;
The peer of Vishnu's power and might,
And lovely as the Lord of Night; [6]
Patient as Earth, but, roused to ire,
Fierce as the world -destroying fire ;
In bounty like the Lord of Gold, [7]
And Justice' self in human mould.
With him, his best and eldest son,
By all his princely virtues won
King Daśaratha [8] willed to share
His kingdom as the Regent Heir.
But when Kaikeyi, youngest queen,
With eyes of envious hate had seen
The solemn pomp and regal state
Prepared the prince to consecrate,
She bade the hapless king bestow
Two gifts he promised long ago,
That Ráma to the woods should flee,
And that her child the heir should be.
By chains of duty firmly tied,
The wretched king perforce complied.
Aryan, Indo-European, not Semitic : our spiritual kith and kin are to be found in India, Persia, Greece, Italy, Germany; not in Mesopotamia, Egypt, or Palestine.' Chips from a German Workshop.
Vol. I. pp. 8, 4.
- ↑ Long arms were regarded as a sign of heroic strength.
- ↑ Veda means originally knowing or knowledge, and this name is given by the
Bráhmans not to one work, but to the whole body of their most ancient sacred literature. Veda is the same word which appears in the Greek olSa, I know, and in the English wise, wisdom, to wit. The name of Veda is commonly given to four collections of hymns, which are respectively known by the names of Rig-veda, Yajur-veda, Sama-veda, and Atharva-veda.'As the language of the Veda, the Sanskrit, is the most ancient type of the English of the present day, (Sanskrit and English are but varieties of one and the same language,) so its thoughts and feelings contain in reality the first roots and germs of that intellectual growth which
by an unbroken chain connects our own generation with the ancestors of the Aryan race, with those very people who at the rising and setting of the sun listened with trembling hearts to the songs of the Veda, that told them of bright powers above, and of a life to come after the sun of their own lives had set in the clouds of the evening. These men were the true ancestors of our race, and the Veda is the oldest book we have in which to study the first beginning; of our language, and of all that is embodied in language, We are by nature
- ↑ As with the ancient Persians and Seythians, Indian princes were carefully instructed in archery which stands for military science in general, of which, among Hindu heroes, it was the most important branch,
- ↑ Chief of the three queens of Dasáratha and mother of Ráma.
- ↑ From hima snow, (Greek Yt/J-CUV Latin hiems) and álaya abode; the Mansion of Snow.
- ↑ The moon (Soma. Indu, Chandra etc.) is masculine with the Indians as with the Germans.
- ↑ Kuvera, the Indian Plutus, or God of Wealth.
- ↑ The events here briefly mentioned will be related fully in the course of the poem. The first four cantos are introductory, and are evidently the work of a later hand
than Válmiki's.
