Ráma, to please Kaikeyi went
Obedient forth to banishment.
Then Lakshman's truth was nobly shown,
Then were his love and courage known,
When for his brother's sake he dared
All perils, and his exile shared.
And Sitá, Ráma's darling wife,
Loved even as he loved his life,
Whom happy marks combined to bless,
A miracle of loveliness,
Of Janak's royal lineage sprung,
Most excellent of women, clung
To her dear lord, like Rohini
Rejoicing with the Moon to be. [1]
The King and people, sad of mood,
The hero's car awhile pursued.
But when Prince Ráma lighted down
At Sringavera'a pleasant town,
Where Ganga's holy waters flow,
He bade his driver turn and go.
Guha, Nishádas' king, he met,
And on the farther bank was set.
Then on from wood to wood they strayed,
O'er many a stream,through constant shade,
As Bharadvája bade them, till
They came to Chitrakúta's hill.
And Ráma there, with Lakshman's aid,
A pleasant little cottage made,
And spent his days with Sitá, dressed
In coat of bark and deerskin vest. [2]
And Chitrakúta grew to be
As bright with those illustrious three
As Meru's [3] sacred peaks that shine
With glory, when the Gods recline
Beneath them : Śiva's [4] self between
The Lord of Gold and Beauty's Queen.
The aged king for Ráma pined,
And for the skies the earth resigned.
Bharat, his son, refused to reign,
Though urged by all the twice-born [5] train.
Forth to the woods he fared to meet
His brother, fell before his feet,
And cried, ' Thy clain all men allow :
O come, our lord and king be thou.'
But Ráma nobly chose to be
Observant of his sire's decree.
He placed his sandals [6] in his hand
A pledge that he would rule the land :
And bade his brother turn again.
Then Bharat, finding prayer was vain,
The sandals took and went away ;
Nor in Ayodhyá would he stay.
But turned to Nandigráma. where
He ruled the realm with watchful care,
Still longing eagerly to learn
Tidings of Ráma's safe return.
Then lest the people should repeat
Their visit to his calm retreat,
Away from Chitrakúta's hill
Fared Ráma ever onward till
- ↑ Chandra, or the Moon, is fabled to have been married to the twenty-seven daughters of the patriarch Daksha, or Aśvini and the rest, who are in fact personifications of the Lunar Asterisms. His favourite amongst them was Rohini to whom he so wholly devoted himself as to neglect the rest. They complained to their father, and Daksha repeatedly interposed, till, finding his remonstrances vain, he denounced a curse upon his son-in-law,in consequence of which he remained childless and became affected by consumption. The wives of Chandra having interceded in his behalf with their father, Daksha modified an imprecation which he could not recall, and pronounced that the decay should be periodical only, not permanent, and that it should alternate with periods of recovery. Hence the successive wane and increase of the Moon. Padma Purána, Swarga-khanda,) Sec. II. Rohini in Astronomy is the fourth lunar mansion, containing five Stars, the principal of which is Aldebaran.'WILSON, Specimens of the Hindu Theatre. Vol. I. p. 234. The Bengal recension has a different reading:- Shone with her husband like the light Attendant on the Lord of Night.'
- ↑ The garb prescribed for ascetics by Manu.
- ↑ Mount Meru, situated like Kailása in the lofty regions to the north of the
Himálayas, is celebrated in the traditions and myths of India. Meru and Kailása are the two Indian Olympi. Perhaps they were held in such veneration because the Sanskrit-speaking Indians remembered the ancient home where they dwelt with the other primitive peoples of their family before they descended to occupy the vast plains which extend between the Indus and the Ganges. ' GORRESIO. - ↑ The third God of the Indian Triad, the God of destruction and reproduction. See Additional Notes.
- ↑ The epithet dwija, or twice-born, is
usually appropriate to Bráhmans, but is applicable to the three higher castes. Investiture with the sacred thread and initiation of the neophyte into certain religious mysteries are regarded as his regeneration or second birth. - ↑ His shoes to be a memorial of the absent heir and to maintain his right. Kálidása (Raghuvanśa, XII. 17.) says that they were to be adhidevate or guardian deities of the kingdom.
