The Vánar Host.

CANTO XXXIX.: THE VÁNAR HOST.

Then Ráma, best of all who guide
Their steps by duty, thus replied:
'What marvel if Lord Indra send
The kindly rain, O faithful friend?
If, thousand-rayed, the God of Day
Drive every darksome cloud away?
Or, rising high, the Lord of Night
Flood the broad heaven with silver light?
What marvel, King, that one like thee
The glory of his friends.should be?
No marvel, O my lord, that thou
Hast shown thy noble nature now.
Thy heart, Sugriva, well I know:
Naught from thy lips but truth may flow,
With thee for friend and champion all
My foes beneath my arm will fall.
The Rákshas, when my queen he stole,
Brought sure destruction on his soul,
Like Anuhláda  ^2b who beguiled
Queen Sachí called Puloma's child.
Yes, near, Sugriva, is the day
When I my demon foe shall slay,
As conquering Indra in his ire
Slew Queen Paulomi's haughty sire.' ^3b

p. 371

   He ceased: thick clouds of dust rose high
To every quarter of the sky:
The very sun grew faint and pale
Behind the darkly-gathering veil.
The mighty clouds that hung o'erhead
From east to west thick darkness spread,
And earth to her foundations shook
With hill and forest, lake and brook.
Then hidden was the ground beneath
Fierce warriors armed with fearful teeth,
Hosts numberless, each lord in size
A match for him who rules the skies:
From many a sea and distant hill,
From rock and river, lake and rill.
Some like the morning sun were bright.
Some, like the moon, were silver white:
These green as lotus fibres, those
White-coated from their native snows. ¹
Then S'atabali came in view
Girt by a countless retinue.
Like some gold mountain high in air
Tárá's illustrious sire ² was there.
There Rumá's father, ³ far-renowned,
With tens of thousands ranged around.
There, tinted like the tender green
Of lotus filaments, was seen,
Compassed by countless legions, one
Whose face was as the morning sun,
Hanúmán's father good and great,
Kesarí, ⁴ wisest in debate.
There the proud king Gaváksha, feared
For his strong warrior arm, appeared.
There Dhúmra, mighty lord, the dread
Of foes, his ursine legions led.
There Panas, first for warlike fame,
With twenty million warriors came.
There glorious Níla, dark of hue,
Arrayed his countless troops in view.
There moved lord Gavaya brave and bold,
Resplendent like a hill of gold,
And near him Darímukha stood
With millions from the hill and wood
And *Dwivid famed for strength and speed,
And Mamda, both of Asvin seed.
There Gaja, strong and glorious, led
The countless troops around him spread,
And Jámbaván ⁵ the king whose sway
The bears delighted to obey,

With swarming myriads onward pressed
True to his lord Sugríva's hest;
And princely Ruman, dear to fame,
Led millions whom no hosts could tame,
All these and many a chief beside 1b
Came onward fierce in warlike pride.
They covered all the plain, and still
Pressed forward over wood and hill.
In rows for many a league around
They rested on the grassy ground;
Or to Sugríva made their way.
Like clouds about the Lord of Day,
And to the king their proud heads bent
In power and might preeminent.
Sugríva then to Ráma sped.
And raised his reverent hands, and said
That every chief from coast to coast
Was present with his warrior host.

Footnotes

370:1b The numbers are unmanageable in English verse. The poet speaks of hundreds of arbudas; and an arbuda is a hundred millions.

370:2b Anuhláda or Anuhráda is one of the four sons of the mighty Hiranyakasipu, an Asur or a Daitya son of Kasyapa and Diti and killed by Vishnu in his incarnation of the Man-Lion Narasinha. According to the Bhágavata Purána the Daitya or Asur Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyáksha his brother, both killed by Vishnu, were born again as Rávan and Kumbhakarna his brother.'

370:3b Putoma, a demon, was the father-in-law of Indra who destroyed him in order to avert an imprecation. Paulomit is a patronymic denoting Sachi the daughter of Puloma.

371:1 "Observe the variety of colours which the poem attributes to all these inhabitants of the different mountainous regions, some white, others yellow, &c. Such dif- ferent colours were perhaps peculiar and distinctive characteristics of those various races." GORRESSIO.

371:2 Sushen.

371:3 Tara.

371:4 Kesari was the husband of Hanumnán's mother, and is here called his father.

371:5 "I here unite under one heading two animals of p. 372 but which from some gross resemblances, probably helped by an equivoque in the language, are closely affiliated in the Hindoo myth.....a reddish colour of the skin, want of symmetry and ungainliness of form, strength in hugging with the fore paws or arms, the faculty of climbing, shortness of tail(?), sensuality, capacity of instruction in dancing and in music, are all characteristics which more or less distinguish and meet in bears as well as in monkeys In the Rámáyanam, the wise Jámnavant, the Odysseus of the expedition of Lanká, is called now king of the bears (rikshaparthivah), now great monkey (Mahákapih). DeGubernatis: Zoological Mythology, Vol. II. p. 97.