The Army of The East.

CANTO XL.: THE ARMY OF THE EAST.

With practiced eye the king reviewed
The Vánars' counties multitude,
And, joying that his hest was done,
Thus spake to Raghu's mighty son:
'See, all the Vánar hosts who fear
My sovereign might are gathered here.
Chiefs strong as Indra's self, who speed
Wher'er they list, these armies lead.
Fierce and terrific to the view
As Daityas or the Dánav ^2b crew,

p. 372

Famed in all lands for souls afire
With lofty thoughts, they never tire,
O'er hill and vale they wander free,
And islets of the distant sea.
And these gathered myriads, all
Will serve thee, Ráma, at thy call.
Whate'er thy heart advises, say:
Thy mandates will the host obey.'
   Then answered Ráma, as he pressed
The Vánar monarch to his breast:
'O search for my lost Sítá, strive
To find her if she still survive:
And in thy wondrous wisdom trace
Fierce Rávan to his dwelling-place.
And when by toil and search we know
Where Sítá lies and where the foe,
With thee, dear friend, will I devise
Fit means to end the enterprise.
Not mine, not Lakshman's is the power
To guide us in the doubtful hour.
Thou, sovereign of the *Vanars, thou
Must be our hope and leader now.'
   He ceased: at King Sugríva's call
Near came a Vánar strong and tall.
Huge as a towering mountain, loud
As some tremendous thunder cloud,
A prince who warlike legions led:
To him his sovereign turned and said:
'Go, take ten thousand  ¹ of our race
Well trained in lore of time and place,
And search the eastern region; through
Groves, woods, and hills thy way pursue,
There seek for Sítá, trace the spot
Where Rávan hides, and weary not.
Search for the captive in the caves
Of mountains, and by woods and waves.
To Surjú, ² Kauá*ikí, ³ repair,
Bhagírath's daughter ⁴ fresh and fair.
Search mighty *Yámun's ⁵ peak, explore
Swift Yamu*ná's ⁶ delightful shore,
Sarasvati ⁷ and Sindhu's ⁸ tide,

And rapid S'ona's ^1b pebbly side.
Then roam afar by Mahí's ^2b bed
Where Kálamahí's groves are spread.
Go where the silken tissue shines,
Go to the land of silver mines. ^3b
Visit each isle and mountain steep
And city circled by the deep,
And distant villages that high
About the peaks of Mandar lie.
Speed over Yavadwipa's land, ^4b
And see Mount S'is'ir ^5b proudly stand
Uplifting to the skies his head
By Gods and Dánavs visited.
Search each ravine and mountain pass,
Each tangled thicket deep in grass.
Search every cave with utmost care
If haply Ráma's queen be there.
Then pass beyond the sounding sea
Where heavenly beings wander free,
And S'ona's ^6b waters swift and strong
With ruddy billows foam along.
Search where his shelving banks descend,
Search where the hanging woods extend
Try if the pathless thickets screen
The robber and the captive queen.
Search where the torrent floods that rend
The mountain to the plains descend:
Search dark abysses where they rave,
Search mountain slope and wood and cave
Then on with rapid feet and gain
The inlands of the fearful main
Where, tortured by the tempest's lash,
Against rude rocks the billows d*ash:
An ocean like a sable cloud,
Whose margent monstrous serpents crowd;

p. 373

An ocean rising with a roar
To beat upon an iron shore.
On, onward still! your feet shall tread
Shores of the sea whose waves are red,
Where spreading wide your eyes shall see
The guilt-tormenting cotton tree  ¹
And the wild spot where Garud  ² dwells
Which gems adorn and ocean shells,
High as Kallása, nobly decked,
Wrought by the heavenly architect.  ³
Hnge giants named Mandehas  ⁴ there
In each foul shape they love to wear,
Numbing the soul with terror's chill,
Hang from the summit of the hill.
When darts the sun his earliest beam
They plunge them in the ocean stream,
New vigour from his rays obtain,
And hang upon the rocks again
Speed onward still: your steps shall be
At length beside the Milky Sea
Whose everv ripple as it curls
Gleams glorious with its wealth of pearls.
Amid that sea like pale clouds spread
The white Mount Rishabh  ⁵ rears his head.
About the mountain's glorious waist
Woods redolent of bloom are braced.
A lake where lotuses unfold
Their silver buds with threads of gold,
Sudar*s'an ever bright and fair
Where white swans sport, lies gleaming there,
The wandering Kinnar's  ⁶ dear resort,
Where heavenly nymphs and Yakshas  ⁷ sport.

On! leave the Milky Sea behind:
Another flood your search shall find,
A waste of waters, wild and drear.
That chills each living heart with fear.
There see the horse's awful head,
Wrath-born, that flames in Ocean's bed. ^1b
There rises up a fearful cry
From the sea things that move thereby,
When, helpless, powerless for flight,
They gaze upon the horrid sight.
Past to the northern shore, and then
Beyond the flood three leagues and ten
Your wondering glances will behold
Mount Játarúpa  ^2b bright with gold.
There like the young moon pale of hue
The monstrous serpent  ^3b will ye view,
The earth's supporter, whose bright eyes
Resemble lotus leaves in size.
He rests upon the mountain's brow,
And all the Gods before him bow.
Ananta with a thousand heads
His length in robes of azure spreads.
A triple-headed palm of gold--
Meet standard for the lofty-souled--
Springs towering from the mountain's crest
Beneath whose shade he loves to rest,
So that in eastern realms each God
May use it as a measuring-rod.
Beyond, with burning gold aglow,
The eastern steep his peaks will show,
Which in unrivalled glory rise
A hundred leagues to pierce the skies,
And all the neighbouring air is bright
With golden trees that clothe the height.
A lofty peak uprises there
Ten leagues in height and one league square
*Saumanas*, wrought of glistering gold,
Ne'er to be loosened from its hold.
There his first step Lord Vishnu placed
When through the universe he paced,
And with his second lightly pressed
The loftiest peak of Meru's crest.
When north of Jambudwíp  ^4b the sun

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A portion of his course has run.
And hangs above this mountain height,
Then creatures see the genial light.
Vaikhánases, ¹ saints far renowned,
And Bálaklulvas, ² love the ground
Where in their glory half divine.
Touched by the morning glow, they shine
The light that flashes from that steep
Illumines all Sudars'andwip, ³
And on each creature, as it glows,
The sight and strength of life bestows.
Search well that mountain's woody side
If Rávan there his captive hide.
The rising sun, the golden hill
The air with growing splendours fill,
Till flashes from the east the red
Of morning with the light they shed.
This, where the sun begins his state,
Is earth and heaven's most eastern gate.
Through all the mountain forest seek
By waterfall and cave and peak.
Search every nook and bosky dell,
If Rávan there with Sítá dwell.
There, Vánars, there your steps must stay:
No farther eastward can ye stray.
Beyond no sun, no moon given light,
But all is sunk in endless night.
Thus far, O Vánar lords, may you
O'er sea and land your search pursue.
But wild and dark and known to none
Is the drear space beyond the sun.
That mountain whence the sun ascends
Your long and weary journey ends. ⁴
Now go, and in a month return,
And let success my praises earn,
He who beyond tho month shall stay
Will with his life the forfeit pay.'

Footnotes

��������������������������������1b:1b Gandhamádana, Angad, Tára, Indrajánu, Rambha, Durmukha, Hanumán, Nala, Da mukha, S'arabha, Kumuda, Vahni.

��������������������������������2b:2b Daityas and Dánavas are fiends and enemies of the Gods, life the Titans of Greek mythology.

372:1 I reduce the unwieldy numbers of the original to more modest figures.

372:2 Sarayú now Sarjú is the river on which Ayodhyá was built.

372:3 Kaus'iki is a river which flows through Behar, commonly called Kosi.

372:4 Bhagirath's daughter is Ganga or the Ganges. The legend is told at length in Book I. Canto XLIV The Descent of Gangá.

372:5 A mountain not identified.

372:6 The Jumna. The river is personified as the twin sister of Yama, and hence regarded as the daughter of the Sun.

372:7 The Sarasvatí (corruptly called Sursooty, is supposed to join the Ganges and Jumna at Prayág or Allahabad. It rises in the mountains bounding the north-east part of the province of Delhi, and running in a south-westerly direction becomes lost in the sands of the great desert.

372:8 The Sindhu is the Indus, the Sanskrit s becoming h in Persian and being in this instance dropped by the Greeks.

372:1b The Sone which rises in the district of Nagpore and falls into the Ganges above Patna.

372:2b Mahi* is a river rising in Malwa and falling into the gulf of Cambay after a westerly course of 280 miles.

372:3b There is nothing to show what parts of the country the poet intended to denote as silk-producing and silver-producing.

372:4b Yavadwipa means the island of Yava, wherever that may be.

372:5b S'is'ir is said to be a mountain ridge projecting from the base of Meru on the south. WILSON'S Vishnu Purána, ed. Hall, Vol. II. p. 117.

372:6b This appears to be some mythical stream and not the well-known Sone. The name means red-coloured.

373:1 A fabulous thorny rod of the cotton tree used for torturing the wicked in hell. The tree gives its name, Sálmali, to one of the seven Dwípas, or great divisions of the known continent: and also to a hell where the wicked are tormented with the pickles of the tree.

373:2 The king of the feathered creation.

373:3 Vis´vakarmá, the Muleiher of the Indian heaven.

373:4 "The terrific fiends named Mandehas attempt to devour the sun: for Brahmá denounced this curse upon them, that without the power to perish they should die every day (and revive by night) and therefore a fierce contest occurs (daily) between them and the sun."

WILSON'S Vishnu Purána. Vol.II. p. 250.

373:5 Said in the Vishnu Purána to be a ridge projecting from the base of Meru to the north.

373:6 Kinnars are centaurs reversed, beings with equine head and human bodies.

373:7 Yakshas are demi-gods attendant on "Ruyera"* the God of wealth.

373:1b Aurva was one of the descendants of Bhrigu From his wrath proceeded a flame that threatened to destroy the world, had not Aurva cast it into the ocean where it remained concealed, and having the face of a horse. The legend is told in the Mahábharat. I. 6*3*02.

373:2b The word Játarupa means gold.

373:3b The celebrated mythological serpent king Sesha, called also Ananta or the infinite, represented as bearing the earth on one of his thousand heads.

373:4b Jambudwípa is in the centre of the seven great dwípas or continents into which the world is divided, and in the centre of Jambudwípa is the golden p. 374 mountain Meru 84,000 yojans high, and crowned by the great city of Brahmá, Sse WILSON'S Vishnu Purána, Vol II, p. 110.

374:1 Vaikhánases are a race of hermit saints said to have sprung from the nails of Prajápati.

374:2 "The wife of Eratu, Samnnti, brought forth the sixty thousand Válakhilyas, pigmy sages, no bigger than a joint of the thumb, chaste, pious, resplendent as the rays of the Sun" WlLSOK'S Vishnu Purána.

374:3 The continent in which Sudarsan or Meru stands, i. e. Jambudwip.

374:4 The names of some historical peoples which occur in this Canto and in the Cantos describing the south and north will he found in the ADDITIONAL NOTES. They are bare lists, not susceptible of a metrical version.