Ramayana, Book 2, The

<SPAN name="toc307" id="toc307"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf308" id="pdf308"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-LXXVI" id="CantoII-LXXVI" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto LXXVI. The Funeral.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>The saint Vaśishṭha, best of all</div> <div>Whose words with moving wisdom fall,</div> <div>Bharat, Kaikeyí's son, addressed,</div> <div>Whom burning fires of grief distressed:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“O Prince, whose fame is widely spread,</span></div> <div>Enough of grief: be comforted.</div> <div>The time is come: arise, and lay</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Upon the pyre the monarch's clay.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>He heard the words Vaśishṭha spoke,</div> <div>And slumbering resolution woke.</div> <div>Then skilled in all the laws declare,</div> <div>He bade his friends the rites prepare.</div> <div>They raised the body from the oil,</div> <div>And placed it, dripping, on the soil;</div> <div>Then laid it on a bed, whereon</div> <div>Wrought gold and precious jewels shone.</div> <div>There, pallor o'er his features spread,</div> <div>The monarch, as in sleep, lay dead.</div> <div>Then Bharat sought his father's side,</div> <div>And lifted up his voice and cried:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“O King, and has thy heart designed</span></div> <div>To part and leave thy son behind?</div> <div>Make Ráma flee, who loves the right,</div> <div>And Lakshmaṇ of the arm of might?</div> <div>Whither, great Monarch, wilt thou go</div> <div>And leave this people in their woe,</div> <div>Mourning their hero, wild with grief,</div> <div>Of Ráma reft, their lion chief?</div> <div>Ah, who will guard the people well</div> <div>Who in Ayodhyá's city dwell,</div> <div>When thou, my sire, hast sought the sky,</div> <div>And Ráma has been forced to fly?</div> <div>In widowed woe, bereft of thee,</div> <div>The land no more is fair to see:</div> <div>The city, to my aching sight,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Is gloomy as a moonless night.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus, with o'erwhelming sorrow pained,</div> <div>Sad Bharat by the bed complained:</div> <div>And thus Vaśishṭha, holy sage,</div> <div>Spoke his deep anguish to assuage:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“O Lord of men, no longer stay;</span></div> <div>The last remaining duties pay:</div> <div>Haste, mighty-armed, as I advise,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >The funeral rites to solemnize.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>And Bharat heard Vaśishṭha's rede</div> <div>With due attention and agreed.</div> <div>He summoned straight from every side</div> <div>Chaplain, and priest, and holy guide.</div> <div>The sacred fires he bade them bring</div> <div>Forth from the chapel of the king,</div> <div>Wherein the priests in order due,</div> <div>And ministers, the offerings threw.</div> <div>Distraught in mind, with sob and tear,</div> <div>They laid the body on a bier,</div> <div>And servants, while their eyes brimmed o'er</div> <div>The monarch from the palace bore.</div> <div>Another band of mourners led</div> <div>The long procession of the dead:</div> <div>Rich garments in the way they cast,</div> <div>And gold and silver, as they passed.</div> <div>Then other hands the corse bedewed</div> <div>With fragrant juices that exude</div> <div>From sandal, cedar, aloe, pine,</div> <div>And every perfume rare and fine.</div> <div>Then priestly hands the mighty dead</div> <div>Upon the pyre deposited.</div> <div>The sacred fires they tended next,</div> <div>And muttered low each funeral text;</div> <div>And priestly singers who rehearse</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page186"></span><SPAN name="Pg186" id="Pg186" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>The Śaman<SPAN id="noteref_352" name="noteref_352" href="#note_352"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">352</span></span></SPAN> sang their holy verse.</div> <div>Forth from the town in litters came,</div> <div>Or chariots, many a royal dame,</div> <div>And honoured so the funeral ground,</div> <div>With aged followers ringed around.</div> <div>With steps in inverse order bent,<SPAN id="noteref_353" name="noteref_353" href="#note_353"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">353</span></span></SPAN></div> <div>The priests in sad procession went</div> <div>Around the monarch's burning pyre</div> <div>Who well had nursed each sacred fire:</div> <div>With Queen Kauśalyá and the rest,</div> <div>Their tender hearts with woe distressed.</div> <div>The voice of women, shrill and clear</div> <div>As screaming curlews, smote the ear,</div> <div>As from a thousand voices rose</div> <div>The shriek that tells of woman's woes.</div> <div>Then weeping, faint, with loud lament,</div> <div>Down Sarjú's shelving bank they went.</div> <div>There standing on the river side</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">With Bharat, priest, and peer,</div> <div>Their lips the women purified</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">With water fresh and clear.</div> <div>Returning to the royal town,</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">Their eyes with tear-drops filled,</div> <div>Ten days on earth they laid them down,</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">And wept till grief was stilled.</div> </div> <SPAN name="toc309" id="toc309"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf310" id="pdf310"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-LXXVII" id="CantoII-LXXVII" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto LXXVII. The Gathering Of The Ashes.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>The tenth day passed: the prince again</div> <div>Was free from every legal stain.</div> <div>He bade them on the twelfth the great</div> <div>Remaining honour celebrate.</div> <div>Much gold he gave, and gems, and food,</div> <div>To all the Bráhman multitude,</div> <div>And goats whose hair was white and fine,</div> <div>And many a thousand head of kine:</div> <div>Slaves, men and damsels, he bestowed,</div> <div>And many a car and fair abode:</div> <div>Such gifts he gave the Bráhman race</div> <div>His father's obsequies to grace.</div> <div>Then when the morning's earliest ray</div> <div>Appeared upon the thirteenth day,</div> <div>Again the hero wept and sighed</div> <div>Distraught and sorrow-stupefied;</div> <div>Drew, sobbing in his anguish, near,</div> <div>The last remaining debt to clear,</div> <div>And at the bottom of the pyre,</div> <div>He thus bespake his royal sire:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“O father, hast thou left me so,</span></div> <div>Deserted in my friendless woe,</div> <div>When he to whom the charge was given</div> <div>To keep me, to the wood is driven?</div> <div>Her only son is forced away</div> <div>Who was his helpless mother's stay:</div> <div>Ah, whither, father, art thou fled;</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Leaving the queen uncomforted?”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>He looked upon the pile where lay</div> <div>The bones half-burnt and ashes grey,</div> <div>And uttering a piteous moan,</div> <div>Gave way, by anguish overthrown.</div> <div>Then as his tears began to well,</div> <div>Prostrate to earth the hero fell;</div> <div>So from its seat the staff they drag,</div> <div>And cast to earth some glorious flag.</div> <div>The ministers approached again</div> <div>The prince whom rites had freed from stain;</div> <div>So when Yayáti fell, each seer,</div> <div>In pity for his fate, drew near.</div> <div>Śatrughna saw him lying low</div> <div>O'erwhelmed beneath the crush of woe,</div> <div>And as upon the king he thought,</div> <div>He fell upon the earth distraught.</div> <div>When to his loving memory came</div> <div>Those noble gifts, that kingly frame,</div> <div>He sorrowed, by his woe distressed,</div> <div>As one by frenzied rage possessed:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Ah me, this surging sea of woe</span></div> <div>Has drowned us with its overflow:</div> <div>The source is Manthará, dire and dark,</div> <div>Kaikeyí is the ravening shark:</div> <div>And the great boons the monarch gave</div> <div>Lend conquering might to every wave.</div> <div>Ah, whither wilt thou go, and leave</div> <div>Thy Bharat in his woe to grieve,</div> <div>Whom ever 'twas thy greatest joy</div> <div>To fondle as a tender boy?</div> <div>Didst thou not give with thoughtful care</div> <div>Our food, our drink, our robes to wear?</div> <div>Whose love will now for us provide,</div> <div>When thou, our king and sire, hast died?</div> <div>At such a time bereft, forlorn,</div> <div>Why is not earth in sunder torn,</div> <div>Missing her monarch's firm control,</div> <div>His love of right, his lofty soul?</div> <div>Ah me, for Ráma roams afar,</div> <div>My sire is where the Blessed are;</div> <div>How can I live deserted? I</div> <div>Will pass into the fire and die.</div> <div>Abandoned thus, I will not brook</div> <div>Upon Ayodhyá's town to look,</div> <div>Once guarded by Ikshváku's race:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >The wood shall be my dwelling place.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Then when the princes' mournful train</div> <div>Heard the sad brothers thus complain,</div> <div>And saw their misery, at the view</div> <div>Their grief burst wilder out anew.</div> <div>Faint with lamenting, sad and worn,</div> <div>Each like a bull with broken horn,</div> <div>The brothers in their wild despair</div> <div>Lay rolling, mad with misery, there.</div> <div>Then old Vaśishṭha good and true,</div> <div>Their father's priest, all lore who knew,</div> <div>Raised weeping Bharat on his feet,</div> <div>And thus bespake with counsel meet:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Twelve days, my lord, have past away</span></div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page187"></span><SPAN name="Pg187" id="Pg187" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>Since flames consumed thy father's clay:</div> <div>Delay no more: as rules ordain,</div> <div>Gather what bones may yet remain.</div> <div>Three constant pairs are ever found</div> <div>To hem all mortal creatures round:<SPAN id="noteref_354" name="noteref_354" href="#note_354"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">354</span></span></SPAN></div> <div>Then mourn not thus, O Prince, for none</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Their close companionship may shun.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Sumantra bade Śatrughna rise,</div> <div>And soothed his soul with counsel wise,</div> <div>And skilled in truth, his hearer taught</div> <div>How all things are and come to naught.</div> <div>When rose each hero from the ground,</div> <div>A lion lord of men, renowned,</div> <div>He showed like Indra's flag,<SPAN id="noteref_355" name="noteref_355" href="#note_355"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">355</span></span></SPAN> whereon</div> <div>Fierce rains have dashed and suns have shone.</div> <div>They wiped their red and weeping eyes,</div> <div>And gently made their sad replies:</div> <div>Then, urged to haste, the royal pair</div> <div>Performed the rites that claimed their care.</div> </div> <SPAN name="toc311" id="toc311"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf312" id="pdf312"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-LXXVIII" id="CantoII-LXXVIII" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto LXXVIII. Manthará Punished.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Śatrughna thus to Bharat spake</div> <div>Who longed the forest road to take:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“He who in woe was wont to give</span></div> <div>Strength to himself and all that live—</div> <div>Dear Ráma, true and pure in heart,</div> <div>Is banished by a woman's art.</div> <div>Yet here was Lakshmaṇ, brave and strong,</div> <div>Could not his might prevent the wrong?</div> <div>Could not his arm the king restrain,</div> <div>Or make the banished free again?</div> <div>One loving right and fearing crime</div> <div>Had checked the monarch's sin in time,</div> <div>When, vassal of a woman's will,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >His feet approached the path of ill.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>While Lakshmaṇ's younger brother, dread</div> <div>Śatrughna, thus to Bharat said,</div> <div>Came to the fronting door, arrayed</div> <div>In glittering robes, the hump-back maid.</div> <div>There she, with sandal-oil besmeared,</div> <div>In garments meet for queens appeared:</div> <div>And lustre to her form was lent</div> <div>By many a gem and ornament.</div> <div>She girdled with her broidered zone,</div> <div>And many a chain about her thrown,</div> <div>Showed like a female monkey round</div> <div>Whose body many a string is bound.</div> <div>When on that cause of evil fell</div> <div>The quick eye of the sentinel,</div> <div>He grasped her in his ruthless hold,</div> <div>And hastening in, Śatrughna told:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Here is the wicked pest,”</span> he cried,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Through whom the king thy father died,</span></div> <div>And Ráma wanders in the wood:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Do with her as thou deemest good.”</span></div> <div>The warder spoke: and every word</div> <div>Śatrughna's breast to fury stirred:</div> <div>He called the servants, all and each.</div> <div>And spake in wrath his hasty speech:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“This is the wretch my sire who slew,</span></div> <div>And misery on my brothers drew:</div> <div>Let her this day obtain the meed,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Vile sinner, of her cruel deed.”</span></div> <div>He spake; and moved by fury laid</div> <div>His mighty hand upon the maid,</div> <div>Who as her fellows ringed her round,</div> <div>Made with her cries the hall resound.</div> <div>Soon as the gathered women viewed</div> <div>Śatrughna in his angry mood,</div> <div>Their hearts disturbed by sudden dread,</div> <div>They turned and from his presence fled.</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“His rage,”</span> they cried, <span class="tei tei-q" >“on us will fall,</span></div> <div>And ruthless, he will slay us all.</div> <div>Come, to Kauśalyá let us flee:</div> <div>Our hope, our sure defence is she,</div> <div>Approved by all, of virtuous mind,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Compassionate, and good, and kind.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>His eyes with burning wrath aglow,</div> <div>Śatrughna, shatterer of the foe,</div> <div>Dragged on the ground the hump-back maid</div> <div>Who shrieked aloud and screamed for aid.</div> <div>This way and that with no remorse</div> <div>He dragged her with resistless force,</div> <div>And chains and glittering trinkets burst</div> <div>Lay here and there with gems dispersed,</div> <div>Till like the sky of Autumn shone</div> <div>The palace floor they sparkled on.</div> <div>The lord of men, supremely strong,</div> <div>Haled in his rage the wretch along:</div> <div>Where Queen Kaikeyí dwelt he came,</div> <div>And sternly then addressed the dame.</div> <div>Deep in her heart Kaikeyí felt</div> <div>The stabs his keen reproaches dealt,</div> <div>And of Śatrughna's ire afraid,</div> <div>To Bharat flew and cried for aid.</div> <div>He looked and saw the prince inflamed</div> <div>With burning rage, and thus exclaimed:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Forgive! thine angry arm restrain:</span></div> <div>A woman never may be slain.</div> <div>My hand Kaikeyí's blood would spill,</div> <div>The sinner ever bent on ill,</div> <div>But Ráma, long in duty tried,</div> <div>Would hate the impious matricide:</div> <div>And if he knew thy vengeful blade</div> <div>Had slaughtered e'en this hump-back maid,</div> <div>Never again, be sure, would he</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Speak friendly word to thee or me.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>When Bharat's speech Śatrughna heard</div> <div>He calmed the rage his breast that stirred,</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page188"></span><SPAN name="Pg188" id="Pg188" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>Releasing from her dire constraint</div> <div>The trembling wretch with terror faint.</div> <div>Then to Kaikeyí's feet she crept,</div> <div>And prostrate in her misery wept.</div> <div>Kaikeyí on the hump-back gazed,</div> <div>And saw her weep and gasp.</div> <div>Still quivering, with her senses dazed,</div> <div>From fierce Śatrughna's grasp.</div> <div>With gentle words of pity she</div> <div>Assuaged her wild despair,</div> <div>E'en as a tender hand might free</div> <div>A curlew from the snare.</div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />