89 Unless interpreted metaphorically, this is not quite correct, since Kishkindha wasn’t part of the Ikshvaku kingdom.
90 The biological father.
91 The biological son.
92 Sugriva’s wife.
93 That is, Mandhata punished the mendicant. Mandhata was from the Ikshvaku lineage and was the son of Yuvanashva. There are no details of this story about Mandhata and the mendicant, not just in the Valmiki Ramayana, but in other texts too.
94 Angada means armlet and there is a play on words.
95 In the course of fighting with Sugriva.
96 The many caves means that other apes also rushed out with her. Tara was in Kishkindha. Therefore, this can only mean that Kishkindha had been built around caves.
97 Tara has still not seen Vali. She has only heard that he has been killed.
98 There was no fight where Vali had flung trees and rocks at Rama. Nor did Rama strike him with several arrows. All this is meant to illustrate that the apes don’t quite know what has happened. It is a time of chaos.
99 The word chaitya has several meanings—sacrificial shed, temple, altar, sanctuary and a tree that grows along the road.
100 The earth.
101 The word used is panchatva. Reaching a stage of panchatva, when dead, can have two possible interpretations. First, one has returned to the five (pancha) elements. Second, there are three normal states—being awake, sleeping (with dreams) and deep sleep (without dreams and without distractions). There is a fourth stage beyond this, known as turiya. This transcends consciousness and one experiences union with the brahman. The fifth stage (panchatva) is beyond this too.
102 This is Tara speaking again.
103 The practice in question is prayopavesa. While this means voluntary fasting to death, it is adopted by someone who has no worldly desires left.
104 The word tara means star.
105 These shlokas are very reminiscent of the Bhagavadgita.
106 Prayuta is million and arbuda is a hundred million.
107 Vali.
108 Sugriva and Angada.
109 That is, it is best for her to kill herself.
110 About Angada being crowned.
111 Vali.
112 Vali’s.
113 The word used is tata.
114 In the plural.
115 Meaning Tara.
116 Because there was a pledge.
117 Because Shri will not remain in a dead body.
118 Sugriva.
119 Because I am your father, I tolerated your behaviour. Sugriva will not necessarily be tolerant.
120 The bull.
121 Panchatva again.
122 The indragopa insect, which is red in colour.
123 This doesn’t mean that she is reluctant to embrace Vali’s dead body because of the dust and blood. It means that when she embraces his dead body, the dust and the blood create a barrier in between.
124 Panchatva.
125 The sun is believed to set behind Mount Asta.
126 Because of minerals.
127 Tara.
128 The imagery is that of the setting sun.
129 This is Tara speaking again.
130 Avabhritha is the most important final component of a sacrifice, characterized by the taking of a bath. As the last bath of life, avabhritha also signifies death. The battle is thus being compared to a sacrifice and the text uses the word avabhritha. Any sacrifice, and the subsequent bath, has to be taken with the wife.
131 The sun is believed to circle around Mount Meru.
132 In these shlokas, there is scope for interpretation and therefore, there is subjectivity in the translation.
133 Destiny.
134 Such as, his atman.
135 This is not Taaraa, Vali’s wife, but the male ape, Taara.
136 The male ape.
137 Vali’s wife.
138 They raised it from the palanquin and placed it on the pyre.
139 This is circumambulation in anticlockwise fashion, the exact opposite of pradakshina. In pradakshina, one keeps the person/object being circumambulated on the right. In apasavya, the person/object being circumambulated is kept on the left.
140 Vali’s wife.
141 From the water rites.
142 Brahma.
143 Meru.
144 This deviates from the six-season format. In the six-season format, the seasons (ritu) are Vasanta or spring (Chaitra, Vaishakha), Grishma or summer (Jyaishtha, Ashadha), Varsha or monsoon (Shravana, Bhadrapada), Sharada or autumn (Ashvina, Kartika), Hemanta or cold season (Margashirsha, Pousha) and Shishira or winter (Magha, Phalguna). Shravana is the July–August period.
145 Enter the city.
146 Not to be confused with Kishkindha.
147 October–November.
148 This can mean grain of any kind. But it is specifically used for threshed and winnowed rice that has not been dehusked.
149 Creeper believed to blossom at a woman’s touch.
150 Using these, the water was sprinkled over his head.
151 Sugriva.
152 Kishkindha.
153 The word used is kriyapara. This is interpreted as being devoted to rituals, but is not necessary.
154 The word used is astika, which can also be translated as theist.
155 Lions.
156 This means that Mount Malyavat and Mount Prasravana were identical.
157 This equates the monsoon season to three months, mid-July to mid-October.
158 The first rain leads to vapour rising up from a heated earth.
159 The flowers are covered with water resembling tears. But there is another image too, that of women who have held back their tears because their husbands have been away on work. The monsoon is usually the time when the husbands return to their wives.
160 The subsequent shlokas have a beautiful description of the monsoon and there are shlokas that are reminiscent of Kalidasa’s Meghadutam. However, there is also an inconsistency. The metre changes. Normally, throughout a great epic, the same metre has to be used. Therefore, speculatively, these shlokas could be a later interpolation.
161 Implicitly, these are falling down when they are ripe.
162 This is interpreted as Keshava in the sense of Vishnu, it being believed that Vishnu sleeps from Ashadha to Kartika. However, Keshava is also another name for the month of Margashirsha (November–December). Perhaps all it means is that one is approaching that month.
163 Lions.
164 Kings.
165 Proshthapada is a nakshatra. More accurately, it is a collective name for two nakshatras, Purva Bhadrapada and Uttara Bhadrapada. The month of Bhadrapada, or Bhadra, is the August–September period.
166 A chaturmasya sacrifice is a sacrifice performed once every four (chatur) months (masa) and is performed at the beginnings of the months of Kartika, Phalguna and Ashadha. This reference is to the one that starts on the full moon day of Ashadha.
167 Because the rivers have to be crossed.
168 The time for honouring the pledge had passed. The point is that Sugriva had not told Rama about his instructions to Nila and neither Nila, nor Hanumat, could directly inform Rama. That was Sugriva’s call.
169 The god of love.
170 Chataka.
171 Since four months have passed since Sugriva’s coronation, this must be the end of Kartika.
172 Though the text does not clearly indicate this, the part within quotes is obviously the message to be delivered by Lakshmana to Sugriva.
173 The slaying of Vali.
174 Lakshmana.
175 This is a reference to Lakshmana.
176 Rama.
177 Sita.
178 The preceptor of the gods.
179 For Sita.
180 Sugriva.
181 The Critical Edition excises some shlokas and that breaks the continuity. The apes roared, on seeing Lakshmana.
182 Sugriva.
183 Plantain trees have seven leaves.
184 Lakshmana.
185 Kishkindha is often referred to as a cave (guha). However, as this chapter makes clearer, Kishkindha was much more than an ordinary cave.
186 Maireya is made from molasses or grain. A maireya tree probably means sugar cane. Madhu is the madhuka tree, used to make liquor.
187 That is, not discordant.
188 Because of liquor.
189 Tree that yields all the objects of desire.
190 The sin of killing one hundred horses.
191 The moon is the lord of the stars (tara) and there is a play on the word Tara.
192 An apsara. Usually, Vishvamitra is associated with the apsara Menaka.
193 The word used is tata. Lakshmana is senior, though not in age. Therefore, ‘father’ is more likely than ‘son’.
194 The nakshatras are the wives of the moon, but the moon loves Rohini (Aldebaran) more than the others.
195 Because of the way the numbers are written in the shloka, anything other than the one trillion can be interpreted in more than one way. Suffice to say that there were a large number of rakshasas. How could Tara possibly know this? The story goes that Vali told Angada and Tara overheard the conversation.
196 Sugriva will not be able to kill Ravana without Rama’s help. This is sometimes interpreted as Rama not being able to kill Ravana without Sugriva’s help, but that interpretation seems forced.
197 How so many rakshasas came to be in Lanka.
198 We are subsequently told, in Chapter 4 (36), that a time limit of ten days has been set.
199 As red as a wound.
200 Or, former signs of fear, such as when Vali was destroyed.
201 Sugriva.
202 Mount Udaya, the sun rises from behind this.
203 Mount Asta, the sun sets behind this.
204 Hanumat.
205 Into the sky.
206 This is a reference to Vishnu’s vamana (dwarf) incarnation, where Vishnu covered heaven, the earth and the nether regions in three steps.
207 Prasravana.
208 Mount Asta.
209 Mars.
210 That is, there were a large number, innumerable.
211 They covered the sky and blanked out the sun.
212 Offered at the sacrifice.
213 One does not have to eat for a month.
214 Everyone was not allowed in the presence of the royal women in the inner quarters.
215 They raised their hands up, joined in salutation, and those looked like lotuses and lilies.
216 Trivarga (three objectives of life)—dharma, artha and kama.
217 An ayuta is ten thousand. Shanku is the same as shamkha and means one hundred billion.
218 One hundred million.
219 Rama.
220 Anuhlada (or Anuhrada) was Hiranyakashipu’s son and Prahlada’s (or Prahrada) brother. Shachi, married to Indra, was Puloma’s (a demon) daughter. She was known as Poulami. With Puloma’s consent, Anuhlada abducted Shachi. Indra killed Puloma.
221 Literally, one with the strength of one hundred.
222 Sushena.
223 One thousand billion.
224 Not to be confused with Taaraa.
225 Rama.
226 Lakshmana being the first.
227 This means the east of Jambudvipa and not the east of Kishkindha.
228 Known as Kalinda or dark.
229 Sarasvati does not belong on the eastern side. Neither does Sindhu, unless this refers to some other river Sindhu. The geographical sections in this and the next three chapters also occur in the Matsya Purana.
230 River Mahi is also towards the west.
231 If this is Malava, it does not belong here.
232 The likeliest meaning is those who earn a living from silk. But it could also mean those who make scabbards for swords.
233 Hunters.
234 Identified as Java.
235 Lohita means red.
236 Silk cotton is shalmali and this dvipa is named Shalmali dvipa.
237 Vinata’s son, Garuda.
238 When the sun rises, the Mandehas try to obstruct the sun’s path. When oblations of water are offered at the time of sunrise, the Mandehas are scorched by the sun and fall down in the water.
239 This is the subterranean fire, known as hayamukha (horse’s head/mouth) or vadavamukha (mare’s head/mouth). It emerges at the time of the final destruction and devours everything. The fire was created from the anger and rage of the sage Urva.
240 Vishnu lies down on the serpent named Ananta.
241 The eastern direction ends beyond this.
242 One of Mount Udaya’s peaks.
243 In his dwarf incarnation.
244 Soumanasa.
245 This is where the sun resides.
246 The sun.
247 This is a different Sushena, not the one who was Tara’s father.
248 Identified as Wardha.
249 Amarakantaka, where the Narmada originates.
250 This deviates from the geography, as do subsequent references to Vanga and Kalinga.
251 This is Mount Malaya. Literally, with iron at its mouth.
252 This causes all kinds of problems. How did Sugriva know Ravana lived there? If he knew, why did he tell Rama he did not know where Ravana dwelt? Why did he send the apes off to other directions? Since the instructions were given in Rama’s presence, why didn’t Rama react?
253 Also known as Simhika. She seizes the shadow and thereby devours the prey.
254 These are four species of sandalwood, respectively, ochre yellow, leafy green, sky blue and fiery red.
255 Sugriva.
256 The region around Mathura.
257 Uddalaka means honey. So this is a tree from which honey can be obtained.
258 This is not the Avanti mentioned earlier.
259 Because it dazzles.
260 The gandharvas.
261 The gandharvas.
262 Vishnu slew these two demons on Chakravat. He thus obtained the conch shell from Panchajana and the chakra from Hayagriva.
263 Since Pragjyotisha is in the east, in Assam, this does not fit.
264 The sun god.
265 From Mount Meru to Mount Asta.
266 One hour and twelve minutes.
267 Mount Asta.
268 Yama’s.
269 A mlechchha is a barbarian, meaning that mlechchhas do not speak Sanskrit and are not aryas.
270 The lotus bark tree.
271 Species of pine. Devadaru literally means tree of the gods.
272 Kubera.
273 Kinnaras, the feminine of the species.
274 The flowers and fruit.
275 Vidyadharas are semi-divine, occupying the region between heaven and earth.
276 From the radiance of Mount Soma.
277 Vishnu.
278 Shiva, eleven being a reference to the eleven Rudras.
279 With objects that possess those qualities.
280 Rama.
281 Sita.
282 This is not a very convincing reason. No such signs were given to the apes who headed towards the north, the east or the west, reinforcing the hypothesis that it was known that Ravana was towards the south, in Lanka. Nor is the reason for giving the ring to Hanumat, as opposed to Angada, very clear.
283 This is Rama addressing Hanumat as he left.
284 The Himalayas.
285 The word used is mandala and this means round, circular, globe.
286 There is an inconsistency. We have earlier been told that Vali killed Dundubhi in Kishkindha, whereas a cave in Mount Malaya is being mentioned now.
287 Matanga’s.
288 In Rishyamuka.
289 Hanumat.
290 This establishes that the Vindhyas were to the south of Rishyamuka.
291 The lotus bark tree.
292 The time set by Sugriva for the search.
293 Hanumat.
294 Because there was water inside the cave.
295 The architect of the
demons, just as Vishvakarma is of the gods.
296 The grandfather is Brahma. Ushanas is Shukracharya, the preceptor of the demons. Thus, Brahma gave Maya the boon that we would be able to take away the riches of the preceptor of the demons.
297 Maya.
298 Though not stated clearly, Hema must have gone away to heaven after this. Indeed, she may have been sent by Indra to seduce Maya.
299 Rama’s.
300 Sugriva.
301 Both could be seen from the spot where they emerged.
302 Deductions are possible about the timeline. Sugriva summoned the armies in Margashirsha, November–December. The month of Pushya, December–January, was fixed for their return. They spent around one month, January–February in the cave. Hence, the spring season is near.
303 Taaraa’s radiant lord, that is, Sugriva. Hanumat thought that this was tantamount to Angada challenging Sugriva’s authority as a king.
304 The eight kinds of intelligence are attentiveness, capacity to listen, capacity to grasp, capacity to remember, ability to discriminate, ability to ascertain the truth, deep understanding and a capacity to distinguish between good action and bad action. The four kinds of forces are usually infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots. But here, it probably means the capacity to selectively use sama, dana, bheda and danda. The fourteen qualities are knowing about time and place, fortitude, endurance, capacity to think of all the consequences, skill, self-defence, an ability to keep one’s counsel secret, avoidance of pointless debates, courage, a capacity to identify the strengths and weaknesses, faith, an ability to shelter those who seek refuge, the ability to show anger at the right time and a capacity to steadfastly pursue a course of action.
The Valmiki Ramayana Page 149
