The Ramayana- Book I - Canto III.: The Argument.

[Anne Terri]

"GOD'S LIVING BIBLE ---- THE THIRD TESTAMENT ----- RESEARCH LIBRARY" ©*

THE RÁMÁYAN OF VÁLMÍKI

Translated into English Verse
BY
RALPH T. H. GRIFFITH, M. A.,
[(Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith), b. 1826 d. 1906]
PRINCIPAL OF THE BENARES COLLEGE
London: Trübner & Co.
Benares: E. J. Lazarus and Co.
[1870-1874]

RAMAYANA
BOOK I

CANTO III.: THE ARGUMENT.

The hermit thus with watchful heed

Received the poem's pregnant seed,

And looked with eager thought around

If fuller knowledge might be found.

p. 9

His lips with water first bedewed, 1

He sate, in reverent attitude

On holy grass, 2 the points all bent

Together toward the orient; 3

And thus in meditation he

Entered the path of poesy.

Then clearly, through his virtue's might,

All lay discovered to his sight,

Whate'er befell, through all their life,

Ráma, his brother, and his wife:

And Das'aratha and each queen

At every time, in every scene:

His people too, of every sort;

The nobles of his princely court:

Whate'er was said, whate'er decreed,

Each time they sate each plan and deed:

For holy thought and fervent rite

Had so refined his keener sight

That by his sanctity his view

The present, past, and future knew,

And he with mental eye could grasp,

Like fruit within his fingers clasp,

The life of Ráma, great and good,

Roaming with Sitá in the wood.

He told, with secret piercing eyes,

The tale of Ráma's high emprise.

Each listening ear that shall entice,

A sea of pearls of highest price.

Thus good Válmíki, sage divine,

Rehearsed the tale of Raghu's line,

As Nárad, heavenly saint, before

Had traced the story's outline o'er.

He sang of Ráma's princely birth,

His kindness and heroic worth;

His love for all, his patient youth,

His gentleness and constant truth,

And many a tale and legend old

By holy Vis'vámitra told.

How Janak's child he wooed and won,

Aud broke the bow that bent to none.

How he with every virtue fraught

His namesake Ráma 4 met and fought.

The choice of Ráma for the throne;

The malice by Kalseyí shown,

Whose evil counsel marred the plan

And drove him forth a banisht man.

How the king grieved and groaned,and cried,

And swooned away and pining died.

The subjects' woe when thus bereft;

And how the following crowds he left:

With Guha talked, and firmly stern

Ordered his driver to return.

How Gangá's farther shore he gained;

By Bharadvája entertained,

By whose advice be journeyed still

And came to Chitrakúta's hill.

How there he dwelt and built a cot;

How Bharat journeyed to the spot;

His earnest supplication made;

Drink-offerings to their father paid;

The sandals given by Ráma's hand,

As emblems of his right to stand:

How from his presence Bharat went

And years in Nandigráma spent.

How Ráma entered Dandak wood

And in Sutíkhna's presence stood.

The favour Anasúyá showed,

The wondrous balsam she bestowed.

How Sárabhangá's dwelling place

They sought; saw Indra face to face;

The meeting with Agastya gained;

The heavenly bow from him obtained.

How Ráma with Virádha met;

Their home in Panchavata set.

How S'úrpanakhá underwent

The mockery and disfigurement.

Of Trígirá's and Khara's fall,

Of Rávan roused at vengeance call,

Máricha doomed, without escape;

The fair Videhan 1b lady's rape.

How Ráma wept and raved in vain,

And how the Vulture-king was slain.

How Ráma fierce Kabandha slew;

Then to the side of Pampá drew.

Met Hanumán, and her whose vows

Were kept beneath the greenwood boughs.

How Raghu's son the lofty-souled,

On Pampá's bank wept uncontrolled,

Then journeyed, Rishyamúk to reach,

And of Sugríva then had speech.

The friendship made, which both had sought:

How Báli and Sugríva fought.

How Báli in the strife was slain,

And how Sugríva came to reign.

The treaty, Tára's wild lament;

The rainy nights in watching spent.

The wrath of Raghu's lion son;

The gathering of the hosts in one.

The sending of the spies about,

And all the regions pointed out.

The ring by Ráma's hand bestowed;

The cave wherein the bear abode.

The fast proposed, their lives to end;

Sampati gained to be their friend.

p. 10

The scaling of the hill, the leap

Of Hanumán across the deep.

Ocean's command that bade them seek

Maináka of the lofty peak.

The death of Sinhiká, the sight

Of Lanká with her palace bright

How Hanuman stole in at eve;

His plan the giants to deceive.

How through the square he made his way

To chambers where the women lay,

Within the As'oka garden came

And there found Ráma's captive dame,

His colloquy with her he sought,

And giving of the ring he brought.

How Sítá gave a gem o'erjoyed;

How Hanumán the grove destroyed,

How giantesses trembling fled,

And servant fiends were smitten dead.

How Hanumán was seized; their ire

When Lanká blazed with hostile fire.

His leap across the sea once more;

The eating of the honey store,

How Ráma he consoled, and how

He showed the gem from Sítá's brow,

With Ocean, Ráma's interview;

The bridge that Nala o'er it threw.

The crossing, and the sitting down

At night round Lanká's royal town.

The treaty with Vibhíshan made:

The plan for Rávan's slaughter laid.

How Kumbhakarna in his pride

And Meghanáda fought and died.

How Rávan in the fight was slain,

And captive Sítá brought again.

Vibhíshan set upon the throne;

The flying chariot Pushpak shown.

How Brahmá and the Gods appeared,

And Sítá's doubted honour cleared.

How In the flying car they rode

To Bháradvája's cabin abode,

The Wind-God's son sent on afar;

How Bharat met the flying car.

How Ráma then was king ordained;

The legions their discharge obtained.

How Ráma cast his queen away;

How grew the people's love each day.

Thus did the saint Válmíki tell

Whate'er in Ráma's life befell,

And in the closing verse all

That yet to come will once befall

---

Footnotes

8:1b Sitá, daughter of Janak king of Mithilá.

8:2b 'I congratulate myself,' says Schlegel in the preface to his, alas, unfinished edition of the Rámáyan, 'that, by the favour of the Supreme Deity, I have been allowed to begin so great a work; I glory and make my boast that I too after so many ages have helped to confirm that ancient oracle declared to Válmíki by the Father of Gods and men:

Dum stabunt montes, campis dum flumina current, Usque tuum toto carmen, celebrabitur orbe.'

9:1 'The sipping of water is a requisite introduction of all rites: without it, says the Sámha Purana, all acts of religion are vain.' COLEBROOKE.

9:2 The darhha or kus'a (Pea cynosuroides), a kind of grass used in sacrifice by the Hindus as cerbena was by the Romans.

9:3 The direction in which the grass hould be placed upon the ground as a seat for the Gods, on occasion of offerings made to them.

9:4 Parasúráma or Ráma with the Axe. See Canto LXXIV.

9:1b Sitá. Videha was the country of which Mithilá was the capital.

---

Next: Canto IV.: The Rhapsodists.

The Ramayana (/rɑːˈmɑːjənə/; Sanskrit: रामायणम्, Rāmāyaṇam [rɑːˈmɑːjəɳəm]) is an ancient Indian epic poem which narrates the struggle of the divine prince Rama to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. Along with the Mahabharata, it forms the Hindu Itihasa.
The epic, traditionally ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki, narrates the life of Rama, the legendary prince of the Kosala Kingdom. It follows his fourteen-year exile to the forest from the kingdom, by his father King Dasharatha, on request of his second wife Kaikeyi. His travels across forests in India with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, the kidnapping of his wife by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, resulting in a war with him, and Rama's eventual return to Ayodhya to be crowned king.
There have been many attempts to unravel the epic's historical growth and compositional layers; various recent scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text range from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE, with later stages extending up to the 3rd century CE. Wikipedia

“God / Brahman Speaking To Anne Terri Through The Holy Spirit: Today is August 25, 2018, and I have Asked Anne to begin to place The Ramayana within Our Research Library, for future links to research areas within. AMEN” 

*© NOTICE OF ATTRIBUTION
Scanned at sacred-texts.com by John B. Hare. OCRed and Proofed at Distributed Proofing, Juliet Sutherland, Project Manager. Post-processing, computer programming, and additional proofreading by John B. Hare at sacred-texts.com. This text is in the public domain. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose provided this notice of attribution is left intact.

Note: This verse translation by Griffith...was scanned in 2000 from an original copy, which had very poor typesetting. Due to the difficulty of converting this 600 page text to etext, the project was put on hold for several years until OCR technology matured. Finally in 2003, the text was OCR-ed and proofed at Distributed Proofing. However, despite best efforts, there are several places in this text where the proofing was difficult or impossible. These are indicated by asterisks or (illegible). We are in the process of cleaning up these issues and hope to have a definitive version of this text at some point. In the meantime we hope you enjoy this epic, which is one of the most popular tales of Indian mythology.

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