National Epics | Page 3

of the Hindus (in his Works, vol.
iv.);
Maj.-Gen. Vans Kennedy's Researches into Hindu Mythology, 1831;
James Mill's History of British India, 1840, vol. ii., pp. 47-123;
F. Max Müller's Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 1859;
E. A. Reed's Hindu Literature, 1891, pp. 153-271;
Albrecht Weber's History of Indian Literature, 1878, pp. 191-195;
J. T. Wheeler's History of India, 4 vols., 1876, vol. ii.;
Sir Monier Williams's Indian Wisdom, 1863, Indian Epic Poetry, 1863;
Article on Sanskrit Literature in Encyclopædia Britannica;
R. M. Gust's The Râmâyana: a Sanskrit Epic (in his Linguistic and
Oriental Essays, 1880, p. 56);
T. Goldstuecker's Râmâyana (in his Literary Remains, 1879, vol. i., p.
155);
C. J. Stone's Cradleland of Arts and Creeds, 1880, pp. 11-21;
Albrecht Weber's On the Râmâyana, 1870; Westminster Review, 1849,

vol. 1., p. 34;
J. C. Oman's Great Indian Epics, 1874, pp. 13-81.

STANDARD ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS, THE RÂMÂYANA.
The Râmâyana, Tr. by R. T. H. Griffith, 5 vols., 1870-1874 (Follows
Bombay ed., Translated into metre of "Lady of the Lake");
Extracts from the Râmâyana, Tr. by Sir William Jones (in his Works,
vol. 13);
Iliad of the East, F. Richardson, 1873 (Popular translations of a set of
legends from the Râmâyana);
The Râmâyana translated into English Prose, edited and published by
Naumatha Nath Dutt, 7 vols., Calcutta, 1890-1894.

THE STORY OF THE RÂMÂYANA.
Brahma, creator of the universe, though all powerful, could not revoke
a promise once made. For this reason, Ravana, the demon god of
Ceylon, stood on his head in the midst of five fires for ten thousand
years, and at the end of that time boldly demanded of Brahma as a
reward that he should not be slain by gods, demons, or genii. He also
requested the gift of nine other heads and eighteen additional arms and
hands.
These having been granted, he began by the aid of his evil spirits, the
Rakshasas, to lay waste the earth and to do violence to the good,
especially to the priests.
At the time when Ravana's outrages were spreading terror throughout
the land, and Brahma, looking down from his throne, shuddered to see
the monster he had gifted with such fell power, there reigned in
Ayodhya, now the city of Oude, a good and wise raja, Dasaratha, who
had reigned over the splendid city for nine thousand years without once
growing weary. He had but one grief,--that he was childless,--and at the
opening of the story he was preparing to make the great sacrifice,
Asva-medha, to propitiate the gods, that they might give him a son.
The gods, well pleased, bore his request to Brahma in person, and
incidentally preferred a request that he provide some means of
destroying the monster Ravana that was working such woe among their
priests, and disturbing their sacrifices.

Brahma granted the first request, and, cudgeling his brains for a device
to destroy Ravana, bethought himself that while he had promised that
neither gods, genii, nor demons should slay him, he had said nothing of
man. He accordingly led the appealing gods to Vishnu, who proclaimed
that the monster should be slain by men and monkeys, and that he
would himself be re-incarnated as the eldest son of Dasaratha and in
this form compass the death of Ravana.
In course of time, as a reward for his performance of the great sacrifice,
four sons were born to Dasaratha, Rama by Kausalya, his oldest wife,
Bharata, whose mother was Kaikeyi, and twin sons, Lakshmana and
Satrughna, whose mother was Sumitra.
Rama, the incarnation of Vishnu, destined to destroy Ravana, grew
daily in grace, beauty, and strength. When he was but sixteen years old,
having been sent for by a sage to destroy the demons who were
disturbing the forest hermits in their religious rites, he departed
unattended, save by his brother Lakshmana and a guide, into the
pathless forests, where he successfully overcame the terrible Rakshasa,
Tarika, and conveyed her body to the grateful sage.
While he was journeying through the forests, destroying countless
Rakshasas, he chanced to pass near the kingdom of Mithila and heard
that its king, Janaka, had offered his peerless daughter, Sita, in marriage
to the man who could bend the mighty bow of Siva the destroyer,
which, since its owner's death, had been kept at Janaka's court.
Rama at once determined to accomplish the feat, which had been
essayed in vain by so many suitors. When he presented himself at court
Janaka was at once won by his youth and beauty; and when the mighty
bow, resting upon an eight-wheeled car, was drawn in by five thousand
men, and Rama without apparent effort bent it until it broke, he gladly
gave him his beautiful daughter, and after the splendid wedding
ceremonies were over, loaded the happy pair with presents to carry
back