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Victoria Lord
Victoria Lord is a fictional character and matriarch of the Lord family on the American soap opera One Life to Live, played for over 41 years by six-time Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress Erika Slezak.
The character was created as one of the main protagonists by series creator Agnes Nixon, and first cast to Gillian Spencer on the pilot aired July 15, 1968. Nixon later recast her with Slezak, who became synonymous with the character role following a continual portrayal spanning her debut March 17, 1971 through the ABC Daytime finale January 13, 2012. Slezak reprised the role in The Online Network continuance of One Life to Live aired on Hulu, iTunes, FX Canada, and the Oprah Winfrey Network from April 29, 2013 through the final episode released August 19, 2013.
The role of Victoria is the mainstay original lead character of the serial, and her storylines focus on drudgery, love, and family troubles. One of the longest-running characters on American daytime television, Victoria weathers widowhood (three times), divorce (four times), a brain aneurysm, a near-death out-of-body experience (three times), being shot (two times), sent to jail, suffering a stroke, breast cancer, rape, a heart attack, heart disease, a heart transplant, the abduction of three of her five children as infants, the deaths of two siblings, and the death of her daughter from lupus. Most notably, she suffers recurring bouts with dissociative identity disorder throughout the show narrative.
Slezak's tenure as Victoria earned the actress a reputation as a leading actor in American serials, with her portrayal becoming one of the most lauded and longest-running in American soap operas.
Character background
Conception
One Life to Live series creator Agnes Nixon conceived the central role of Victoria "Viki" Lord inspired by her relationship with her domineering father, Harry Eckhardt, and her own married family life along the Philadelphia Main Line in Bryn Mawr. Nixon took further inspiration from lead protagonist Tracy Lord of the 1939 play The Philadelphia Story, portrayed on stage and film by actress Katharine Hepburn.
Casting
The role of Victoria was originally cast to Gillian Spencer, who appeared from the July 1968 debut until 1970. Joanne Dorian replaced Spencer from October 1970 until March 16, 1971, when established theater actress Erika Slezak stepped into the role in the following day's episode. Slezak became synonymous with the character role since her first appearance in the role March 17, 1971, playing Victoria continually for 41 years until the original One Life television finale in 2012. Slezak reprised the role onscreen upon Prospect Park resumption of the serial from April 29, 2013 through the final episode released August 19, 2013.
Two other actresses portrayed Victoria while Slezak was on maternity and personal leave: Christine Jones in 1980 and 1981, and Judith Barcroft in 1987. In the summer of 2003, Slezak's real-life daughter, Amanda Davies, portrayed a teenaged Victoria in flashbacks. Leah Marie Hays played the role of a young Victoria Lord in a series of flashbacks as well.
At the death of show and character creator Agnes Nixon in 2016, Slezak eulogized that, "When she hired me to play Viki on One Life To Live, she changed my life and my career and I will forever be grateful to her."
Slezak expressed interest for reprising portrayal of the character in a short-term guest appearance on ABC's last remaining soap opera, General Hospital, in a March 2018 interview with Soap Opera Digest magazine, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the July 1968 premiere of One Life to Live.
Characterization
At the debut episode of One Life to Live July 15, 1968, twentysomething recent college graduate and heiress Victoria "Viki" Lord is described by author Martha Nochimson as "blonde [and] ivory-complexioned ... the clichéd American princess," personifying the "woman on a pedestal" archetype. The show's heroine from the outset, ingenue Victoria initially harbors a strong Electra complex and suffers a bout with multiple personalities prompted by her mother Eugenia's absence from childhood and father Victor's incessant grooming of her to eventually helm the family's communication business, Lord Enterprises. As Erika Slezak stepped into the role in 1971, head writer Nixon matured Victoria to a self-assured working woman managing fictional Llanview's predominant newspaper, The Banner. An increasingly headstrong Victoria, relinquishing her primal desires to pander to Victor, marries working-class Banner editor Joe Riley, much to the patriarch's chagrin.
By the mid-1980s, Victoria largely adopts a matronly role along with her capacities as well-connected town businesswoman and socialite, though she is still plagued with intermittent bouts of mental illness. The character comes to mother five of her own children onscreen (three from infancy), while providing surrogate nurture to younger siblings Tina and Todd. Since 2000s, the role has evolved to be regarded as the "grande dame of Llanview." In a 2006 Boston magazine article, Slezak remarked of Victoria representing "the very classy, very old-world money," with writer Michael Callahan calling the character "the stiff-upper-lipped matriarch" of the prominent Lord family.
American journalist and soap opera critic Connie Passalacqua Hayman (pen name "Marlena De Lacroix") briefly summed up the character role:
... Slezak's 'Viki' is the consummate soap opera heroine, because she has so harrowingly and humanistically triumphed over all her life's tragedies.
Character development
1960s and 1970s
The eldest child of domineering millionaire publisher Victor Lord (Ernest Graves), Victoria Lord, often nicknamed "Viki," (originally Spencer) has little time for romance when One Life to Live begins in 1968. She clashes with reporter Joe Riley (Lee Patterson), but they soon fall in love; Victor disapproves and tries to keep them apart. Torn between pleasing her father and following her heart, Viki develops a wild alternate personality named "Niki Smith", who falls in love with Vinny Wolek (Antony Ponzini). Viki's illness — apparently caused by seeing her pregnant mother fall down the stairs as a child — is eventually treated, and she and Joe marry December 11, 1969. Joe is presumed dead in a car accident in 1970, and a heartbroken Viki (Slezak onward) finds comfort with fellow reporter Steve Burke (Bernie Grant) in 1971. After Steve is put on trial and exonerated for the murder of Banner secretary Marcy Wade (Francesca James), he and Viki marry in 1972. When a very-much alive Joe returns in-time for the nuptials, having survived his supposedly deadly car accident, Viki is forced to choose between two husbands. Viki initially stays married to Steve out of obligation, but ultimately divorces him in January 1974. That summer, Dr. Dorian Cramer (then Nancy Pinkerton) blames board member Viki for her suspension from Llanview Hospital, and a rivalry is born that will last decades. Viki and Joe remarry in a simple, New York City ceremony in September. In 1975, Dorian becomes the private physician to Viki's father Victor, soon eloping with him. Viki learns she has a half-brother, Tony Lord (George Reinholt), and Dorian plots to keep Victor's fortune for herself. In 1976, Victor suffers a heart attack and dies after wife Dorian denies him medication, and in his wake Dorian wreaks havoc on the Lord family. Viki and Joe have a son, Kevin Lord Riley, who is soon kidnapped by jealous Cathy Craig Lord (then Jennifer Harmon), but is later returned. In 1978, Viki takes in Tina Clayton (Andrea Evans), the sixteen-year-old daughter of college roommate and best friend Irene Manning Clayton (Kate McKeown), who is apparently dying of cancer. Shortly after Irene dies, Viki goes on trial for the murder of her nemesis Marco Dane (Gerald Anthony), but she is later exonerated following confessional testimony by Karen Wolek (Judith Light). Joe dies from a brain tumor in October 1979, and Viki gives birth to their second son, Joe Riley, Jr., in January 1980.
1980s
After a disastrous relationship with con man Ted Clayton, who brainwashes and drugs her in an attempt to get his hands on her fortune, Viki marries newspaper editor Clint Buchanan (Clint Ritchie) in 1982; he adopts both of her sons. Echo DiSavoy (Kim Zimmer), seeking revenge on Clint for her mother's murder, seduces him in 1983 to ruin his marriage, then fakes her own death and frames him for it. Clint is later exonerated after Echo is found alive, and he and Viki reunite. Viki is shocked to discover in 1985 that her former ward Tina Clayton (Evans) is in fact her half-sister, daughter of Viki's father Victor and not Ted. Thanks to the machinations of Tina's boyfriend Mitch Laurence (Roscoe Born), Viki succumbs to the pressure and Niki Smith returns. Posing as Viki, Niki divorces Clint; Viki later overcomes her illness with the realization that it had actually been triggered by her witnessing Victor and Irene in bed many years before. Clint and Viki remarry in 1986, and Viki gives birth to their daughter Jessica Buchanan in September 1986. Jessica is kidnapped shortly after birth by Allison Perkins (Barbara Garrick), a disciple of Mitch Laurence; Jessica is soon returned unharmed in December, and Allison institutionalized. In 1988, Viki learns that she married and gave birth to a child in high school with high school sweetheart Roger Gordon (Larry Pine), but father Victor had her hypnotized to forget the occurrences. With Viki's memory restored in 1989, she annuls her 1960s off-screen marriage to Roger and initiates a relationship with daughter Megan Gordon (Jessica Tuck), an actress on the soap opera (within a soap opera), Fraternity Row. Megan and Viki initially spar, but ultimately get past their initial conflicts and become close.
1990s
In 1990, Viki is elected mayor of Llanview, but a shooting and subsequent stroke leaves her paralyzed and in a wheelchair; Niki Smith emerges to aid a paralyzed Viki stand up and shoot Johnny Dee Hesser (Anthony Crivello) when he attacks Tina. Viki recovers and later donates a kidney to daughter Megan suffering terminal lupus, but Megan dies, leaving Viki devastated. Growing ever-distant from Clint, Viki engages an extramarital affair with Sloan Carpenter (Roy Thinnes); she and Clint divorce in 1994, and she marries Sloan. Sloan dies soon after from Hodgkin's lymphoma, just as the existence of a second child of Victor and Irene's is revealed. Viki's stress reaches a critical point when Dorian (Robin Strasser onward) tells Viki a secret of which she thought Viki had been aware: the fact that Victor had sexually abused his daughter as a child. With this trauma being what had actually initiated Viki's dissociative identity disorder, she subsequently splinters into several personalities, one of which imprisons Dorian in a secret room below Llanfair. Dorian is eventually freed from her confinement, and Viki recovers after realizing she herself (more specifically, one of her alternate personalities) was the one who had smothered Victor to death in 1976. In 1995, reviled town outcast Todd Manning (Roger Howarth) is proven to be Victor and Irene's illegitimate son; Viki and Todd eventually become close. After a failed reconciliation attempt with Clint, Viki meets and falls in love with Ben Davidson (Mark Derwin), who is eventually revealed to be the long-lost son of Asa Buchanan (Philip Carey) and Renée Divine Buchanan (Patricia Elliott). Ben's first wife, Skye Chandler (Robin Christopher), comes to town and tries in vain to keep Ben and Viki apart.
2000s
Viki is diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, but survives after a mastectomy and chemotherapy. She and Ben marry in November. In 2001, a girl named Natalie Balsom (Melissa Archer) makes the startling claim that she is Viki and Clint's biological daughter, which is confirmed by a DNA test. Mitch Laurence returns from the dead, divulging to Viki he drugged and raped her around the same time she and Clint conceived Jessica and had unknowingly become pregnant with fraternal twins, one fathered by Clint, Natalie, and the other fathered by Mitch, Jessica (Erin Torpey). Unable to reconcile the revelation, Niki Smith emerges during the ordeal and plots to kill Ben in order to have her freedom, but when Ben is accidentally shot by Antonio Vega (Kamar de los Reyes), Viki returns. Ben is left comatose after the shooting. In 2003, Victor (William Stone Mahoney) is ostensibly revealed to be alive, claiming to have faked his death in 1976; however, shortly after he returns, Victor dies — but not before Viki and Todd confront him on ills inflicted to them in his wake. In 2004, Viki is diagnosed with heart disease and eventually needs a heart transplant. Coincidentally, a comatose Ben dies just as Viki takes a turn for the worse, and his heart is transplanted into Viki, who recovers but must face widowhood once again.
In 2007, Viki and Clint (Jerry verDorn) start dating again, but Dorian decides she wants Clint for herself and plots to break up the couple. Dorian's schemes succeed, and Clint ends things with Viki to start a new relationship with Dorian. Feeling humiliated and defeated, Viki leaves Llanview for a much-needed vacation and finds herself in Paris, Texas, where she tries to reinvent herself by waiting tables at a local diner. It is there that she meets patron Charlie Banks (Brian Kerwin), a recovering alcoholic, and the two begin seeing one another. Viki ultimately returns to Llanview once her family discovers her secret life, and Charlie's search for his estranged son Jared (John Brotherton) leads him there as well. Viki and Charlie resume their relationship, but break up when Viki discovers that Charlie had lied about the identity of his son in extenuating circumstances. In July 2008, Viki is involved in a car accident with Dorian; Viki's heart stops as a result of the crash, but Dorian manages to revive her. Reexamining her life, Viki reunites with Charlie, and they marry on August 4, 2009. Viki runs for mayor against Dorian and wins; she steps down, however, to help her family deal with the unexpected return of Mitch Laurence, who wreaks havoc on her daughters and murders Jared in the process.
2010–12
Charlie, devastated over his son's death, quits his sobriety and began drinking, distancing himself from Viki, choosing instead to conspire with Dorian to kill Mitch. Though Dorian tries to stop him at the last minute, Charlie ends up accidentally shooting Jessica (Bree Williamson onward), who survives. Devastated by Charlie's actions, Viki asks him for a divorce, but they eventually reconcile. Viki and Charlie's marriage is further complicated by the return of Echo DiSavoy, a woman who almost destroyed her marriage to Clint in 1983. Echo begins insinuating herself into Charlie and Viki's marriage, much to Viki's dismay. When a paternity revealed Charlie not to be the father of Rex Balsom (John-Paul Lavoisier), a devastated Charlie turns to Echo for comfort. Dorian, who had suspicions about Echo and Charlie's dealings, forged a truce with Viki to uncover Charlie's misgivings. A devastated Viki finds out about Charlie's affair and definitively asks him for a divorce. After confronting Charlie and Echo, Viki goes to court to fight for custody of grandson Ryder Ford while his mother Jessica was ill with her multiple personality. A stressed Viki suffers a bout with multiple personalities on the stand, leading the judge against giving the child to Viki but instead to her son and daughter-in-law, Joey (Tom Degnan) and Aubrey Buchanan (Terri Conn).
In summer 2011 a man with the "original" face of her only known living brother, Todd (Howarth), returned to Llanview claiming to be the victim of eight years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of his mother and Viki's childhood friend, a back-from-the-dead Irene Manning (Barbara Rhoades). After medical tests revealed the "newer" Todd (Trevor St. John) and the "old" Todd (Howarth) to have identical DNA, Irene appeared to reveal the "two Todds" to be twins. The man who resembled Walker Laurence (St. John) and who has been living as Todd since 2003 was revealed actually have been born Victor Lord, Jr., brainwashed into believing that he is Todd by Irene. Meanwhile, Viki agrees in court to put up Clint in Llanfair for house arrest after he was convicted of various crimes in Llanview. Dorian and Viki ostensibly put an end to their feud of nearly four decades when Dorian leaves town to become an acting U.S. senator. Viki continues work at The Banner when Tina returns to town for the reading of the will of recently murdered Victor, Jr. After months of rehashing old feelings and living under the same roof, Clint and Viki too admit to their unresolved feelings and agreed to give a romantic relationship one more try.
At the original finale, a prison breakout leads Allison Perkins to shoot both Clint and Viki, but only after telling the two that Jessica was in fact Clint's daughter and not the daughter of Mitch Laurence. Clint sanctioned another paternity test and, in the presence of Jessica, Viki, and Natalie, revealed Allison's claim to be true. Following all the emotional revelations and tears, Clint again declares his undying love for Viki and asks her to marry him for a third time.
2013
Upon the series resumption in April 2013, Viki accepts Clint's marriage proposal, and concurrently hires freelance journalist Jeffrey King (Corbin Bleu) to investigate the alleged congressional malfeasance of junior U.S. senator Dorian. Upon visiting niece Danielle Manning (Kelley Missal) in the hospital after overdosing on drugs and alcohol, she uncovers her brother Victor, Jr. to be alive. With her family newspaper in financial straits, The Banner focuses on growing the publication's online presence.
Alternate personalities
As of the final ABC episode, all of Victoria's six alternate personalities are integrated with her baseline psyche. At times during the series, Viki has been forced to impersonate one of them, particularly Niki and Jean. In order of their first appearance on One Life to Live, they are:
Nicole "Niki" Smith – a devil-may-care, sexually promiscuous party girl, approximately 22 years old. First appearing on the episode first-run November 15, 1968, Niki appears more times than all of the other alters combined, and is very skilled at masquerading as Viki when necessary to hide her re-emergence. Niki has had two serious relationships with Vince Wolek (1968–69) and Harry O'Neill (1985); neither Vinny or Harry realized at the time that Niki was an alter of Viki.
Tommy – a 14-year-old male alter emerged in 1995, who embodied Viki's anger and rage at her abuse. Tommy usually emerged to protect Princess (another alternate personality), and once threw Dorian Lord down the La Boulaie staircase and attempted to beat her to death with a claw hammer in the Llanfair secret room.
Jean Randolph – Jean Randolph is the calm, cool, collected and calculating caretaker of all the other alters, who took over when Viki's abusive childhood was revealed. Her name is derived from that of Viki's mother, Eugenia Randolph Lord. Jean blackmailed con man David Vickers into divorcing Viki's sister, Tina, and also freed Viki's son, Joey, from Dorian Lord's clutches by imprisoning Dorian in a secret room in the basement of Llanfair, which led Joey to believe that Dorian left him. Jean then forced Dorian to marry David to keep them both occupied and away from Viki's loved ones.
Princess – a manifestation of Viki as a seven-year-old girl. She is a traumatized child who is constantly reliving the molestation by Viki's father. Protected by Tommy, the 14-year-old alternate personality, who is most angry about the abuse.
Tori Lord – Tori emerged in 1995, approximately 19 years old, after Dorian revealed the truth of Victor's abuse to Viki. It was established that Tori was the alter who murdered Victor Lord in 1976. (It would later be revealed that Victor survived and did not die until 2003. However Dorian has planted a seed of doubt regarding that notion, suggesting that the man who re-emerged as Victor in 2003 was a fraud.) Although her declared mission was to force Viki to face the truth, she wreaked much destruction before getting around to that. Tori started undermining The Banner by feeding stories and information to rival newspaper editor Todd Manning, and she torched Llanfair, nearly killing Jessica in the blaze.
Victor Lord – this personality is the reflective image of Viki's abusive father, Victor. The Victor Lord personality only emerged two or three times, but one of the instances that he took over led Viki to attempt suicide by cutting her own wrists to "expel" Victor from her body.
Reception
Series fansite Llanview Labyrinth remarks that although Gillian Spencer's Victoria is featured at the show's outset, "the obviousness of Viki being the show[']s unquestioned 'lead' did not smack the viewer quite as hard as it later would [with Erika Slezak's portrayal]," with Spencer's Victoria melding into the ensemble cast. Joanne Dorian briefly stepped into the role beginning in October 1970, with a markedly less dynamic presence on the series than her predecessor.
In March 1971, One Life to Live executive producer Doris Quinlan remarked to After Noon TV magazine of Erika Slezak and her audition before herself, series creator and head writer Agnes Nixon, and director David Pressman, "You've got to meet this girl—she's going to be a star."
Since the introduction of Slezak as Victoria, her portrayal has become regarded as definitive to the role. Slezak's work has garnered her the acclaim of media critics and viewers alike, earning the actress comparisons between herself and contemporary film star Meryl Streep for perceived similarities in acting range, versatility, and numerous award nominations. Slezak has received nine Daytime Emmy Award nominations in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress for her portrayal of Victoria, winning in 1984, 1986, 1992, 1995, 1996, and 2005. At the finale of the show's last iteration, she held the record for most Emmy wins by an actress. She also garnered the Soap Opera Digest Award for Favorite Couple with co-star Mark Derwin (Ben Davidson) in 2000.
In 2002, in recognition for her work on One Life to Live, Slezak was inducted as a member of the Silver Circle of the New York chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for over a quarter-century of "significant contributions" to television.
References
External links
Victoria Lord profile – ABC.com
Victoria Lord profile – SoapCentral.com
Category:Fictional American people of English descent
Category:Fictional characters from Pennsylvania
Category:Television characters introduced in 1968
Category:Fictional characters with multiple personalities
Category:Fictional newspaper publishers (people)
Category:Fictional American politicians
Category:Fictional reporters
Category:Fictional characters with cancer
Category:Fictional teenage parents
Category:Fictional socialites
Category:One Life to Live characters
Category:Fictional child sexual abuse victims
Category:Fictional sexual assault victims
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Distinguishing globally-driven changes from regional- and local-scale impacts: The case for long-term and broad-scale studies of recovery from pollution.
Marine ecosystems are subject to anthropogenic change at global, regional and local scales. Global drivers interact with regional- and local-scale impacts of both a chronic and acute nature. Natural fluctuations and those driven by climate change need to be understood to diagnose local- and regional-scale impacts, and to inform assessments of recovery. Three case studies are used to illustrate the need for long-term studies: (i) separation of the influence of fishing pressure from climate change on bottom fish in the English Channel; (ii) recovery of rocky shore assemblages from the Torrey Canyon oil spill in the southwest of England; (iii) interaction of climate change and chronic Tributyltin pollution affecting recovery of rocky shore populations following the Torrey Canyon oil spill. We emphasize that "baselines" or "reference states" are better viewed as envelopes that are dependent on the time window of observation. Recommendations are made for adaptive management in a rapidly changing world.
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Q:
How to implement a Web UI feature to insert default sentences in an textarea
We are talking about implementing a system that easily generates sales reports for our sales employees. We want to create a web application with one or maybe more text area's to gather the input data from the employee.
There are a few sentences that will return time and time again. Something like: "customer xyz decided to buy the products advised by consultant abc"
What options do I have to implement a feature like that. What I already thought of:
Click RMB in text area to pop the sentences or categories of sentences which can be selected. Feels a bit outdated to me.
Shortcuts, like an IDE. When I type psvm[tab] I get "public static void main...". Probably to technical for most users.
Present a box with sentences next to the text area from which you can drag and drop the sentences. This will take up a lot of real estate.
When the system recognizes the start of a sentence that is in the default sentences it pops the sentence and can be clicked (something like the tag functionality here on SE). This will give a lot of false true's which might be annoying for the user.
I understand that there is not a single right answer to this question. Please post answers preferably with an example (of some other site)
A:
When the system recognizes the start of a sentence that is in the default sentences it pops the sentence and can be clicked (something like the tag functionality here on SE). This will give a lot of false true's which might be annoying for the user.
I would go with this one. It's done in Microsoft Excel (which is fairly ubiquitous). The only time this might get annoying is if the user had to take extraordinary measures to change it. (If they kept typing something else, the default would disappear)
If you are unsure about it, test it with a few people who will be using the system. It's the only way to be sure.
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HMGB1 Is Increased by CFTR Loss of Function, Is Lowered by Insulin, and Increases In Vivo at Onset of CFRD.
Cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD) is associated with worsening of inflammation and infections, and the beginning of insulin treatment is debated. To verify high-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) levels in CF patients according to glucose tolerance state, and analyze relationships with insulin secretion and resistance. To verify, in an in vitro model, whether HMGB1 gene expression and protein content were affected by insulin administration and whether these changes were dependent on CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) loss of function. Forty-three patients in stable clinical conditions and 35 age- and sex-matched controls were enrolled. Glucose tolerance was established in patients based on a 5 point oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Fasting glucose to insulin ratio (FGIR), HOMA-IR index, whole-body insulin sensitivity index (WIBISI), and the areas under the curve for glucose (AUCG) and insulin (AUCI) were calculated. HMGB1 was assayed in serum, in cell lysates and conditioned media using a specific ELISA kit. For the in vitro study we used CFBE41o- cells, homozygous for the F508del mutation, and 16HBE14o- as non-CF control. HMGB1 gene expression was studied by real-time RT-PCR. Cells were stimulated with insulin at 2.5 and 5 ng/mL. The CFTR inhibitor 172 and CFTR gene silencing were used to induce CFTR loss of function in 16HBE14o- cells. HMGB1 levels were increased at onset of CFRD (5.04 ± 1.2 vs 2.7 ± 0.3 ng/mL in controls; P < .05) and correlated with FGIR (R = +0.43; P = .038), and AUCI (R = +0.43; P = .013). CFTR loss of function in the 16HBE14o- cells increased HMGB1 and was lowered by insulin. HMGB1 was increased in CF patients with deranging glucose metabolism and showed relationships with indexes of glucose metabolism. The increase in HMGB1 was related to CFTR loss of function, and insulin lowered HMGB1. Further research is required to verify whether HMGB1 could potentially be a candidate marker of onset of CFRD and to establish when to start insulin treatment.
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{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
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Q:
Best PHP Webserver for Development
I'm starting to work with PHP more these days and I've been wondering what the best PHP webserver might be for a dev environment. Ideally, it would be easy to build, live only in the project deps directory and be easy to configure. Also, decent performance would be a plus.
In python land, werkzeug would be an equivalent of the type of server I'm thinking of.
A:
In my opinion, the best webserver for the dev environment is as close as you can come to exactly the webserver in production. PHP is a lot less 'stand-alone' in some cases then Python, and it prevents nasty errors and surprises when pushing code to the production server. All kinds of havoc can ensue when a $_SERVER array is just that essential bit different, or something runs as (fast)cgi instead of as a module.
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{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
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Q:
Reportlab: Is it possible to have internal links in Platypus?
I know that I can internally link with canvas, but my whole doc's set up with Platypus. Does Platypus support internal linking? How hard is migrating to canvas if it doesn't?
Thanks in advance!
A:
You can use intra-paragraph markup to create anchors (<a> tag) and links (<link> tag), as explained in the section 6.3 Intra-paragraph markup (chapter 6, page 72) of the ReportLab 2.6 User Manual PDF, which also contains the following example:
This <a href="#MYANCHOR" color="blue">is a link to</a> an
anchor tag ie <a name="MYANCHOR"/><font color="green">here</font>.
This <link href="#MYANCHOR" color="blue" fontName="Helvetica">is
another link to</link> the same anchor tag.
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{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
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The Explorers Flight will be launched on board a Falcon 1 rocket from the Marshall Islands, which are located in the Western Pacific. Launch is projected to occur in early June 2008 (no earlier than June 10). As has been our practice in conducting our six previous launches, when we believe that we are approximately one month from launch we will e-mail you an invitation to the launch, providing you with a detailed agenda of our launch-related activities.
The SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket will launch the Jumpstart mission for the U.S. Air Force Operationally Responsive Space initiative. The Jumpstart mission will fly the Trailblazer spacecraft built by SpaceDev, Inc.
Of course I am impatient to see it launch, but I was pleasently surprised at the payload. Not just one, but several real paying payloads. Some of them private. All on one cheap rocket. This is the way to go.
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Carcinogenicity of dimethylnitramine in NZR rats in NZO mice.
Lifetime tests were done in NZR inbred rats of dimethylnitramine (DMNO) by addition to the drinking water (average dose 1.83 g/kg body weight) and in NZO mice by repeated subcutaneous injection from birth to 7 months of age followed by administration in drinking water (total average dose 4.72 g/kg body weight). Rats developed hepatocellular carcinomas (85%), some of which metastasized. Mice developed hepatocellular carcinomas (81%) and renal adenocarcinomas (48%). Statistically significant increases of other tumor types also occurred in mice. The main targets for DMNO carcinogenesis appeared to be the liver cell epithelium and, at higher dose rates, renal tubular epithelium.
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{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
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Ways to Maintain You Air Conditioner So It Lasts
Ways to Maintain You Air Conditioner So It Lasts
When the weather gets hot, you’ll want to make sure that your air conditioner is running strong to beat the heat. Whether you have central air or a window unit, an air conditioner is an important appliance that requires maintenance to keep it running at its best. Here are a few things that you can do that will keep your unit from needing anyac repair stockton ca.
Understand the Machine and System
Air conditioners may be pretty complicated to understand, but there are a few important parts that you should know about, so you can troubleshoot. When it comes to central air, there is usually an indoor part known as the evaporator as well as the outdoor unit known as the compressor. Each part plays an important part in how your air conditioning functions.
Clean It
While the compressor may be located outside, it’s still a good idea to keep it clean by vacuuming the fins of the unit with a soft vacuum brush. You may have to take off some metal pieces in order to access it, but that’s usually not too difficult. If you are experiencing any problems, your owner’s manual should have more information. It’s important to avoid bending the fins as you are trying to clean the unit.
Program Your Thermostat
Most modern thermostats have many different options that can help you control the temperature in your home during different times of the day. In some models, you can even control the temperature individually in different regions of your home. This can not only save you money on your electric bill by not wasting energy cooling rooms in your home that aren’t being used at the time, but it can also prevent unnecessary wear and tear on your equipment. If your air conditioner doesn’t have a good programmable thermostat, it might be a good idea to consider upgrading to a new one.
Fix the Fins
The fins on your condenser can easily become damaged no matter how careful you are with them. In some cases, debris during a storm or other situations can get caught in them and cause them to bend. This problem can be remedied relatively simple enough using a butter knife from your kitchen. It’s important to fix the damaged fins using very gentle pressure to ensure that you do not damage it any further. Also, the knife that you are using shouldn’t be inserted more than about a 1/2 inch.
Replace Your Filter
While this may seem like one of the easiest things that you can do to keep your air conditioner up and running, it’s something that many people forget to do. Before you change the filter on your unit, it’s important to remember to turn off the power to the unit completely to prevent electrocution. A dirty filter does more than allow the air to get a little dusty, it can cause health problems and cause your air conditioner to have to work harder as well.
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Mit 14 Jahren wurde Elissa Wall in einer Polygamie-Sekte zur Ehe mit einem Cousin gezwungen. Es folgten Jahre des Missbrauchs und der Demütigung. Jetzt wird sie entschädigt.
1 / 9 Am 6. September 2017 wurde Sektenopfer Elissa Wall (Mitte, in einem Archivbild vom 2012) eine Entschädigung über 16 Millionen Dollar zugesprochen. Trent Nelson Wall lebte mit ihrer Familie in der Sekte Fundamentalistische Kirche der Heiligen der Letzten Tage (FLDS). Mit 14 wurde sie zur Ehe mit einem fünf Jahre älteren Cousin gezwungen, von dem sie regelmässig vergewaltigt wurde. 2008 schrieb sie ein Buch darüber. Der Fall der Fundamentalistischen Kirche der Heiligen der Letzten Tage (FLDS) hatte im Jahr 2008 weltweit für Schlagzeilen gesorgt, als die Behörden mehr als 400 Kinder und Jugendliche von der Ranch der Sekte in Texas geholt hatten. Keystone/AP/Tony Gutierrez
Elissa Wall kann sich bis heute gut an ihren Hochzeitstag erinnern. Es war kein glücklicher Tag: Wall lebte mit ihrer Familie in der Sekte Fundamentalistische Kirche der Heiligen der Letzten Tage (FLDS) in Texas. Mit 14 Jahren zwang ihre Mutter sie zur Ehe mit einem fünf Jahre älteren Cousin. In den darauffolgenden drei Jahren wurde das Mädchen von ihrem Ehemann regelmässig vergewaltigt und gedemütigt.
Am Mittwoch, über 16 Jahre später, sprach ein Gericht im US-Staat Utah der ehemaligen Kinderbraut eine Entschädigung zu. Wie die «Salt Lake Tribune» berichtet, muss die Polygamie-Sekte Wall 16 Millionen Dollar als Wiedergutmachung bezahlen.
Opfer erzählt alles in einem Buch
Ihre Geschichte machte die heute 31-jährige Wall 2008 in ihrem Buch «Stolen Innocence» («Gestohlene Unschuld») bekannt: Sie erzählt von ihren Jahren in der Sekte, von den sexuellen Missbräuchen durch den Anführer Warren Jeffs, von den systematischen Zwangshochzeiten minderjähriger Mädchen mit älteren Männern.
Sie schildert auch, wie sie während ihrer Ehe Fehlgeburten und eine Totgeburt erlitt, wie sie im Alter von 17 Jahren versuchte, sich mit einer Überdosis Ibuprofen das Leben zu nehmen. 2005 gelang der jungen Frau die Flucht. Kurz danach zeigte sie den polygamen Sekten-Guru Jeffs an. 2008 befreite die Polizei bei einer Razzia mehr als 400 Kinder und Jugendliche von der Ranch der Sekte in Texas.
Der Sektenführer sitzt im Knast
2011 wurde Warren Jeffs schliesslich wegen Kindesmissbrauchs schuldig gesprochen. Ein Geschworenengericht sah es als erwiesen an, dass der Sektenführer sicher zwei Mädchen sexuell missbraucht hatte. Er wurde zu einer lebenslangen Haftstrafe verurteilt.
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{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
function anorm = update_gbound(anorm,alpha,beta,j)
%UPDATE_GBOUND Update Gerscgorin estimate of 2-norm
% ANORM = UPDATE_GBOUND(ANORM,ALPHA,BETA,J) updates the Gersgorin bound
% for the tridiagonal in the Lanczos process after the J'th step.
% Applies Gerscgorins circles to T_K'*T_k instead of T_k itself
% since this gives a tighter bound.
if j==1 % Apply Gerscgorin circles to T_k'*T_k to estimate || A ||_2
i=j;
% scale to avoid overflow
scale = max(abs(alpha(i)),abs(beta(i+1)));
alpha(i) = alpha(i)/scale;
beta(i) = beta(i)/scale;
anorm = 1.01*scale*sqrt(alpha(i)^2+beta(i+1)^2 + abs(alpha(i)*beta(i+1)));
elseif j==2
i=1;
% scale to avoid overflow
scale = max(max(abs(alpha(1:2)),max(abs(beta(2:3)))));
alpha(1:2) = alpha(1:2)/scale;
beta(2:3) = beta(2:3)/scale;
anorm = max(anorm, scale*sqrt(alpha(i)^2+beta(i+1)^2 + ...
abs(alpha(i)*beta(i+1) + alpha(i+1)*beta(i+1)) + ...
abs(beta(i+1)*beta(i+2))));
i=2;
anorm = max(anorm,scale*sqrt(abs(beta(i)*alpha(i-1) + alpha(i)*beta(i)) + ...
beta(i)^2+alpha(i)^2+beta(i+1)^2 + ...
abs(alpha(i)*beta(i+1))) );
elseif j==3
% scale to avoid overflow
scale = max(max(abs(alpha(1:3)),max(abs(beta(2:4)))));
alpha(1:3) = alpha(1:3)/scale;
beta(2:4) = beta(2:4)/scale;
i=2;
anorm = max(anorm,scale*sqrt(abs(beta(i)*alpha(i-1) + alpha(i)*beta(i)) + ...
beta(i)^2+alpha(i)^2+beta(i+1)^2 + ...
abs(alpha(i)*beta(i+1) + alpha(i+1)*beta(i+1)) + ...
abs(beta(i+1)*beta(i+2))) );
i=3;
anorm = max(anorm,scale*sqrt(abs(beta(i)*beta(i-1)) + ...
abs(beta(i)*alpha(i-1) + alpha(i)*beta(i)) + ...
beta(i)^2+alpha(i)^2+beta(i+1)^2 + ...
abs(alpha(i)*beta(i+1))) );
else
% scale to avoid overflow
% scale = max(max(abs(alpha(j-2:j)),max(abs(beta(j-2:j+1)))));
% alpha(j-2:j) = alpha(j-2:j)/scale;
% beta(j-2:j+1) = beta(j-2:j+1)/scale;
% Avoid scaling, which is slow. At j>3 the estimate is usually quite good
% so just make sure that anorm is not made infinite by overflow.
i = j-1;
anorm1 = sqrt(abs(beta(i)*beta(i-1)) + ...
abs(beta(i)*alpha(i-1) + alpha(i)*beta(i)) + ...
beta(i)^2+alpha(i)^2+beta(i+1)^2 + ...
abs(alpha(i)*beta(i+1) + alpha(i+1)*beta(i+1)) + ...
abs(beta(i+1)*beta(i+2)));
if isfinite(anorm1)
anorm = max(anorm,anorm1);
end
i = j;
anorm1 = sqrt(abs(beta(i)*beta(i-1)) + ...
abs(beta(i)*alpha(i-1) + alpha(i)*beta(i)) + ...
beta(i)^2+alpha(i)^2+beta(i+1)^2 + ...
abs(alpha(i)*beta(i+1)));
if isfinite(anorm1)
anorm = max(anorm,anorm1);
end
end
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{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
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Books and Articles on Biblical Exegesis. Editor: Stewart Fleming
Evangelism
1 Thessalonians 1:8 is described by the majority of Evangelical commentators and exegetes as referring to an evangelistic mission or other evangelism carried out by the recently-converted Thessalonians – evangelistic activity which covered the two Roman provinces of Macedonia (in… Read More ›
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{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
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Erik Chitty
Erik Chitty (8 July 1907 in Dover, Kent – 22 July 1977 Brent, Middlesex), was an English stage, film and television actor.
Early life
Chitty was the son of a flour miller, Frederick Walter Chitty and his wife Ethel Elsie Assistance née Franklin; they married in 1902. He attended Dover College and Jesus College, Cambridge where he was one of the founders of the Cambridge University Mummers, before training at RADA and becoming a professional actor. He then ran his own repertory company in Frinton-on-Sea.
Career
Early television (1936–1939)
Chitty was an early player in the fledgling BBC television, which started in November 1936 until it was closed at the beginning of the War.
1946 onwards
His television credits included a major role as the aged "Mr. Smith" in Please Sir!, and multiple appearances in Dad's Army, Raffles, Doctor Who, Danger Man, Maigret, Man About the House and The Goodies. He appeared in the TV musical Pickwick for the BBC in 1969.
Personal life
Chitty was married to the former actress Hester Bevan and had two daughters and one son. He was also a keen genealogist.
Filmography
Contraband (1940) – Cloakroom attendant (uncredited)
Oliver Twist (1948) – Workhouse Board member (uncredited)
Forbidden (1949) – Schofield
All Over the Town (1949) – Frobisher
Your Witness (1950) – Judge's clerk
Chance of a Lifetime (1950) – Silas Pike
Circle of Danger (1951) - Box-office clerk (uncredited)
John Wesley (1954) – Trustee of Georgia
Time Is My Enemy (1954) – Ballistics expert
Raising a Riot (1955) – Mr Buttons (uncredited)
Footsteps in the Fog (1955) – Hedges
Windfall (1955) – (uncredited)
After the Ball (1957) – Waiter
Zoo Baby (1957) – Vulture man
Left Right and Centre (1959) – Deputy returning officer
The Devil's Disciple (1959) – Uncle Titus
The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960) – Gudgeon (uncredited)
Not a Hope in Hell (1960) – Joe
Raising the Wind (1961) – Elderly Man at concert
Follow That Man (1961) – Doctor
First Men in the Moon (1964) – Gibbs, Cavor's hired man (uncredited)
The Horror of It All (1964) – Grandpa Marley
Doctor Zhivago (1965) – Old Soldier
Casino Royale (1967) – Sir James Bond's butler (uncredited)
Bedazzled (1967) – Seed – Sir Stanley Moon's butler (uncredited)
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) – Priest (uncredited)
Arthur? Arthur! (1969) – Uncle Ratty
A Nice Girl Like Me (1969) – Vicar
Twinky (1969) – Lawyer's elderly client
Song of Norway (1970) – Helsted
The Railway Children (1970) – Photographer
Lust for a Vampire (1971) – Professor Herz
The Statue (1971) – Mouser
Please Sir! (1971) – Mr Smith
The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972) – Mr Claverton
The Vault of Horror (1973) – Old waiter (segment 1 "Midnight Mess")
Op de Hollandse toer (1973) – Mr Molenaar
The Flying Sorcerer (1973) – Sir Roger
Fall of Eagles (1974) - Hertling, German Chancellor
One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975) – Museum guard
The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones (1976) – Sam (uncredited)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) – The butler
Jabberwocky (1977) – Second door-opener / Servant (uncredited)
A Bridge Too Far (1977) – Organist
References
External links
Erik Chitty – BBC Guide to Comedy
Erik Chitty – Movies.com website
Category:1907 births
Category:1977 deaths
Category:English male stage actors
Category:English male film actors
Category:English male television actors
Category:People educated at Dover College
Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge
Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Category:People from Dover, Kent
Category:English genealogists
Category:Male actors from Kent
Category:20th-century English male actors
Category:20th-century English historians
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{
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
}
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computing devices and, more particularly, to power sources for personal computers.
2. Related Art
There is an increasing need for computer systems that are powerful, mobile, and inexpensive. Although mobile computing devices (such as laptop computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs)) and other mobile electronic devices (such as cellular telephones) are typically capable of receiving power either from an electrical outlet or from one or more batteries coupled to and contained within the housing of the device, the advantage of using outlet power is that it provides power for an essentially unlimited period of time. The primary disadvantage of using outlet power is that it ties the computing device to being used within the vicinity of an available outlet and thereby limits the mobility of the device. The advantage of using battery power is that it enables the device to be fully mobile while being used. One disadvantage of using battery power is that an individual battery can only provide power for a limited period of time (such as a few hours). Once a battery runs out of power, the battery must be recharged by connecting the device (or a separate charging station) to an outlet power source, often for several hours, to fully recharge the battery.
One strategy that users often adopt in response to the limited power capabilities of batteries is to travel with several fully-charged batteries, thereby enabling a discharged battery to be immediately replaced with a fully-charged battery without the need to engage in battery charging. Disadvantages of this strategy include the increased cost of additional batteries and the increased burden of traveling with several batteries, thereby effectively decreasing the overall ease of mobility of the mobile computing device.
Larger computing devices, particular those (such as laptop computers) that include power-hungry components such as hard disk drives, optical media drives, and color display monitors, typically have significantly higher power requirements than smaller computing devices such as PDAs and tablet computers. Larger computing devices therefore typically require relatively large and heavy batteries, thereby increasing the overall size and weight of the computing device and increasing the burden of traveling with such a device.
Although this problem may be mitigated by decreasing the size of the battery, doing so would result in a battery that discharges more quickly, possibly to an extent that users would find unacceptable. For these and other reasons, the tradeoff between battery size and battery power storage capacity is a persistent feature of mobile computing device design.
What is needed, therefore, are techniques for enabling the implementation of powerful mobile computing devices that are capable of running on battery power for substantial periods of time.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
Q:
What's the relationship between an SVM and hinge loss?
My colleague and I are trying to wrap our heads around the difference between logistic regression and an SVM. Clearly they are optimizing different objective functions. Is an SVM as simple as saying it's a discriminative classifier that simply optimizes the hinge loss? Or is it more complex than that? How do the support vectors come into play? What about the slack variables? Why can't you have deep SVM's the way you can't you have a deep neural network with sigmoid activation functions?
A:
I will answer one thing at at time
Is an SVM as simple as saying it's a discriminative classifier that simply optimizes the hinge loss?
SVM is simply a linear classifier, optimizing hinge loss with L2 regularization.
Or is it more complex than that?
No, it is "just" that, however there are different ways of looking at this model leading to complex, interesting conclusions. In particular, this specific choice of loss function leads to extremely efficient kernelization, which is not true for log loss (logistic regression) nor mse (linear regression). Furthermore you can show very important theoretical properties, such as those related to Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension reduction leading to smaller chance of overfitting.
Intuitively look at these three common losses:
hinge: max(0, 1-py)
log: y log p
mse: (p-y)^2
Only the first one has the property that once something is classified correctly - it has 0 penalty. All the remaining ones still penalize your linear model even if it classifies samples correctly. Why? Because they are more related to regression than classification they want a perfect prediction, not just correct.
How do the support vectors come into play?
Support vectors are simply samples placed near the decision boundary (losely speaking). For linear case it does not change much, but as most of the power of SVM lies in its kernelization - there SVs are extremely important. Once you introduce kernel, due to hinge loss, SVM solution can be obtained efficiently, and support vectors are the only samples remembered from the training set, thus building a non-linear decision boundary with the subset of the training data.
What about the slack variables?
This is just another definition of the hinge loss, more usefull when you want to kernelize the solution and show the convexivity.
Why can't you have deep SVM's the way you can't you have a deep neural network with sigmoid activation functions?
You can, however as SVM is not a probabilistic model, its training might be a bit tricky. Furthermore whole strength of SVM comes from efficiency and global solution, both would be lost once you create a deep network. However there are such models, in particular SVM (with squared hinge loss) is nowadays often choice for the topmost layer of deep networks - thus the whole optimization is actually a deep SVM. Adding more layers in between has nothing to do with SVM or other cost - they are defined completely by their activations, and you can for example use RBF activation function, simply it has been shown numerous times that it leads to weak models (to local features are detected).
To sum up:
there are deep SVMs, simply this is a typical deep neural network with SVM layer on top.
there is no such thing as putting SVM layer "in the middle", as the training criterion is actually only applied to the output of the network.
using of "typical" SVM kernels as activation functions is not popular in deep networks due to their locality (as opposed to very global relu or sigmoid)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Why was the cohort set up?
==========================
East London Genes & Health (ELGH) is a community based, long-term study of health and disease in British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani people in east London. ELGH has a population-based design incorporating cutting edge genomics with electronic health record (EHR) data linkage and targeted recall-by-genotype (RbG) studies. ELGH currently has 38 899 volunteers and is actively recruiting with funding to expand to 100 000 volunteers by 2023. ELGH is an open access data resource, and its research will impact upon a population at high need and will redress the poor representation of non-White ethnic groups in existing population genomic cohorts.[@dyz174-B1]
Almost a quarter of the world's population, and 5% of the UK population, are of South Asian origin.[@dyz174-B2] The risk of coronary heart disease is three to four times higher, and of type 2 diabetes (T2D) two to four times higher, in British South Asians compared with White British people.[@dyz174-B3]^,^[@dyz174-B4] East London incorporates one of the UK's largest South Asian communities (29% of 1.95 million people), of which 70% are British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani, and its population live in high levels of deprivation (Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Barking and Dagenham are the 9th, 10th and 11th most deprived local authorities in England).[@dyz174-B5] Compared with White British people, British South Asians living in east London have a 2-fold greater risk of developing T2D,[@dyz174-B6] nearly double the risk of non-alcoholic liver disease[@dyz174-B7](many volunteers are practising Muslims and do not drink alcohol) and over double the risk of multimorbidity,[@dyz174-B8] with the onset of cardiovascular disease occurring 8 years earlier in men.[@dyz174-B8] Determinants of poor cardiometabolic health start early in the life course, and east London rates of overweight and obese children are among the highest in the UK.
Recent genomic advances offer exciting potential to better understand the genetic causation of disease,[@dyz174-B9] including rare loss-of-function gene variants.[@dyz174-B10] Genetic variation relevant to British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani populations, such as autozygosity arising from parental relatedness, is under-researched with regards to potential effects on complex adult phenotypes at a population level.[@dyz174-B11]^,^[@dyz174-B12]
ELGH fosters authentic, inclusive, long-term engagement in its research, to deliver future health benefits to the population it represents. Community involvement in ELGH helps prioritize areas for research, including T2D, cardiovascular disease, dementia and mental health. ELGH undertakes a range of public engagement work, including collaboration with the award-winning Centre of the Cell.[@dyz174-B13]
Who is in the cohort?
=====================
ELGH (see [Figure 1](#dyz174-F1){ref-type="fig"}) incorporates population-wide recruitment to Stage 1 studies, and targeted recruitment to Stage 2 recall-by-genotype (RbG) studies. Stage 3 and 4 studies are planned.
{#dyz174-F1}
During Stage 1, ELGH invites voluntary participation of all British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani individuals aged 16 and over, living in, working in or within reach of east London. Recruitment is largely undertaken by bilingual health researchers, and takes place in: (i) community settings, e.g. mosques, markets and libraries, supported by a third-sector partner organization (Social Action for Health); and (ii) health care settings, e.g. GP surgeries, outpatient clinics. Stage 1 volunteers complete a brief questionnaire, give consent to lifelong EHR linkage and donate a saliva sample for DNA extraction and genetic tests. Between April 2015 and mid-June 2019, ELGH recruited 38 899 volunteers to Stage 1. At the most recent data linkage (November 2018), 97% of 31 646 had valid NHS numbers: 61% had linked primary care health record data available; 84% had linked secondary care data. By 2020, near-complete (\>95%) linkage to primary care health records is expected with improved data connectivity, supported by Health Data Research UK. Recruitment into outer London regions, and a new study site in Bradford, are planned for 2019/20, areas with similar ethnic populations and comparable health needs.
Summary data from the Stage 1 volunteer questionnaire and EHR data linkage are presented in [Table 1](#dyz174-T1){ref-type="table"}, including both baseline and longitudinal health data. Basic demographics of ELGH volunteers are compared with population-wide data in [Figure 2](#dyz174-F2){ref-type="fig"}, and highlight that the convenience sampling approach in Stage 1 recruitment has achieved a sample broadly representative of the background population with regard to age and sex, but which modestly favours recruitment of women over men in those aged \<45 years. ELGH volunteers live in areas of high deprivation (97% in the most deprived two quintiles of the Index of Multiple Deprivation). Parental relatedness is reported by 19% of ELGH volunteers.
{#dyz174-F2}
######
Baseline characteristics of ELGH volunteers from self-reported questionnaire and electronic health record data
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------
**Self-reported questionnaire data (*n* = 31 646)**
Year of birth *n* = 31 634 Median 1977
Interquartile range 1967-85; range 1915-2002
Sex *n* = 31 639 Male *n* = 13 928 (44%)
Female *n* = 17 710 (56%)
Ethnicity *n* = 31 508 Bangladeshi or British Bangladeshi *n* = 21 083 (67%)
Pakistani or British Pakistani *n* = 10 319 (33%)
Parental relatedness Yes = 5959 (18.8%)
No = 24 601 (77.8%)
Don\'t know = 1013 (3.2%)
Not documented = 77 (0.2%)
**Linked electronic health record data (*n* = 21 514)**
Index of Multiple Deprivation (2015) Quintile 1 (most deprived), *n* = 12 551 (58%)
Quintile 2, *n* = 8400 (39%)
Quintile 3, *n* = 411 (2%)
Quintile 4, *n* = 131 (0.6%)
Quintile 5 (least deprived), *n* = 11 (0%)
Number of ELGH volunteers with common conditions:
Type 2 diabetes 4769 (22%)
Hypertension 3956 (18%)
Ischaemic heart disease 1048 (4.9%)
Dementia 47 (0.2%)
Asthma 2297 (10.7%)
COPD 255 (1.2%)
Number of ELGH volunteers with commonly recorded clinical data measured in the past 5 years:
Body mass index 18 654 (86.7%)
Mean = 27.16kg/m^2^
Standard deviation = 4.87kg/m^2^
Range = 14--69kg/m^2^
Smoking status 18 938 (88%)
Never smoked = 14 353 (76%)
Ex-smoker = 2146 (11%)
Current smoker = 2276 (12%)
Uninformative coding = 194 (1%)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------
ELGH operates under ethical approval, 14/LO/1240, from London South East NRES Committee of the Health Research Authority, dated 16 September 2014.
How often have they been followed up?
=====================================
ELGH contains real-world EHR data, its collection triggered by a broad range of clinical encounters including routine and emergency care. East London has an extensive track record of using routine clinical health care data (predominantly from primary care) in research studies.[@dyz174-B6]^,^[@dyz174-B7]^,^[@dyz174-B14] Electronic performance dashboards are embedded in clinical practice, facilitating high quality and equitable disease screening and clinical care.[@dyz174-B15]^,^[@dyz174-B16] Primary care health records were digitized around 2000 and offer a rich source of data on clinical encounters since then, but also include pre-digitization dates of diagnoses and summarized clinical events (e.g. type 2 diabetes, diagnosed in 1992). Health data linkage and extraction takes place 3-monthly and ELGH volunteers have consented for lifelong EHR access, facilitating longitudinal follow-up.
ELGH can invite volunteers to Stage 2 studies up to four times per year for more detailed study visits, e.g. recall by genotype (RbG) and/or phenotype, for clinical assessment and collection of biological samples, subject to ethics approval, volunteer acceptability and community advisory group approval. As at August 2019, around 60 ELGH volunteers have participated in Stage 2 RbG studies.
What has been measured?
=======================
Available data are summarized in [Table 2](#dyz174-T2){ref-type="table"}.
######
Summary of all data types currently available in ELGH for Stage 1 volunteers, and planned for late 2019 onwards
Data source Data fields Volunteers Duration of data collection
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Volunteer questionnaire Basic details: name, date of birth, ethnicity, address, GP, NHS number All Cross-sectional at study entry
Self-reported diabetes status
Self-reported parental relatedness
Self-assessment of overall health and well-being
Electronic health records Primary care (GP) records (currently coded in READ2 or CTV3 clinical terminologies): All volunteers where data linkage is possible (currently 61%, due to increase to \>95% in 2019 with linkage to a wider GP practice network) Real-world data with access to all available historical (retrospective) data and lifelong (prospective) data
Sociodemographic data
Diagnoses
Prescribing data
Clinical measurements, e.g. height, weight, body mass index, blood pressure
Laboratory tests (e.g. blood tests)
Care processes, e.g. referrals
Quality and Outcomes Framework indicators: including care processes and outcomes for common diseases (e.g. diabetes, asthma, depression), public health concerns (smoking, obesity) and preventative measures (e.g. blood pressure checks)
NHS Health Checks: screening for diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, stroke and dementia offered to 40--74 year olds
Secondary care (hospital) records: All volunteers in contact with secondary (hospital) care Real-world data, includes retrospective data since 2012 and lifelong (prospective) data
Diagnoses (ICD10) and procedures (OPCS-4)
Chronic problem listing (SNOMED)
Laboratory tests (e.g. blood tests, histopathology, microbiology)
Maternity records
External health record data sets and registries Hospital Episode Statistics All volunteers (planned) Real-world data, includes retrospective data since 2003, and lifelong (prospective) data
Office for National Statistics mortality data
National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service, NCRAS
National Cardiovascular Outcomes Research: national audits
Genetic investigations Whole exome sequencing All volunteers reporting parental relatedness (currently 19%) Not applicable
Illumina Infinium Global Screening Array v3.0+MD All volunteers up to 50 000 (to be undertaken in early 2019) Not applicable
Recall studies Bespoke clinical phenotyping and sample collection according to genotype of interest. Core samples taken on all for methylation assays, transcriptomics, lipidomics and metabolomics 60 volunteers to date, with approval for all volunteers to be approached for recall up to four times per year Dependent on protocol
- **Volunteer questionnaire** ([Supplementary File 1](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}, available as [Supplementary data](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} at *IJE* online). This self-report questionnaire collects brief data including: name, date of birth, sex, ethnicity, contact details, diabetes status, parental relatedness and overall assessment of general health and well-being. The questionnaire has been designed to facilitate high throughput recruitment and volunteer inclusivity where language and cultural differences may exist, and to be used with or without researcher assistance. The questionnaire does not capture environmental factors (e.g. no self-reported data on smoking, alcohol, diet, physical activity---although smoking and alcohol use are available from other data sources, discussed below). Completion of the volunteer questionnaire triggers health record data linkage via NHS number.
- **NHS primary care health record data linkage.** We first design data extraction in human-readable form ([Supplementary File 2](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}, available as [Supplementary data](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} at *IJE* online) and then code this in Structured Query Language ([Supplementary File 4](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}, available as [Supplementary data](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} at *IJE* online). Coded fields are extracted from EHR systems, curated to research phenotypes of interest and developed both incrementally and on demand. Search terms are used, including READ2 diagnostic codes, prescribing data, laboratory test results and clinical measurements and processes.
Data concordance was checked between volunteer questionnaires and their EHR, with \>99% concordance for gender and year of birth. Almost all cases of data discordance were due to technical errors with questionnaire optical character recognition or user data completion, and were resolved with manual checking. Data outside clinically plausible ranges, or with clear data entry errors, are removed. A detailed description of our data processing is in [Supplementary File 3](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}, available as [Supplementary data](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} at *IJE* online. Missing data exist, but at relatively low frequency in routinely collected and incentivized clinical measures, e.g. smoking status is recorded in the EHR of 88% of volunteers in the 5 years preceding the most recent data linkage. Repeated measures of routinely collected data and cross-validation across information sources can mitigate the impact of missing data where it exists, as can statistical techniques, such as sensitivity analysis and multiple imputation.[@dyz174-B17]
- **NHS local secondary care health record data linkage.** Linkage to Barts Health NHS Trust data provides secondary care data for all ELGH volunteers who have attended this hospital system (24 852 volunteers at the latest linkage). Available data include clinician-coded SNOMED-CT acute and chronic problem lists, laboratory and imaging results. OPCS-4 (Office for Population, Censuses and Surveys) and ICD-10 (World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems) codes are available for every finished episode of care. For example, maternity data linkage within Barts Health identified 4172 female ELGH volunteers with maternity records available for one or more pregnancies. Linkage to other local hospitals (including those providing mental and community health care) is planned in 2019/2020.
- **Planned linkage to national health record and other datasets.** ELGH will link to further datasets in 2019/2020, including national NHS Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and NHS Mortality Data,[@dyz174-B18]^,^[@dyz174-B19] to include admissions and discharge, diagnosis and operation codes, maternity, psychiatric and critical care from 1997, and accident and emergency data, ICD-10 and OPCS-4 codes from 2008. NHS mortality data provide data on cause of death. Other planned data linkages to national registries include the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service and National Cardiovascular Outcomes Research.
- **Genomics.** DNA is extracted from the Oragene (DNA Genotek) saliva system and stored from all Stage 1 volunteers. To date, 20-40X depth exome sequencing has been performed (*n* = 3781) or is in progress (*n* = 1492) on volunteers reporting parental relatedness.
By late 2019 (funding secured), 50 000 samples from stage 1 volunteers will be genotyped on the Illumina Infinium Global Screening Array v3.0 (with an additional 46 662 Multi-Disease variants).[@dyz174-B20] Array content includes rare disease-associated mutations (e.g. all pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants in ClinVar), pharmacogenetic associations and genome-wide coverage for association studies (based on the 26 populations present in Phase III of 1000 Genomes Project, optimized for imputation accuracy), polygenic risk score and Mendelian randomization studies.
In 2019/2020, if support is secured from an evolving Life Sciences Industry Consortium or elsewhere, high-depth exome sequencing will be performed on up to 50 000 volunteer samples. The intention is for genotyping and high-depth exome sequencing to be performed on up to 100 000 volunteer samples by 2023.
- **Samples for other --omics.** Core study samples are taken from all volunteers recalled in stage 2 studies, including a blood cell pellet (for repeat DNA analyses), plasma aliquots and blood cell RNA preservation (Paxgene), for studies including methylation assays, transcriptomics, proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics.
What has it found? Key findings and publications
================================================
ELGH is a new resource that continues to grow in size and content and, to date, has been used for three main areas of work, as follows.
Characterization of common phenotypes
-------------------------------------
Using Type 2 diabetes (T2D) as an exemplar, we show the ability for detailed phenotypic characterization of ELGH volunteers using EHRs ([Table 3](#dyz174-T3){ref-type="table"}). Of 21 514 volunteers in ELGH with available linked EHR data, 4769 (22%) have a diagnosis of T2D in their primary care record. Basic sociodemographic data (age, gender, ethnicity) of volunteers were recorded in 100%, and smoking status had been obtained within 2 years of the most recent data linkage in 94%. In over 97% of volunteers with T2D, body mass index, markers of glucose control (HbA1c) and serum cholesterol were measured and available in the 2 years preceding ELGH participation. Hypertension, ischaemic heart disease and chronic kidney disease were observed in 47%, 15% and 11%, respectively, of the 4769, and erectile dysfunction was present in 26% of men. Retinal complications of T2D are recorded and graded, with 82% of volunteers having undergone screening within the past 2 years. Prescribing data show recent insulin prescriptions in 16%, and the use of single or multiple non-insulin agents, as well as use of cardiovascular drugs (e.g. lipid-lowering therapy). These data show the potential to perform cross-sectional analyses in ELGH from EHR data.
######
Example of a specific disease phenotype: characteristics of ELGH volunteers with type 2 diabetes. Data are presented in summary and descriptive formats as indicated. Missing data are estimated where available, e.g. for clinical care processes and measurements, but not diagnostic coding where the absence of a code is taken to indicate the absence of a diagnosis
Volunteers with type 2 diabetes = 4769 (22%) Missing data
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ----------- ----
Sociodemographic data Age Mean years (sd) 46 (11) 0%
Sex Male, *n* (%) 2445 (51)
Female, *n* (%) 2324 (49)
Ethnicity British Bangladeshi and Bangladeshi, *n* (%) 3860 (81)
British Pakistani and Pakistani, *n* (%) 822 (17)
Other, *n* (%) 87 (2)
Index of Multiple Deprivation (2015) Quintile 1 (most deprived), *n* (%) 12551 (58) 0%
Quintile 2, *n* (%) 8400 (39)
Quintile 3, *n* (%) 411 (2)
Quintile 4, *n* (%) 131 (1)
Quintile 5 (least deprived), *n* (%) 11 (0)
Smoking status (recorded in the past 2 years) Data available, *n* 4712 6%
Never smoked, *n* (%) 3348 (71)
Ex-smoker, *n* (%) 810 (17)
Current smoker, *n* (%) 554 (12)
Coding uninformative, *n* (%) 57 (1)
Country of birth Data available, *n* 2585 46%
Born in Bangladesh, *n* (%) 2130 (82)
Born in Pakistan, *n* (%) 347 (13)
Born in England, *n* (%) 54 (2)
Born elsewhere, *n* (%) 54 (2)
Historic T2D data Age at T2D onset Data available, *n* 4769 0%
Mean years (sd) 46 (11)
Duration of T2D Data available, *n* 4769
Years (range) 7 (0--51)
Diabetes risk state before T2D Pre-diabetes, *n* (%) 1241 (26) NA
Gestational diabetes (females), *n* (%) 370 (16)
Body mass index (BMI) at T2D diagnosis Data available, *n* 3507 5%
Mean kg/m^2^ (sd) 28.8 (4.9)
HbA1c at T2D diagnosis Data available, *n* 3176 33%
Mean HbA1c mmol/mol (sd) 61.9 (18.7)
Total cholesterol at T2D diagnosis Data available, *n* 3427 28%
Mean total cholesterol, mmol/l 5.0 (1.2)
Current T2D data (recorded within the past 2 years) Body mass index Data available, *n* 4630 3%
Mean kg/m^2^ (sd) 27.9 (4.8)
HbA1c Data available, n 4656 2%
Mean mmol/mol (sd) 59.2 (15.6)
Total cholesterol Data available, *n* 4640 3%
Mean total cholesterol, mmol/l 3.8 (1.0)
Retinal screening Data available 4769 NA
Not in the screening programme, *n* (%) 241 (5)
In the screening programme, *n* (%) 4528 (95)
Screened in past 2 years, *n* (%) 3926 (82)
Diabetes complications and multimorbidity Other diagnoses Hypertension, *n* (%) 2245 (47) NA
Chronic kidney disease, *n* (%) 516 (11)
Neuropathy, *n* (%) 164 (3)
Ischaemic heart disease, *n* (%) 719 (15)
Peripheral vascular disease, *n* (%) 174 (4)
Erectile dysfunction (males), *n* (%) 1310 (27)
Stroke, *n* (%) 180 (4)
Atrial fibrillation, *n* (%) 54 (1)
Heart failure, *n* (%) 126 (3)
Number of cardiovascular multimorbidities in the presence of type 2 diabetes One or more conditions, *n* (%) 3804 (80)
Two or more conditions, *n* (%) 1291 (27)
Three or more conditions, *n* (%) 468 (10)
Four or moreconditions, *n* (%) 198 (4)
Five or more conditions, *n* (%) 85 (2)
Drug prescribing Insulin Prescribed in the past 12 months, *n* (%) 756 (16) NA
Mean years on insulin, (sd) 8.8 (5)
Non-insulin diabetes therapies Metformin prescribed in the past 12 months, *n* (%) 3695 (77)
Sulphonylurea prescribed in past 12 months, *n* (%) 1321 (28)
Prescribing regimens Prescribed no non-insulin diabetes therapies, *n* (%) 845 (18)
Prescribed one non-insulin diabetes therapy, *n* (%) 2057 (43)
Prescribed two non-insulin diabetes therapies, *n* (%) 1127 (24)
Prescribed three or more non-insulin diabetes therapies, *n* (%) 740 (16)
Lipid-lowering treatment Prescribed in the past 12 months, *n* (%) 4256 (89)
NA, not available; sd, standard deviation.
EHR data also give the potential to study longitudinal phenotypic traits, retrospectively and prospectively. Median duration of T2D in ELGH volunteers was 7 years (range 0--51 years). For all volunteers with T2D, year of onset was recorded, and prescribing data and clinical measurements (including body mass index, HbA1c and cholesterol) at the time of diagnosis (+/- 6 months) were available for nearly two-thirds of volunteers. Before T2D onset, 26% (993) had had a diagnosis of pre-diabetes and 16% (370) of women had had a diagnosis of gestational diabetes, allowing study of progression from at-risk to disease states.
Multimorbidity is an increasing problem in ageing populations with high rates of chronic long-term disease; in the ELGH population we identified that of the 4769 ELGH volunteers with T2D, 80% had at least one, and 27% had two or more cardiovascular multimorbidities ([Table 3](#dyz174-T3){ref-type="table"}).
Rare allele frequency gene variants occurring as homozygotes, including predicted loss-of-function knockouts
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All ELGH volunteers self-reporting parental relatedness (19%) have been selected for exome sequencing. Genomic autozygosity (homozygous regions of the genome identical by descent from a recent common ancestor) means that rare allele frequency (minor allele frequency \<0.5%) variants normally only seen as heterozygotes are enriched for homozygote genotypes. ELGH expands existing, smaller studies of autozygosity to investigate the health and population effects of such variants, with a focus on loss of function variants.[@dyz174-B11]^,^[@dyz174-B21]^,^[@dyz174-B22] The accuracy of self-reported parental relatedness to actual autozygosity measured at the DNA level by exome sequencing ([Figure 3](#dyz174-F3){ref-type="fig"}) is a modest predictor of actual autozygosity, e.g. we find 8.2% of individuals who declare that their parents are not related in fact have \>2.5% genomic autozygosity. For British Bangladeshi volunteers, mean autozygosity is slightly lower than expected given the reported parental relationship (possibly due to confusion over the meaning of e.g. 'first cousin' versus 'second cousin'), whereas for British Pakistani volunteers, mean autozygosity is slightly higher than expected (possibly due to historical parental relatedness). With an ELGH sample size of 100 000 we estimate we will identify rare variant-predicted loss-of-function homozygotes in \>5000 human genes. ELGH plans to work with other studies on an international human knockout variant browser.
{#dyz174-F3}
Recall by genotype (and/or phenotype) studies
---------------------------------------------
RbG studies, applied to population cohorts with genomic data, are of increasing research interest[@dyz174-B23] and use the random allocation of alleles at conception (Mendelian randomization) to aid causal inference in population studies, reduce biases seen with observational studies and develop functional studies. RbG studies can target specific single variants (or an allelic series for a gene) and polygenic variants (e.g. extremes of polygenic risk scores).
ELGH is undertaking RbG studies in Stage 2 using bespoke clinical phenotyping tailored to the genotype or phenotype of interest. To date, three research consortia have undertaken ELGH RbG studies, one recalling volunteers with loss-of-function gene variants relevant to immune phenotypes, another phenotyping individuals with rare variants in genes implicated in T2D and obesity and a third involving an industrial partnership to aid therapeutic development for a rare autosomal recessive metabolic disorder.[@dyz174-B24] Successful recall completion rates to these RbG studies are between 30% and 40%.
What are the main strengths and weaknesses?
===========================================
ELGH has multiple strengths as a large, population-based study, and its novel, pragmatic design offers opportunities to combine genomic investigation with longitudinal and cross-sectional description of health and disease as determined from EHR data.[@dyz174-B25] ELGH reaches a British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani population with a high burden of disease, generalizable to a wider global population and building on existing genetic studies that have been criticized for focusing on White populations and substantially under-recruiting from minority ethnic groups.[@dyz174-B26] High rates of autozygosity in ELGH volunteers lead to homozygous genotypes at variants with rare allele frequencies that will aid gene discovery, and RbG studies will generate novel translational impact.[@dyz174-B11]^,^[@dyz174-B24] Future studies on autozygosity will inform novel population level insights into the impact of genetic variation on health. The ability to invite all volunteers to Stage 2 studies offers the possibility to develop subcohorts and trials within cohorts in the future.
Our community-based recruitment approach offers broad reach into the target population. However, to date, ELGH has modestly over-recruited British Bangladeshi versus British Pakistani volunteers. To support increased recruitment of British Pakistani volunteers, recruitment is expanding into outer London boroughs and a new Bradford Genes & Health.
The use of real-world EHR data is both a strength and weakness of ELGH. Strengths include the ability to obtain longitudinal data available on multiple diseases and disease risks via primary care, in large numbers of volunteers in a feasible and cost-effective manner. Data linkage is not yet complete, but will improve in 2019 with improved infrastructure and linkage to national registries and databases. Weaknesses are that EHR data may be inferior to observational epidemiological studies in ascertaining some phenotypes, e.g. recent diseases of minor severity (which do not necessarily require health care access) or subclinical disease. Additionally, although outcomes can be studied relatively well, EHR data have limited opportunity to study certain exposures, e.g. health behaviours, physical activity, diet and some other environmental influences.
Can I get hold of the data? Where can I find out more?
======================================================
ELGH offers an open access resource to international, academic and industrial researchers to drive high-impact, world-class science. Data access is managed at several levels, as follows.
- Level 1. Fully open data: summary data are distributed via our [website]{.ul}, e.g. genotype counts and annotation of knockout variants from exome sequencing, and prevalence of phenotype and traits data.
- Level 2. Genotype data (SNP chip genotyping, or high-throughput sequencing) are (or will be) available under data access agreements granted by the independent Wellcome Sanger Institute Data Access Committee. Individual sequencing (e.g. cram) and genotype files (e.g. vcf) are available within 6 months on the European Genome-phenome Archive[@dyz174-B27] (EGA).
- Level 3. Individual-level phenotype data are held in an ISO27001 compliant data safe haven environment under data access agreement, currently hosted by the UK Secure e-Research Platform.[@dyz174-B28]^,^[@dyz174-B29] The data safe haven contains the latest genetic data linked to the questionnaire and health record phenotypes, and data export is tightly controlled. This 'bring researchers to the data' model allows us to share regular data updates, maintain complex data linkages and avoid large file data transfers. This model provides robust reassurance to volunteers that their health data will be carefully looked after, with maximum security against data breaches.
External researchers can to apply to undertake research with ELGH via a formal application process(details are available on the [website]{.ul}), and most will be required to have their own research ethics approval to work with ELGH. Applications are assessed by both the executive board and community advisory group, according to community prioritization, acceptability and scientific merit.
Profile in a nutshellEast London Genes & Health (ELGH) is a large-scale, community genomics and health study (to date 38 899 volunteers; target 100 000 volunteers).ELGH was set up in 2015 to gain deeper understanding of health and disease, and underlying genetic influences, in British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani people living in east London.ELGH prioritizes studies in areas important to, and identified by, the community it represents. Current priorities include cardiometabolic diseases (high prevalence of early onset) and mental illness. However, studies in any scientific area are possible, subject to community advisory group and ethical approval.ELGH combines health data science \[using linked UK National Health Service (NHS) electronic health record data\] with exome sequencing and SNP array genotyping to elucidate the genetic influence on health and disease, including the contribution from high rates of parental relatedness to rare genetic variation and homozygosity (autozygosity), in two understudied ethnic groups. Linkage to longitudinal health record data enables both retrospective and prospective analyses.Through Stage 2 studies, ELGH offers researchers the opportunity to undertake recall-by-genotype and/or recall-by-phenotype studies on volunteers. Subcohort studies, trials within cohort and other study designs are possible.ELGH is a fully collaborative, open access resource, open to academic and life sciences industry scientific research partners.
Funding
=======
We acknowledge funding from the Wellcome Trust (102627, 210561), the Medical Research Council (M009017), Higher Education Funding Council for England Catalyst, Barts Charity (845/1796), Health Data Research UK and the NHS National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network.
Supplementary Material
======================
######
Click here for additional data file.
We acknowledge, with gratitude, the substantial contribution to ELGH from all of its volunteers who have provided samples and health record access, and have consented for recall. We thank the supporting recruitment teams and community organizations, including Social Action for Health. Invaluable support has also been received from the general practitioners in the local health system, who have made routinely collected health data available for research with support of the Queen Mary University of London Clinical Effectiveness Group. We are also grateful to the NHS National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) North-Thames Clinical Research Network (CRN), NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) (Tower Hamlets, City and Hackney, Newham, Waltham Forest, Barking and Dagenham), and Barts Health NHS Trust. ELGH looks forward to its expansion in 2019 in Bradford, Luton and Watford.
**Conflict of interest:** None declared.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
}
|
Endothelium-dependent vascular relaxation in patients with type I diabetes.
The endothelium plays an important role in the regulation of vascular tone. Although animal data show evidence for an impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilation in diabetes, human in vivo data are scarce. We investigated 11 type I diabetic patients and 11 matched healthy control subjects. The diabetic patients were selected on their relatively poor metabolic regulation (HbA1c > 8.5%), but none showed signs of microvascular complications. In all subjects, we recorded the forearm vasodilator responses to three different stimuli: 1) 5 min of forearm ischemia to obtain a maximal vasodilator response; 2) infusion of MCh into the brachial artery (dosages: 0.03-0.3-1.0 micrograms.min-1.100 ml-1 forearm volume) to evaluate endothelium-dependent vasodilation; and 3) intra-arterial infusion of SNP (dosages: 0.06-0.2-0.6 micrograms.min-1.100 ml-1) to evaluate endothelium-independent vasodilation. The diabetic patients had their usual subcutaneous insulin dose and breakfast 90 min before the start of the test. Baseline levels of BP and FBF were similar in both groups. The PORH response was similar in both groups, with a percentage fall in FVR of 92 +/- 1% in diabetic patients and 94 +/- 1% in control subjects. In the control subjects, MCh infusions exerted a dose-dependent vasodilator response with a maximal fall in the FVR of 90 +/- 2%. The highest dose of SNP induced a fall in FVR of 81 +/- 6% in this group. In diabetic patients, the percentage decrements in FVR during the several dosages of MCh and SNP were similar when compared with the control group. We conclude that chronic hyperglycemia, as occurred in our patients with uncomplicated diabetes mellitus, does not impair endothelium-dependent vasodilation in vivo.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Q:
How to compare two objects in a dictionary
I just wonder that how to compare two objects in a dictionary:
a = {}
while z:
if a[z] == a[s]:
print("Correct!")
else:
print("You don't know that country.")
z = input("Enter a country: ")
s = input("What is the capital of " + z + " ? ")
I want to print Correct when z = s; when z not in a, print You don't know that country.
A:
Assuming that a is a dictionary with the country as the key, and the capital as the value, you should make two separate checks: First you want to make sure that the entered country exists as a key in the dictionary. For that you should use the in operator. Second, you want to check whether the entered capital matches the capital in the dictionary. For that you perform an index access using the country on the dictionary and check whether the value equals the entered capital:
capitals = {
'Austria': 'Vienna',
'Belgium': 'Brussels',
'Denmark': 'Copenhagen',
'France': 'Paris',
'Germany': 'Berlin',
'Netherlands': 'Amsterdam',
'Norway': 'Oslo',
'Sweden': 'Stockholm',
'Switzerland': 'Bern',
'United Kingdom': 'London'
}
while True:
country = input("Enter a country: ")
# abort the loop if the user didn’t enter anything
if not country:
break
# check whether we know that country
if country in capitals:
capital = input("What is the capital of {}? ".format(country))
if capital == capitals[country]:
print('That was correct!')
else:
print('You made a mistake there.')
else:
print('I do not know that country, sorry.')
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Google Music For iPhone And iPad Now Available As A Web App
These days, many major technology and internet-based companies have been trying to figure out a way to take over a slice of the music business. Google’s answer, which was introduced earlier this year, is Google Music, a cloud service, currently an invite-only and US-only beta product, that stores the user’s entire music library on the cloud. While initially only available for Windows, Mac and Android, an iOS version of the said service is now available.
The announcement was made by Google itself in a tweet:
If you aren’t quite yet sure how Google Music functions, it’s very simple: from a standard computer, users are able to upload their music library – currently up to 20,000 songs – to the “cloud”. From there, songs can be played from any device with an internet connection, just by visiting Google Music’s website or running the official app, in Android’s case. New songs can be uploaded at any time from regular computers, yet smartphone users can simply play them.
While Google made a full-fledged app available for Android at launch, the company is taking a different approach with its iOS strategy, by accomplishing all that a native app would do in a web app. There’s no fancy installation process, or App Store jargon, just head to music.google.com from Mobile Safari to start using the service this very moment, provided you reside in the U.S. and also have a Google Music account.
A weaker user experience would be expected, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, aside from Safari’s controls, it acts just like a native app, down to the smooth and nice-looking transitions. The web app requires you to authorize it to use up to 25MB of storage on your iPhone or iPad, in order to cache the content somewhere while its being streamed down from Google’s servers. worth. Better yet, it’s possible to adjust the song’s volume, or move to a different song in the playlist, all using the system’s native controls, and the best part? It runs seamlessly in the background.
When asked about plans for a native app down the road, Google dismisses any intention of bringing one to the App Store anytime soon, despite admitting that it might consider one in the future:
we’re considering all options to bring the service to more people, but don’t have anything official to share.
Whatever the reason, the web app performs very well. Since Google Music requires a permanent connection to the Internet in order to function, perhaps bringing forward a native app wouldn’t make much sense for the company.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Golden Hour of Donovan
Golden Hour of Donovan is a compilation album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the United Kingdom (Golden Hour Records GH 506) in November 1971 and did not chart.
History
By 1971, Pye Records transferred the rights to release Donovan's 1965 recordings from their budget label Marble Arch Records to a second subsidiary budget label Golden Hour Records. Golden Hour assembled Golden Hour of Donovan for the British market. The album featured detailed artwork of a jigsaw puzzle with Donovan's likeness. Later in 1995 it was released by Castle Communications Limited with a photo of Donovan as the artwork.
Track listing
All tracks by Donovan Leitch, except where noted.
Side one
"Universal Soldier" (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
"Sunny Goodge Street"
"Josie"
"The Little Tin Soldier" (Shawn Phillips)
"To Sing For You"
"Gold Watch Blues" (Mick Softley)
"Donna Donna" (Aaron Zeitlin, Sholom Secunda, Arthur S Kevess, Teddi Schwartz)
"Ballad Of Geraldine"
"Colours"
"The War Drags On" (Mick Softley)
Side two
"Catch the Wind"
"Turquoise"
"Candy Man" (traditional; arranged by Donovan Leitch)
"Jersey Thursday"
"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?"
"Ballad Of The Crystal Man"
"Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)"
"Remember The Alamo" (Jane Bowers)
"To Try for the Sun"
"Belated Forgiveness Plea"
External links
Golden Hour Of Donovan - Donovan Unofficial Site
Category:1971 compilation albums
Category:Donovan compilation albums
Category:Albums produced by Geoff Stephens
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
}
|
Q:
Brute-force algorithm to find the set of all empty triangles
Given a set P of points in the plane, specify a naive brute-force algorithm to find the set of all empty triangles with vertexes in P. (A triangle with vertexes a, b, c belong to P is empty if it contains no other point d which belongs to P.)
How shall I start solving this type of problem? Are there any existing algorithm which I should look up or you think I would have to sketch it out with a few points?
A:
Given a set P of points in the plane, specify a naive brute-force
algorithm to find the set of all empty triangles with vertexes in P.
(A triangle with vertexes a, b, c belong to P is empty if it contains
no other point d which belongs to P.)
How shall I start solving this type of problem?
Well bottom up:
For a single triangle and a single point, write a function contains, which tests, whether the point is in the triangle.
For a single triangle and a group of points, look whether whether there is no point contained in the triangle. Call this isEmpty.
For a group of triangles, test each.
Keywords are: iteration, predicate, filter.
You should write tests on each stage, points in the triangle, outside, bordercases. Test as early as possible.
Write testmethods, to make testing easy.
Then Triangle.isEmpty or how this would look in your language.
Top down would work too. Then you might need mock-functions for testing. But I don't see advantages vs. bottom up.
Pseudocode:
Triangle.contains (p: Point) : Boolean ()
Triangle.isEmpty (ps: Pointset) : Boolean =
ps.forAll (p => ! t.contains (p))
triangleset.filter (t => t.isEmpty (pointset))
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
The advent of the DNA microarray technology makes it possible to build an array of hundreds of thousands of DNA sequences, or probes, in a very small area, typically a few square centimeters on the surface of a microscopic slide. See, e.g., PCT patent publication Nos. WO 99/42813, 92/10092 and 90/15070, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,854, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. A DNA microarray-based assay usually involves hybridizing a DNA or RNA sample to a microarray and scanning the microarray to detect hybridization. The probes in the microarray are organized into areas of similar probes, these areas being referred to as features. By hybridizing experimental DNA or RNA to the probes on the microarray, and detecting in which features the experimental DNA or RNA has hybridized, it becomes possible to obtain much information about the experimental DNA or RNA in a single step relatively simple process. Using this ability, DNA microarray technology has been applied to areas such as gene expression and discovery, mutation detection, allelic and evolutionary sequence comparison, genome mapping, and more.
A state of the art DNA microarray can accommodate hundreds of thousands of features, each containing unique probes. In fact this capacity can exceed the needs of many common useful experiment, many of which involve hybridization assays involving far less probes than a microarray's full capacity. Therefore, some microarrays are constructed in which a set of features are repeated multiple times over the area of the microarray, with each set of features ultimately being exposed to a separate experimental sample, to conduct multiple data collection experiments in parallel. This concept can be thought of as an array of arrays. To do this, it is desirable to make DNA microarrays that can be simultaneously used for multiple samples. To make this work, there must be measures taken to prevent cross-contamination between samples intended for differing areas of the microarray. Currently, the microarrays built for this purpose (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,874,219) use physical wells to separate probe sets for different samples and well walls have to align with corresponding probe sets so that each well contains the correct probes. However, alignment of well walls with corresponding probe sets is not always easy to achieve and a misalignment can lead to inaccurate result.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
-0.4 in decreasing order.
v, -1/4, -0.4
Let d = 5.08 - 5. Let o = 3.92 + d. Let w = -0.3 - -0.1. Put w, o, 0 in descending order.
o, 0, w
Let l = 2 + 0. Let r = 0.305 - 0.505. Sort -1.3, r, l in increasing order.
-1.3, r, l
Let q = -29 + 24. Sort q, -4/9, 2 in decreasing order.
2, -4/9, q
Let v = 18 - 16.4. Let c = v + 0.4. Let q be 2/7 + 45/(-84). Put q, -3, c in decreasing order.
c, q, -3
Let a(r) be the first derivative of -r**4/4 + 2*r**3 - 5*r**2/2 + 4*r + 4. Let p be a(5). Let u = 1 - p. Sort -5, 1, u in decreasing order.
1, u, -5
Let j = 15 + -10. Put j, -2, -3 in decreasing order.
j, -2, -3
Let d be 0/((-9)/3) - 4. Suppose 15 = -4*b + 2*t - 1, 0 = 3*t - 12. Let m be 6/d - b/4. Sort 3, 0, m in decreasing order.
3, 0, m
Let t = -13 - -11. Let o be (1 + t)*(-8 + 3). Sort o, 4, 0 in descending order.
o, 4, 0
Suppose -5*i - 4*s = s - 15, -3*i + 10 = 2*s. Suppose 2 + 1 = 3*z. Suppose -4*x - 3*k + 11 = 0, 0 = -2*x - 4*k + 14 + 4. Put i, z, x in ascending order.
x, z, i
Suppose 0 = 3*p - 3. Let w be p - (0 + 0)/(-1). Suppose t = 6 - w. Put -3, t, 1 in increasing order.
-3, 1, t
Let l be 3/(2 + (-2)/(-4) + -1). Put 8, l, 6 in descending order.
8, 6, l
Let k = 3 - 3.1. Suppose 3*n - 6 = n. Let s be 1/(-2) - -22*5/140. Sort k, n, s in increasing order.
k, s, n
Let i(v) = v**3 + 13*v**2 + 21*v - 6. Let t be i(-11). Sort -3, -4, t in descending order.
t, -3, -4
Let b be (0 + 0)*5/(-15). Let d = 0.21 - 0.11. Sort b, d, -2 in descending order.
d, b, -2
Let t(d) = d**3 + 3*d**2. Let l be t(-3). Let x be -6 + 8 - (0 + -2). Let n be x - 2 - 24/10. Put 5, l, n in ascending order.
n, l, 5
Let q = 16 - 10. Let t be (-2)/(-4)*q/3. Let g(u) = u - 6. Let d be g(4). Sort d, t, -5 in decreasing order.
t, d, -5
Let c = -5 + 5.4. Let d = 0 + c. Let h = d - 0.2. Put -0.5, h, -3 in decreasing order.
h, -0.5, -3
Suppose t = -d + 10, -3*d - 2*d = 2*t - 20. Let l be (4/t)/((-5)/25). Put l, 5, 0 in decreasing order.
5, 0, l
Let c be 2/(-6) - (-5)/(-21). Let q be -2*(-4*14)/(-4). Let h = 55/2 + q. Put c, h, 5/3 in increasing order.
c, h, 5/3
Let a = 0.8 - 1.5. Let r be (-2 - -3) + 2 - 8. Sort r, a, 4.
r, a, 4
Let o(f) = -f + 2. Let p be o(-8). Suppose -3*x + 10 = h, -4*h - p = 3*x + h. Put x, 4, 1 in ascending order.
1, 4, x
Let r be (-10)/(-45) + (-2)/3 - 2. Put -3/8, r, 5, 1/4 in decreasing order.
5, 1/4, -3/8, r
Let y(a) = -3*a + 3. Let g be y(2). Let w be (1 + -11)/(6/g). Sort 1, -3, w in decreasing order.
w, 1, -3
Let g = -2 + 4. Let t be 12 + -5 + 2 + -4. Put g, -5, t in descending order.
t, g, -5
Let x = 241 - 236.04. Let d = -0.04 - x. Sort d, -4, -3 in increasing order.
d, -4, -3
Let f be (-6)/(-9) - 62/(-6). Let n(x) = x - 14. Let h be n(f). Suppose 2*m + 0*m + 2 = 0. Put h, 0, m in increasing order.
h, m, 0
Let q(i) = 5 + 0*i + 8*i**2 - 5*i + 4*i - i**3. Let d be q(8). Sort d, -2, -0.2 in ascending order.
d, -2, -0.2
Suppose 0 = 4*l - 0*l + 24. Put -5, -3, l in increasing order.
l, -5, -3
Suppose 2*a + 11 = 5. Let n be (-9)/42*(-8)/a. Let s = -7/12 - -5/6. Sort s, n, -0.4.
n, -0.4, s
Let b = 14 + -15. Put 0, 2/9, b, -2/17 in increasing order.
b, -2/17, 0, 2/9
Let s = -2.6 + 5.7. Let h = 0.9 + s. Put h, 0.5, 0.4 in increasing order.
0.4, 0.5, h
Let c be 6/(-2)*2/(-6). Let k be c/4 - 18/8. Put 2, -1, k in ascending order.
k, -1, 2
Let o(x) = x**3 - 8*x**2 + x - 6. Let g be o(8). Suppose 4*k = g*q - 28, -k - 3*k - q = 16. Put k, -2, 5 in decreasing order.
5, -2, k
Suppose -x - 20 = -5*m + 9, 4*m - 2*x - 28 = 0. Let k = 0 - m. Let a = -4 + 6. Sort 4, k, a.
k, a, 4
Let s = 34 - 29. Sort 0.4, 4/3, s, 0.3 in descending order.
s, 4/3, 0.4, 0.3
Let g(z) = -z**3 - 2*z**2 + 2*z + 1. Let l be g(-2). Suppose c = 3 + 3. Put l, -4, c in ascending order.
-4, l, c
Suppose 4 = 5*h - 11. Let r = h + -6. Let x be 3/(5/2 - 1). Put x, 0, r in increasing order.
r, 0, x
Suppose q + 2*q = 0. Suppose q = -5*v - 24 + 4. Let s(w) = w**3 + 5*w**2 + 5*w + 1. Let h be s(-4). Put -1, h, v in descending order.
-1, h, v
Let m = 27 + -38. Let l = m - -6. Let r = -172.1 - -172. Sort l, 0.1, r.
l, r, 0.1
Let l = 0.81 + 0.09. Sort -1, l, -2/3 in ascending order.
-1, -2/3, l
Let c(x) = 2*x - 7. Let f be c(4). Let p = 11 - 6. Suppose p*s + 15 = -5. Put s, f, 0.5 in descending order.
f, 0.5, s
Let q = 1 - 4. Put 5, q, 9, 0 in descending order.
9, 5, 0, q
Let r = -5 + 4.7. Let s = r + 0.5. Let j = -0.1 + s. Sort 2, j, 1/8 in increasing order.
j, 1/8, 2
Suppose 2 = -8*x + 10. Put 3, x, -4 in decreasing order.
3, x, -4
Suppose p - 6 = 5*c, 12 = 3*p + 3*c - 6. Suppose -p*z - 25 = -11*z. Let g be 6/4 + z/(-3). Sort 1/6, g, 3.
g, 1/6, 3
Suppose -4*j - 5*r = -8, -3*j - 2*j + 4*r + 51 = 0. Sort -2/13, j, -1/9.
-2/13, -1/9, j
Let t = 0.04 - -0.1. Let u = 5.14 - t. Put u, 0, 4/3 in decreasing order.
u, 4/3, 0
Suppose -3*r = -2*r - 4*i - 24, -3*i = 2*r + 7. Suppose 5*q = r*a - 0 + 5, q + a - 1 = 0. Let j be (-1 - 0) + (-16)/(-18). Sort 1/8, j, q in ascending order.
j, 1/8, q
Let m = -12 + 11.5. Let g(c) = c**2 + 7*c + 6. Let u be g(-6). Suppose 4*h + u*h = 16. Sort m, -2/5, h in ascending order.
m, -2/5, h
Let q = -1.1 - -5.1. Let j = -1.2 - -4.2. Sort 0.3, q, j in increasing order.
0.3, j, q
Let u = 0.255 - 0.135. Put 5, 0.2, -5, u in descending order.
5, 0.2, u, -5
Let l = 15.7 - 16. Let z = -8 - -22/3. Let o = 0.6 + 1.4. Sort o, z, l in increasing order.
z, l, o
Suppose -3*k + 5 = 2*k. Let p(r) = -r**2 + 2*r + 3. Let s be p(3). Put s, 3, k in ascending order.
s, k, 3
Let m be ((-9)/(-18))/(1/10). Let l be 3/m - (-14)/10. Sort -5, l, -1.
-5, -1, l
Let r = 114 - 108. Sort -4, 2, -0.4, r in increasing order.
-4, -0.4, 2, r
Let j = 0.23 + -0.03. Suppose -o + 2*d + 10 = -3*d, -d - 2 = 0. Sort j, 2/5, o in ascending order.
o, j, 2/5
Let h = -145 + 1012/7. Let g = h + 1/35. Sort 2/25, g, -0.5.
-0.5, g, 2/25
Suppose 5 = -4*j + 21. Suppose 3*n = 16 - j. Sort n, 2/11, 0.3 in ascending order.
2/11, 0.3, n
Suppose 1 = u - 3. Suppose 5*t - 2 = 23. Suppose -4*c + 3*o = 4*o + 11, -2*c - 19 = t*o. Put 3, u, c in descending order.
u, 3, c
Suppose 0*k = -3*r + 2*k - 50, 2*k = 8. Let u(l) = l + 14. Let c be u(r). Sort c, 5, -1.
-1, c, 5
Let a(n) = 2*n - 6. Let v be a(5). Let m = 4 - -4. Suppose 2*q + 2 + m = 0. Sort v, 5, q in decreasing order.
5, v, q
Let u = 0.05 - 3.05. Put u, 4, 0.05 in increasing order.
u, 0.05, 4
Let v(x) = x - 1. Let k be v(5). Let r be 33/6 - 1/2. Suppose -5*o + r = -0*o. Sort k, -3, o in ascending order.
-3, o, k
Let j = 26 - 24. Sort -5, 0.1, j.
-5, 0.1, j
Let s = -3 - -1.2. Let o = s - -2.1. Let r = 0.1 - 0.3. Put o, 0, r in decreasing order.
o, 0, r
Suppose 0*a + 4*a - 24 = 0. Suppose a*w - 3*w = 0. Let b be -1 + -2 + w/3. Sort b, 3, -4.
-4, b, 3
Suppose -2*k = -2*p, -7*k - 5*p + 18 = -6*k. Sort -8, -1, k in descending order.
k, -1, -8
Let c = 29 - 19. Let y be 1/(2 - (-36)/(-20)). Let q be 6/c*y/4. Put q, -5, -0.2 in increasing order.
-5, -0.2, q
Let d = 118 + -117.8. Sort 3, -0.3, d, -9 in decreasing order.
3, d, -0.3, -9
Let r = 11 + -25. Let x = -19 - r. Put x, 4, -0.2 in descending order.
4, -0.2, x
Let u be (5 + 48)*-1 - -3. Sort u, -1, -1/9, -2/3.
u, -1, -2/3, -1/9
Let d = 16 - 20. Sort 6, 5, -1, d in decreasing order.
6, 5, -1, d
Let f = 5.83 + -1.83. Put f, 0.3, -1/6, -1/3 in descending order.
f, 0.3, -1/6, -1/3
Let k be (-24)/6*2/(-4). Suppose -i = -2*z + 12, 2*i + 0*i - 24 = -4*z. Sort z, k, -1.
-1, k, z
Let t = 1.1 + -1.8. Let f = t + 0.3. Sort -5, f, 0.2 in ascending order.
-5, f, 0.2
Suppose 5*g = 5*r, 3*r - 7*r - 10 = -2*g. Sort 6, r, -2 in decreasing order.
6, -2, r
Let p be (3/(-6))/(-1 - -3). Let c = -8 - -8.04. Let h = c + -1.04. Put h, p, -2 in descending order.
p, h, -2
Suppose 0 = 2*j - 0 + 8. Suppose -3*i + 2 = -2*i. Let p be 4/6 + i/6. Sort j, p, 3 in ascending order.
j, p, 3
Let x = -0.9 - -3.9. Sort -5, 1/4, x in descending order.
x, 1/4, -5
Let q = 24/23 - 27/92. Let c = 0.4 + -0.2. Let s = 0.3 - c. Put s, -3, q in decreasing order.
q, s, -3
Let k = -10 + 14. Let p be -2*1*(k - 2). Put 6, -3, p in descending order.
6, -3, p
Let j(y) = y**3 + 5*y**2 - 6*y - 5. Let g be j(-6). Let l(a) = -a**3 + 20*a**2 - 19*a + 5. Let x be l(19). Sort g, x, 0.
g, 0, x
Suppose r + 9 = -2*r, -r - 15 = -3*v. Suppose 0 = -5*f + m, -m = -2*f + v*f - 7. Sort 0, 3, f.
0, f, 3
Let n = -16 -
|
{
"pile_set_name": "DM Mathematics"
}
|
p.2 The Yacht Octavia - This beautifully modelled ocean yacht did not leave last evening as intended. The tug steamer City of Hamilton towed her along the harbor this morning on her way downwards, the beauty of the craft attracting general attention.
-The steamer Watertown, which has taken the place of the Pierrepont, between this city and Cape Vincent, is making admirable time as her machinery is getting gradually into good working order.
-The stagnation in freights, says the St. Catherines Journal, is shown by the fact that the schooner Two Brothers has been lying at Port Dalhousie for the past week, waiting to receive orders to proceed to some place for a load, and has not yet received one. Yesterday she had her sails hung out to dry, probably with the intention of stripping and going into winter quarters. We understand that the Messrs. Muirs, as well as several other heavy vessel owners, are considering the propriety of ordering at least a portion of their vessels into winter quarters, as it don't pay to run them at the present rates of freight.
Since 2005 this site has been the prototype for the digital collection management tools built for the Our Digital World (formerly the OurOntario project of Knowledge Ontario.)
As a prototype it is subject to occasional, unexplained interruptions in service ... because we keep trying new things.
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My favourites lets you save items you like, tag them and group them into collections for your own personal use. Viewing "My favourites" will open in a new tab.
Login here or start a My favourites account.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
The invention relates to a latch structure and, more particularly, to an improved inertia operated latch structure for preventing pivotal movement of a vehicle seat back upon impact or sudden deceleration.
It is well recognized that the likelihood of injury to occupants is reduced if the pivoted seat back commonly used in two-door motor vehicles is held against pivotal movement upon impact. While it has been common to provide manually operated latch structures for holding the seat back against movement, such manually operated latches are inconvenient in that they must be released prior to entry to the rear seat of the vehicle. To overcome this defect, it has been proposed to employ inertia operated latches that will hold the seat back against its pivotal movement only upon sudden vehicle deceleration. Such latches must be fool-proof in operation to insure complete safety, and consistent with this requirement, the latch should be of simple construction.
It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide an improved latch structure particularly adapted for preventing forward movement of a seat back during sudden deceleration.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved, simplified inertia operated latch.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an inertia operated latch that will be maintained in the latched position for a substantial time after the deceleration force has ceased.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
Cell-penetration by Co(III)cyclen-based peptide-cleaving catalysts selective for pathogenic proteins of amyloidoses.
Derivatives of the Co(III) complex of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane (cyclen) with various organic pendants have been reported as target-selective peptide-cleaving catalysts, which can be exploited as catalytic drugs. In order to provide a firm basis for the catalytic drugs based on Co(III)cyclen, the ability of the Co(III)cyclen-containing peptide-cleaving catalysts to penetrate animal cells such as mouse fibroblast NIH-3T 3 or human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells is demonstrated in the present study. Since the catalysts destroy pathogenic proteins for amyloidoses, results of the present study are expected to initiate extensive efforts to obtain therapeutically safe catalytic drugs for amyloidoses such as Alzheimer's disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, mad cow disease, and so on.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
9780030070686
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Book Description
Intermediate Algebra
This straightforward presentation of intermediate algebra emphasizes skills, concepts, and their applications. The authors pay particular attention to reducing math anxiety, promoting good study habits, and showing the connection between mathematics and everyday life. The text takes into account teaching/learning by objective, teaching/learning by application, the importance of vocabulary, and the relationship between skills, concepts, and problem solving. Students are challenged according to their individual levels of learning. The worktext format is ideal for self-paced, lab settings and can easily be used in lecture classes as well. Features: * Nationally acclaimed, class-proven pedagogy enhances the thorough, detailed topic coverage. Clearly stated Objectivas are followed by an Application, vocabulary, How and Why explanations, Examples anf Warm Up problems, section exercises, a Chapter Concept Review, and Chapter Test. * "How and Why" Segments explainand demonstrate concepts and skills and are numbered to correspond to the objectives. Throughout these segments, skill boxes identify and outline skills in step-by-step form and concept boxes highlight important properties, formulas, and theory. * Section exercises are paired so that odd-numbered exercises are equivalent in style and diffuculty to the consecutive even-numbered exercise. Because answers to the odd-numbered exercises are at the back of the text, students can use them for practice and instructors can assign the even numbered exercises for homework. * Section exercises are organized in categories to provide practice developing estimation/mental, pencil and paper, application, communication, and calculator skills as well as opportunities for group work. * Application exercises demonstrate professional and daily life uses of mathematics and cover a wide range of fields including business, health,the environment, consumer math, and science. * "Maintain Your Skills" exercises continually reinforce previously learned skills and concepts. * End-of-chapter exercises comprise Concept Review and Test exercises. Concept Review questions help students evaluate their understanding of concepts and gain experience with math vocabulary. The "Chapter Test" covers all chapter content and help students access their mastery of skills. New to this edition: * The power and convenience of graphing calculators are introduced throughout. This optional material offers instructors the opportunity to work graphing calculators into their course.
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|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
package task
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"time"
"github.com/spf13/pflag"
"github.com/taskcluster/slugid-go/slugid"
tcclient "github.com/taskcluster/taskcluster/v37/clients/client-go"
"github.com/taskcluster/taskcluster/v37/clients/client-go/tcqueue"
)
// runCancel cancels the runs of a given task.
func runCancel(credentials *tcclient.Credentials, args []string, out io.Writer, flagSet *pflag.FlagSet) error {
noop, _ := flagSet.GetBool("noop")
confirm, _ := flagSet.GetBool("confirm")
q := makeQueue(credentials)
taskID := args[0]
if noop {
return displayNoopMsg("Would cancel", credentials, args)
}
if confirm {
var confirm = confirmMsg("Cancels", credentials, args)
if !confirm {
return nil
}
}
c, err := q.CancelTask(taskID)
if err != nil {
log.Error(err)
return fmt.Errorf("could not cancel the task %s: %v", taskID, err)
}
run := c.Status.Runs[len(c.Status.Runs)-1]
fmt.Fprintln(out, getRunStatusString(run.State, run.ReasonResolved))
return nil
}
// runRerun re-runs a given task.
func runRerun(credentials *tcclient.Credentials, args []string, out io.Writer, flagSet *pflag.FlagSet) error {
noop, _ := flagSet.GetBool("noop")
confirm, _ := flagSet.GetBool("confirm")
force, _ := flagSet.GetBool("force")
q := makeQueue(credentials)
taskID := args[0]
if noop {
return displayNoopMsg("Would re-run", credentials, args)
}
if confirm {
var confirm = confirmMsg("Will re-run", credentials, args)
if !confirm {
return nil
}
}
if !force {
s, err := q.Status(taskID)
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("could not get status of the task %s: %v", taskID, err)
}
if s.Status.State != "failed" && s.Status.State != "exception" {
return fmt.Errorf("Task %s is in state %s. Disallowing rerun of a non-failed and non-exception task without --force", taskID, s.Status.State)
}
}
c, err := q.RerunTask(taskID)
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("could not rerun the task %s: %v", taskID, err)
}
run := c.Status.Runs[len(c.Status.Runs)-1]
fmt.Fprintln(out, getRunStatusString(run.State, run.ReasonResolved))
return nil
}
// runRetrigger re-triggers a given task.
// It will generate a new taskId, update timestamps and retries to 0
// Optionnally, you can pass '--exact' to keep stuff like:
// - routes,
// - dependencies,
// - ...
//
// Otherwise, default behavior is to omit those as taskcluster-tools does:
// https://github.com/taskcluster/taskcluster-tools/blob/e8b6d45f10e7520f717b7a9f5db87d550c74d15e/src/views/UnifiedInspector/ActionsMenu.jsx#L141-L158
func runRetrigger(credentials *tcclient.Credentials, args []string, out io.Writer, flagSet *pflag.FlagSet) error {
q := makeQueue(credentials)
taskID := args[0]
t, err := q.Task(taskID)
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("could not get the task %s: %v", taskID, err)
}
exactRetrigger, _ := flagSet.GetBool("exact")
newTaskID := slugid.Nice()
now := time.Now().UTC()
origCreated, err := time.Parse(time.RFC3339, t.Created.String())
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("could not parse created date: %s", t.Created)
}
origDeadline, err := time.Parse(time.RFC3339, t.Deadline.String())
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("could not parse deadline date: %s", t.Deadline)
}
origExpires, err := time.Parse(time.RFC3339, t.Expires.String())
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("could not parse created date: %s", t.Expires)
}
// TaskDefinitionRequest: https://github.com/taskcluster/taskcluster-client-go/blob/88cfe471bfe2eb8fc9bc22d9cde6a65e74a9f3e5/tcqueue/types.go#L1368-L1549
// TaskDefinitionResponse: https://github.com/taskcluster/taskcluster-client-go/blob/88cfe471bfe2eb8fc9bc22d9cde6a65e74a9f3e5/tcqueue/types.go#L1554-L1716
newDependencies := []string{}
newRoutes := []string{}
if exactRetrigger {
newDependencies = t.Dependencies
newRoutes = t.Routes
}
newT := &tcqueue.TaskDefinitionRequest{
Created: tcclient.Time(now),
Deadline: tcclient.Time(now.Add(origDeadline.Sub(origCreated))),
Expires: tcclient.Time(now.Add(origExpires.Sub(origCreated))),
TaskGroupID: t.TaskGroupID,
SchedulerID: t.SchedulerID,
WorkerType: t.WorkerType,
ProvisionerID: t.ProvisionerID,
Priority: t.Priority,
Dependencies: newDependencies,
Extra: t.Extra,
Metadata: t.Metadata,
Payload: t.Payload,
Requires: t.Requires,
Retries: 0,
Routes: newRoutes,
Scopes: t.Scopes,
Tags: t.Tags,
}
c, err := q.CreateTask(newTaskID, newT)
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("could not create task: %v", err)
}
// If we got no error, that means the task was successfully submitted
fmt.Fprintf(out, "Task %s created\n", c.Status.TaskID)
return nil
}
// runComplete completes a given task.
func runComplete(credentials *tcclient.Credentials, args []string, out io.Writer, flagSet *pflag.FlagSet) error {
noop, _ := flagSet.GetBool("noop")
confirm, _ := flagSet.GetBool("confirm")
q := makeQueue(credentials)
taskID := args[0]
s, err := q.Status(taskID)
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("could not get the status of the task %s: %v", taskID, err)
}
if noop {
return displayNoopMsg("Would complete", credentials, args)
}
if confirm {
var confirm = confirmMsg("Will complete", credentials, args)
if !confirm {
return nil
}
}
c, err := q.ClaimTask(taskID, fmt.Sprint(len(s.Status.Runs)-1), &tcqueue.TaskClaimRequest{
WorkerGroup: s.Status.WorkerType,
WorkerID: "taskcluster-cli",
})
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("could not claim the task %s: %v", taskID, err)
}
wq := makeQueue(&tcclient.Credentials{
ClientID: c.Credentials.ClientID,
AccessToken: c.Credentials.AccessToken,
Certificate: c.Credentials.Certificate,
})
r, err := wq.ReportCompleted(taskID, fmt.Sprint(c.RunID))
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("could not complete the task %s: %v", taskID, err)
}
fmt.Fprintln(out, getRunStatusString(r.Status.Runs[c.RunID].State, r.Status.Runs[c.RunID].ReasonResolved))
return nil
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
I presume you mean the equipment you buy with those bonds? Then no. I have just over 3k bonds I've not used once. How they are awarded is a mystery to me. Because I've had outstanding games where I've spotted, killed & done a lot of damage & got just 2. But did average damaged, camped & spotted no one & got more.
Won't be long before these Bonds will be in the Store & then this game will truly be a pay to win.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
{#sp1 .441}
{#sp2 .442}
{#sp3 .443}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
}
|
64 B.R. 108 (1986)
In the Matter of Terry Hindricks FAUL, and Stephanie Gay Faul, Debtors.
FIRST BANK OF DEKALB COUNTY, Objecting Creditor,
v.
Terry Hindricks FAUL, and Stephanie Gay Faul, Respondents.
Bankruptcy No. 85-00780-SJ-13.
United States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Missouri, St. Joseph Division.
June 4, 1986.
Robert Miner, Watkins, Boulware, Lucas & Miner, St. Joseph, Mo., for objecting creditor.
Mark G. Stingley, Utz, Litvak, Thackery & Taylor, St. Joseph, Mo., for respondents.
FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND ORDER DETERMINING RATE OF INTEREST TO BE PAID TO OBJECTING CREDITOR
DENNIS J. STEWART, Chief Judge.
Now before the court as a result of the hearing of March 26, 1986, in St. Joseph, Missouri, is the question of the amount of postbankruptcy interest which is to be granted the secured creditor. Prior to the hearing on the abovementioned date, the parties stipulated to the oversecured status of the objecting creditor. More specifically, they stipulated that the property on which the objecting creditor holds its valid and perfected security interest has a value of $8,000 and that the balance due against it is $4,891.88.
Under such circumstances, the prior decisions of this court in Matter of Johnston, 44 B.R. 667 (Bkrtcy.W.D.Mo.1984), and Matter of Coburn, 36 B.R. 550 (Bkrtcy.W. D.Mo.1983), dictate the result. Under the rules applied and enunciated in those cases, "a secured creditor should as a matter of course be paid interest at the contract rate up to the point where the total amount of principal, interest and fees and costs equal the value of the security. Thereafter, interest should be payable only at the `market rate' or `legal rate' on the principal balance or value of the collateral, whichever is lower." Matter of Coburn, supra, at 551.[1]
*109 This method of calculating postbankruptcy interest, which recognizes the "lost opportunity" interest of the creditor, or the interest against "delay in enforcement" of the secured creditor's rights, and compensates it separately, has both its proponents, see, e.g., In re American Mariner Industries, Inc., 734 F.2d 426 (9th Cir.1984), and its critics. Among the latter is the chief hornbook on bankruptcy, which contends that the rate of postbankruptcy interest to be imposed in a chapter 13 case is only that which it takes to grant the creditor the value of its claim as of the "effective date of the plan" within the meaning of section 1325(a)(5)(B)(ii) of the Bankruptcy Code. That rate is defined by the editors of the treatise as "the discount rate which the court determines under the circumstances (including prevailing market rates of interest, the creditworthiness of the debtor, maturity, regularity of payment and other payment terms, and the nature of the collateral) best reflects the present value of the payments to be made to the holder of the subject secured claim under the chapter 13 plan. Section 506(b) has no application in this context." 2 Collier on Bankruptcy ¶ 506.05, p. 506-37 (15th ed. 1985). These statements, however, ignore not only the express provisions of the Bankruptcy Code which make § 506(b) expressly applicable in chapter 13 proceedings,[2] but also would ignore the requirement of § 1325(a)(5)(B)(ii) that a secured creditor receive as much in chapter 13 proceedings as it would have received in straight liquidation proceedings under chapter 7 proceedings. And, as this court has pointed out in Matter of Coburn, supra, and Matter of Johnston, supra, the application of § 506(b) in chapter 7 proceedings vouchsafes to an oversecured creditor that it should receive interest at the contract rate so long as the property is under distraint by the trustee until the date of sale and distribution of the proceeds to the oversecured creditor.[3] The rule contended for by the commentators would comply with the statutes which govern chapter 13 proceedings only in a case in which the affected creditor is an undersecured creditor or in a case in which an oversecured creditor has been placed on the same plane which an undersecured creditor by payment of the entirety of principal and due interest on the effective date of the plan. In such a case, it seems reasonable to permit protection of the creditor's remaining value at the "discount interest" rate, as in a chapter 7 case.[4] But when deferred periodic payments are utilized, as in the case at bar, the clear requirement of the provisions of chapter 13 are that contract interest must be allowed according to the formula stated in Matter of Coburn, supra. Accordingly, it is hereby
ORDERED that the chapter 13 trustee compute interest to be awarded to the objecting creditor in accordance with the foregoing considerations.
NOTES
[1] "Beyond the point of equality with the value of the collateral . . . [t]he sole purpose of any award of interest . . . is to ensure that, within the meaning of § 1325(a)(5)(B)(ii) . . . the secured creditor receives through the plan the full value of its security, measured as of the effective date of the plan." 36 B.R. at 551. (Emphasis added). "[W]hen, as in chapter 13 proceedings, the interest-bearing value of the property itself is kept in the estate, it appears proper to award postbankruptcy interest at the market or legal rate to compensate the creditor for loss of this interest potential." Matter of Johnston, 44 B.R. 667, 669 (Bkrtcy.W.D.Mo.1984). Cf. In re American Mariner Industries, Inc., 734 F.2d 426, 435 (9th Cir.1984). ("To the extent that the debtor in bankruptcy can prevent the secured creditor from enforcing its rights against collateral while the debtor benefits from the creditor's money, the debtor and his unsecured creditors receive a windfall at the expense of the secured creditor.")
[2] "Except as provided in section 1161 of this title, chapters 1, 3, and 5 of this title apply in a case under chapter 7, 11 or 13 of this title." Section 103(a) of the Bankruptcy Code.
[3] "[W]hen the debt is secured by mortgage or real estate or collateral which yields interest or dividends during the pendency of the proceedings, in which case the income is applied to payment of the interest until the day of the sale." Littleton v. Kincaid, 179 F.2d 848, 852 (4th Cir.1950).
[4] See note 1, supra.
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NSX-T 2.0 LAB BUILD: ADDING A VCENTER COMPUTE MANAGER AND PREPARING HOSTS
Written by Written by Sam McGeown on 23/10/2017 · Read in about 3 min (452 words) Published under Networking NSX and VMware Tags:
Disclaimer! I am learning NSX-T, part of my learning is to deploy in my lab - if I contradict the official docs then go with the docs!
Lab Environment
This NSX-T lab environment is built as a nested lab on my physical hosts. There are four physical ESXi hosts, onto which I will deploy three ESXi VMs, a vCenter Server Appliance, NSX Manager, an NSX Controller cluster, and two NSX Edge Nodes.
Deployment Plan
I will follow the deployment plan from the NSX-T 2.0 documentation:
Install NSX Manager.
Install NSX Controllers. Join NSX Controllers with the management plane. Initialize the control cluster to create a master controller. Join NSX Controllers into a control cluster.
Join hypervisor hosts with the management plane.
Install NSX Edges. Join NSX Edges with the management plane.
Create transport zones and transport nodes.
When this post series is complete, the network topology should be something like this, with two hostswitches configured. The ESXi Hosts will have a Tunnel Endpoint IP address, as will the Edge. The Edge will also have an interface configured for a VLAN uplink.
In this post I will walk through configuring the Transport Zone, Transport Nodes, Edge Cluster and other configuration required to support the deployment.
Adding a vCenter Compute Manager
I’ve already shown the manual process for adding an ESXi host - the simpler way if you’re a vCenter environment is to use a Compute Manager.
To add a new Compute Manager, expand Fabric and select Compute Managers. Enter the vCenter name, DNS/IP, select vCenter as the type and enter the credentials. You can either obtain the vCenter’s SSL thumbprint manually and enter it into the Thumbprint box, or you can click save and NSX will prompt you to check that it’s the correct thumbprint
Validate the thumbprint is correct and accept
After 30 seconds or so, the compute manager has registered and is connected
Preparing ESXi Hosts from NSX Manager
Select the Nodes page under Fabric, then use the Managed by drop down list to select the newly added Compute Manager. Click Configure Cluster to bring up the dialogue. You can configure the Transport Node from this wizard, however I will be manually performing this step later in this series. Ensure the Automatically Install NSX is Enabled and click Save. This will begin preparing all the hosts in the cluster.
To prepare hosts individually you need to uncheck the vSphere cluster and select the host you wish to install, however, for hosts managed by vCenter it is recommended you use the above method.
After a couple of minutes, NSX is installed and the Manager connection is up
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{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
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Pages
Recruitment Tips
Friday, November 15, 2013
[Indo-Job] SENIOR STAFF MARKETING for a Fashion Academy located in South Jakarta
If you are FEMALE or MALE 27 - 35 years old, friendly, outgoing, fashionable and love communicating ideas and messages. Plus you have the right adrenalin to promote our product and services, have the ability to work with deadlines, have a great management skills, creative and a great team work - this job could be ideal for you. (Make sure you know how to do excell, powerpoint and fluent in English, too).
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"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
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Q:
Apply bootstraps tr hover effect to a div
I am using Bootstrap for my css themes. The themes are compiled and saved into the database for use later on. This means that the pages only have access to the compiled css and not the less files.
Given that, how can I apply Bootstrap’s tr:hover effect to various divs? I need the color to be the same as what is defined for tr:hover and I can’t use less variables.
Bootstrap's style:
.table tbody tr:hover td,
.table tbody tr:hover th {
background-color: #f5f5f5;
}
Is it possible to define a css element based on another one that is assigned to a tr? Is there a way to grab the style using jQuery?
Any suggestions?
A:
Pure CSS Way:
Have a class for the div as .hoverDiv and the CSS for this:
.hoverDiv {background: #fff;}
.hoverDiv:hover {background: #f5f5f5;}
Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/bD5kS/
jQuery Way:
$(document).ready(function(){
$(".hoverDiv").hover(function(){
$(this).css("background", "#f5f5f5");
}, function(){
$(this).css("background", "#fff");
});
});
Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/KQzwc/
To get the colour dynamically, use $(".table tbody tr:hover").css("background-color"):
$(document).ready(function(){
$(".hoverDiv").hover(function(){
$(this).css("background", $(".table tbody tr:hover").css("background-color"));
}, function(){
$(this).css("background", $(".table tbody tr").css("background-color"));
});
});
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{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
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Q:
My PC doesn't want to make a final rebooting to end up the installation of Ubuntu 16.04
smarty people,
I'm a total noob on OS subject, so I'll be very thankful if you excuse me for the elementary lvl of my question.
I've tried to install the last update desktop version of Ubuntu 17.10, but it refuses to make the last installation (after the settings and all of the questions) to finish the process. I didn't find any similar questions on the Internet, so I've decided that maybe the problem is very unpopular or perhaps I've done something wrong (which is kindda funny, considering how easy should it be).
Anyway, I've downloaded the older version since 16.04.2017, but that didn't fixed the situation. I click on the button "restart" and the desktop freezes with no possibility to click again. The only option available is to shut-down the PC and the whole operation repeat itself all over again.
I've used USB Flash Drive for the booting and I want to make Ubuntu pioneer OS on my PC.
So, where exactly the root of the problem should be? (is in the ground, someone could say, but I've dig the whole place yet)
A:
SysRq R E I S U B - graceful reboot
Sometimes, at the very end of the installation, the system justs hangs, does not reboot, does not shut down. This can be caused by a 'race condition', that things cannot be done in the correct sequence.
When this happens it might help with the SysRq R E I S U B method. This causes the computer to reboot gracefully (if it can listen to the request).
See more details in the following link and links from it,
Restart Ubuntu via keyboard
SysRq is often on the PrintScreen key:
Press Alt + PrintScreen continuously, sometimes
the Fn key is involved too (in laptops),
and then slowly (one key after another) the keys R
E I S U B to
reboot.
When you press the 'letter keys' you need not specify caps lock or
shift.
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"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
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Mitsuru Obe reports in today’s Wall Street Journal that three workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been exposed to moderately high levels of radiation, due to contact with radiactive water on the ground. Their reported exposures of 170 to 180 millisieverts are less than the new emergency limit of 250 millisieverts, but more than the usual limit of 100 millisieverts for workers’ exposure during recovery efforts.
This follows an earlier report from the New York Times that five workers have died since the quake and 22 more injured, 11 of those in a hydrogen explosion. Those who remain at the facility working to cool the nuclear fuel risk receiving damaging radiation exposures. Alan Zarembo of the Los Angeles Times points out that Fukushima workers could quickly reach their annual exposure limit, which would mean they’d have to be replaced.
In The Guardian, Suzanne Goldenberg contrasts the celebrated image of the “nuclear samurai” – selfless heroes working for the country’s greater good – with the situation of a tobacco farmer who did manual labor at the plant for extra money and was asked to go back to work at the plant as the crisis worsened. His family urged him to stay home with his new baby daughter, but he returned to the plant.
In addition to radiation exposure, plant employees must be experieincing a tremendous amount of stress. Nature News’ Geoff Brumfiel paints a vivid picture of what occurred at the facility in the immediate aftermath of the quake and tsunami, and concludes that “decisions made in the initial 24 hours by the handful of operators in the control room probably averted a much greater nuclear catastrophe than the one that now faces Japan.”
In other news:The American Prospect: Few chicken farmers today sell birds on the open market – instead, they contract with companies like Tyson’s, which send them chicks, feed, and antibiotics and pays the farmers for the eggs or meat. The result is many farmers who earn too little to support their families and who can be wiped out by a single bad flock or weather event.
Telegraph (UK): An explosion at a coal mine in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province is feared to have killed 52 miners, although not all of the bodies have been recovered.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration: OSHA has filed suit against the Houston-based air conditioning company Goodman Manufacturing Co., alleging that it retaliated against an employee who complained to supervisors about the company’s failure to properly record job-related injuries.
Washington Examiner: DC’s Metro transit agency has paid out $22.4 million in workers’ compensation claims this fiscal year as a result of its high injury rate of 6.17 injuries per 200,000 hours of work. This is well above the transit industry standard of 5.0.
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}
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Accumulation and risk assessment of heavy metals in water, sediments, and aquatic organisms in rural rivers in the Taihu Lake region, China.
Concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) were measured in water, sediments, Ceratophyllum (hornwort), and Bellamya sp. (edible snail) from residential, mixed (industrial and commercial), and agricultural areas with rural rivers in the Taihu Lake region, China. Zn concentrations were the highest, whereas Cd concentrations were the lowest among the six metals in water, sediments, and aquatic organisms. Cd was mainly present in the acid-soluble fraction, Cr in the residual fraction, and Pb in the reducible fraction of sediments. Heavy metal concentrations in water, sediments, and aquatic organisms in the three areas followed the order of the mixed area > residential area > agricultural area. Heavy metal concentrations in aquatic organisms were not only related to total metal concentrations in water and sediments but also to metal speciation concentrations in sediments. In addition, the bio-concentration factor (BCF) values of Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn for Bellamya sp. were higher than those for Ceratophyllum, whereas the BCF values of Cd and Ni for Bellamya sp. were lower than those for Ceratophyllum. An ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in sediments showed that Cd posed the highest ecological risk to the environment. A health risk assessment showed that consuming Bellamya sp. from the mixed area could cause a potential health risk.
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D.O.A.M Series (The Death of Ana Mendieta)
D.O.A.M III was show at the Royal West Academy Drawing Biannual 2015.D.O.A.M IV was shortlisted for the Lumen Prize and International Tour 2016/7. It will also be showing in "Queering Minimalism" in July/August 2017.
The D.O.A.M series is an ongoing collection of work (CAD drawings, projections, public sculpture and moving image) in response to the death of the artist Ana Mendieta and concerns with gender based violence.
D.O.A.M II
The light pierces the 2 cuts in the upright structure projecting itself onto surfaces opposite. In public natural light is used, in a gallery the light is simulated using live data feeds from the exact location in New York.
D.O.A.M III
D.O.A.M III (The Death of Ana Mendieta) is a CAD rendering of the death scene of the artist Ana Mendieta. Using witness accounts, meteorological, astronomical, and other collated data, this large scale CAD drawing is a precise recreation of the death scene of Ana Mendieta on 8th September 1985 07:30 (local time). Ana Mendieta fell 34 floors to her death at around 05:30, her body was removed at around 06:30. The drawing recreates the light and shadow marking the spot one hour after the removal of her body. The scene was never documented.
This event created a schism in the NY art world that questioned its morality and artists loyalties which continues today and questions attitudes towards gender based violence.This work is beautifully sublime. It has distilled a huge amount of data into a minimal form that conveys the sentiment of the message. Ironically as Carl Andre would say "Art is the exclusion of the unnecessary"
D.O.A.M IV
Notes
Extract from a conversation at the Royal West Acadamy
What connects your medium (CAD) to the subject matter?
Initially I was using CAD as a tool to mock up ideas for a film installation I wanted to construct about the death of Ana Mendieta. My idea was to develop two strong and distinct visual languages, narrativising each side of the story through sound. I was exploring the possibility of constructing a language out of nothing - a virtual language - devoid of materiality and soulless.
CAD also allowed me to process much of the data that I had gathered from my research. I meticulously reconstructed the death scene from witness accounts, meteorological, astronomical and other collated data. I then modelled the light over a period. The final image arrived as I was recreating sunrise, one hour after Anas’ body was removed and noticed how the light caught the indent of the area where she fell. I found this a very poignant moment, very moving. This is the final image.
Supporting Notes for D.O.A.M III
The death of the artist Ana Mendieta was a shocking event that split the artworld in New York in 1985. Ana allegedly fell 34 floors to her death from Carl Andres’ Manhattan apartment at 5:30am. He was acquitted of any wrongdoing, but the facts never really added up casting a permanent shadow on the outcome.
Even though it happened 30 years ago, it shares patterns with contemporary gender based violence which is a common concern in my work. There are usually no witness, friends and relatives of both parties take sides and lawyers try to find loopholes to clear the accused. The events are narrativized by different voices and change over time - the stronger voices winning. I wanted to add to Ana’s voice.
I wanted to make a piece that responded to all my research on this subject. I was fascinated that the death scene was never properly documented and photographed, ironically given that much of Ana’s work involved photographing her body in almost deathly poses. I was also interested in the timings of the events. That it all happened under the cover of night. She fell in the darkness and her body was removed just before sunrise.
I used CAD software to faithfully recreate the building and orientation. I wanted to simulate and study the light conditions from the time she fell to after the body was removed. This was a journey through three phases of twilight ending at sunrise when the scene had been cleared.
I used rendering software in conjunction with CAD to recreate the relative position (altitude and azimuth) of the sun during that period. I also used meteorological and astronomical data to simulate the lighting conditions, the ozone and turbidity in the city, to see how the light would diffuse.
The scene was stripped back to the bare minimum - the exclusion of the unnecessary. [See ft 1 & 2]
As I was modelling the light coming up in NY that morning, after the body had been removed, I noticed the sunlight just catching the edge of the indent, where Ana’s body had been. I found this very poignant, the single, silent, still image, spoke volumes to me and became the final piece. The final image was printed the exact length of Carl Andre's body.
FootNotes:
1. “Art is the exclusion of the unnecessary” Carl Andre2. “Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing, By Elimination, By emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things” Georgia O'Keeffe.
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{
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---
abstract: 'We prove quantitative convergence rates at which discrete Langevin-like processes converge to the invariant distribution of a related stochastic differential equation. We study the setup where the additive noise can be non-Gaussian and state-dependent and the potential function can be non-convex. We show that the key properties of these processes depend on the potential function and the second moment of the additive noise. We apply our theoretical findings to studying the convergence of Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) for non-convex problems and corroborate them with experiments using SGD to train deep neural networks on the CIFAR-10 dataset.'
bibliography:
- 'references.bib'
---
[Introduction]{} Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) is one of the workhorses of modern machine learning. In many nonconvex optimization problems, such as training deep neural networks, SGD is able to produce solutions with good generalization error; indeed, there is evidence that the generalization error of an SGD solution can be significantly better than that of Gradient Descent (GD) [@keskar2016large; @jastrzkebski2017three; @he2019control]. This suggests that, to understand the behavior of SGD, it is not enough to consider the limiting cases such as small step size or large batch size where it degenerates to GD. In this paper, we take an alternate view of SGD as a sampling algorithm, and aim to understand its convergence to an appropriate stationary distribution.
There has been rapid recent progress in understanding the finite-time behavior of MCMC methods, by comparing them to stochastic differential equations (SDEs), such as the Langevin diffusion. It is natural in this context to think of SGD as a discrete-time approximation of an SDE. There are, however, two significant barriers to extending previous analyses to the case of SGD. First, these analysis are often restricted to isotropic Gaussian noise, whereas the noise in SGD can be far from Gaussian. Second, the noise depends significantly on the current state (the optimization variable). For instance, if the objective is an average over training data with a nonnegative loss, as the objective approaches zero the variance of minibatch SGD goes to zero. Any attempt to cast SGD as an SDE must be able to handle this kind of noise.
This motivates the study of Langevin MCMC-like methods that have a state-dependent noise term: $$\begin{aligned}
w_{(k+1)\delta} = w_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(w_{k\delta}) + \sqrt{\delta} \xi(w_{k\delta}, \eta_k),
\numberthis \label{e:discrete-clt}\end{aligned}$$ where $ w_t \in \Re^d $ is the state variable at time $t$, $\delta$ is the step size, $U:\Re^d\to\Re$ is a (possibly nonconvex) potential, $\xi:\Re^d \times \Omega \to \Re^d$ is the [*noise function*]{}, and $\eta_k$ are sampled i.i.d. according to some distribution over $\Omega$ (for example, in minibatch SGD, $\Omega$ is the set of subsets of indices in the training sample). Throughout this paper, we assume that $\Ep{\eta}{\xi(x,\eta)}=0$ for all $x$. We define a matrix-valued function $M(\cdot):\Re^d \to \Re^{d\times d}$ to be the square root of the covariance matrix of $\xi$; i.e., for all $x$, $M(x) := \sqrt{\Ep{\eta}{\xi(x,\eta) \xi(x,\eta)^T}}$, where for a positive semidefinite matrix $G$, $A=\sqrt{G}$ is the unique positive semidefinite matrix such that $A^2 = G$.
In studying the generalization behavior of SGD, earlier work [@jastrzkebski2017three; @he2019control] propose that be approximated by the stochastic process $y_{(k+1)\delta} = y_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(y_{k\delta}) + \sqrt{\delta} M(y_{k\delta}) \theta_k$ where $\theta_k\sim \N(0,I)$, or, equivalently: $$\begin{aligned}
&d y_t = -\nabla U(y_{k\delta}) dt + M(y_{k\delta}) dB_t
\numberthis \label{e:discrete-langevin}\\
&\quad \text{for } t\in[k\delta, (k+1)\delta],\end{aligned}$$ with $B_t$ denoting standard Brownian motion [@karatzas1998brownian]. Specifically, the non-Gaussian noise $\xi(\cdot,\eta)$ is approximated by a Gaussian variable $M(\cdot) \theta$ with the same covariance, via an assumption that the minibatch size is large and an appeal to the central limit theorem.
The process in can be seen as the Euler-Murayama discretization of the following SDE: $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis \label{e:exact-sde}
d x_t = -\nabla U(x_t) dt + M(x_t) dB_t.\end{aligned}$$ We let $p^*$ denote the invariant distribution of .
We prove quantitative bounds on the discretization error between , and , as well as convergence rates of and to $p^*$. Our bounds are in Wasserstein-1 distance (denoted by $W_1(\cdot, \cdot)$ in the following). We present the full theorem statements in Section \[s:main\_results\], and summarize our contributions below:
1. In Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\], we bound the discretization error between and . Informally, Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\] states: $$\begin{aligned}
&1.\ \textit{If $x_0 = y_0$, then for all $k$, $W_1(x_{k\delta}, y_{k\delta}) = O(\sqrt{\delta})$ }; \\
&2.\ \textit{For $n \geq \tilde{O}\lrp{\frac{1}{\delta}}$, $W_1(p^*, \Law(y_{n\delta})) = O(\sqrt{\delta})$},\end{aligned}$$ where $\Law(\cdot)$ denotes the distribution of a random vector. This is a crucial intermediate result that allows us to prove the convergence of to . We highlight that the variable diffusion matrix: 1) leads to a very large discretization error, due to the scaling factor of $\sqrt{\delta}$ in the $M(y_{k\delta}) \theta_k$ noise term, and 2) makes the stochastic process non-contractive (this is further compounded by the non-convex drift). Our convergence proof relies on a carefully constructed Lyapunov function together with a specific coupling. Remarkably, the $\epsilon$ dependence in our iteration complexity is the same as that in Langevin MCMC with constant isotropic diffusion [@durmus2016high].
2. In Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\], we bound the discretization error between and . Informally, Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\] states: $$\begin{aligned}
&1.\ \textit{If $x_0 = w_0$, then for all $k$, $W_1(x_{k\delta}, w_{k\delta}) = O(\delta^{1/8})$ }; \\
&2.\ \textit{For $n \geq \tilde{O}\lrp{\frac{1}{\delta}}$, $W_1(p^*, \Law(w_{n\delta})) = O(\delta^{1/8})$}.\end{aligned}$$ Notably, the noise in each step of may be far from Gaussian, but for sufficiently small step size, is nonetheless able to approximate . This is a weaker condition than earlier work, which must assume that the batch size is sufficiently large so that CLT ensures that the per-step noise is approximately Gaussian.
3. Based on Theorem 2, we predict that for sufficiently small $\delta$, two different processes of the form will have similar distributions if their noise terms $\xi$ have the same covariance matrix, as that leads to the same limiting SDE . In Section \[s:sgd\], we evaluate this claim empirically: we design a family of SGD-like algorithms and evaluate their test error at convergence. We observe that the noise covariance alone is a very strong predictor for the test error, regardless of higher moments of the noise. This corroborates our theoretical prediction that the noise covariance approximately determines the distribution of the solution. This is also in line with, and extends upon, observations in earlier work that the ratio of batch size to learning rate correlates with test error [@jastrzkebski2017three; @he2019control].
[Related Work]{} Previous work has drawn connections between SGD noise and generalization [@mandt2016variational; @jastrzkebski2017three; @he2019control; @hoffer2017train; @keskar2016large]. Notably, @mandt2016variational [@he2019control; @jastrzkebski2017three] analyze favorable properties of SGD noise by arguing that in the neighborhood of a local minimum, is roughly the discretization of an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process, and so the distribution of $y_{k\delta}$ approximates is approximately Gaussian. However, empirical results [@keskar2016large; @hoffer2017train] suggest that SGD generalizes better by finding better local minima, which may require us to look beyond the “OU near local minimum” assumption to understand the global distributional properties of SGD. Indeed, @hoffer2017train suggest that SGD performs a random walk on a random loss landscape, @kleinberg2018alternative propose that SGD noise helps smoooth out “sharp minima.” @jastrzkebski2017three further note the similarity between and an Euler-Murayama approximation of . @chaudhari2018stochastic also made connections between SGD and SDE. Our work tries to make these connections rigorous, by quantifying the error between , and , without any assumptions about being close to an OU process or being close to a local minimum.
Our work builds on a long line of work establishing the convergence rate of Langevin MCMC in different settings [@dalalyan2017theoretical; @durmus2016high; @ma2018sampling; @gorham2016measuring; @cheng2018sharp; @erdogdu2018global; @li2019stochastic]. We will discuss our rates in relation to some of this work in detail following our presentation of Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\]. We note here that some of the techniques used in this paper were first used by @eberle2011reflection [@gorham2016measuring], who analyzed the convergence of to $p^*$ without log-concavity assumptions. @erdogdu2018global studied processes of the form as an approximation to under a distant-dissipativity assumption, which is similar to the assumptions made in this paper. For the sequence , they prove an $O(1/\epsilon^2)$ iteration complexity to achieve $\epsilon$ integration error for any loss $f$ which has bounded derivatives up to fourth order. In comparison, we prove $W_1$ convergence between $\Law(y_{k\delta})$ and $p^*$, which is equivalent to $\sup_{\lrn{\nabla f}_{\infty} \leq 1} \lrabs{\E{f(y_{k\delta})} - \Ep{y\sim p^*}{f(y)}}$, also with rate $\tilde{O}(1/\epsilon^2)$. By smoothing the $W_1$ test function to have bounded derivatives up to fourth order, we believe that the results by @erdogdu2018global can imply a qualitatively similar result to Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\], but with a worse dimension and $\epsilon$ dependence.
In concurrent work by @li2019stochastic, the authors study a process based on a stochastic Runge-Kutta discretization scheme of . They prove an $\tilde{O}\lrp{\frac{d}{\epsilon^{-2/3}}}$ iteration complexity to achieve $\epsilon$ error in $W_2$ for an algorithm based on Runge-Kutta discretization of . They make a strong assumption of *uniform dissipativity* (essentially assuming that the process is uniformly contractive), which is much stronger than the assumptions in this paper, and may be violated in the settings of interest considered in this paper.
There has been a number of work [@chen2016statistical; @li2018statistical; @anastasiou2019normal] which establish CLT results for SGD with very small step size (rescaled to have constant variance). These work generally focus on the setting of “OU process near a local minimum”, in which the diffusion matrix is constant.
Finally, a number of authors have studied the setting of heavy-tailed gradient noise in neural network training. [@zhang2019adam] showed that in some cases, the heavy-tailed noise can be detrimental to training, and a clipped version of SGD performs much better. [@simsekli2019tail] argue that when the SGD noise is heavy-tailed, it should not be modelled as a Gaussian random variable, but instead as an $\alpha$-stable random variable, and propose a Generalized Central Limit Theorem to analyze the convergence in distribution. Our paper does not handle the setting of heavy-tailed noise; our theorems require that the norm of the noise term uniformly bounded, which will be satisfied, for example, if gradients are explicitly clipped at a threshold, or if the optimization objective has Lipschitz gradients and the SGD iterates stay within a bounded region.
[Motivating Example]{} It is generally difficult to write down the invariant distribution of . In this section, we consider a very simple one-dimensional setting which does admit an explicit expression for $p^*$, and serves to illustrate some remarkable properties of anisotropic diffusion matrices.
Let us define $D(x) := M^2(x)$. Our analysis will be based on the Fokker-Planck equation, which states that $p^*$ is the invariant distribution of if $$\begin{aligned}
0 = \div(p^*(x) \nabla U(x)) + \div\lrp{p^*(x) \Gamma(x) + D(x) \nabla p^*(x)},
\numberthis \label{e:fokker_planck}
\end{aligned}$$ where $\Gamma(x)$ is a vector whose $i^{th}$ coordinate equals $\sum_{j=1}^d \frac{\del}{\del x_j} \lrb{D(x)}_{i,j}$. In the one-dimensional setting, we can explicitly write down the density of $p^*(x)$. Note that in this case, $\Gamma(x) = \nabla D(x)$. Let $V(x) := \int_{0}^{x} \lrp{\frac{\nabla U(x)}{D(x)} + \frac{\nabla D(X)}{D(x)}} dx = \int_{0}^{x} \lrp{\frac{\nabla U(x)}{D(x)}} dx + \log D(x) - \log D(0)$. We can verify that $p^*(x) \propto e^{-V(x)}$ satisfies .
For a concrete example, let the potential $U(x)$ and the diffusion function $M(x)$ be defined as $$\begin{aligned}
& U(x) := \threecase{\frac{1}{2} x^2}{x\in[-1,4]}{\frac{1}{2} (x+2)^2 - 1}{x\leq -1}{\frac{1}{2} (x-8)^2 -16}{x\geq 4} \\
& M(x) = \threecase
{\frac{1}{2} (x+2)}{x\in[-2,8]}
{1}{x \leq -2}
{6}{x \geq 8}.
\end{aligned}$$
[0.23]{} 
[0.23]{} 
[0.23]{} 
[0.23]{} 
We plot $U(x)$ in Figure \[fig:1d\_ux\]. Note that $U(x)$ has two local minima: a shallow minimum at $x=-2$ and a deeper minimum at $x=8$. A plot of $M(x)$ can be found in Figure \[fig:1d\_mx\]. $M(x)$ is constructed to have increasing magnitude at larger values of $x$. This has the effect of biasing the invariant distribution towards smaller values of $x$.
We plot $V(x)$ in Figure \[fig:1d\_vx\]. Remarkably, $V(x)$ has only one local minimum at $x=-2$. The larger minimum of $U(x)$ at $x=8$ has been smoothed over by the effect of the large diffusion $M(x)$. This is very different from when the noise is homogeneous (e.g., $M(x)=I$), in which case $p^*(x) \propto e^{-U(x)}$. We also simulate (using ) for the given $U(x)$ and $M(x)$ for 1000 samples (each simulated for 1000 steps), and plot the histogram in Figure \[fig:1d\_histo\].
[Assumptions and Definitions]{} In this section, we state the assumptions and definitions that we need for our main results in Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\] and Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\]. \[ss:ass\]
We assume that $U(x)$ satisfies \[ass:U\_properties\]
1. The function $U(x)$ is continuously-differentiable on $\mathbb{R}^d$ and has Lipschitz continuous gradients; that is, there exists a positive constant $L\geq0$ such that\
for all $x,y\in \mathbb{R}^d$, $
\lVert \nabla U(x) - \nabla U(y) \rVert_2 \le L \lVert x-y\rVert_2.
$
2. $U$ has a stationary point at zero: $\nabla U(0) = 0.$
3. There exists a constant $m>0, \LR, R$ such that for all $\lrn{x-y}_2 \geq R$, $$\label{e:convexity_outside_ball}
\lin{ \nabla U(x) - \nabla U(y),x-y} \geq m \lrn{x-y}_2^2.$$ and for all $\lrn{x-y}_2 \leq R$, $
\lVert \nabla U(x) - \nabla U(y) \rVert_2 \le \LR \lVert x-y\rVert_2.
$
The assumption in roughly states that “$U(x)$ is convex outside a ball of radius $R$”. This assumption, and minor variants, is common in the nonconvex sampling literature [@eberle2011reflection; @eberle2016reflection; @cheng2018sharp; @ma2018sampling; @erdogdu2018global; @gorham2016measuring].
\[ass:xi\_properties\] We make the following assumptions on $\xi$ and $M$:
1. For all $x$, $\E{\xi(x,\eta)}=0$.
2. For all $x$, $\lrn{\xi(x,\eta)}_2 \leq \beta$ almost surely.
3. For all $x,y$, $\lrn{\xi(x,\eta) - \xi(y,\eta)}_2\leq L_{\xi} \lrn{x-y}_2$ almost surely.
4. There is a positive constant $\cm$ such that for all $x$, $2 \cm I \prec M(x)$.
We discuss these assumptions in a specific setting in Section \[ss:example\_ass\].
For convenience we define a matrix-valued function $N(\cdot) : \Re^d \to \Re^{d\times d}$: $$\begin{aligned}
N(x) := \sqrt{M(x)^2 - \cm^2 I}.
\numberthis
\label{d:N}
\end{aligned}$$ Under Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\], we can prove that $N(x)$ and $M(x)$ are bounded and Lipschitz (see Lemma \[l:M\_is\_regular\] and \[l:N\_is\_regular\] in Appendix \[ss:mnregularity\]). These properties will be crucial in ensuring convergence. Given an arbitrary sample space $\Omega$ and any two distribution $p\in \Pspace\lrp{\Omega}$ and $q\in \Pspace\lrp{\Omega}$, a joint distribution $\zeta \in \Pspace\lrp{\Omega \times \Omega}$ is a *coupling* between $p$ and $q$ if its marginals are equal to $p$ and $q$ respectively.
For a matrix, we use $\lrn{G}_2$ to denote the operator norm: $
\lrn{G}_2 = \sup_{v\in \Re^d, \|v\|_2 =1} \lrn{Gv}_2.
$.
Finally, we define a few useful constants which will be used throughout the paper: $$\begin{aligned}
&\LN := \frac{4\beta L_\xi}{\cm}, \ \ \aq:=\frac{\LR+L_N^2}{2\cm^2}, \\ &\Rq:=\max\lrbb{R,{\frac{16\beta^2 L_N}{m\cdot \cm}}} \\
&\lambda :=\min\lrbb{\frac{m}{2}, \frac{2\cm^2}{32\Rq^2}}\exp\lrp{-\frac{7}{3}\aq\Rq^2}.
\numberthis \label{d:constants}
\end{aligned}$$
$\LN$ is the smoothness parameter of the matrix $N(x)$, and we show in Lemma \[l:N\_is\_regular\] that $\tr\lrp{\lrp{N(x) - N(y)}^2} \leq \LN^2\lrn{x-y}_2^2$. The constants $\aq$ and $\Rq$ are used to define a Lyapunov function $q$ in Appendix \[ss:defining-q\]. A key step in our proof uses the fact that, under the dynamics , $q$ contracts at a rate of $e^{-\lambda}$, plus discretization error.
[Main Results]{}\[s:main\_results\] In this section, we present our main convergence results beginning with convergence under Gaussian noise and proceeding to the non-Gaussian case.
\[t:main\_gaussian\] Let $x_t$ and $y_t$ have dynamics as defined in and respectively, and suppose that the initial conditions satisfy $\E{\lrn{x_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$ and $\E{\lrn{y_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$. Let $\hat{\epsilon}$ be a target accuracy satisfying $\hat{\epsilon} \leq \lrp{\frac{16\lrp{L + \LN^2}}{\lambda}} \cdot \exp\lrp{7\aq\Rq/3} \cdot \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$. Let $\delta$ be a step size satisfying $$\begin{aligned}
\delta \leq \min\twocase{\frac{\lambda^2 \hat{\epsilon}^2}{512 \beta^2\lrp{L^2 + \LN^4}\exp\lrp{\frac{14\aq\Rq^2}{3}}}}{\frac{2\lambda \hat{\epsilon}}{(L^2+\LN^4)\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\sqrt{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}}.
\end{aligned}$$
If we assume that $x_0 = y_0$, then there exists a coupling between $x_t$ and $y_t$ such that for any $k$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{x_{k\delta} - y_{k\delta}}_2} \leq \hat{\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$
Alternatively, if we assume $n \geq \frac{ 3\aq\Rq^2}{\delta} \log \frac{R^2 + \beta^2/m}{\hat{\epsilon}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
W_1\lrp{p^*, p^y_{n\delta}} \leq 2\hat{\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$ where $p^y_t := \Law(y_t)$.
Note that $m,L,R$ are from Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\], $L_N$ is from , $\cm, \beta,L_\xi$ are from Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\]).
Finding a suitable $y_0$ can be done very quickly using gradient descent wrt $U(\cdot)$. The convergence rate to the ball of radius $R$ is very fast, due to Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\].3.
After some algebraic simplifications, we see that for a sufficiently small $\hat{\epsilon}$, achieving $W_1(p^y_{n\delta}, p^*) \leq \hat{\epsilon}$ requires number of steps $$\begin{aligned}
n = \tilde{O}\left(\frac{\beta^2}{\hat{\epsilon}^2} \cdot \exp\left(\frac{14}{3} \cdot \lrp{\frac{\LR}{\cm^2} + \frac{16\beta^2 L_\xi^2}{\cm^4}} \right. \right.\\
\left.\left. \cdot\max\lrbb{R^2, \frac{2^{12} \beta^6 L_\xi^2}{m^2 \cm^4}}\right)\right).\end{aligned}$$
The convergence rate contains a term $e^{R^2}$; this term is also present in all of the work cited in the previous section under Remark 1. Given our assumptions, including the “convexity outside a ball of radius $R$” assumption, this dependence is unavoidable as it describes the time to transit between two modes of the invariant distribution. It can be verified to be tight by considering a simple double-well potential.
As illustrated in Section \[ss:example\_ass\], the $m$ from Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].3 should be thought of as a regularization term which can be set arbitrarily large. In the following discussion, we will assume that $ \max\lrbb{R^2, \frac{\beta^6 L_\xi^2}{m^2 \cm^4}}$ is dominated by the $R^2$ term.
To gain intuition about this term, let’s consider what it looks like under a sequence of increasingly weaker assumptions:
**a. Strongly convex, constant noise**: $U(x)$ $m$-strongly convex, $L$-smooth, $\xi(x,\eta)\sim \N(0,I)$ for all $x$. (In reality we need to consider a truncated Gaussian so as not to violate Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].2, but this is a minor issue). In this case, $L_\xi=0$, $\cm = 1$, $R=0$, $\beta = \tilde{O}(\sqrt{d})$, so $k=O(\frac{d}{\hat{\epsilon}^2})$. This is the same rate as obtained by @durmus2016high. We remark that @durmus2016high obtain a $W_2$ bound which is stronger than our $W_1$ bound.
**b. Non-convex, constant noise**: $U(x)$ not strongly convex but satisfies Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\], and $\xi(x,\eta) \sim \N(0,I)$. In this case, $L_\xi=0$, $\cm=1$, $\beta = \tilde{O}(\sqrt{d})$ This is the setting studied by @cheng2018sharp and @ma2018sampling. The rate we recover is $k=\tilde{O}\lrp{\frac{d}{\hat{\epsilon^2}} \cdot \exp\lrp{\frac{14}{3}LR^2}}$, which is in line with @cheng2018sharp, and is the best $W_1$ rate obtainable from @ma2018sampling.
**c. Non-convex, state-dependent noise**: $U(x)$ satisfies Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\], and $\xi$ satisfies Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\]. To simplify matters, suppose the problem is rescaled so that $\cm =1$. Then the main additional term compared to setting b. above is $\exp\lrp{\frac{64\beta^2 L_\xi^2 R^2}{\cm^4}}$. This suggests that the effect of a $L_\xi$-Lipschitz noise can play a similar role in hindering mixing as a $\LR$-Lipschitz nonconvex drift.
When the dimension is high, computing $M(y_k)$ can be difficult, but if for each $x$, one has access to samples whose covariance is $M(x)$, then one can approximate $M(y_k) \theta_k$ via the central limit theorem by drawing a sufficiently large number of samples. The proof of Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\] can be readily modified to accommodate this (see Appendix \[ss:simlutating\_discrete\_sde\]).
We now turn to the non-Gaussian case.
\[t:main\_nongaussian\] Let $x_t$ and $w_t$ have dynamics as defined in and respectively, and suppose that the initial conditions satisfy $\E{\lrn{x_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$ and $\E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$. Let $\hat{\epsilon}$ be a target accuracy satisfying $\hat{\epsilon} \leq \lrp{\frac{16\lrp{L + \LN^2}}{\lambda}} \cdot \exp\lrp{7\aq\Rq/3} \cdot \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$. Let $\epsilon:= \frac{\lambda}{16 (L+\LN^2)} \exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}} \hat{\epsilon}$. Let $T:= \min\lrbb{\frac{1}{16L}, \frac{\beta^2}{8L^2\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}, \frac{\epsilon}{32\sqrt{L} \beta}, \frac{\epsilon^2}{128\beta^2}, \frac{\epsilon^4 \LN^2}{2^{14}\beta^2 \cm^2}}$ and let $\delta$ be a step size satisfying $$\begin{aligned}
\delta \leq \min\lrbb{\frac{T\epsilon^2L}{36 d\beta^2\log \lrp{ \frac{36 d\beta^2}{\epsilon^2L}}}, \frac{T\epsilon^4L^2} {2^{14} d\beta^4\log\lrp{\frac{2^{14} d\beta^4}{\epsilon^4L^2}}}}.
\end{aligned}$$
If we assume that $x_0 = w_0$, then there exists a coupling between $x_t$ and $w_t$ such that for any $k$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{x_{k\delta} - w_{k\delta}}_2} \leq \hat{\epsilon}.
\end{aligned}$$
Alternatively, if we assume that $n \geq \frac{3\aq\Rq^2}{\delta} \cdot \log \frac{R^2 + \beta^2/m}{\hat{\epsilon}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
W_1\lrp{p^*, p^w_{n\delta}} \leq 2\hat{\epsilon},
\end{aligned}$$ where $p^w_t := \Law(w_t)$.
To achieve $W_1(p^*, p^w_{n\delta}) \leq \hat{\epsilon}$, the number of steps needed is of order $n= \tilde{O}\lrp{\frac{1}{\hat{\epsilon}^8} \cdot e^{29 \aq \Rq^2}}$. The $\hat{\epsilon}$ dependency is considerably worse than in Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\]. This is because we need to take many steps of in order to approximate a single step of . For details, see the coupling construction in equations – of Appendix \[s:nongaussianproof\].
[Application to Stochastic Gradient Descent]{}\[s:sgd\] In this section, we will cast SGD in the form of . We consider an objective of the form $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis
\label{e:example_U}
U(w) = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^n U_i(w).\end{aligned}$$ We reserve the letter $\eta$ to denote a random minibatch from $\lrbb{1, \ldots, n}$, sampled with replacement, and define $\zeta(w,\eta)$ as follows: $$\label{e:def_zeta}
\zeta(w,\eta) := \nabla U(w) - \frac{1}{\lrabs{\eta}} \sum_{i\in \eta} \nabla U_i(w)$$ For a sample of size one, i.e. $\lrabs{\eta}=1$, we define $$\begin{aligned}
H(w) := \E{\zeta(w,\eta) \zeta(w,\eta)^T }
\numberthis\label{e:m0}\end{aligned}$$ as the covariance matrix of the difference between the true gradient and a single sampled gradient at $w$. A standard run of SGD, with minibatch size $b := \lrabs{\eta_k} $, then has the following form: $$\begin{aligned}
w_{k+1} &= w_k - \delta \frac{1}{b} \sum_{i\in\eta_k} \nabla U_{i}(w_k)\\
&= w_k - \delta \nabla U(w_k) + \sqrt{\delta}\lrp{\sqrt{\delta} \zeta (w_k, \eta_k)}.
\numberthis \label{e:sgd}\end{aligned}$$ We refer to an SGD algorithm with step size $\delta$ and minibatch size $b$ a $(\delta, b)$-SGD. Notice that $\eqref{e:sgd}$ is in the form of , with $\xi(w,\eta) = \sqrt{\delta} \zeta (w,\eta)$. The covariance matrix of the noise term is $$\label{e:noise_cov_sgd}
\E{\xi (w,\eta)\xi (w,\eta)^T} = \frac{\delta}{b} H(w).$$ Because the magnitude of the noise covariance scales with $\sqrt{\delta}$, it follows that as $\delta \to 0$, converges to deterministic gradient flow. However, the loss of randomness as $\delta\to 0$ is not desirable as it has been observed that as SGD approaches GD, through either small step size or large batch size, the generalization error goes up [@jastrzkebski2017three; @he2019control; @keskar2016large; @hoffer2017train]; this is also consistent with our experimental observations in Section \[ss:acc\_rel\_var\].
Therefore, a more meaningful way to take the limit of SGD is to hold the noise term constant in . More specifically, we define the ***constant-noise limit*** of as $$d x_t = - \nabla U(x_t) dt + M(x_t) dB_t,
\numberthis
\label{e:sgd-limit}$$ where $M(x) := \sqrt{\frac{\delta}{b}H(x)}$. Note that this is in the form of , with noise covariance $M(x_t)^2$ matching that of SGD in . Using Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\], we can bound the $W_1$ distance between the SGD iterates $w_{k}$ from , and the continuous-time SDE $x_t$ from .
Importance of Noise Covariance {#ss:noise_covariance}
------------------------------
We highlight the fact that the limiting SDE of a discrete process, $$\label{e:disc-mcmc-new}
w_{k+1} = w_k - s\nabla U(w_k) + \sqrt{s} \xi(w_k, \eta_k),$$ depends only on the covariance matrix of $\xi$. More specifically, as long as $\xi$ satisfies $\sqrt{\E{\xi(w, \eta)\xi(w, \eta)^T}} = M(w)$, will have as its limiting SDE, *regardless of higher moments of $\xi$*. This fact, combined with Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\], means that in the limit of $\delta \to 0$ and $k\to \infty$, the distribution of $w_k$ will be determined by the covariance of $\xi$ alone. An immediate consequence is the following: *at convergence, the test performance of any Langevin MCMC-like algorithm is almost entirely determined by the covariance of its noise term.*
Returning to the case of SGD algorithms, since the noise covariance is $M(x)^2 = \frac{\delta}{b} H(x)$ (see ), we know that the ratio of step size $\delta$ to batch size $b$ is an important quantity which can dictate the test error of the algorithm; this observation has been made many times in prior work [@jastrzkebski2017three; @he2019control], and our results in this paper are in line with these observations. Here, we move one step further, and provide experimental evidence to show that more fundamentally, it is the noise covariance in the constant-noise limit that controls the test error.
To verify this empirically, we propose the following algorithm called *large-noise SGD*.
\[def:large\_noise\_sgd\] An $(s, \sigma, b_1, b_2)$-large-noise SGD is an algorithm that aims to minimize using the following updates: $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis\label{e:sgd-noisy}
& w_{k+1} = w_k - \frac{s}{b_1} \sum_{i \in \eta_k} \nabla U_i(w_k) \\
& \qquad + \frac{\sigma \sqrt{s}}{b_2} \left( \sum_{i\in \eta_k'}\nabla U_i(w_k) - \sum_{i\in\eta_k''}\nabla U_i(w_k) \right),\end{aligned}$$ where $\eta_k$, $\eta_k'$, and $\eta_k''$ are minibatches of sizes $b_1$, $b_2$, and $b_2$, sampled uniformly at random from $\{1, \ldots, n\}$ with replacement. The three minibatches are sampled independently and are also independent of other iterations.
Intuitively, an $(s, \sigma, b_1, b_2)$-large-noise SGD should be considered as an SGD algorithm with step size $s$ and minibatch size $b_1$ and an additional noise term. The noise term computes the difference of two independent and unbiased estimates of the full gradient $\nabla U(w_k)$, each using a batch of $b_2$ data points. Using the definition of $\zeta$ in , we can verify that the update is equivalent to $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis\label{e:sgd-noisy-2}
& w_{k+1} = w_k - s\nabla U(w_k) + s\zeta(w_k, \eta_k) \\
&\qquad + \sigma \sqrt{s}(\zeta(w_k, \eta_k'') - \zeta(w_k, \eta_k')),\end{aligned}$$ which is in the form of , with $$\begin{aligned}
\xi(w, \tilde{\eta}) = \sqrt{s} \zeta(w, \eta) + \sigma \lrp{\zeta(w, \eta'')-\zeta(w, \eta')},
\numberthis
\label{e:sgd-noisy-xi}\end{aligned}$$ where $\tilde{\eta} = (\eta, \eta', \eta'')$, and $|\eta| = b_1$, $|\eta'|=|\eta''|=b_2$. Further, the noise covariance matrix is $$\label{e:noise_cov_large_noise_sgd}
\E{\xi(w, \tilde{\eta}) \xi(w, \tilde{\eta})^T} = (\frac{s}{b_1} + \frac{2\sigma^2}{b_2}) H(w).$$ Therefore, if we have $$\label{e:var_matching}
\frac{s}{b_1} + \frac{2\sigma^2}{b_2} = \frac{\delta}{b},$$ then an $(s, \sigma, b_1, b_2)$-large-noise SGD should have the same noise covariance as a $(\delta, b)$-SGD *(but very different higher noise moments due to the injected noise)*, and based on our theory, the large-noise SGD should have similar test error to that of the SGD algorithm, even if the step size and batch size are different. In Section \[subsection:experiments\], we verify this experimentally. We stress that we are not proposing the large-noise SGD as a practical algorithm. The reason that this algorithm is interesting is that it gives us a family of $\lrp{w_k}_{k=1,2,\ldots}$ which converges to , and is implementable in practice. Thus this algorithm helps us uncover the importance of noise covariance (and the unimportance of higher noise moments) in Langevin MCMC-like algorithms. We also remark that @hoffer2017train proposed a different way of injecting noise, multiplying the sampled gradient with a suitably scaled Gaussian noise.
[Satisfying the Assumptions]{}\[ss:example\_ass\]
Before presenting the experimental results, we remark on a particular way that a function $U(w)$ defined in , along with the stochastic sequence $w_k$ defined in , can satisfy the assumptions in Section \[ss:ass\].
Suppose first that we shift the coordinate system so that $\nabla U(0)=0$. Let us additionally assume that for each $i$, $U_i(w)$ has the form $$\begin{aligned}
U_i(w) = U_i'(w) + V(w),\end{aligned}$$ where $V(w):= m \lrp{\|x\|_2-R/2}^2$ is a $m$-strongly convex regularizer outside a ball of radius $R$, and each $U_i'(w)$ has $\LR$-Lipschitz gradients. Suppose further that $m \geq 4 \cdot \LR$. These additional assumptions make sense when we are only interested in $U(w)$ over $B_R(0)$, so $V(w)$ plays the role of a barrier function that keeps us within $B_R(0)$. Then, it can immediately be verified that $U(w)$ satisfies Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\] with $L=m+\LR$.
The noise term $\xi$ in satisfies Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].1 by definition, and satisfies Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].3 with $L_\xi = \lrp{\sqrt{s} + 2\sigma} L$. Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].2 is satisfied if $\zeta(w,\eta)$ is bounded for all $w$, i.e. the sampled gradient does not deviate from the true gradient by more than a constant. We will need to assume directly Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].4, as it is a property of the distribution of $\nabla U_i(w)$ for $i=1, \ldots, n$.
![Relationship between test accuracy and the noise covariance of SGD algorithm. In each plot, the dots with the same color correspond to SGD runs with the same batch size but different step sizes.[]{data-label="fig:const_lr_acc_vs_var"}](sgd_runs.pdf){width="1\linewidth"}
[Experiments]{}\[subsection:experiments\]
{width="1.0\linewidth"}
{width="1.0\linewidth"}
In this section, we present experimental results that validate the importance of noise covariance in predicting the test error of Langevin MCMC-like algorithms. In all experiments, we use two different neural network architectures on the CIFAR-10 dataset [@krizhevsky2009learning] with the standard test-train split. The first architecture is a simple convolutional neural network, which we call CNN in the following,[^1] and the other is the VGG19 network [@simonyan2014very]. To make our experiments consistent with the setting of SGD, we do not use batch normalization or dropout, and use constant step size. In all of our experiments, we run SGD algorithm $2000$ epochs such that the algorithm converges sufficiently. Since in most of our experiments, the accuracies on the training dataset are almost $100\%$, we use the test accuracy to measure the generalization performance.
Recall that according to and , for both SGD and large-noise SGD, the noise covariance is a scalar multiple of $H(w)$. For simplicity, in the following, we will slightly abuse our terminology and call this scalar the *noise covariance*; more specifically, for $(\delta, b)$-SGD, the noise covariance is $\delta / b$, and for an $(s, \sigma, b_1, b_2)$-large-noise SGD, the noise covariance is $\frac{s}{b_1} + \frac{2\sigma^2}{b_2}$.
[Accuracy vs Noise Covariance]{} \[ss:acc\_rel\_var\]
In our first experiment, we focus on the SGD algorithm, and show that there is a positive correlation between the noise covariance and the final test accuracy of the trained model. One major purpose of this experiment is to establish baselines for our experiments on large-noise SGD.
We choose constant step size $\delta$ from $$\{0.001, 0.002, 0.004, 0.008, 0.016, 0.032, 0.064, 0.128\}$$ and minibatch size $b$ from $\{32, 64, 128, 256, 512\}$. For each (step size, batch size) pair, we plot its final test accuracy against its noise covariance in Figure \[fig:const\_lr\_acc\_vs\_var\]. From the plot, we can see that higher noise covariance leads to better final test accuracy, and there is a linear trend between the test accuracy and the logarithm. We also highlight the fact that conditioned on the noise covariance, the test accuracy is not significantly correlated with either the step size or the minibatch size. In other words, similar to the observations in prior work [@jastrzkebski2017three; @he2019control], there is a strong correlation between relative variance of an SGD sequence and its test accuracy, regardless of the combination of minibatch size and step size.
[Large-Noise SGD]{} \[ss:inject\]
In this section, we implement and examine the performance of the large-noise SGD algorithm proposed in . We select a subset of SGD runs with relatively small noise covariance in the experiment in the previous section (we call them *baseline SGD runs*), and implement large-noise SGD by injecting noise. Our goal is to see, for a particular noise covariance, whether large-noise SGD has test accuracy that is similar to SGD, *in spite of significant differences in third-and-higher moments of the noise in large-noise SGD compared to standard SGD*. Our first experiment is to add noise with the same minibatch size to the $(\delta, b)$ baseline SGD run such that the new noise covariance matches that of an $(8\delta, b)$-SGD (an SGD run with larger step size). In other words, we implement $(\delta, \sqrt{7\delta / 2}, b, b)$-large-noise SGD, whose noise covariance is $8$ times of that of the baseline. Our results are shown in Figure \[fig:lr\_matching\]. Our second experiment is similar: we add noise with minibatch size $128$ to the $(\delta, b)$ baseline SGD run with $b \in \{256, 512\}$ such that the new noise covariance matches that of a $(\delta, 128)$-SGD (an SGD run with smaller batch size). More specifically, we implement $(\delta, \sqrt{\frac{1}{2} (1-\frac{128}{b})\delta }, b, 128)$-large-noise SGD runs. The results are shown in Figure \[fig:batch\_matching\]. In these figures, each $\times$ denotes a baseline SGD run, with step size specified in the legend and minibatch size specified by plot title. For each baseline SGD run, we have a corresponding large-noise SGD run, denoted by $\diamond$ with the same color. As mentioned, these $\diamond$ runs are designed to match the noise covariance of SGD with larger step size or smaller batch size. In addition to $\times$ and $\diamond$, we also plot using a small teal marker all the other runs from Section \[ss:acc\_rel\_var\]. This helps highlight the linear trend between the logarithm of noise covariance and test accuracy that we observed in Section \[ss:acc\_rel\_var\].
As can be seen, the (noise variance, test accuracy) values for the $\diamond$ runs fall close to the linear trend. More specifically, a run of large-noise SGD produces similar test accuracy to vanilla SGD runs with the same noise variance. We highlight two potential implications: First, just like in Section \[ss:acc\_rel\_var\], we observe that the test accuracy strongly correlates with relative variance, even for noise of the form , which can have rather different higher moments than $\zeta$ (standard SGD noise); Second, since the $\diamond$ points fall close to the linear trend, we hypothesize that the constant-noise limit SDE should also have similar test error. If true, then this implies that we only need to study the potential $U(x)$ and noise covariance $M(x)$ to explain the generalization properties of SGD.
Appendix {#appendix .unnumbered}
========
[Proofs for Convergence under Gaussian Noise (Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\])]{}
[Proof Overview]{} The main proof of Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\] is contained in Appendix \[ss:proof:t:main\_gaussian\].
Here, we outline the steps of our proof:
1. In Appendix \[ss:coupling\_construction\], we construct a coupling between $\eqref{e:exact-sde}$ and $\eqref{e:discrete-langevin}$ over a single step (i.e. for $t\in[k\delta, (k+1)\delta]$, for some $k$ and $\delta$).
2. Appendix \[ss:step\_gaussian\], we prove Lemma \[l:gaussian\_contraction\], which shows that under the coupling constructed in Step 1, a Lyapunov function $f(x_T - y_T)$ contracts exponentially with rate $\lambda$, plus a discretization error term. The function $f$ is defined in Appendix \[s:defining-q\], and sandwiches $\lrn{x_T - y_T}_2$. In Corollary \[c:main\_gaussian:1\], we apply the results of Lemma \[l:gaussian\_contraction\] recursively over multiple steps to give a bound on $f(x_{k\delta}-y_{k\delta})$ for all $k$, and for sufficiently small $\delta$.
3. Finally, in Appendix \[ss:proof:t:main\_gaussian\], we prove Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\] by applying the results of Corollary \[c:main\_gaussian:1\], together with the fact that $f(z)$ upper bounds $\lrn{z}_2$ up to a constant factor.
[A coupling construction]{} \[ss:coupling\_construction\] In this subsection, we will study the evolution of and over a small time interval. Specifically, we will study $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis
\label{e:marginal_x}
d x_t =& - \nabla U(x_t) dt + M(x_t) dB_t\\
\numberthis
\label{e:marginal_y}
d y_t =& - \nabla U(y_0) dt + M(y_0) dB_t
\end{aligned}$$ One can verify that is equivalent to , and is equivalent to a single step of (i.e. over an interval $t\leq \delta$).
We first give the explicit coupling between and : ( A similar coupling in the continuous-time setting is first seen in [@gorham2016measuring] in their proof of contraction of .)
Given arbirary $(x_0,y_0)$, define $(x_t,y_t)$ using the following coupled SDE: $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis \label{e:coupled_2_processes}
x_t =& x_0 + \int_0^t -\nabla U(x_s) ds + \int_0^t \cm dV_s + \int_0^t N(x_s) dW_s\\
y_t =& y_0 + \int_0^t -\nabla U(y_0) dt + \int_0^t \cm \lrp{I - 2\gamma_s \gamma_s^T} dV_s + \int_0^t N(y_0) dW_s
\end{aligned}$$
Where $dV_t$ and $dW_t$ are two independent standard Brownian motion, and $$\begin{aligned}
\gamma_t := \frac{x_t-y_t}{\|x_t-y\|_2} \cdot \ind{\|x_t-y_t\|_2 \in [2\epsilon, \Rq)}
\numberthis \label{d:gammat}
\end{aligned}$$
By Lemma \[l:marginal\_of\_coupling\], we show that has the same distribution as $x_t$ in , and has the same distribution as $y_t$ in . Thus, for any $t$, the process $(x_t,y_t)$ defined by is a valid coupling for and .
[One step contraction]{} \[ss:step\_gaussian\]
\[l:gaussian\_contraction\] Let $f$ be as defined in Lemma \[l:fproperties\] with parameters $\epsilon$ satisfying $\epsilon \leq \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$. Let $x_t$ and $y_t$ be as defined in . If we assume that $\E{\lrn{y_0}_2^2} \leq 8\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$ and $T\leq \min\lrbb{\frac{\epsilon^2}{\beta^2}, \frac{\epsilon}{6 L\sqrt{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(x_T - y_T)}
\leq e^{-\lambda T} \E{f(x_0 - y_0)} + 3T (L+\LN^2) \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
For ease of reference: $m,L,\LR, R$ are from Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\], $\cm, \beta$ are from Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\], $\aq, \Rq, \LN, \lambda$ are defined in .
For notational convenience, for the rest of this proof, let us define $z_t := x_t - y_t$ and $\nabla_t := \nabla U(x_t) - \nabla U(y_t)$, $\Delta_t := \nabla U(y_0) - \nabla U(y_t)$ $N_t := N(x_t) - N(y_t)$.
It follows from that $$\begin{aligned}
d z_t = - \nabla_t dt + \Delta_t dt + 2 \cm \gamma_t \gamma_t^T dV_t + \lrp{N_t + N(y_t) - N(y_0)} dW_t
\numberthis \label{e:coupled_difference_sde}
\end{aligned}$$
Using Ito’s Lemma, the dynamics of $f(z_t)$ is given by $$\begin{aligned}
&d f(z_t)\\
=& {\lin{\nabla f(z_t), dz_t}}
+ {2\cm^2\tr\lrp{\nabla^2 f(z_t) \lrp{\gamma_t \gamma_t^T}}} dt
+ {\frac{1}{2}\tr\lrp{\nabla^2 f(z_t) \lrp{N_t+ N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}} dt\\
=& \underbrace{-\lin{\nabla f(z_t), \nabla_t}}_{\circled{1}} dt + \underbrace{\lin{\nabla f(z_t), \Delta_t}}_{\circled{2}} dt + \underbrace{\lin{\nabla f(z_t), 2 \cm \gamma_t \gamma_t^T dV_t + \lrp{N_t + N(y_t) - N(y_0)} dW_t }}_{\circled{3}}\\
&\quad + \underbrace{2\cm^2\tr\lrp{\nabla^2 f(z_t) \lrp{\gamma_t \gamma_t^T}}}_{\circled{4}} dt
+ \underbrace{\frac{1}{2}\tr\lrp{\nabla^2 f(z_t) \lrp{N_t+ N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}}_{\circled{5}} dt
\numberthis \label{e:t:asldka}
\end{aligned}$$
$\circled{3}$ goes to $0$ when we take expectation, so we will focus on $\circled{1}, \circled{2}, \circled{4}, \circled{5}$. We will consider 3 cases
**Case 1: $\|z_t\|_2 \leq 2\epsilon$**\
From item 1(c) of Lemma \[l:fproperties\], $\lrn{\nabla f(z)}_2 \leq 1$. Using Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\].1, $\lrn{\nabla_t} \leq L\lrn{z_t}_2$, so that $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{1} \leq \lrn{\nabla_t}_2 \leq L \lrn{z_t}_2 \leq 2 L \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
Also by Cauchy Schwarz, $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{2}
=& \lin{\nabla f(z_t), \Delta_t}
\leq \lrn{\Delta_t}_2 \leq L \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2
\end{aligned}$$
Since $\gamma_t = 0$ in this case by definition in , $\circled{4}=0$.
Using Lemma \[l:fproperties\].2.c. $ \lrn{\nabla^2 f(z_t)}_2 \leq \frac{2}{\epsilon}$, so that $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{5}
\leq& \frac{1}{\epsilon} \lrp{\tr\lrp{N_t^2 + N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}\\
\leq& \frac{2}{\epsilon} \lrp{\tr\lrp{N_t^2} + \tr\lrp{\lrp{N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}}\\
\leq& \frac{2L_N^2}{\epsilon} \lrp{\lrn{z_t}_2^2 + \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2^2}\\
\leq& 4L_N^2 \epsilon + \frac{2L_N^2}{\epsilon} \|y_t-y_0\|_2^2
\end{aligned}$$
Where the second inequality is by Young’s inequality, the third inequality is by item 2 of Lemma \[l:N\_is\_regular\], the fourth inequality is by our assumption that $\lrn{z_t}_2 \leq 2\epsilon$.
Summing these, $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{1} + \circled{2} + \circled{4} + \circled{5}
\leq 4 \lrp{L + L_N^2}\epsilon + L \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2 + \frac{2L_N^2}{\epsilon}\|y_t-y_0\|_2^2
\end{aligned}$$
**Case 2: $\|z_t\|_2\in (2\epsilon, \Rq)$**\
In this case, $\gamma_t = \frac{z_t}{\|z_t\|_2}$. Let $q$ be as defined in and $g$ be as defined in Lemma \[l:gproperties\]. By items 1(b) and 2(b) of Lemma \[l:fproperties\] and items 1(b) and 2(b) of Lemma \[l:gproperties\], $$\begin{aligned}
\nabla f(z_t)
=& q'(g(z_t)) \nabla g(z_t) \\
=& q'(g(z_t)) \frac{z_t}{\lrn{z_t}_2}\\
\nabla^2 f(z_t)
=& q''(g(z_t))\nabla g(z_t) \nabla g(z_t)^T + q'(g(z_t))\nabla^2 g(z_t)\\
=& q''(g(z_t)) \frac{z_t z_t^T}{\|z_t\|_2^2} + q'(g(z_t)) \frac{1}{\|z_t\|_2} \lrp{I - \frac{z_tz_t^T}{\|z_t\|_2^2}}
\end{aligned}$$
Once again, by Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\].3, $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{1} \leq q'(g(z_t))\lrn{\nabla_t}_2 \leq q'(g(z_t)) \cdot \LR \cdot \|z_t\|_2 \leq& L \cdot q'(g(z_t)) g(z_t) + 2 L \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$ Where the last inequality uses Lemma \[l:gproperties\].4. We can also verify that $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{2} \leq L \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2
\end{aligned}$$
Using the expression for $\nabla^2 f(z_t)$, $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{4}
= 2\cm^2 \tr\lrp{\nabla^2 f(z_t) \gamma_t \gamma_t^T} = 2\cm^2 \cdot q''(g(z_t))
\end{aligned}$$
Finally, $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{5}
=& \frac{1}{2}\tr\lrp{\nabla^2 f(z_t) \lrp{N_t+ N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}\\
=& \frac{1}{2}\tr\lrp{\lrp{q''(g(z_t)) \frac{z_t z_t^T}{\|z_t\|_2^2} + q'(g(z_t)) \frac{1}{\|z_t\|_2} \lrp{I - \frac{z_tz_t^T}{\|z_t\|_2^2}}} \lrp{N_t+ N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}\\
\leq& \frac{1}{2}\tr\lrp{\lrp{ q'(g(z_t)) \frac{1}{\|z_t\|_2} \lrp{I - \frac{z_tz_t^T}{\|z_t\|_2^2}}} \lrp{N_t+ N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}\\
\leq& \frac{q'(g(z_t))}{\|z_t\|_2}\cdot \lrp{\tr\lrp{N_t^2} + \tr\lrp{\lrp{N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}}\\
\leq& q'(g(z_t)) \cdot L_N^2 \|z_t\|_2 + \frac{L_N^2\|y_t-y_0\|_2^2}{2\epsilon}\\
\leq& q'(g(z_t)) \cdot L_N^2 g(z_t) + \frac{L_N^2\|y_t-y_0\|_2^2}{2\epsilon} + 2 L_N^2 \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
The above uses multiples times the fact that $0 \leq q' \leq 1$ and $q'' \leq 0$ (proven in items 3 and 4 of Lemma \[l:qproperties\]). The second inequality is by Young’s inequality, the third inequality is by item 2 of Lemma \[l:N\_is\_regular\], the fourth inequality uses item 4 of Lemma \[l:gproperties\].
Summing these, $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{1} + \circled{2} + \circled{4} + \circled{5}
\leq& \lrp{\LR + L_N^2} q'(g(z_t)) g(z_t) + 2\cm^2 q''(g(z_t)) + \frac{L_N^2\|y_t-y_0\|_2^2}{2\epsilon} + 2 \lrp{L + \LN^2}\epsilon\\
\leq& - \frac{2\cm^2\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}}{32\Rq^2} q(g(z_t)) + \frac{L_N^2\|y_t-y_0\|_2^2}{2\epsilon} + 2 \lrp{L + \LN^2}\epsilon\\
\leq& - \lambda q(g(z_t)) + \frac{L_N^2\|y_t-y_0\|_2^2}{2\epsilon} + 2 (L+L_N^2) \epsilon\\
=& - \lambda f(z_t) + \frac{L_N^2\|y_t-y_0\|_2^2}{2\epsilon} + 2 (L+L_N^2) \epsilon + L \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2
\end{aligned}$$
Where the last inequality follows from Lemma \[l:qproperties\].\[f:contraction\] and the definition of $\lambda$ in .
**Case 3: $\|z_t\|_2 \geq \Rq$**\
In this case, $\gamma_t=0$. Similar to case 2, $$\begin{aligned}
\nabla f(z_t) = q'(g(z_t)) \frac{z_t}{\|z_t\|_2}
\end{aligned}$$
Thus by Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\].3, $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{1}
=& \lin{q'(g(z_t)) \frac{z_t}{\|z_t\|_2}, - \nabla_t}\\
\leq& -m q'(g(z_t)) \lrn{z_t}_2
\end{aligned}$$ Where the inequality is by Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\].3.
For identical reasons as in Case 1, $\circled{2}\leq \LR \lrn{y_t-y_0}_2$, and $\circled{4} = 0$. Finally, $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{5}
=& \frac{1}{2}\tr\lrp{\nabla^2 f(z_t) \lrp{N_t+ N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}\\
=& \frac{1}{2}\tr\lrp{\lrp{q''(g(z_t)) \frac{z_t z_t^T}{\|z_t\|_2^2} + q'(g(z_t)) \frac{1}{\|z_t\|_2} \lrp{I - \frac{z_tz_t^T}{\|z_t\|_2^2}}} \lrp{N_t+ N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}\\
\leq& \frac{1}{2}\tr\lrp{\lrp{ q'(g(z_t)) \frac{1}{\|z_t\|_2} \lrp{I - \frac{z_tz_t^T}{\|z_t\|_2^2}}} \lrp{N_t+ N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}\\
\leq& \frac{q'(g(z_t))}{\|z_t\|_2}\cdot \lrp{\tr\lrp{N_t^2} + \tr\lrp{\lrp{N(y_t) - N(y_0)}^2}}
\end{aligned}$$
Where the first inequality is because $q''\leq 0$ from item 4 of Lemma \[l:qproperties\], the second inequality is by Young’s inequality. (These steps are identical to Case 2). Continuing from above, and using item 2 and 3 of Lemma \[l:N\_is\_regular\], $$\begin{aligned}
\circled{5}
\leq& q'(g(z_t)) \cdot \lrp{\frac{8\beta^2 \LN}{\cm} + \frac{\LN^2\|y_t-y_0\|_2^2}{\epsilon}}\\
\leq& q'(g(z_t)) \cdot \lrp{\frac{m}{2} \|z_t\|_2}
+ q'(g(z_t)) \cdot \lrp{ \frac{\LN^2\|y_t-y_0\|_2^2}{\epsilon}}
\end{aligned}$$ Where the second inequality is by our definition of $\Rq$ in the Lemma statement, which ensures that $\frac{8\beta^2 \LN}{\cm} \leq \frac{m}{2} \Rq \leq \frac{m}{2} \|z_t\|_2 $.
Thus $$\begin{aligned}
& \circled{1} + \circled{2} + \circled{4} + \circled{5}\\
\leq& -m q'(g(z_t)) \|z_t\|_2 + \LR \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2 + \frac{m}{2} q'(g(z_t)) \|z_t\|_2 + q'(g(z_t)) \cdot \lrp{ \frac{\LN^2\|y_t-y_0\|_2^2}{\epsilon}}\\
\leq& -\frac{m}{2} q'(g(z_t)) \|z_t\|_2 + \frac{\LN^2}{\epsilon} \lrn{y_t-y_0}_2^2 + L \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2\\
\leq& - \lambda f(z_t) + \frac{\LN^2}{\epsilon} \lrn{y_t-y_0}_2^2 + L \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2
\end{aligned}$$
where the second inequality uses $q'\leq 1$ from item 3 of Lemma \[l:qproperties\], the third inequality uses our definition of $\lambda$ in .
Combining the three cases, can be upper bounded with probability 1: $$\begin{aligned}
&d f(z_t)
\leq - \lambda f(z_t) + \frac{\LN^2}{\epsilon} \lrn{y_t-y_0}_2^2 + L \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2 + \lin{\nabla f(z_t), 2 \cm \gamma_t \gamma_t^T dV_t + \lrp{N_t + N(y_t) - N(y_0)} dW_t }
\end{aligned}$$
To simplify notation, let us define $G_t \in \Re^{1\times 2d}$ as $G_t:= \lrb{\nabla f(z_t)^T 2\cm \gamma_t \gamma_t^T, \nabla f(z_t)^T \lrp{N_t + N(y_t) - N(y_0)}}$, and let $A_t$ be a $2d$-dimensional Brownian motion from concatenating $A_t = \cvec{V_t}{W_t}$. Thus $$\begin{aligned}
d f(z_t) \leq -\lambda f(z_t) dt + \lrp{\frac{L_N^2}{\epsilon}\lrn{y_t - y_0}_2^2 + L \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2} + G_t dA_t.
\end{aligned}$$ We will study the Lyapunov function $$\begin{aligned}
\mathcal{L}_t:= f(z_t) - \int_0^t e^{-\lambda(t-s)}\lrp{\frac{L_N^2}{\epsilon}\lrn{y_s - y_0}_2^2 + L \lrn{y_s - y_0}_2} ds - \int_0^t e^{-\lambda(t-s)} G_s dA_s.
\end{aligned}$$ By taking derivatives, we see that $$\begin{aligned}
d\mathcal{L}_t
\leq& -\lambda f(z_t) dt + \lrp{\frac{L_N^2}{\epsilon}\lrn{y_t - y_0}_2^2 + L \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2}dt + G_t dA_t\\
&\qquad + \lambda \lrp{\int_0^t e^{-\lambda(t-s)}\lrp{\frac{L_N^2}{\epsilon}\lrn{y_s - y_0}_2^2 + L \lrn{y_s - y_0}_2} ds} dt - \lrp{\frac{L_N^2}{\epsilon}\lrn{y_t - y_0}_2^2 + L \lrn{y_t - y_0}_2} dt\\
&\qquad + \lambda \lrp{\int_0^t e^{-\lambda(t-s)} G_s dA_s} dt - G_t dA_t\\
=& -\lambda \mathcal{L}_t dt
\end{aligned}$$
We can then apply Gronwall’s Lemma to $\mathcal{L}_t$, so that $$\begin{aligned}
\mathcal{L}_T \leq e^{-\lambda T} \mathcal{L}_0,
\end{aligned}$$ which is equivalent to $$\begin{aligned}
f(z_T) - \int_0^T e^{-\lambda(T-s)}\lrp{\frac{L_N^2}{\epsilon}\lrn{y_s - y_0}_2^2 + L \lrn{y_s - y_0}_2} ds - \int_0^T e^{-\lambda(t-s)} G_s dA_s \leq e^{-\lambda T} f(z_0).
\end{aligned}$$ Observe that $G_s$ is measurable wrt the natural filtration generated by $A_s$, so that $\int_0^T e^{-\lambda (T-s)} G_s dA_s$ is a martingale. Thus taking expectations, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(z_T)} \leq e^{-\lambda T} \E{f(z_0)} + \int_0^T \frac{L_N^2}{\epsilon} \E{\lrn{y_s - y_0}_2^2} + L \E{\lrn{y_s - y_0}_2} ds
\end{aligned}$$ By Lemma \[l:divergence\_yt\], $\E{\lrn{y_t - y_0}_2^2} \leq t^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{y_0}_2^2} + t\beta^2$, so that $$\begin{aligned}
& \int_0^T \frac{L_N^2}{\epsilon} \E{\lrn{y_s - y_0}_2^2} ds \leq \frac{T^3 L_N^2 L^2}{\epsilon}\E{\lrn{y_0}_2^2} + \frac{T^2L_N^2}{\epsilon}\beta^2\\
& L \E{\lrn{y_s - y_0}_2} \leq T^2 L^2 \sqrt{\E{\lrn{y_0}_2^2}} + T^{3/2} L \beta
\end{aligned}$$ Furthermore, using our assumption in the Lemma statement that $T \leq \min\lrbb{\frac{\epsilon^2}{\beta^2}, \frac{\epsilon}{{6L \sqrt{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}}}$ and $\E{\lrn{y_0}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$, we can verify that $$\begin{aligned}
& \int_0^T \frac{L_N^2}{\epsilon} \E{\lrn{y_s - y_0}_2^2} ds \leq \frac{1}{4} TL_N^2 \epsilon + TL_N^2 \epsilon\\
& L \E{\lrn{y_s - y_0}_2} \leq \frac{1}{2} TL\epsilon + TL\epsilon
\end{aligned}$$ Combining the above gives $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(z_T)} \leq e^{-\lambda T} \E{f(z_0)} + 3 T\lrp{L+L_N^2} \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
\[c:main\_gaussian:1\] Let $f$ be as defined in Lemma \[l:fproperties\] with parameter $\epsilon$ satisfying $\epsilon \leq \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$.
Let $\delta\leq \min\lrbb{\frac{\epsilon^2}{\beta^2}, \frac{\epsilon}{8 L\sqrt{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}}$, and let $\bx_t$ and $\by_t$ have dynamics as defined in and respectively, and suppose that the initial conditions satisfy $\E{\lrn{\bx_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$ and $\E{\lrn{\by_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$. Then there exists a coupling between $\bx_t$ and $\by_t$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(\bx_{i\delta} - \by_{i\delta})} \leq e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{f(\bx_{0} - \by_{0})} + \frac{6}{\lambda} \lrp{L + \LN^2} \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
From Lemma \[l:energy\_x\] and \[l:energy\_y\], our initial conditions imply that for all $t$, $\E{\|\bx_t\|_2^2} \leq 6\lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}$ and $\E{\|\by_{k\delta}\|_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}$.
Consider an arbitrary $k$, and for $t\in[k\delta,(k+1)\delta)$, define $$\begin{aligned}
x_t := \bx_{k\delta+t} \quad \text{and} \quad
y_t := \by_{k\delta+t}
\end{aligned}$$ Under this definition, $x_t$ and $y_t$ have dynamics described in and . Thus the coupling in , which describes a coupling between $x_t$ and $y_t$, equivalently describes a coupling between $\bx_t$ and $\by_t$ over $t\in[k\delta, (k+1)\delta)$.
We now apply Lemma \[l:gaussian\_contraction\]. Given our assumed bound on $\delta$ and our proven bounds on $\E{\lrn{\bx_t}_2^2}$ and $\E{\lrn{\by_t}_2^2}$, $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{f(\bx_{(k+1)\delta} - \by_{(k+1)\delta})}\\
=& \E{f(x_{\delta} - y_{\delta})}\\
\leq& e^{-\lambda \delta} \E{f(x_0 - y_0)} + 6\delta (L+\LN^2) \epsilon\\
=& e^{-\lambda \delta} \E{f(\bx_{k\delta} - \by_{k\delta})} + 6\delta (L+\LN^2) \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$ Applying the above recursively gives, for any $i$ $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(\bx_{i\delta} - \by_{i\delta})} \leq e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{f(\bx_{0} - \by_{0})} + \frac{6}{\lambda} \lrp{L + \LN^2} \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
[Proof of Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\]]{}\[ss:proof:t:main\_gaussian\]
For ease of reference, we re-state Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\] below as Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian:restated\] below. We make a minor notational change: using the letters $\bx_t$ and $\by_t$ in Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian:restated\], instead of the letters $x_t$ and $y_t$ in Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\]. This is to avoid some notation conflicts in the proof.
\[Equivalent to Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\]\] \[t:main\_gaussian:restated\] Let $\bx_t$ and $\by_t$ have dynamics as defined in and respectively, and suppose that the initial conditions satisfy $\E{\lrn{\bx_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$ and $\E{\lrn{\by_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$. Let $\hat{\epsilon}$ be a target accuracy satisfying $\hat{\epsilon} \leq \lrp{\frac{16\lrp{L + \LN^2}}{\lambda}} \cdot \exp\lrp{7\aq\Rq/3} \cdot \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$. Let $\delta$ be a step size satisfying $$\begin{aligned}
\delta \leq \min\twocase{\frac{\lambda^2 \hat{\epsilon}^2}{512 \beta^2\lrp{L^2 + \LN^4}\exp\lrp{\frac{14\aq\Rq^2}{3}}}}{\frac{2\lambda \hat{\epsilon}}{(L^2+\LN^4)\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\sqrt{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}}.
\end{aligned}$$
If we assume that $\bx_0 = \by_0$, then there exists a coupling between $\bx_t$ and $\by_t$ such that for any $k$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{\bx_{k\delta} - \by_{k\delta}}_2} \leq \hat{\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$
Alternatively, if we assume $k \geq \frac{ 3\aq\Rq^2}{ \delta} \log \frac{R^2 + \beta^2/m}{\hat{\epsilon}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
W_1\lrp{p^*, p^y_{k\delta}} \leq 2\hat{\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$ where $p^y_t := \Law(\by_t)$.
Let $\epsilon := \frac{\lambda}{16 (L+\LN^2)} \exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}} \hat{\epsilon}$. Let $f$ be defined as in Lemma \[l:fproperties\] with the parameter $\epsilon$.
$$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{\bx_{i\delta} - \by_{i\delta}}_2}\\
\leq& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\E{f(\bx_{i\delta} - \by_{i\delta})} + 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\epsilon\\
\leq& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\lrp{e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{f(\bx_{0} - \by_{0})} + \frac{6}{\lambda} \lrp{L + \LN^2} \epsilon} + 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\epsilon\\
\leq& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{f(\bx_{0} - \by_{0})} + \frac{16\lrp{L+\LN^2}}{\lambda}\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}} \cdot \epsilon
\numberthis \label{e:t:asdkja:1}\\
=& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{f(\bx_{0} - \by_{0})} + \hat{\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$
where the first inequality is by item 4 of Lemma \[l:fproperties\], the second inequality is by Corollary \[c:main\_gaussian:1\] (notice that $\delta$ satisfies the requirement on $T$ in Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\], for the given $\epsilon$). The third inequality uses the fact that $1\leq L/m \leq \frac{\lrp{L+\LN^2}}{\lambda}$.
The first claim follows from substituting $\bx_0 = \by_0$ into , so that the first term is $0$, and using the definition of $\epsilon$, so that the second term is $0$.
For the second claim, let $\bx_0 \sim p^*$, the invariant distribution of . From Lemma \[l:energy\_x\], we know that $\bx_0$ satisfies the required initial conditions in this Lemma. Continuing from , $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{\bx_{i\delta} - \by_{i\delta}}_2}\\
\leq& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\lrp{2e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{\lrn{\bx_0}_2^2 + \lrn{\by_0}_2^2} + \frac{6}{\lambda} \lrp{L + \LN^2} \epsilon} + \epsilon\\
\leq& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\lrp{2e^{-\lambda i\delta} \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}} + \frac{16}{\lambda} \exp\lrp{2\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\lrp{L + \LN^2} \epsilon\\
=& 4\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\lrp{e^{-\lambda i\delta} \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}} + \hat{\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$ By our assumption that $i\geq \frac{1}{\delta} \cdot 3\aq\Rq^2 \log \frac{R^2 + \beta^2/m}{\hat{\epsilon}}$, the first term is also bounded by $\hat{\epsilon}$, and this proves our second claim.
[Simulating the SDE]{} \[ss:simlutating\_discrete\_sde\] One can verify that the SDE in can be simulated (at discrete time intervals) as follows: $$\begin{aligned}
y_{(k+1) \delta} = y_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(y_{k\delta}) + \sqrt{\delta} M(y_{k\delta}) \theta_k
\end{aligned}$$ Where $\theta_k \sim \N(0,I)$. This however requires access to $M(y_{k,\delta})$, which may be difficult to compute.
If for any $y$, one is able to draw samples from some distribution $p_y$ such that
1. $\Ep{\xi \sim p_y}{\xi}=0$
2. $\Ep{\xi\sim p_y}{\xi \xi^T}=M(y)$
3. $\lrn{\xi}_2 \leq \beta$ almost surely, for some $\beta$.
then one might sample a noise that is $\delta$ close to $M(y_{k\delta}) \theta_k$ through Theorem \[t:zhai\].
Specifically, if one draws $n$ samples $\xi_1...\xi_n\overset{iid}{\sim} p_y$, and let $S_n := \frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}\sum_{i=1}^n \xi_i$, Theorem \[t:zhai\] guarantees that\
$W_2 \lrp{S_n, M(y) \theta} \leq \frac{6\sqrt{d}\beta\sqrt{\log n}}{\sqrt{n}}$. We remark that the proof of Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\] can be modified to accommodate for this sampling error. The number of samples needed to achieve $\epsilon$ accuracy will be on the order of $n \approxeq O(\delta \epsilon)^{-2} = O(\epsilon^{-6})$.
[Proofs for Convergence under Non-Gaussian Noise (Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\])]{} \[s:nongaussianproof\]
[Proof Overview]{} The main proof of Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\] is contained in Appendix \[ss:proof:t:main\_nongaussian\].
Here, we outline the steps of our proof:
1. In Appendix \[ss:4\_coupling\], we construct a coupling between $\eqref{e:exact-sde}$ and $\eqref{e:discrete-clt}$ over an epoch which consists of an interval $[k\delta , (k+n)\delta)$ for some $k$. The coupling in consists of four processes $(x_t,y_t,v_t,w_t)$, where $y_t$ and $v_t$ are auxiliary processes used in defining the coupling. Notably, the process $(x_t,y_t)$ has the same distribution over the epoch as .
2. In Appendix \[ss:epoch\_nongaussian\], we prove Lemma \[l:non\_gaussian\_contraction\_stationary\] and Lemma \[l:non\_gaussian\_contraction\_anisotropic\], which, combined with Lemma \[l:gaussian\_contraction\] from Appendix \[ss:step\_gaussian\], show that under the coupling constructed in Step 1, a Lyapunov function $f(x_T - w_T)$ contracts exponentially with rate $\lambda$, plus a discretization error term. In Corollary \[c:main\_nongaussian:1\], we apply the results of Lemma \[l:gaussian\_contraction\], Lemma \[l:non\_gaussian\_contraction\_stationary\] and Lemma \[l:non\_gaussian\_contraction\_anisotropic\] recursively over multiple steps to give a bound on $f(x_{k\delta}-w_{k\delta})$ for all $k$, and for sufficiently small $\delta$.
3. Finally, in Appendix \[ss:proof:t:main\_nongaussian\], we prove Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\] by applying the results of Corollary \[c:main\_nongaussian:1\], together with the fact that $f(z)$ upper bounds $\lrn{z}_2$ up to a constant.
[Constructing a Coupling]{} \[ss:4\_coupling\] In this subsection, we construct a coupling between and , given arbitrary initialization $(x_0,w_0)$. We will consider a finite time $T=n\delta$, which we will refer to as an *epoch*.
1. Let $V_t$ and $W_t$ be two independent Brownian motion.
2. Using $V_t$ and $W_t$, define $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis \label{e:coupled_4_processes_x}
x_t =& x_0 + \int_0^t -\nabla U(x_s) ds + \int_0^t \cm dV_s + \int_0^t N(w_0) dW_s
\end{aligned}$$
3. Using the same $V_t$ and $W_t$ in , we will define $y_t$ as $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis \label{e:coupled_4_processes_y}
y_t =& w_0 + \int_0^t -\nabla U(w_0) ds + \int_0^t \cm \lrp{I - 2\gamma_s \gamma_s^t} dV_s + \int_0^T N(x_s) dW_s
\end{aligned}$$
Where $\gamma_t := \frac{x_t - y_t}{\|x_t-y_t\|_2} \cdot \ind{\|x_t-y_t\|_2 \in [2\epsilon, \Rq)}$. The coupling $(x_t,y_t)$ defined in and is identical to the coupling in (with $y_0 = w_0$).
4. We now define a process $v_{k\delta}$ for $k=0...n$: $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis \label{e:coupled_4_processes_v}
v_{k\delta} =& w_0 + \sum_{i=0}^{k-1} - \delta \nabla U(w_0) + {\sqrt{\delta}} \sum_{i=0}^{k-1} \xi(w_0,\eta_i)
\end{aligned}$$ where marginally, the variables $\lrp{\eta_0...\eta_{n-1}}$ are drawn $i.i.d$ from the same distribution as in .
Notice that $y_T - w_0 - T \nabla U(w_0) = \int_0^T \cm dB_t + \int_0^T N(w_0) dW_t$, so that $\Law(y_T - w_0 - T \nabla U(w_0)) = \N(0, T M(w_0)^2)$. Notice also that $v_T - w_0 - T\nabla U(w_0) = \sqrt{\delta} \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \xi(w_0, \eta_i)$. By Corollary \[c:clt\_sum\], $W_2(y_T - w_0 - T \nabla U(w_0), v_T - w_0 - T \nabla U(w_0)) = 6 \sqrt{d\delta}\beta \sqrt{\log n}$. Let the joint distribution between and be the one induced by the optimal coupling between $y_T - w_0 - T \nabla U(w_0)$ and $v_T - w_0 - T \nabla U(w_0)$, so that $$\begin{aligned}
& \sqrt{\E{\lrn{y_T - v_T}_2^2}} \\
=& \sqrt{\E{\lrn{y_T - T \nabla U(w_0) - v_T + T \nabla U(w_0)}_2^2}} \\
=& W_2(y_T - w_0 - T\nabla U(w_0), v_T - w_0 - T\nabla U(w_0)) \\
\leq& 6 \sqrt{d\delta}\beta \sqrt{\log n}
\numberthis \label{e:yt-vt}
\end{aligned}$$ where the last inequality is by Corollary \[c:clt\_sum\].
5. Given the sequence $\lrp{\eta_0...\eta_{n-1}}$ from , we can define $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis \label{e:coupled_4_processes_w}
w_{k\delta} =& w_0 + \sum_{i=0}^{k-1} -\delta\nabla U(w_{i\delta}) + {\sqrt{\delta}} \sum_{i=0}^{k-1} \xi(w_{i\delta},\eta_i)
\end{aligned}$$ specifically, $(w_0 ... w_{n\delta})$ in and $(v_0...v_{n\delta})$ in are coupled through the shared $(\eta_0...\eta_{n-1})$ variables.
For convenience, we will let $v_t := v_{i \delta}$ and $w_t := w_{i\delta}$, where $i$ is the unique integer satisfying $t\in[i\delta, (i+1)\delta)$.
We can verify that, marginally, the process $x_t$ in has the same distribution as , using the proof as Lemma \[l:marginal\_of\_coupling\]. It is also straightforward to verify that $w_{k\delta}$, as defined in , has the same marginal distribution as , due to the definition of $\eta_i$ in .
[One Epoch Contraction]{} \[ss:epoch\_nongaussian\] In Lemma \[l:non\_gaussian\_contraction\_stationary\], we prove a discretization error bound between $f(x_T - y_T)$ and $f(x_T - v_T)$, for the coupling defined in , and .
In Lemma \[l:non\_gaussian\_contraction\_anisotropic\], we prove a discretization error bound between $f(x_T - v_T)$ and $f(x_T - w_T)$, for the coupling defined in , and .
\[l:non\_gaussian\_contraction\_stationary\] Let $f$ be as defined in Lemma \[l:fproperties\] with parameter $\epsilon$ satisfying $\epsilon \leq \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$. Let $x_t$, $y_t$ and $v_t$ be as defined in , , . Let $n$ be any integer and $\delta$ be any step size, and let $T:= n\delta$.
If $\E{\lrn{x_0}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$, $\E{\lrn{y_0}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$ and $T\leq \min\lrbb{\frac{1}{16L}, \frac{\beta^2}{8L^2\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}}$ and $$\begin{aligned}
\delta \leq \min\lrbb{\frac{T\epsilon^2L}{36 d\beta^2\log \lrp{ \frac{36 d\beta^2}{\epsilon^2L}}}, \frac{T\epsilon^4L^2} {2^{14} d\beta^4\log\lrp{\frac{2^{14} d\beta^4}{\epsilon^4L^2}}}}
\end{aligned}$$ Then $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{f(x_T - v_T)} - \E{f(x_T - y_T)} \leq 4TL\epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
By Taylor’s Theorem, $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{f(x_T - v_T)}\\
=& \E{f(x_T - y_T)+ \lin{\nabla f(x_T - y_T), y_T - v_T} + \int_0^1\int_0^s \lin{\nabla^2 f(x_T - y_T + s(y_T-v_T)), (y_T - v_T) (y_T - v_T)^T} ds dt}\\
=& \E{f(x_T - y_T)+ \underbrace{\lin{\nabla f(x_0 - y_0), y_T - v_T}}_{\circled{1}} + \underbrace{\lin{\nabla f(x_T - y_T) - \nabla f(x_0 - y_0), y_T - v_T}}_{\circled{2}} }\\
&\quad + \E{\underbrace{\int_0^1\int_0^s \lin{\nabla^2 f(x_T - y_T + s(y_T-v_T)), (y_T - v_T) (y_T - v_T)^T} ds dt}_{\circled{3}}}
\end{aligned}$$
We will bound each of the terms above separately. $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\circled{1}}\\
=& \E{\lin{\nabla f(x_0 - y_0), y_T - v_T}}\\
=& \E{\lin{\nabla f(x_0 - y_0), n \delta \nabla U(y_0) - n \delta \nabla U(v_0) + \int_0^T -\nabla U(w_0) dt + \int_0^T \cm dV_t + \int_0^T N(w_0) dW_t + \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \sqrt{\delta} \xi(v_0,\eta_i)}}\\
=& \E{\lin{\nabla f(x_0 - y_0), n \delta \nabla U(y_0) - n \delta \nabla U(v_0) }}\\
=& 0
\end{aligned}$$ where the third equality is because $\int_0^T dB_t$, $\int_0^T dW_t$ and $\sum_{k=1}^T \xi(v_0,\eta_i)$ have zero mean conditioned on the information at time $0$, and the fourth equality is because $y_0 = v_0$ by definition in and . $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\circled{2}}\\
=& \E{\lin{\nabla f(x_T - y_T) - \nabla f(x_0 - y_0), y_T - v_T}}\\
\leq& \sqrt{\E{\lrn{\nabla f(x_T - y_T) - \nabla f(x_0 - y_0)}_2^2} }\sqrt{\E{\lrn{y_T - v_T}_2^2}}\\
\leq& \frac{2}{\epsilon}\sqrt{2\E{\lrn{x_T - x_0}_2^2 + \lrn{y_T - y_0}_2^2}} \sqrt{\E{\lrn{y_T - v_T}_2^2}}\\
\leq& \frac{2}{\epsilon}\sqrt{\lrp{32T\beta^2 + 4T\beta^2}} \cdot \lrp{6 \sqrt{d\delta}\beta {\log n}}\\
\leq& \frac{128}{\epsilon} \sqrt{T}\beta^2 \cdot \lrp{ \sqrt{d\delta} {\log n}}
\end{aligned}$$
Where the second inequality is by $\lrn{\nabla^2 f}_2 \leq \frac{2}{\epsilon}$ from item 2(c) of Lemma \[l:fproperties\] and Young’s inequality. The third inequality is by Lemma \[l:divergence\_xt\] and Lemma \[l:divergence\_yt\] and .
Finally, we can bound $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\circled{3}}\\
\leq& \int_0^1\int_0^s \E{\lrn{\nabla^2 f(x_T - y_T + s(y_T-v_T))}_2 \lrn{y_T - v_T}_2^2} ds dt\\
\leq& \frac{2}{\epsilon} \E{\lrn{y_T - v_T}_2^2}\\
\leq& \frac{72 d \delta \beta^2 \log^2 n}{\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$ Where the second inequality is by $\lrn{\nabla^2 f}_2 \leq \frac{2}{\epsilon}$ from item 2(c) of Lemma \[l:fproperties\], the third inequality is by .
Summing these 3 terms, $$\begin{aligned}
&\E{f(x_T - v_T) - f(x_T - y_T)} \\
\leq& \frac{128}{\epsilon} \sqrt{T}\beta^2 \cdot \lrp{ \sqrt{d\delta} \sqrt{\log n}} + \frac{36 d \delta \beta^2 \log n}{\epsilon}\\
=& \frac{128}{\epsilon} \sqrt{T}\beta^2 \cdot \lrp{ \sqrt{d\delta}\sqrt{\log \frac{T}{\delta}}} + \frac{36 d \delta \beta^2 \log \frac{T}{\delta}}{\epsilon }
\end{aligned}$$
Let us bound the first term. We apply Lemma \[l:xlogxbound\] (with $x = \frac{T}{\delta}$ and $c = \frac{\epsilon^4}{2^{14} d\beta^4}$), which shows that $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{T}{\delta} \geq \frac{2^{14} d\beta^4}{\epsilon^4} \log\lrp{\frac{2^{14} d\beta^4}{\epsilon^4L^2}}
\quad \Rightarrow \quad
\frac{T}{\delta} \frac{1}{\log \frac{T}{\delta}} \geq \frac{2^{14} d\beta^4}{\epsilon^4L^2}
\quad \Leftrightarrow \quad
\frac{128}{\epsilon} \sqrt{T}\beta^2 \cdot \lrp{ \sqrt{d\delta}{\log \frac{T}{\delta}}} \leq TL\epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
For the second term, we can again apply Lemma \[l:xlogxbound\] ($x = \frac{T}{\delta}$ and $c = \frac{\epsilon^2L}{36 d\beta^2}$), which shows that $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{T}{\delta} \geq \frac{36 d\beta^2}{\epsilon^2L} \log \lrp{ \frac{36 d\beta^2}{\epsilon^2L} }
\quad \Rightarrow \quad
\frac{T}{\delta} \frac{1}{\log \frac{T}{\delta}} \geq \frac{36 d\beta^2}{\epsilon^2L}
\quad \Rightarrow \quad
\frac{36 d \delta \beta^2 \log \frac{T}{\delta}}{\epsilon } \leq TL\epsilon
\end{aligned}$$ The above imply that $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(x_T - v_T) - f(x_T - y_T)} \leq 2TL\epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
\[l:non\_gaussian\_contraction\_anisotropic\] Let $f$ be as defined in Lemma \[l:fproperties\] with parameter $\epsilon$ satisfying $\epsilon\leq \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$. Let $x_t$, $v_t$ and $w_t$ be as defined in , , . Let $n$ be an integer and $\delta$ be a step size, and let $T:= n\delta$.
If we assume that $\E{\lrn{x_0}_2^2}$, $\E{\lrn{v_0}_2^2}$, and $\E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2}$ are each upper bounded by $8 \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$ and that $T \leq \min\lrbb{ \frac{1}{16L}, \frac{\epsilon}{32\sqrt{L} \beta}, \frac{\epsilon^2}{128\beta^2}, \frac{\epsilon^4 \LN^2}{2^{14}\beta^2 \cm^2}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{f(x_T - w_T)} - \E{f(x_T - v_T)} \leq 4T(L+\LN^2)\epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
For sufficiently small $\epsilon$, our assumption on $T$ boils down to $T = o(\epsilon^4)$
First, we can verify using Taylor’s theorem that for any $x,y$, $$\begin{aligned}
f(y) =& f(x) + \lin{\nabla f(x), y-x} + \int_0^1\int_0^s \lin{\nabla^2 f(x + s(y-x)), (y-x) (y-x)^T} ds dt
\numberthis \label{e:taylor1}\\
\nabla f(y) =& \nabla f(x) + \lin{\nabla^2 f(x), y-x} + \int_0^1\int_0^s \lin{\nabla^3 f(x + s(y-x)), (y-x) (y-x)^T} ds dt
\numberthis \label{e:taylor2}
\end{aligned}$$
Thus $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{f(x_T - w_T)}\\
=& \E{f(x_T - v_T)+ \lin{\nabla f(x_T - v_T), v_T - w_T} + \int_0^1\int_0^s \lin{\nabla^2 f(x_T - v_T + s(v_T-w_T)), (v_T - w_T) (v_T - w_T)^T} ds dt}\\
=& \E{f(x_T - v_T)+ \underbrace{\lin{\nabla f(x_0 - v_0), v_T - w_T}}_{\circled{1}} + \underbrace{\lin{\nabla f(x_T - v_T) - \nabla f(x_0 - v_0), v_T - w_T}}_{\circled{2}}}\\
&\quad + \E{\underbrace{\int_0^1\int_0^s \lin{\nabla^2 f(x_T - v_T + s(v_T-w_T)), (v_T - w_T) (v_T - w_T)^T} ds dt}_{\circled{3}}}
\end{aligned}$$ Recall from and that $$\begin{aligned}
v_{n\delta} =& w_0 + \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \delta \nabla U(w_0) + {\sqrt{\delta}} \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \xi(w_0,\eta_i)\\
w_{n\delta} =& w_0 + \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \delta \nabla U(w_{i\delta}) + {\sqrt{\delta}} \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \xi(w_{i\delta},\eta_i)
\end{aligned}$$ Note that conditioned on the randomness up to time $0$, $\E{\sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \xi(w_0,\eta_i)} = \E{\sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \xi(w_{i\delta},\eta_i)} = 0$, so that $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\circled{1}}\\
=& \E{\lin{\nabla f(x_0 - v_0), v_T - w_T}}\\
=& \delta \E{\lin{\nabla f(x_0 - v_0), \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \nabla U(w_{0}) - \nabla U(w_{i\delta})}} + \sqrt{\delta} \E{\lin{\nabla f(x_0 - v_0), \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \xi(w_{0},\eta_i) - \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \xi(w_{i\delta},\eta_i)}}\\
=& \delta \E{\lin{\nabla f(x_0 - v_0), \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \nabla U(w_{0}) - \nabla U(w_{i\delta})}}\\
\leq& \delta \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} L \E{\lrn{w_0 - w_{i\delta}}_2}\\
\leq& T L \sqrt{32 T\beta^2} \leq 8 T^{3/2} L \beta
\end{aligned}$$
where the third equality is becayse $\xi(\cdot, \eta_i)$ has $0$ mean conditioned on the randomness at time $0$, and the second inequality is by Lemma \[l:divergence\_wt\].
Next, $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\circled{2}}\\
=& \E{\lin{\nabla f(x_T - v_T) - \nabla f(x_0 - v_0), v_T - w_T}}\\
\leq& \E{\lrn{\nabla f(x_T - v_T) - \nabla f(x_0 - v_0)}_2 \lrn{v_T - w_T}}\\
\leq& \frac{4}{\epsilon} \sqrt{\E{\lrn{x_T - x_0}_2^2 + \lrn{v_T - v_0}_2^2}} \cdot \sqrt{\E{\lrn{v_T - w_T}_2^2}}\\
\leq& \frac{4}{\epsilon} \sqrt{16T\beta^2 + 2T\beta^2} \cdot \sqrt{32 \lrp{T^2 L^2 + TL_\xi^2} T\beta^2}\\
\leq& \frac{128}{\epsilon} T \beta^2 \lrp{\sqrt{T} L_\xi + TL}
\end{aligned}$$ where the second inequality is because $\lrn{\nabla^2 f}_2 \leq \frac{2}{\epsilon}$ from item 2(c) of Lemma \[l:fproperties\] and by Young’s inequality. The third inequality is by Lemma \[l:divergence\_xt\], Lemma \[l:divergence\_vt\] and Lemma \[l:vt-wt\].
Finally, $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\circled{3}}\\
=& \E{\int_0^1\int_0^s \lin{\nabla^2 f(x_T - v_T + s(v_T-w_T)), (v_T - w_T) (v_T - w_T)^T} ds dt}\\
\leq& \int_0^1 \int_0^s \E{\lrn{\nabla^2 f(x_T - v_T + s(v_T-w_T))}_2\lrn{v_T - w_T}_2^2} ds \\
\leq& \frac{1}{\epsilon} \E{\lrn{v_T - w_T}_2^2}\\
\leq& \frac{32}{\epsilon} \lrp{T^2 L^2 + TL_\xi^2} T\beta^2
\end{aligned}$$ wehere the second inequality is because $\lrn{\nabla^2 f}_2 \leq \frac{2}{\epsilon}$ from item 2(c) of Lemma \[l:fproperties\] and by Young’s inequality. The third inequality is by Lemma \[l:vt-wt\].
Summing the above, $$\begin{aligned}
&\E{f(x_T - w_T) - f(x_T - v_T)} \\
\leq& 8T^{3/2} L\beta + \frac{128}{\epsilon} T \beta^2 \lrp{\sqrt{T} L_\xi + TL} + \frac{32}{\epsilon} \lrp{T^2 L^2 + TL_\xi^2} T\beta^2\\
\leq& T^{3/2} \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$ where the last inequality is by our assumption on $T$, specifically, $$\begin{aligned}
&T \leq \frac{\epsilon^2}{128\beta^2}
\Rightarrow T^{3/2} L\beta \leq TL\epsilon\\
&T \leq \frac{\epsilon^2}{128\beta^2} \Rightarrow \frac{128}{\epsilon} T^2L \beta^2 \leq TL \epsilon\\
&T \leq \frac{\epsilon}{32\sqrt{L} \beta} \Rightarrow \frac{32}{\epsilon}(T^3 L^2 \beta^2) \leq TL\epsilon\\
& T \leq \frac{\epsilon^4 \LN^2}{2^{14}\beta^2 \cm^2} \Rightarrow \frac{128}{\epsilon} T^{3/2}\beta^2 L_\xi \leq T\LN^2 \epsilon\\
& T \leq \frac{\epsilon^2}{128\beta^2} \Rightarrow T \leq \frac{\epsilon^2}{128\cm^2} \Rightarrow \frac{32}{\epsilon} T^2L_\xi^2\beta^2 \leq T\LN^2\epsilon
\end{aligned}$$ where the last line uses the fact that $\beta \geq \cm^2$.
\[c:main\_nongaussian:1\] Let $f$ be as defined in Lemma \[l:fproperties\] with parameter $\epsilon$ satisfying $\epsilon \leq \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$.\
Let $T= \min\lrbb{\frac{1}{16L}, \frac{\beta^2}{8L^2\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}, \frac{\epsilon}{32\sqrt{L} \beta}, \frac{\epsilon^2}{128\beta^2}, \frac{\epsilon^4 \LN^2}{2^{14}\beta^2 \cm^2}}$ and let $\delta \leq \min\lrbb{\frac{T\epsilon^2L}{36 d\beta^2\log \lrp{ \frac{36 d\beta^2}{\epsilon^2L}}}, \frac{T\epsilon^4L^2} {2^{14} d\beta^4\log\lrp{\frac{2^{14} d\beta^4}{\epsilon^4L^2}}}}$, assume additionally that $n=T/\delta$ is an integer.\
Let $\bx_t$ and $\bw_t$ have dynamics as defined in and respectively, and suppose that the initial conditions satisfy $\E{\lrn{\bx_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$ and $\E{\lrn{\bw_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$. Then there exists a coupling between $\bx_t$ and $\bw_t$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(\bx_{i\delta} - \bw_{i\delta})} \leq e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{f(\bx_{0} - \bw_{0})} + \frac{6}{\lambda} \lrp{L + \LN^2} \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
From Lemma \[l:energy\_x\] and \[l:energy\_w\], our initial conditions imply that for all $t$, $\E{\|\bx_t\|_2^2} \leq 6\lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}$ and $\E{\|\bw_{k\delta}\|_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}$.
Consider an arbitrary $k$, and for $t\in[0,T)$, define $$\begin{aligned}
x_t := \bx_{kT+t} \quad \text{and} \quad
w_t := \bw_{kT+t} \numberthis \label{e:t:kasjnd}
\end{aligned}$$ Notice that as described above, $x_t$ and $w_t$ have dynamics described in and . Let $x_t,w_t$ have joint distribution as described in and , and let $(y_t,v_t)$ be the processes defined in and . Notice that the joint distribution between $x_t$ and $w_t$ equivalently describes a coupling between $\bx_t$ and $\bw_t$ over $t\in[kT, (k+1)T)$.
First, notice that the processes $\eqref{e:coupled_4_processes_x}$ and $\eqref{e:coupled_4_processes_y}$ have the same distribution as . We can thus apply Lemma \[l:gaussian\_contraction\]: $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(x_{T} - y_{T})}
\leq& e^{-\lambda T} \E{f(x_0 - y_0)} + 6T (L+\LN^2) \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
By Lemma \[l:non\_gaussian\_contraction\_stationary\], $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(x_T - v_T)} - \E{f(x_T - y_T)}
\leq 4TL\epsilon
\end{aligned}$$ By Lemma \[l:non\_gaussian\_contraction\_anisotropic\], $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(x_T - w_T)} - \E{f(x_T - v_T)}
\leq 4T(L+\LN^2)\epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
Summing the above three equations, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(x_T - w_T)}
\leq e^{-\lambda \delta} \E{f(x_0 - w_0)} + 14T (L+\LN^2)
\end{aligned}$$ Where we use the fact that $y_0 = w_0$ by construction in .
Recalling , this is equivalent to $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(\bx_{(k+1)T} - \bw_{(k+1)T})}
\leq e^{-\lambda \delta} \E{f(\bx_{kT} - \bw_{kT})} + 14T (L+\LN^2)
\end{aligned}$$
Applying the above recursively gives, for any $i$ $$\begin{aligned}
\E{f(\bx_{iT} - \bw_{iT})} \leq e^{-\lambda iT} \E{f(\bx_{0} - \bw_{0})} + \frac{14}{\lambda} \lrp{L + \LN^2} \epsilon
\end{aligned}$$
[Proof of Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\]]{} \[ss:proof:t:main\_nongaussian\] For ease of reference, we re-state Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\] below as Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian:restated\] below. We make a minor notational change: using the letters $\bx_t$ and $\by_t$ in Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian:restated\], instead of the letters $x_t$ and $y_t$ in Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\]. This is to avoid some notation conflicts in the proof.
\[Equivalent to Theorem \[t:main\_nongaussian\]\] \[t:main\_nongaussian:restated\] Let $\bx_t$ and $w_t$ have dynamics as defined in and respectively, and suppose that the initial conditions satisfy $\E{\lrn{\bx_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$ and $\E{\lrn{\bw_0}_2^2}\leq R^2 + \beta^2/m$. Let $\hat{\epsilon}$ be a target accuracy satisfying $\hat{\epsilon} \leq \lrp{\frac{16\lrp{L + \LN^2}}{\lambda}} \cdot \exp\lrp{7\aq\Rq/3} \cdot \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$. Let $\epsilon:= \frac{\lambda}{16 (L+\LN^2)} \exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}} \hat{\epsilon}$. Let $T:= \min\lrbb{\frac{1}{16L}, \frac{\beta^2}{8L^2\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}, \frac{\epsilon}{32\sqrt{L} \beta}, \frac{\epsilon^2}{128\beta^2}, \frac{\epsilon^4 \LN^2}{2^{14}\beta^2 \cm^2}}$ and let $\delta$ be a step size satisfying $$\begin{aligned}
\delta \leq \min\lrbb{\frac{T\epsilon^2L}{36 d\beta^2\log \lrp{ \frac{36 d\beta^2}{\epsilon^2L}}}, \frac{T\epsilon^4L^2} {2^{14} d\beta^4\log\lrp{\frac{2^{14} d\beta^4}{\epsilon^4L^2}}}}.
\end{aligned}$$
If we assume that $\bx_0 = \bw_0$, then there exists a coupling between $\bx_t$ and $\bw_t$ such that for any $k$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{\bx_{k\delta} - \bw_{k\delta}}_2} \leq \hat{\epsilon}.
\end{aligned}$$
Alternatively, if we assume that $k \geq \frac{3\aq\Rq^2}{ \delta} \cdot \log \frac{R^2 + \beta^2/m}{\hat{\epsilon}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
W_1\lrp{p^*, p^w_{k\delta}} \leq 2\hat{\epsilon},
\end{aligned}$$ where $p^w_t := \Law(\bw_t)$.
Let $f$ be defined as in Lemma \[l:fproperties\] with parameter $\epsilon$. $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{\bx_{i\delta} - \bw_{i\delta}}_2}\\
\leq& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\E{f(\bx_{i\delta} - \bw_{i\delta})} + 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\epsilon\\
\leq& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\lrp{e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{f(\bx_{0} - \bw_{0})} + \frac{6}{\lambda} \lrp{L + \LN^2} \epsilon} + 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\epsilon\\
\leq& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{f(\bx_{0} - \bw_{0})} + \frac{16\lrp{L+\LN^2}}{\lambda}\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}} \cdot \epsilon
\numberthis \label{e:t:asdkjas:1}\\
=& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{f(\bx_{0} - \bw_{0})} + \hat{\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$ where the first inequality is by item 4 of Lemma \[l:fproperties\], the second inequality is by Corollary \[c:main\_nongaussian:1\] (notice that $\delta$ satisfies the requirement on $T$ in Theorem \[t:main\_gaussian\], for the given $\epsilon$). The third inequality uses the fact that $1\leq L/m \leq \frac{\lrp{L+\LN^2}}{\lambda}$.
The first claim follows from substituting $\bx_0 = \bw_0$ into , so that the first term is $0$, and using the definition of $\epsilon$, so that the second term is $0$.
For the second claim, let $\bx_0 \sim p^*$, the invariant distribution of . From Lemma \[l:energy\_x\], we know that $\bx_0$ satisfies the required initial conditions in this Lemma. Continuing from , $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{\bx_{i\delta} - \bw_{i\delta}}_2}\\
\leq& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\lrp{2e^{-\lambda i\delta} \E{\lrn{\bx_0}_2^2 + \lrn{\bw_0}_2^2} + \frac{6}{\lambda} \lrp{L + \LN^2} \epsilon} + \epsilon\\
\leq& 2\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\lrp{2e^{-\lambda i\delta} \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}} + \frac{16}{\lambda} \exp\lrp{2\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\lrp{L + \LN^2} \epsilon\\
=& 4\exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\lrp{e^{-\lambda i\delta} \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}} + \hat{\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$ By our assumption that $i\geq \frac{1}{ \delta} \cdot 3\aq\Rq^2 \log \frac{R^2 + \beta^2/m}{\hat{\epsilon}}$, the first term is also bounded by $\hat{\epsilon}$, and this proves our second claim.
[Coupling Properties]{} \[s:coupling\_properties\]
\[l:marginal\_of\_coupling\] Consider the coupled $(x_t,y_t)$ in . Let $p_t$ denote the distribution of $x_t$, and $q_t$ denote the distribution of $y_t$. Let $p_t'$ and $q_t'$ denote the distributions of and .
If $p_0 = p_0'$ and $q_0 = q_0'$, then $p_t = p_t'$ and $q_t=q_t'$ for all $t$.
Consider the coupling in , reproduced below for ease of reference: $$\begin{aligned}
x_t =& x_0 + \int_0^t -\nabla U(x_s) ds + \int_0^t \cm dV_s + \int_0^t N(x_s) dW_s\\
y_t =& y_0 + \int_0^t -\nabla U(y_0) dt + \int_0^t \cm \lrp{I - 2\gamma_s \gamma_s^T} dV_s + \int_0^t N(y_0) dW_s
\end{aligned}$$
Let us define the stochastic process $A_t := \int_0^t M(x_s)^{-1} \cm dV_s + \int_0^t M(x_s)^{-1} N(x_s) dW_s$. We can verify using Levy’s characterization that $A_t$ is a standard Brownian motion: first, since $V_t$ and $W_t$ are Brownian motions, and $N(x)$ is differentiable with bounded derivatives, we know that $A_t$ has continuous sample paths. We now verify that $A_t^i A_t^j - \ind{i=j} t$ is a martingale.
Notice that $d A_t = \cm dV_t + M(x_s)^{-1} N(x_s) dW_s$. Then $$\begin{aligned}
d A_t^i A_t^j
=& d A_t^T \lrp{e_i e_j^T} A_t\\
=& A_t \lrp{e_i e_j^T} \lrp{\cm dV_t + M(x_s)^{-1} N(x_s) dW_s}^T + \lrp{\cm dV_t + M(x_s)^{-1} N(x_s) dW_s} \lrp{e_j e_i^T} a_t^T\\
&\qquad + \frac{1}{2} \tr\lrp{ \lrp{e_i e_j^T + e_j e_i^T}\lrp{c_m^2 M(x_s)^{-2} + M(x_s)^{-1} N(x_s)^2 M(x_s)^{-1}}} dt
\end{aligned}$$ where the second inequality is by Ito’s Lemma applied to $f(A_t) = A_t^T e_j e_j^T A_t$. Taking expectations, $$\begin{aligned}
d \E{A^i_t A^j_t}
=& \E{\frac{1}{2} \tr\lrp{ \lrp{e_i e_j^T + e_j e_i^T}\lrp{c_m^2 M(x_s)^{-2} + M(x_s)^{-1} N(x_s) N(x_s)^T \lrp{M(x_s)^{-1}}^T}}}dt\\
=& \E{\frac{1}{2} \tr\lrp{ \lrp{e_i e_j^T + e_j e_i^T}\lrp{M(x_s)^{-1} \lrp{c_m^2 I + N(x_s)^2} M(x_s)^{-1}}}}dt\\
=& \E{\frac{1}{2} \tr\lrp{ \lrp{e_i e_j^T + e_j e_i^T}\lrp{M(x_s)^{-1} \lrp{M(x_s)^2} M(x_s)^{-1}}}}dt\\
=& \E{\frac{1}{2} \tr\lrp{ \lrp{e_i e_j^T + e_j e_i^T}}}dt\\
=& \ind{i=j} dt
\end{aligned}$$
This verifies that $A_t^i A_t^j - \ind{i=j} t$ is a martingale, and hence by Levy’s characterization, $A_t$ is a standard Brownian motion. In turn, we verify that by definition of $A_t$, $$\begin{aligned}
x_t
=& x_0 + \int_0^t -\nabla U(x_s) ds + \int_0^t \cm dV_s + \int_0^t N(x_s) dW_s \\
=& x_0 + \int_0^t -\nabla U(x_s) ds + \int_0^t M(x_s) \lrp{M(x_s)^{-1}\lrp{\cm dV_s + N(x_s) dW_s}}\\
=& x_0 + \int_0^t -\nabla U(x_s) ds + \int_0^t M(x_s) dA_s
\end{aligned}$$ Since we showed that $A_t$ is a standard Brownian motion, we verify that $x_t$ as defined in has the same distribution as .
On the other hand, we can verify that $A'_t := \int_0^T (I - 2\gamma_s \gamma_s^T) V_s$ is a standard Brownian motion by the reflection principle. Thus $$\begin{aligned}
\int_0^t \cm \lrp{I - 2\gamma_s \gamma_s^T} dV_s + \int_0^t N(y_0) dW_s \sim \N(0, \lrp{c_m^2 I + N(y_0)^2}) = \N(0, M(y_0)^2)
\end{aligned}$$ where the equality is by definition of $N$ in .
It follows immediately that $y_t$ in has the same distribution as $y_t$ in .
[Energy Bounds]{} \[ss:energy\_bounds\]
\[l:energy\_x\] Consider $x_t$ as defined in . If $x_0$ satisfies $\E{\|x_0\|_2^2} \leq R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}$, then Then for all $t$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\|x_t\|_2^2} \leq 6\lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}\\
\end{aligned}$$ We can also show that $$\begin{aligned}
\Ep{p^*}{\lrn{x}_2^2} \leq 4\lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}
\end{aligned}$$
We consider the potential function $a(x) = \lrp{\|x\|_2 - R}_+^2$ We verify that $$\begin{aligned}
\nabla a(x) =& (\|x\|_2 - R)_+ \frac{x}{\|x\|_2}\\
\nabla^2 a(x) =& \ind{\|x\|_2 \geq R} \frac{xx^T}{\|x\|_2^2} + \frac{(\|x\|_2 - R)_+}{\|x\|_2}\lrp{I - \frac{xx^T}{\|x\|_2^2}}
\end{aligned}$$ Observe that
1. $\lrn{\nabla^2 a(x)}_2 \leq 2 \ind{\|x\|_2 \geq R} \leq 2$
2. $\lin{\nabla a(x), - \nabla U(x)} \leq -m a(x)$. This can be verified by considering 2 cases. If $\|x\|_2 \leq R$, then $\nabla a(x) = 0$ and $a(x) = 0$. If $\|x\|_2 \geq R$, then by Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\], $$\begin{aligned}
\lin{\nabla a(x), -\nabla U(x)}
\leq - m \lrp{\|x\|_2 - R}_+ \|w\|_2
\leq - m \lrp{\|x\|_2 - R}_+^2 = -m \cdot a(x)
\end{aligned}$$
3. $a(x) \geq \frac{1}{2}\|x\|_2^2 - 2R^2$. One can first verify that $a(x) \geq (\lrn{x}_2 - R)^2 - R^2$. Next, by Young’s inequality, $(\lrn{x}_2 - R)^2 = \lrn{x}_2^2 + R^2 - 2\lrn{x}_2 R \geq \lrn{x}_2^2 + R^2 - \frac{1}{2} \lrn{x}_2^2 - 2R^2 = \frac{1}{2} \lrn{x}_2^2 - R^2$.
Therefore, $$\begin{aligned}
& \ddt \E{a(x_t)}
= \E{\lin{\nabla a(x_t), -\nabla U(x_t) dt}} + \frac{1}{2}\E{\tr\lrp{M(x_t)^2 \nabla^2 a(x)}}
\leq -m\E{a(x_t)} + \beta^2\\
\Rightarrow \qquad &
\ddt \lrp{\E{a(x_t)} - \frac{\beta^2}{m}} \leq - m \lrp{\E{a(x_t)} - \frac{\beta^2}{m}}\\
\Rightarrow \qquad &
\ddt \lrp{\E{a(x_t)} - R^2 - \frac{\beta^2}{m}} \leq - m \lrp{\E{a(x_t)} - R^2 - \frac{\beta^2}{m}}
\end{aligned}$$
Thus if $\E{\|x_0\|_2^2} \leq R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}$, then $\E{a(x_0)}\leq R^2 - \frac{\beta^2}{m}$, then $ \lrp{\E{a(x_0)} - R^2 - \frac{\beta^2}{m}} \leq 0$, and $\lrp{\E{a(x_t)} - R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}} \leq e^{-mt} \cdot 0 \leq 0$ for all $t$. This implies that, for all $t$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\|x_t\|_2^2} \leq \E{2 a(x_t) + 4R^2} \leq 6\lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}
\end{aligned}$$
For our second claim that $\Ep{p^*}{\lrn{x}_2^2} \leq R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}$, we can use the fact that if $x_0 \sim p^*$, then $\E{a(x_t)}$ does not change as $p^*$ is invariant, so that $$\begin{aligned}
0 = \ddt \E{a(x_t)} \leq -m\E{a(x_t)} + \beta^2
\end{aligned}$$ Thus $$\begin{aligned}
\E{a(x_t)} \leq \frac{\beta^2}{m}
\end{aligned}$$ Again, $$\begin{aligned}
\Ep{p^*}{\lrn{x}_2^2} = \E{\lrn{x_t}_2^2} \leq 2 \E{a(x_t)} + 4 R^2 \leq 4 \lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}
\end{aligned}$$
\[l:energy\_y\] Let the sequence $y_{k\delta}$ be as defined in . Assuming that $\delta \leq m/(16L^2)$ and $\E{\|y_0\|_2^2} \leq 2 \lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}$ Then for all $k$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\|y_{k\delta}\|_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}
\end{aligned}$$
Let $a(w) := \lrp{\|w\|_2 - R}_+^2$. We can verify that $$\begin{aligned}
\nabla a(w) =& \lrp{\|w\|_2 - R}_+\frac{w}{\|w\|_2}\\
\nabla^2 a(w) =& \ind{\|w\|_2 \geq R}\frac{ww^T}{\|w\|_2^2} + \lrp{\|w\|_2 - R}_+ \frac{1}{\|w\|_2} \lrp{I - \frac{ww^T}{\|w\|_2^2}}
\end{aligned}$$ Observe that
1. $\lrn{\nabla^2 a(w)}_2 \leq 2 \ind{\|w\|_2 \geq R} \leq 2$
2. $\lin{\nabla a(w), - \nabla U(w)} \leq -m a(w)$.
3. $a(w) \geq \frac{1}{2}\|w\|_2^2 - 2R^2$.
The proofs are identical to the proof at the start of Lemma \[l:energy\_w\], so we omit them here.
Using Taylor’s Theorem, and taking expectation of $y_{(k+1)\delta}$ conditioned on $y_{k\delta}$, $$\begin{aligned}
&\E{a(y_{(k+1)\delta})}\\
=& \E{a(y_{k\delta})} + \E{\lin{\nabla a(y_{k\delta}), y_{(k+1)\delta} - y_{k\delta}}}\\
&\quad + \E{\int_0^1 \int_0^t \lin{\nabla^2 a(y_{k\delta} + s(y_{(k+1)\delta} - y_{k\delta}), (y_{(k+1)\delta} - y_{k\delta})(y_{(k+1)\delta} - y_{k\delta})^T} dt ds}\\
\leq& \E{a(y_{k\delta})} + \E{\lin{\nabla a(y_{k\delta}), y_{(k+1)\delta} - y_{k\delta}}} + \E{\lrn{(y_{(k+1)\delta} - y_{k\delta})}_2^2 ds}\\
\leq& \E{a(y_{k\delta})} + \E{\lin{\nabla a(y_{k\delta}), - \delta \nabla U(y_{k\delta})}} + 2\delta^2 \lrn{\nabla U(y_{k\delta})}_2^2 + 2\delta \E{\tr\lrp{M(y_{k\delta})^2}}\\
\leq& \E{a(y_{k\delta})} -m\delta \E{a(y_{k\delta})} + 2\delta^2 \E{\lrn{\nabla U(y_{k\delta})}_2^2} + 2\delta \E{\tr\lrp{M(y_{k\delta})^2}}\\
\leq& \E{a(y_{k\delta})} -m\delta \E{a(y_{k\delta})} + 2\delta^2L^2 \E{\lrn{y_{k\delta}}_2^2} + 2\delta \beta^2\\
\leq& \E{a(y_{k\delta})} -m\delta \E{a(y_{k\delta})} + 4\delta^2L^2 \E{a(y_{k\delta})} + 8\delta^2 L^2 R^2 + 2\delta \beta^2\\
\leq& (1-m\delta/2) \E{a(y_{k\delta})} + {m\delta} R^2 + 2\delta \beta^2
\end{aligned}$$ Where the first inequality uses the upper bound on $\lrn{\nabla^2 a(y)}_2$ above, the second inequality uses the fact that $y_{(k+1)\delta} \sim \N\lrp{y_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(y_{k\delta}), \delta M(y_{k\delta})^2}$, the third inequality uses claim 2. at the start of this proof, the fourth inequality uses item 2 of Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\]. The fifth inequality uses claim 3. above, the sixth inequality uses our assumption that $\delta \leq \frac{m}{16L^2}$.
Taking expectation wrt $y_{k\delta}$, $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{a(y_{(k+1)\delta})} \leq \E{a(y_{k})}-m\delta \lrp{\E{a(y_{k\delta})} - 2R^2 + 2\beta^2/m}\\
\Rightarrow \qquad &
\E{a(y_{(k+1)\delta})} - (2R^2/2 + 2\beta^2/m) \leq (1-m\delta) \lrp{\E{a(y_{k\delta})} - (2R^2 + 2\beta^2/m}
\end{aligned}$$
Thus, if $\E{\|y_0\|_2^2} \leq 2R^2 + 2\beta^2/m$, then $\E{a(y_0)} - \lrp{2R^2 + 2\beta^2/m} \leq 0 $, then $\E{a(y_{k\delta})} - \lrp{2R^2 + 2\beta^2/m}\leq 0$ for all $k$, which implies that $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{y_{k\delta}}_2^2} \leq 2\E{a(y_{k\delta})} + 4 R^2 \leq 8\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $k$.
\[l:energy\_w\] Let the sequence $w_{k\delta}$ be as defined in . Assuming that $\delta \leq m/(16L^2)$ and $\E{\|w_0\|_2^2} \leq 2 \lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}$ Then for all $k$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\|w_{k\delta}\|_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \frac{\beta^2}{m}}
\end{aligned}$$
The proof is almost identical to that of Lemma \[l:energy\_y\]. Let $a(w) := \lrp{\|w\|_2 - R}_+^2$. We can verify that $$\begin{aligned}
\nabla a(w) =& \lrp{\|w\|_2 - R}_+\frac{w}{\|w\|_2}\\
\nabla^2 a(y) =& \ind{\|w\|_2 \geq R}\frac{ww^T}{\|w\|_2^2} + \lrp{\|w\|_2 - R}_+ \frac{1}{\|w\|_2} \lrp{I - \frac{ww^T}{\|w\|_2^2}}
\end{aligned}$$ Observe that
1. $\lrn{\nabla^2 a(w)}_2 \leq 2 \ind{\|w\|_2 \geq R} \leq 2$
2. $\lin{\nabla a(w), - \nabla U(w)} \leq -m a(w)$.
3. $a(w) \geq \frac{1}{2}\|w\|_2^2 - 2R^2$.
The proofs are identical to the proof at the start of Lemma \[l:energy\_w\], so we omit them here.
Using Taylor’s Theorem, and taking expectation of $w_{(k+1)\delta}$ conditioned on $w_{k\delta}$, $$\begin{aligned}
&\E{a(w_{(k+1)\delta})}\\
=& \E{a(w_{k\delta})} + \E{\lin{\nabla a(w_{k\delta}), w_{(k+1)\delta} - w_{k\delta}}}\\
&\quad + \E{\int_0^1 \int_0^t \lin{\nabla^2 a(w_{k\delta} + s(w_{(k+1)\delta} - w_{k\delta}), (w_{(k+1)\delta} - w_{k\delta})(w_{(k+1)\delta} - w_{k\delta})^T} dt ds}\\
\leq& \E{a(w_{k\delta})} + \E{\lin{\nabla a(w_{k\delta}), w_{(k+1)\delta} - w_{k\delta}}} + \E{\lrn{(w_{(k+1)\delta} - w_{k\delta})}_2^2 ds}\\
\leq& \E{a(w_{k\delta})} + \E{\lin{\nabla a(w_{k\delta}), - \delta \nabla U(w_{k\delta})}} + 2\delta^2 \lrn{\nabla U(w_{k\delta})}_2^2 + 2\delta \E{\lrn{\xi(w_{k\delta},\eta_k)}_2^2}\\
\leq& \E{a(w_{k\delta})} -m\delta \E{a(w_{k\delta})} + 2\delta^2 \E{\lrn{\nabla U(w_{k\delta})}_2^2} + 2\delta \E{\lrn{\xi(w_{k\delta},\eta_k)}_2^2}\\
\leq& \E{a(w_{k\delta})} -m\delta \E{a(w_{k\delta})} + 2\delta^2L^2 \E{\lrn{w_{k\delta}}_2^2} + 2\delta \beta^2\\
\leq& \E{a(w_{k\delta})} -m\delta \E{a(w_{k\delta})} + 2\delta^2L^2 a(w_{k\delta}) + 2\delta^2 L^2 R^2 + 2\delta \beta^2\\
\leq& (1-m\delta/2)a(w_{k\delta}) + {m\delta} R^2 + 2\delta \beta^2
\end{aligned}$$
Where the first inequality uses the upper bound on $\lrn{\nabla^2 a(y)}_2$ above, the second inequality uses the fact that $w_{(k+1)\delta} = \lrp{y_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(y_{k\delta}) = \xi(w_{k\delta}, \eta_k)}$, and $\E{ \xi(w_{k\delta}, \eta_k) | w_{k\delta}} = 0$, the third inequality uses claim 2. at the start of this proof, the fourth inequality uses item 2 of Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\]. The fifth inequality uses claim 3. above, the sixth inequality uses our assumption that $\delta \leq \frac{m}{16L^2}$.
Taking expectation wrt $w_{k\delta}$, $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{a(w_{(k+1)\delta})} \leq \E{a(w_{k})}-m\delta \lrp{\E{a(w_{k\delta})} - 2R^2 + 2\beta^2/m}\\
\Rightarrow \qquad &
\E{a(w_{(k+1)\delta})} - (2R^2/2 + 2\beta^2/m) \leq (1-m\delta) \lrp{\E{a(w_{k\delta})} - (2R^2 + 2\beta^2/m}
\end{aligned}$$
Thus, if $\E{\|w_0\|_2^2} \leq 2R^2 + 2\beta^2/m$, then $\E{a(w_0)} - \lrp{2R^2 + 2\beta^2/m} \leq 0 $, then $\E{a(w_{k\delta})} - \lrp{2R^2 + 2\beta^2/m}\leq 0$ for all $k$, which implies that $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{w_{k\delta}}_2^2} \leq 2\E{a(w_{k\delta})} + 4 R^2 \leq 8\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $k$.
[Divergence Bounds]{}
\[l:divergence\_xt\] Let $x_t$ be as defined in (or equivalently or ), initialized at $x_0$. Then for any $T\leq \frac{1}{16L}$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{x_T - x_0}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{T\beta^2 + T^2 L^2 \E{\|x_0\|_2^2}}
\end{aligned}$$ If we additionally assume that $\E{\lrn{x_0}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$ and $T \leq \frac{\beta^2}{8L^2\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{x_T - x_0}_2^2} \leq 16 T\beta^2
\end{aligned}$$
By Ito’s Lemma, $$\begin{aligned}
& \ddt \E{\lrn{x_t}_2^2} \\
=& 2\E{\lin{\nabla U(x_t), x_t - x_0}} + \E{ \tr\lrp{M(x_t)^2}}\\
\leq& 2L \E{\lrn{x_t}_2 \lrn{x_t - x_0}_2} + \beta^2\\
\leq& 2L \E{\lrn{x_t - x_0}_2^2} + 2L\E{\lrn{x_0}_2\lrn{x_t - x_0}_2} + \beta^2\\
\leq& 2L \E{\lrn{x_t - x_0}_2^2} + L^2 T\E{\lrn{x_0}_2^2} + \frac{1}{T} \E{\lrn{x_t - x_0}_2^2} + \beta^2\\
\leq& \frac{2}{T} \E{\lrn{x_t - x_0}_2^2} + \lrp{L^2 T \E{\lrn{x_0}_2^2} + \beta^2}
\end{aligned}$$ where the first inequality is by item 1 of Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\] and item 2 of Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\], the second inequality is by triangle inequality, the third inequality is by Young’s inequality, the last inequality is by our assumption on $T$.
Applying Gronwall’s inequality for $t\in[0,T]$, $$\begin{aligned}
& \lrp{\E{\lrn{x_t - x_0}_2^2} + L^2 T^2 \E{\lrn{x_0}_2^2} + T \beta^2} \\
\leq& e^{2}\lrp{\E{\lrn{x_0 - x_0}} + L^2 T^2 \E{\lrn{x_0}_2^2} + T \beta^2}\\
\leq& 8 L^2 T^2 \E{\lrn{x_0}_2^2} + T \beta^2
\end{aligned}$$ This concludes our proof.
\[l:divergence\_yt\] Let $y_t$ be as defined in (or equivalently or ), initialized at $y_0$. Then for any $T$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{y_T - y_0}_2^2} \leq T^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{y_0}_2^2} + T\beta^2
\end{aligned}$$ If we additionally assume that $\E{\lrn{y_0}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$ and $T \leq \frac{\beta^2}{8L^2\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{y_T - y_0}_2^2} \leq 2 T\beta^2
\end{aligned}$$
Notice from the definition in that $y_T - y_0\sim \N \lrp{-T \nabla U(y_0), T M(y_0)^2}$, the conclusion immediately follows from where the inequality is by item 1 of Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\] and item 2 of Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\], and the fact that $$\begin{aligned}
\tr\lrp{M(x)^2} = \tr\lrp{\E{\xi(x,\eta) \xi(x,\eta)^T}} = \E{\lrn{\xi(x,\eta)}_2^2}
\end{aligned}$$
\[l:divergence\_vt\] Let $v_t$ be as defined in , initialized at $v_0$. Then for any $T=n\delta$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{v_T - v_0}_2^2} \leq T^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{v_0}_2^2} + T\beta^2
\end{aligned}$$ If we additionally assume that $\E{\lrn{v_0}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$ and $T \leq \frac{\beta^2}{8L^2\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{v_T - v_0}_2^2} \leq 2 T\beta^2
\end{aligned}$$
From , $$\begin{aligned}
v_T - v_0 = - T \nabla U(v_0) + \sqrt{\delta} \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \xi(v_0, \eta_i)
\end{aligned}$$ Conditioned on the randomness up to time $i$, $\E{\xi(v_0,\eta_{i+1})}=0$. Thus $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{v_T - v_0}_2^2}\\
=& T^2\E{\lrn{\nabla U(v_0)}_2^2} + \delta \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} \E{\lrn{\xi(v_0,\eta_i)}_2^2}\\
\leq& T^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{v_0}_2^2} + T \beta^2
\end{aligned}$$ where the inequality is by item 1 of Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\] and item 2 of Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].
\[l:divergence\_wt\] Let $w_t$ be as defined in , initialized at $w_0$. Then for any $T=n\delta$ such that $T \leq \frac{1}{2L}$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{w_T - w_0}_2^2} \leq 16 \lrp{T^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} + T \beta^2}
\end{aligned}$$ If we additionally assume that $\E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$ and $T \leq \frac{\beta^2}{8L^2\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{w_T - w_0}_2^2} \leq 32 T\beta^2
\end{aligned}$$
$$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{w_{(k+1)\delta} - w_0}_2^2}\\
=& \E{\lrn{w_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(w_{k\delta}) + \sqrt{\delta} \xi\lrp{w_{k\delta}, \eta_k} - w_0}_2^2}\\
=& \E{\lrn{w_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(w_{k\delta}) - w_0}_2^2} + \delta \E{\lrn{\xi\lrp{w_{k\delta}, \eta_k}}_2^2} \numberthis \label{e:t:sfddd}
\end{aligned}$$
We can bound $\delta \E{\lrn{\xi\lrp{w_{k\delta}, \eta_k}}_2^2} \leq \delta \beta^2$ by item 2 of Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\]. $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{w_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(w_{k\delta}) - w_0}_2^2}\\
\leq& \E{\lrp{\lrn{w_{k\delta} - w_0 - \delta \lrp{\nabla U(w_{k\delta}) - \nabla U(w_0)}}_2 + \delta \lrn{\nabla U(w_0)}_2}^2}\\
\leq& \lrp{1 + \frac{1}{n}}\E{\lrn{w_{k\delta} - w_0 - \delta \lrp{\nabla U(w_{k\delta}) - \nabla U(w_0)}}_2^2 }\\
&\quad + (1+n)\delta^2 \E{\lrn{\nabla U(w_0)}_2^2}\\
\leq& \lrp{1 + \frac{1}{n}} \lrp{1 + \delta L}^2 \E{\lrn{w_{k\delta} - w_0}_2^2} + 2n\delta^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2}\\
\leq& e^{1/n + 2\delta L }\E{\lrn{w_{k\delta} - w_0}_2^2} + 2n\delta^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2}
\end{aligned}$$ where the first inequality is by triangle inequality, the second inequality is by Young’s inequality, the third inequality is by item 1 of Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\].
Inserting the above into gives $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{w_{(k+1)\delta} - w_0}_2^2} \leq e^{1/n + 2\delta L }\E{\lrn{w_{k\delta} - w_0}_2^2} + 2n\delta^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} + \delta \beta^2
\end{aligned}$$
Applying the above recursively for $k=1...n$, we see that $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{w_{n\delta} - w_0}_2^2}\\
\leq& \sum_{k=0}^{n-1} e^{(n-k) \cdot (1/n + 2\delta L)} \cdot \lrp{2n\delta^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} + \delta \beta^2}\\
\leq& 16 \lrp{n^2 \delta^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} + n\delta \beta^2}\\
=& 16 \lrp{T^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} + T \beta^2}
\end{aligned}$$
[Discretization Bounds]{} \[ss:discretization\_bonuds\]
\[l:vt-wt\] Let $v_{k\delta}$ and $w_{k\delta}$ be as defined in and . Then for any $\delta,n$, such that $T:= n\delta \leq \frac{1}{16L}$, $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{v_{T} - w_{T}}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{2T^2 L^2 \lrp{T^2L^2 \E{\lrn{v_0}_2^2} + T\beta^2} + T L_\xi^2 \lrp{16 \lrp{T^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} + T \beta^2}}}
\end{aligned}$$ If we additionally assume that $\E{\lrn{v_0}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$, $\E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} \leq 8 \lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}$ and $T \leq \frac{\beta^2}{8L^2\lrp{R^2 + \beta^2/m}}$, then $$\begin{aligned}
\E{\lrn{v_T - w_T}_2^2} \leq 32 \lrp{T^2 L^2 + TL_\xi^2} T\beta^2
\end{aligned}$$
Using the fact that conditioned on the randomness up to step $k$, $\E{\xi(v_0,\eta_{k+1}) - \xi(w_{k\delta}, \eta_{k+1})}=0$, we can show that for any $k\leq n$, $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{v_{(k+1)\delta} - w_{(k+1)\delta}}_2^2}\\
=& \E{\lrn{v_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(v_0) - w_{k\delta} +\delta \nabla U(w_{k\delta}) + \sqrt{\delta} \xi(w_0, \eta_k) - \sqrt{\delta} \xi(w_{k\delta}, \eta_k)}_2^2}\\
=& \E{\lrn{v_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(v_0) - w_{k\delta} +\delta \nabla U(w_{k\delta})}_2^2} + \delta \E{\lrn{\xi(w_0, \eta_k) - \xi(w_{k\delta}, \eta_k)}_2^2}
\numberthis \label{e:t:mkqwm}
\end{aligned}$$ where the first inequality is by (Assumption on smoothness of U and xi).
Using (smoothness of xi), and Lemma \[l:divergence\_vt\], we can bound $$\begin{aligned}
& \delta \E{\lrn{\xi(w_0, \eta_k) - \xi(w_{k\delta}, \eta_k)}_2^2}\\
\leq& \delta L_\xi^2 \E{\lrn{w_{k\delta} - w_0}_2^2}\\
\leq& \delta L_\xi^2 \lrp{16 \lrp{T^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} + T \beta^2}}
\end{aligned}$$
We can also bound $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{v_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(v_0) - w_{k\delta} +\delta \nabla U(w_{k\delta})}_2^2}\\
\leq& \lrp{1 + \frac{1}{n}}\E{\lrn{v_{k\delta} - \delta \nabla U(v_{k\delta}) - w_{k\delta} +\delta \nabla U(w_{k\delta})}_2^2} + (1+n) \delta^2 \E{\lrn{\nabla U(v_{k\delta}) - \nabla U(v_0)}_2^2}\\
\leq& \lrp{1+ \frac{1}{n}}\lrp{1+ \delta L}^2 \E{\lrn{v_{k\delta} - w_{k\delta}}_2^2} + 2n\delta^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{v_{k\delta} - v_0}_2^2}\\
\leq& e^{1/n + 2\delta L}E{\lrn{v_{k\delta} - w_{k\delta}}_2^2} + 2n\delta^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{v_{k\delta} - v_0}_2^2}\\
\leq& e^{1/n + 2\delta L}E{\lrn{v_{k\delta} - w_{k\delta}}_2^2} + 2n\delta^2 L^2 \lrp{T^2L^2 \E{\lrn{v_0}_2^2} + T\beta^2}
\end{aligned}$$ where the first inequality is by Young’s inequality and the second inequality is by item 1 of Assumption \[ass:U\_properties\], the fourth inequality uses Lemma \[l:divergence\_vt\].
Substituting the above two equation blocks into , and applying recursively for $k=0...n-1$ gives $$\begin{aligned}
& \E{\lrn{v_{T} - w_{T}}_2^2} \\
=& \E{\lrn{v_{n\delta} - w_{n\delta}}_2^2} \\
\leq& e^{1+2n\delta L} \lrp{2n^2\delta^2 L^2 \lrp{T^2L^2 \E{\lrn{v_0}_2^2} + T\beta^2} + n\delta L_\xi^2 \lrp{16 \lrp{T^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} + T \beta^2}}}\\
\leq& 8 \lrp{2T^2 L^2 \lrp{T^2L^2 \E{\lrn{v_0}_2^2} + T\beta^2} + T L_\xi^2 \lrp{16 \lrp{T^2 L^2 \E{\lrn{w_0}_2^2} + T \beta^2}}}
\end{aligned}$$
the last inequality is by noting that $T = n\delta \leq \frac{1}{4L}$.
[Regularity of $M$ and $N$]{}\[ss:mnregularity\]
[\[l:M\_is\_regular\]]{} $$\begin{aligned}
&1.\ \tr\lrp{M(x)^2} \leq \beta^2\\
&2.\ \tr\lrp{(M(x)^2 - M(y)^2)^2} \leq 16 \beta^2 L_\xi^2 \|x-y\|_2^2\\
&3.\ \tr\lrp{(M(x)^2 - M(y)^2)^2} \leq 32\beta^3 L_\xi \|x-y\|_2
\end{aligned}$$
In this proof, we will use the fact that $\xi(\cdot,\eta)$ is $L_\xi$-Lipschitz from Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].
The first property is easy to see: $$\begin{aligned}
& \tr\lrp{M(x)^2}\\
=& \tr\lrp{\Ep{\eta}{\xi(x,\eta) \xi(x,\eta)^T}}\\
=& \Ep{\eta}{\tr\lrp{{\xi(x,\eta) \xi(x,\eta)^T}}}\\
=& \Ep{\eta}{\lrn{\xi(x,\eta)}_2^2}\\
\leq& \beta^2
\end{aligned}$$
We now prove the second and third claims. Consider a fixed $x$ and fixed $y$, let $u_{\eta} := \xi(x,\eta)$, $v_{\eta} := \xi(y,\eta)$. Then
$$\begin{aligned}
& \tr\lrp{\lrp{M(x)^2 - M(y)^2}^2 }\\
=& \tr\lrp{\lrp{\Ep{\eta}{u_\eta u_\eta^T - v_\eta v_\eta^T}}^2}\\
=& \tr\lrp{\Ep{\eta, \eta'}{\lrp{u_\eta u_\eta^T - v_\eta v_\eta^T} \lrp{u_{\eta'}u_{\eta'}^T - v_{\eta'} v_{\eta'}^T}}}\\
=& \Ep{\eta,\eta'}{\tr\lrp{\lrp{u_\eta u_\eta^T - v_\eta v_\eta^T} \lrp{u_{\eta'}u_{\eta'}^T - v_{\eta'} v_{\eta'}^T}}}
\end{aligned}$$
For any fixed $\eta$ and $\eta'$, let’s further simplify notation by letting $u,u',v,v'$ denote $u_\eta, u_{\eta'}, v_\eta, v_{\eta'}$. Thus $$\begin{aligned}
&\tr\lrp{\lrp{uu^T - vv^T} \lrp{u'u'^T - v'v'^T}}\\
=& \tr\lrp{ \lrp{(u-v)v^T + v(u-v)^T + (u-v)(u-v)^T} \lrp{(u'-v')v'^T + v'(u'-v')^T + (u'-v')(u'-v')^T} }\\
=& \tr\lrp{ (u-v) v^T (u'-v') v'^T} + \tr\lrp{ (u-v) v^T v'(u'-v')^T } + \tr\lrp{ (u-v) v^T (u'-v')(u'-v')^T }\\
&\quad + \tr\lrp{ v(u-v)^T (u'-v') v'^T} + \tr\lrp{ v(u-v)^T v'(u'-v')^T } + \tr\lrp{ v(u-v)^T (u'-v')(u'-v')^T }\\
&\quad + \tr\lrp{ (u-v)(u-v)^T (u'-v') v'^T} + \tr\lrp{ (u-v)(u-v)^T v'(u'-v')^T }\\
&\quad + \tr\lrp{ (u-v)(u-v)^T (u'-v')(u'-v')^T }\\
\leq& \min\lrbb{16 \beta^2 L_\xi^2 \lrn{x-y}_2^2, 32\beta^3 L_{\xi}\|x-y\|_2}
\end{aligned}$$
Where the last inequality uses Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].2 and \[ass:xi\_properties\].3; in particular, $\lrn{v}_2\leq \beta$ and $\lrn{u-v}_2 \leq \min\lrbb{2\beta, L_\xi \|x-y\|_2}$. This proves 2. and 3. of the Lemma statement.
\[l:N\_is\_regular\] Let $N(x)$ be as defined in and $\LN$ be as defined in . Then $$\begin{aligned}
1.\ &\tr\lrp{N(x)^2} \leq \beta^2\\
2.\ &\tr\lrp{\lrp{N(x) - N(y)}^2} \leq \LN^2\lrn{x-y}_2^2\\
3.\ &\tr\lrp{\lrp{N(x) - N(y)}^2} \leq \frac{8 \beta^2}{\cm} \cdot \LN \lrn{x-y}_2.
\end{aligned}$$
The first inequality holds because $N(x)^2 := M(x)^2 - \cm^2 I$, and then applying Lemma \[l:M\_is\_regular\].1, and the fact that $\tr\lrp{M(x)^2 - \cm^2 I } \leq \tr\lrp{M(x)^2}$ by Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].4.
The second inequality is a immediate consequence of Lemma \[l:eldan-matrix\], Lemma \[l:M\_is\_regular\].2, and the fact that $\lambda_{min} \lrp{N(x)^2} = \lambda_{min} \lrp{M(x)^2 - \cm^2} \geq \cm^2$ by Assumption \[ass:xi\_properties\].4.
The proof for the third inequality is similar to the second inequality, and follows from Lemma \[l:M\_is\_regular\] and Lemma \[l:eldan-matrix\].
\[l:eldan-matrix\] Let $A$, $B$ be positive definite matrices. Then $$\begin{aligned}
\tr\lrp{\lrp{\sqrt{A} - \sqrt{B}}^2} \leq \tr\lrp{(A-B)^2 A^{-1}}
\end{aligned}$$
[Defining $f$ and related inequalities]{} \[s:defining-q\]
In this section, we define the Lyapunov function $f$ which is central to the proof of our main results. Here, we give an overview of the various functions defined in this section:
1. $g(z): \Re^d \to \Re^+$: A smoothed version of $\lrn{z}_2$, with bounded derivatives up to third order.
2. $q(r): \Re^+ \to \Re^+$: A concave potential function, similar to the one defined in [@eberle2016reflection], which has bounded derivatives up to third order everywhere except at $r=0$.
3. $f(z) = q(g(z)): \Re^d \to \Re^+$, a concave function which upper and lower bounds $\lrn{z}_2$ within a constant factor, has bounded derivatives up to third order everywhere.
\[l:fproperties\] Let $\epsilon$ satisfy $\epsilon \leq \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$. We define the function $$\begin{aligned}
f(z) := q(g(z))
\end{aligned}$$ Where $q$ is as defined in Appendix \[ss:defining-q\], and $g$ is as defined in Lemma \[l:gproperties\] (with parameter $\epsilon$). Then
1. 1. $\nabla f(z) = q'(g(z)) \cdot \nabla g(z)$
2. For $\lrn{z}_2 \geq 2\epsilon$, $\nabla f(z) = q'(g(z)) \frac{z}{\|z\|_2}$
3. For all $z$, $\lrn{\nabla f(z)}_2 \leq 1$.
2. 1. $\nabla^2 f(z) = q''(g(z)) \nabla g(z) \nabla g(z)^T + q'(g(z)) \nabla^2 g(z)$
2. For $r\geq 2\epsilon$, $\nabla^2 f(z) = q''(g(z)) \frac{zz^T}{\|z\|_2^2} + q'(g(z)) \frac{1}{\|z\|_2} \lrp{I - \frac{zz^T}{\|z\|_2^2}}$
3. For all $z$, $\lrn{\nabla^2 f(z)}_2 \leq \frac{2}{\epsilon}$
4. For all $z,v$, $v^T \nabla^2 f(z) v \leq\frac{q'(g(z))}{\|z\|_2}$
3. For any $z$, $\lrn{\nabla^3 f(z)}_2 \leq \frac{9}{\epsilon^2}$
4. For any $z$, $f(z) \in \lrb{\frac{1}{2}\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}} g(\|z\|_2), g(\|z\|_2)} \in \lrb{\frac{1}{2}\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}} (\|z\|_2 - 2\epsilon), \|z\|_2}$
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1. 1. chain rule
2. Use definition of $\nabla g(z)$ from Lemma \[l:gproperties\].
3. By definition, $\nabla f(z) = q'(g(z)) \nabla g(z)$. From Lemma \[l:qproperties\], $\lrabs{q'(g(z))} \leq 1$. By definition, $\nabla g(z) = h'(\lrn{z}_2) \frac{z}{\lrn{z}_2}$. Our conclusion follows from $h' \leq 1$ using item 2 of Lemma \[l:hproperties\].
2. 1. chain rule
2. by item 2 b) of Lemma \[l:gproperties\]
3. by item 1 c) and item 2 d) of Lemma \[l:gproperties\], and item 3 and item 4 of Lemma \[l:qproperties\], and our assumption that $\epsilon\leq \frac{\Rq}{\aq + \Rq^2 + 1}$.
4. by item 4 of Lemma \[l:qproperties\]), and items 2 c) and 2 d) of Lemma \[l:gproperties\], and our expression for $\nabla^2 f(z)$ established in item 2 a).
3. It can be verified that $$\begin{aligned}
\nabla^3 f(z) =& q'''(g(z)) \cdot \nabla g(z)^{\bo 3} + q''(g(z)) \nabla g(z) \bo \nabla^2 g(z) + q''(g(z)) \nabla^2 g(z) \bo \nabla g(z) \\
&\quad + q''(g(z)) \nabla g(z) \bo \nabla^2 g(z) + q'(g(z)) \nabla^3 g(z)
\end{aligned}$$
Thus $$\begin{aligned}
\lrn{\nabla^3 f(z)}_2
\leq& \lrabs{q'''(g(z))} \lrn{\nabla g(z)}_2^3 + 3 q''(g(z)) \lrn{\nabla g(z)}_2 \lrn{\nabla^2 g(z)}_2 + q'(g(z)) \lrn{\nabla^3 g(z)}\\
\leq& 5\lrp{\aq + \frac{1}{\Rq^2}} \lrp{\aq\Rq^2 + 1} + 3\lrp{\frac{5\aq\Rq}{4} + \frac{4}{\Rq}}\cdot \frac{1}{\epsilon} + \frac{1}{\epsilon^2}\\
\leq& \frac{9}{\epsilon^2}
\end{aligned}$$ Where the first inequality uses Lemma \[l:qproperties\] and Lemma \[l:gproperties\], and the second inequality assumes that $\epsilon \leq \frac{\Rq}{\aq\Rq^2 + 1}$
4. $$\begin{aligned}
f(z) \in \lrb{\frac{1}{2}\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}} g(\|z\|_2), g(\|z\|_2)} \in \lrb{\frac{1}{2}\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}} (\|z\|_2 - 2\epsilon), \|z\|_2}
\end{aligned}$$
The first containment is by Lemma \[l:qproperties\].\[f:q(r)\_bounds\]: $\frac{1}{2}\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}\cdot g(z) \leq q(g(z)) \leq g(z)$. THe second containment is by Lemma \[l:gproperties\].4: $g(\|z\|_2) \in [\|z\|_2-2\epsilon, \|z\|_2]$.
\[l:hproperties\] Given a parameter $\epsilon$, define $$\begin{aligned}
h(r) := \threecase
{\frac{r^3}{6\epsilon^2}}{r\in [0,\epsilon]}
{\frac{\epsilon}{6} + \frac{r-\epsilon}{2} + \frac{(r-\epsilon)^2}{2\epsilon} - \frac{(r-\epsilon)^3}{6\epsilon^2}}{r\in[\epsilon, 2\epsilon]}
{r }{r\geq 2\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$
1. The derivatives of $h$ are as follows: $$\begin{aligned}
h'(r) =& \threecase
{\frac{r^2}{2\epsilon^2}}{r\in [0,\epsilon]}
{\frac{1}{2} + \frac{r-\epsilon}{\epsilon} - \frac{(r-\epsilon)^2}{2\epsilon^2}}{r\in[\epsilon, 2\epsilon]}
{1}{r\geq 2\epsilon}\\
h''(r) =& \threecase
{\frac{r}{\epsilon^2}}{r\in [0,\epsilon]}
{\frac{1}{\epsilon} - \frac{r-\epsilon}{\epsilon^2}}{r\in[\epsilon, 2\epsilon]}
{0}{r\geq 2\epsilon}\\
h'''(r) =& \threecase
{\frac{1}{\epsilon^2}}{r\in [0,\epsilon]}
{-\frac{1}{\epsilon^2}}{r\in[\epsilon, 2\epsilon]}
{0}{r\geq 2\epsilon}
\end{aligned}$$
2. 1. $h'$ is positive, motonically increasing.
2. $h'(0)=0$, $h'(r) =1$ for $r\geq \epsilon$
3. $\frac{h'(r)}{r}\leq \min\lrbb{\frac{1}{\epsilon}, \frac{1}{r}}$ for all $r$
3. 1. $h''(r)$ is positive
2. $h''(r) = 0$ for $r=0$ and $r\geq 2\epsilon$
3. $h''(r) \leq \frac{1}{\epsilon}$
4. $\frac{h''(r)}{r} \leq \frac{1}{\epsilon^2}$
4. $\lrabs{h'''(r)} \leq \frac{1}{\epsilon^2}$
5. $r-2\epsilon\leq h(r) \leq r$
The claims can all be verified with simple algebra.
\[l:gproperties\] Given a parameter $\epsilon$, let us define $$\begin{aligned}
g(z) := h(\|z\|_2)
\end{aligned}$$ Where $h$ is as defined in Lemma \[l:hproperties\] (using parameter $\epsilon$). Then
1. 1. $\nabla g(z) = h'(\|z\|_2) \frac{z}{\|z\|_2}$
2. For $\|z\|_2 \geq 2\epsilon$, $\nabla g(z) = \frac{z}{\|z\|_2}$.
3. For any $\|z\|_2$, $\lrn{\nabla g(z)}_2\leq 1$
2. 1. $\nabla^2 g(z) = h''(\|z\|_2)\frac{zz^T}{\|z\|_2^2} + h'(\|z\|_2) \frac{1}{\|z\|_2}\lrp{I - \frac{z z^T}{\|z\|_2^2}}$
2. For $\lrn{z}_2\geq 2\epsilon$, $\nabla^2 g(z) = \frac{1}{\|z\|_2}\lrp{I - \frac{z z^T}{\|z\|_2^2}}$.
3. For $\lrn{z}_2\geq 2\epsilon$, $\lrn{\nabla^2 g(z)}_2 = \frac{1}{\|z\|_2}$
4. For all $z$, $\lrn{\nabla^2 g(z)}_2 \leq \frac{1}{\epsilon}$
3. $\lrn{\nabla^3 g(z)}_2 \leq \frac{5}{\epsilon^2}$
4. $\|z\|_2 - 2\epsilon \leq g(z) \leq \|z\|_2$.
All the properties can be verified with algebra. We provide a proof for $3.$ since it is a bit involved.
Let us define the functions $\kappa^1(z) = \nabla(\|z\|_2), \kappa^2(z) = \nabla^2(\|z\|_2), \kappa^3(z) = \nabla^3(\|z\|_2)$. Specifically, $$\begin{aligned}
\kappa^1(z) =& \frac{z}{\|z\|_2}\\
\kappa^2(z) =& \frac{1}{\|z\|_2}\lrp{I - \frac{zz^T}{\|z\|_2^2}}\\
\kappa^3(z) =& -\frac{1}{\|z\|_2^2} \frac{z}{\|z\|_2} \bo \lrp{I - \frac{zz^T}{\|z\|_2^2}} + \frac{1}{\|z\|_2} \lrp{\frac{z}{\|z\|_2} \bo \kappa^2(z) + \kappa^2(z) \bo \frac{z}{\|z\|_2}}
\end{aligned}$$
It can be verified that $$\begin{aligned}
\lrn{\kappa^2(z)}_2 =& \frac{1}{\|z\|_2}\\
\lrn{\kappa^3(z)}_2 =& \frac{1}{\|z\|_2^2}
\end{aligned}$$
It can be verified that $\nabla^2 g(z)$ has the following form: $$\begin{aligned}
&\nabla^3 g(z) = h'''(\|z\|_2) \lrp{\kappa^1(z)}^{\bo 3} + h''(\|z\|_2) \kappa^1(z) \bo \kappa^2(z) + h''(\|z\|_2) \kappa^2(z) \bo \kappa^1(z) \\
&\quad + h'(\|z\|_2) \kappa^3(z) + h''(\|z\|_2) \kappa^1(z) \bo \kappa^2(z)
\end{aligned}$$
Thus $$\begin{aligned}
\lrn{\nabla^3 g(z)}_2 \leq \lrabs{h'''(\|z\|_2)} + 3\frac{h''(\|z\|_2)}{\|z\|_2} + \frac{h'(\|z\|_2)}{\|z\|_2^2} \leq \frac{5}{\epsilon^2}
\end{aligned}$$
Where we use properties of $h$ from Lemma \[l:hproperties\].
The last claim follows immediately from Lemma \[l:hproperties\].4.
[Defining q]{} \[ss:defining-q\]
In this section, we define the function $q$ that is used in Lemma \[l:fproperties\]. Our construction is a slight modification to the original construction in [@eberle2011reflection].
Let $\aq$ and $\Rq$ be as defined in . We begin by defining auxiliary functions $\psi(r)$, $\Psi(r)$ and $\nu(r)$, all from $ \Re^+$ to $\Re$: $$\begin{aligned}
\label{d:psietal}
&\psi(r) := e^{- \aq \tau(r)}\,, \qquad
&\Psi(r) := \int_0^r \psi(s) ds\,, \qquad \nu(r) := 1- \frac{1}{2}
\frac{\int_0^{r}\frac{ \mu(s) \Psi(s)}{\psi(s)} ds}{\int_0^{4\Rq}\frac{ \mu(s) \Psi(s)}{\psi(s)}ds}\,,
\end{aligned}$$
Where $\tau(r)$ and $\mu(r)$ are as defined in Lemma \[l:tau\] and Lemma \[l:mu\] with $\R = \Rq$.
Finally we define $q$ as $$\label{d:f}
q(r) := \int_0^r \psi(s) \nu(s) ds.$$ We now state some useful properties of the distance function $q$.
\[l:qproperties\] The function $q$ defined in has the following properties.
1. For all $r\leq \Rq $, $q''(r) + \aq q'(r) \cdot r \leq - \frac{\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}}{32\Rq^2} q(r)$ \[f:contraction\]
2. For all $r$, $\frac{\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}}{2}\cdot r \leq q(r) \leq r$ \[f:q(r)\_bounds\]
3. For all $r$, $\frac{\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}}{2}\leq q'(r) \leq 1$ \[f:q’(r)\_bounds\]
4. For all $r$, $q''(r) \leq 0$ and $\lrabs{q''(r)} \leq \lrp{\frac{5\aq\Rq}{4} + \frac{4}{\Rq}}$ \[f:q”(r)\_bounds\]
5. For all $r$, $\lrabs{q'''(r)} \leq 5\aq + 2\aq\lrp{\aq\Rq^2 + 1} + \frac{2(\aq\Rq^2 + 1)}{\Rq^2}$ \[f:q”’(r)\_bounds\]
**Proof of \[f:contraction\]** It can be verified that $$\begin{aligned}
\psi'(r)
=& \psi(r) (-\aq \tau'(r))\\
\psi''(r)
=& \psi(r) \lrp{\lrp{\aq \tau'(r)}^2 + \aq \tau''(r)}\\
\nu'(r)=& -\frac{1}{2} \frac{\frac{\mu(r)\Psi(r)}{\psi(r)}}{\int_0^{4\Rq} \frac{\mu(s)\Psi(s)}{\psi(s)}ds}
\end{aligned}$$
For $r\in[0,\Rq]$, $\tau'(r) = r$, so that $\psi'(r) = \psi(r)(-\aq r)$. Thus $$\begin{aligned}
q'(r)
=& \psi(r) \nu(r)\\
q''(r)
=& \psi'(r) \nu(r) + \psi(r) \nu'(r)\\
=& \psi(r) \nu(r) (-\aq r) + \psi(r) \nu'(r)\\
=& -\aq r \nu'(r) + \psi(r) \nu'(r)\\
q''(r) + \aq r q'(r)
=& \psi(r) \nu'(r)\\
=& - \frac{1}{2}\frac{\mu(r)\Psi(r)}{\int_0^{4\Rq}\frac{\mu(s)\Psi(s)}{\psi(s)} ds}\\
=& - \frac{1}{2}\frac{\Psi(r)}{\int_0^{4\Rq}\frac{\mu(s)\Psi(s)}{\psi(s)} ds}
\end{aligned}$$ Where the last equality is by definition of $\mu(r)$ in Lemma \[l:mu\] and the fact that $r\leq \Rq$.
We can upper bound $$\begin{aligned}
\int_0^{4\Rq} \frac{\mu(s) \Psi(s)}{\psi(s)} ds
\leq \int_0^{4\Rq} \frac{\Psi(s)}{\psi(s)} ds
\leq \frac{\int_0^{4\Rq} s ds}{\psi(4\Rq)}
= \frac{16\Rq^2}{\psi(4\Rq)}
\leq& 16 \Rq^2 \cdot \exp\lrp{\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}
\end{aligned}$$ Where the first inequality is by Lemma \[l:mu\], the second inequality is by the fact that $\psi(s)$ is monotonically decreasing, the third inequality is by Lemma \[l:tau\].
Thus $$\begin{aligned}
q''(r) + \aq r q'(r)
\leq& -\frac{1}{2} \lrp{\frac{\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}}{16\Rq^2}} \Psi(r)\\
\leq& -\frac{\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}}{32\Rq^2} q(r)
\end{aligned}$$ Where the last inequality is by $\Psi(r) \geq q(r)$.
**Proof of \[f:q(r)\_bounds\]** Notice first that $\nu(r) \geq \frac{1}{2}$ for all $r$. Thus $$\begin{aligned}
q(r)
:=& \int_0^r \psi(s) \nu(s) ds\\
\geq& \frac{1}{2} \int_0^r \psi(s) ds\\
\geq& \frac{\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}}{2}\cdot r
\end{aligned}$$ Where the last inequality is by Lemma \[l:tau\].
**Proof of \[f:q’(r)\_bounds\]** By definition of $f$, $q'(r) = \psi(r) \nu(r) $, and $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{\exp\lrp{-\frac{7\aq\Rq^2}{3}}}{2}\leq \psi(r)\nu(r)\leq 1
\end{aligned}$$ Where we use Lemma \[l:tau\] and the fact that $\nu(r) \in [1/2,1]$
**Proof of \[f:q”(r)\_bounds\]** Recall that $$\begin{aligned}
q''(r) = \psi'(r) \nu(r) + \psi(r) \nu'(r)
\end{aligned}$$
That $q''\leq 0$ can immediately be verified from the definitions of $\psi$ and $\nu$.
Thus $$\begin{aligned}
\lrabs{q''(r)}
\leq& \lrabs{\psi'(r) \nu(r)} + \lrabs{\psi(r) \nu'(r)}\\
\leq& \aq \tau'(r) + \lrabs{\psi(r) \nu'(r)}
\end{aligned}$$ From Lemma \[l:tau\], we can upperbound $\tau'(r) \leq \frac{5\Rq}{4}$. In addition, $\Psi(r) = \int_0^r \psi(s) \geq r \psi(r)$, so that $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis \label{e:l:psi(r)/psi(r)}
\frac{\Psi(r)}{\psi(r)} \geq r
\end{aligned}$$ (Recall again that $\psi(s)$ is monotonically decreasing). Thus $\Psi(r)/r \geq r$ for all $r$. In addition, using the fact that $\psi(r) \leq 1$, $$\begin{aligned}
\numberthis \label{e:l:psi(r)_upperbound}
\Psi(r) = \int_0^r \psi(s)ds \leq r
\end{aligned}$$
Combining the previous expressions, $$\begin{aligned}
\lrabs{\psi(r) \nu'(r)}
=& \lrabs{ \frac{1}{2}\frac{\mu(r)\Psi(r)}{\int_0^{4\Rq}\frac{\mu(s)\Psi(s)}{\psi(s)} ds}}\\
\leq& \lrabs{\frac{1}{2}\frac{\mu(r) r}{\int_0^{\Rq}\frac{\Psi(s)}{\psi(s)} ds}}\\
\leq& \lrabs{\frac{1}{2} \frac{4\Rq}{\int_0^{\Rq} s ds}}\\
\leq& \frac{4}{\Rq}
\end{aligned}$$ Where the first inequality are by definition of $\mu(r)$ and , and the second inequality is by and the fact that $\mu(r) = 0$ for $r\geq 4\Rq$. Combining with our bound on $\psi'(r) \nu(r)$ gives the desired bound.
**Proof of \[f:q”’(r)\_bounds\]** $$\begin{aligned}
q'''(r) = \psi''(r) \nu(r) + 2\psi'(r) \nu'(r) + \psi(r) \nu''(r)
\end{aligned}$$ We first bound the middle term: $$\begin{aligned}
\lrabs{\psi'(r) \nu'r)}
=& \lrabs{\psi(r)(\aq \tau'(r)) \nu'r)}\\
\leq& \aq \lrabs{\tau'(r)}\lrabs{\psi(r) \nu'r)}\\
\leq& \frac{5\aq\Rq}{4} \cdot \frac{4}{\Rq}\\
\leq& 5\aq
\end{aligned}$$ Where the second last line follows form Lemma \[l:tau\] and our proof of \[f:q”(r)\_bounds\].
Next, $$\begin{aligned}
\psi''(r) = \psi(r) \lrp{\aq^2 \tau'(r)^2 - \aq \tau''(r)}
\end{aligned}$$ Thus applying Lemma \[l:tau\].1 and Lemma \[l:tau\].3, $$\begin{aligned}
\lrabs{\psi''(r) \nu(r)} \leq& 2\aq^2\Rq^2 + \aq
\end{aligned}$$
Finally, $$\begin{aligned}
\nu''(r)
=& \frac{1}{2\int_0^{4\Rq}\frac{\mu(s)\Psi(s)}{\psi(s)} ds}\cdot \frac{d}{dr} {\mu(r)\Psi(r)/\psi(r)}
\end{aligned}$$
Expanding the numerator, $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{d}{dr} \frac{\mu(r) \Psi(r)}{\psi(r)}
=& \mu'(r) \frac{\Psi(r)}{\psi(r)} + \mu(r) - \mu(r) \frac{\Psi(r) \psi'(r)}{\psi(r)^2}\\
=& \mu'(r) \frac{\Psi(r)}{\psi(r)} + \mu(r) + \mu(r) \frac{\Psi(r) \psi(r)\aq \tau'(r)}{\psi(r)^2}
\end{aligned}$$
Thus $$\begin{aligned}
\psi(r) \nu''(r) = \frac{1}{2\int_0^{4\Rq}\frac{\mu(s)\Psi(s)}{\psi(s)} ds}\cdot\lrp{\mu'(r) \Psi(r) + \mu(r) \psi(r) + \mu(r) \Psi(r) \aq \tau'(r)}
\end{aligned}$$ Using the same argument as from the proof of \[f:q”(r)\_bounds\], we can bound $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{1}{2\int_0^{4\Rq}\frac{\mu(s)\Psi(s)}{\psi(s)} ds}
\leq& \frac{1}{2\int_0^\Rq s ds}\\
\leq& \frac{1}{\Rq^2}
\end{aligned}$$ Finally, from Lemma \[l:mu\], $\lrabs{\mu'(r)}\leq \frac{\pi}{6\Rq}$, so $$\begin{aligned}
\lrabs{\psi(r) \nu''(r)}\leq& \frac{\pi/6 + 1 + 5\aq \Rq^2/4}{\Rq^2}\\
\leq& \frac{2(\aq\Rq^2 + 1)}{\Rq^2}
\end{aligned}$$
\[l:tau\] Let $\tau(r): [0,\infty) \to \Re$ be defined as $$\begin{aligned}
\tau(r)=\fourcase
{\frac{r^2}{2}}{r\leq \R}
{\frac{\R^2}{2} + \R (r-\R) + \frac{(r-\R)^2}{2}- \frac{(r-\R)^3}{3\R}}{r\in[\R,2\R]}
{\frac{5\R^2}{3} + \R(r-2\R) - \frac{(r-2\R)^2}{2} + \frac{(r-2\R)^3}{12\R}}{r\in [2\R,4\R]}
{\frac{7\R^2}{3}}{r\geq 4\R]}
\end{aligned}$$ Then
1. $\tau'(r) \in [0, \frac{5\R}{4}]$, with maxima at $r= \frac{3\R}{2}$. $\tau'(r) = 0$ for $r\in \lrbb{0}\bigcup [4\R, \infty)$
2. As a consequence of 1, $\tau(r)$ is monotonically increasing
3. $\tau''(r) \in [-1,1]$
We provide the derivatives of $\tau$ below. The claims in the Lemma can then be immediately verified. $$\begin{aligned}
\tau'(r) =&
\fourcase
{r}{r\leq \R}
{\R + (r-\R) - \frac{(r-\R)^2}{\R}}{r\in[\R,2\R]}
{\R - (r-2\R) + \frac{(r-2\R)^2}{4\R} }{r\in [2\R,4\R]}
{0}{r\geq 4\R]}
\end{aligned}$$
$$\begin{aligned}
\tau''(r) =&
\fourcase
{1}{r\leq \R}
{1-\frac{2(r-\R)}{\R}}{r\in[\R,2\R]}
{-1 + \frac{r-2\R}{2\R}}{r\in [2\R,4\R]}
{0}{r\geq 4\R]}
\end{aligned}$$
\[l:mu\] Let $$\begin{aligned}
\mu(r) := \threecase{1}{r \leq \R}{\frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{2} \cos \lrp{\frac{\pi (r-\R)}{3\R}}}{r\in[\R,4\R]}{0}{r\geq 4\R}
\end{aligned}$$ Then $$\begin{aligned}
\mu'(r) := \threecase{0}{r \leq \R}{-\frac{\pi}{6\R} \sin \lrp{\frac{\pi (r-\R)}{\R}}}{r\in[\R,4\R]}{0}{r\geq 4\R}
\end{aligned}$$ Furthermore, $\mu'(r) \in [-\frac{\pi}{6\R},0]$
This Lemma can be easily verified by algebra.
[Miscellaneous]{} The following Theorem, taken from [@eldan2018clt], establishes a quantitative CLT.
\[t:zhai\] Let $X_1...X_n$ be random vectors with mean 0, covariance $\Sigma$, and $\lrn{X_i}\leq \beta$ almost surely for each $i$. Let $S_n= \frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}\sum_{i=1}^n X_i$, and let $Z$ be a Gaussian with covariance $\Sigma$, then $$\begin{aligned}
W_2(S_n, Z)\leq \frac{6\sqrt{d}\beta\sqrt{\log n}}{\sqrt{n}}\end{aligned}$$
\[c:clt\_sum\] Let $X_1...X_n$ be random vectors with mean 0, covariance $\Sigma$, and $\lrn{X_i}\leq \beta$ almost surely for each $i$. let $Y$ be a Gaussian with covariance $n\Sigma$. Then $$\begin{aligned}
W_2\lrp{\sum_i X_i, Y}\leq 6\sqrt{d}\beta \sqrt{\log n}\end{aligned}$$
This is simply taking the result of Theorem \[t:zhai\] and scaling the inequality by $\sqrt{n}$ on both sides.
The following Lemma is taken from [@cheng2019quantitative] and included here for completeness.
\[l:xlogxbound\] For any $c> 0$, $x> 3 \max\lrbb{\frac{1}{c} \log \frac{1}{c},0}$, the inequality $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{1}{c}\log(x) \leq x\end{aligned}$$ holds.
We will consider two cases:
**Case 1**: If $c\geq \frac{1}{e}$, then the inequality $$\log(x) \leq c x$$ is true for all $x$.
**Case 2**: $c \leq \frac{1}{e}$.
In this case, we consider the Lambert W function, defined as the inverse of $f(x) = x e^x$. We will particularly pay attention to $W_{-1}$ which is the lower branch of $W$. (See Wikipedia for a description of $W$ and $W_{-1}$).
We can lower bound $W_{-1}(-c)$ using Theorem 1 from [@chatzigeorgiou2013bounds]: $$\begin{aligned}
& \forall u>0,\quad W_{-1} (-e^{-u-1}) > -u-\sqrt{2u} -1\\
\text{equivalently}\quad &\forall c\in (0,1/e),\quad -W_{-1} (-c) < \log\lrp{\frac{1}{c}} + 1 + \sqrt{2\lrp{\log\lrp{\frac{1}{c}}-1}}-1 \\
&\qquad \qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\ \ = \log\lrp{\frac{1}{c}} + \sqrt{2\lrp{\log\lrp{\frac{1}{c}}-1}}\\
&\qquad \qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\ \ \leq 3\log \frac{1}{c}\end{aligned}$$
Thus by our assumption, $$\begin{aligned}
& x\geq 3\cdot \frac{1}{c}\log\lrp{\frac{1}{c}}\\
\Rightarrow & x\geq \frac{1}{c}\lrp{-W_{-1}(-c)}\end{aligned}$$
then $W_{-1}(-c)$ is defined, so $$\begin{aligned}
&x \geq \frac{1}{c}\max\lrbb{-W_{-1} (-c), 1}\\
\Rightarrow & (-cx) e^{-cx} \geq -c\\
\Rightarrow & x e^{-cx} \leq 1\\
\Rightarrow & \log(x) \leq cx\end{aligned}$$
The first implication is justified as follows: $W_{-1}^{-1}: [-\frac{1}{\epsilon}, \infty) \to (-\infty, -1)$ is monotonically decreasing. Thus its inverse $W_{-1}^{-1}(y) = ye^y$, defined over the domain $(-\infty, -1)$ is also monotonically decreasing. By our assumption, $-cx \leq -3 \log \frac{1}{c} \leq -3$, thus $-cx \in (-\infty, -1]$, thus applying $W_{-1}^{-1}$ to both sides gives us the first implication.
Experiment Details {#apx:experiments}
==================
In this section, we provide additional details of our experiments. In particular, we explain the CNN architecture that we use in our experiments. Denote a convolutional layer with $p$ input filters and $q$ output filters by $\mathsf{conv}(p, q)$, a fully connected layer with q outputs by $\mathsf{fully\_connect}(q)$, and a max pooling operation with stride 2 as $\mathsf{pool2}$. Let $\mathsf{ReLU}(x) = \max\{x, 0\}$. Then the CNN architecture in our paper is the following: $$\begin{aligned}
&\mathsf{conv}(3, 32) \Rightarrow \mathsf{ReLU} \Rightarrow \mathsf{conv}(32, 64) \Rightarrow \mathsf{ReLU} \Rightarrow \mathsf{pool2} \Rightarrow \mathsf{conv}(64, 128) \Rightarrow \mathsf{ReLU} \Rightarrow
\mathsf{conv}(128, 128) \\
&\Rightarrow \mathsf{ReLU} \Rightarrow \mathsf{pool2} \Rightarrow \mathsf{conv}(128, 256) \Rightarrow \mathsf{ReLU} \Rightarrow \mathsf{conv}(256, 256) \Rightarrow \mathsf{ReLU} \Rightarrow
\mathsf{pool2} \Rightarrow \mathsf{fully\_connect}(1024) \\
&\Rightarrow \mathsf{ReLU} \Rightarrow \mathsf{fully\_connect}(512) \Rightarrow \mathsf{ReLU} \Rightarrow \mathsf{fully\_connect}(10).\end{aligned}$$
[^1]: We provide details of this CNN architecture in Appendix \[apx:experiments\].
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{
"pile_set_name": "ArXiv"
}
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Flat plate solar collectors are the most common form of solar heating devices. In their most basic form, such collectors comprise a plurality of heat collection tubes on a black heat absorbing surface. Such a basic flat plate device is relatively inefficient and thereby requires an excessively large surface area to produce substantial quantities of heat.
Various techniques for increasing the efficiency of flat plate collectors have been proposed. Accordingly, in one such approach, a glass panel overlies the heat absorbing surface. Such a glass panel passes the ultra violet rays from the sun which are converted into heat energy. Most of the infrared radiation from the heat absorbing surface is reflected back to the surface by the glass panel, thereby increasing the precentage of the sun's energy converted into useful heat. Another known technique is to make the heat collection tubes integral with the heat absorbing surface to increase the heat transfer to water flowing in the heat collection tubes.
Techniques such as those outlined above and similar techniques may increase the efficiency of a flat plate solar collector to a level where sufficient heat is generated to accomplish various household heating and air conditioning requirements. However, the increase in the cost of materials for such complex flat plate solar collectors together with the incremental cost of installation renders the final product so expensive that such devices are frequently not cost effective as compared with conventional fuel heaters.
A further deficiency of prior art flat plate solar collectors is their inability to effectively respond over a wide range of incident sun angles. Such devices must be mounted and actuated so that they can follow the sun or must accept extremely low efficiencies during the extremes of sun travel. Additionally, in those flat plate solar collectors utilizing a glass panel to reduce radiation losses, there has been no effective mechanism for reducing convective and conductive heat losses from the solar panel.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a solar collector panel that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and assemble and which provides for a highly efficient conversion of sun energy into heat and which transfers the converted heat efficiently to water flowing through the panel. Such a solar collector panel is particularly desirable where convective and conductive heat losses from the panel are minimized.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is coming to Binghamton. Broome County officials have confirmed he will be at the Maines Veterans Memorial Arena on Monday, however details are still being worked out.
Local Binghamton for Bernie Campaign Coordinator Jennifer Campoli says doors are expected to open at 9am with Sanders speaking sometime around 11am or noon.
"I think it's a perfect venue," said Mary Clark, Executive Director for Citizen Action NY.
"A lot of politicians just ride along the freeway and it just shows that Bernie is a different person who comes and sees us here in the Southern Tier."
Monday's trip won't be Sanders' first visit to Binghamton. In 1990 he spoke at Binghamton University after his tenure as mayor of Burlington, Vermont. In addition to speaking on campus he taught a seminar called Affluence and Crisis in Norwich.
Deputy Binghamton Mayor Jared Kraham says Binghamton Police are coordinating with Secret Service & NYS Police on security measures.
Specific traffic and parking information will be announced.
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|
Apply Now to be on the Board Directors at the CCGSD
Background & Mandate of the Organization: The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity (CCGSD) intersectionally promotes diversity in gender identity, gender expression, and romantic and/or sexual orientation in all its forms on a national level through services in the areas of education, health, and advocacy. Our resources and programming can be used to uplift gender and sexual minorities, as well as give the tools to wider populations in building allyship. For more information, please visit our website at www.ccgsd-ccdgs.org.
The CCGSD strongly believes in equitable practices, and as such, strongly recommend that individuals of gender, ethnic and sexual minorities apply.
Summary of Position
The CCGSD is seeking 3 new volunteers (with financial, legal and fundraising skills) full members of the Board of Directors. This Director will be asked to attend at least 1 (one) meeting per month, more when committee meetings are deemed necessary. Additionally, this Director will lend their expertise to the Executive Director and the Board when asked (and able).
We are seeking candidates who are willing to make a minimum 3 (three) year commitment. Directors at the CCGSD are automatically appointed as Members of the Corporation at the CCGSD.
Director Responsibilities
Directors are voting members of the Board of Directors and are jointly responsible for the governance of CCGSD. More specifically this includes determining and monitoring the mission, mandate and values CCGSD; ensuring services satisfy the mission, mandate and values of CCGSD; approving and monitoring CCGSD’s strategic directions; ensuring the finances of CCGSD are handled responsibly; and ensuring CCGSD meets all of its legal obligations.
Specific Responsibilities:
Understand and demonstrate a commitment to the organization’s mission and programs
Keep up to date with issues and trends that affect the organization
Prepare for meetings by reading agendas, minutes, reports and other documentation required to actively participate in them
Attend meetings regularly
Contribute skills and knowledge by participating actively in meetings and committee work
Make inquiries when clarification or more information is needed
Understand and monitor the organization’s financial affairs
Avoid any potential conflicts of interest
Understand and maintain confidentiality
Ensure the organization is complying with all legal and regulatory requirements
Participate in Board Committees as required
Appoints, evaluates and terminates the Executive Director
Qualifications
Over 18 years of age
Does not have a bankruptcy status
Communications/Fundraising/Social Science education or a combination of education and experience
Please send a 1-page cover letter and resume detailing why you want to join the Board of Directors at CCGSD, as well as the skills and abilities you bring to the table. Please send the aforementioned documents to Calla Barnett, President of the Board of Directors at calla@ccgsd-ccdgs.org. Candidates who respond to our needs will be invited to meet with two of the current Directors. Should they feel you are a good fit, you will be invited to meet with our Executive Director and the Staff Member who sits on the Policy and Bylaw Committee.
The following documents will provide you with an overview of the organizations, its programs and its priorities. Please contact Calla Barnett, President at calla@ccgsd-ccdgs.org if you have any questions regarding this posting.
Get involved in the community &help us build the future.
As a leader in anti-discrimination work, CCGSD runs programming all over Canada and the United States. Because of our hundreds of volunteers, we are able to reach over 250,000 people annually. We are also a proud leader in the International Day of Pink (DayOfPink.org).
Tel: 613-400-1875Email: info@ccgsd-ccdgs.org
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{
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|
You are here
HCLF
The 2014 Healthcare Leadership Forum has concluded in Chicago, and participants were energized! Produced by Clinical Innovation + Technology’s parent company TriMed Media Group and sponsored by Elsevier Clinical Solutions, there was a palpable buzz in the air during and immediately following the gathering.
The 2014 Healthcare Leadership Forum has concluded in Chicago, and participants were energized! Produced by Clinical Innovation + Technology’s parent company TriMed Media Group and sponsored by Elsevier Clinical Solutions, there was a palpable buzz in the air during and immediately following the gathering.
CHICAGO—Studying people in natural clinical settings help in the development of guidelines and optimal interventions, explained Vimla L. Patel, PhD, DSc, senior research scientist at the New York Academy of Medicine, speaking during the Healthcare Leadership Forum on Nov. 14.
CHICAGO—The ultimate vision of the Meaningful Use program is to create significant and measurable improvements in population health through a transformed healthcare delivery system, said George Hripcsak, MD, MS, chair of the department of biomedical informatics at Columbia University. Hripcsak spoke during the Healthcare Leadership Forum on Nov. 15.
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{
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/*
* -
* #%L
* Pipeline: AWS Steps
* %%
* Copyright (C) 2016 Taimos GmbH
* %%
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
* #L%
*/
package de.taimos.pipeline.aws;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;
import java.nio.charset.Charset;
import org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.steps.Step;
import org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.steps.StepContext;
import org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.steps.StepDescriptor;
import org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.steps.StepExecution;
import org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.steps.SynchronousNonBlockingStepExecution;
import org.kohsuke.stapler.DataBoundConstructor;
import org.kohsuke.stapler.DataBoundSetter;
import com.amazonaws.services.cloudformation.AmazonCloudFormation;
import com.amazonaws.services.cloudformation.AmazonCloudFormationClientBuilder;
import com.amazonaws.services.cloudformation.model.DescribeStackResourcesRequest;
import com.amazonaws.services.cloudformation.model.DescribeStackResourcesResult;
import com.amazonaws.services.cloudformation.model.StackResource;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.AWSLambda;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.AWSLambdaClientBuilder;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.model.ListVersionsByFunctionRequest;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.model.ListVersionsByFunctionResult;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.model.DeleteFunctionRequest;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.model.FunctionConfiguration;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.model.ListAliasesRequest;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.model.ListAliasesResult;
import com.amazonaws.event.ProgressEventType;
import com.amazonaws.event.ProgressListener;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.Headers;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.model.CannedAccessControlList;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.model.ObjectMetadata;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.model.PutObjectRequest;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.model.SSEAlgorithm;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.model.SSEAwsKeyManagementParams;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.transfer.MultipleFileUpload;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.transfer.ObjectMetadataProvider;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.transfer.TransferManager;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.transfer.TransferManagerBuilder;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.transfer.Upload;
import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import de.taimos.pipeline.aws.utils.StepUtils;
import hudson.EnvVars;
import hudson.Extension;
import hudson.FilePath;
import hudson.model.TaskListener;
import hudson.remoting.VirtualChannel;
import jenkins.MasterToSlaveFileCallable;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
import java.time.Period;
public class LambdaVersionCleanupStep extends Step {
private String functionName;
private String stackName;
private final ZonedDateTime versionCutoff;
@DataBoundConstructor
public LambdaVersionCleanupStep(int daysAgo) {
this.versionCutoff = ZonedDateTime.now().minus(Period.ofDays(daysAgo));
}
@DataBoundSetter
public void setFunctionName(String functionName) {
this.functionName = functionName;
}
@DataBoundSetter
public void setStackName(String stackName) {
this.stackName = stackName;
}
@Override
public StepExecution start(StepContext context) throws Exception {
return new LambdaVersionCleanupStep.Execution(this, context);
}
@Extension
public static class DescriptorImpl extends StepDescriptor {
@Override
public Set<? extends Class<?>> getRequiredContext() {
return StepUtils.requiresDefault();
}
@Override
public String getFunctionName() {
return "lambdaVersionCleanup";
}
@Override
public String getDisplayName() {
return "Cleanup old lambda versions";
}
}
public static class Execution extends SynchronousNonBlockingStepExecution<String> {
protected static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
protected final transient LambdaVersionCleanupStep step;
public Execution(LambdaVersionCleanupStep step, StepContext context) {
super(context);
this.step = step;
}
private List<FunctionConfiguration> findAllVersions(AWSLambda client, String functionName) {
List<FunctionConfiguration> list = new LinkedList<>();
ListVersionsByFunctionRequest request = new ListVersionsByFunctionRequest()
.withFunctionName(functionName);
do {
ListVersionsByFunctionResult result = client.listVersionsByFunction(request);
list.addAll(result.getVersions());
request.setMarker(result.getNextMarker());
} while (request.getMarker() != null);
return list;
}
private void deleteAllVersions(AWSLambda client, String functionName) throws Exception {
TaskListener listener = Execution.this.getContext().get(TaskListener.class);
listener.getLogger().format("Looking for old versions functionName=%s%n", functionName);
List<String> aliasedVersions = client.listAliases(new ListAliasesRequest()
.withFunctionName(functionName)).getAliases().stream()
.map( (alias) -> alias.getFunctionVersion())
.collect(Collectors.toList());
listener.getLogger().format("Found alises functionName=%s alias=%s%n", functionName, aliasedVersions);
List<FunctionConfiguration> allVersions = findAllVersions(client, functionName);
listener.getLogger().format("Found old versions functionName=%s count=%d%n", functionName, allVersions.size());
List<FunctionConfiguration> filteredVersions = allVersions.stream()
.filter( (function) -> {
ZonedDateTime parsedDateTime = DateTimeUtils.parse(function.getLastModified());
return parsedDateTime.isBefore(this.step.versionCutoff);
})
.filter( (function) -> !"$LATEST".equals(function.getVersion()))
.filter( (function) -> !aliasedVersions.contains(function.getVersion()))
.collect(Collectors.toList());
for (FunctionConfiguration functionConfiguration : filteredVersions) {
listener.getLogger().format("Deleting old version functionName=%s version=%s lastModified=%s%n", functionName, functionConfiguration.getVersion(), functionConfiguration.getLastModified());
client.deleteFunction(new DeleteFunctionRequest()
.withFunctionName(functionName)
.withQualifier(functionConfiguration.getVersion())
);
}
}
private void deleteAllStackFunctionVersions(AWSLambda client, String stackName) throws Exception {
TaskListener listener = Execution.this.getContext().get(TaskListener.class);
listener.getLogger().format("Deleting old versions from stackName=%s%n", stackName);
AmazonCloudFormation cloudformation = AWSClientFactory.create(AmazonCloudFormationClientBuilder.standard(), this.getContext());
DescribeStackResourcesResult result = cloudformation.describeStackResources(new DescribeStackResourcesRequest()
.withStackName(stackName)
);
for (StackResource stackResource : result.getStackResources()) {
if ("AWS::Lambda::Function".equals(stackResource.getResourceType())) {
deleteAllVersions(client, stackResource.getPhysicalResourceId());
}
}
}
@Override
public String run() throws Exception {
AWSLambda client = AWSClientFactory.create(AWSLambdaClientBuilder.standard(), this.getContext());
if (this.step.functionName != null) {
deleteAllVersions(client, this.step.functionName);
}
if (this.step.stackName != null) {
deleteAllStackFunctionVersions(client, this.step.stackName);
}
return null;
}
}
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
# A6:2017 Security Misconfiguration
| Threat agents/Attack vectors | Security Weakness | Impacts |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Access Lvl : Exploitability 3 | Prevalence 3 : Detectability 3 | Technical 2 : Business |
| Attackers will often attempt to exploit unpatched flaws or access default accounts, unused pages, unprotected files and directories, etc to gain unauthorized access or knowledge of the system. | Security misconfiguration can happen at any level of an application stack, including the network services, platform, web server, application server, database, frameworks, custom code, and pre-installed virtual machines, containers, or storage. Automated scanners are useful for detecting misconfigurations, use of default accounts or configurations, unnecessary services, legacy options, etc. | Such flaws frequently give attackers unauthorized access to some system data or functionality. Occasionally, such flaws result in a complete system compromise. The business impact depends on the protection needs of the application and data. |
## Is the Application Vulnerable?
The application might be vulnerable if the application is:
* Missing appropriate security hardening across any part of the application stack, or improperly configured permissions on cloud services.
* Unnecessary features are enabled or installed (e.g. unnecessary ports, services, pages, accounts, or privileges).
* Default accounts and their passwords still enabled and unchanged.
* Error handling reveals stack traces or other overly informative error messages to users.
* For upgraded systems, latest security features are disabled or not configured securely.
* The security settings in the application servers, application frameworks (e.g. Struts, Spring, ASP.NET), libraries, databases, etc. not set to secure values.
* The server does not send security headers or directives or they are not set to secure values.
* The software is out of date or vulnerable (see **A9:2017-Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities**).
Without a concerted, repeatable application security configuration process, systems are at a higher risk.
## How To Prevent
Secure installation processes should be implemented, including:
* A repeatable hardening process that makes it fast and easy to deploy another environment that is properly locked down. Development, QA, and production environments should all be configured identically, with different credentials used in each environment. This process should be automated to minimize the effort required to setup a new secure environment.
* A minimal platform without any unnecessary features, components, documentation, and samples. Remove or do not install unused features and frameworks.
* A task to review and update the configurations appropriate to all security notes, updates and patches as part of the patch management process (see **A9:2017-Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities**). In particular, review cloud storage permissions (e.g. S3 bucket permissions).
* A segmented application architecture that provides effective, secure separation between components or tenants, with segmentation, containerization, or cloud security groups (ACLs).
* Sending security directives to clients, e.g. [Security Headers](https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Secure_Headers_Project).
* An automated process to verify the effectiveness of the configurations and settings in all environments.
## Example Attack Scenarios
**Scenario #1**: The application server comes with sample applications that are not removed from the production server. These sample applications have known security flaws attackers use to compromise the server. If one of these applications is the admin console, and default accounts weren't changed the attacker logs in with default passwords and takes over.
**Scenario #2**: Directory listing is not disabled on the server. An attacker discovers they can simply list directories. The attacker finds and downloads the compiled Java classes, which they decompile and reverse engineer to view the code. The attacker then finds a serious access control flaw in the application.
**Scenario #3**: The application server's configuration allows detailed error messages, e.g. stack traces, to be returned to users. This potentially exposes sensitive information or underlying flaws such as component versions that are known to be vulnerable.
**Scenario #4**: A cloud service provider has default sharing permissions open to the Internet by other CSP users. This allows sensitive data stored within cloud storage to be accessed.
## References
### OWASP
* [OWASP Testing Guide: Configuration Management](https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Testing_for_configuration_management)
* [OWASP Testing Guide: Testing for Error Codes](https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Testing_for_Error_Code_(OWASP-IG-006))
* [OWASP Security Headers Project](https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Secure_Headers_Project)
For additional requirements in this area, see the Application Security Verification Standard [V19 Configuration](https://www.owasp.org/index.php/ASVS_V19_Configuration).
### External
* [NIST Guide to General Server Hardening](https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-123/final)
* [CWE-2: Environmental Security Flaws](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/2.html)
* [CWE-16: Configuration](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/16.html)
* [CWE-388: Error Handling](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/388.html)
* [CIS Security Configuration Guides/Benchmarks](https://www.cisecurity.org/cis-benchmarks/)
* [Amazon S3 Bucket Discovery and Enumeration](https://blog.websecurify.com/2017/10/aws-s3-bucket-discovery.html)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Labrador: la recensione del libro
Labrador è l’interessante libro di Ginoulhiac Luisa che ci aiuta ad entrare nello straordinario mondo dei cani appartenenti a questa razza canina. Un libro fortemente consigliato a tutti coloro che possiedono un labrador oppure che sono in procinto di adottarne uno. Noi di Dogalize abbiamo letto per voi il libro di Luisa Ginoulhiac e, quella che segue, è la nostra recensione.
Scopri di più
Il libro di Ginoulhiac Luisa
Il Labrador è un cane straordinario: forte, robusto e resistente, questo cane è e rimarrà sempre un cane da caccia. Nonostante si adatti molto bene alla vita in casa, questo cane ha nel sangue le proprie origini: specializzato nel riporto della selvaggina, un esemplare di questa razza è abituato anche a lavorare in acqua. Ecco perché è attratto, in maniera viscerale, dall’acqua in generale.
Registrati con Facebook Non perderti i nostri articoli.
Cosa emerge dal libro?
E Ginoulhiac Luisa ci aiuta a scoprire gli aspetti del carattere e della personalità di questo cane, anche quelli più nascosti. Il Labrador è un cane molto intuitivo, con una spiccata intelligenza, un valido compagno di vita ed un cane da compagnia che rispetta sempre il suo padrone e la sua famiglia. Amorevole nei confronti dei bambini, il Labrador ama giocare insieme a loro. Dotato di ottimo temperamento, questo cane è molto docile, allegro, simpatico e si adatta ad ogni situazione.
Ciò che emerge leggendo il libro di Ginoulhiac Luisa è la straordinaria capacità di questo cane di immergersi totalmente nella vita domestica, pur essendo un cane molto legato alle sue origini “da cacciatore”. Ed è proprio grazie alla sua indole docile che il Labrador è uno dei cani più addestrabili: non a caso, è impiegato dalla protezione civile.
E il libro di Ginoulhiac Luisa, ci aiuta a conoscere fino in fondo questo magnifico cane e a scegliere il cucciolo più adatto alle nostre esigenze. Abbiamo trovato molto interessante la sezione del libro in cui l’autrice Ginoulhiac Luisa ci offre alcune nozioni fondamentali per l’educazione di base e l’addestramento del cane Labrador. Molto utile è anche la parte del libro dedicata all’alimentazione del cane più adatta, all’igiene e alla prevenzione e cura delle malattie del Labrador che può contrarre nel corso della sua vita.
Il libro di Luisa Ginoulhiac è davvero molto completo: un intero capitolo è dedicato ala riproduzione, al calore, alla gravidanza e al parto del Labrador con alcuni validi consigli per affrontare, nel migliore del modi, l’arrivo in casa di nuovi cuccioli.
E’ un libro fondamentale che tutti coloro che possiedono questo straordinario cane dovrebbero leggere, almeno una volta nella vita.
Scopri di più
|
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"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
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|
In the most important test of a campaign finance reform law since last year’s Citizens United decision, the US Supreme Court on Monday is set to examine the constitutionality of an Arizona statute that guarantees government money to certain political candidates in a dollar-for-dollar match of funds raised by opposing candidates through private donations.
At issue is whether Arizona’s system of public financing of state election campaigns violates the First Amendment rights of candidates who decide not to participate in the state-funded campaign system.
Candidates who opt-out are free to raise and spend as much money as they wish provided they abide by the state’s limits on individual contributions.
But the Arizona system is designed to encourage candidates to participate in the publicly-financed program. It does so by rewarding participants with automatic payments of matching funds whenever their privately-funded opponent spends certain amounts of money to advocate his or her political views.
The law, known as the Citizens Clean Elections Act, also applies to spending by independent advocacy groups. Expenditures by such groups either for a privately funded candidate or against a publicly funded candidate trigger state-provided matching funds to help the publicly funded candidate counter the group’s political activities.
A central issue in the case is whether the law punishes speech by privately funded candidates or merely enhances speech by candidates who accept only public funding.
Last year, the high court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that Congress under the First Amendment may not restrict the political speech of corporations and unions during election season.
Is 'equalizing' political speech constitutional?
The current case examines whether the First Amendment allows a state government to use a privately-funded candidate’s level of campaign spending to trigger matching funds from the government in a way that helps equalize the amount of speech by publicly funded candidates in the election.
Leveling the playing field among candidates to decrease the influence of money in politics is a major goal of many campaign finance reform advocates. The Arizona case may test the constitutionality of that approach.
Supporters of the Arizona public finance system say it helps fight corruption or the appearance of corruption by eliminating the need for state candidates to raise money to fund their election campaigns.
Opponents say the matching funds provision of the law exerts a chilling effect on the political speech of candidates who want to fund their own campaigns. Under the law, the more money a traditional candidate spends, the more money his or her publicly funded opponents will receive.
“Public financing in Arizona’s matching funds system forces a yoke around the neck of traditionally funded candidates,” said Nicholas Dranias in his brief to the court on behalf of candidates challenging the law.
“The State of Arizona … compels individuals to help disseminate private political speech, which they abhor, as a consequence and condition of speaking freely about politics,” said Mr. Dranias, a lawyer with the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix.
State officials say the matching funds system does not penalize traditionally funded candidates. Instead, they say, it is a calibrated mechanism to ensure that publicly-funded candidates are provided with sufficient money to run competitive races.
Since the total amount of matching funds for candidates is capped, privately funded candidates are free to outspend publicly funded candidates, Assistant Attorney General James Barton said in his brief defending the law.
“Petitioners alleged that the matching funds provision may burden their ability to speak, but it imposes no ceiling on campaign-related activities and does not prevent petitioners from speaking,” Mr. Barton wrote.
The state also argues that the public funding program protects Arizona from quid pro quo corruption and the appearance of corruption by freeing participating candidates from having to rely on special interest groups for campaign contributions.
“A system which eliminates the need for a candidate to accept private dollars would prevent financial quid pro quo: dollars for political favors,” Barton said in his brief.
Opponents dispute corruption-fighting rationale
Opponents of the public finance system dispute this claimed corruption-fighting rationale. They say the public funding mechanism is really designed to “level the playing field” among competing candidates by restricting the amount of money candidates are likely to spend trying to get elected.
“The matching funds provision exists to ‘level’ the speech of privately financed candidates and independent expenditure groups who speak against publicly financed candidates,” wrote William Maurer, a lawyer with the Institute of Justice, in his brief on behalf of candidates and organizations challenging the law.
“It does so by creating disincentives for candidates and independent expenditure groups to engage in political activity above the expenditure limit set by the act,” he said.
Any effect on corruption, he says, is too far removed from the more direct effect of chilling political speech, he said.
The case began as lawsuits filed on behalf of two groups of candidates for state office and political committees that make independent expenditures in state elections. They argued that the matching fund provision of Arizona’s public finance system violated their free speech rights by deterring them from making campaign expenditures that might trigger a new source of funds for their publicly financed political opponents.
Lower courts came to different conclusions
A federal judge agreed with the candidates, and ordered the state to stop disbursing matching funds. A panel of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, finding that Arizona’s public finance system was justified as a means to prevent corruption and that the matching funds provision did not amount to a significant impediment to political speech.
“Based on the record before us, we conclude that any burden the act imposes on Plaintiffs’ speech is indirect or minimal,” the appeals court said.
“Plaintiffs bemoan that matching funds deny them a competitive advantage in elections,” the panel said. “The essence of this claim is not that they have been silenced, but that the speech of their opponents has been enabled.”
A few weeks after the Ninth Circuit panel’s decision, the US Supreme Court blocked the decision and reinstated the federal judge’s injunction prohibiting enforcement of the matching funds provision.
The cases are Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (10-238) and McComish v. Bennett (10-239).
|
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sequence hxx.
3/56
Three letters picked without replacement from klfaf. Give prob of sequence alk.
1/60
Three letters picked without replacement from jlddlb. Give prob of sequence ljd.
1/30
Calculate prob of sequence ysyl when four letters picked without replacement from {s: 11, l: 4, y: 4}.
11/1938
Four letters picked without replacement from {q: 4, v: 1, p: 3}. What is prob of sequence vppq?
1/70
Two letters picked without replacement from {a: 4}. What is prob of sequence aa?
1
Four letters picked without replacement from {s: 12, g: 2, y: 3}. Give prob of sequence gsss.
11/238
What is prob of sequence zjjj when four letters picked without replacement from {j: 9, z: 5}?
15/143
What is prob of sequence tib when three letters picked without replacement from tkktfib?
1/105
Three letters picked without replacement from uuiuuuiliuli. What is prob of sequence iul?
2/55
Two letters picked without replacement from {u: 7, q: 6, j: 2}. What is prob of sequence qj?
2/35
Two letters picked without replacement from {x: 2, z: 2, s: 1, m: 1}. What is prob of sequence zs?
1/15
Four letters picked without replacement from {q: 14, v: 1}. Give prob of sequence qvvq.
0
Two letters picked without replacement from {d: 1, t: 1, w: 1, i: 2}. What is prob of sequence td?
1/20
What is prob of sequence by when two letters picked without replacement from {b: 1, y: 2}?
1/3
Four letters picked without replacement from ttetee. Give prob of sequence tete.
1/10
Calculate prob of sequence rii when three letters picked without replacement from ihiirirrhiir.
1/11
Three letters picked without replacement from auejzuiuzaea. What is prob of sequence jiu?
1/440
What is prob of sequence fwm when three letters picked without replacement from {m: 6, e: 2, f: 1, x: 3, w: 5}?
1/136
Calculate prob of sequence nk when two letters picked without replacement from {n: 6, f: 1, k: 3, i: 2, r: 2}.
9/91
Calculate prob of sequence dd when two letters picked without replacement from ddkmmdmmm.
1/12
What is prob of sequence dr when two letters picked without replacement from rdddr?
3/10
Four letters picked without replacement from {t: 5, j: 3, r: 2, s: 2}. Give prob of sequence srrt.
1/594
Three letters picked without replacement from msmds. What is prob of sequence dss?
1/30
Three letters picked without replacement from oocoooooomo. Give prob of sequence cmo.
1/110
Calculate prob of sequence tttt when four letters picked without replacement from tttttttttt.
1
What is prob of sequence ogp when three letters picked without replacement from {m: 1, p: 1, o: 1, g: 1, q: 1}?
1/60
What is prob of sequence qi when two letters picked without replacement from {q: 3, i: 2}?
3/10
What is prob of sequence bbv when three letters picked without replacement from {b: 5, d: 3, r: 1, t: 3, h: 3, v: 3}?
5/408
Three letters picked without replacement from {k: 2, r: 2, h: 3, d: 7, i: 4}. Give prob of sequence rkk.
1/1224
What is prob of sequence nj when two letters picked without replacement from jnnjnjn?
2/7
What is prob of sequence ddnd when four letters picked without replacement from {k: 4, y: 7, n: 1, d: 8}?
14/4845
What is prob of sequence etq when three letters picked without replacement from {q: 3, t: 1, z: 4, e: 2, y: 1}?
1/165
Four letters picked without replacement from znnnzzzznnznnz. Give prob of sequence zzzn.
35/572
Three letters picked without replacement from xidiitxxmhmdix. Give prob of sequence ddh.
1/1092
Calculate prob of sequence kkrl when four letters picked without replacement from lrarllaaalalklrl.
0
Three letters picked without replacement from {p: 1, n: 2, b: 7, s: 4, u: 3}. Give prob of sequence uss.
3/340
Two letters picked without replacement from {r: 7, n: 4}. What is prob of sequence nr?
14/55
Four letters picked without replacement from txtxttttttttxtttxtt. Give prob of sequence ttxx.
35/1292
Two letters picked without replacement from eeeeueeeeue. What is prob of sequence ue?
9/55
Three letters picked without replacement from {k: 2, l: 6, z: 1, c: 3, f: 2, n: 1}. What is prob of sequence zkl?
2/455
Three letters picked without replacement from {v: 3, o: 11}. Give prob of sequence ovv.
11/364
What is prob of sequence tz when two letters picked without replacement from tzttktttttttzt?
11/91
Three letters picked without replacement from {n: 3, m: 1, r: 2, w: 4, v: 2}. Give prob of sequence wnn.
1/55
Two letters picked without replacement from {j: 4, u: 3}. What is prob of sequence uj?
2/7
Four letters picked without replacement from ubuuluvnubblnu. What is prob of sequence nvln?
1/6006
Three letters picked without replacement from {l: 2, n: 1, x: 4, d: 3, f: 1, z: 1}. What is prob of sequence nfx?
1/330
Three letters picked without replacement from {n: 3, b: 3, h: 3, s: 1}. What is prob of sequence nhh?
1/40
Two letters picked without replacement from vkddgdddkgvvddddf. Give prob of sequence vd.
27/272
What is prob of sequence hdh when three letters picked without replacement from hhhhddhhhdhdhhhhhhh?
140/969
What is prob of sequence kcc when three letters picked without replacement from kckckckckk?
1/10
Calculate prob of sequence yyyy when four letters picked without replacement from {y: 9, u: 3}.
14/55
Calculate prob of sequence dd when two letters picked without replacement from ddydydddddd.
36/55
What is prob of sequence rrp when three letters picked without replacement from rqqqraqqqfqarqpraff?
2/969
What is prob of sequence xj when two letters picked without replacement from nxdjg?
1/20
Two letters picked without replacement from {m: 2, t: 1, e: 1, u: 6, f: 3}. Give prob of sequence ft.
1/52
What is prob of sequence iajw when four letters picked without replacement from wiumwuuwwiaaija?
1/910
Calculate prob of sequence uumu when four letters picked without replacement from guuugugumuuggguuuggu.
11/1292
What is prob of sequence bb when two letters picked without replacement from xbxbbxxxbbxbxbxbxxxb?
18/95
Four letters picked without replacement from jjjjjjjqqjqjjj. What is prob of sequence qqjq?
1/364
Calculate prob of sequence af when two letters picked without replacement from {f: 2, a: 4}.
4/15
Four letters picked without replacement from kuyjyyuyjkycyyy. What is prob of sequence ykjc?
4/4095
Two letters picked without replacement from {y: 11, k: 3, w: 2, v: 2, f: 1}. Give prob of sequence kf.
1/114
Two letters picked without replacement from fzzfffyyzskyflfylf. Give prob of sequence yf.
14/153
Three letters picked without replacement from pllllxphxhzz. Give prob of sequence hhz.
1/330
What is prob of sequence xjj when three letters picked without replacement from {h: 1, j: 2, x: 7}?
7/360
Calculate prob of sequence sq when two letters picked without replacement from fqsqqqffffffqsfqfqff.
7/190
What is prob of sequence off when three letters picked without replacement from {o: 4, n: 2, f: 7}?
14/143
Three letters picked without replacement from {b: 4, s: 3, k: 1, g: 7, y: 3}. What is prob of sequence bbk?
1/408
Calculate prob of sequence txx when three letters picked without replacement from tttttttxtxttttxttt.
5/272
What is prob of sequence sx when two letters picked without replacement from {c: 1, b: 2, s: 4, x: 1}?
1/14
What is prob of sequence nssn when four letters picked without replacement from nnssssnnnssnnsnsnsn?
45/646
What is prob of sequence oib when three letters picked without replacement from {i: 1, b: 1, t: 1, o: 1, s: 1}?
1/60
Three letters picked without replacement from gzxxsxz. Give prob of sequence zzx.
1/35
Two letters picked without replacement from {s: 7, a: 4}. What is prob of sequence as?
14/55
Four letters picked without replacement from ijtza. Give prob of sequence ztji.
1/120
Three letters picked without replacement from {c: 11, m: 9}. Give prob of sequence mmc.
11/95
Three letters picked without replacement from ayytdyrdyxtr. What is prob of sequence yyt?
1/55
Three letters picked without replacement from {w: 11, p: 2, d: 2}. Give prob of sequence dwd.
11/1365
Two letters picked without replacement from {a: 3, v: 3, c: 1, h: 1, l: 3}. Give prob of sequence hl.
3/110
Three letters picked without replacement from {b: 6, i: 1, h: 1, e: 3, r: 4, a: 3}. Give prob of sequence rrh.
1/408
Calculate prob of sequence if when two letters picked without re
|
{
"pile_set_name": "DM Mathematics"
}
|
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Texas Gov. Vetoes Legislation To Create A Public Defender Office For People With Mental Health Disorders
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott did sign measures that give a boost for telemedicine and provide for postpartum depression screening for low-income women, among others. Meanwhile, guns and abortion measures have been hot topics in Kansas.
Houston Chronicle:
Telemedicine Industry Expects Boost From New Texas Law
The multimillion-dollar telemedicine industry is poised for a lucrative run across Texas now that some of the toughest restrictions in the nation have finally been lifted by the state. A new law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, who has championed the issue, opens a huge market that could potentially connect millions of Texans to doctors who can now diagnose patients by video chat. This is welcome news in a state where elbow room is measured in the hundreds of miles and doctor shortages are chronic. (Deam, 6/15)
Texas Tribune:
Postpartum Depression Screening Bill Gets Abbott's Signature
Texas mothers taking their new babies for checkups through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program will be able to get postpartum depression screenings and counseling under a bill Gov. Greg Abbott signed Thursday. The goal of House Bill 2466 is to get low-income mothers screened for postpartum depression early — during their baby's initial doctor visits. (Evans, 6/15)
Texas Tribune:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs "Sandra Bland Act" Into Law
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday signed into law a measure that seeks to address the circumstances that led to the death of Sandra Bland, a black woman found dead in a county jail days after being arrested during a routine traffic stop. The Sandra Bland Act mandates county jails divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues toward treatment, makes it easier for defendants to receive a personal bond if they have a mental illness or intellectual disability, and requires that independent law enforcement agencies investigate jail deaths. (Silver, 6/15)
Austin American-Statesman:
Sandra Bland Act Signed Into Law To Address Mental Health Of Prisoners
Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law the Sandra Bland Act which, among several provisions, requires more training for jailers on mental health issues of prisoners... County jails also will have to provide prisoners with access to mental health professionals, in person or through electronic means, and a medical professional would have to review “as soon as possible” any prescription medication that a prisoner was taking when placed in custody. (Chang, 6/15)
KCUR:
Closed-Door Negotiations Produce Abortion Bill No Missouri Legislator Is Happy With
Republican lawmakers pushed an abortion bill through the Missouri Senate this week, but were unable to secure many of the provisions they wanted. Democrats are happy with a watered-down bill, but unhappy with having to deal with another attempt to further restrict access to abortion and that it came during a special legislative session. The Senate sent the House a scaled-back bill early Thursday morning after Republican and Democratic negotiators spent roughly 14 hours behind closed doors hammering out a compromise version that could get through the upper chamber without being blocked by a filibuster. (Griffin, 6/16)
This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Previous research has shown that consumer preferences have both hedonic and utilitarian dimensions, and the aesthetic aspect of a product is normally taken as a source of hedonic consumption. While researches focus on how the product aesthetic works, there’s a paradox hidden in this issue, the preferred aesthetic product might not be the ultimate product purchased, this is what we called preference reversal. However, if the product purchased is the product preferred, we call it the justification of hedonic consumption. Justification has been examined in several researches; however none of these researches has linked the ease of hedonic good consumption justification with consumer’s inner sense of beauty. Base on this point, in this research we apply the Centrality of Visual Product Aesthetics, a scale which can measure the level of product aesthetics is put in one person’s mind. And CVPA is extended by adding functional-oriented questions.
In order to examine consumers’ different purchase behavior between high/low CVPA respondents, this article conducted five trade-off decision tasks under the condition of given same price for each pair of comparable aesthetic-functional attributes. Meanwhile, we try to find out if there is any functional/ aesthetic attribute will dominate consumer choice in this kind of trade-off purchase situation.
In this research we found out the acumen dimension of CVPA is not suitable for developing functional-aesthetic contrast questions. Therefore, a new Aesthetic Preference is constructed from the other two dimensions of CVPA, and divided respondents into high/low AP, and used in our hypothesis analyzation. The result shows that high aesthetic product can easily recognize by high and low AP respondents, without requiring acumen or knowledge in product aesthetic details. As for purchase intention, high AP respondents significantly willing to purchase the more aesthetic product in the purchase occasion. AP scale shows the true preference of respondents, while a consumer is highly aesthetic preferred, it’s much easier for him/her to justify the aesthetic product that he/she preferred. And some dominant functional/aesthetic attributes are also found by analysis consumer’s choice and crucial attributes rating.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Functional torque-velocity and power-velocity characteristics of elite athletes.
Technical limitations of some isokinetic dynamometers have called into question the validity of some data on human muscle mechanics. The Biodex dynamometer has been shown to minimize the impact artefact while permitting automatic gravity correction. This dynamometer was used to study quadriceps muscle torque and power generation in elite power (n = 6) and elite endurance (n = 7) athletes over 12 randomly assigned isokinetic velocities from 30 degrees.s-1 to 300 degrees.s-1. The angle at peak torque varied as a negative, linear function of angular velocity, with the average angle across test velocities being 59.5 degrees (SD 10.2 degrees). Power athletes developed greater peak torque at each angular velocity (P less than 0.05) and experienced a 39.7% decrement in torque over the velocity range tested. Endurance athletes encountered a 38.8% decline in peak torque. Torques measured at 60 degrees of knee flexion followed a similar trend in both groups; however the greatest torques were recorded at 60 degrees.s-1 rather than at 30 degrees.s-1. Leg extensor muscle power increased monotonically with angular velocity in both power (r2 = 0.728) and endurance athletes (r2 = 0.839); however these curves diverged significantly so that the power athletes produced progressively more power with each velocity increment. These inter group differences probably reflected a combination of natural selection and training adaptation.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
The present invention relates to 17-halogenated 19-nor steroid compounds, their preparation process and intermediates, their use as a medicament and the pharmaceutical compositions containing them.
Osteoporosis is a pathology which is characterized by a quantitative and qualitative reduction in bone matter, sufficient to lead to vertebral or peripheral fractures, in a spontaneous fashion or on occasions due to minimal traumas. Although this illness has many factors at its origin, it is the menopause which in women constitutes the dominating factor in bone loss or osteopenia.
This osteopenia manifests itself by a rarefaction and modification of the architecture of the spongy bone, the consequence of which is to increase the fragility of the skeleton and the risk of fractures. Bone loss increases strongly after the menopause due to the suppression of ovarian function and reaches 3 to 5% per year before slowing down after 65 years old.
For a therapeutic purpose, the post-menopause hormonal deficiency can be compensated for by a hormone replacement therapy where oestrogen plays a major role in preserving the bone mass. But long-term oestrogenotherapy is sometimes accompanied by undesirable effects on the genital apparatus (endometrial hyperplasia, breast tumors . . . ), which constitutes a major drawback and limits its use.
It is therefore convenient to find compounds other than oestradiol having a dissociated oestrogen activity, namely an oestrogen activity at the bone level, while having no or little endometrial hyperplasia activity, nor breast tumor proliferation activity.
Therefore, a subject of the invention is the compounds of general formula (I):
in which:
R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a (CH2)mxe2x80x94Ar, (CO)xe2x80x94Ar, (CH2)mxe2x80x94Alk or (CO)xe2x80x94Alk radical,
R2 represents a radical derived from a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon containing 1 to 6 carbon atoms
X represents a halogen atom,
Y represents a single bond, O, NH, S, SO or SO2,
Z represents a hydrogen atom or a halogen atom,
n is equal to 2, 3, 4 or 5,
either R3 and R4, identical or different, represent a hydrogen atom, a (CH2)mxe2x80x2xe2x80x94Ar, (CH2)mxe2x80x2xe2x80x94Het or (CH2)mxe2x80x2Alk group, or R3 and R4 form together with the nitrogen atom to which they are linked an aromatic or non-aromatic, saturated or unsaturated mono- or polycyclic heterocycle with 3 to 15 members optionally containing 1 to 3 additional heteroatoms chosen from oxygen, sulphur and nitrogen, non-substituted or substituted,
Ar representing a carbocyclic aryl group containing 6 to 18 carbon atoms, Het representing a saturated or unsaturated aromatic or non-aromatic heterocycle containing 1 to 9 carbon atoms and 1 to 5 heteroatoms chosen from oxygen, nitrogen or sulphur atoms, Alk representing a radical derived from a saturated or unsaturated, linear, branched or cyclic, non-aromatic hydrocarbon and containing 1 to 12 carbon atoms, the Ar, Het or Alk radicals being able to be substituted or non-substituted, m and mxe2x80x2 representing 0, 1, 2 or 3,
the dotted lines representing an optional second bond, as well as their addition salts with bases or acids.
By halogen is meant: iodine, bromine, chlorine or fluorine.
In position 4, it is preferably chlorine or bromine.
In position 17, it is preferably fluorine.
By (CH2)m or (CH2)mxe2x80x2 is meant the following values: single bond in the case where m is equal to 0, CH2, (CH2)2 and (CH2)3.
By the term Ar representing the carbocyclic aryl group containing 6 to 18 carbon atoms is meant a derivative of an aromatic cyclic hydrocarbon such as the phenyl, naphthyl, phenanthrenyl radical or a derivative of a condensed, bicyclic or tricyclic hydrocarbon containing a benzene ring such as indanyl, indenyl, dihydronaphthyl, tetrahydronaphthyl or fluorenyl. The junction is carried out at the level of the benzene ring. Preferably it is phenyl.
By the term (Het) representing a saturated or unsaturated, aromatic or non aromatic heterocycle containing 1 to 9 carbon atoms and 1 to 5 heteroatoms chosen from oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur atoms, the following are designated in particular:
heterocyclic monocyclic radicals, for example thienyl, furyl, pyrannyl, pyrrolyl, imidazolyl, pyrazolyl, pyridyl, pyrazinyl, pyrimidinyl, pyridazinyl, thiazolyl, oxazolyl, furazannyl, pyrrolinyl, imidazolinyl, pyrazolinyl, thiazolinyl, triazolyl, tetrazolyl radicals,
condensed heterocyclic rings, for example benzofuranyl, benzothienyl, benzimidazolyl, benzothiazolyl, naphtho[2,3-b] thienyl, thianthrenyl, isobenzofuranyl, chromenyl, xanthenyl, phenoxathiinyl, indolizinyl, isoindolyl, 3H-indolyl, indolyl, indazolyl, purinyl, quinolizinyl, isoquinolyl, quinolyl, phthalazinyl, naphthyridinyl, quinoxalinyl, quinazolinyl, cinnolinyl, pteridinyl, carbazolyl, beta-carbolinyl, acridinyl, phenazinyl, phenothiazinyl, phenoxazinyl, indolinyl, isoindolinyl, imidazopyridyl, imidazopyrimidinyl or also condensed polycyclic systems constituted by heterocyclic moncyclics as defined above such as for example furo[2,3-b]pyrrole or thieno[2,3-b] furan,
or saturated heterocycles such as pyrrolidine, piperidine, morpholine.
By the term (Alk) representing a radical derived from a saturated or unsaturated, linear, branched or cyclic non-aromatic hydrocarbon, is designated in the case of acyclic hydrocarbons the alkyl radicals such as methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, isobutyl, tert-butyl, n-pentyl, n-hexyl, 2-methyl pentyl, 2,3-dimethyl butyl, n-heptyl, 2-methylhexyl, 2,2-dimethylpentyl, 3,3-dimethyl pentyl, 3-ethylpentyl, n-octyl, 2,2-dimethylhexyl, 3,3-dimethylhexyl, 3-methyl-3-ethylpentyl, nonyl, 2,4-dimethylheptyl or n-decyl, the alkenyl radicals such as vinyl, propenyl, isopropenyl, allyl, 2-methylallyl, butenyl or isobutenyl, or the alkynyl radicals such as ethynyl, propynyl, propargyl, butynyl or isobutynyl, and in the case of cyclic radicals, the cycloalkyl radicals, such as cyclopropyl, cyclobutyl, cyclopentyl, cyclohexyl or adamantyl.
It will preferably be methyl and ethyl radicals. By CO-Alk is preferably meant COCH3 and COEt, by COxe2x80x94Ar is preferably meant the benzoyl radical, when m is different from zero, (CH2)mxe2x80x94Ar will preferably be the benzyl group.
When R3 and R4 form together with the nitrogen atom to which they are linked a heterocycle, it is in particular mono- or bicyclic heterocycles optionally containing another heteroatom chosen from oxygen and nitrogen such as the following unsaturated heterocycles: pyrrolyl, imidazolyl, indolyl, pyridyl, pyrazinyl, pyrimidinyl, pyridazinyl, thiazolyl, oxazolyl, furazolinyl, pyrazolinyl, thiazolinyl, or, more particularly, the following saturated heterocycles:
When the different Alk, Ar, Het groups, as well as the heterocycle formed by R3 and R4 with the nitrogen which carries them, are substituted, they can in particular be substituted by the following radicals:
halogen, namely fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine, alkoxy such as methoxy, ethoxy, propyloxy, isopropyloxy, butyloxy, alkylthio such as methylthio, ethylthio, propylthio, isopropylthio, butylthio, amino, alkylamino such as methylamino or ethylamino, dialkylamino such as dimethylamino, diethylamino, methylethylamino, each of these dialkylamino radicals being optionally in oxidized form, aminoalkyl such as aminomethyl or aminoethyl, dialkylaminoalkyl such as dimethylamino methyl or ethyl, dialkylaminoalkyloxy such as dimethylamino ethyloxy, hydroxyl optionally acylated, acyl such as acetyl, propionyl, butyryl, benzoyl, free, esterified carboxy such as alkoxy carbonyl for example methoxy carbonyl or ethoxy carbonyl, cyano, trifluoromethyl, aryl such as phenyl, aralkyl such as benzyl, alkyl, alkenyl or alkynyl these radicals being themselves optionally substituted by the halogen, alkyl, alkoxy, alkylthio, amino, alkylamino or dialkylamino radicals indicated above.
Of course, the expression xe2x80x9csubstitutedxe2x80x9d indicates that one or more identical or different substituents can be present. By way of example, when the alkyl group is a methyl radical substituted by one or more halogen atoms, it can in particular be CH2Cl, CH2F, CHF2 and CF3.
In the case of (Het), the substituents can be at the level of NH or a carbon atom.
Of course the values of R1, R2, R3 and R4, as well as n, m and mxe2x80x2 are independent of each other.
The invention naturally extends to the salts of the compounds of formula (I), such as for example the salts formed with mineral or organic acids on the amine. It can then be one of the following acids: hydrochloric, hydrobromic, nitric, sulphuric, phosphoric, acetic, formic, propionic, benzoic, maleic, fumaric, succinic, tartaric, citric, oxalic, glyoxylic, aspartic, alkane sulphonics such as methane or ethane sulphonic acids, arylsulphonics, such as benzene or paratoluene sulphonic acids and arylcarboxylics. When the compounds of formula (I) contain an acid function, the invention extends to the salts of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals or ammonium, optionally substituted.
A more particular subject of the invention is the compounds of general formula (I) as defined above as well as their addition salts, in which X is a fluorine atom in the alpha position, and the dotted lines do not represent a second bond (ring D of the saturated steroid).
Also a more particular subject of the invention is the compounds of general formula (I) as defined previously as well as their addition salts, in which R1 is a hydrogen atom, R2 is a methyl radical and Z is either a hydrogen atom or a chlorine atom, Y represents an oxygen atom and the dotted lines do not represent a second bond.
A quite particular subject of the invention is the compounds of general formula (I) as defined previously as well as their addition salts, in which:
either R3 and R4, identical or different, represent an alkyl radical containing 1 to 6 carbon atoms,
or R3 and R4 together with the nitrogen atom to which they are linked, form one of the following saturated heterocycles:
Also a quite particular subject of the invention is the compounds of general formula (I) as defined previously as well as their addition salts, in which X is a fluorine atom in alpha position, R1 is a hydrogen atom, R2 is a methyl radical, Y is an oxygen atom, Z is a hydrogen atom or chlorine atom, n is equal to 2 or 3,
either R3 and R4, identical or different, represent an alkyl radical containing 1 to 6 carbon atoms,
or R3 and R4 together with the nitrogen atom to which they are linked, form one of the following saturated heterocycles:
and the dotted lines do not represent a second bond.
Finally a subject of the invention is the compounds of formula (I) as well as their addition salts with acids the names of which follow:
17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)ethoxy] phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol
17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)ethoxy] phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol hydrochloride
17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-diethylamino)ethoxy] phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol
17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)ethoxy] phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol
4-chloro-17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl) ethoxy] phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol
17-iodo-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)ethoxyl phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol,
17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(4-methyl-1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol,
17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(4-methyl-1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol hydrochloride,
17-alpha-fluoro-3-methoxy-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-triene,
17-alpha-fluoro-3-methoxy-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-triene,
17-alpha-fluoro-3-methoxy-11-beta-[4-[2-(diethylamino)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-triene,
(11-beta)-17-chloro-11-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol,
17-alpha-chloro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol,
17-iodo-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra -1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol hydrochloride,
17-alpha-fluoro-11-beta-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)-ethoxy]-phenyl]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol lactate.
A subject of the invention is also a preparation process for the compounds of formula (I) as defined previously, in which a compound of formula (II)
in which
R2 and Z are as defined previously,
RA represents one of the following groups:
in which Y, n, R3 and R4 are as defined previously and Hal represents a halogen atom, is subjected to the action, if appropriate after protection and/or activation of the OH functions,
either a) of a reducing agent of the keto in position 17 in order to obtain a compound of formula (IIIa):
b) then of a halogenation agent in order to obtain a compound of formula (Ixe2x80x2a):
corresponding to certain compounds of formula (I), when RA represents xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94NR3R4,
or a) of a hydrazine in order to obtain a compound of formula (IIIb)
b) then of a halogenation agent in order to obtain a compound of formula (Ixe2x80x2b):
corresponding to certain compounds of formula (I), when RA represents xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94NR3R4,
the compounds of formula (II), (IIIa), (IIIb), (Ixe2x80x2a) or (Ixe2x80x2b), in protected or unprotected form, being subjected, if desired or if necessary, to one or more of the following reactions:
deprotection of the protected OH group or groups,
acylation/alkylation of the OH group or groups,
the action of HNR3R4, optionally in the form of a salt,
when RA represents the xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94Hal or activated xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94OH group,
salification.
The reduction of 17-keto into the alcohol is carried out according to standard methods, in particular by the action of an alkaline borohydride such as sodium borohydride in methanol or ethanol or by the action of aluminium and lithium tetrahydride.
This reduction allows in particular the alcohol in position 17-beta to be obtained.
The halogenation reaction which follows is preferably carried out with reagents such as XSO2C4F9 in the presence of a hindered base such as DBU (diazabicycloundecene), X is preferably fluorine. Other halogenation methods known to a person skilled in the art can also be used.
When the hydroxy group of the starting product is in the beta position, an inversion of the configuration is observed during the nucleophilic substitution and by this process (halogenation reagent: perfluoro-1-butane sulphonyl fluoride (FSO2C4F9)) quite particularly the compounds of formula (I) or (Ixe2x80x2a) are obtained with the fluorine in the 17-alpha position.
The action of hydrazine is preferably carried out in the presence of a base such as triethylamine and the halogenation which follows is carried out in particular with X2 in a basic medium and in particular with I2.
By activation of the alcohol is meant the introduction in particular of a mesylate, tosylate or triflate which encourages the nucleophilic substitution of the amine HNR3R4 on the compounds of formulae (II), (IIIa), (IIIb), (Ixe2x80x2a), (Ixe2x80x2b) in which R3 represents a xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94OH group.
The formation of the mesylate, tosylate or triflate from the corresponding alcohol is carried out in the presence of a base such as triethylamine. The substitution of the alcohol by a halogen atom according to the usual methods can also be envisaged beforehand.
The protection and deprotection reactions are standard methods known to a person skilled in the art. A fairly complete review is contained in the following publication: Protective groups in organic synthesis, T. W. Greene, John Wiley and sons (1981).
The protective group P (OHxe2x86x92OP) can represent an alkyl radical containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a benzyl group, a tetrahydropyrannyl group, an RCRDRESi group in which RC, RD and RE identical or different, independent of one another, each represent an alkyl radical containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms or a phenyl group. This is quite particularly the Si(Me)2CMe3 or xe2x80x94Si(Ph)2CMe3 or xe2x80x94SiMe3 groups.
As an example, the deprotection reactions (OPxe2x86x92OH in position 3), when P is a tertbutyldiphenylsilyl group can be carried out by the action of tetrabutyl ammonium fluoride in solution in tetrahydrofuran. It is the same when P represents SO2C4F9 following the fluoridation reaction.
When P is a tetrahydropyrannyl group, the deprotection is carried out in the presence of an aqueous acid in an alcoholic solvent and preferably by the action of hydrochloric acid in methanol.
The action of a compound of formula R3R4NH on the compounds of formulae (II), (IIIa), (IIIb), (Ixe2x80x2a), (Ixe2x80x2b) in which R2 represents a xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94OH or xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94Hal group is carried out under standard conditions for nucleophilic substitutions, in particular in the presence of an aprotic solvent such as tetrahydrofuran. When OH is activated it is in particular OSO2CH3, OSO2xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94pMe, OSO2CPh3.
The alkylation or acylation reactions of the OH group in position 3 as well as the salification reactions are carried out by the standard methods known to a person skilled in the art.
The compounds of general formula (I) as well as their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids have in particular oestrogen, anti-oestrogen and anti-proliferative activities.
Therefore the compounds of formula (I) can be used in the treatment of disorders linked to hypofolliculinia, for example, amenorrheas, dysmenorrheas, repeated abortions, premenstrual disorders, in the treatment of certain oestrogen-dependent pathologies such as prostatic adenomas or carcinomas, mammary carcinomas and their metastases or in the treatment of benign breast tumors, as an anti-uterotrophic as well as in the replacement treatment for the menopause or the perimenopause.
Among the symptoms and consequences linked to the menopause are more specifically meant hot flushes, sweats, vaginal atrophy and dryness, urinary symptoms and in the long term a reduction in bone mass and an increased risk of fractures, and the loss of-the cardiovascular protection provided by oestrogens.
In particular, the compounds of formula (I) as well as their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids or bases can be used in the prevention or the treatment of osteoporosis.
The compounds of formula (I) and their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids or bases can also be used for the prevention or the treatment of osteoporosis in man.
They can also be used for the prevention or the treatment of secondary osteoporoses (for example cortisonal or linked with immobilization).
The compounds of formula (I) as well as their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids or bases in particular have a dissociated oestrogenic activity.
By dissociated oestrogenic activity is meant an oestrogenic activity at bone level while demonstrating only minimal activity at uterine level, thus not entailing an endometrial proliferation (much lower activity than that of oestradiol).
Furthermore, the compounds according to the invention have the following advantages:
They have an anti-oestrogenic and/or anti-proliferative activity at the level of the breast. Unlike oestradiol, they do not stimulate the growth of human mammary tumor cells and can even inhibit their growth. The compounds according to the invention are therefore particularly advantageous for the treatment of the menopause in women at risk from breast cancer (family antecedents) who are therefore excluded from a replacement treatment using oestradiol.
They can also be used in the treatment of breast cancers.
They lead to a lowering of the seric cholesterol level to a level equivalent to that induced by oestradiol. Therefore, they strengthen cardiovascular protection.
Finally, as the compounds according to the invention have no oestrogen activity at the uterine level, they do not require to be administered in combination with a progestomimetic compound.
A subject of the invention is thus compounds of formula (I) as well as their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids or bases, as medicaments.
A more particular subject of the invention is compounds of formula (I) as well as their addition salts with pharmaceutically acceptable acids or bases as medicaments intended for the prevention or the treatment of osteoporosis.
The invention extends to the pharmaceutical compositions containing at least one of the medicaments defined above as active ingredient.
The compounds of formula (I) are used by digestive, parenteral or local route, for example by percutaneous route. They may be prescribed in the form of plain or coated tablets, gelatin capsules, granules, suppositories, pessaries, injectable preparations, ointments, creams, gels, microspheres, implants, intravaginal rings, patches, which are prepared according to the usual methods.
The active ingredient or ingredients can be incorporated with excipients usually employed in these pharmaceutical compositions, such as talc, gum arabic, lactose, starch, magnesium stearate, cocoa butter, aqueous or non-aqueous vehicles, fatty substances of animal or vegetable origin, paraffin derivatives, glycols, various wetting, dispersing or emulsifying agents, preservatives.
The useful dose varies as a function of the illness to be treated and the administration route; it can vary for example from 1 to 1000 mg per day for an adult by oral route.
A subject of the invention is also the use of compounds of formula (I) as defined above, for the preparation of a medicament intended for hormone replacement treatment for the menopause or the perimenopause, having little or no activity at the uterine level, and quite particularly the use, characterized in that the medicament is intended for the prevention or treatment of osteoporosis.
The compounds of formula (II) or (IIIa) are compounds which are known or are easily accessible to a person skilled in the art. In particular, the compounds of formula (II) with Zxe2x95x90H, R2xe2x95x90Me and RA=xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)n-Hal are described in the International Application WO 93/13123 (compounds of formula II); the compounds of formula (II) with Zxe2x95x90H, R2xe2x95x90Me and RAxe2x95x90xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94OH are described in the European Patent 0305242 B1 (compounds of formula (III)), the compounds of formula (II) with Zxe2x95x90H, R2xe2x95x90Me and RAxe2x95x90xe2x80x94Phxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)nxe2x80x94NR3R4 are described in European Patent 0097572, the French Addition Certificate 2640977 or the European Patent 0305242.
The compounds of formula (II) in which Z represents a halogen atom are described in the International Application WO 9845316 and are prepared from the compound of formula (IV):
by the action of a halogenation reagent in order to obtain the compound of formula (V):
which compound (V) is subjected to the action of an aromatization reagent of ring A, then to the action of a base in order to obtain the compound of formula (II) in which Z represents a halogen atom.
The action of a halogenation reagent such as N-bromosuccinimide or N-chloromosuccinimide on the compounds of formula (IV) is carried out in particular in the presence of a dipolar aprotic solvent such as dimethylformamide.
The aromatization reaction followed by the saponification reaction (action of the base) is carried out according to standard methods as described in the European Patent 0097572. Preferably an acetic anhydride and acetyl bromide mixture is used as aromatization agent then a base such as soda in methanol is used as saponification agent.
A subject of the invention is also, as intermediate products, the compounds of formulae (Ixe2x80x2a), (IIIb) and (Ixe2x80x2b).
The examples below illustrate the invention without however limiting it.
Solvents described in the examples: AcOEt (ethyl acetate), TEA (triethylamine), CH2Cl2 (dichloromethane), CHCl3 (chloroform), MeOH (methanol), NH4OH (ammonium hydroxide), iPrOH (isopropyl alcohol).
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
Q:
Has the Url Shortener in Google Apps Script changed?
I've been using this simple function to create shortened links in Google Apps Script. It's been working for the past few months but stopped working few days ago. Has there been a change?
function getShortenedUrl(url){
var longUrl = UrlShortener.newUrl()
.setLongUrl(url);
var shortUrl = UrlShortener.Url.insert(longUrl);
return shortUrl.getId();
}
A:
Yes. It has. I figured it out the hard way. Just make a small change for it to work
function getShortenedUrl(url){
var longUrl = UrlShortener.newUrl();
longUrl.setLongUrl(url);
var shortUrl = UrlShortener.Url.insert(longUrl);
return shortUrl.getId();
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Q:
How to get manufacturer name for each product
I have to get some attributes for each product I've gotten most of them but I don't know how to get manufacturer name and the upc or ean barcode value in adminhtml.
I've tried with this code
$name = 'Manufacturer';
$attributeInfo = Mage::getResourceModel('eav/entity_attribute_collection')->setCodeFilter($name)->getFirstItem();
$attributeId = $attributeInfo->getAttributeId(81);
$attribute = Mage::getModel('catalog/resource_eav_attribute')->load($attributeId);
$attributeOptions = $attribute ->getSource()->getAllOptions(false);
var_dump($attribute);
But I can Just print (like in the image) $attribute level and then the $attributeOptions goes empty.
A:
$productId='your_product_id';
$product=Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($productId);
$manufaturer=$product->getAttributeText('manufacturer');
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
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[Mechanism of action of biogenic chloramines and hypochlorite on initial aggregation of blood platelets].
The antiaggregant action of two reactive oxidants N,N-dichlorotaurine (chloramine of biogenic type) and sodium hypochlorite on the initial ADP-induced aggregation of rabbit blood platelets has been studied. Platelet aggregation in the reconstructed platelet-rich plasma (PRP) was measured by the nephelometric method, and the aggregation index was an increase in the intensity of small-angle light scattering. The introduction of chloramine at comparatively small concentrations (no greater than 1 mM active chlorine) directly into the reconstructed platelet-rich plasma induces the suppression of the initial aggregation (formation of small aggregates) several times stronger than in the case of its preliminary incubation with plasma alone. This suggests that N,N-dichlorotaurine exerts its antiaggeregant action on the platelet-rich plasma by direct interaction with cells. The effects of the inhibition of platelet aggregation in two variants of introduction of high concentrations of N,N-dichlorotaurine do not significantly differ. In this case a great amount of residual chloramine remains in the plasma, which just induces the suppression of platelet aggregation during subsequent reconstruction of the platelet-rich plasma. Similar data have been obtained in the study of the antiaggregant action of hypochlorite. N,N-Dichlorotaurine and hypochlorite at final concentrations of 0.2-0.3 and 0.15 mM, respectively, inhibit strongly the initial aggregation of isolated platelets (approximately 2 x 10(8) cells in 1 ml) preliminarily activated for 1.5 min by the addition of 100-500 nM ADP. However, the antiaggregants show a more profound suppression of aggregation of unstimulated platelets. The antiaggregant effects of N,N-dichlorotaurine and hypochlorite are probably due to the oxidative modification of sulfur-containing groups in platelet plasmatic membrane.
|
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"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
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Ergonomic cheek weld
Steel hardware
Fixed sling loops
Dual forward facing storage compartments
For MIL-SPEC Receiver Extensions
Coyote Brown with matching steel hardware
A proper clone build takes every detail carefully into considering when putting their rifle together, but many builders will settle for 'close enough'. With the B5 Systems Gen 1 SOPMOD Stock, you don't have to! These stocks are overrun from a government contract, and so 100% clone perfect! Unlike the standard version, the Gen 1 has no commercial logos and no QD sling swivel socket, giving you a perfectly authentic component for your build!
|
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"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
RĀMA THE STEADFAST
THE AUTHOR of the Rāma story is known only from the content of his work. He was an oral poet speaking a distinct dialect of Sanskrit in the central Ga gā region of northern India in about the fifth century BC. He was a man with the traditional outlook of a man, familiar with the interests and pursuits of the warrior class in a small, agriculturally based kingdom within which there was as yet limited social differentiation, still observing an archaic pattern of worship. He was also a perceptive craftsman, skilled and sensitive, whose work was appreciated, emulated and augmented by generations of successors.
It is clear that the text translated in this volume is the product of many minds and many tongues, but what about the original text? Was there one author or many? Was it, in outline, the product of a single composer's mind, or did the story emerge gradually from the coalescence of multiple pre-existent sources? Scholarly opinion is divided.
JOHN BROCKINGTON was educated at Mill Hill School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He is emeritus Professor of Sanskrit in the School of Asian Studies (of which he was the first Head) at the University of Edinburgh. His books include _The Sacred Thread_ (1981), _Righteous Rāma_ (1985), _Hinduism and Christianity_ (1992) and _The Sanskrit Epics_ (1998). His special area of research is the Sanskrit epics. He is the Secretary General of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies.
MARY BROCKINGTON was educated at Homelands Grammar School, Derby, and St Hilda's College, Oxford. She has edited three volumes of Indological papers and published several articles on the _Rāmāyana_ , the _Mahābhārata_ and the _Harivamśa_ , and on traditional tales and early literature in Europe and South Asia. Her research is focused mainly on narrative strategies and on performance.
Rāma the Steadfast
_An Early Form of the Rāmāya a_
_Translated by_
JOHN BROCKINGTON _and_ MARY BROCKINGTON
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN CLASSICS
Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
www.penguin.com
First published in Penguin Classics 2006
1
Copyright © John Brockington and Mary Brockington, 2006
All rights reserved
The moral right of the translators has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
ISBN: 9781101493595
'Journey steadfastly, my son; may your path be safe and free from all danger, and may fortune and prosperity attend your return.'
[2,31.26]
# Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Further Reading
Note to the Reader
Principal Characters
RĀMA THE STEADFAST
AYODHYĀ
THE FOREST
KISKINDHĀ
BEAUTY
WAR
AFTERTHOUGHTS
Note on the Text Translated
Appendix 1: Rituals and greetings
Appendix 2: Genealogies
Notes
Index / Glossary
# Acknowledgements
The translators wish to thank various friends and colleagues for support and advice, in particular James L. Fitzgerald and the late Alison Smith. John Brockington also gratefully acknowledges the award of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship which greatly assisted work on this translation.
# Introduction
_(Readers are warned that elements of the plot are discussed in this Introduction; for necessary background information see the Note to the Reader.)_
_Rāma, the hero who became God_
Ever since about the twelfth century AD the warrior-prince Rāma has been widely recognized and revered in India as God. This understanding did not result from a single, sudden, historical revelation like the birth of Christ or Mohammed; it developed over many centuries, and it will continue to develop. As faith in Rāma's divinity has grown, devotees have turned for spiritual insight and revelation to the tale of his earthly heroism, the tale of Rāma the steadfast mortal hero, of his selfless preservation of his father's integrity, of his quest for his lost wife and his triumphant battle to rescue her.
This tale had by then already been being told, heard and retold for many centuries in a long Sanskrit narrative poem known as the _Rāmāya a_ belonging to that diverse category of early literature collectively labelled 'anonymous'. Indian tradition and most Western scholars are united in believing that it was originally composed orally, and transmitted for several centuries by oral recitation, but opinion is divided about the date of composition: Indian tradition would place it several millennia ago, while scholars have proposed various later periods. Based on the language, style and content of the work, we suggest a date of roughly the fifth century BC. The _Mahābhārata_ , an even longer Sanskrit narrative poem, probably originated at much the same time. It is the earliest levels of the story that have been translated in this book, that is to say, those passages which can be identified as the work of the original author as augmented by his immediate successors; these passages, detailed in the Note on the Text Translated, which have been identified by careful evaluation of the linguistic evidence, together represent the first stage of development of the tale.
Scholars are in the habit of referring to the _Rāmāya a_ and the _Mahābhārata_ alike as epics, but their origins are cast in very different genres, and in the case of the _Rāmāya a_ the term 'epic' can justifiably be applied only to its later, developed form; the story lying at its heart would in Western literary terms best be classified as a heroic romance, for it is the personal story of the Prince, a lone figure, supported in his adventures only by a younger brother who functions merely as his squire or confidant, and the outcome affects only himself and the individuals he encounters: no wider or national interests are involved. It is the struggle for integrity and happiness of one man, not a war of conquest. Victory for Rāma twice involves transfer of sovereignty merely between 'bad' and 'good' members of the same family, and while defeat for him would be a private grief for those close to him, the destiny of his subjects would be unaffected. In the _Mahābhārata_ the situation is quite different: that text chronicles a bitter struggle for sovereignty between two groups of cousins, with the fate of several kingdoms depending on the outcome, and explores the issue of how far it is permissible for the heroes to compromise their integrity in pursuit of their legitimate claim and still remain fit to rule. Indian tradition too distinguishes between the two works, designating the _Rāmāya a_ as the _ādikāvya_ , 'the first poetic work' or perhaps 'the first work of pure literature', but the _Mahābhārata_ commonly as _itihāsa_ , 'thus indeed it was', a term roughly equivalent to 'history'. It is the practice in many households for a copy of Rāma's story to be kept in an honoured place, while presence of a _Mahābhārata_ text is regarded as unlucky.
From these early origins there developed the more lengthy versions represented by their Critical Editions, so that the _Rāmāyana_ with almost 20,000 verses and the _Mahābhārata_ with more than three times that number are now among the most extensive literary works in the world. It has long been recognized that these two great narrative poems are central to the whole of Indian culture, exercising an enormous formative influence and doing much to establish the canons of taste. The _Rāmāyana_ furnished the plots of many works of classical Sanskrit literature and a much greater number of vernacular adaptations at all levels of society and culture within India and throughout much of Southeast and East Asia. Ample testimony to the text's significance is provided by the wide variety of art forms in which it has been expressed over the centuries. Alongside conventional retellings by storytellers, the tale thrives in puppet plays and in the _Rāmlīlā_ (a form of popular dramatic presentation analogous to the Western medieval mystery plays); in the last years of the twentieth century, a long-running nationwide adaptation on Indian television achieved huge popularity and has been repeated on Western channels. Important insights into the popular understanding of the tale can also be gained from non-verbal forms of the story, including temple sculptures and narrative friezes, paintings and dance; in many cases the temple sculptures are the earliest testimonia we have, antedating the manuscript evidence by several centuries.
The original conception of the Rāma story as it emerges in this volume reflects the interests and concerns of the warrior aristocracy (the _ksatriya_ class): Rāma is a martial hero whose actions are accepted without question as necessary and, for that reason, as justified. Later times and different milieux had different values, and new characteristics were attributed to Rāma through the centuries during which the text was expanded and reworked. First he becomes a moral hero, then a regal but still human figure; later he was viewed as the earthly manifestation ( _avatāra_ ) of the god Vi u, finally as God in his own right, with the developed text acquiring the status of holy scripture. The Rāma story has been in a constant state of re-creation, and in the development of many of these later adaptations (though by no means all), the role played by the faith of believers has been crucial. Some of the issues raised by these subsequent developments are explored in Afterthoughts.
_What does the story of Rāma tell us?_
External sources tell us absolutely nothing about the author of the poem or any of his early successors: names, dates, geographical location, social status, interests, all are unknown. Linguistic evidence, based on comparison with other texts which can be roughly dated, points to a date for the earliest parts of about the fifth century BC, but this is a period about which we have hitherto known little. Yet if we turn to the text translated in this volume we can see a clear picture emerge of the original author and the world in which he lived.
In all probability he was a man resident in the central Ga gā basin (English form, Ganges), with only limited knowledge of areas beyond: the focus of the story is the city state of Ayodhyā situated on the river Sarayū, at the heart of the Kosala region, and portrayed as a real place probably to be identified with modern Faizabad on the Gharghara. Apart from this, the geographical horizons of the text are limited. Its early authors and reciters have heard of Videha, the region to the northeast, around modern Darbhanga between the Ga gā and the southeast boundary of Nepal; its capital Mithilā, though not itself mentioned, gives Sītā one of her names (Maithilī, 'Princess of Mithilā'), but no part of the story is set there. To the northwest, the grandfather and uncle of Bharata and Śatrughna live at Rājag ha in the northern Panjab, and we are given a realistic account of the route taken there by messengers sent from Ayodhyā to summon the princes back home after the death of their father. It is noteworthy that on the banks of the Ga gā, Rāma, Lak ma a and Sītā make contact with the Ni āda tribe, a group whom they treat with respect, not with the contempt of later Indian culture.
Most of the poem, however, details the wanderings of the exiles in a fantasy land, the uncultivated, uncharted forest immediately south of the Ga gā. Here live hermits, but here too they encounter monsters, _rāksasas_ , monkeys, bears and vultures, all with human speech and human characteristics, some living in cities, using artefacts like humans, and, by an apparent slip of the teller's memory, occasionally referred to in human terms. The Vindhyas, the east–west chain of mountains dividing northern India off from the peninsula, is the effective limit of the poets' knowledge at this time. The sea is mentioned rarely, and located immediately south of the Vindhyas, but it too is a hostile environment, full of monsters, a barrier between the forest and the enemy's island capital, La kā. Many attempts have been made to identify Lankā and Kiskindhā, the _vānaras_ ' city, with real sites on mainland India, and especially to equate Rāva a's kingdom with the island in modern times renamed Śrī La ka, but there is nothing in the first stage of the text to indicate that they are anything more than the product of the storytellers' imaginations, with little help even from travellers' tales.
The Ayodhyā Book portrays a city state, headed by a royal family where primogeniture is the norm and family ties are important, a pattern copied in the non-human societies of Kiskindhā and Lankā. Rulers regularly have more than one wife, and the importance of a queen's family background in cementing political alliances with marriage ties is shown by the frequency with which women such as Kausalyā, Kaikeyī and Sītā are referred to by names indicating their family. Respect for parents and obedience to them are of the highest importance, but particularly among the humans there is clearly genuine affection too, both between Daśaratha and his sons and between Bharata and his grandfather and uncle; equally genuine is the affection of the people of Ayodhyā for their royal family, with whom they have a direct relationship. The king's court is fairly simple with a council of advisers who take charge in the absence of a monarch, but with no elaborate array of officials. It is the king's duty to protect his subjects in return for their loyalty, and there is some stratification within society, but little significance is attached to the topic. The work is founded on the values of the warrior aristocracy ( _ksatriyas_ ): devotion to duty, integrity, pride and valour – both physical and spiritual – with brāhmanic values acknowledged but not inappropriately obtrusive. No incongruity is seen in the performance of a sacrifice by the _ksatriya_ Rāma to consecrate the hut Lak ma a has built for them to live in on Citrakūta. If the rigidity of the developed class structure or of four stages of life (from student to renunciant) existed at all by this time, the tellers of the _Rāmāyana_ took no interest in them. Women too are accorded rather greater freedom than might be expected, superficially at least, although a wife's duty to be subordinate to her husband is already emphasized. Widows are not yet regarded as inauspicious, but courtesans can convey auspiciousness by their presence on special occasions.
It is clear that various practical forms of learning were well developed, but formal education for young warriors seems to consist only of the necessary instruction in weaponry, alongside knowledge of the Vedas; for a princess a good upbringing means learning the duties of a wife.
Writing, if known at all, is not used to any significant extent for communication; messages are delivered orally, with recognition tokens functioning only to confirm a messenger's credentials. Music figures occasionally as part of city life, but more often in a military context. The one area of learning that appears more prominently than an outsider to the culture might expect is astronomy or astrology (the two are not differentiated); this science had already been well developed in the Vedic period because of its practical importance in regulating the calendar and thus the timing of periodic rituals.
The interest of the early authors was not focused on the activities of merchants or farmers, so economic life and agricultural pursuits are taken for granted. It is clear that agriculture, as at all pre-modern periods of India's history, was the main activity and source of revenue for the king, but there is little mention of the utilitarian cereals which must have been widely grown, nor do we hear much of the cattle that must have been common. The poets and their audience among the warrior aristocracy were obviously more interested in horses and elephants because of their use in battle and hunting, and the considerable number of wild animals mentioned bears testimony to their wide acquaintance with the natural world, as well as close observation and appreciation. Trees are an important part of the landscape, with several different species distinguished, but the plant accorded greatest prestige is the lotus: beautiful faces are compared to lotus blooms and eyes to lotus petals in shape, while its growth from the slime of the pond and its flowers' ability to shed water symbolize the triumph of purity over impurity.
The food and drink mentioned are basically those typical of a heroic society, and have not yet given way to the pattern typical of later Indian culture. There are frequent references to meat-eating, with Rāma and Lak ma a often killing game to eat and sometimes for sacrifice. Only the diet of ascetics is vegetarian: fruit and roots gathered from the forest. Similarly, alcoholic drinks do not attract the same opprobrium as later: an episode of drunken hooliganism attributed to the hero's monkey allies is indulgently exploited for its comic value.
Hunting is a favourite pastime for princes, and we find numerous allusions to deer being hunted for sport or food. In hunt and battle alike, at this stage the bow is the standard weapon, often firing a fantastic number of arrows with awesomely fanciful results. Spears and missiles of all kinds are also employed, particularly by the _rāksasas_ , while the monkeys achieve shattering results by ripping up and wielding trees and even mountain-tops. The typical form of combat is a duel fought between two leading warriors, often preceded by the formalized boasting characteristic of single combat in heroic literature generally. The warriors would be expected to be mounted on horse-drawn chariots, but the exigencies of the plot dictate that for most of the story Rāma must fight on foot. This is clearly felt inappropriate for a warrior of his status, and he is eventually supplied with a chariot by supernatural means so that he may fight his supreme enemy on more nearly equal terms.
The religious pattern found in the early _Rāmāya a_ is the older pattern of deities and of rituals based on sacrifice leading to heaven, rather than the newer patterns of worship, usually seen as leading to liberation ( _mok a_), even though they are found in the later parts of the _Mahābhārata_. The gods mentioned or playing any part in the narrative are largely those of the Vedic pantheon. Indra is particularly prominent, both as the leader of the gods and as the performer of various heroic deeds; not surprisingly, therefore, Rāma is most often compared with Indra and receives the help of Indra's charioteer in the final duel at the climax of the battle; this is in marked contrast to the later assimilation of Rāma to Vi u, who hardly appears at all. Yama appears quite often in his role as King of the Dead (a role later to be incompatible with the concept of transmigration, _samsāra_ ); a common formulaic expression refers to dispatching warriors to Yama's realm. Varuna too still finds mention, mainly as the Lord of the Ocean, but also in his association with Indra, reflecting an early stage in the relative importance of these two deities. In general, the opposition between gods and anti-gods and their contests for supremacy show a Vedic or immediately post-Vedic pattern, very different from the pattern in later Hinduism.
The commonest rituals mentioned are the morning and evening worship, but sacrifice in general and some individual sacrifices are occasionally mentioned. The narrative requires that funerals take place, but comparatively little attention is paid to their ritual aspect and more to their practicalities.
The various sages who feature in the narrative and offer hospitality to Rāma and his companions also represent an archaic pattern: they are _vānaprastha_ hermits, continuing to practise simple rituals and may be accompanied by their wives, not the later _samnyāsins_ , renunciant ascetics who have abandoned all links with society. Nevertheless, the idea is already present that supernatural powers may be acquired, or even extorted from the gods, by the practice of severely exaggerated forms of asceticism.
_Who composed the story of Rāma?_
Almost the only thing the text does not tell us about the earliest teller of Rāma's story is his name. He was a poet familiar with the geography of the central Ga gā region at a period before the rise there of large-scale monarchies (which culminated in the Maurya dynasty of the fourth to second centuries BC), a time when local chieftains held sway over small, agriculturally based kingdoms within which there was limited social differentiation, a poet familiar with the interests and pursuits of the _ksatriya_ class, for whom warfare and the pleasures of the hunt in the surrounding forest areas were of most importance, a poet speaking a distinct dialect of Sanskrit, probably to some extent regionally based in the Ga gā basin but more specifically the language of the _ksatriya_ class, a poet still observing the older pattern of worship and untouched by heterodox trends that were soon to result in the emergence of Buddhism and Jainism, or the development of brāhmanic Hinduism with its rigid social stratification. This poet gives no indication of knowing the _Mahābhārata_ , although many passages of that epic refer to _Rāmāyana_ episodes: it is to be hoped that _Mahābhārata_ linguistic scholarship will one day enable us to judge how far this absence indicates a difference in date or milieu, and how far the _Rāmāyana_ poets may have been deliberately avoiding any reference to the other poem. Taken as a whole, the evidence suggests that the Rāma story as first composed about the fifth century BC was then augmented by poets of similar outlook throughout its first stage of development, with the boundary between this stage and the next (a boundary as real as a contour line on a map) very roughly 300 BC.
That this poet was a man there can be no doubt. The sufferings of women characters are portrayed in moving fashion, but these sufferings – whether the grief of Daśaratha's queens, the mourning of Tārā and Mandodarī or the hardships and stoic resistance of Sītā – are all centred on the loss of their menfolk. Women do not direct positive events, but react to them with sweetness, malice, common sense, jealousy, meekness or frivolous desire – the stereotypical attributes of women: more than once a husband dies with the words 'I told you so' ringing in his ears. When disaster is to ensue, it is women who are made to direct the plot: Kaikeyī contrives the banishment and Śūr-pa akhā's infatuation with Rāma is treated as ludicrous, with no hint that the concerns of either female should be taken seriously; and Sītā's desire for the golden deer and insistence on sending Laksma a after Rāma make her responsible for her own capture. Sītā's initial request to accompany Rāma into exile is subject to his consent, and is not merely indispensable to the plot but a useful means by which the author can deflect criticism from his hero for exposing her to the hardships of forest life. The author's main concern is with the men. Only a male author could expect to evoke sympathy for his noble, considerate, thoughtful hero with the utterly self-centred, self-pitying laments he utters when he believes his beloved wife has been captured and probably devoured by a monster, and the misfortune falls on Rāma, not on Sītā. More successful is his treatment of the act of injustice that opens the poem: Daśaratha's granting of Kaikeyī's request to banish Rāma is portrayed as strength rather than as weakness or folly. The king has given his word, and must keep it, no matter how great the personal cost to him, and the cost to the pathetic old man is portrayed in the most moving and convincing terms that outweigh the mild criticism expressed by the citizens and by his far from impartial senior queen, Rāma's mother.
There can be no doubt that the author was a poet of considerable skill and sensitivity, who put great thought and care into planning his plot. The narrative is enclosed within a structured framework designed to enhance the humanity of Rāma and soften the edges of his martial heroism, opening with his capitulation to his wife's pleas to accompany him into exile, and closing with his capitulation to his allies' desire to accompany him back to Ayodhyā; in both cases we are clearly intended to assume that this flagrant disregard of his instructions coincides with his own inner wishes. Within this framework, each Book begins and ends with parallel themes or episodes: in the Ayodhyā Book it is Sītā and the duties of wife; the Forest Book is framed by episodes with sages; the Kiskindhā Book moves from despair to despair, before ending on a final note of elation; Beauty opens with Hanumān's search for Sītā and closes with his report of finding her; War begins with Rāma's preparations for the journey to Lankā and ends with his preparations for the return journey to Ayodhyā.
Parallelism of structure is echoed by parallelism of theme. The poem is constructed around the relationships within three contrasting families of brothers, the humans, the _vānaras_ and the _rāksasas_ , expressed in warm, lively, realistic terms. The humans are characterized by a love and loyalty to each other that overwhelm all feelings of rivalry or resentment, without entirely obliterating them. The situation in Kiskindhā parallels that in Ayodhyā, with Vālin and Sugrīva the counterparts of Rāma and Bharata respectively, but the issues of right and wrong are much less clear-cut and suspicion, harshness and distrust rule among the _vānaras_. The _rāksasas_ display virtually no family feeling. Rāvana has already usurped the position of his elder half-brother, and his abduction of Sītā is motivated far less by revenge for his sister's disfigurement or even the slaughter of his brothers and the army commanded by Khara than by his lust for her, a lust that Sūrpa akhā recognizes and deliberately excites. The one who has usurped his elder finds himself in turn replaced by his youngest brother, the virtuous Vibhī ana, a shameful state of affairs in itself. This outcome has been created by the poet to allow Rāma to leave Lanka in good hands and return home, for the death of Rāvana and the recovery of Sītā are his only objectives, not the conquest of the city. Nevertheless, the strength of brotherly ties cannot be altogether eliminated, even from these most quarrelsome of families. The dying Vālin begs Sugrīva's forgiveness, awakening in his brother the affection that befits an ally of Rāma and robs Sugrīva of his initial exultation at his brother's death. Even Rāvana exhibits genuine grief at the death of Kumbhakarna: his lament is his first display of real emotion in the poem, and has analogies to Rāma's laments when he twice thinks Lak ma a dead and realizes that he values his faithful brother more than his lost wife.
The author's craftsmanship is apparent throughout. His plot is a series of skilfully contrived surprises which contrasts markedly with the doom-laden inevitability of the _Mahābhārata_. Rāma's uncomplaining acceptance of his exile and his agreement to allow Sītā and Laksma a to accompany him, his father's feeble efforts to prevent the fulfilment of his own decree and Bharata's angry attempt to reject the sovereignty his mother has contrived for him set the story in motion, and find their echo at the end in the revelation that Bharata, almost as strong-willed as his elder brother, has only outwardly carried out Rāma's insistence that it is he who should act as king of Ayodhyā, and has in fact been sharing his brother's ascetic life at home – a revelation that sends Rāma hurrying back to Ayodhyā with the promise of the appropriate happy-ever-after ending. It is sad to think that the impact of these beautifully crafted surprises was destined to be blunted by the story's very popularity, so that the twists of plot no longer come as a surprise. So familiar are Indians with the story, from their earliest years, that it is now said that 'Nobody hears the story of Rāma for the first time', a paradox that has contributed both to the fervour of later tellers to embellish the beloved story, and to the need for some way of renewing interest in the well-known plot with elaborations that have gone far towards obscuring or even obliterating the original.
The unobtrusive way in which the author sets the tone of his story provides a further demonstration of his craftsmanship. The first thing we learn about Sītā is her fear of being separated from Rāma, and Rāma's first speech expresses his thoughtfulness for his wife and mother in the midst of his distress. Not until well into the Forest Book does the first _rāksasa_ , Sūrpanakhā, participate in the action, but the audience have been prepared for danger from _rāksasas_ from as early as Kausalyā's lament after her son's departure, a peril more emphatically expressed in the opening paragraphs of The Forest.
The narrative is never flat. There is lively dialogue, especially within a family context, and there is the pompous sermon Prahasta directs to the captive Hanumān. Jatāyus' speech challenging Rāva a is a masterstroke. Just as the audience's fears and emotions have been roused to fever pitch by Sītā's anguished cries, the sleepy bird delivers a long, slow, moralizing speech exhorting Rāva a to release his captive – a change of pace that represents not so much a release of tension as a maddening increase; readers could skip the passage, but in an oral performance listeners impatient to hear what happens next are compelled to await the pleasure of the teller. The rumbustuous coarseness of the Honey Orchard episode is deftly handled to combine the maximum comedy with the minimum offensiveness, and the fantastic count of monkeys assembled for the siege of Lankā and the descriptions of their movements throughout the second half of the text are merely a vivid exaggeration of the impression a real troop of monkeys can give.
Subtle, though, is the progressive disintegration apparent in the morale of Rāvana from the beginning of the War Book as he first ponders the damage Hanumān has caused to Lankā, then sees that the _vānara_ army has crossed the sea; as his spies Śuka and Sāra a report back and show him the army and its leaders in a dramatically visual panoramic display (to which Śārdūla's colourless supplementary report bears no comparison), he begins to feel the first stirrings of doubt about his power to resist.
Disagreements in particular are full of movement and life. When Bharata meets Rāma on Citrakūta, he finds his resolve to replace his brother in exile gently but inexorably undermined by arguments playing not on any weak points of his character but on the strong ones, until finally he crumples and agrees to return to Ayodhyā as Rāma's regent. Sītā's rejection of the lovelorn Rāva a's proposition when he shows her around his palace builds up powerfully as patient explanation (as if she were speaking to a simpleton) gradually gives way to confident defiance.
To present the necessarily repetitive series of battles that compose the bulk of the War Book in a way that sustains the audience's interest while whetting their appetite for the climactic final encounter poses a challenge which the author meets in a number of ways. Physical battles are interspersed with episodes of magic, and variety is introduced into the largely episodic and linear construction by Rāma's duel with Makarāksa, whose attempt to avenge the death of his father Khara recalls the earlier conflict in Da aka forest. The tone is varied, with the humour of Kumbhakarna's grumpiness and Hanumān's decision to bring a whole mountain-peak to ensure he has brought the right healing herb; there is an extensive passage of puns on the names of _vānaras_ who Rāvana pretends have been killed; and Rāma taunts Rāvana with biting sarcasm before their final duel. This is the battle for which the audience have been waiting ever since the beginning of the War Book, but even when Rāvana finally takes the field, it is repeatedly put off and then long drawn out, to the extent that the villain's inevitable death, when it comes, shocks by its abrupt finality just as much as Daśaratha's had done. Unlike Vālin, Rāvana is given no opportunity for a dying speech, last-minute repentance or reconciliation with victim, opponent or virtuous brother: he retains his heroic stature and remains a villain to the end, mourned only by his wives. Vibhī ana is still so bitter that Rāma has to order him to fulfil his fraternal duty and perform the funeral rites.
_What happened next?_
The heroic tale that formed the core of the _Rāmāya a_ was expanded considerably by generations of reciters and redactors, both before and after it was written down (perhaps about the first century AD) by compilers who gathered together differing, sometimes contradictory, treatments, passages or episodes into an increasingly unwieldy text; we have explored the content of some of these developments in Afterthoughts. Most manuscripts were written on palm leaves, some on birch bark. Neither medium is as durable as the skins used in Europe, which would have been unacceptable to Indian sensibilities in the context of growing respect for animals, so manuscripts had to be recopied frequently. The oldest _Rāmāya a_ manuscript known dates from AD 1020, but most were copied as late as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The process of writing did not fix the text, and large amounts of modification and additional material continued to be made as manuscripts were copied. Rāma was by now enjoying increasing prestige as an object of veneration, and the scribes were evidently intent on including every scrap of material they could find that could even remotely be considered relevant to his story; the one thing these copyists did not do was deliberately delete anything. The manuscripts were copied in widely different parts of the huge area roughly corresponding to pre-Partition India, and though the language remains Sanskrit, copyists used their local script. These developments resulted in the emergence of a complex of recensions (groupings of manuscripts according to content and script). To over-simplify the position drastically, we can say that the Southern group is regarded as remaining closer than the Northern to the origins, but it is coming to be recognized that there has been a great deal of cross-fertilization within and between recensions and sub-recensions; much work remains to be done before a clear picture of the main directions of influence emerges.
_The search for a text_
Under the influence of Western scholarship, towards the end of the nineteenth century certain individual recensions were printed and published; the second half of the twentieth century saw an ambitious project conducted by Indian scholars at Vadodarā (the Westernized spelling 'Baroda' is still often employed); it culminated in the publication of the Critical Edition (listed in Further Reading). Evidence was collated from a wide variety of manuscripts, in the hope of identifying a version of the Rāma story as close as possible to the original, while distinguishing and printing a large amount of later material. It is possible to criticize this project as misguided in that the text it produced may never have existed in precisely that form, and it is legitimate to dispute individual readings, but the achievement of this group of scholars must never be underestimated in providing in readily accessible form the materials that have given a new impetus to _Rāmāya a_ scholarship. Most subsequent study takes the Baroda Critical Edition as its base text; a close translation of this text into English (still in progress at the time of writing) was begun soon afterwards by a team of scholars in the United States. Our translation too is based on the relevant portions of the Baroda text.
Transmission of the _Rāmāya a_ and _Mahābhārata_ in their oral stages had been a different process from transmission of the Vedic texts that preceded them, which in traditional circles still retain their original oral form. Knowledge of Vedic texts was restricted to the brāhmanic class, and the words themselves took on a ritual, even a magic, significance largely unrelated to their semantic meaning. They were handed down verbatim over the centuries without variation, and the reciter's or hearer's understanding of them – or lack of it – was immaterial. The case of the _Rāmāya a_ and the _Mahābhārata_ has been completely the opposite. They were heroic tales, narratives conceived as entertainment. Both began, and both continued for several centuries, as the preserve of the warrior _k atriya_ class, before being taken over by brāhman redactors. Meaning, as opposed to sound, has been crucial, and additions and modifications have been freely made. All living languages evolve, and the important point here is that later material, naturally, was composed in the diction and style of the teller's own day, alongside the earlier material that they felt unable to omit. The diction of the _Rāmāya a_ did not become relatively fixed until perhaps the Gupta period (fourth to sixth centuries AD), a period of consolidation of the high culture, the best part of a thousand years after the core material had been composed in the fifth century BC. The distance in time, language, ethos, interests and material culture can be compared to that between the Old English heroic narrative _Beowulf_ and the eighteenth-century Augustan poet Alexander Pope. As Sanskrit later became less and less a living language, tellings were also composed in the vernaculars, but these authors felt less constrained by the now growing sanctity of the Sanskrit text, and were uninhibited about reworking the story in their own words.
As for the Sanskrit text, most of the material now contained in the first _kā a_ ('Childhood Book') and the last ('Further Book') has long been recognized by scholars not to have been present in the earliest tellings. What has attracted only isolated scholarly attention is the wide divergence in expression throughout the central five Books. This volume is based on a rigorous linguistic analysis of those five core Books, which has identified the passages preserved in the earlier diction. Only these passages appear in this translation, and even they cannot be claimed to be 'original', merely 'the earliest text yet recoverable'.
The content of the poem at this earliest stage is still not entirely straightforward to identify: later passages may consist of insertions of new material, which are relatively easy to remove again; but they may consist of elaborations made to a necessary part of the existing text, which are not. In the latter case it is much more difficult to determine what was there before, a particularly annoying problem since it is the most dramatic points of the narrative that naturally attract the most embellishment.
Linguistic analysis cannot tell us all we should like to know, but it represents an advance on previous research. By revealing much information about the earliest poets, their language, their skill, their horizons, and the customs, material culture and religious pattern with which they were familiar, undistorted by presuppositions conditioned by our knowledge of Hindu beliefs and practices as they were to develop later, it gives scholars the opportunity to follow these clues through the stages of the poem's growth, contributing to a better understanding of the development of Indian culture.
The methodology employed in determining the stages of transmission has been rigorously applied to minimize any element of subjectivity. What it has not done, and should never be expected to have done, is create rigid boundaries between the stages. A certain amount of overlapping must be expected. Composition was a continuous process taking place over several centuries and involving many tellers, so 'earlier', 'later' or simply 'different' styles can be discerned within each stage, as can narrative anomalies or contradictions symptomatic of multiple, continuous authorship. A prime example is the fact that Sītā seems to have forgotten that she believes Rāma to have been killed by the golden deer, but immediately screams for his help and continues to expect him to rescue her, showing no surprise when Hanumān brings her news of him. This and other problems in the Mārīca episode, notably that he claims a previous encounter with Rāma in exile that is not recorded in the text, and that Sītā herself believes Rāvana to have been the decoy deer, imply that the episode as it now appears has been developed from a much simpler original no longer extant. Similarly, there are two largely incompatible forms of the Kabandha episode. Narrative criteria suggest that episodes such as the history of Dundubhi, and the first fight between Vālin and Sugrīva, may have been composed in the later part of stage i, while the relatively elaborate style of other passages shows them to be nearing the boundary with the second stage.
Other anomalies are of a different nature, and do not necessarily indicate multiple authorship or a corrupt text. Some, such as the reference to Rāma's battle with Timidhvaja's son, an exploit otherwise unrecorded, may have been devised by the author simply to add colour to the narrative. Rāma appears to know of Daśaratha's death before Bharata tells him of it, for he has already made an offering for the dead; but doings of the Ayodhyā court are clearly common knowledge among the sages, and there is no reason for the author to have narrated such an episode when he gains much greater effect by presenting the discovery as a shock to the queens.
Trivial anomalies abound in the text, but can best be attributed to lapses of memory on the part of the poet, entirely characteristic of an oral work of this length and complexity. As such they have no bearing on the question of authorship. The attentive reader can waste many an hour pointing out that at one point Sumitrā and at another Kaikeyī is described as 'middle mother' of the princes (i.e. the second of Daśaratha's three wives); that discuses appear twice in one list of weapons when Rāva a tries to frighten Sītā into thinking Rāma has been killed; that a number of _rāk asas_ appear to be killed twice if not three times; that Su e a claims it was Jāmbavān who told Hanumān about the herb mountain when in fact it was Su e a himself.
It is clear that the text translated in this volume is the product of many minds and many tongues, but what about the original text? Was there one author or many? Was it, in outline, the product of a single composer's mind, or did the story emerge gradually from the coalescence of multiple pre-existent sources? Scholarly opinion is divided.
Most hold that the origins may be traced back to ballads about gods and heroes recited within the context of Vedic rituals and more particularly to the bardic tradition which emerged at the courts of _ksatriya_ chieftains, where stories about the exploits of heroes would naturally be welcome. Eulogies of heroes and cycles of stories about warrior exploits were composed by bards ( _sūtas_ ) who were attached to the courts of chieftains and recited the glorious deeds of their lords for entertainment and on festive occasions. _Sūtas_ had first-hand experience of the kind of events they described, for they also acted as charioteers to their masters, in battle or in the hunt. In one view, the next stage was simply the progressive clustering of ballads and similar material around some central theme, the fortunes of a hero or events of particular significance, with such cycles gradually becoming linked together into works with a more complex plot, giving rise to the extant poems, which continued to grow in transmission.
The contrary opinion is that the coherence and careful planning apparent in the core story of the _Rāmāyana_ demonstrates it to be the conception of a single creative intelligence – an author – though this conception has subsequently been much obscured by the amplifications and modifications of later generations of redactors. In either case, the nature of the compilers or author, the milieu in which they or he operated, and the interests of the audience addressed, would be the same.
Objective evidence of any precursors of the central Rāma story is lacking. Two characters (Sītā and her father Janaka) bear names which are found in Vedic literature, but there is nothing in the earliest levels of the text to suggest that this is more than a coincidence. Sītā bears the name of a minor Vedic goddess connected with agriculture (the name means 'furrow'), an association which gave rise in later additions to the text of an increasingly fantastic birth-story which made her the daughter of Rāvana or of Daśaratha, cast away and discovered in a furrow by Janaka when that king was ploughing. In the early form of the text there is no hint that she is anything other than the natural-born daughter of Janaka. Nor is there anything apart from their common dynastic name to identify Janaka with the king who had figured in debates presented in the Upanisadic texts (sixth century BC onwards). A number of the peripheral characters mentioned even in the early stages (deities, sages and the like), and the allusions sometimes made to stories associated with them, have roots in the earlier Vedic hymns and tales, but their incorporation into the text merely demonstrates that they were still well known to the storytellers and widely enough understood by their audiences to be employed as part of their stock in trade, not that the story of Rāma as such has any pre-history. Nor does any trace remain of any divergent versions of the basic story, such as would be expected to persist in at least some of the countless vernacular retellings, if the _Rāmāyana_ was in reality the survivor of an amorphous mass of ballads. Widely different though some of these retellings are, they can all be shown to adapt the same core story, modified according to the peculiar needs of the context. Someone must have composed that core story.
_The text itself_
The form of the poem echoes the simplicity of the expression. The metre employed is the standard narrative metre, the _śloka_ , a simple metre comprising non-rhyming verses of four _pādas_ (quarters) of eight syllables each, grouped in pairs. Verses are grouped into units called _sargas_ , which vary greatly in length (from in the teens of couplets to over one hundred), with twenty-five to thirty being a rough average; this division probably dates back to the earlier stages of the text, if it is not indeed original, although it has been much obscured in transmission. The _sargas_ are grouped into _kā as_, or Books, varying between about sixty and a hundred and twenty _sargas_ long. In its fully-developed form, the poem comprises seven _kā as_.
Each _śloka_ couplet is normally a complete unit and it is unusual for the sense or construction to be carried over into a subsequent verse. Grammatical structure regularly coincides with the four-quarter metrical structure: 2+2 or 3+1 are the usual subdivisions. The greater emphasis often placed on the first and last words of the verse, coupled with a general tautness of expression, can in themselves convey subtleties of meaning best brought out by the intonation and similar interpretative skills of an oral performer.
The diction of this text is vivid and enlivened by alliteration, but direct and uncomplicated when compared with later Sanskrit. It is also distinctive. Around the fifth century BC (at roughly the same time as the _Rāmāya a_ was first being composed) the grammarian Pā ini made a minute description of the language exemplified by the later Vedic texts and spoken by the learned individuals who studied them, a description that soon became prescriptive and is exemplified in classical Sanskrit literature, which reached its height from about the fourth century AD onwards. However, the text here translated shows certain well-defined deviations from this norm, deviations (to a large extent shared with the _Mahābhārata_ ) that help to establish the language of the _Rāmāya a_ as genuinely a variant form, a dialect, distinct both from Vedic and from classical Sanskrit.
In this earliest stage, the use of standard phrases (or 'formulae') conforms to the pattern common in oral, improvised poetry: they aid the reciter, allowing him to build his narrative without too much effort of memorization or improvisation, and aid the audience by refreshing their memory of the main lines of the narrative when they cannot pause or turn back the pages to check something they may have forgotten or misheard. In the text translated, the formulae commonly consist of a character's name plus descriptive adjective (for example, _lak ma ah śubhalak a ah_, 'Fortune-favoured Lak ma a'), and their use adds vitality to the text, often directing the audience's attention with subtle economy of expression to some factor the teller wishes to emphasize, or to the irony of the situation, in contrast to later stages of transmission when the formulae tend to be applied mechanically and inappositely, a feature which indicates that the technique is breaking down and suggests that the oral style is being imitated in a written work.
The work of the first author of the _Rāmāya a_ and his immediate successors, belonging as they did to an age and a culture accurately characterized as 'highly literary, but illiterate', is best judged in the context within which it was composed, that of multi-dimensional oral performance. Its drama inevitably loses much of its force in the single, restrictive medium of the printed page; orally transmitted narratives such as the _Rāmāya a_ should never be regarded as works _preserved_ by being written down, but rather as works in danger of being _destroyed_ by being written down. That this one in some measure survived that danger and was transformed by subsequent generations of admirers into a vibrant, living and still developing work of art in so many different media is testimony to the skill and achievement of those first tellers of the tale of Rāma.
# Further Reading
_Text and translations_
_The Vālmīki-Rāmāya a, critically edited for the first time_, 7 vols., general editors G. H. Bhatt and U. P. Shah (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1960–75). The most authoritative text of the _Rāmāya a_, based on the evidence of between 29 and 37 mss for each book. It forms the basis for this translation.
_The Rāmāya a of Vālmīki, An Epic of Ancient India_, general editor Robert P. Goldman (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984– ): I, _Bālakā a_, translated by Robert P. Goldman; II and III, _Ayodhyākā a_ and _Ara yakā a_, translated by Sheldon I. Pollock; IV, _Ki kindhākā a_, translated by Rosalind Lefeber; V, _Sundarakā a_, translated by Robert P. Goldman and Sally J. Sutherland Goldman. When complete, this will be a translation of the whole Critical Edition with full introductions, notes and other scholarly apparatus, aimed at the serious scholar.
_Le Rāmāya a_, general editors Madeleine Biardeau and Marie-Claude Porcher, translated by Philippe Benoît, Brigitte Pagani, Bernard Parlier, Jean-Michel Péterfalvi and Alain Rebière (Paris: Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 458, Gallimard, 1999). A recent complete translation of an older recension of the _Rāmāya a_, made directly from the Sanskrit (unlike some renderings into European languages) and worth reading by those competent in French.
_Studies of the Vālmīki_ Rāmāya a
Brockington, John, _Epic Threads: John Brockington on the Sanskrit Epics_ , ed. Greg Bailey and Mary Brockington (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000). Detailed studies of the language of the _Rāmāya a_, of its interrelationship with the _Mahābhārata_ and of its religious aspects.
—, _Righteous Rāma: The Evolution of an Epic_ (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985). An analysis of the linguistic features of the Critical Edition text, leading to the differentiation of the text into successive stages and to the recognition of changes also in cultural and social aspects over time.
—, _The Sanskrit Epics_ (Handbuch der Orientalistik ()2.12(); Leiden: Brill, 1998). A survey of previous research on both the _Mahābhārata_ and the _Rāmāyana_ (with full bibliography), including description of the contents and nature of both texts.
Brockington, Mary, 'The art of backwards composition: some narrative techniques in Vālmīki's _Rāmāya a_', in _Composing a tradition: concepts, techniques and relationships_ , Proceedings of the First Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Purā as, August 1997, ed. Mary Brockington and Peter Schreiner (Zagreb: Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1999), pp. 99–110. An innovative demonstration of the deliberate and skilful plot construction that can be discerned in the basic narrative.
—, 'Who was the golden deer? narrative inconsistency in the abduction of Sītā', in _2nd International Conference on Indian Studies: Proceedings_ , Cracow Indological Studies 3–4 (Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka, 2003). Notes various anomalies in the narration of this central episode which point to the golden deer having been Rāvana himself, rather than Mārīca, in a simpler and tauter original narrative.
Goldman, Robert P., and Sally J. Sutherland Goldman, _Rāmāya a_, in _The Hindu World_ , ed. Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby (New York and London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 75–96. The most recent survey of the content and nature of the text, including some treatment of later versions.
_Collections of articles on various versions of the_ Rāmāya a
Bose, Mandakranta, ed., _The Rāmāya a Revisited_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).
—, _A Varied Optic: Contemporary Studies in the Rāmāya a_ (Vancouver: Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, 2000). The variety of the subjects treated in this and the preceding collection of articles illustrates well the diffusion throughout Asia of the Rāma story and its continued popularity.
Richman, Paula, ed., _Many Rāmāya as: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).
—, _Questioning Rāmāya as: A South Asian Tradition_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). The articles in these two collections by some major scholars demonstrate the hold of the story on the Indian consciousness, centring around the variety of forms that it has taken as a result and its use to subvert as well as to uphold traditional social values.
# Note to the Reader
The translators hope that you will read this story for enjoyment, with your ears more than with your eyes. It was originally composed to be spoken aloud and heard, not read silently.
You will come across a number of concepts or images familiar to the Western mind that have a very different value in this text: elephants should not be thought of as the cuddly gentle friends from zoo or nursery, but as symbolic of the forces of power, swiftness and destruction. Bulls, elephants and tigers, as symbols of strength, are frequent in formulae to express the idea of excellence, leading to the incongruous expression 'elephant of a monkey'. Cloud imagery evokes neither fluffy cotton-wool wisps, nor dull pale-grey skies, both varieties so familiar to British and to many North American readers, but towering, black, fearful monsoon thunderclouds with torrential, often destructive, rain. Mountains are regularly given a degree of personality or even deified, as is the Ocean. Truth is thought of as an entity with inherent power. Sanskrit repeatedly classifies actions as 'hard' to perform, where English, more pessimistically, thinks of them as 'impossible'.
Another culturally specific feature is the treatment of large numbers. One that has been retained in this translation is 'crore' for ten millions (this is the modern term: the Sanskrit form is _koṭi/koṭī_ ). Other less frequent terms have been transferred into the Western system, occasionally with some adaptation for the sake of readability when they are obviously just vague large numbers (as in the colloquial use of 'millions').
Without making it unintelligibly literal, we have aimed to keep this translation as close as possible to the text, with all its rich variety of style and expression, and to reproduce natural speech-patterns, bearing in mind that the whole poem, not just the speeches, was designed to be spoken. The original poem was composed in the verse rhythm then natural for telling a narrative; we have attempted to render it in the rhythm now natural for this purpose, continuous prose, but the original 4- _pāda_ end-stopped _śloka_ structure is still sometimes apparent. Oral performance gave ancient audiences considerable non-verbal clues to understanding the tale which are lacking to modern readers with nothing but words on a page to guide them, so we have occasionally felt it necessary to give our readers a little help to bring out the implicit meaning. Details of metaphors, similes or other items that have been paraphrased to make them meaningful to a modern Western reader can be found in the Notes.
All names, whether proper names or names of flora and fauna, are presented in the standard transliteration used for Sanskrit, whose great advantage is that each sound can be spelled in only one way, and each spelling can represent only one sound. Long vowels ( _ā, ī, ū_ ) are distinguished from short by the macron (¯); _e, ai, o_ and _au_ are always long, since they are diphthongs in origin. The letter _h_ always indicates aspiration, even in combinations like _th_ and _ph_ (to be pronounced as in _goatherd_ and _uphill_ ). A dot below the letter distinguishes retroflex consonants ( _ṭ, ṭh, , h, _), pronounced with the tip of the tongue far back in the mouth, from the dentals ( _t, th, d, dh, n_ ) made with the tip of the tongue against the teeth. The retroflex nasal is distinguished as _ _, the gutteral nasal by and the palatal by _ñ_ , and in certain contexts nasalization is represented by _m_. There are three sibilants, s pronounced as in English _seat_ , and ś and both approximating to _sh_ as in _sheet_. In addition, _c_ is always pronounced as in English _church_.
The majority of names end in a vowel. Those ending in a short vowel ( _-a, -i_ and occasionally _-u_ ) are those of males and those ending in a long vowel ( _-ā, -ī_ and _-ū_ ) are those of females; so, for example, a _rāk asī_ is a female _rāk asa_. It is important not to confuse length of vowel with stress in pronunciation: all syllables should be given equal stress. English-speaking readers should be particularly careful not to overstress the second syllable.
Another point that might confuse the unwary is the formation of words denoting 'belonging to': the most frequent instances are patronymics or metronymics, terms meaning 'son of, descendant of someone (as originally did surnames like Johnson, McDonald, O'Neil, and so on). The first and final syllables of the name may be modified in various ways: a son of Daśaratha is Dāśarathi, the son of Rāva a is Rāva i, Airāvata comes from mount Irāvata, a descendant of Raghu is Rāghava, the daughter of Janaka is Jānakī and the princess from Mithilā is Maithilī. Readers can find these characters identified by both names in the Index/Glossary.
Marginal figures refer the specialist to the Sanskrit text of the Critical Edition (see Further Reading); more precise details can be found in the Note on the Text Translated. Where it has proved impossible to recover the poem's early text, the translators have composed brief bridging passages to explain what has been lost; they are printed in italics within square brackets. The translation is not intended as a crib, so annotation has been kept to a minimum to avoid distracting attention from the story. Unavoidable notes are indicated in the text by superscript numbers, but most of the information that the new reader will need can be found gathered together in Appendix 1 or the Index/Glossary. Appendix 1 should be consulted for all greetings, rituals and other customs puzzling to the modern Western reader; where it may not be immediately apparent that any explanation is needed, an asterisk (*) directs attention to that Appendix. Similarly, names in Sanskrit are normally meaningful and quite often occur in punning combinations; we recommend the reader to consult the Index/Glossary for an explanation of words that have an initial capital letter or are italicized, as well as for more general terms.
# Principal Characters
(For genealogical tables see Appendix 2; fuller details can be found in the Index / Glossary.)
Daśaratha, king of Ayodhyā. _Also called Kākutstha, the Rāghava, the Mahārāja_
Kausalyā, senior queen to Daśaratha; mother of Rāma
Kaikeyī, junior queen to Daśaratha; mother of Bharata; daughter of King Aśvapati of Kekaya
Sumitrā, junior queen to Daśaratha; mother of Lak ma a and Śatrughna
Rāma, son of Daśaratha and Kausalyā; husband of Sītā. _Also called Dāśarathi, pride of the Iksvākus, Kākutstha, pride of the Raghus, the Rāghava_
Sītā, wife of Rāma; daughter of King Janaka of Mithilā. _Also called Jānakī, Maithilī, Vaidehī_
Laksma a, elder son of Daśaratha and Sumitrā; Rāma's companion. _Also called Dāśarathi, Saumitri, Kākutstha, pride of the Raghus, the Rāghava_
Bharata, son of Daśaratha and Kaikeyī. _Also called Kaikeyī's son, pride of the Iksvākus, Kākutstha, the Rāghava_
Śatrughna, younger son of Daśaratha and Sumitrā; Bharata's companion
Sumantra, charioteer to Daśaratha
_Vānaras_
Sugrīva, king of Kiskindhā; husband of Rumā
Vālin, elder brother of Sugrīva; husband of Tārā; father of A gada
A gada, son of Vālin and Tārā
Tārā, wife of Vālin; daughter of Su e a
Hanumān, monkey captain
_Rāksasas, also called Paulastyas_
Rāva a, king of La kā; son of Viśravas. _Also called Daśagrīva_
Dū a a, Khara, Kumbhakar a, Vibhī a a: four of Rāva a's full brothers
Śūrpa akhā, their sister
Vaiśrava a, their dispossessed elder half-brother. _Also called Naravāhana, Kubera_
Mandodarī, wife of Rāvana
Indrajit, son of Rāva a. _Also called Rāva i_
# AYODHYĀ
[ _Prince Rāma is expecting to be consecrated Young King when he receives devastating news, which he must tell his wife Sītā Vaidehī._ ]
Rāma was sure that he was pursuing the right course: he was [2,23.1–7] setting out for the wilderness. He took leave of his mother Kausalyā, who gave him her blessing. To the men lining the king's highway the king's son seemed to radiate light, and his goodness stirred the hearts of the people. Of course, poor Vaidehī had heard nothing of all this; her thoughts were fixed on his consecration as Young King. She had performed the rituals she knew were due to the gods and her mind was dwelling in delight on royal duties as she waited for the prince, when Rāma entered his handsome private rooms, embarrassed and unable to meet the gaze of the many excited occupants. Sītā jumped up trembling to see her husband tormented by grief and distraught with anxiety. She looked at his pallid, sweat-stained, impassioned face and sorrow gripped her.
'What's the matter, mighty lord?' she asked. 'Your consecration [23.7,17] is prepared – what's the matter? Never before have I seen your face with no vestige of colour or delight!'
Seeing she was on the point of tears, the pride of the Raghu [23.18–22] dynasty declared, 'Sītā, his majesty – my papa – has banished me to the forest! Jānakī, you were brought up in a good family – you know what's right – you behave properly – just listen to what's overtaken me! My father Daśaratha was once so pleased with his wife Kaikeyī that he promised her two important boons, and the king's always true to his word. Today, with the consecration ceremony planned by the king ready prepared, she claimed her dues and his integrity forced him to concur. Fourteen years I am to live in Da aka forest and my father has to install her Bharata as Young King. I've come to see you as I set out for the desolate forest.
[23.23–31] Don't ever talk about me in Bharata's presence, for successful men can't bear hearing others being praised; so don't parade my virtues in front of Bharata. And above all don't ever be a burden to him; making yourself agreeable is the way to ensure you can remain in his presence. It's for me to keep the pledge made by my superior: I'm going to the forest today. Be sensible, be strong. Good lady, with me away among the sages frequenting the forest, you, my sinless wife, will have to take your pleasure in vows and fasts. Get up early and offer due worship to the gods, then pay your respects to my father, King Daśaratha. Once you have performed those duties, Kausalyā my own mother must be the prime object of your consideration because of her age and the torment that will be racking her. Then you should always pay respect to all my stepmothers, for in affection, obedience and pleasure I make no distinction between my mothers. Like brothers or sons you should regard Bharata and Śatrughna, for they are both dearer to me than my life, and you must never displease Bharata: he is the king, and the master both of country and family.'
[26.1–19] As she listened to Rāma's words, Sītā's eyes filled with tears. Sadly and gently she replied: 'I must seek the permission* of our elders and go with you. What you consider the hardships of a forest life are attractions to me, so attached am I to you. Separation from you, Rāma, would kill me! With you at my side, Rāghava, not even Sakra lord of the gods could overcome me with his might, but no woman bereft of her husband can go on living, despite all the instructions you've given me. Heroic husband, it is intemperate men that are sure to suffer misfortune from living in a forest; I know that. When I was a girl in my father's house, I heard about life in the forest from a holy mendicant woman in my mother's presence, and I've begged you time and again before now, my lord – I should so love to live in the forest in your company! I entreat you, Rāghava! The moment has come for us to go; life with a forest-wandering hero would suit me. You are pure; I shall gain in purity by following my husband out of my heartfelt affection. To me, my husband is a god. So why don't you want to take me with you? I'm your very own wife, I do what's right, I'm devoted to my husband! Kākutstha, I'm devoted to my husband, I'm faithful for better, for worse, and I'm heartbroken. I'd welcome weal or woe if only you'd take me. I'm grief-stricken. If you refuse to take me to the forest, I'll resort to poison, or fire, or water. I'll kill myself!'
However much she begged to go, the mighty prince would [26.20–22] not consent to take her to the desolate wilderness. Maithilī brooded on his refusal, bathing the earth with the hot tears that flowed from her eyes, but then, while Vaidehī was still pondering how to win him over, the self-possessed Kākutstha assuaged the anger that had taken hold of her.
'I can't leave you behind, Maithilī, when you are determined [27.27–32] to live with me in the forest, any more than a self-respecting man can abandon his good name. But there's a tradition the upright have always followed, wife with thighs shapely as elephants' trunks, and that's the one I'm following today as surely as its lustre follows the sun: that tradition, my full-hipped beauty, is obedience to father and mother, and I would not dare remain alive if I disobeyed their command. My father remains true to his word, and I wish to follow the example his integrity has set me: that's been the tradition since time immemorial. Follow me, my timid wife; we will share in following the tradition. Distribute our treasure among brāhmans and give food to mendicants and beggars; but hurry! Don't be long!' When the queen realized that her husband had agreed to her going too she was delighted and quickly began to make her donations.
When Lak ma a too approached his radiant brother, standing [28.1–4] before him with hands respectfully raised in supplication, Rāma said, 'Saumitri, who will support Kausalyā or illustrious Sumitrā if you come with me to the forest today? The king in his splendour, the one who should satisfy all desires like Parjanya sending rain on earth, is trapped in the noose of desire. Now that King Aśavapati's daughter has gained control of the kingdom she'll do nothing to promote the wellbeing of all her wretched co-wives.'
[28.5–10] Lak ma a knew how to coax Rāma, and replied in a soothing voice to eloquent Rāma's words: 'Your power, heroic brother, is enough to ensure that Bharata will pay scrupulous respect to Kausalyā and Sumitrā; we can be certain of that. Kausalyā is of noble birth and has a thousand villages as her own property: she could support a thousand men like me. I will bring my bow and arrows and carry a spade and basket, and walk in front of you to show you the way, continually picking roots and fruit for you, and any other forest produce that's a fit diet for ascetics. You, my lord, can sport on the mountain-sides with Vaidehī while I attend to everything, whether you're awake or asleep.'
[28.11] Rāma was happy with his speech and replied, 'Go then Saumitri and take leave of all our friends.'
[30.1(); ()31.13–17] When they had joined Vaidehī in donating large amounts of treasure to brāhmans, the two Rāghavas went with Sītā to take audience with their father. The sight of his son coming in the distance and saluting* gave the king such distress that he sprang at once from his throne surrounded by women. Seeing Rāma, the emperor rushed forward, but before he could reach him the torment of his grief sent him to the floor in a faint. Rāma and the great chariot warrior Lak ma a flew to his side, but the sorrowful, grief-stricken sovereign was unconscious. A loud jingling of bangles was heard throughout the king's palace as thousands of women suddenly shrieked, 'Alas! Alas for Rāma!' Rāma and Lak ma a both threw their arms round him and with Sītā's help, weeping they laid him on a couch.
[31.18–21] After a moment the king regained consciousness, to be overwhelmed by a sea of sorrow as, with a deferential gesture, Rāma said, 'Mahārāja, lord of us all, I ask your leave.* As I set out for Da aka Forest, pray give me your blessing. Lak ma a too asks your leave; Sītā is also coming with me to the forest, despite the many sound arguments I advanced to dissuade them. Rid yourself of grief and send us out with your blessing, Lak ma a, me and Sītā, as the Lord of Creation did his creatures.'
While the steadfast Rāghava stood awaiting leave to go to [31.22–3] live in the forest, the king who ruled the world gazed at him and said, 'Rāghava, I've been tricked into granting a boon to Kaikeyī. You must arrest me and become King of Ayodhyā today.'
Rāma was a pillar of propriety above all. At this suggestion [31.24–5] from the monarch he replied to his father with courtesy and a respectful gesture. 'Your lordship shall be Lord of the Earth for a thousand years, your majesty, and I shall live in the forest. You must not lose your integrity on my account.'
'Journey steadfastly, my son; may your path be safe and free [31.26–7] from all danger, and may fortune and prosperity attend your return. But it's evening, my son; don't go just yet, not on any account. Spend the night in company with your mother and me, and enjoy every comfort. Tomorrow will be time enough for what you intend.'
Rāma responded to the words he and his brother Lak ma a [31.28–32] heard uttered by his grieving father: 'I shall gain merit* by leaving today: am I to lose it by waiting till tomorrow? To me, an immediate departure is preferable to all comforts. I give up all claim to the earth – land and people – and its abundant goods and grain. Let them be conferred on Bharata. Banish your sadness. Don't give way to tears. Be impassive as the Lord of Streams, the immutable Sea. My desire isn't for kingship or happiness, or even for Maithilī; what I desire, you bull of a man, is for you to maintain your integrity and not break your word.'
That word was burdensome to the descendant of the [32.1–8] Iksvākus as he issued repeated instructions to Sumantra, punctuated by deep sighs and sobs: 'Quickly, charioteer, get together a troop – a regular army – no expense spared, to escort the Rāghava. Eminent courtesans and merchants of great wealth are to confer auspiciousness upon the prince's army by displaying their wares. Mobilize his retainers too, and use all manner of gifts to entice his heroic fellow-sportsmen: hunting deer and elephants, drinking forest mead and touring round the rivers will make him forget the kingdom. And all the supplies of grain and goods that I own are to be at Rāma's disposal while he lives in the desolate forest. Meeting sages, sacrificing in holy places and duly rewarding the officiants will add pleasure to his life in the forest. Bharata's strong enough to defend Ayodhyā, but glorious Rāma must be furnished with every comfort.'
[32.9–10] Kaikeyī grew alarmed as she heard the Kākutstha's words; her mouth ran dry and her voice cracked. Dismayed and apprehensive, Kaikeyī protested, 'Sir, Bharata is not to inherit a kingdom devoid of its population, empty and unpalatable as the dregs left in a wine cup!'
[32.11] The shamelessness of Kaikeyī's malicious pronouncement belied the beauty of her eyes, and King Daśaratha retorted, 'I'm bearing the unwelcome burden you've heaped on me, so why goad me?'
[32.12] With redoubled spite Kaikeyī answered the king: 'Your own ancestor Sagara disinherited his eldest son Asamañja, as is well known. You should do the same with this one.'
[32.13] 'Curse you!' was all King Daśaratha could reply. Everyone present was ashamed, but Kaikeyī treated them with disdain.
[32.14–20] Then an aged minister called Siddhārtha, holy and much esteemed by the king, explained to her, 'But Asamañja was a reprobate taking delight in seizing children playing in the street and throwing them into the water of the Sarayū! The citizens were roused to fury at the sight and demanded of the king, "Make your choice, defender of the nation: Asamañja or us!" The king then asked, "What has alarmed you?" and in answer to the king's question the subjects replied: "It's this madman; he gets his kicks from throwing our little sons into the Sarayū when they're out playing, the lunatic!" It was hearing this complaint from his subjects that induced the monarch to abandon his worthless son out of desire to satisfy them; that was why Sagara, that very righteous king, abandoned him. What crime has Rāma committed that he should be disinherited?'
[33.1–5] The minister's speech drew a courteous intervention from Rāma. Deferentially he asked Daśaratha, 'Why would I need such a retinue, your majesty, when I've renounced pleasure and the trappings of society to go and live on what I can find in the forest? If a man gives away a fine elephant but won't part with the girth strap, it's useless for him to cherish the rope once his favourite beast is gone. Nor do I need an army, my excellent lord emperor. I'm leaving all that behind. Just let them fetch me some bark-fibre clothes, and a spade and basket, and I'll go off and live my life in the forest for fourteen years.'
The shameless Kaikeyī fetched the bark clothes herself, and [33.6–10] told the Rāghava to put them on in front of the crowd. That tiger of a man took a pair from her, removed his delicate clothing and dressed himself like a sage. Then Lak ma a too stripped off his finery in front of his father and put on the clothes of an ascetic; but Sītā in her silks was as frightened as a chital deer at a snare when she saw the bark garment meant for her. Overcome with shyness, she sadly picked one up and asked her husband – a husband fit to be king of the _gandharvas_ – 'Just how do the forest. sages put their bark dresses on?'
Janaka's daughter held a bark wrap up to her throat and [33.11–18] stood there, awkward and ashamed, but Rāma, anxious as always to maintain the proprieties, quickly came up and himself wrapped the bark around Sītā, over her silk. To see the wife of such a husband wearing bark as if she were in _need_ of a husband, all the people cried out, 'Shame on you, Daśaratha!' That descendant of Ik vāku groaned and said to his wife, 'Kaikeyī, it's not right for Sītā to have to go in _kuśa_ grass and bark. Isn't it enough for you to have Rāma exiled? Why must you go on with more and more of these vicious outrages?' He sat with head bowed as his son Rāma made him his farewell speech: 'My righteous lord, here is my noble mother, Kausalyā. She is mature and gracious, and she doesn't reproach you, your majesty; she will be drowned in the depths of grief for the first time in her life now that I am taken from her. You can grant boons; you have a particular responsibility towards her.'
Rāma's words, and the sight of him dressed as a sage, made [34.1–8] the king and all his wives swoon. In the torment of his sorrow he could not look at the Rāghava, and when he did manage to look at him he was still too wretched to reply. After his momentary faint, the grief-stricken Lord of the Earth could think of nothing but Rāma: 'My mighty son!' he wailed. 'I think I must be the one who once injured many people or else robbed them of their children; that's why this has happened to me. But life cannot leave the body before its time has come, and Kaikeyī's cruelty has not brought death to me. That I should live to see my radiant son standing before me with his delicate garments replaced by ascetic clothes! It's all Kaikeyī's fault, it's her selfish plotting and her deceitfulness that have brought this calamity on our people!' After that his eyes clouded with sobbing. 'Rāma!' he moaned, then could utter no more.
[34.9–11] After a moment the Lord of the Earth pulled himself together and, eyes brimming with tears, said to Sumantra: 'Harness a riding chariot with the best steeds, drive it here and take his Royal Highness out of the country. I think the virtuous are allowed so much reward for their virtue when a good man is exiled to the forest by his own father and mother.'
[34.12–15] In obedience to the king's command, Sumantra the charioteer came smartly back with a chariot harnessed with fine horses, saluted the prince and motioned him towards the gilded chariot harnessed with the best steeds. Hastily the king summoned his treasurer and gave him fit and proper instructions: 'Be quick and bring Vaidehī enough expensive clothes and fine jewellery to last out the fourteen years.'
[34.16–21] He rushed to the treasury, fetched what the king had commanded and handed it all to Sītā. As the woman born to the life of a princess embarked on a life in the forest, she adorned her high-born limbs with those many-hued gems, till the resplendent princess of Videha lit up the palace like the radiant sun lighting up the sky at sunrise. Her mother-in-law flung her arms around her, kissed her and implored the departing Maithilī: 'The whole world condemns wives who have always had the best of everything but then don't honour their husbands in misfortune. You mustn't look down on my son in his exile; for richer, for poorer, let him be your god.'
[34.22–31] Sītā recognized the justice and good sense of her mother-in-law's words, respectfully turned to her and replied: 'Of course I will do all you say, noble lady; I have been well taught, and know how I should behave towards my husband. You shouldn't rank me with wicked people, my lady; I'm no more capable of straying from what's right than splendour is of deserting the moon. Without strings a _vī ā_ can make no sound, without wheels a chariot cannot move, without her husband no woman can achieve fulfilment, not even with a hundred children! Some comes from a father, some from a mother, some from a son, but the fulfilment a husband gives is inexhaustible. What woman would not worship her husband? My lady, I've been brought up well. I'm the sort of woman who knows right from wrong. Her husband is a woman's god, so how could I look down on him?' Sītā's words touched Kausalyā's pure heart, and she suddenly let fall a tear of sorrow mingled with joy. Rāma implicitly knew what to do: he went up to his mother, the most honoured of the king's wives, and said, 'Mamma, don't be upset, but look after Father. The end of my stay in the forest will soon be here. The nine plus five years will pass while you're asleep and you'll see me back again safe and sound with those I love.'
This advice he gave to his own mother, then he turned and [34.32–5] looked at his three hundred and fifty other mothers, who were also grief-stricken. Daśaratha's son Rāma greeted them respectfully, and piously bade them farewell, asking their forgiveness for any slight or negligence during their life together; they then set to keening like cranes, those wives of the Indra of men, to hear the words of the Rāghava.
Rāma, Sītā and Lak ma a bowed down to the king's feet, [35.1–8] then sadly and respectfully circumambulated him and took his leave to go. The pious Rāghava was overpowered by grief as he and Sītā said goodbye to his mother. Lak ma a followed his brother in saying farewell to Kausalyā, then bowed to the feet of Sumitrā, his own mother; as mighty Lak ma a Saumitri paid her his respects, his weeping mother kissed him and gave him some well-intentioned advice. 'Your devotion to those you love has consigned you to a life in the forest; my son, do not fail your brother Rāma on his journeyings. In weal or in woe, you will do no wrong if you resort to him. It's a universal principle among right-minded people that the younger should be subject to the will of the elder, and the custom of this family has always been to give alms, to undergo initiation for sacrifice, and to lay down their lives in battle. Think of Rāma as Daśaratha, think of Janaka's daughter as me, and of the wilderness as Ayodhyā: then, my dear son, your journey will be serene.'
[35.9–14] Then Sumantra saluted Rāma Kākutstha, and addressed him with deferential courtesy, like Mātali speaking to Indra Vāsava. 'Be so good as to mount the chariot, your Royal Highness. I will drive you quickly wherever you direct me, Rāma, to spend the fourteen years the queen has decreed that you live in the forest.' Shapely Sītā, now fully adorned, climbed joyfully into that sun-bright chariot; then Sumantra loaded up the brothers' battle gear – weapons, armour, shields – and a cooking pot. Seeing all three safely aboard he quickly urged on the horses, famous horses that could go like the rushing wind.
[35.15–23] At the Rāghava's departure for his long stay in the forest, confusion settled on the city, army and townspeople alike. The town was in uproar, agitated and perplexed, with a din of horses whinnying and elephants maddened with rage. Then the whole city, young and old, rushed after Rāma in great distress, like someone tormented by the summer heat rushing towards water. They clutched at the chariot's back and sides, gazing at him, choked with sobs and overwhelmed by sorrow. 'Rein in the horses, charioteer!' they begged. 'Slowly, go slowly! Let us see Rāma's face, the face we shall see no more! His mother's heart must be made of iron not to be breaking to see him leave for the forest – he that might be the son of a god! Happy Sītā, to be following her husband like a shadow, delighting in her duty! She won't leave him, any more than the sun's splendour will leave mount Meru. Happy Lak ma a, to be able to wander about all the time with your brother, him so genial, so godlike! For you, true happiness, true fulfilment, a true stairway to heaven, is to follow him!' At these words they were overcome with sobs of grief.
[35.24–34] Then the king came out of the palace with his wives – he desolate, they miserable – insisting he must see his son. Before him the women raised a great wail like the wailing of a herd of females at the capture of a big bull elephant, and the glory of King Kākutstha, the father, was dimmed like the full moon being swallowed up by an eclipsing planet; the king broke down in severe distress. When the men following Rāma saw this they raised a tumultuous uproar. 'Poor Rāma!' cried some. 'Oh, you poor mother!' cried others, and all the inhabitants of the palace wept over the wailing king. Rāma glanced round and saw the despondent, brokenhearted king, and his mother, following them along the road, but knew it was not right for him to be seen staring at them. He saw them trudging along when they should have been in a carriage, used as they were to comfort and undeserving of hardship, but still he urged on the charioteer to greater speed; that tiger of a man could no more bear the distressing sight of his father and mother than an elephant can bear the torment of the goad. Repeatedly he glimpsed his mother Kausalyā running in tears after the chariot, calling out now to Rāma, now to Sītā and Lak ma a as she darted along. 'Stop!' shouted the king. 'Go on, go on!' ordered the Rāghava, until Sumantra felt trapped between two millstones. 'If you get into trouble,' said Rāma 'you can tell the king you didn't hear. A long-drawn-out agony is the worst of all.'
At once the charioteer obeyed Rāma's command, quickening [35.35–7] the pace of the horses and leaving the people behind. The king's subjects did obeisance to Rāma; they had to renounce him, but could not renounce their human feelings nor check the flow of their tears. As for Mahārāja Daśaratha, his ministers tried to console him: 'To bring a man back, don't follow him too far,' they advised.
At such a respectful farewell from that tiger of a man, the [36.1–7] women had filled the inner apartments with the tumult of their grief. 'Where has he gone, that man who was the princely resort and refuge of the leaderless, the weak, the wretched? Where has he gone, that man who could not be ruffled by sorrow, who could not be angered by cursing, who could not be roused to anger, but instead calmed all the angry? Where has he gone, that exalted man, that glorious man, who treats us just the same as his own mother Kausalyā? Where has he gone – consigned to the forest by the king in thrall to cruel Kaikeyī – protector of his own people, protector of the world? The king must be grievously out of his mind to banish to forest life that darling of the living world, that righteous performer of all pledges, that Rāma!' Like cows bereft of their calves, all those queens wailed in their crushing sorrow and rent the air with their weeping.
[36.8–16] The Lord of the Earth, tortured as he was by sorrow for his son, heard the terrible sound of distress coming from the inner apartments, and felt great distress. No offerings made in the fire, no sun to be seen, fodder refused by elephants, calves not suckled by the cows; Triśa ku and Lohitā ga, B haspati and Budha, those malign planets, all stationed close to the moon, constellations shorn of their brilliance, planets without their radiance, the Viśākhās hanging smoky and dim in the heavens: all the people in the city were struck with terror, and thought no more of fun or food. People in the streets had their faces contorted by tears; joy could nowhere be glimpsed, all were filled with sorrow. No cooling breeze blew, the moon did not soothe nor the sun heat the earth; all the world was out of joint. Sons neglected their mothers, husbands their wives, brothers their sisters; all others forgotten, everyone thought only of Rāma, while those who were Rāma's special friends were overcome by the burden of their grief and in their consternation were unable to rise from their couches.
[37.1–9] As long as the dust cloud raised by the departing Rāma remained visible, so long could the best of the Iksvākus not withdraw his gaze. As long as the king could still see his beloved paragon of a son, so long did he continue craning to see him. When he who could protect the earth could no longer see even the dust raised by Rāma, then distressed and doleful he collapsed on the ground. The lady Kausalyā came to his right arm and Kaikeyī, Bharata's champion, to his left side. The sight of Kaikeyī outraged the king's prudent, upright, disciplined nature, and he declared: 'You wicked woman, Kaikeyī, don't touch me! Get out of my sight! You're neither wife nor relative of mine! And as for your dependants, I am no part of them nor they of me. You have renounced what's right, intent only on your own advantage: now I renounce you. I repent taking your hand to lead you around the marriage fire; I repudiate it all in this world and the next. And if Bharata should feel satisfied when he gains this enduring kingdom for himself, then may none of his funeral offerings ever reach me!'
Queen Kausalyā, haggard with grief, raised the dust-covered [37.10–18] overlord of men and led him back. Just as if he had deliberately killed a brāhman, or plunged his hand into a fire, the worthy king shrivelled up at the thought of his son becoming an ascetic; repeatedly he turned back, sinking down in the chariot's tracks. His appearance lost its splendour, like the sun during an eclipse; afflicted by sorrow as he remembered his beloved son, he lamented. When he judged he must have reached the edge of the city, he moaned, 'I can see the tracks left on the road by my son's fine equipage, but I can't see my noble son himself. Surely by now he must have taken refuge at the bottom of some tree; he'll find a log or a stone to lie down on. The poor boy will get up again coated in dirt and sighing, like the bull of a herd of she-elephants rising from a mountain stream. I can imagine men wandering about in the forest watching mighty Rāma, Lord of the World, getting up and walking on as if he had no liege. Kaikeyī, you can have what you want; live on in the kingdom a widow! I cannot bear to go on living without that tiger of a man!'
With this lamentation, and with his subjects thronging [37.19–27] around him, the king went back into his matchless city like a man returning from a funeral to a place of mourning. The king gazed on the whole city, its houses and courtyards empty, its markets and shrines closed, its people worn out, enfeebled and tormented with suffering, its highways unoccupied. He could do nothing but think of Rāma and lament as he entered his palace like the sun going behind a cloud; without Rāma, Vaidehī and Lak ma a the palace was as still as a great lake after Garu a has emptied it of snakes. On the king's instructions, the doorkeepers led him quickly to the house of Kausalyā, Rāma's mother. He went into Kausalyā's chamber and slumped on to the bed, his mind in a ferment; stretching out his arms to the son he could still see, the heroic Mahārāja cried loudly, 'Ah! Rāghava! you're deserting me! Happy indeed will those worthy men be who will live to see and embrace Rāma on his return! Kausalyā, hold out your hand to me, please do. My sight has followed Rāma and not returned, and I can't see you.'
[38.1–19] Seeing the Lord of the Earth sunk in sorrow on the bed, sorrowing Kausalyā shared with him her own torment for her son. 'Rāghava, you tiger of a man! Kaikeyī has sown poison with her forked tongue, and now she will be even more energetic, like a snake that has sloughed its skin. Now she's got her own way and had Rāma exiled, that pretty specimen, that snake in the grass will set about making me shake in my shoes all the more. She could have let Rāma live in a house while he was practising his begging; she could even have got all she wanted and more by making him a slave. But now she's had her wish and toppled him from his position, that Kaikeyī, she's sent him out to be picked up by _rāk asas_, as if he was the portion of a sacrifice left out for them at the right phase of the moon. The mighty hero, that man with the majestic tread of an elephant king, bow in hand, is going into the forest with his wife and Lak ma a. But what state will the hardships they see reduce them to, now that you've allowed Kaikeyī to consign
them to the forest? Delicate as they are, how will the poor things survive on a diet of fruit and roots, stripped of their jewels, banished in their prime? Oh for the happy, the auspicious day, when I might be able to see the Rāghava and his wife and brother! When will Ayodhyā hear that the two heroes have arrived, and become glorious? When will her people be joyful and hang up banners and garlands? When will the city see those two tigers of men come back, and swell with joy like the sea when the moon is full? When will the mighty hero place Sītā before him on the chariot like a bull honouring the dam, and enter the city of Ayodhyā? When will thousands of souls cram the highway to shower parched grain upon my two victorious sons as they enter? When will girls make due offerings of flowers and fruit to the Twice-Born, and circumambulate the city in their delight? When will he come back, that right-minded, godlike young man with the wisdom of maturity, who still caresses me like he did when he was three? Heroic king, I think I must once upon a time have been cruel and sliced the udders off some cows when their calves wanted to drink, for
Kaikeyī to have wrenched away the child of my love, violently, like a lion from a cow. I'm like a mother cow with its young calf, you tiger of a man; without my son, my only son, so noble and accomplished, without my son I have no will to live; I cannot possibly go on living if I can't see my darling, broad-shouldered, mighty son.'
Peerless Kausalyā's lament brought words of wisdom from [39.1–15] steadfast Sumitrā. 'Noble lady, your son is the best of men, goodness through and through. Why ever are you lamenting and weeping so wretchedly? Your mighty son has gone, noble lady, he's given up his kingship, only to keep his noble father true to his word. Rāma is steadfast in keeping strictly to what the learned know is the right course; he'll reap its eternal reward after death, will your excellent Rāma, so you needn't ever weep for him. Besides, Lak ma a is punctilious and exemplary in his behaviour towards him; he is kind to all, a boon companion for high-minded Rāma. Vaidehī follows your son along his path of virtue, accustomed to a life of comfort but well aware of the hardships of forest life. What has your son not achieved already, that lord who flies the banner of worldwide fame for holding fast to his vow of self-control and integrity? The sun will easily recognize how pure and supremely noble Rāma is, and won't dare let its rays burn his limbs, and a pleasant breeze, mild and always gentle, born of the woodland, will do the Rāghava's bidding. Fatherlike, the moon will fold the innocent man in its arms as he sleeps through the night, and will refresh him with the cool touch of its beams. What's more, Brahmā gave that mighty man divine missiles when he saw him kill the _dānava_ ruler, Timidhvaja's son, in battle. That bull of a man will soon be made king; Rāma will be sprinkled,* he and the Earth, Vaidehī and Śrī, all three. You wept tears of grief as you watched him leave, but your eyes will soon be wet with tears of joy. Before long you'll be like a bank of monsoon clouds, shedding tears of joy, when you see your son and those he loves greeting you. Your wishes will soon be granted when your son comes back to Ayodhyā and respectfully takes your feet in his gentle grasp.*'
[40.1–12] Rāma, noble and truly brave, had a devoted following as he set out for life in the forest; they had refused to go home when king and family were forced to turn back, but followed the chariot. The inhabitants of Ayodhyā regarded the illustrious man as an example of all the virtues, and held him dear as the full moon, but despite his subjects' entreaties the Kākutstha upheld his father's integrity and continued towards the forest. With affection Rāma glanced at the people, drinking in the scene with his eyes, then addressed them affectionately, like a father. 'The inhabitants of Ayodhyā will be doing me a personal favour if they make a point of transferring to Bharata any fondness or regard they may have for me, for Kaikeyī's darling is so good-natured that he will fulfil your wishes and confirm your privileges. Young in years but old in wisdom, gentle but resolute, he will calm your fears and make you a fitting lord. He has all the qualities needed of a king; what's more, I approve of his installation as Young King, so let your experts carry out the king's command. It is my wish that this should be performed to save the Mahārāja from suffering distress while I am living in the forest.' The more firmly Daśaratha's son persevered in his duty, the more the subjects longed to have him as their lord, as if the city's populace, tear-stained and dejected, had been bound in a noose that was dragging them after Rāma and Sumitrā's son.
[41.1–8] When they reached the charming bank of the Tamasā, the Rāghava glanced at Sītā and said to Saumitri, 'Saumitri, may all go well with you! Night is falling on the forest, the first night of our forest life. Cheer up! Look, the woods seem empty, yet all around are the calls of animals and birds settling to their resting places; but now I'm sure my father's royal capital, the city of Ayodhyā, with all its men and women, will be grieving over our absence. I've no doubt that worthy Bharata will be a comfort to my father and mother, telling them that it's all for the best. As I think over and over about Bharata's lack of malice, I see no need to grieve for my father, Lak ma a, or even for my mother. You tiger of a man, you've done the right thing in joining me in my wanderings: I shall need your help to protect Vaidehī. It will suit me for tonight, Saumitri, to take nothing but water, even though there's all sorts of forest food to be had.'
With these words to Saumitri, the Rāghava then turned to [41.9–14] Sumantra, calling him his good friend, and told him to see to the horses. As the sun was now set, Sumantra hobbled the horses and provided them with ample fodder, then took up his station close by. When the auspicious twilight ritual had been performed, Saumitri and the charioteer saw that night had fallen, and they got a bed ready for Rāma, made of the leaves of trees on the bank of the Tamasā; when Rāma saw it, he lay down with his wife and Saumitri. When he saw that his brother and his wife were fast asleep, Laksma a sang Rāma's praises to the charioteer. Saumitri kept vigil on the bank of the Tamasā through the night, talking to the charioteer about Rāma's virtues, until the sun rose.
Rāma and his subjects all spent that night close to the [41.15–21] Tamasā, its bank teeming with herds of cattle, but when he got up and saw his subjects, Rāma the glorious said to his brother, Fortune-favoured Lak ma a, 'Saumitri, look at these people sleeping under the trees, moved by no regard for their own homes, but only for us; Lak ma a, just look at them! These citizens won't give up their resolve. They'll lay down their lives to achieve their goal of persuading us to go back. What we must do is jump into our chariot while they're still asleep, and go on our way undaunted. From now on I don't want any resident of the Ik vākus' city to have to sleep among tree roots out of devotion to me. It's for princes to free their citizens from troubles they've brought upon themselves, certainly not themselves to inflict trouble on their townspeople.'
Lak ma a saw Rāma standing there like rectitude personified, ()41.22()and replied: 'I'm happy with that, my wise brother! Let's get in.'
The charioteer hastily harnessed the choice horses to the [41.23–5] carriage, then reported to Rāma with a salute. Rāma, though, wanted to hoodwink the citizens, so he instructed the charioteer, 'Get into the chariot, driver, and head northwards. Drive fast for a little while, then bring the chariot back again. Take great care to see that the citizens won't know where I'm going.'
[41.26–8] The driver did as Rāma said, came back, and showed Rāma to the carriage. Aboard the carriage with his gear, the Rāghava crossed the river Tamasā. It was fast-flowing and turbulent with eddies, but once he was across, the heaven-blessed hero set out along a favourable path, free of thorns and free of all fearsome creatures.
[42.1–5] The spirits of the city dwellers following Rāma sank, and they went back disconsolate. As each one reached his own house he was surrounded by his wives and children; then they gave way to tears and their faces were racked with sobs. There was no rejoicing, no merrymaking; no business was done, no merchandise displayed, no cooking in the household; finding the lost, making a fortune, brought no rejoicing; newborn first sons brought no rejoicing even to their mothers. In house after house wailing women, sick with sorrow, scolded their husbands for returning, stabbing them with their words like elephants with goads.
[42.6–15] What's the use of homes or wives or wealth or sons or any pleasures at all, if we can't see the Rāghava? There's only one good man in the world, and that's Lak ma a! He and Sītā are in the forest, following Kākutstha Rāma to serve him in his wanderings. The streams, the lotus ponds, the lakes, the pure waters where Kākutstha will bathe will be rendered sacred when he plunges in. The charming forest groves, the wide-banked rivers, the mountain-slopes, will furnish Kākutstha with adornment. No grove, no mountain he visits can fail to receive him as a welcome, honoured guest. The mountains will be crowned with all sorts of flowers and decked with posies: in their sympathy for Rāma they'll put on a show of beautiful flowers and fruit for him, in season or out; for him they'll display all their sparkling cascades, and the mountain-top trees will gladden the Rāghava's heart. Where there is Rāma there can be neither fear nor hurt, for he is a mighty hero, and son of Daśaratha. Let's go after the Rāghava, before he gets too far away. Pleasant is the shade of such a noble master's feet: he's the lord of these people, their refuge and their mainstay. We can wait on Sītā, you on the Rāghava.'
Sorrow pained the citizens' wives, and they kept on and on [42.15–25] at their husbands: 'The Rāghava will look after your welfare in the forest, and Sītā will look after us women. No one will enjoy living in this dreary place, where everyone's pining away; it's unsettling, it's heartbreaking. If by dishonest means Kaikeyī comes into the kingdom, a kingdom that might as well be kingless, there'd be no point for us in life itself, let alone in sons or wealth. If she can abandon husband and son for the sake of power, who will she stop at, that disgrace to her family, that Kaikeyī? This we swear by our sons: we will never live as servants under Kaikeyī's rule as long as she and we are alive. The Lord of the Earth has seen his son exiled by that pitiless woman; how can he live happily with that unjust criminal as his wife? Now Rāma's exiled, the Lord of the Earth will live no more, and Daśaratha's death is bound to bring ruin. If your merit is exhausted, and you're so useless, stir up a cup of poison and drink it! Go after the Rāghava, or else get lost! It's not right that Rāma and his wife and Lak ma a should be banished, and that we should be handed over to Bharata like lambs to the slaughter.' Throughout the city its women wailed on, raising an anguished clamour as if they feared the approach of their own death.
Rāma meanwhile, that tiger of a man, made good progress [43.1–7] through what was left of the night, mindful of his father's command. Night passed peacefully as he travelled on; in the half light of dawn he performed the appropriate ritual, then plunged beyond the bounds of the realm. He cast his eye over spreading villages and flower-decked forests as he slipped quickly past with his fine horses, hearing the villagers crying out in their homes, 'Confound King Daśaratha for getting himself enslaved by desire! How awful it is that Kaikeyī, that cruel, malicious, malevolent, bitter woman, should violate all decency and stir up this outrage, exiling to life in the forest a prince so righteous, so wise, so compassionate, so tireless!' Hearing the villagers crying out in their homes, the heroic lord of Kosala left the land of Kosala.
The Rāghava crossed the quiet waters of the Vedaśruti river, [43.8–15] then set his face towards Agastya's southern domain. A long time later he crossed the cold waters of the river Gomatī, as it made its way to the sea, its banks thronged with cattle. After the Gomatī, his swift horses bore him across the river Syandikā, which echoed to the sound of peacocks and geese. Rāma pointed out to Vaidehī the land that Manu had once conferred upon Ik vāku, showing her how it was prospering amid the surrounding kingdoms. Again and again, in the tones of a frantic goose, that noble bull of a man lamented to the charioteer: 'When shall I come back and hunt through the flower-decked forest beside the Sarayū, in the company of my mother and father? But I mustn't yearn too much for that best of the world's pleasures, so prized by companies of royal sages, the hunt in the Sarayū forest.' And Ik vāku's descendant continued to chat genially to the charioteer as he pursued his path.
[44.1–8] They crossed the broad and lovely Kosala lands. Then Lak ma a's mighty brother reached S gaverapura, and the Rāghava saw the heavenly Ga gā: holy in all three worlds, its auspicious waters innocent of duckweed and attended by sages; echoing to the calls of geese and _sarasas_ and the murmurs of sheldrakes, waited on by dolphins, crocodiles and serpents. When he saw its eddying whirlpools, the great warrior told Sumantra the charioteer to halt there. 'Not far from the river,' said the Rāghava, 'is a huge _badam_ tree covered with flowering branches. This is where to halt, charioteer.' Lak ma a and Sumantra assented, and steered the horses towards the _badam_. When they reached the lovely tree, Rāma, the Ik vākus' delight, alighted from the chariot with his wife and Laksma a. Sumantra got down as well, loosed the fine horses and stood respectfully before Rāma at the foot of the tree.
[44.9–15] The king of that region was called Guha. He was the powerful, renowned chief of the Ni āda tribe, a friend of Rāma, and his equal, and when he heard that Rāma, that tiger of a man, had come to his land, he led his venerable ministers and his family out to find him. Rāma and Saumitri saw the lord of the Ni ādas from some distance away, and went to meet Guha. Guha embraced the Rāghava in distress, saying, 'Rāma, let this land be as Ayodhyā to you. What can I do for you?' He got together all sorts of choice eatables and had them brought quickly with water of welcome,* then said, 'Welcome, you mighty man! The whole earth is yours; we are your servants, and you, sir, the master. That's good! The kingdom is yours to command. All this is for you to eat and enjoy, to drink and to taste; here is fine bedding and fodder for your steeds.'
At Guha's words, the Rāghava replied, 'You delight and [44.16–22] honour us, sir, in all you have done, by coming here on foot and showing us so much affection.' He clasped him in his shapely arms and said, 'Guha, it's good to see you and your family in good health, and enjoying a prosperous kingdom, with wealth and allies. I know you have offered all this to me out of kindness, sir, but I must decline it all. It's not my way to accept gifts. You must now recognize me to be an ascetic, clad in _kuśa_ grass, bark cloth and skins, eating fruit and roots, and wandering in the forest in pursuance of the right. I would like some fodder for the horses, but nothing more; that will be demonstration enough of your respect for me. These horses are the pride and joy of my father, King Daśaratha, so if you look after them well, that will be the same as honouring me.'
Guha accordingly ordered his men to bring water and fodder [44.23–6] at once for the horses, but the bark-clad Rāma performed the twilight ritual and would accept no sustenance except water brought personally by Lak ma a. Lak ma a bathed his brother's feet as he lay on the ground with his wife, then walked away and stationed himself by the tree. Guha, bow in hand, ever-attentive and watchful, chatted to Saumitri and the charioteer as he kept guard over Rāma.
As honest Lak ma a Rāghava kept himself awake for his [45.1–7] brother's sake, Guha was distressed by their distress. 'Friend,' he told him, 'I have had this comfortable bed got ready for you. Rest on it in comfort, your Highness, please do. My people and I are all used to roughing it, but you are used to a life of ease. We will keep awake tonight to guard Kākutstha. No one on earth is dearer to me than Rāma, and that's the truth; it's the plain truth, and I'll take my oath on it. He's favoured me with the chance to gain fame throughout the world, and great merit, and mere wealth too. I'm the one to guard my dear friend Rāma as he sleeps beside Sītā, my bow in my hand and my clan all around. I'm always roaming about in this forest, and there's nothing I don't know about it. We could get the better of even the biggest regular army.'
[45.8–22] 'We know you're honest and mean well,' replied Lak ma a, 'and as long as you're guarding us all we shall have nothing to fear. But how can I possibly sleep while Dāśarathi is lying on the ground beside Sītā? How can I take any pleasure in life? He can't be conquered in battle by all the gods and anti-gods put together, but just look at him now, taking his rest beside Sītā on the grass. It took _mantras_ and mortifications and all sorts of trouble to produce him, and he's the only one of Daśaratha's sons to compare with him. With him gone off, the king won't survive for long: the earth must soon be widowed. I suppose the exhausted women will have given up all their weeping and wailing by now, sir, and the king's apartment will no longer be filled with their clamour. As for Kausalyā and the king, and my mother too – I can't imagine they will last the night. Even if thought of Śatrughna keeps my mother alive, Kausalyā, who gave birth to this hero, will be destroyed by her great sorrow. Destroyed too will be that city, so replete with loyal citizens, so entrancing to behold, now sharing in the king's affliction. Destroyed will be my father, unable to achieve his oft-expressed desire to appoint Rāma to the kingship. And when the time comes that they've got what they wanted, it's those evil-doers that will purify my dead father the king with all the funeral rituals. My father's capital has lovely squares and buildings, its highways are well planned, its mansions and palaces abundant; it's graced with attractive courtesans, crowded with chariots, horses and elephants, ringing to the sound of trumpets; it's crammed with everything good, it's teeming with happy, prosperous people, it's well provided with parks and gardens, and there are plenty of assemblies and fairs: and they'll be the ones to stroll at ease around my father's capital! If only we could be back in Ayodhyā, with him fit and well and his integrity intact, and our stay in the forest completed!'
So the night passed, with the noble prince lamenting and [45.23] disconsolate as he stood on guard.
[ _Rāma sends Sumantra back to Ayodhyā with the chariot and bids farewell to Guha. The trio continue their journey on foot, cross the Ga gā and again camp beneath a tree._]
When they had spent the night in peace beneath that great [48.1–7] tree, the spotless sun rose and they set out towards the place where Bhāgīrathī Ga gā joins the Yamunā. As they plunged into the vast forest, the splendid trio admired on all sides varied scenery and fascinating sights they had never seen before, picking out a safe path between the different kinds of trees. Just as the day was ending, Rāma said to Saumitri, 'Saumitri, see, rising from Prayāga, the smoke that's the banner of Lord Agni; I suppose there's a sage nearby. We must have reached the confluence of the Ga gā and the Yamunā, for we can hear the sound of water beating against water. These logs felled by forest-born servants and these different sorts of trees must mean that we've reached Bharadvāja's hermitage.'
Bow in hand, the brothers went on at an easy pace, and just [48.8–15] as the sun was setting they reached the junction of the Ga gā and Yamunā where the sage lived. The wildlife was alarmed as Rāma approached the hermitage; he went along the path and soon arrived. Now they had reached Bharadvāja's hermitage, the two heroes, accompanied by Sītā, stood at a respectful distance and waited for the sage to emerge. As soon as they saw that the distinguished sage had offered the fire-oblation, Rāma, Saumitri and Sītā greeted him with respect and reverence, and Lak ma a's older brother introduced themselves. 'Your reverence, we are Rāma and Lak ma a, sons of Daśaratha, and this is my wife Vaidehī, daughter of Janaka, beautiful, irreproachable, but following me to the austere, desolate wilderness. I have been exiled to the forest by my father, but Saumitri here, my dear younger brother, has followed me, resolute in support of me, his brother. Your reverence, we are carrying out our father's command to go into the austere wilderness, there to practise meritorious behaviour and live on roots and fruit.'
[48.16–20] At the wise prince's words, the holy sage offered him a cow* and the water of welcome, honouring Rāma's arrival as he sat surrounded by fellow-sages and wildlife, and welcoming him. Accepting his invitation, the Rāghava sat down, and Bharadvāja addressed him as was fitting. 'At long last, Kākutstha,' he said, 'I see you arrive! I have heard about your undeserved banishment. This lonely place at the confluence of the two great rivers is holy and pleasant too: your Highness could easily live here.'
[48.21–3] Rāghava Rāma, ever benevolent, made this courteous reply to Bharadvāja: 'Your reverence, townsmen and country people live near here, and they will come to stare at Vaidehī, and at me too, so I don't think it a good idea to stay here. Can you suggest a good place for a hermitage, your reverence, somewhere deserted, where Janaka's daughter Vaidehī can enjoy the comfort she deserves?'
[48.24–30] The great sage Bharadvāja replied pertinently to the Rāghava's polite request. 'Ten _krośas_ away, sir, lies a mountain attended by great seers. It is holy and altogether attractive. You could live there. Langurs range over it, and it is the haunt of monkeys and bears. It's like Gandhamādana, and it's called Citrakūṭa. Fixing his gaze on Citrakūṭa's peaks leads a man to contemplate the beautiful rather than the evil. Many a tonsured seer has spent a hundred autumns there and been raised up to heaven by the power of his austerities. I think your highness would enjoy a stay in that deserted spot; alternatively, Rāma, pass your forest-life here with me.' With such a welcome did pious Bharadvāja satisfy the desires of his beloved guests, Rāma, his brother, and his wife.
[48.31–3] Now that Rāma had reached the great seer at Prayāga, holy night descended on their lively conversation; when it lifted again, the tiger of a man approached Bharadvāja. The seer was resplendent in his radiance. 'Now that we have spent the night in your hermitage, your reverence,' said Rāma to the upright sage, 'be so good as to give us your blessing to leave.'
[48.34–5] Bharadvāja marked the passing of the night, and replied, 'Go forward to Citrakūṭa, with its abundance of honey, roots and fruit. There you will see herds of elephants, Rāghava, and herds of deer roaming in the forest close by.'
With night over, the two invincible princes saluted the great [49.1–6] seer and set off for the mountain. Seeing them go, the great sage went after them, like a father following his sons, and carried on talking to them. 'When you reach the swift Yamunā, make a raft and cross that splendid river. You will come to a great banyan with pale foliage; _siddhas_ haunt its many gloomy trunks. No more than a _krośa_ from there, Rāma, you will see a dark grove with mingled flame-trees, jujubes and Yamunā bamboos. That's the way I've often travelled to Citrakūta; it's pleasant and easy, and avoids forest fires.'
When he had shown them the way, the great seer went back, [49.6–14] leaving Rāma saying to Lak ma a, 'Saumitri, we must have done good deeds to have met with such kindness from the sage!' They talked it over, then the tigers of men prudently placed Sītā ahead of them and made their way to the Yamunā river. There they fixed logs together to make a sizeable raft, and Lak ma a cut some to make a comfortable seat for Sītā. Like Śrī herself, she surpassed all belief. She was a little nervous, so Rāma Dāśarathi helped his beloved wife aboard. On the raft they crossed the splendid, swift-flowing river, crowned with waves and lined with trees, then let it go, set off from the Yamunā forest, and found the gloomy banyan with its cool pale foliage. Sītā circumambulated that forest-lord with a respectful gesture, making a wish that she would live to see Kausalyā and the illustrious Sumitrā again, while the brothers Rāma and Lak ma a went just a _krośa_ further and killed a large amount of game fit for them to eat in the Yamunā forest.
Next day, the pride of the Raghus gently woke the sleeping [50.1–4] Lak ma a. 'Saumitri, hark what sweet songs the forest fauna are sounding! Let's set out; it's time to go, my brave brother!' Lak ma a threw off sleep the moment he was roused by his brother's words, his tiredness from the wearisome journey all gone. They all got up, touched the river's pure water and continued on the path to Citrakūṭa as the sage had directed.
It was early when Rāma set out with Saumitri, chatting to [50.5–10] the lotus-eyed Sītā as they went. 'Look, Vaidehī, all around the flame-trees are blossoming, garlanded with flowers, ablaze at the passing of winter! Look at the flowering cashews, untended by men but weighed down with fruit and foliage – no need to starve! Lak ma a, look at all the honey the bees have left hanging from tree after tree: the nests are as big as barrels! That's a moorhen's call, and a peacock answering from some delightful part of the forest, thickly carpeted with flowers! There's the lofty peak of Citrakūṭa, home to elephant herds and alive with birdsong!'
[50.11–19] On they walked with Sītā towards that mount of delight, charming Citrakūṭa, until they reached the bird-girt mountain. 'My dear brother,' said Rāma, 'I propose that we make our home here for the present, and here enjoy life. Lak ma a, old fellow, find some good sturdy logs and let's build a shelter; I like the idea of living here.' Saumitri did as he was asked: the man who could conquer enemies sorted out timber and built a leaf-hut. Then that obedient, resolute man was asked to go and get some blackbuck meat for a sacrifice to inaugurate their hut. Lak ma a, Sumitrā's mighty son, killed a suitable blackbuck for the offering, then placed it over a sacrificial fire he had kindled. When he saw it was cooked right through and the juices sealed, Lak ma a said to the Rāghava, that tiger of a man, 'The buck and all its legs are well done, so you can sacrifice to the gods now. You know how, my godlike brother.' Rāma bathed, then carefully applied his skills and experience in chanting and completed the offering to ward off evil.
[51.1–6] Guha had stayed talking with Sumantra for a long time, plunged in grief; when Rāma reached the southern bank, he went back to his own home. Sumantra obeyed orders to return; he harnessed the fine horses and set out in the depths of despair for the city of Ayodhyā. Fragrant forests, streams and lakes passed beneath his gaze as he hurried on to villages and towns, then, on the evening of the third day the charioteer saw he had reached a joyless Ayodhyā. The sight of it, so silent and empty-looking, overwhelmed Sumantra with despair; grief flooded over him, and he mused, 'The city and all its elephants, horses, people and officials must have been burnt up by the fire of their grief and sorrow at this calamity to Rāma.'
Engrossed in these thoughts, Sumantra drove quickly [51.6–13] through the city as men rushed up in their hundreds and thousands, asking the charioteer where Rāma was. 'The righteous, noble Rāghava instructed me to return,' he informed them, 'so I have come back and they have crossed the Ga gā.' At this news the people's faces were contorted with sobbing; they sighed, they moaned, they cried out for Rāma. He could hear crowd after crowd standing there lamenting, 'We shall perish if we can't see the Rāghava! Never again shall we see Rāma the righteous at presentations, at sacrifices, at weddings, at great ceremonies. Rāma protected the town like a father, devising what was best for us, the people, what would please us, what would do us good.' The whole length of the inner market, he could hear the women, distraught with grief for Rāma, wailing at their windows.
Down the middle of the king's highway Sumantra drove on, [51.14–20] averting his eyes, until he reached King Daśaratha's quarters; there he jumped down and entered the royal palace, passing through seven courtyards thronged with dignitaries. On all sides he could hear the soft voices of Daśaratha's womenfolk, distraught with grief for Rāma: 'The charioteer left with Rāma but has come back without him; whatever will he say to Kausalyā in her sorrow?' they wondered. ' "What can't be cured must be endured" maybe, but it'll be hard for Kausalyā to carry on living with her son gone.' He recognized the truth of what the king's women were saying, and walked quickly through the palace that seemed to be aflame with sorrow until he reached the eighth courtyard and saw a light-coloured building. Here sat the king, wretched, suffering and miserable in his sorrow for his son.
Sumantra went up to the Lord of Men, saluted and delivered [51.21–9] the message Rāma had entrusted to him. The king listened in silence, his mind in a whirl, then fell swooning to the ground, weighed down with sorrow for Rāma. As the Lord of the Earth swooned – as the king fell to the ground – the private apartment was rent with women's shrieks and gesticulations; but Kausalyā, helped by Sumitrā, lifted her fallen lord to his feet. 'Noble sir,' she said, 'this is a messenger come back from the forest, sent by the man who has performed such a difficult feat. Why won't you speak to him? What's the use of being ashamed, Rāghava, now you've done that foul deed? Pull yourself together and act as you should; don't make a bad situation worse. My lord, Kaikeyīs not here, if it's fear of her that's stopping you questioning the charioteer. We can talk to him with confidence.' So much said Kausalyā to the Mahārāja before her words were drowned by tears and she collapsed to the floor, while all the women burst into tears at the sight of their lord, and of Kausalyā weeping so on the ground.
()52.1–9 ()When the king had regained consciousness and recovered from his faint, he called for his old charioteer to give him news of Rāma. The man was greatly distressed – distressed as a newly captured elephant, sighing and brooding like an ill-at-ease tusker; his limbs were smeared with dust, his face was filled with tears, and he was completely and utterly wretched. 'Wherever will the virtuous Rāma live? He can't camp among tree-roots!' wailed the king to his charioteer. 'The Rāghava is used to nothing but the best: what is he going to eat, charioteer? He's the son of a Lord of the Earth: how can he lie on the earth as if it were lordless? Foot soldiers and chariots and elephants used to follow Rāma about: how will he live with the unpeopled forest for his refuge, roamed as it is by wild animals and haunted by black snakes? How did the princes and Vaidehī react to the forest? Sumantra, how did the princes get along on foot with poor delicate Sītā, once they'd got down from the chariot? Oh yes, charioteer, you've done your job; you've watched my sons go into the edge of the forest, like the Aśvins going up the Mandara mountain. What did Rāma say, Sumantra, what did Lak ma a say, and Maithilī, as they reached the forest? Tell me, charioteer, what was his seat, what was his bed, what was the food of Rāma?'
[52.10–17] The charioteer's voice was jerking and constricted by sobs as he answered his sovereign's entreaties. 'Bent on doing what's right, Mahārāja, the Rāghava saluted and bowed, then gave me messages to convey in his name. I was to prostrate myself with due respect before his learned and noble father. I was to enquire after the health of the whole inner apartment, without distinction, and greet them in due order. I was to enquire after his mother Kausalyā's health, reminding her that as Queen, she should care for the King with the respect due to a god. I was to ask after Bharata's health, remind him to behave in a proper manner to all their mothers, and tell the broad-shouldered pride of the Ik vāku family, "When you are appointed Young King, remain subordinate to our father as long as he is still the king." As illustrious Rāma was giving me these instructions, Mahārāja, tears streamed down from his copper-coloured, lotus-like eyes.
'Lak ma a, though, with an angry sigh, wanted to know [52.18–22] what offence could justify the exile of such a prince as Rāma. Whatever the reason he had been banished, whether it was to satisfy someone's greed, or whether it was a boon for someone, it was wrong; but he could see no sense in getting rid of Rāma. In any case, such an abominable act of folly as exiling the Rāghava would raise an outcry. For his part, he could no longer consider the Mahārāja as his father; the Rāghava would be brother, lord, kinsman and father to him. How could anyone in the whole wide world stay loyal to you after this, after you've got rid of the man who is loved by the whole world for the love he shows to the whole world?
'Poor Jānakī, Mahārāja, stood stock still and abstracted, [52.23–5] sighing like one possessed. That glorious princess has never before met misfortune; she wept at their sorrow, but spoke no word to me. Her mouth dried up as she gazed at her husband, then, as she watched me leave, she uttered a sudden sob.
'As Rāma set out for the forest I turned to come back, but [53.1–13] even the horses shed hot tears and refused to start. Weighed down with sadness, I saluted both princes and mounted the chariot to set out, but stayed there with Guha for many days, hoping that Rāma would send for me again. The very trees in your kingdom, Mahārāja, have been weakened by Rāma's misfortune: trees, flowers, shoots and buds are all withered. Nothing crawls about, no wild animals roam; the forest has been stilled, overcome by sorrow for Rāma. In the lotus ponds, my sovereign, the petals have all closed up, the water has been defiled, the lotuses scorched and the birds and fish have hidden. Flowers born of water, garlands born of dry land, fruits too, all shine no more and have lost their fragrance. As I entered Ayodhyā no one greeted me, only sighed and sighed at not seeing Rāma. Women looked out from mansions, buildings and palaces to see the chariot return, and shrieked, laid low by not seeing Rāma; they gazed at each other in obvious great distress, their wide spotless eyes drowned by a torrent of tears. Rivals, friends and neutrals: I couldn't distinguish between them in their distress. Mahārāja, with its melancholy people and its woebegone elephants and horses, the city wasting away with lamentations and echoing with sighs, joyless and mourning over Rāma's banishment, I see Ayodhyā as the very image of Kausalyā bereft of her son.'
[53.14–24] The king responded to his charioteer's words in a voice that was doleful and shaken by sobs. 'It was Kaikeyī who coerced me into acting without the advice of shrewd and experienced counsellors: she was born in evil! she is evil through and through! I consulted no friends, no ministers, no merchants even! I was mad to act so impulsively to please a woman. But perhaps it was Fate that has dealt us this great blow, charioteer, to bring unforeseen destruction on this lineage. Charioteer, if ever I have been good to you, bring Rāma back quickly to me; my life is hastening away. If a word from me would only make the Rāghava turn back! Without Rāma I shan't be able to carry on living a moment longer. Oh, but my broad-shouldered boy must be a long way off by now: quick, drive me in the chariot to see Rāma. Where is that great bowman with the sweet smile, Lak ma a's older brother? Pray let me live to see him and Sītā. If I can't see Rāma with his copper-coloured eyes, his broad shoulders and his jewelled earrings I shall go to the land of the dead. What worse state could I have reached than not seeing beside me the pride of the Ik vāku lineage, the Rāghava? Oh Rāma! Oh Lak ma a! Oh, poor Vaidehī! You don't know that I'm dying of sorrow, a cast-off. Lady, this sea of sorrow is a hard one for me to come through alive.'
[54.1–3] Kausalyā kept writhing about on the floor as if a spirit possessed her, and said feebly to the charioteer, 'Take me to where Kākutstha and Sītā are, and Lak ma a too, for my life's not worth living here for a moment without them. Turn the chariot round quickly, and take me to the Da akas as well; then I can follow them, or else go to the land of the dead.'
The charioteer, his voice halting and thick with tears, respectfully [54.4–18] comforted the queen. 'Forget your grief and worry,' he said, 'and the sorrow that's harassing you. The Rāghava will shed his distress and survive life in the forest. Dutiful Lak ma a is following Rāma's footsteps through the forest, with a self-denial worthy of the realms above. Sītā too will feel at home in the deserted forest when she has found somewhere to live; she relies on Rāma, and is not afraid, but puts her trust in him. I didn't notice that Vaidehī was at all depressed, not even a little: she gave me the impression of being used to life in exile. She is enjoying the deserted forests just as she once used to enjoy going to the city parklands. Her face radiant as the young moon, Sītā is like a young girl, enjoying living in the deserted forest; her mind is free from melancholy as she exults in Rāma; her heart is his alone, on him her life depends; Ayodhyā itself would be a wilderness to her without Rāma. Vaidehī wants to know about the villages and towns she's seen along the way; she asks about the course of the rivers and about the different kinds of trees. Vaidehī's moonlike radiance is undimmed by the road, by the rushing wind, by turmoil, by heat. Generous Vaidehī's face, radiant as the full moon, lovely as the lotus, remains undisturbed. She has no lac juice to paint her feet, yet they still look the colour of lac, beautiful as the lotus calyx. Her affection has made her lay aside her ornaments, yet lovely Vaidehī walks along as gracefully as if she were sporting tinkling anklets. She takes no fright at the sight of elephant, lion or tiger in her forest refuge, but takes her refuge in Rāma's arms. No need to grieve for them, nor for yourself, nor even for the king: the fame of this deed will endure in the world for ever.'
With Rāma, darling of all, gone to the forest to maintain his [55.1–19] integrity, Kausalyā was heartbroken and sobbed out to her husband, 'Your great fame may be spread throughout the three worlds, but the Rāghava is compassionate, generous and courteous. Your majesty, these two sons and Sītā have been brought up to pleasure; now that they're in pain, how will they endure that pain? Certainly, Maithilī is a dainty and beautiful young girl, used to comfort: how will she bear the heat and cold? Almond-eyed Sītā has lived on rich food with tasty sauces: how can she eat a forest diet of wild rice? That irreproachable woman has known only pleasant sounds, singing and music playing: how will she react to the hideous noise of lions tearing at flesh? Where does the mighty, broad-shouldered hero lie down, his burly arm for a pillow? It must be like the lowering of great Indra's standard! When shall I see again Rāma's beautiful face and lovely hair – his face coloured like the lotus, scented like the lotus, altogether like the lotus? My heart must be hard as a diamond, it must be, not to have burst into a thousand pieces at not being able to see him any more. If the Rāghava does come back in fifteen years, he'll have to renounce kingship and treasury: Bharata will be in possession. When a younger brother has been enjoying a kingdom, my lord king, won't the eldest and best of the brothers be sure to spurn it? No tiger will eat another tiger's prey, and this tiger of a man won't dream of touching what someone else has tasted. Sacrificial objects – oblation, _ghī_ , rice-cakes, _kuśa_ grass, _khadira_ -wood stakes – can never be used a second time. Rāma would be too proud to accept a kingdom that was a leftover, like wine that had lost its flavour, or a sacrifice when the _soma_ was gone. The Rāghava will no more put up with such an affront than a powerful tiger will allow anything to tweak its tail. That's what he's like, this bull of a man with the eyes of a bull and the strength of a lion: and it's his own father that's destroyed him, like a fish swallowing its young! The teachings of the eternal _śāstras_ show the Twice-Born their duty: if only you had observed them instead of exiling your dutiful son! A woman's first refuge should be her husband, your majesty; the second her son, the third her kinsmen, and no fourth exists. But you're no refuge for me; Rāma's gone to the forest – I can't follow him there. You've destroyed me utterly.'
[56.1–6] Sadly the king brooded over the harsh words of Rāma's angry, sorrowing mother; the mighty Lord of the Earth was rendered impotent by Kausalyā's grief on top of his own grief for Rāma. Burning with the double grief he replied: 'Kausalyā, most humbly I beg your forgiveness. You are always tender; even to strangers you are never unloving. A husband, deserving or not, is the god on earth of women who know what's right. You are a queen, you always do what's right, you are an example to the whole world. Even in your sorrow you ought not to say such hurtful things to me when I have been so badly hurt.'
At the desolate king's doleful words, Kausalyā's tears poured [56.7–15] out like rain gushing from a spout. In a gesture of respect to the king she clasped her hands above her head like a lotus, weeping, fearful and agitated, and blurted out her reply: 'Forgive me, I beg you, fallen to the ground with my head at your feet. Your majesty, your plea is hurtful to me, and you shouldn't be the one to do me any harm. In this world and the next, no woman is a proper wife if she has a praiseworthy, wise husband who has to plead with her. You're right, I know you are: I do know what's right; it was being so tormented by sorrow for my son that made me speak so. Sorrow does away with fortitude, sorrow does away with learning, sorrow does away with everything; there's no enemy to equal sorrow. A blow from an enemy's hand can be endured better even than a very slight sorrow. Today it's now the fifth night of Rāma's life in the forest, and sorrow has so done away with my joy that it might as well be five years. For thinking about him just adds to the sorrow in my heart, like the rushing rivers swell the ocean's great waters.'
While Kausalyā was speaking these soothing words, the sun's [56.16–17] rays lost their power and night approached. Then the king, overwhelmed as he was by sorrow, drew comfort from Queen Kausalyā's words and succumbed to sleep.
When night was over, early next day the heralds arrived at [59.1–13] the king's quarters and his staff, mostly women and eunuchs who were experienced at waiting on him in the correct fashion, approached as usual. At the set hour, according to rule, those trained in the art of bathing him brought golden pitchers of water scented with yellow sandal. Other women, mainly girls, brought him auspicious objects, food and utensils. Then the women of the Lord of Kosala's bedchamber assembled to rouse their master; trembling and seized by apprehension for the king's life, they were already quivering like grass-tips in the breeze when the trembling women saw the king and knew for certain that the calamity they suspected had indeed occurred. Then the shapely women raised a loud cry of distress, like she-elephants in the forest when their leader has been ousted from his place. The noise of their shrieking roused Kausalyā and Sumitrā to sudden wakefulness. They looked at the king and touched him, then Kausalyā and Sumitrā both screamed 'Oh! my lord!' and collapsed on to the ground. The Kosala princess writhed about on the floor, smearing herself with dust, her brightness dimmed like a star fallen from the firmament. Fright and confusion, an agitated throng, everywhere a tumult of wailing, kinsmen in an agony of anguish, all joy suddenly blotted out; the palace of the Lord of Men presented the very image of gloom and distraction now that he had reached the end of his allotted span.
[60.1–11] Heaven-bound, the king looked like a fire that had gone out, like the sea emptied of water, like the sun robbed of its radiance as Kausalyā gazed at him, her eyes full of tears and haggard under her twofold sorrow. As she cradled the king's head, she declared to Kaikeyī: 'You can be satisfied now, Kaikeyī, and enjoy the kingdom unhindered. You malicious mischief-maker, to throw over the king in pursuit of your one aim! With Rāma gone and my husband now in heaven, I'm left with no will to live. It's just as if I'd been dumped on the wrong road by a caravan. Does the woman exist who would want to live after she'd thrown over her husband, her own deity? Who but Kaikeyī, who has abandoned all morals? A glutton will go for anything and not bother about the consequences – he'll lust after a thistle. Kaikeyī has destroyed the Rāghava dynasty at the prompting of a hunchback. Janaka will be as distressed as I am when he hears that Rāma and his wife have been exiled by the king's perverse decree. My handsome Rāma has gone away in danger of his life, and poor Sītā isn't used to hardship; she'll shrink from the hardships of the forest, will the princess of Videha. When she hears the fearful calls of the wildlife at night she'll be bound to cling to the Rāghava in terror. The thought of Vaidehī will overwhelm the old man: his children are few, and this sorrow will kill him.' At this piteous lament the waiting-women folded her in their arms and led away the brokenhearted Kausalyā.
The ministers appointed to act as regents placed the Lord of [60.12–17] the World in a vat of sesame oil and took over the royal duties: in their judgement it was not right to perform the king's cremation in the absence of a son. They stood guard over the Lord of the Earth, and the women set about bewailing his death when they heard what the Lord of Men's attendants had done. They flung their arms pitiably in the air; tears flooded from their eyes and streamed down their faces; sorrow lacerated them, they mourned the stricken king. Ayodhyā was like a night stripped of stars, a wife bereft of her husband; without its noble king, the destitute city lost its lustre. With its people choked by sobbing, its womenfolk wailing, its squares and courtyards deserted, it lost all radiance.
Night passed, the sun rose, and the regents and Twice-Born [61.1–3(); ()62.1–3] gathered and went to the assembly-hall where Twice-Born and ministers each made a speech before Vasistha, the excellent royal chaplain. Vasistha considered the suggestions put forward by the assembled allies, ministers and brāhmans, and gave his reply. 'Bharata is blithely staying with his brother Satrughna in Rājag ha, his uncle's family seat. Swift messengers must go at once with fast horses to fetch those heroic brothers. What are we waiting for?'
Hearing that all agreed with him that messengers should be [62.4–9] sent, Vasi ṭha directed: 'Siddhārtha, Vijaya, Jayanta, Aśoka, Nandana: kindly approach, all of you, and listen while I tell you what you must do. I command you to ride quickly to Rājag ha city on fast horses and give Bharata this message from me: "The chaplain and all the counsellors present their compliments and ask you to return in haste; your presence is required on urgent business." But you must conceal your grief when you get there, your Honours, and not tell him about this calamity that has befallen the Rāghavas, Rāma's expulsion and his father's death. Hurry and collect silk garments and fine ornaments to take for the king and Bharata, then set off.'
[62.9–14] Vasi ṭha dismissed the envoys, and they set off in haste, crossed the Ga gā at Hastinapura and travelled west, reaching the Pañcāla region by way of the Kuru jungle. At speed they crossed the clear waters of the divine Śarada ā river, teeming with people and all sorts of birds, then reached the divine wishing-tree called Nikūla, which they saluted before reaching the city of Kuli gā. After that they arrived at Abhikāla by way of Tejobhibhavana, then went through the central Bāhlīkas and past mount Sudāman, catching sight of Vi u's Footstep and the rivers Vipāśā and Śālmalī. The envoys made rapid and direct progress, and reached the excellent city Rājag ha with their mounts exhausted by the lengthy journey.
[63.1–7] The very night when the envoys were entering the city, Bharata had an unpleasant dream. It came just as night was turning to dawn, and was so unpleasant that it left the emperor's son feeling extremely distressed. His genial companions noticed his distress and tried to raise his spirits by telling stories in the assembly-hall, some playing soothing music while others danced or performed all kinds of dramas and comedies. Bharata the noble Rāghava did not cheer up at the jokes his genial companions were cracking in the assembly, so one of his group of companions, a particular friend, asked Bharata why he was not enjoying himself in the company of his friends, and Bharata told him the reason.
[63.7–17] 'I'll tell you why I'm so upset. I saw my father in a dream. He was dirty, his hair was wild, and he was falling off a mountain-peak into a pond of filthy cowdung. I saw him swimming in that cowdung pond, drinking sesame oil from his cupped hands; he seemed to be laughing again and again. Then he ate some rice and sesame, and time after time he would bow his head and plunge into the sesame oil until it was smeared all over his limbs. I also dreamed that I saw the ocean dried up, the moon fallen to earth, a blazing fire suddenly go out. The earth split open and all the trees withered. Even the mountains collapsed in smoke. Then he was dressed all in black, slumped on an iron throne, with swarthy women jeering at him. And then the worthy man was rushing off to the south, red garlands and unguents about him, in a chariot drawn by donkeys. That's the sight that terrified me during the night: I or Rāma or the king or Lak ma a is going to die. When a dream shows a man being carried off in a vehicle drawn by donkeys, smoke will soon be seen rising from his funeral pyre. That's why I'm gloomy and can't return your courtesy. My throat feels parched, my mind feels unhinged, and I hate reacting like this; I don't know what's wrong.'
While Bharata was telling his dream, the envoys were crossing [64.1–4] the impassable moat on their tired mounts and entering the pleasant city of Rājag ha. They were received courteously by the king and prince, and bowed to the king's feet, then delivered their message to Bharata: 'The chaplain and all the counsellors present their compliments and ask you to return in haste; your presence is required on urgent business. Here is a gift for the king worth twenty crores, your highness, and another worth fully ten crores for your uncle.'
Bharata accepted it all, returned the envoys' courtesies and [64.5–9] attended to their wants, then in his concern for his family he asked them, 'Is my father, King Daśaratha, in good health? and is Rāma well, and noble Lak ma a? Wise Rāma's mother, noble Kausalyā, dutiful, virtuous and judicious – is she well? What about our middle mother, virtuous Sumitrā, birth mother of Lak ma a and heroic Śatrughna – is she well? My mother too, Kaikeyī, always selfish and quick-tempered, angry and self-opinionated – is she well?'
The envoys' reply to noble Bharata's words was prudent: [64.10–13] 'Those for whose welfare you wish are well, you tiger of a man.' At this assurance Bharata told the envoys he would seek the Mahārāja's permission to leave at their urgent request; then the prince turned to his grandfather Aśvapati to pass on the envoys' urgent message. 'Your majesty,' he said, 'the envoys are urging me to return to be with my father, but I'll come back here whenever you like.'
The king his grandfather graciously replied to Bharata's [64.14–16] words by kissing the Rāghava's head. 'Go, my dear boy, with my leave. Kaikeyī is blessed with a good son in you. Please give my best wishes to your mother, my hero, and to your father, my good wishes, too, to the chaplain and the other leading Twice-Born, and to those great bowmen, your brothers Rāma and Lak ma a.'
[64.17–23] After these courtesies, the Kaikeya gave wealth to Bharata: excellent elephants, patterned blankets and hides, two thousand gold ornaments and sixteen hundred horses was the wealth bestowed by Kekaya in honour of Kaikeyī's son; in addition, Aśvapati hurriedly appointed reliable ministers of proven ability to act as Bharata's travelling-companions. His uncle Yudhājit gave him valuable presents: choice elephants from the Irāvata and Indraśiras mountains, and fast donkeys with fine bridles, and presented him with some huge sabre-toothed hounds, bred in the palace, strong and bold as tigers. Bharata took leave of his grandfather and uncle, mounted his chariot and set off, followed by servants whirling along in over a hundred chariots drawn by camels, oxen, horses and donkeys, with Śatrughna at his side.
[ _On his return to Ayodhyā, Kaikeyī immediately tells Bharata of Rāma's banishment and Daśaratha's death. He is shocked and angrily rejects the throne_.]
[70.1–5] Kaikeyī's son Bharata was tortured by his sorrow, but the sage Vasi ṭha, that most eloquent orator, begged the illustrious prince to rise above his grief and perform the overdue rites to send the king on his final journey. Vasistha's words restored Bharata's composure and recalled him to his duty. He ordered all the funeral rituals to be performed, but when Daśaratha was lifted from the sesame oil, his face yellowed by the immersion, and his brokenhearted son saw the Lord of the Earth laid on the earth as if asleep, he laid him on a jewel-encrusted couch and wept over him.
[70.6–9] 'Why did you take this decision while I was away, your majesty? Why did you banish virtuous Rāma and mighty Lak ma a before I could return? What will become of you, Mahārāja, now you have forsaken a people already grieving over the loss of that lion of a man, Rāma, their tireless champion? And who is going to safeguard the wellbeing of this city of yours, my dear father, now you have gone to heaven and Rāma has taken refuge in the forest? Losing you, glorious king, the widowed Earth has lost her Lord and her glory; the city is like the night sky without the moon.'
The great sage Vasistha again addressed mighty Bharata [70.10–22] as he lamented, dejected in spirit, asking to have the funeral rituals for the Lord of the People duly completed without delay. Bharata thanked Vasistha for his words and agreed, urging on the whole company of priests, chaplains and teachers. Then the sovereign's sacred fires were formally brought from the fire-hall and taken by the priests and officiants. The lifeless king was lifted onto a bier borne by sobbing, distraught attendants, while people scattered gold, silver and all kinds of garments along the road in front of their lord, and others brought sandalwood, aloe, resin, pine-, cherry- and cedarwood to build a pyre. Next the sacrificial priests applied a variety of perfumes, and then had their monarch placed on the centre of the pyre, offered libations to the fire and muttered the formulae over him while _sāman_ singers sang the hymns prescribed by the treatises. When his wives arrived from the city in order of precedence, borne on litters and vehicles, and escorted by elders, the sacrificial priests solemnly walked in the inauspicious direction* around the king as he lay on the fire, followed by the agonized wives, Kausalyā at their head. Then arose from the women a clamour that might have come from a flock of cranes, so pitiably did they wail a thousand times in their torment; weeping and hysterical, lamenting over and over again, the ladies alighted from their vehicles on the bank of the Sarayū.
When the ten days of ritual impurity had passed, the prince [71.1–3] purified himself, and on the twelfth day he had the memorial rites performed. He gave jewels, wealth and abundant food to brāhmans, with numbers of spotless goats and hundreds of cows; slave men and women, vehicles and mansions were conferred on brāhmans in memory of the king by his son.
At dawn on the thirteenth day, the mighty Bharata was mad [71.4–9] with sorrow and could not get his words out for crying. He went to the cremation ground to purify himself, then stood at the foot of his father's pyre and indulged his grief: 'Dear father, you entrusted me to my brother Rāghava, but by exiling him to the forest you have abandoned me to the void. Father, you have abandoned Kausalyā. Now she has no lord, her support should be her son, the son exiled to the forest. Sire, where are you?' Gazing at the ashy circle of burnt bones, all that was left of his father's body, he groaned and crumpled, sinking to the ground at the dismal sight, like Sakra's standard toppling over as it is being erected.
[71.10–20] The ministers all rushed to the true-hearted Bharata, like the sages rushing to Yayāti fallen when his time had expired. Seeing Bharata overwhelmed by sorrow, and remembering the Lord of the Earth, Śatrughna too fell senseless to the earth. Beside himself like a madman, he mourned in anguish as one by one he called to mind his father's good deeds. 'How irresistible, how overwhelming, is the surging sea of our sorrow! It's Mantharā that's to blame for getting that boon for that crocodile of a Kaikeyī!' he ranted. 'Bharata's young and delicate, and you've always indulged him, yet you've left him to mourn! Father, my honoured father, where are you now? It's you that provide us all with our food and drink, our clothes and ornaments – who will do that for us now? If the earth doesn't dissolve when you, its noble, virtuous king, are wrenched away, the Dissolution won't dissolve it! My life's not worth living with my father gone to heaven and Rāma taking refuge in the wilderness! I'll immolate myself in the flames. Ayodhyā, ward of the Iksvākus, will be desolate for me without my father and my brother. I won't go back. I'll go off and be a forest ascetic.' Hearing them both lamenting and witnessing their grief distressed all the attendants even more, as Śatrughna and Bharata writhed about on the ground, cast down and wearied, like a pair of bulls with broken horns.
()71.21–5 ()Their father's chaplain, the learned Vasi ṭha, remained composed; lifting Bharata up, he declared, 'All creatures are subject to three pairs of opposing states: they cannot be avoided, so it does not befit you to behave in this manner.' Sumantra helped Satrughna up and comforted him, reminding him of the truth that all who are born must die. Once more erect, like Indra's standard braving rain and sun, the two tigers of men each radiated glory as, with mournful words, they wiped the tears from their reddened eyes, prompted by the ministers to complete the filial rituals.
When they were ready to return, Satrughna, younger brother [72.1–4] to Lak ma a, talked things over with the anguished Bharata. 'Rāma can shelter any creature in distress, let alone himself. He's a man of integrity, yet he's been exiled to the forest by a woman. And then there's our Lak ma a: he's strong and enterprising. If only he'd acted to restrain our father, Rāma would be a free man now. He should have worked out a sensible way of restraining the king earlier on, when he saw him going astray and coming under the influence of a woman.'
So said Śatrughna, Lak ma a's younger brother. At that [72.5–8] moment, out of the front gate appeared the hunchback, adorned all over with ornaments, anointed with essence of sandalwood and dressed like a queen, all trussed up with fancy girdles and belts like a monkey on a string. A gatekeeper noticed the cause of so much trouble and seized the hunchback mercilessly, identifying her to Satrughna. 'That's the woman, the evil, malicious woman that got Rāma sent to the forest and drove your father to death. Do what you think fit with her!'
Steadfast Satrughna was horrified to hear these words. 'She's [72.9–19] the one who has devastated all my brothers, and my father as well,' he told all her companions from the inner apartment. 'Let her taste the fruit of her evil deed!' With these words he laid violent hands on the hunchback in the midst of her companions. The palace rang with her screams, and the whole crowd of companions fled in all directions in terror of Satrughna's anger. 'The way he's going, he'll absolutely destroy us all,' all her companions agreed. 'Let's go to Kausalyā for refuge. She's kind, generous, virtuous and distinguished; we're sure to be safe with her.' Pugnacious Satrughna, eyes ablaze, then dragged the screaming hunchback Mantharā hither and thither along the ground, scattering her fancy gear over the floor, till the splendid palace was brighter even than before, bespangled with her jewels like the autumn sky. With her still in his clutches, the brawny bull of a man then angrily berated Kaikeyī with harsh words, until she fled to her son for protection, so terrified was she of Śatrughna, and so wounded by his painful words.
[72.20–24] Bharata took notice. 'The weaker sex, above all creatures, should not be killed,' he told the angry Śatrughna. 'Be patient. I would kill this evil, base Kaikeyī myself if it weren't that law-abiding Rāma would condemn me for matricide. If the Rāghava learned that even this hunchback had been killed, that virtuous man would certainly never speak to either of us again.' Lak ma a's younger brother Śatrughna listened to Bharata and forsook his anger; he let Mantharā go, and she fell groaning in anguish at Kaikeyī's feet, weeping pitifully.
[73.1–5] As the fourteenth day dawned, the regents gathered and addressed Bharata. 'Our revered leader Daśaratha has gone to heaven. His eldest son Rāma has been exiled; so has the mighty Lak ma a. Today you, most glorious prince, should become our king; if we are left without a leader, only luck will prevent the kingdom going to rack and ruin. Preparations for your consecration are complete, Rāghava prince, and your people and the leading businessmen all await you. Deign to become king, Bharata, of the great realm of your fathers, and have yourself consecrated our guardian, you bull of a man.'
[73.6–13] Bharata did reverent honour to all the consecration equipment, but his reply to all the people was steadfast: 'Your Honours ought not to be addressing me in this way, for you know that the custom of our dynasty is for kingship to devolve upon the eldest son. Rāma is the firstborn; my brother will become Lord of the Earth, and it is I who shall live in the forest for nine years plus five. Marshal our great and mighty regular army for me to go and bring my eldest brother the Rāghava back from the forest. As for all this consecration equipment you have gathered together, I shall put it at the head of the procession as I go to find Rāma in the forest. There and then I will consecrate that tiger of a man and place him at the head of a procession to bring him back, like a sacrificial fire brought back from the sacrifice. I will not give my mother what she wants, this woman who doesn't come within sniffing distance of a true mother! I will be the one to live in the impenetrable forest, and it's Rāma who'll be the king. Send workmen to clear a road and even it out, and appoint guards to scout out the way.'
Hearing the prince speak in favour of Rāma, all the people [73.14–15] answered with unparalleled joy, 'May lotus-decked Śrī attend you for being willing to yield the earth to the king's firstborn.'
'If I can't get the prince to come back from the forest, then I [76.17–20] too will live there in the forest like noble Lak ma a, but I really will use every means in my power, in front of all you good, honourable gentlemen, to make him come back,' continued honest Bharata in his devotion to his brother. He then instructed shrewd Sumantra, who was standing nearby, 'Off you go quickly, Sumantra; issue my command for the rapid organization of my expedition, and muster an ample force.'
At noble Bharata's command, Sumantra joyfully and gladly [76.21–6] ordered all that he had been instructed. Subjects and army commanders alike were delighted at the news of an expedition to bring back the Rāghava. Then in house after house the soldiers' wives were all delighted to hear of the expedition's departure and hurried their husbands on. Generals chivvied the entire force: horses, speedy ox-carts, swift chariots and infantry. In the midst of his counsellors, Bharata saw that the force was ready, turned to Sumantra, and asked for his chariot to be brought at once. Delighted to receive Bharata's command, he took charge of the chariot with its team of choice horses, and came forward.
Bharata promptly stood up, jumped into the splendid chariot [77.1–7] and set off at once in his eagerness to see Rāma. In front rode all the counsellors and chaplains, their horse-drawn carriages rivalling the Sun's chariot, and nine thousand elephants, properly caparisoned, followed Bharata, pride of the Iksvāku dynasty, as he set out. Sixty thousand chariots and archers with varied weapons followed the illustrious prince Bharata as he set out. Cavalry numbering one hundred thousand followed the illustrious Rāghava prince Bharata as he set out. Kaikeyī, Sumitrā and illustrious Kausalyā travelled in a splendid equipage, all delighted to be going to bring back Rāma, and groups of noblemen reminisced about Rāma and Lak ma a, delighted to be setting out to see them.
[77.8–18] 'When shall we see Rāma, cloud-dark, broad-shouldered, undeviating and steadfast, dispeller of all the world's sorrows? The mere sight of the Rāghava will scatter our sorrows, like the shades of night driven from our world by the rising sun.' Such was the optimism of the delighted citizens as they set out, chattering and hugging each other. All the rest of the people, prominent citizens and businessmen, the whole populace, were delighted to be going for Rāma. Respected, learned brāhmans in ox-carts flocked in their thousands to follow Bharata on his journey. All were well dressed, all wore clean clothes, all were burnished with unguent, as their vehicles all trailed off after Bharata, a joyful and delighted host following Kaikeyī's son.
[77.18–22] The host of Bharata's followers stopped, and Bharata saw that they had reached the purifying waters of the Ga gā. 'Have my army encamp anywhere it sees fit,' he shrewdly instructed all his ministers. 'First thing tomorrow, when we have rested, we shall cross over this mighty river. Meanwhile, I wish to perform the water-offering in memory of the departed Lord of the Earth.' The assembled ministers assented to his words and directed each individual to select his own place to camp.
[78.1–9] The king of the Nisādas observed their banners as they encamped alongside the river Ga gā. 'A huge force has appeared here,' he hastily told his kinsmen. 'It's as big as the sea! I've racked my brains, but I can't think what it's doing here. There's a chariot sporting a stout standard with a _kovidāra_ on it. Is it here to capture us river folk? Is it here to kill us? It must be Kaikeyī's son Bharata, here to kill Daśaratha's son Rāma, that his father exiled from the kingdom. But Rāma son of Daśaratha's my master as well as my friend; for his sake arm yourselves and take up position on the bank of the Ga gā. All the river folk that forage for meat, roots and fruit must be recruited to take up position along the Ga gā and guard the river. And deploy five hundred boats, each garrisoned with a hundred armed young fishermen,' he ordered rapidly. 'But if I can be sure that Bharata will be well disposed to Rāma, this fortunate army shall cross the Ga gā today.' With these words Guha, overlord of the Ni ādas, took some fish, meat and wine and went to meet Bharata.
The foremost hereditary charioteer observed his approach, [78.10–13] and informed Bharata with deferential courtesy: 'Here, with a thousand kinsmen about him, is a chief who is wise in the ways of Da aka Forest, and an old friend of your brother. So, Kākutstha, admit to your presence Guha, overlord of the Ni ādas; he's bound to know where Rāma and Lak ma a are.' Bharata's reply to Sumantra's welcome speech was, 'Admit Guha at once!'
Guha was delighted to be called forward with his kinsmen. [78.14–17] Approaching Bharata, he invited him to treat the place as his own pleasure-garden. 'You have taken us by surprise,' he explained, 'but we fishermen all welcome you to our family: live here as one of us. We Nisādas have brought you roots and fruit we have gathered, and fresh and dried meat, and all sorts of forest food. Your army will feed well, I trust, and spend the hours of darkness here; we shall be honoured to supply whatever they desire so that tomorrow you and your army may go on your way.'
Bharata listened, and shrewdly made the Nisāda overlord [79.1–4] Guha a politic, reasoned reply: 'My friend, I am sure you must have satisfied my elder brother's deepest desire by paying such willing honour to an army like mine.' Then glorious, triumphant Bharata went on to ask Guha, the overlord of the Nisādas, 'Which of these paths would I do best to take for Bharadvāja's hermitage, Guha? This area is dense, and the Ga gā bank is impassable.'
At the prince's sensible enquiry, Guha saluted respectfully. [79.5–7] 'River folk shall go with you,' said that denizen of dense forests. 'They will be alert and armed with bows, your Royal Highness, and I shall accompany you in person. I do hope you aren't going with ideas of harming ever-zealous Rāma; the size of your army almost arouses my suspicions.'
Bharata, spotless as the clear blue sky, replied gently to [79.8–10] Guha: 'May such an evil day never come! You've no need to suspect me, for the Rāghava's my eldest brother, and like a father to me. I'm going to fetch Kākutstha back from his life in the forest. You mustn't think any different, Guha; it's the truth I'm telling you.'
[79.11–13] His face lit up at hearing Bharata's brave words, and he replied in delight: 'What a fortune is yours! There's no one to equal you in the whole world, no one who would willingly give up a kingdom that had fallen into his lap. Your fame is certain to circulate for evermore throughout all the worlds for wanting to rescue Rāma from his wretched state.'
[79.14–20] As Guha and Bharata were talking, daylight faded and night came on. The prince saw to it that the army camped for the night after enjoying Guha's hospitality, then he and Śatrughna bedded down. Thoughts of Rāma arose to overwhelm noble Bharata with sorrow, matchless, virtuous and guiltless though he was. The Rāghava was tormented by an inner burning, like a tree scorched by a forest fire but blazing within. Sweat streamed from all his limbs, produced by the fire of his sorrow, like the Himalaya streaming with snow-melt when scorched by the sun's rays. A mountain with its rocks and caverns all made of gloomy care, its minerals all groans, its groves all despair, its peaks all sorrow and weariness, its wildlife all delusion, its bamboos and plants all made of torment: by such a huge mountain of melancholy was Kaikeyī's son overwhelmed.
[80.1–24] Guha, denizen of dense forests, then sang the praises of noble Lak ma a to the incomparable Bharata. 'Lak ma a would stay on watch, with his fine quivers and his bow ready strung, to keep close guard over his brother, even though I told him, "Friend, I have had this comfortable bed got ready for you. Lie down and rest comfortably on it, pride of the Rāghavas. My people are all used to roughing it, but you're used to a life of ease; we'll keep awake to guard him, dutiful though you are. No one on earth is dearer to me than Rāma. Don't worry. Would I tell you a lie? He's favoured me with the chance to gain fame throughout the world, and great merit, and mere wealth too. I'm the one to guard my dear friend Rāma as he sleeps beside Sītā, my bow in my hand and my family all around. I'm always roaming about in this forest, and there's nothing I don't know about it. We could get the better of even the biggest regular army." That's what we told noble Lak ma a, but his eyes were fixed only on his duty, and he won us over. "How", he asked, "can I possibly sleep while Dāśarathi is lying on the ground beside Sītā? How can I take any pleasure in life? He can't be conquered in battle by all the gods and anti-gods put together, but just look at him now, Guha, resting beside Sītā on the grass. It took great mortification and all sorts of trouble to produce him, and he's the only one of Daśaratha's sons to compare with him. With him gone off, the king won't survive for long: the earth must soon be widowed. Today the exhausted women will have given up all their weeping and wailing, and the king's apartment will no longer be filled with their clamour. As for Kausalyā and the king, and my mother too – I can't imagine them lasting the night. Even if thought of Śatrughna keeps my mother alive, the sorrowing Kausalyā, who gave birth to this hero, will be destroyed. Destroyed will be my father, unable to achieve his oft-expressed desire to appoint Rāma to the kingship. And when the time comes that they've got what they wanted, it's those evildoers who will purify my dead father the king with all the funeral rituals. My father's capital has lovely squares and buildings, its highways are well planned, its mansions and palaces abundant; it's ornamented with every jewel, crowded with elephants, horses and chariots, ringing to the sound of trumpets; it's crammed with everything good, it's teeming with happy, prosperous people, it's crammed with parks and gardens, and there are plenty of assemblies and fairs: and they'll be the ones to stroll at ease round my father's capital! If only we could be back there at ease, with him fit and well and his integrity intact, and the time completed!" So the night passed, with this noblest of princes lamenting as he stood on guard. When the spotless sun rose, they both matted their hair,* and I showed them this place on the bank of the Bhāgīrathī where they could cross easily.'
Listening to Guha's far-from-comforting report, Bharata [81.1–10] began to brood on the disturbing words he had heard. Gentle he was but bold, broad-shouldered and built like a lion; his eyes were the shape of lotuses, he was soft, he was attractive; he drew a deep and heartbroken breath, then a moment later suddenly collapsed like an elephant struck in the heart by goads. Satrughna was nearby. He caught the swooning Bharata in his arms and wept aloud, faint himself and emaciated by sorrow. All Bharata's mothers rushed up, thin from fasting, miserable and emaciated by the calamity that had befallen their lord. They wept around him as he lay on the earth, but it was Kausalyā who went to him and wrapped him in her heartbroken embrace like a cow doting on her calf. The miserable woman, overcome with grief, questioned Bharata through her tears: 'My son, I do hope there's no illness attacking your body, now that the survival of this royal family rests with you. It's the sight of you, my son, that's keeping me alive, with Rāma gone off with his brother and King Daśaratha passed away. You're the only one we have left to lead us. I do hope you've not had bad news of Lak ma a, or of my son, my only son who's gone off to the forest with his wife.'
[81.11–12] The illustrious prince revived after a moment and reassured Kausalyā, wept and asked Guha, 'Where did my brother spend the night? Where did Sītā? And Lak ma a? What bed did he sleep on, and what had he eaten? Tell me, Guha.'
[81.13–21] In answer, Guha the Nisāda overlord told Bharata what hospitality he had offered to Rāma, his loved and loving guest. 'I brought all sorts of food and a lot of provisions and different fruits for Rāma to eat, but the truly valiant Rāma refused it all. He would not accept it, in accordance with _k atriya_ customs. "It is not for us to accept gifts, my friend," the noble prince explained, your majesty, "only to give them." The illustrious Rāghava drank some water Lak ma a brought him, otherwise kept up a fast, and Sītā too. Lak ma a used the rest of the water for a libation, as the three of them performed the twilight ritual with hushed voices and concentrated minds. After that Saumitri quickly gathered up some sacrificial grass for the Rāghava and made him up a comfortable bed with it. Rāma lay down with Sītā on the well-made bed; Lak ma a bathed their feet and left them. This is the root of the _badam-_ tree, and this is the very same straw that Rāma and Sītā lay on together that night.'
[82.1–26] Bharata listened to all that he said, then he and his counsellors
went up to the _badam_ -root and viewed Rāma's bed, and he told all his mothers, 'Here did that noble man lie down on the earth for the night; this is the imprint of his body. Daśaratha, the opulent, the wise, fathered him in an opulent dynasty: Rāma shouldn't have to sleep on the earth. Once he's lain on a pile of fine counterpanes covered with quilts of hide, how can that tiger of a man lie on the bare ground? This is unheard of anywhere in the world! I can't believe it's true! I must be going out of my mind! I can only think that it's a dream. It's certain, Time must be the gods' strongest weapon for Rāma Dāśarathi to have to make his bed like this on the earth; and lovely Sītā too, his beloved, born of the king of Videha and daughter-in-law to Daśaratha, for her to have to make her bed on the earth! This is my brother's bed, for the hard bare ground all around has been disturbed, and the grass has been bruised by his limbs. I think this must have been the bed Sītā slept in, wearing her ornaments, for here and there I can see flecks of gold sticking to it. Quite obviously Sītā snagged her shawl, for there are threads of shining silk caught here. Maithilī really
must enjoy sharing her husband's bed for the poor little thing, frail as she is, not to feel it a hardship. He was born in a line of universal monarchs, he's universally bountiful, universally popular, but he's given up the incomparable kingdom he loved; with his lotus-dark complexion, his red eyes, his attractive appearance, with pleasure as his portion and adversity unearned, how can the Rāghava make his bed on the earth? Vaidehī has certainly fulfilled her role by following her husband to the forest, but we don't know which way to turn without this noble prince. The world seems empty to me and rudderless now, with Daśaratha gone to heaven and Rāma off to the wilderness. Yet even with him living in the forest, no one so much as thinks of attacking our rich realm; the long arm of his heroism is our safeguard. The capital is defenceless. Its guardrooms have been emptied, its horses and elephants are unharnessed, the city gates stand open, the garrison's unmotivated, it's unprovisioned, it's unprotected, it's in a poor way. Even so, our enemies are not threatening to devour it: it might as well be food laced with poison. But from today on I'll be
the one to sleep on grass or even on the bare earth, just living on fruit and roots, matting my hair and wearing bark cloth. For his sake I'll be happy to live out the rest of the time in the forest to release him from his promise: he won't be found false. Satrughna shall stay with me, living there for the sake of my brother, while that noble man shall protect Ayodhyā with Laksmana beside him. The Twice-Born shall consecrate Kākutstha in Ayodhyā. This is my heart's desire: if only the gods would make it come true!'
[83.1–2] After spending the night there on the bank of the Ga gā, Rāghava Bharata rose early and called out to Satrughna, 'Up you get, Satrughna! Why are you still lying down? Hurry up, for goodness sake, and fetch Guha, overlord of the Nisādas! He'll get the army across.'
[83.3] 'I am awake,' replied Śatrughna to his brother's summons. 'I'm not asleep, I'm just thinking about our noble brother.'
[83.4–5] While these two lions of men were still talking, Guha came up and respectfully greeted Bharata: 'I trust you spent a comfortable night on the riverbank, Kākutstha, and that everything was in order for your army?'
[83.6–7] Recognizing the affection in Guha's words, Bharata replied as Rāma would have wished: 'We passed the night in comfort, your majesty; you have indeed honoured us. We would now like your fisher fleet to ferry us across the Ga gā.'
[83.8–9] When he heard what Bharata wanted, Guha hurried off back to his town and told his kinsmen. 'Get up!' he called, 'for goodness sake do wake up and launch the boats, so we can ferry the army across!'
[83.10–21] At these words they jumped up and hurriedly collected together five hundred boats from all around, as commanded by the king. Some were marked out by _svastika_ signs and carried great bells; they were fine, good-looking, flag-bedecked, well-built craft, trimmed to the wind. Then Guha brought alongside a _svastika_ -marked boat, ringing with joyful sounds, festive and covered with a pale woollen awning. Bharata went on board with mighty Satrughna; so did Kausalyā, Sumitrā and the king's other wives. The chaplain embarked at the head, then the brāhman elders, after them came the king's wives, and finally the waggons and provisions. As men fired the camp, plunged into the ford, and stowed the gear, the hullabaloo rose to the highest heaven, but the flag-bedecked boats carrying the people on board flew rapidly along with fishermen in charge. Some were laden with women, others with horses, others again carried whole equipages of great value. When they had reached the further shore and discharged the people, they were turned round and put through a number of manoeuvres by the fisher folk. Pennanted elephants waded across under the urging of their mahouts, their pennants making them look like beflagged mountains. While some went by boat, others crossed on rafts, or clung to pots and pitchers, and others swam across. The fishermen saw this well-favoured army across the Ga gā, and at the Maitra moment it set out for the exalted Prayāga forest.
When Bharadvāja's hermitage came into view a _krośa_ away, [84.1–13] the bull of a man halted the whole force and went on himself with his counsellors. As he thought proper, they went on foot, leaving behind sword and insignia, in simple linen clothes, led by the chaplain. On seeing Bharadvāja, the Rāghava halted the counsellors and went forward after the chaplain. When the great and glorious ascetic Bharadvāja saw that it was Vasi ṭha, he jumped up from his seat and hastily called to his pupils for water to greet a guest, and when Bharata saluted him he realized that Vasi ṭha's companion was the son of Daśaratha. As was proper, he greeted them both with water for head and feet and then offered them fruit, enquiring successively about the health of the family, about Ayodhyā, the army, the treasury, the allies and the counsellors. He knew Daśaratha had passed away, and so did not name the king. Vasistha and Bharata asked him about his physical welfare, and about his fires,* trees, pupils, animals and birds. The great ascetic Bharadvāja gave a positive reply to each question, then, out of the affection binding him to the Rāghavas he asked Bharata, 'What is your purpose in coming here, now that you are the ruler of the kingdom? I am not clear in my mind about it: explain it all to me. That slayer of enemies, born to Kausalyā to increase her joy, has been banished to the forest along with his brother, and his wife, for a lengthy stay; his father ordered that illustrious prince to live here in the forest for a full fourteen years, but the orders came from his wife. Surely you have no wish to harm this guiltless man and his young brother so that you can enjoy the kingship unhindered?'
[84.14–18] Bharadvāja's question brought tears to Bharata's eyes, and his voice faltered with pain as he replied. 'It crushes me that your Honour should even think such a thing of me. Don't expect me to do wrong! Don't reproach me like this! It was not by my will that my mother demanded for me what she did. I take no personal pleasure from it and I refuse to profit from her demand. It's as a suppliant that I've come after that tiger of a man, to take him back to Ayodhyā and there throw myself at his feet. Now you know my intention in coming here, I beg you to be gracious, honoured sir, and let me know where Rāma, Lord of the Earth, is now.'
[84.19–21] Bharadvāja graciously replied to Bharata, 'You tiger of a man, such conduct towards your elder, such self-denial, such integrity befits one born in the dynasty of the Rāghavas. I do know what is in your heart of hearts. It was for your greater glory that I asked you to confirm it. Your brother is living on the great mountain Citrakūṭa. Tomorrow you shall go there; but today stay here with your counsellors. You are very wise, and know how to fulfil desires; grant me my wish.'
[86.1–3] When night was over and Bharata and his entourage had again been hospitably entertained, he happily approached Bharadvāja. The sage had performed his fire oblation, and when he noticed the respectful salute of that tiger of a man, Bharadvāja asked Bharata, 'I trust the night has passed pleasantly for you here among us? Have your people been satisfied by our hospitality? Do tell me, sinless man.'
[86.4–8] As the sage, most glorious of the glorious, emerged from the hermitage, Bharata greeted him respectfully, bowed and sat down. 'I have stayed here in comfort, reverend sir,' he replied, 'and my whole army and their animals likewise; my ministers too; we have all had our wishes gratified by you to the highest degree. All our travel-weariness has gone, we've been well fed and well lodged, even including the servants; we have all lived here in comfort. Nevertheless, I must take leave of your reverence, excellent sage. Look on me with a friendly eye, righteous sage, as I set off to find my noble and righteous brother in his hermitage. Will you show me the way, and tell me how far it is?'
Glorious Bharadvāja, that great ascetic, noting Bharata's [86.9–13] eagerness to see his brother, answered his question. 'Bharata, mount Citrakūṭa with its lovely glens and groves lies two and a half _yojanas_ into the unpeopled forest. The river Mandākinī flows towards its northern flank, hidden by flowering trees amid lovely flowering groves. Between that stream and mount Citrakūṭa is your brother's leaf-hut, my son; that is where they live. Direct your army, with its mass of elephants, horses and chariots, to take the road to the south and southwest, commander blessed by fortune; then you will see the Rāghava.'
When the emperor's wives heard of their departure, they left [86.14–18] the vehicles they were entitled to travel in and clustered round the brāhman. Trembling, wasted and miserable, Kausalyā and Queen Sumitrā then bowed down to the hermit's feet. Kaikeyī, her plans thwarted, despised by all the world, bowed down to him in her shame, circumambulated the holy sage and stood dejectedly not far from Bharata. Then steadfast Bharadvāja asked Bharata, 'Rāghava, I should like to know which of your mothers is which.'
Righteous Bharata saluted and answered Bharadvāja's question [86.19–26] gracefully: 'This lady, your reverence, visibly so downcast and spare through fasting from her sorrow, is yet my father's chief queen, the divine Kausalyā, who bore that tiger of a man, him of the lionlike tread, Rāma, just as Aditi bore Dhāt . The lady standing to her left, clinging despondently to her arm, looking like the fast-fading flowers on a _kar ikāra_-branch from the forest depths, that queen is mother to those godlike princes, both every inch a valiant hero, Lak ma a and Satrughna. And this is the one at whose doing the two tigers of men have left here in peril of their lives, at whose doing King Daśaratha, bereft of his son, has gone to heaven; this is Kaikeyī, power-mad, cruel and malicious, no noble though she looks like one; this is she whom I see as the root of all my troubles; this is my mother.' Sobs choked his voice as he spoke; his eyes were copper-hued, his sighs incessant; the tiger of a man was like an angry snake.
[86.27–8] Wisely, the sage Bharadvāja replied to Bharata's outburst with reassuring words: 'Don't hold it against Kaikeyī; this exile of Rāma's will end happily.'
[86.29–35] At that Bharata made ready to go, saluted, circumambulated him and took leave, then ordered his army to harness up. The multitude then harnessed all those divinely gilded horse-chariots and jumped in, so eager were they to set out. With their pennants and golden girths, elephant cows and bulls thundered as they set out, like clouds at summer's end. Carriages of all sorts, large and small, but all of great value, set off too, with the infantry on foot. Headed by Kausalyā, the women rode off in superb conveyances, joyful at the prospect of seeing Rāma. A fine palanquin, gleaming like the newly risen sun, had been made ready for Bharata and his entourage; he mounted it and set off in majesty. The host was a throng of elephants, steeds and chariots, like a towering cloud, as it started off, turned southwards and plunged through the forests with their teeming wildlife.
[87.1–5] As that bannered array swarmed along, the elephant lords in their forest homes, _musth_ -maddened, were agitated and fled with their herds. All around could be glimpsed bears, and herds of chital and nilgai along the forest tracks, as well as on the mountains and by the rivers. Daśaratha's righteous son was pleased to be setting out in the midst of his entire army; huge and thunderous, like the surging sea, noble Bharata's army spread over all the land like monsoon-clouds in the sky, so that for a long time the earth was lost to view beneath its covering of speedy chargers and tuskers.
[87.6–20] When they had gone a long way and their mounts were tired, the glorious Bharata said to his excellent counsellor Vasistha, 'From the looks of it, we must have reached the place Bharadvāja told us about; it's just as I heard it described. This is mount Citrakūṭa, there's the river Mandākinī, and there in the distance, dark as a cloud, we can see the forest. Already my mountain-like elephants are pressing the lovely flanks of mount Citrakūṭa. The boughs on the mountain-slopes are shedding their blossom like dark rain-laden clouds shedding their waters at summer's burning end. Śatrughna, look at the mountain, the haunt of _kinnaras_ , yet now thronged on all sides by horses like crocodiles in the sea. Herds of deer have been startled into flight like clouds streaking across the autumn sky before the wind. The trees covering their heads with fragrant garlands of flowers from their cloud-dark limbs are like men of the south. This forest, once silent and dread, might now be Ayodhyā, so crammed is it with people. Dust raised by our animals' hooves hangs in the air, blotting out the sky, until the wind speeds it on its way as if to please me. Śatrughna, look how fast the chariots and their steeds are racing through the forest in the hands of their master charioteers! Look at those lovely peacocks running in terror to this mountain-sanctuary for birds! This place, home to ascetics, seems to me absolutely delightful, a real stairway to heaven. There are lots of beautiful chital stags with their does in the forest, looking as if they're dappled with petals. Good! Let soldiers go off and search the woodland till they find those tigers of men, Rāma and Lak ma a.'
At Bharata's command, armed warriors plunged into the [87.21–3] forest and saw smoke. They reported back to Bharata that they had seen a plume of smoke, and added, 'There's no smoke without men present: the two Rāghavas must certainly be here. But then again, it may not be the two heroic princes, those tigers of men, that are here; it may be other people, ascetics, who are Rāma's equals.'
Bharata listened to their reasoned report, then the indomitable [87.24–6] hero instructed all his troops: 'Wait here at the ready. You need go no further. I will go on by myself, just with Sumantra and our _guru_.' At this command everyone on all sides halted, while Bharata fixed his gaze upon the plume of smoke.
As Rāma was sitting there the dust and clamour of the army [90.1–6] accompanying Bharata rose clearly to the heavens. Meanwhile _musth_ -maddened elephant lords, frightened by the loud noise, were agitated and ran away with their herds. The Rāghava heard the noise raised by the army, and noticed that the elephants were all taking flight. Remarking their flight and hearing the din, Rāma said to Sumitrā's glorious son, the fiery Lak ma a: 'Lak ma a, you credit to Sumitrā, listen! look! I can hear a loud noise, like the crashing of terrible thunder. Maybe some king or notable is in the forest, roaming around hunting, or maybe it's something else, a wild beast perhaps. You ought to investigate, Saumitri: find out the truth of it all without delay.'
[90.7–10] Lak ma a hurriedly climbed a flowering _sāl_ tree and scanned every direction, examining the east in particular. Craning his neck, he caught sight of the great army with its crowd of chariots, horses and elephants and its watchful infantry. He called out to Rāma and told him about the army with its many horses and elephants, and its chariots gaudy with standards. 'Put the fire out,' he advised his noble brother, 'and make Sītā hide in a cave. String your bow and get your arrows and armour!'
[90.11] Rāma, that tiger of a man, answered Lak ma a, 'Well then, Saumitri, whose army do you think it is?'
[90.12–25] Lak ma a's furious reply to Rāma's question was enough to burn the army to ashes: 'It's obvious!' he declared. 'It's Kaikeyī's son Bharata that's coming to kill us both! He's had the consecration performed and now he wants to enjoy the kingdom unchallenged. I can see gleaming on his chariot that great majestic standard with the tall trunk and branches of its _kovidāra_ device. There are men mounted on their favourite horses that can go as fast as they like, and elephant-riders gleefully resplendent. Let's get our bows!' he urged his heroic brother. 'Let's go to the mountain for safety; better still, let's take our stand here, arms at the ready. If only we could get hold of the _kovidāra_ -standard in battle! If only I could see Bharata! It's because of him that this calamity has befallen you, Rāghava, and Sītā, and me! Sir, hero, Rāghava: you've been driven out of an enduring kingdom, and the enemy who's the cause is close by. I'll kill Bharata for that! I can see nothing wrong in butchering Bharata, Rāghava, not I! There's no law against getting rid of someone who has struck the first blow. With him dead, you can rule the whole earth. Today let Kaikeyī's lust for the kingdom bring her the excruciating sight of me killing her son in battle, like an elephant smashing a tree. Then I'll kill Kaikeyī, and her entourage, and her family: today the earth can be freed of this great stain! You've been honourable, and I've been reining in my anger and shame, but today I'll vent them on the enemy host like a fire eating up tinder. Today I'll riddle the bodies of our enemies with my honed arrows and sprinkle Citrakūṭa forest with their blood. Beasts of prey can drag around the elephants and horses, arrows embedded in their hearts, and the men I've slain too. At least, I won't have been wasting my bow and arrows in this great forest: it will be no waste to kill Bharata and his army, that's for sure.'
But Rāma calmed Lak ma a Saumitri's impetuous passion [91.1–9] with these words: 'Why would we need a bow, or a sword and shield, if it's wise Bharata himself, the great archer, who's arrived? The time's ripe for Bharata to want to see us; he'd never dream of hurting us. What harm has Bharata ever done to you, or threatened you with, for you to suspect Bharata now today? There are to be no harsh or unkind words from you to Bharata, for to treat Bharata unkindly would be the same as speaking unkindly to me. Could sons kill their father, no matter how hard-pressed they were? Saumitri, how could a brother kill his brother, his own flesh and blood? If it's the kingdom that's worrying you, I'll tell Bharata when I see him, "Give him the kingship." For if I say that to him, Lak ma a, Bharata's sure to say, "Certainly offer him the kingship." ' At this rebuke from his charitable, generous brother, Lak ma a hung his head for shame.
Seeing Lak ma a so crestfallen, the Rāghava went on, 'It's [91.10–14] my belief that this mighty prince has come here to see us. Or else he's thought what life in the forest is like, and has come to take my Vaidehī back hore to the luxury she's accustomed to. There, my hero, we can see that pair of excellent, fast thoroughbreds, horses that gladden the mind and equal the wind for speed. There's the colossal elephant called Satrumjaya swaying at the head of the army, our wise father's ancient mount.' All-conquering Lak ma a then climbed down from the top of the _sāl_ and stood meekly beside Rāma.
[91.15–16(); ()93.1–7] On Bharata's orders not to disturb the area, the army set up camp all around the mountain. The Iksvāku army spread out over the mountain slopes for a _yojana_ and a half as it settled down with its host of elephants, steeds and chariots. While the army was settling, Bharata eagerly ushered Satrughna along to see his brother. Instructing the sage Vasistha to bring his mothers quickly, he hurried on ahead in his affection for his older brother. Sumantra followed as well, hard on the heels of Satrughna, his thirst for a sight of Rāma equalling Bharata's. On they went, until, in that haven of ascetics, Bharata saw a leaf-hut, piles of flowers and felled logs, and large amounts of dung left by wild animals and buffaloes, stacked among the trees ready for the cold weather. Going forward, the mighty, glorious Bharata said in delight to Satrughna and the ministers on all sides:
[93.8–12] 'It's my belief we have reached the place Bharadvāja told us about: it's my belief the river Mandākinī isn't very far from here. Up there some bits of bark have been tied: Lak ma a must have put them there so he could recognize the path in the dusk and avoid this track made on the mountain-side by elephants trumpeting their defiance at each other with their tusks raised. There in the forest we can see the dense smoke from the fires that ascetics seek to maintain perpetually. Here my delighted eyes will see that tiger of a man, the noble Rāghava, living like a great sage out of respect for his father.'
[93.13–16] Rāghava Bharata carried on a little way towards Citrakūṭa and reached the Mandākinī. 'That tiger of a man is sitting on the ground,' he said to his companions, 'content with his hero-posture, a sovereign reduced to the wilderness. It's a pity I was ever born! It's because of me that the Lord of the World, the glorious Rāghava, has been afflicted, and has given up all his hopes and is living in the forest. The whole world reviles me for it! But now I can fall at the feet of Rāma and Sītā again and again, and implore their forgiveness.'
[93.17–28] As Daśaratha's son was lamenting in this way, he saw through the trees a large leaf-hut. It was holy and attractive, thatched with many leaves from _sāl_ , palmyra and _aśvakar a_ trees, spacious and strewn with soft _kuśa_ grass like an altar at a sacrifice. Bows like Śakra's weapon adorned it, powerful, gold-backed, springy, all-conquering bows; arrows like the sun's rays adorned it, ferocious, quiver-borne arrows, their points ablaze, like serpents adorning Bhogavatī; a pair of swords enriched it, swords with silver sheaths, and a pair of shields adorned it, shields studded with gold, along with patterned, gold-ornamented arm- and finger-guards. That hut would no more be attacked by enemy forces than a lion's den by deer. In Rāma's dwelling Bharata could see an altar, spacious and holy, sited north-east, with a blazing fire. A moment later, sitting in the cottage, crowned with a mat of hair, Bharata saw his elder brother, Rāma. It was Rāma he saw, seated nearby, clad in black-antelope skin and bark-fibre garments; irresistible as fire, lion-chested, broad-shouldered, lotus-eyed, the merit-seeking master of the sea-girt earth, broad-shouldered, was sitting there with Sītā and Lak ma a like eternal Brahmā on the _kuśa_ -strewn bare earth. The sight overwhelmed glorious Bharata with pain and confusion, and he ran to him; Bharata was Kaikeyī's son, but he was righteous.
In a voice smothered by sobs, he lamented in torment at the [93.29–35] unbearable sight, and stoutly declared, 'My elder brother is worthy to be honoured in the assembly by his subjects; here he sits honoured by forest animals. Once my noble brother was accustomed to be clad at immense cost; here his duty leads him to be clothed in deerskin. This Rāghava used to sport all sorts of colourful flowers; how can he bear this load of matted locks? A man who should be heaping up merit by duly performing sacrifices is pursuing merit by mortifying his flesh. Expensive sandalwood paste used to coat that noble prince's limbs; how can he let them be coated by grime? And it's because of me that Rāma has had to exchange his wonted pleasure for this pain! Oh, why must I live to be such a monster, so despised by the world!'
Sweat streamed from Bharata's lotus of a face at this mourn- [93.36–9] ful lament, and he fell in tears before Rāma's feet. In the torment of his sorrow, the mighty prince Bharata uttered one mournful cry, 'Noble brother!' and could say no more. Sobs choked his throat at the sight of illustrious Rāma; he called out 'Noble brother', and could speak no more. Satrughna too wept and did obeisance to Rāma's feet. Rāma embraced them both, then he too burst into tears.
[96.1–3] Vasi ṭha was eager for a sight of Rāma, and set off to escort Daśaratha''s wives to the place. The queens made slow progress as far as the Mandākinī, where they saw the place where Rāma and Lak ma a bathed. Kausalyā's mouth was dried up and full of sobs as she spoke mournfully to Sumitrā and the king's other women:
[96.4–5] 'So just ahead there is the place in the forest their restless zeal has beaten down as they go to bathe, with no lord and driven from their kingdom. Sumitrā, it's from here that your son Saumitri never tires of fetching water himself in the service of my son.'
[96.6–12] Her beautiful eyes fell upon a cake of _badam_ -flour offered for their father on the south-pointing* _kuśa_ grass. Noticing what Rāma had left on the ground in his sorrow for his father, Queen Kausalyā said to all Daśaratha's women: 'See what the Rāghava has offered as the prescribed due for his father, the noble Rāghava, lord of the Ik vākus! That's not what I think is the right food for that noble, godlike king; he's been used to the best of everything. He was like great Indra on earth, he used to enjoy all that the wide world could offer, all nature's resources were his to command: how can he enjoy a _badam-_ cake? Nothing in the world could give me greater pain than to see opulent Rāma with only _badam_ -flour to offer to his father. The sight of Rāma's offering to his father of a _badam_ -cake is enough to make my heart burst a thousand times over with sorrow!'
[96.13–20] Her fellow wives offered her comfort in her torment, then went on until they saw Rāma in the hermitage, looking like an immortal fallen from heaven. At the sight of Rāma forsaken by all comforts, his tormented mothers burst into loud tears, wasted by their sorrow. Rāma rose and, true to his word, that tiger of a man bowed low to the dainty feet of all his mothers, while the beautiful-eyed women wiped the dust from his back with their dainty, gentle, soft hands. Saumitri gazed sadly upon all the mothers, then he followed Rāma in greeting them all affectionately and unhurriedly. All the women treated him in the same way as they did Rāma: he was Fortune-favoured Laksma a, he was born of Daśaratha. Sītā sadly clasped the feet of her mothers-in-law, then stood before them, her eyes filled with tears. As if she were her own daughter, Kausalyā folded the anguished woman in her motherly arms, so emaciated and disconsolate was she from her life in the forest.
'What has the daughter of the king of Videha,' she asked, [96.21–3] 'the daughter-in-law of Daśaratha, the wife of Rāma, done to deserve such privation in the desolate wilderness? When I see your face, Vaidehī, looking like a heat-scorched lotus, like a faded blue water lily, like gold shrouded in dust, like the moon molested by clouds, then sorrow sears me, blazing in my heart like an all-consuming fire kindled by your calamity.'
While his tormented mother was speaking, the Rāghava, [96.24;97.1] Bharata's elder brother, reached Vasi ṭha and saluted his feet. Rāma comforted his devoted younger brother, then he and his brother Lak ma a began to question him.
'I'd like you to tell us why you've come here wearing matted [97.2–3] hair, bark cloth and skins. Why have you abandoned the kingdom and come here dressed in black-antelope skins, your hair matted? You must tell us all about it.'
Kaikeyī's son reached out eagerly towards the noble Kākutstha [97.4–15] and responded deferentially to his questions. 'Our mighty father did a grievous wrong in exiling his noble son,' he declared. 'Now sorrow for his son has weighed him down, and he has gone to heaven. It was under coercion from a woman, my victorious brother, from my mother Kaikeyī, that he dishonoured himself by performing this heinous crime. That woman, the mother who bore me, now a widow wasted by grief at not getting the kingdom she hungered after, will fall into a terrible hell. I have come here as your slave. It's for you now to gratify me, and be consecrated for the kingship, like Indra the Bountiful. You should show favour to all the subjects and to our widowed mothers who have come out here to you, and accept the kingdom which is yours by right of succession and by right of your own person. Grace us with your presence and fulfil your friends' desires. Relieve the Earth of her widowhood, make her whole with you as her Lord, like an autumn night with the pure hare-marked moon. With our heads bowed low we beseech you, these ministers and I: be gracious to me, your brother, your disciple, your slave! You tiger of a man, you can't ignore the whole time-honoured ancestral council.' With these words the sobbing Bharata, Kaikeyī's mighty son, again threw himself at Rāma's feet, groaning again and again like a rutting elephant.
[97.15–23] Rāma embraced his brother Bharata. 'Your breeding, your force of character, your distinction, your constancy,' he said, 'all make it impossible for a man of your stamp to use foul means to gain a kingdom! I recognize no fault in you, mighty warrior, not the least one, so it's not for you to revile your mother so childishly. You should set an example of proper behaviour, and pay to your mother just as much respect as you would to our father, esteemed by the world for knowing what was proper. You're a Rāghava: for my part, when I was told to go to the forest by my upright mother and father, how could I do otherwise? You're to have the world-renowned kingdom of Ayodhyā, I'm to live in bark cloth in Da aka Forest. The Mahārāja publicly ordained this apportionment. Now glorious Daśaratha has gone to heaven. People the world over looked up to that righteous king: you should comply with his decree and enjoy whatever of his gifts falls to your lot. For my part, my sweet brother, for fourteen years I shall take refuge in Da aka Forest and enjoy what falls to my lot from my noble father.
[99.2–16] 'It's fitting that you should have spoken in this way, you who were born by Kaikeyī as a son to Daśaratha, the best of kings. Long ago, brother, when our father married your mother, the prodigious bride-price he promised your grandfather was that the kingdom should go to you. Then, during the war between the gods and the anti-gods, that mighty king, Lord of the Earth, was pleased by your mother, and gratefully gave her a boon. Subsequently your illustrious and beautiful mother reminded the best of men and claimed two boons: kingship for you, you tiger of a man, exile for me. The outcome of the boon-giving, bull of a man, was that I was enjoined by him, by Father, to live for fourteen years in the forest. My lot is this desolate forest, along with Lak ma a and Sītā; I will allow no one to deflect me from maintaining the integrity of our father. You too sir ought by your assent to maintain the integrity of our sovereign father: be consecrated immediately. For my sake, Bharata, discharge the obligation of our lord the king. You know what's right: save our father, and delight your mother. Dear brother, we are taught that long ago illustrious Gaya, sacrificing to his ancestors at Gayā sang, "It is because a son saves his father from the hell called Put that he is called a 'son', or because a son protects his ancestors. Desirable is it to have many sons, accomplished and learned, so that one among them might journey to Gayā." All the royal sages are in accord. You are the king's choice, so it's for you, prince paramount, to save our father from hell. Go to Ayodhyā, Bharata, my hero, with Śatrughna as your companion, and gratify the subjects and all the Twice-Born, while I, your majesty, go with Vaidehī and Lak ma a without delay to Da aka Forest.'
High-minded Bharata was pained by Rāma's reply to him. [103.12–15] Instantly he ordered the charioteer, 'Be quick, driver, spread me some _kuśa_ grass, here on the bare ground. I'm going to sit here and face out my noble brother until he gratifies me. So long as he refuses to return, I shall fix my gaze and take no food, lying in front of the hut, like an indigent brāhman.'* Then he realized that Sumantra had eyes for Rāma alone, so he fetched a covering of _kuśa_ grass himself, and spread it on the ground in despair.
Glorious Rāma, prince yet supreme sage, asked him, 'Dear [103.16–18] brother, what am I doing to incur such an assault? A brāhman is quite entitled to put pressure on people by taking up a fixed position, but assaults of this kind are not the practice for men consecrated to rule. Give up this cruel vow. Get up, you tiger of a man, and go straight back to that excellent city, Ayodhyā: you're a Rāghava.'
[103.19] Bharata remained seated. Seeing all around people from town and country, he asked, 'Why don't you put my noble brother right?'
[103.20–21] His subjects answered their generous prince, 'We acknowledge that Rāma Rāghava is talking correctly to Bharata Kākutstha, for the distinguished prince is standing by his father's promise, so we certainly cannot deflect him.'
[103.22–3] Rāma acknowledged their words and went on, 'Your well-wishers have an eye for what's right. Listen to what they say. Consider it properly, Rāghava, now that you've heard all the pros and cons. Stand up, mighty brother; touch me, then touch water.'*
[103.24–6] Bharata stood up. He touched water, then declared, 'Listen to me, men of the council, advisers and guildsmen: I have not petitioned my father for the kingship, nor have I instructed my mother to do so. I admit that the noble Rāghava is very wise. But if someone has to live in the forest to keep our father's word, then I am the one who will live for fourteen years in the forest.'
[103.27–32] Rāma the righteous was taken aback by the sincerity of his brother's words. Surveying his subjects, he told them, 'Neither Bharata nor I can cancel any transaction – any sale, pledge or purchase – made during his lifetime by my father. I cannot cheat about living in the forest: that would be abhorrent. Kaikeyī's request was apt and my father's action correct. Bharata is steady, I know; he defers to his elders. Everything will turn out well, for this noble prince will keep faith. When I come back from the forest with my worthy brother I shall become supreme Lord of the Earth. Kaikeyī claimed a boon from the king, and I have carried it out to absolve my father, the lord of the world, from wrongdoing.'
[104.9–13] Bharata's whole body crumpled. With hands joined in supplication he again pleaded with the Rāghava in a faltering voice. 'Kākutstha, you should be doing what your mother and I are begging for; it's your royal duty to continue our family tradition. I can't safeguard this huge kingdom on my own; nor can I gratify its loyal populace. You're the one our family and soldiers, our allies and our friends are longing for, like farmers longing for Parjanya. You will secure the kingdom on your return, Kākutstha; you have the wisdom and the power to protect the world.'
Bharata had assented. He fell at his brother's feet, pleading [104.14–20] with Rāma with heartfelt passion. Clasping his swarthy, lotus-eyed brother to his bosom, Rāma himself sobbed like a frantic goose as he replied, 'It's your praiseworthy character that's led you to this instinctive resolve. My dear brother, you emphatically have got the power to protect the earth. Take advice from ministers, friends and learned counsellors and you'll be able to have even the greatest deeds performed. Lak mī would leave the moon, Himalaya would shed its snow, the sea would exceed its confines before I would transgress my father's command. It was your mother who brought this about for you, but whether she acted out of ambition or greed, don't you entertain the same ideas and behave like your mother.' Kausalyā's son blazed like the sun in splendour as he spoke, and his face shone like the new moon.
'Noble brother,' Bharata said to him, 'place your feet on [104.21–2(); ()105.1] these gold-ornamented sandals: they are what shall dispense welfare to the whole world.' The glorious tiger of a man stepped on to the sandals, then took them off and handed them to noble Bharata. Bharata placed his head beneath them,* then joyfully mounted the chariot with Satrughna at his side.
Headed by Vasi ṭha, Vāmadeva, resolute Jābāli and all the [105.2–6] most revered counsellors, they set off eastwards towards the lovely river Mandākinī and then circumambulated the great mount Citrakūṭa, observing its wealth of beautiful sparkling minerals. Bharata and his army then pressed on along its flank, and not far from Citrakūṭa Bharata saw the hermitage where lived the sage Bharadvāja. The wise pride of his family got down from his chariot when he reached Bharadvāja's hermitage and bowed low to his feet.
Bharadvāja was delighted. 'My dear boy,' he said to Bharata, [105.7–8] 'you have done what you had to do. You have met Rāma.' With these words the perspicacious Bharadvāja greeted Bharata.
[105.8–14] Bharata, devoted to duty, replied to Bharadvāja. 'Both his _guru_ and I begged him, and the steadfast Rāghava was highly gratified, but told Vasistha, "My father's command was fourteen years, and I shall observe my father's command to the letter." With great wisdom Vasistha the practised orator answered the eloquent Rāghava's words with weighty advice. "Be pleased in your great wisdom to consign these gold-emblazoned sandals to work the welfare of Ayodhyā in your place." On Vasistha's advice the Rāghava stood up, faced the east and handed me these gold-adorned sandals as emblems of sovereignty. With leave from Rāma, that noblest of men, I am returning, returning to take the symbolic sandals to Ayodhyā.'
[105.15–17] Noble Bharata's fine speech was answered by an even finer speech from the sage Bharadvāja. 'It is not to be wondered at, you tiger of a man, supreme exponent of virtue and integrity, that nobility should abide in you like rain in a crater. Your mighty father Daśaratha will live on in a son like you, righteous devotee of duty.'
[105.18–24] After respectfully saluting the noble sage for his words, bowing to touch his feet and preparing to take his leave, glorious Bharata repeatedly circumambulated Bharadvāja and set off with his counsellors for Ayodhyā. The army with its vehicles, waggons, horses and elephants turned around and trailed after Bharata. They crossed the holy, wave-garlanded Yamunā, and then all gazed again upon the auspicious water of the river Ga gā. When he had seen his family across its lovely, abundant waters, he led his army into lovely Ś gaverapura, and beyond Ś gaverapura Bharata could make out Ayodhyā. Tortured by sadness he said to his driver, 'Look at Ayodhyā, driver, desolate, lustreless, a joyless jumble, muted and miserable.'
[109.1–4] When they had all left, the Rāghava took thought and found many reasons why living there no longer satisfied him. 'This is where I saw Bharata, and our mothers, and the citizens; I grieve over them constantly, and the memory haunts me. Besides, the place has been churned up where the noble prince's camp was pitched, and fouled by the dung from the horses and elephants. So I'm going somewhere else.'
With these thoughts the Rāghava set out, with Vaidehī and [109.4–8] Lak ma a. When the illustrious prince arrived at Atri's hermitage, he honoured the sage, and the blessed Atri in turn received him like a son. He personally ordered hospitality for them, and prepared everything nicely; Saumitri and fortune-blessed Sītā he set at ease. Knowing what was proper, the most excellent benevolent sage invited his aged, respected wife to join him and then considerately asked that fortune-blessed ascetic, virtuous Anasūyā, to look after Vaidehī.
'When the world was burned up by an unremitting drought [109.9–13] for ten years,' he told Rāma, 'that virtuous ascetic produced roots and fruit and set the Ga gā rolling by the force of her severe asceticism and the restraint that adorns her. She practised great austerities for ten thousand years, my dear man, with vows to be free of envy: she alleviated disasters, and swiftly made one night last for ten nights to achieve some purpose of the gods. She will be another mother to you, sinless man. Let Vaidehī approach her: all creatures respect that illustrious old woman; she never angers.'
The Rāghava assented to the sage's suggestion, and gave [109.14–16] pious Sītā excellent advice. 'Princess, you've heard what the sage has said. Step forward at once and gain benefit from the ascetic Anasūyā, whose deeds have brought her renown throughout the world. Step forward at once and give the ascetic the due greeting.'
Sītā heard what he said. Eager to help the Rāghava, Maithilī [109.17–21] went up to Atri's pious wife, a feeble old woman, wrinkled and hoary, her whole frame constantly trembling like a plantain in a gale. Demurely Sītā greeted the blessed Anasūyā, her husband's votary, and told her her name. Vaidehī was delighted to greet the spotless ascetic; showing her respect, she enquired after her health. Observing how correctly the blessed Sītā was conducting herself, she addressed her kindly and gladly:
'How good it is that you are so attentive to what is right! [109.21–8] How good it is, exalted Sītā, that you have given up family, status and wealth to follow Rāma, cast adrift in the forest. Women who cherish their husband, in the city or in the wild, for better or worse, achieve the pinnacle of worldly acclaim. Women of breeding set their lord up as their supreme deity, even if he is evil, lustful or penniless. Try as I may, Vaidehī, I cannot see a relative superior to him, in every situation bringing benefit as imperishable as an act of austerity. But they are bad wives who do not understand rights and wrongs in this way, whose hearts are swayed by desire, and lord it over their husbands. Women of that sort, Maithilī, slaves to depravity, injure morality and incur disgrace. But women like you, full of merit, who have experienced the best and the worst the world can offer, will take their place in heaven as paragons of virtue.'
# THE FOREST
[ _Further into the forest they reach another hermitage_.]
A group of sages assembled. Versed in virtue as they were, they [3,5.6–18] petitioned Rāma, that supreme pillar of virtue, himself well versed in virtue. 'You are a great warrior, you are head of the Iksvāku dynasty, you are Lord of the Earth like Indra the Bountiful is of the gods; you are famed throughout the three worlds for your glory, for your prowess, for your devotion to your father; integrity and virtue abound in you. We have come to you as suppliants, noble, right-minded, virtuous lord; be so good as to allow us to petition you. It would be very wrong, sir, for a king to exact a tax of one sixth and yet not to protect his subjects like sons. It is by taking more care of them than of his own life – more than of his sons, who are dearer even than his own life – Rāma, it is by always remaining on guard and protecting all who live in his land that he gains long-lasting, eternal fame and at the last reaches Brahmā's abode, there also to be honoured. A king who protects his subjects righteously benefits from one quarter of the great merit accruing to a sage who lives on roots and fruit. You, Rāma, are lord of this great company of hermits, most of us brāhmans, yet we are being persecuted by _rāk asas_ as if we had no lord. Come and see the bodies of many a devout sage slain by savage _rāk asas_ all over the forest. Massive carnage is being inflicted on those who live by the river Pampā and along the Mandākinī and on those who make their home on Citrakūṭa. We cannot endure the terrible injury being done to the forest ascetics by these ruthless _rāk asas_, so we have come to you for protection and refuge. We are losing our lives to the night-walkers. Rāma, protect us.'
[5.19–20] Hearing of the hermits' sufferings, virtuous Kākutstha declared to all the ascetics, 'You have no need to petition me: I am at the command of the suffering. Fortune has led me here, sirs, to help you achieve your purpose. This stay of mine in the forest will bear much fruit. I am willing to fight and kill the ascetics' enemies, the _rāk asas_.'
[6.1–6] The Twice-Born took the heroic Rāma, with his brother and Sītā, to Sutīk a's hermitage. The journey was long and he crossed rivers in full spate before a huge mountain came into sight, like a great lofty cloud. Then with Sītā the two Rāghavas, champions of the Ik vākus, penetrated a forest abounding in different trees, a fearful forest with many flowers and fruits and trees. In a lonely part Rāma saw a hermitage adorned with garlands of bark, and politely addressed the ascetic Sutīk a who was sitting there, grown old in austerities, with dirt-encrusted hair. 'I am Rāma, your reverence; I have come to visit you. Give me your greeting, great sage, versed in virtue and valiant for truth.'
[6.7–11] When he saw Rāma, that supreme pillar of virtue, he enfolded the hero in his arms and replied: 'You are welcome indeed, heroic Rāma, supreme pillar of virtue; now that you have arrived the hermitage seems to have its lord. It is because I have been expecting you, illustrious hero, that I have not ascended to the world of the gods, leaving my body behind on the earth. I heard that when you were turned out of your kingdom you went to Citrakūta. When Indra Satakratu, king of the gods, came here he declared that I had won all worlds by my pious deeds. Those regions are frequented by gods and sages and have been earned by my penance. By my grace you may enjoy yourself there with your wife and Lak ma a.'
[6.12–14] Like Indra Vāsava speaking to Brahmā, Rāma replied calmly to the great sage, who blazed forth in the fierceness of his austerities and integrity. 'Great sage, it is for me to win those worlds for myself. What I wish for from you is that you point out somewhere where we can live in the forest. The noble Śarabha ga Gautama declared your reverence to be skilled in every way and devoted to the welfare of all creatures.'
[6.15–17] The world-renowned great sage was overwhelmed by joy at Rāma's words, and sweetly replied: 'Enjoy this excellent hermitage, Rāma; it is thronged with groups of sages and always supplied with roots and fruit. Herds of deer come to this hermitage, illustrious prince; they wander about and are attracted to return without fear.'
At the great sage's words, Laksmana's elder brother set an [6.18–20] arrow to his bow and firmly declared, 'Most eminent sir, I should kill any herds of deer that came with a keen arrow, brilliant as a lightning-bolt. That would compromise you, sir. What could be worse than that? I don't envisage staying long in this hermitage.'
After these words to his benefactor, Rāma carried out the [6.21(); twilight ritual; when he had performed the evening rite, he ()7.1–9] prepared his lodging there. Honoured by Sutīksna's welcome, Rāma and Saumitri spent the night there and woke at daybreak. Rising at the proper time, the Rāghava and Sītā washed in cool lotus-scented water. Rāma, Laksmana and Vaidehī duly offered the appropriate worship to Agni and the gods in the forest, the ascetics' refuge, then, purified, watched the sun rise. They approached Sutīksna with these courteous words: 'Pleasant has been our stay with you, sir, honoured by your honourable self; we now beg leave to depart, for the sages are hurrying us on. We are anxious to see the whole group of hermitages of the pious sages living in Da aka Forest. Along with these excellent sages, ever dutiful and chastened by their austerities like smouldering fires, we wish to take our leave. We should like to set off before the sun blazes forth its unbearable heat too fiercely like a nouveau riche flaunting his ill-gotten gains.' With these words the Rāghava, together with Saumitri and Sītā, saluted the sage's feet.
The excellent sage raised the pair as they clasped his feet, [7.10–16] embracing them tightly, and replied affectionately: 'Go in safety, Rāma and Saumitri, with Sītā following you like a shadow. Heroic prince, you will see the home of these Dandaka Forest ascetics, their lives uplifted by penance; it's a lovely hermitage. You will see flowering forests with their harvest of fruit and roots, their herds of peaceful deer and flocks of tame birds, their ponds and lakes with clumps of blossoming lotus and their calm waters disturbed only by ducks. Your sight will be charmed by mountain torrents and attractive forests filled with the clamour of peacocks. Go there, good Saumitri; go there, my lord; and when you have seen it, do come back to my hermitage.'
[7.17–19(); ()10.26–7] Kākutstha and Lak ma a assented to this suggestion, circumambulated the sage and prepared to leave. Large-eyed Sītā handed the two brothers their exquisite quivers, their bows and their gleaming swords. Rāma and Lak ma a strapped on their elegant quivers, picked up their twanging bows and emerged from the hermitage to set off. After their tour the glorious, righteous Rāghava returned with Sītā to Sutīk a's hermitage, to be honoured on his arrival by the sages. There Rāma, conqueror of his foes, stayed for some time.
[10.28–32] Once during his stay at the hermitage, when Kākutstha was sitting near the great sage, he politely said to Sutīk a, 'Sir, storytellers are always telling me that Agastya, that holiest of sages, lives in this forest, but the forest is so vast that I don't know what part this wise sage's holy hermitage is in. With your blessing, sir, I should like to go with my younger brother and Sītā to pay my respects to the sage Agastya. In my heart I long to be able to attend in person on him, the best of sages.'
[12.1–8] 'Rāma, I'm so very pleased, Laksmana, I'm overjoyed', said Agastya, 'that you and Sītā have come to visit me. You are a prey to weariness and exhaustion after your tiring journey. Janaka's daughter Maithilī is clearly wilting, for she is very delicate and a stranger to hardships; it's her affection for her husband that has compelled her to come to the forest with its innumerable privations. Rāma, do make sure that Sītā enjoys her stay here, for she's done something very difficult in following you to the forest. Pride of the Raghus, since the world began it's been the nature of women to be loyal in easy circumstances but to desert when the going gets rough. Women are by nature capricious as lightning, sharp-tongued as swords, fast as Garu a and the wind. This wife of yours, though, is free from those faults: she is as praiseworthy and exemplary as the goddess Arundhatī. Victorious Rāma, you will be an ornament to this place while you stay here with Saumitri and this Vaidehī.'
The Rāghava acknowledged his words with a respectful gesture [12.9–11] and courteously replied to the resplendent sage, 'Fortunate am I and favoured, for a pre-eminent sage, a granter of boons, to be delighted with me, my brother and my wife for our merits. Only point out to me some well-watered, thickly wooded spot where I can erect a hermitage to live in ease and comfort.'
At Rāma's words the excellent, righteous sage thought for a [12.12–22] moment, then wisely gave this wise reply: 'Two _yojanas_ from here, sir, is Pañcavatī, a charming, renowned spot, well provided with roots, fruit and water, the haunt of many animals. If you go there with Saumitri, erect a hermitage and enjoy yourself, you can keep your father's command to the letter. For your whole history, spotless man, has been revealed to me by the power of my austerity and my affection for Daśaratha. Your desire, discerned by me through my austerity, is close to my heart, and I have given my word that you shall live here with me in the forest of austerities. That is why I advise you to go to Pañcavatī, for it's a pleasant part of the forest which Maithilī will enjoy. Rāghava, this estimable place is not too far away, near the Godāvarī; Maithilī will enjoy it. It is well supplied with roots and fruit, mighty man, and teeming with flocks of all sorts of birds; it's remote, it's holy and it's attractive. Your lordship has your wife with you: you will be able to guard her if you live there, Rāma, and protect the ascetics too. _Madhūka_ trees mark out that forest, heroic prince; to the north of it you will come to a fig tree, then, if you climb the bare flank of the neighbouring mountain, you will see the perpetual blossoms of the grove known as Pañcavatī.'
Rāma and Saumitri thanked the honest sage Agastya for his [12.23–4] advice, and begged his leave to depart, which was granted. They prostrated themselves at his feet, and left the hermitage for Pañcavatī with Sītā.
When they reached Pañcavatī, thronged with deer and various [14.1–5] wild animals, Rāma said to his glorious brother Laksma a, 'We've arrived at the place the great sage told us about, the flowering forests of Pañcavatī, my dear brother. Have a good look all over the forest. You know what you're about: what site shall we decide on for a hermitage, that Vaidehī can enjoy, and you and I as well, Laksmana? A suitable place would be close to a water supply; it should be where the forest's attractive – and the water's attractive too – with fuel, flowers, _kuśa_ grass and water nearby.'
[14.6–7] At Rāma's words, Lak ma a respectfully replied to Kākutstha, while Sītā looked on, 'Kākutstha, I should defer to you even if you lived for a hundred years, so it's for you to command me in this beautiful place.'
[14.8–19] The radiant prince was delighted with Laksmana's words and grasped his hand. Rāma chose a place provided with all they needed, went up to the beautiful hermitage-site, clasped Saumitri's hands in his and said to him, 'Here's a level area, charming and shaded by flowering trees; dear brother, do build us a suitable hermitage here. Not far away we can see that lovely lotus pool – it's adorned with lotuses, with sweetly scented, sunlike lotuses. There's the lovely Godāvarī, as the devout sage Agastya described it, shaded by flowering trees, filled with wildfowl, adorned with _cakora_ birds and teeming with herds of deer – they're quite close, not too far off. We can see fine mountains, brother dear, resounding to the calls of peacocks. They're very high, criss-crossed with valleys, and covered with blossoming trees; in some places they're flecked with outcrops of gold, silver and copper, so that they glint like boldly painted elephants! Here it's holy, here it's pure and abounding with wildlife; Saumitri, this is where we'll live.'
[14.20–27] At Rāma's words, Laksmana, that mighty slayer of hostile heroes, quickly built his brother a hermitage. The hut was spacious and made of leaves bonded with mud on to firm uprights, with rafters of long bamboos, and it was skilfully decorated. The handsome Laksmana then went to the river Godāvarī, bathed, picked some lotuses and came back with some fruit. He made an offering of flowers and duly pronounced a blessing, then showed the completed hermitage to Rāma. The Rāghava looked over the shady hermitage with Sītā and was highly delighted by the leaf-hut. In his delight he threw his arms around Laksmana and spoke with heartfelt affection. 'Well done, mighty brother! What you have achieved deserves the hug I've given you. My righteous father lives on in you, Laksmana, his thoughtful, grateful, right-minded son.'
With these words to Laksmana, the fortune-conferring [14.28–9] Rāghava settled into that place of abundant fruit, at ease and master of himself, and for some time the righteous man lived there attended by Sītā and Lak ma a like an immortal in heaven.
One day, when they had bathed, Rāma, Sītā and Saumitri [16.1–11] returned from the banks of the Godāvarī to their own hermitage. On their arrival at the hermitage the Rāghava performed the morning rite and entered the hut with Laksmana. Seated inside the hut with Sītā, mighty Rāma was resplendent as the Moon with Citrā as he and his brother Laksmana told stories. As Rāma sat there, engrossed in the storytelling, a certain _rāksasī_ happened to come to that spot; she was sister to the _rāk asa_ Daśagrīva, Śūrpa akhā by name. As she passed she saw Rāma sitting there like one of the Thirty Gods: with his lion-chest, his powerful arms and his lotus-petal eyes, tender by nature, noble in character, he was every inch a king. Rāma was dark as a blue lotus, he rivalled Kandarpa in splendour, he was the equal of Indra, and the sight infatuated the _rāksasī_. Pot-bellied was she while he was slim-waisted, her eyes were hideous while his were shapely, her hair copper-coloured but his beautiful, she was misshapen and he well proportioned, her voice was harsh and his melodious, she was a vicious crone while he was a gentle youth, her words were devious but his were frank, she was wicked but he was proper, she was repulsive and he attractive: yet that ugly _rāksasī_ was seized by lust and spoke to the handsome Rāma: 'What are you doing in this _rāksasa_ -infested place, wearing your hair matted like the ascetics do, but carrying a bow and arrows, your wife at your side?'
In answer to the _rāksasī_ Sūrpa akhā, the high-principled [16.12–16] conqueror began to tell her everything. 'There was a king called Daśaratha who was equal to the Thirty in valour. I am his eldest son; my name is Rāma, and I am well known to all. This is my devoted younger brother, Laksmana, and this is Vaidehī my wife, the famous Sītā. At the command of my royal father, who was coerced by one of my mothers, I have come to live in the forest to further righteousness and pursue it. Now I should like you to introduce yourself. Please tell me who you are, of what family and why you are here: tell me everything.'
[16.17–24] Hearing this the _rāksasī_ , tormented by passion, replied, 'Listen Rāma, and I'll tell you everything. I am a _rāksasī_ , and can assume any form. My name is Sūrpanakhā and I roam about in the forest alone, terrorizing everyone. The chief of the _rāk asas_, Rāvana by name, is a brother of mine; so is mighty Kumbhakarna, sunk in perpetual sleep; another, Vibhī a a, is righteous, and shunned by other _rāk asas_; and my brothers Khara and Dū a a are famous for their bravery in battle. Never mind them, Rāma; it's you I have sought out to be my exalted husband; I was smitten by love before ever I saw you. Be my husband for ever! Why bother with Sītā? She's ugly and deformed and not worthy of you. But I'm suited to you – consider me your wife. I'll devour that ugly, unchaste, gaping, pot-bellied mortal woman, and that brother of yours. Then, my beloved, you shall roam the Dandakas with me, and see the mountain-peaks, and all the woods.'
[16.25(); ()17.1–5] Hearing this, eloquent Kākutstha prepared a mocking reply for the wild-eyed _rāk asī_. Rāma smiled, then spoke to the lovelorn Sūrpa akhā in gentle, inviting tones: 'Madam, I am already married: this is my dear wife. A woman like you would find the existence of a rival galling. But my younger brother here is honourable, attractive and handsome, and he's not married; the hero's name is Lak ma a. He's an attractive young bachelor, eager to find a wife. A man of such character will make you a fitting husband. Enjoy my brother as your husband without a rival, lady with the beauteous eyes and shapely hips, like the sun in its splendour enjoys mount Meru.'
[17.6–7] At Rāma's words the infatuated _rāksasī_ abandoned him at once and said to Laksmana, 'I cleave to you, a man of such character, as your fair-skinned wife; you shall roam freely with me throughout the Dandakas.'
[17.8–12] Hearing the _rāksasīs_ words, Sumitrā's smooth-tongued son Laksmana smiled and replied in the same vein to Sūrpanakhā: 'But I am subservient to my noble brother. Why should you, fair as the lotus, want to become the wife – the slave – of a slave? Become this wealthy nobleman's junior wife. Then you can rejoice in your success, with your beauteous eyes and flawless complexion, for he'll desert that ugly, unchaste, gaping, pot-bellied hag of a wife so he can possess you. What man of discrimination would abandon your beautiful figure, your fair complexion and shapely hips, in favour of mortal women?'
The gaping, pot-bellied _rāksasī_ did not see the joke and [17.13–16] thought Laksmana's words sincere. Crazed with lust, she told Rāma, that invincible warrior, as he sat in the hut with Sītā at his side, 'It's out of regard for this ugly, unchaste, gaping, pot-bellied hag of a wife that you don't value me! I'm going to devour this mortal woman, now, while you watch! Then, with no rival, I shall roam freely with you.'
Her eyes blazed as she spoke, and she pounced in a frenzy [17.17–20] upon her doe-eyed rival, like a great meteor attacking Rohi ī. Her attack was like the noose of Death, but wrathful Rāma overpowered her with great strength, and told Laksmana, 'Good Saumitri, never try joking with cruel, uncivilized people. Just look at Vaidehī, she's half dead! You'd better mutilate this ugly, unchaste, lascivious, big-bellied _rāksasī_ , you tiger of a man.'
At these words the mighty Laksmana angrily drew his sword [17.21–4] and cut off her ears and nose while Rāma watched. Shorn of her ears and nose, the savage Sūrpanakhā dashed back through the forest, shrieking raucously. Spattered with blood, the misshapen, savage _rāksasī_ was roaring and bellowing like a monsoon cloud; the fierce-faced _rāksasī_ scattered gore on all sides as she ran into the great forest, roaring and clutching at herself.
The _rāksasa_ Khara flew into a rage when he saw his sister [18.1–9] lying there, blood-spattered and disfigured. 'Who has brought you to this deathly state?' he demanded, 'You, so full of strength and courage, who wander about freely and change your shape at will? What god, _gandharva_ , ghost or noble sage has had the strength to mutilate you? There's no one that I know of in the world capable of crossing me, apart from great Indra, the Thousand-eyed Punisher of Pāka. I'll seek out his life-breath this very day with mortal arrows, like a _sārasa_ separating out milk mixed in water to drink. Whose foaming red gore shall the earth drink up when I have slain him in battle, my arrow piercing his vitals? Birds shall flock to the battlefield to tear the flesh from his corpse and devour it in delight – but from whose body? Not gods nor _gandharvas_ , not _piśācas_ nor _rāksasas_ will be able to save that wretch when I have laid him low in warfare. When you've had time to collect your wits, you must tell me what villain has overpowered you in the forest.'
[18.10–16] The rage in her brother's words prompted Sūrpanakhā to declare through her tears, 'There were two of them. They were young and handsome, they were dainty, they were powerful, their eyes were like huge lotuses, and they were dressed in bark cloth and black-antelope hides; each could rival the king of the _gandharvas_ , each was every inch a king. I can't work out whether they were gods or mortals. And I could see a young woman between them – she was handsome and slender waisted, with an array of ornaments. It's that slag's fault – that pair's companion – that I've been brought to this state, as if I were wanton and had no one to protect me. When that pair and their whore have been killed in combat, I want to drink their foaming blood. To drink her blood and theirs on the battlefield, that's my greatest wish, and I'm looking to you, brother dear, to fulfil it.'
[18.17–20] In response, the furious Khara gave orders to fourteen mighty, Deathlike _rāk asas_. 'Two men, carrying weapons but dressed in bark cloth and black-antelope hides, have brought a trollop into the wild Da aka Forest. Kill them and that slut, then come back and my sister will drink their blood. Go quickly, _rāk asas_, and destroy that pair by your own prowess; you'll fulfil my sister's dearest desire.'
[18.21(); With these orders the fourteen _rāk asas_ set off with her, like ()19.1–5] clouds driven by the wind. When they reached the Rāghava's hermitage, savage Śūrpa akhā showed the _rāk asas_ the two brothers and Sītā. They could see mighty Rāma sitting in the hut alongside Sītā Vaidehī and Laksmana. The Rāghava saw them arrive with the _rāk asī_, and said to his glorious brother Laksmana, 'Stay here a moment, Saumitri, close to Sītā; I'll kill those creatures approaching along the path with her.' Laksmana respectfully assented to what sagacious Rāma had said.
The righteous Rāghava strung his great gold-adorned bow [19.6–10] and said to the _rāksasas_ , 'We are two sons of Daśaratha, the brothers Rāma and Laksmana. We have come with Sītā to the Dandaka wilderness, to live as restrained and dutiful ascetics on fruit and roots in Da aka Forest. Why are you hostile to us? At the request of the sages I have taken up bow and arrows in the forest to kill you wicked, evil-minded creatures. Be content to halt there and don't creep forward. If you value your lives, you night-walkers, turn back.'
The fourteen spear-wielding _rāksasas_ , red-eyed and raucous, [19.11–15] savage slaughterers of brāhmans, replied in rage to the words of Rāma, his voice well modulated, his eyes fringed with red, exulting in his unheard-of valour. 'We shall vent on you the anger of our most noble master, Khara: this day we shall snatch from you your life's breath in battle. How will you be able to stand your ground in combat, one against our many, let alone put up a fight? In our hands, these clubs, spears and javelins will put an end to you, to your valour, and to that bow you are holding.'
So saying, the fourteen enraged _rāksasas_ rushed at Rāma, [19.16–22] weapons and swords uplifted. They hurled their spears at the invincible Rāghava, but Kākutstha split all fourteen spears with as many gold-adorned arrows. Next, resplendent in his great rage, the Rāghava seized fourteen radiant, whetted bolts, grasped his bow, took aim at the _rāksasas_ and discharged the arrows like Indra Satakratu does the thunderbolt. Gold-notched, well-feathered, blazing and adorned with gold, they rivalled in splendour great meteors in the sky. Their impetus drove them through the _rāksasas_ ' breasts till they emerged bloodstained and sank into the ground with a sound like a thunderbolt. Pierced to their hearts, the _rāksasas_ fell to the ground like trees torn up by the roots, gory, disfigured, lifeless.
Seeing them fallen on the ground, the _rāksasī_ was crazed [19.23–4(); ()20.1–5] with anger and terror. Again Sūrpa akhā uttered a fearful roar, shrieked wildly and hurried back to Khara. Once more she fell before him in distress, her blood partly congealed like resin on a creeper. Seeing Śūrpa akhā returned after this reverse, and again prostrate before him, Khara declared in a clear, angry voice, 'I've sent those heroic blood-guzzling _rāksasas_ about your affair – what are you moaning about now? They are ever devoted, loyal and attached to me, bent on killing, not being killed; they wouldn't fail to do my will. I want to know why you're back, writhing on the ground like a snake, and clamouring for protection. How can you bewail like someone who hasn't got a protector while I'm here to protect you? Get up, get up; don't be afraid, and give over despairing.'
[20.6–18] Khara's words soothed the dread _rāk asī_. She brushed a tear from her eye and told her brother, 'You did send those fourteen savage _rāk asa_ heroes to kill the Rāghava and Lak ma a for me; their spirits were up and they were armed with spears and javelins, but Rāma has pierced their vitals with his arrows and killed them all in battle. Seeing Rāma's great deed and those mighty warriors laid low in an instant has overwhelmed me with terror. I've come back to you for refuge, night-walker, fearful, trembling, downcast, and seeing perils on all sides. I'm sunk in a vast sea of sorrow inhabited by crocodiles of despair and wreathed with waves of horror – why won't you rescue me from it? Those flesh-eating _rāk asas_ who followed where I led have been butchered by Rāma's sharp arrows. If you've any compassion for me or for those _rāk asas_, night-walker, if you've any power or might against Rāma, eradicate this thorn of the _rāk asas_ living in Da aka Forest. If you won't kill my enemy Rāma this very day, I'll breathe my last without hesitation before your eyes. I can't imagine you being able to stand your ground in a battle with Rāma and his bow. You'll not be the hero you think yourself, the valour you parade will be false, if you can't kill those two humans, Rāma and Lak ma a. Clear out of Janasthāna quickly, you and your companions. What's the use of your staying here, you faint-hearted coward? You'll quickly be overcome by Rāma's valour; you'll be annihilated. This is Rāma, Daśaratha's dauntless son! And the one who disfigured me is his indomitable brother!'
Śūrpa akhā's rant made the harsh hero Khara speak even [21.1–6] more harshly before the assembled _rāk asas_. 'Your contempt arouses unparalleled anger in me, irresistible as the salt sea surge,' he brayed. 'My valour sets no store by this short-lived mortal: today Rāma will draw his last breath, slain for his own crimes. Stop sobbing! Don't get so worked up! I'm the one to dispatch Rāma and his brother to Yama's realm. Today, my _rāksasī_ , you shall drink Rāma's warm, red blood as he lies at his last gasp on the ground, a victim of my axe.' Delighted to hear these words fall from Khara's lips, the imbecile again praised her brother as the best of _rāksasas_.
Scolded by her one minute and praised the next, Khara [21.7–12] then said to his general, Dūsa a by name, 'Marshal fourteen thousand reckless _rāksasas_ loyal to me, general. They must be steadfast in battle, the colour of black clouds, savage and vicious; they must delight in gratuitous violence; they must be zealously ferocious, proud as tigers, gaping-jawed and powerful; they must stop at nothing. Get my chariot ready quickly, with my bows and glittering arrows, and my swords; and sharpen every spear. I have decided to lead the noble Paulastyas into battle myself to slay that villain Rāma by my prowess.'
Even as he was speaking, Dūsa a brought for his inspection [21.13–16] a great sun-coloured chariot harnessed with fine greys. It looked like mount Meru's peak, ornamented with refined gold, golden-wheeled, spacious, with a pole made of beryl; on all sides appeared fish, flowers, trees, mountains, golden suns and moons, and auspicious stars and flocks of birds; it was decked with his standard and swords, adorned with bells and harnessed with fine horses. Into that chariot stepped vengeful Khara.
Seeing him in the chariot, the ruthless _rāk asas_ formed up [21.17–22] round him and the mighty Dū a a. From his stance on the chariot, Khara surveyed the _rāk asa_ host, the archers with their terrible shields, weapons and standards, and gave the order, 'March!' The _rāk asa_ army with their terrible shields, weapons and standards marched rapidly out from Janasthāna, raising raucous roars. In their hands they grasped dreadful-looking weapons, mallets, javelins, pikes, keen axes, swords, discuses, glittering lances, spears, terrible maces, enormous bows, clubs, scimitars, pestles, bolts. Loyal to Khara, fourteen thousand ferocious _rāk asas_ marched out from Janasthāna.
[21.23–5(); Seeing the onrush of those ruthless _rāk asas_, Khara moved ()22.1–17] his chariot into the lead; obedient to Khara's command, the charioteer whipped up the greys adorned with gold, and the chariot of triumphant Khara raced along, till every direction rang with the din. As they marched on, a huge turbulent cloud, tawny as a donkey, showered a rain of blood down upon that savage force, an evil portent. The swift horses drawing the chariot stumbled for no reason on a level, flower-strewn part of the highway. A dark, blood-bordered halo, like a ring of fire, began to blot out the sun. Then a hideous, huge-bodied vulture came and perched on the upraised, gold-shafted standard, clawing at it. The raucous, flesh-eating wildlife that ranged Janasthāna region each uttered their discordant calls. Inauspicious for the fiends, fierce jackals hurled fearful howls into the blazing sky. The heavens were obscured by terrible thunderclouds like riven mountains, raining blood. Deep gloom descended, hair-raising and horrific, till nothing could be seen clearly in any direction. An untimely twilight glowed like wet blood and savage beasts and birds cried out in Khara's path. Fierce-faced jackals, ever bringers of doom in war, howled before the force, their muzzles belching flame. Clouds like clubs surrounded the sun; the great planet Rāhu eclipsed the sun, though it was not the nodal time. The wind blew strongly, the sun lost its lustre and stars flickered like fireflies though it was not night. Pools, the haunt of fish and birds, had their lotuses shrivelled; trees were stripped of flowers and fruit on the instant; clouds of tawny dust were thrown up without any wind; mynahs started shrieking ' _vīcīkūcī_ '. Crashing meteors hurtled frighteningly down upon the earth, setting its mountains, forests and woods reeling; standing bellowing in his chariot, Khara felt his left arm throb. Khara understood. His voice dried up, his eyes filled with tears as he watched it all, his forehead began to ache; fool that he was, he did not turn back.
[22.18–24] Khara laughed at the horrendous portents he saw occurring, and addressed all the _rāk asas_: 'My courage is such that I care as little about the fearsome portents that are occurring as a strong man does about weaklings. I could even tumble the stars out of heaven with my sharp arrows; my anger can make Death subject to the rule of dying. That I should turn back before my sharp arrows have slain this Rāghava who exults in his might, and his brother Lak ma a too! _That_ I could not endure. My sister's desire to drink their blood shall be satisfied; disaster awaits Rāma and Lak ma a. Never before have I been defeated in war. I declare this before you all without falsehood. When my anger is up I could kill the king of the gods in battle, even if he were riding Airāvata in rut and wielding his thunderbolt, so why not this pair of mere mortals?'
The _rāk asa's_ huge army were immeasurably delighted to [22.25–33] hear this bombast, for they were snared in Death's noose. Khara's chariot dashed him along at the head of his army, prompting the _rāk asas_ to dash along all the more recklessly. Twelve great heroes surrounded Khara as he led the charge: Śyenagāmin, P thugrīva, Yajñaśatru, Vihamgama, Durjaya, Karavīrāk a, Paru a, Kālakārmuka, Meghamālin, Mahāmālin, Sarpāsya and Rudhirāśana, while four generals, Mahākapāla, Sthūlāk a, Pramāthin and Triśiras, brought up the rear with Dū a a.
As audacious Khara reached the hermitage, Rāma and his [23.1–12] brother noticed the portents. At the sight of those fearful, hair-raising portents that bode disaster for men he told Laksmana, 'Look at these doom-laden portents, mighty brother, welling up all around for the ruin of _rāksasas_. There are ragged clouds, raucous and donkey-grey, careering about the sky, showering blood. All my smoking arrows are twitching, Laksmana, and my gilded bows too, rejoicing at the prospect of war. To judge by the cries of the birds ranging the forest, some danger, some hazard to our lives, has arisen. I'm sure there's going to be an almighty battle; the throbbing in my arm proclaims it repeatedly. Victory is close for us, and defeat for our enemy, my hero; I can see it in your steady, shining face. Slaughter awaits anyone who goes to war without the light of battle in his eyes, Laksmana. Nevertheless, a prudent man hoping for success but fearing misfortune should take precautions for the future, so keep your bow and arrows to hand and take Vaidehī to find refuge in an inaccessible mountain cave screened by trees. You're not to disobey this command; swear by my feet,* then go without delay, my boy.'
[23.13–16] At Rāma's words, Laksmana picked up his bow and arrows and took refuge with Sītā in an inaccessible cave. Once Laksmana and Sītā were inside the cave, Rāma exclaimed, 'Well now, I'm ready,' and donned his coat of mail. Adorned with that fiery coat of mail, Rāma blazed out in the darkness like a smokeless fire; as he took up a heroic stance there, grasping his great bow and seizing his arrows, he filled all regions with the sound of his bowstring.
[23.19–27] Then an army of fiends, growling and terrible with their armour, weapons and standards, broke cover on all sides, roaring like lions, bellowing at one another, twanging their bows, yelling and blaring and beating their drums till the hullabaloo filled the forest, frightening the beasts of prey living there into stampeding to a quieter spot without a backward glance. Armed to the teeth, the host surged forward, creeping up on Rāma like the swelling sea. The skilful warrior Rāma cast his eye all around and observed that Khara's army was eager and ready for battle. Drawing arrows from his quiver, he bent his dread bow and summoned up intense anger for the slaughter of all _rāksasas_ , anger which made him as hard to look at as the blazing Doomsday Fire. Seeing him cloaked in splendour, the forest deities trembled, as in his anger Rāma looked like the frenzied Siva about to destroy Daksa's sacrifice.
[24.1–9] As Khara approached the hermitage with his company, he saw Rāma the warrior angrily grasping his bow. At the sight he flourished his ready-strung, harsh-sounding bow and urged his charioteer on towards Rāma. Obedient to his order to urge on the chariot, the charioteer whipped up the horses towards where mighty Rāma stood alone, brandishing his bow. Seeing him attack, the night-walkers all closed ranks in escort round him, bellowing mightily, till Khara, riding his chariot amid the fiends, looked like Lohitā ga risen amid the stars. Then all the furious night-walkers rained their many weapons down on the invincible Rāma with his dread bow – iron hammers, pikes, darts, swords and axes – as the raging _rāksasas_ joined battle with Rāma. The _rāksasa_ troops swooped on Kākutstha Rāma with the force and din of thunderclouds in their eagerness to kill him in battle, showering Rāma with arrows like great clouds raining in torrents on the king of mountains.
Encircled by these fierce troops of _rāk asas_, the Rāghava [24.10–14] looked like the Great God amid his troops of attendants on festal days. With his arrows the Rāghava blocked all the weapons loosed on him by the fiends, like the sea absorbing the inflow of rivers. With his limbs pierced by these terrible weapons, Rāma still trembled no more than a great mountain at a host of blazing lightning bolts. Rāma was wounded in every limb and smeared with blood, so that the Rāghava now looked like the sun obscured by sunset clouds. Gods and _gandharvas, siddhas_ and matchless sages then despaired at the sight of one man encircled by many thousands.
Then raging Rāma arced his bow and fired off sharp arrows [24.15–20] by the hundred and thousand. Unwavering arrows, heron-feathered, hard to avoid, hard to suffer, like the noose of Death in battle, Rāma loosed them playfully. Playfully loosed by Rāma against the enemy army, the arrows snatched the life-breath from the _rāksasas_ like nooses tied by Time. Flying through the air and tearing through the _rāksasas_ ' bodies, those arrows bathed in blood till they shone with the splendour of blazing fires. Countless the arrows that flew from Rāma's bent bow, savagely snatching the life-breath from the _rāksasas_ : bows, crests of standards, armour, heads, arms complete with hands and ornaments, thighs like elephants' trunks, by the hundred and by the thousand the arrows sliced them off for Rāma in his battle.
The night-walkers raised a terrible howl of torment as the [24.21–8(); ()25.22–3] supple shafts, spiked and sharp-pointed, tore into them. With whetted arrows piercing their vitals, that tormented army was no more comforted by Rāma than a dry forest is by fire. Some of the night-walker heroes, terrible in their might, frenziedly hurled pikes, swords and axes at Rāma, but the mighty-armed Rāghava warded off their weapons with his arrows, to sever their necks and take away their lives in battle. Tormented by the arrows, the remaining night-walkers rushed in their dismay to Khara for protection, but Dū a aa rallied and reassured them all, then rushed furiously at Kākutstha, like Death at Rudra. Sheltering behind Dū a a they were delivered from their dread; all turned back and rushed at Rāma wielding _sāl_ trees, palmyras and rocks. Again there began a prodigious, hair-raising battle, tumultuous and ferocious, between Rāma and those _rāksasas_ , until the fourteen thousand ruthless _rāksasas_ were all slain by a single human foot soldier, Rāma. Out of that whole army there remained only the warrior Khara and the _rāksasa_ Triśiras – and Rāma, exterminator of enemies.
[26.1–5] Khara was setting out against Rāma, but the _rāksasa_ general, Triśiras by name, came forward and said, 'It's brave of you, but give up this recklessness! Deploy me, and you'll see mighty-armed Rāma laid low in battle. It's the duty of all _rāksasas_ to slaughter Rāma, and I swear to you in truth, my hand on my weapon, that I will slaughter him. Either I bring about his death in battle, or he mine in the struggle. Set aside your battle-zeal and be a spectator for a moment. Either you'll go back to Janasthāna rejoicing at Rāma's fall, or if I fall you can renew hostilities with Rāma.'
[26.6–12] Triśiras gratified Khara with his readiness to die; permission to go and fight being granted, he ventured out against the Rāghava. Triśiras was like a three-peaked mountain as he rushed his shining horse-drawn chariot into battle with Rāma, he was like a great cloud pouring out torrents of arrows and thundering with the noise of a dampened kettledrum. The Rāghava noted his approach, and prepared his bow to receive the _rāksasa_ Triśiras, flourishing his sharp arrows. Then began a tumultuous great conflict between Rāma and Triśiras, like that between a lion and an elephant, both were so immensely strong. Rāma was struck on the forehead by three of Triśiras' arrows; indignant and angry, he furiously declared, 'So, this valiant _rāksasa_ hero is so strong that his arrows feel like flowers as they strike my forehead; now it's your turn to receive arrows shot from my bowstring.'
[26.13–20] With these furious words he angrily hurled at Triśiras' breast fourteen arrows, venomous as snakes. In his glory he felled the four swift steeds with four close-jointed arrows; with eight arrows he felled the charioteer on the driving-box; and with one arrow Rāma cut down the upraised standard. As the night-walker leapt from his wrecked chariot, Rāma pierced him to the heart with arrows, and he lost consciousness. In his rage that man of boundless resource lopped off the _rāk asa's_ three heads with three sharp, speedy arrows. The night-walker was agonized by Rāma's arrows; vomiting blood, he fell to the ground, his heads falling after him. Then those _rāk asas_ surrounding Khara, defeated when the rest were killed, remained no longer but fled like deer frightened by a tiger. Seeing them flee, Khara turned in fury and rushed at Rāma himself, like Rāhu at the Moon.
Seeing Dū a a and Triśiras slain in combat, Khara too was [27.1–16] filled with dread at the sight of Rāma's prowess. He saw that Rāma, single-handed, had slain the invincible, mighty _rāk asa_ army, and even Dū a a and Triśiras: he saw his troop all but exterminated, yet the demented _rāk asa_ Khara attacked Rāma, as Namuci did Indra Vāsava. Khara drew back his powerful bow and launched bloodthirsty bolts at Rāma, venomous as angry snakes. Twanging his bowstring repeatedly and displaying his weaponry with skill, the chariot-borne Khara carved out a path with his arrows. Rāma, the great chariot-warrior with the huge bow, saw him and filled every direction with arrows, invincible arrows like sparkling fires, making the sky impenetrable, as if he were Parjanya with his rain. Everywhere was a press of arrows, the surrounding space was crammed with the arrows Khara and Rāma were shooting, the sun was blotted out, invisible through the curtain of arrows as they fought together in their eagerness to kill each other. Rāma was struck in the battle by supple shafts, spiked and sharp-pointed, like an elephant struck by goads. All creatures watched the _rāk asa_, at the ready on his chariot, bow in hand like Death gripping his noose, bold as a lion, pacing like a lion, yet Rāma trembled no more at the sight than a lion at a puny deer. Then Khara hurtled his great sunlike chariot towards Rāma in the fray, like a moth towards a flame. In a display of dexterity he shot through Rāma's bow and arrow at the handgrip, then furiously seized another seven arrows splendid as Sakra's thunderbolt, and struck him in the fray on his armour; struck by the well-jointed arrows Khara sent, that cuirass fell to the ground from sun-splendid Rāma.
[27.17–22] Stung into anger by the arrows in all his limbs, Rāma the Rāghava shone in combat like a blazing, smokeless fire. Then Rāma the foe-crusher strung another great deep-roaring bow to make an end of his enemy, and rushed towards Khara, wielding the fine huge Vai ava bow a great sage had presented to him. Raging in the fray, Rāma severed Khara's standard with gold-notched, close-jointed arrows, shattering the imposing golden standard and bringing it to the ground like the sun at the command of the gods. Khara was infuriated. He knew the vulnerable points and pierced Rāma's limbs to the quick with four arrows; he was like an elephant pierced by lances.
[27.23–8] Rāma was incensed by the many arrows shot from Khara's bow and streaking his limbs with blood. That supreme bowman, that champion archer gripped his bow and defiantly sent off six selected arrows, striking him on the head with one, then on the arms with two, and on the chest with three half-moon-headed arrows. After that, glorious in his anger and eager to kill the _rāksasa_ , he seized thirteen sunlike, whetted bolts, sliced through Khara's yoke with one, his four horses with four and his charioteer's head with a sixth; with three the mighty hero smashed the triple pole, with two the axle, and Khara's bow and arrow with his twelfth arrow; and with the thirteenth thunderbolt of an arrow, Indra's equal, the Rāghava, ripped and tore Khara open with savage mockery.
[30.1–3(); ()31.1–21] Then Sūrpa akhā again thundered and roared like a cloud to see the fourteen thousand ruthless _rāk asas_ slain by Rāma alone, and Dū a a, Khara and Triśiras slaughtered. At the sight of Rāma performing a deed so difficult for others, she fled in extreme terror to La kā, Rāva a's realm. The miserable Sūrpa akhā spoke harsh, angry words in the midst of the court to Rāva a, to him who makes the world cry out: 'You're so besotted in the enjoyment of your lusts, you're so self-willed, so unbridled! You don't appreciate the terrible danger that's
arisen! It demands your attention! A king addicted to vulgar pleasures, hedonistic and greedy as a funeral fire, arouses no respect in his subjects. A king who puts off shouldering his responsibilities in person is destroyed: himself, kingdom and responsibilities too. A king employing no spies, or unapproachable, or not independent, is widely shunned, like river mud by elephants. Kings who don't safeguard the independence of their realms remain obscure, like mountains growing under the sea. How can you rule in such a haphazard way, employing no spies in your struggle against the self-controlled gods, _gandharvas_ and _dānavas_? Kings are no better than commoners, you supreme -conqueror, if their spies, treasury and policy are not under their control. It's because kings see everything that's going on a long way off through their spies that rulers are called far-sighted. It's my belief you haven't got any spies. You're surrounding yourself with common companions, so you don't realize your own subjects are being destroyed, and Janasthāna too. Rāma, single-handed, has slain fourteen thousand ruthless _rāk asas_, and Khara and Dū a a as well. That
tireless Rāma has freed the sages from fear, made the Da akas safe and violated Janasthāna. But you're so greedy, Rāva a, so besotted, so abject, you don't realize the danger that's arisen in your realm. In bad times no one runs to a king who's irritable, niggardly, besotted, haughty and deceitful. In bad times even his own people will kill a king who's overweening, unapproachable, conceited and wrathful. If he doesn't discharge his obligations or take proper heed of danger he quickly falls from his kingdom in misery, like chaff. Dry sticks can be put to good use, so can clods, so can dust, but rulers ousted from their position are of no use. Even a capable one is useless when he's ousted from his kingdom, like cast-off clothes or a bruised garland. To last for long a king needs to be wary, omniscient, disciplined, grateful, law-abiding. To be honoured by his subjects a king must be awake via the organs of the state even when his own eyes are fast asleep; his pleasure and displeasure must be clear. But you, Rāva a, lack these qualities, you simpleton, and no spies have reported to you the enormous slaughter of _rāk asas_.'
[32.1–3] Then in the midst of the court Rāva a angrily interrupted the angry Sūrpa akhā's strident complaint, asking, 'Who is Rāma? What's his courage made of? What does he look like? How strong is he? What's his purpose in venturing into the impenetrable Da aka Forest? What weapon did Rāma kill the _rāk asas_ with, and Khara in the battle, and Dū a a, and Triśiras too?'
[32.4–11] In answer to the _rāk asa_ lord, the _rāk asī_, crazed with anger, began a systematic description of Rāma. 'Rāma son of Daśaratha has long arms and broad eyes; he wears bark cloth and black-antelope hides, but he's as handsome as Kandarpa. He draws a gold-bound bow like Sakra's, and hurls blazing bolts venomous as snakes. I couldn't see mighty Rāma as he chose his fierce arrows, or fired them off, or bent his bow in the battle; but I could see that army being mown down by storms of arrows like fine corn mown down by storms of Indra's bolts. Fourteen thousand ruthless _rāk asas_ slaughtered by the sharp arrows of that one foot soldier, and in half a moment more, Khara and Dū a a too! The sages have been made free from fear, the Da akas have been made safe. I'm the only one left that managed to escape; noble, learned Rāma baulked at killing a woman.
[32.12–23] 'He's got a glorious brother, heroic Laksmana, who's loyal and devoted to him, and just as brave and accomplished: he's easily roused, an invincible conqueror, bold, intelligent and powerful; he's Rāma's right-hand man, he's ever his second self. Rāma has a splendid broad-eyed wife; he's married to Sītā Vaidehī, and she's got curvaceous hips and a slender waist. Never before on earth have I seen goddess, _gandharvī, yaksī, kinnarī_ or mortal woman with such a figure. A man embraced by the joyful Sītā as his wife would bask in a better life than Indra Puramdara has in all the worlds. She's compliant, a paragon of beauty and unrivalled in shapeliness on earth. She'd be just the wife for you, and you'd be just the husband for her. I'm prepared to bring you this woman with the wide hips, this woman with the full, raised breasts, this woman with the fair face, to be your wife. Gaze on that Vaidehī today, on her face like the full moon, and you'll be smitten by Manmatha's arrows. If desire to possess her as your wife is welling up in you, then take prompt steps toward the conquest. Slaughter this cruel Rāma living in his hermitage, _rāksasa_ lord, and you'll benefit these _rāksasas_ too. When you've killed him and warlike Laksmana with your sharp arrows you'll be at liberty to enjoy Sītā to the full, with her protector dead. If my suggestion is agreeable to you, Rāva a, lord of the _rāksasas_ , act on it without delay!'
Hearing Sūrpa akhā's hair-raising story the lord of the [33.1–38] _rāk asas_ decided what to do, dismissed his counsellors and went out. He went in secret to his coach-house and ordered his charioteer to get his chariot ready, then journeyed to the opposite shore of that Lord of Rivers, the Ocean, where, in a holy, solitary, pleasant forest-hinterland he saw a hermitage. There he could see an abstemious _rāk asa_ called Mārīca, clothed in black-antelope hide, with matted hair and wearing bark cloth. Rāva a approached that _rāk asa_, and after the due courtesies, exercised his powers of persuasion.
'My dear Mārīca, listen to what I'm going to tell you. I'm in [34.1–20] trouble and you're my last hope in my trouble. You know Janasthāna? Where my brother Khara, and brawny Dū ana, and my sister Sūrpa akhā, and the glorious man-eating _rāk asa_ Triśiras and a lot more tried and tested night-walkers, _rāk asa_ warriors, make their homes under my authority in the great forest to hinder the sages from performing their duties? Fourteen thousand ruthless _rāksasas_ there were, tried and tested warriors, loyal to Khara. Well, this mighty force, on the alert in their Janasthāna home, went into battle against Rāma, and this Rāma, with his battle-fury aroused but never a harsh word being spoken, so busied his bow with arrows that the fourteen thousand ferociously stalwart _rāk asas_ were slain by the sharp arrows of that human foot soldier! Khara was killed in battle; Dū ana fell; Triśiras was killed, and the Da akas liberated from fear. That Rāma's a disgrace to the _ksatriyas_ , so his angry father banished him and his wife, and it's him that's slain that army. He's not got long to live! This dissolute, brutal, cruel, foolish, greedy, self-indulgent, unprincipled, immoral, sadistic brute, relying solely on his superior nature,
with no provocation, here in the forest, disfiguring a sister of mine! He's cut off her ears and nose! His wife Sītā's fit to be the daughter of a god; I'm going to snatch her away from Janasthāna, and you're going to help me. With you to help me, my hero, with you and my brothers to back me I wouldn't think twice about fighting all the gods together. So do help me, _rāksasa_ , for it lies in your power. There's no one to equal you in bravery, in battle and in spirit. That's why I've come to see you, night-walker; listen while I tell you what you're to do to help me. Turn yourself into a golden deer dappled with drops of silver and wander about at this Rāma's hermitage in front of Sītā. When she sees you in the form of a deer, there's no doubt Sītā will tell her husband and Laksmana to go and catch it. Then, while those two are away and the place is empty, I'll make off with Sītā with no one to disturb my pleasure, as Rāhu does with the Moon's radiance. Making off with his wife will weaken Rāma, so I'll easily be able to attack him afterwards, with confidence and a contented heart.'
[34.21; 35.1–7] Noble Mārīca's mouth dried up when he heard this tale about Rāma. He was terrified. Mārīca was very astute and when he heard what the _rāk asa_ ruler had to say, he used his eloquence to dissuade the lord of the _rāk asas_. 'Your majesty, yes-men are ten a penny; one who'll tell you, for your own good, what you don't want to hear is one in a million. You're not aware of Rāma's great heroism and elevated nature, that's obvious – you rule haphazardly and employ no spies. He's like great Indra and Varuna put together! May all turn out well, my lord, for all _rāk asas_ on earth; may Rāma not be provoked into ridding the world of _rāk asas_. May it not be that Janaka's daughter was born to put an end to your life, and may no great disaster occur because of Sītā. Now that you have become lord of La kā, licentious and unbridled as you are, may the city not be destroyed together with you and the _rāk asas_; for an ill-disposed king of your sort, licentious, dissolute and ill-advised, destroys his own people and realm with himself.
[35.8–22] 'He's not been cast adrift by his father, and he's not the least unrestrained; he's not greedy, he's not dissolute, and he's not a disgrace to the _ksatriyas_ ; he lacks none of the virtues, he's a growing joy to Kausalyā! He's not cruel, he's eager to benefit all. He saw that Kaikeyī had taken advantage of his father's integrity and righteously assented to become a forest-wanderer. To satisfy the wishes of Kaikeyī and of his father Daśaratha he renounced both the kingdom and its delights and went into Da aka Forest. Rāma is not brutal, sir, he's not ignorant, he's not self-indulgent. It's a lying rumour and you shouldn't repeat it. Rāma is righteousness personified, virtuous and truly brave; he's the king of the whole world, like Indra Vāsava is of the gods. How do you expect to lay violent hands on his Vaidehī? She's guarded by her own glory, brilliant as the sun. The Rāma-flame flares up quickly: it's irresistible, it's fuelled by battle-bows and swords, its blazing maw is agape with his bow, its rays are arrows – arrows! Keep out of it! That hero will put up with nothing! The bows and arrows he bears can destroy whole armies of enemies! Don't abandon your kingdom, your happiness, your own dear life, sir; don't go too far and challenge Death in the form of Rāma. The lord of Janaka's daughter is boundless in his glory. She has entrusted herself in the forest to Rāma's bow, and you're not capable of carrying her off. Slender-waisted Sītā his wife is dearer to him than life, and she's as constant in her devotion to him as flame is to a burning fire. What's the point of executing this vain plan of yours, king of the _rāk asas_? If he sees you in battle, your life's over; life, happiness and kingdom are all too easily lost. Consult all your most virtuous ministers, chiefly Vibhī a a, before reaching your decision; consider its strengths and weaknesses, its defects and advantages; work out realistically your own strength and the Rāghava's, and decide where your advantage lies before doing what's best.
'At one time I too used to roam the earth in my boldness. I ()36.1–12 ()was like a mountain. I had the strength of a thousand elephants. Like black clouds I spread terror through the world, wearing my earrings of refined gold and my diadem; armed with my mace, I wandered through Da aka Forest, feasting on the flesh of sages. The righteous sage Viśvāmitra was so terrified of me that he went in person to King Daśaratha to ask, 'Let steadfast Rāma here protect me at the nodal time from Mārīca, your Majesty, for I'm overwhelmed by terrible fear." Righteous King Daśaratha then replied to the request of the distinguished sage Viśvāmitra: 'The Rāghava is a child! He's twelve years old, and he's untrained in weaponry, but I'll take my army and I'll kill your enemy at your request, excellent sage." At these words the sage replied to the king, "Against this _rāksasa_ no other power on earth is adequate except Rāma. Child though he is, he is glorious and capable of punishing him. Give me Rāma, and I will go. My blessing on you, destroyer of foes." At these words Viśvāmitra the sage was given the prince; he went to his own hermitage in delight, and consecrated himself for his sacrifice in Da aka Forest. Then Rāma stood guard over him, flexing his decorated bow. Rāma was a handsome, swarthy, beardless boy with fine eyes, dressed in nothing but one garment; bow in hand, tonsured, garlanded with gold and lighting up Da aka Forest with his own blazing glory, he was like the newly risen infant moon.
[36.13–19] 'Then, wearing my earrings of refined gold, like a thundercloud in my arrogance, relying on the power of a boon I'd been granted, I approached that hermitage. He saw me as I burst in with weapon upraised, but was unruffled by the sight and strung his bow. In my delusion I despised the Rāghava as a mere boy, and rushed recklessly at that altar of Viśvāmitra's. It was then he let fly an arrow, a sharp foe-crusher, that struck me and hurled me a hundred _yojanas_ into the sea. I was battered into unconsciousness by the force of Rāma's arrow as it flung me along and plunged me into the ocean depths. When at last I recovered consciousness, sir, I made my way towards the city of La kā. That's how I escaped, while my companions were cut down by tireless Rāma, a child untrained in weaponry. If you make war on Rāma despite my warnings, you'll swiftly meet with a terrible disaster; you'll be destroyed.
[37.1–14] 'That's how I managed to escape my battle with him, but now listen to what happened next. Unabashed at my treatment, I entered the Daņ aka wood accompanied by two _rāksasas_ in the form of deer. I roamed about in Da aka Forest as a great deer with blazing tongue, huge body and sharp horns, a mighty meat-eater. I was ferocious beyond measure, Rāva a, and I wandered about harassing the ascetics at their fire-offerings, their bathing places and their sacred trees. I slaughtered the ascetics as they performed their duties in Da aka Forest; I drank their blood and devoured their flesh, then, drunk with blood, I roamed through the Da aka wood, brutally eating sages' flesh and terrorizing the forest-dwellers. While I was wandering in Da aka Forest in defiance of the right, I came across Rāma; he was now an ascetic resorting to right, with distinguished Vaidehī and the great warrior Laksmana, an abstemious ascetic beneficent to all. I despised mighty Rāma now he had come to the forest – thinking him no more than an ascetic – so remembering our earlier hostility I rushed upon him in my rage in my guise of a sharp-horned deer, recklessly eager to kill him, as I remembered that fight. He drew back his bow with might and let fly three arrows, sharp foe-crushers, swift as birds or the wind. These terrible thunderbolts of arrows, bloodthirsty and close-jointed, flew all three together. Knowing Rāma's power and the fear I had felt before, I slyly dodged and was saved, but both _rāksasas_ were killed. Rāma's arrow missed me, and I managed to save my life.
'That's why I now wander about here as a disciplined, steadfast [37.14–19] ascetic. For in tree after tree I see Rāma, clothed in bark and black-antelope hides, grasping his bow, like Death, noose in hand. In my fear, Rāva a, I can even see thousands of Rāmas. This whole forest seems to me to have turned into Rāma. I can see Rāma in any deserted spot, king of the _rāk asas_. I see Rāma coming at me in my dreams and start up out of my wits. Names beginning with r, Rāva a, from rubies to rickshaws, strike terror in me, I'm so terrified of Rāma. It's my opinion, I who know his might, that war with him is out of the question for you. Fight a battle with Rāma, _rāk asa_, or don't, but if you want to see me again, tell me no more tales about Rāma.'
Like a suicide refusing medicine, Rāva a refused Mārīca's [38.1–19] advice, apt and fitting though it was. Spurred on by Time, the lord of _rāk asas_ made a harsh, inappropriate reply to Mārīca's salutary, beneficial admonition. 'Indeed, Mārīca, your inept advice will bear no more fruit than seed sown in a desert. Your
speeches can't dissuade me from fighting Rāma. He's dissolute, he's foolish, and above all he's human, for he's abandoned friends, kingdom, mother and father, and come hotfoot to the forest at the word of a common woman. Sītā's dearer than life to the man who killed Khara in battle; I'm going to snatch her in your presence, and that's that. I've made up my mind about it, Mārīca, I've set my heart on it, and all the gods and anti-gods and Indra put together can't deflect me. When I consult you in planning an enterprise, you should give your advice on its defects and advantages, problems and methods. But when consulted by a king, a shrewd counsellor with an eye to his own welfare should reply with respect. Advice given to a monarch should be uncontentious, soft-spoken and cautious, elegant, advantageous and courteously phrased. But a dissenting speech devoid of deference, Mārīca, even if the content is salutary, is unwelcome to a king who deserves deference. In their infinite industry, kings display the five aspects of Agni, Indra, Soma, Yama and Varuna: fervour, heroism, gentleness, compulsion and mercy, so rulers deserve honour and respect in every situation. But you don't acknowledge what's right; you've fallen
into mere delusion. It's your depravity that makes you receive me with such harsh words. I'm not asking you about the merits and demerits of this scheme, _rāk asa_, nor about its suitability for me: your lordship will be so good as to help me achieve it. When you've turned yourself into a golden deer dappled with drops of silver and enticed Vaidehī, then you may go where you please. But when Maithilī sees you as a magic golden deer, her wonder will be roused and she'll tell Rāma to catch it quickly. With Kākutstha and Lak ma a gone off I'll carry away Vaidehī with no trouble, like Thousand-eyed Indra did Śacī. When you've finished your job, go off where you like, _rāk asa_. I'll give you half my kingdom, honest Mārīca. Off you go, good sir, on the best path for achieving my objective. When I've got hold of Sītā without a fight by deceiving the Rāghava, I'll come back successfully with you to La kā. You are going to do this job, even if I have to force you. No one prospers who stands out against a king.'
[39.1–19] Mārīca the night-walker rudely rebutted the imperious commands
of the _rāk asa_ overlord: 'What criminal has taught you how to destroy your children, country, companions, and yourself, night-walker? What criminal resents your comfort, your majesty? Who has directed your steps towards the door of Death? It must be that some cowardly enemies are seeking your injury and destruction by a stronger person, night-walker. What low-down, raving adviser has given you this advice? He wants you to bring destruction on yourself, night-walker. Rāva a, your ministers have escaped the execution they certainly deserve for not restraining you by every means from venturing on this wrong path, for a hedonistic king bent on an evil path should at all times be restrained by honest ministers; but you're not being restrained as you require. Night-walker, best of victors, it's by their master's grace that ministers achieve probity, prosperity and pleasure, fame too; but Rāva a, in misfortune all that becomes futile, and their master's faults bring disaster on others. Probity and triumph, excellent conqueror, are rooted in the king; that's why a ruler should be protected in all situations. A kingdom can't be defended, night-walker, by bad temper, nor by petulance and licence, and
ministers who advise such conduct are driven with him to destruction, like chariots smashed on uneven ground by feeble drivers. Many are the good men the world over, practised in the discipline of righteousness, who are destroyed along with their fellows through the fault of others. Subjects with an irritable, contentious master to protect them prosper no better, Rāva a, than sheep with a jackal. With you, Rāva a, as their harsh, headstrong, unbridled king, all _rāk asas_ are doomed to destruction. You are on your way to meet this dreadful end, like the Crow with the Palm Tree; what's the point of getting yourself and your army destroyed? That Rāma will kill me, but then before long it's you he'll kill. I shall welcome death from an enemy like this. Consider me slain just by the mere sight of Rāma, and rest assured that you and your family will be slain if you lay hands on Sītā. If you carry off Sītā from the hermitage with my help, then that will be the end of you, me, La kā and the _rāk asas_.'
[41.1–5] The shapely lady was picking flowers when she caught sight of him with his golden, silver-adorned flanks; she too shone like burnished gold, and her figure was perfect. She cried out in delight to her husband, and to Lak ma a standing on guard; in response that pair of tigers of men, Rāma and Lak ma a, looked all around until they saw the deer. Lak ma a was suspicious at the sight and said to Rāma, 'It's my belief that deer is the _rāk asa_ Mārīca. Kings taking their pleasure at the chase have been slain by his foul deceptions in the forest, Rāma; he can change his shape at will.'
[41.8–20] Sītā's mind was seduced by the masquerade. In her delight she rejected Kākutstha's opinion, smiled sweetly and begged, 'Prince, that delightful deer captivates my heart! Do bring it us for a pet, my hero! Here at our hermitage we have lots of pretty deer wandering about together, and we've got handsome, powerful yaks and _s maras_ wandering about too, my hero, and bears; and herds of chital and monkeys, and _kinnaras_ as well. But your Majesty, no deer like this incomparable deer has ever been seen before; it's so splendid, so tame, so sparkling! It's flecked with jewelled spots! Its limbs are dappled and variegated! It's gleaming like the moon, and lighting up the whole forest! Oh, how lovely! how graceful! what a beautiful, melodious voice! That marvellous dappled deer wellnigh enslaves my heart. If you manage to catch that deer alive, it will be a source of wonder and astonishment to ornament the inner apartments when we go back to live in your kingdom at the end of our stay in the forest. This divine deer will astonish Prince Bharata and my mothers-in-law, my hero. If you don't manage to catch that supreme deer alive, you tiger of a man, it will make me a glossy pelt; I'd love to sit on that creature's golden skin spread over a _kuśa_ grass cushion, if you'll kill it for me. It's thought shockingly improper for women to be so impulsive, but I'm wonder-struck by that creature's beauty!'
[41.21–48] The Rāghava was fascinated by that golden-coated beast with its horns of fine gems, its hue like the rising sun and its splendour like the path of the stars, so when he'd heard what Sītā had to say and examined the marvellous deer, the delighted Rāghava said to his brother Laksmana, 'Laksmana, look how
Vaidehī's yearning for this deer. Its beautiful appearance means that it won't outlive the day. There's no deer to equal it in the Nandana forest nor in the shelter of Caitraratha, Saumitri, so how could there be one on earth? Sleek or ruffled, the glossy layers of hair, dappled with drops of gold, are gleaming on that deer. Look at its tongue, blazing like the tip of a flame, flickering out of its mouth as it pants, like lightning from a cloud! Who is there that wouldn't be bewitched by that incomparable deer with its mouth of sapphire and crystal and its belly of conch and pearl? Whose mind wouldn't be carried away with wonder at the sight of this heavenly bejewelled form, radiant as gold? Laksmana, kings take their bows to hunt in the great forest and kill deer for meat as well as sport. Wealth can also, with resolution, be amassed in the great forest; various minerals too – gems, jewels and gold. But in this one place, Laksmana, the entire wealth of the world – as much as Sukra's – is overflowing! There's everything you could think of! Practical men, expert in political science, term it "expediency" when an ambitious man pursues his goal without deflection. Slender-waisted Vaidehī shall sit beside me on the magnificent golden skin of that jewel of a deer; it's my belief that neither plantains nor _priyaka_ fruit, not saddle cloth nor sheepskin could compare with its feel. This handsome deer and the divine star-ranger – star-deer and earthly deer: both deer are alike divine. You arm yourself, ready to guard Maithilī diligently: that's your job; we must always take good care of her, pride of the Raghus. I'm the one to kill or else capture this deer. While I hurry off to bring the deer, Saumitri... oh, Laksmana, just look how Vaidehī's yearning for that deer skin! Its matchless coat means that deer shall today be no more! You stay on the alert in the hermitage with Sītā, while I kill the chital with a single arrow; once it's slaughtered, Laksmana, I'll take the hide and be straight back.'
With these instructions to his brother, the glorious pride of [42.1–11] the Raghus strapped on his golden-hilted sword, picked up his triple-curved bow – an ornament in itself – and bound on two quivers; then the bold warrior set out. Mārīca noticed him leave, and in terror he vanished and reappeared, deluding the king into hurrying on, wearing his sword and carrying his bow; he could see the deer ahead of him, radiant of form. Bow in hand he kept glimpsing it as it slipped away just out of bowshot, gradually decoying him away in the great forest. Timorous and bewildered, it seemed to fly along, visible in one part of the forest, invisible in the next, like the disc of the autumn moon surrounded by broken clouds. One moment he could see it clearly, the next moment only glimpse it far away. This appearing and disappearing drew the Rāghava away. Kākutstha grew exasperated at being led on against his will, and paused in his weariness on some grass in the shade; then the deer showed itself among some wild deer close by. Glorious Rāma saw it and resolved to kill it. Setting an arrow to his unyielding bow and drawing it back with might, the mighty man fired upon that deer a blazing missile, Brahmā-made, glowing like a blazing snake.
[42.12–16] The supreme arrow struck the deer that was Mārīca with the force of a thunderbolt, piercing him to the heart. The arrow was agonizing. High as a palm tree he leapt, then crashed to the ground, roaring a terrible roar with his dying breath. Recognizing that his time had come, Mārīca abandoned his fictitious body, and cried out as he died, imitating the Rāghava's voice: 'Sītā! Laksmana!' Mortally wounded by that matchless arrow, Mārīca gave up the form of a deer and as he expired went back to his own colossal _rāk asa_ form. Slain by that arrow he became again a _rāk asa_ with fangs, adorned with colourful bangles and all sorts of ornaments, and garlanded with gold.
[42.17–21] At the sight of the dreadful-looking _rāksasa_ fallen to the ground, Rāma remembered Laksmana's warning, and his mind flew to Sītā. 'This was a _rāksasa_ , and he died screaming loudly, "Sītā! Laksmana!" How will Sītā react at the sound? What sort of a state will mighty Laksmana get into?' Righteous Rāma's hair bristled at the thought. Then was Rāma gripped by acute fear born of despair that the deer he had slain was a _rāksasa_ in disguise, and of hearing that scream; killing another chital and hastily butchering it, the Rāghava set off back towards Janasthāna.
Sītā recognized that cry of anguish from the forest. It [43.1–9] sounded like her husband. 'Go and find the Rāghava,' she told Lak ma a. 'I can never ignore violent screams from a voice in agony – my heart, my whole being won't let me! Your brother's crying out in the forest – you must rescue him! Quick, hurry to your brother. He needs your help. He must have fallen into the power of _rāk asas_, like a bull among lions!' But he remembered his brother's orders and would not go, despite her entreaties. This angered Janaka's daughter. 'Saumitri,' she told him, 'you're more like your brother's foe than his friend. Not to search for your brother in this situation! You want Rāma dead so you can get me, Lak ma a. I believe you're pleased at his trouble. You've no affection for your brother. That's why you're staying here so calmly, shutting your eyes to your brilliant brother. For as long as I'm still here, if your master's in trouble, what's to hinder you having your way with me?' Sītā Vaidehī was overwhelmed by sobs and grief as she spoke, fearful as a widowed deer.
'My lady, my beautiful lady,' replied Laksma a, 'there's no [43.10–18] one among gods and men, among _gandharvas_ and birds, among _rāksasas, piśācas_ and _kinnaras_ , animals too, and ferocious _dānavas_ , who could fight a battle against Rāma; he's the equal of Indra Vāsava! None can kill Rāma in battle. You shouldn't say such things. I daren't leave you alone in this forest without the Rāghava. His might is proof against the mighty, even against the three worlds combined, even including their lord and the immortals. Set your heart at rest; stop distressing yourself; your husband will soon come back from killing that outstanding deer. That was clearly not his voice; nor was it any of the gods. It was conjured up by that _rāksasa_ , like the city of the _gandharvas_. Noble Rāma confided you, entrusted you to me, handsome Vaidehī, and I daren't abandon you here. We've earned the enmity of these night-walkers, good madam, by killing Khara and devastating Janasthāna. All sorts of _rāksasas_ shout out in the great forest for the pleasure of making mischief. Dismiss it from your mind, Vaidehī.'
She bridled at Laksmana's words and her eyes reddened. Her [43.19–24] retort to the truthful Lak ma a was harsh. 'Ignoble, cruel man, your base behaviour is a disgrace to your family! I believe you see me as the object of your pleasure, and that's why you're talking like this. It's no surprise that such evil should occur in half-brothers like you, cruel and ever sly. It's because of me that you alone are trailing after lone Rāma in the forest; either that, or you've been secretly employed by Bharata. I have devoted myself to my husband Rāma, with his dark-blue lotus complexion and his lotus-shaped eyes; so how could I desire a common person? I'll tell you this, Saumitri: before your eyes I'll draw my last breath sooner than live even another moment on earth without Rāma.'
[43.25–31] Sītā's harsh words were enough to make his hair stand on end, but Lak ma a replied calmly, with a respectful gesture towards Sītā. 'I will venture to say no more; your ladyship is like a goddess to me. Improper speech is not unusual among women, Maithilī. It's the natural disposition of females, and it's seen the world over: women are loose, capricious, peevish mischief-makers. Let all the forest-dwellers bear witness how harshly you spoke to me when I told you the truth. Shame on you for suspecting me like that, when I was just obeying my elder brother's order. You'll very soon be the worse for it, you and your womanish, spiteful nature! I will go after Kākutstha. May all go well with you, my beauty, and may the forest deities unite to protect you, my lovely. Terrible are the omens appearing before me: I only hope I shall come back to see you and Rāma together.'
[43.32–5(); ()44.1–2] Janaka's sobbing daughter was overwhelmed by her tears, but made a trenchant reply to Lak ma a's words: 'Lak ma a, without Rāma I'll jump into the Godāvarī, or else hang myself, or hurl my body from a precipice, or drink poison, or leap into searing flames, but not even with my foot will I touch a man other than the Rāghava,' she screamed at Lak ma a in her misery. Weeping bitterly, Sītā beat her breast. The Rāghava's younger brother was enraged at being spoken to so harshly by her. Anxious to find Rāma, he set out without more ado. That was the opportunity Daśagrīva had been waiting for; in the guise of a mendicant he quickly strode up to Vaidehī.
[46.2–18] 'Fair-skinned lady, I am half-brother to Vaiśrava a; my name is Rāva a, if you please, the mighty ten-necked one! Gods and _gandharvas, piśācas_ , birds and snakes all flee from me in fright, as people always do from Death. That half-brother of mine, Vaiśrava a, had some quarrel with me, but I attacked him in my anger and defeated him in battle. It was fear of me that drove him, Naravāhana, in distress from his own wealthy home to live on excellent mount Kailāsa, while I, my dear lady, heroically commandeered his handsome chariot that can fly of its own volition, Pu paka by name, to carry me around the sky. When my rage is roused, Maithilī, the mere sight of my face makes Śakra lead the gods into terrified flight. Wherever I take up my position, the wind scarcely ventures to blow, and the sun's hot rays turn cold in fear. Wherever I am, wherever I go, the leaves on the trees stop rustling, rivers check their waters from flowing. On the further shore of the sea my fair city, La kā by name, like Indra's Amarāvatī, is filled with formidable _rāk asȧs_. It's a beautiful city, encircled by a gleaming white rampart, with golden courtyards and archways of beryl, thronged with elephants, horses and chariots, resounding with the sound of trumpets, adorned with orchards dense with trees bearing every kind of fruit you could wish for. Use your intelligence, Princess Sītā, and live there with me; you'll forget the lot of human women. You'll enjoy pleasures human and divine, fair-skinned lady, and you'll not remember human Rāma: his life's over! He's the eldest son, but his heroism's so feeble that he was sent off into the forest when King Daśaratha installed his favourite son. Why bother about that Rāma, now he's been expelled from his kingdom, broad-eyed lady? He's a wretched ascetic, out of his mind! The lord of all the _rāk asas_ has come here of his own accord, driven by desire, pierced by Manmatha's arrows: don't reject me! If in your shyness you reject me, you'll suffer the same agony that Urvaśī did when she kicked Purūravas.'
Angry Vaidehī's eyes blazed at these words, and she replied [46.19–22] harshly to the lord of the _rāk asas_ in the wilderness, 'Vaiśrava a is a god reverenced by all beings! How can you claim him as your brother and yet harbour such a vicious desire? All the _rāk asas_ are doomed to perish, Rāva a, with such a harsh, malicious, dissolute king as you. You might abduct Indra's wife Śacī and survive, but if you make off with me, Rāma's wife, your life's at an end.'
[47.1–4] When powerful Daśagrīva heard what Sītā had to say, he clapped his hands and took on an immense form, then renewed his threats to Maithilī. 'I think you were too distraught to realize just how mighty and mettlesome I am. I could stand in the sky and lift up the earth in my arms, I could drink up the ocean, I could slay Death in battle, I could bring the sun to a halt with my sharp arrows, I could shatter the earth. You madwoman, I can take on any form at will, I can give you any pleasure you like; look on me as your husband.'
[47.5–10] With these words angry Rāvana's fiery, tawny-edged eyes reddened and Vaiśrava a's younger brother suddenly cast off his benign mendicant's guise, again assuming his true form as Rāva a, a form like that of Time itself, turning into a majestic ten-faced night-roamer with bright red eyes, earrings of burnished gold, carrying bow and arrows. Rāva a, colossal lord of the _rāksasas_ , threw off his disguise as a mendicant, regained his own thundercloud form, red-clad, eyes reddened from rage, and confronted Maithilī, that jewel of a woman, Maithilī of the black hair and the sunlike splendour, robed and adorned.
()47.11–15 ()'If you want a husband famed throughout the three worlds,' said Rāva a, 'entrust yourself to me, shapely lady; I'm the right husband for you. Bind yourself to me for ever! I am worthy of your love and praise. Never, dear lady, will I ever do anything to displease you. Give up your affection for this human. Direct your affection at me! Rāma's been deposed from his kingdom, he's accomplished nothing, his life will soon be at an end: what advantage do you see in attaching yourself to him? You're out of your mind, though you think yourself so wise. To give up kingdom, family and friends to live in this forest infested with wild animals, all at the word of a woman! He's a fool!' Such abuse was not what the courteous Maithilī deserved.
[47.15–22] Then Rāva a sprang on Sītā, like Budha seizing Rohi ī in the sky, grabbing the lotus-eyed Sītā by the hair with his left hand and by the thighs with his right. He looked like a mountain-peak, sharp-toothed and mighty-armed; he looked like Death; the forest deities fled in terror, tormented by the sight. There then appeared Rāva a's great, divine chariot, gold ornamented, wrought by magic, rumbling raucously like the asses that drew it. Abusing Vaidehī with loud, harsh words, he lifted her on to the chariot, clasping her to his side. In Rāva a's grip the illustrious Sītā was wrung with anguish; 'Rāma!' she screamed and screamed, but Rāma was far away in the forest. As the lust-smitten Rāva a bore her away against her will, she squirmed about in his grip like the snake king's wife, then shrieked at the _rāksasa_ ruler as he carried her off through the sky; she might have been tortured out of her mind or into madness.
'Oh, Laksmana! You're strong, and eager to please your [47.23–35] elder brother! Don't you know I'm being carried off by a shape-changing _rāk asa_? Rāghava, did you give up life, happiness and wealth to do what was right, only to see me carried off against what's right? You are ever on the offensive to punish the lawless; aren't you going to trounce this evil Rāva a? But the wicked don't reap the reward of their deeds immediately: you can look to Rāma to end your life with some dreadful disaster. Oh, how happy Kaikeyī and her family will be now for me to be carried off, me, the rightful wife of that glorious, right-minded prince! Janasthāna, I call on you and your blossoming _kar ikāra_ trees: be quick and tell Rāma, "Rāva a is making off with Sītā!" Prasrava a Mountain, hail to you with your garlands and peaks: be quick and tell Rāma, "Rāva a is making off with Sītā!" Godāvarī River, hail to you with your calling geese and _sārasas_ : be quick and tell Rāma, "Rāva a is making off with Sītā!" You forest deities dwelling in its different trees, I salute you: tell my husband I've been carried off! Whatever creatures are living here, even the flocks of animals and birds, I seek your aid: all of you tell my husband that the woman he loves more dearly than his own life is being carried off – "Sītā is helpless in Rāva a's grip!" When the mighty hero learns about me, he'll deploy his power and rescue me even from the grip of Death!'
Jaṭāyus was asleep when he heard the noise, looked round [48.1–2] quickly and saw Rāva a and Vaidehī; he was a supreme bird, sharp-beaked, mountainous and glorious. From his perch in a tall tree he made a courteous speech:
[48.3–27] 'Daśagrīva, I am the mighty king of vultures, steadfast in ancient lore and probity. Jatāyus is my name. Rāma son of Daśaratha, the equal of great Indra and Varu a, is king of the whole world and devoted to the welfare of the worlds. The shapely woman you are trying to carry off is the glorious rightful wife of that Lord of the Earth; her name is Sītā. How could a king rooted in right lay hands on the wife of another? The wife of a king in particular deserves protection, mighty hero. Abjure your odious intention of laying hands on the wife of another. The wise do not lay their behaviour open to censure, but protect the wives of others from molestation as they would their own. Delight of the Paulastyas, questions of business or pleasure that are beyond the scope of the regulations are resolved by the learned with reference to justice and to the king. A king embodies justice and desires; he's the fount of all material possessions. Justice, for good or ill, is rooted and grounded in the king. How have you secured dominion, _rāk asa_ hero, when you are so evil-natured and capricious? It's like an evil-doer obtaining a celestial chariot! A nature rooted in desire cannot be cleansed, and no one can maintain his integrity for long when he lives among the evil-natured. Neither in
countryside nor city has mighty Rāma's rectitude given you cause for offence: why then cause offence to him? Khara was wrong to have gone to Janasthāna for the sake of Sūrpa akhā; if tireless Rāma killed him, then just tell me what Rāma did wrong to justify you in making off with the wife of that Lord of the Earth in your clutches? Let go of Vaidehī at once, or his terrible eyes will blaze with fire to burn you up, like Indra's thunderbolt did V tra. You don't realize that you've caught a poisonous snake in your skirt, and you can't see the noose of Time fastened round your neck. A man should not try to carry a burden that will floor him, good sir, and should not bite off more than he can chew. Who would engage in conduct discreditable or notorious, or a public scandal, to the destruction of his body? It's sixty thousand years since I was born, Rāva a, and I rule my ancestral kingdom the way it should be
done. I am old, and you are young; you have armour, a bow and arrows and a chariot. But despite all that you'll not get away with carrying off Vaidehī. With me looking on, you can't make off with Vaidehī in your grasp, any more than the revelation of the eternal Veda can be grasped by rational logic. Fight, if you're a hero! Halt a moment, Rāva a, and you'll lie dead on the ground like Khara before you. Rāma is used to killing _daityas_ and _dānavas_ in warfare, and in a battle with you, even in his bark clothes, he'll soon kill you. But what can I do now, with the two princes far away? You are certain to die of fright of that pair very soon, you villain. As long as I'm alive you won't carry off this lovely Sītā with her lotus-petal eyes: she's Rāma's beloved consort! I've no option but to act to please noble Rāma, and Daśaratha too, even at the cost of my life. Halt! Daśagrīva, halt a moment! Rāva a, see here! I will welcome you to a battle as long as life remains to me, Rāva a. It's my wish to knock you off that excellent chariot like a fruit from its stalk.'
Eyes reddened with anger, and with earrings of burnished [49.2–15] gold, the Lord of _rāksasas_ rushed impetuously upon the Lord of Birds, initiating in that great forest a tumultuous conflict between them as if between two gale-driven clouds in the sky. The stupendous battle that broke out between the vulture and the _rāksasa_ might have been between two great mountains, winged and garlanded. Then the mighty warrior showered the vulture king with shattering shafts, supple, spiked and sharp-pointed; the mesh of arrows shot by Rāva a in that battle found their mark in Jatāyus, lord of sky-rovers. Over and over again the gallant champion bird tore open his limbs with his sharp-clawed feet, until the exasperated Daśagrīva, eager to rid himself of this attacker, drew out ten arrows, dreadful as the rod of Death. The great warrior fired off those terrible, unerring, sharp-whetted, stone-ground arrows and split open the vulture, but the sight of Jānakī sobbing on the _rāksasa's_ chariot drove away all thought of the arrows from the glorious winged chief as he rushed at the _rāksasa_ , using his feet to smash his pearl-bejewelled bow with its arrow fixed. Then the glorious winged chief used his wings to shatter Rāva a's blazing, fiery shield, and with violent power destroyed his divine asses, clad in gold armour, _piśāca_ -faced and speed-endowed though they were; the fine great triple-poled chariot, mottled with gems and gold, unstoppable and brilliant as fire he wrecked, together with its fans and its parasol like a full moon. Bow broken, thrown from his chariot, horses and charioteer alike killed, Rāva a fell to the ground, clasping Vaidehī to his side.
[49.18–27] Unabashed, and clasping Janaka's daughter to his side, he set off, but the vulture king Jaṭāyus swooped down on him. 'Rāva a, you fool,' he cried, 'it's Rāma's wife you're carrying off! His arrows are certain to fall like a thunderbolt to annihilate the _rāk asas_. You are gulping down a draught of poison as if you were thirsty for water, you, your friends, family, ministers, army and followers! Idiots like you who don't understand the consequences of their actions soon perish, just as you're sure to perish. You're ensnared in Time's noose, like a fish that's taken the fatal bait; where will you go to escape it? The two Kākutstha Rāghavas are invincible, Rāva a; they'll never tolerate your violation of their hermitage. Heroes don't act like you, committing a crime the whole world condemns, then skulking away like a thief. Fight, if you're a hero! Halt a moment, Rāva a, and you'll lie dead on the ground just like your brother Khara. If ever a man at the point of death brought about the destruction of his soul by a reckless sin, that's what you're doing now. What man would commit an act with such evil consequences, even if he were the blessed overlord of the worlds himself, the eternal Brahmā?'
[49.28–37] With these fine words the heroic Jatāyus swooped violently on to the back of the _rāksasa_ Daśagrīva. Clutching at him with his sharp claws he tore him to shreds all over, perched on him like a mahout on a rogue elephant. He tore at him with his claws, he stuck his beak into his back, he wrenched out his hair; claws, wings and mouth were his weapons. The _rāksasa's_ lips quivered at the repeated torment meted out by the king of the vultures and he shook with rage. Tormented and crazed with anger the heroic Daśagrīva clasped Vaidehī to his left side, slapping at Jatāyus with his palm, then let go of Sītā in fury and belaboured the vulture king with his fists and feet. Then ensued a brief battle between those two matchless heroes, the chief of the _rāksasas_ and the winged paragon, until Rāvana drew his sword and sliced off wings, feet and flanks of Rāma's stubborn champion. The ferocious _rāksasa_ cut off his wings at a stroke, and the vulture slumped to the ground, wounded to death.
Seeing him fall to earth drenched in blood, Vaidehī rushed [49.38(); ()51.1–2] up to Jaṭāyus in as much distress as if he were one of her own family. Janaka's daughter Maithilī quailed in terror, grief-stricken and horrified to see him fallen to the ground. The _rāk asa_ chief's eyes were ferocious as he pulled her away; hers were red with anger and tears as she sobbed out a piteous appeal.
'Have you no shame, ignoble Rāva a? It's the act of a thief, [51.3–24] to run off with me when you knew I'd been left on my own! It was you, wasn't it, you villain, in the form of a deer, who lured my husband away by trickery so that you could make off with me? You coward! What outstanding bravery, not to proclaim your name and fight a battle to win me! That shows you're the worst of _rāk asas_. Aren't you humiliated to do such a dastardly deed – sneaking off with another man's wife behind his back, you wretch? You may pride yourself on your audacity, but men the world over will tell tales about this scandalous, brutal, utterly disgraceful deed of yours. What heroism! What character! So much for all you told me about yourself! Conduct like yours casts a worldwide slur on your family. What can I do when you're rushing me away so fast? Stop a minute and you'll not move another step alive! As soon as those two princes catch sight of you, you won't live a moment more – not even if you've got your army with you! You'll be no more able to bear the touch of their arrows than a forest bird can bear the touch of a blazing fire. Be sensible, I beg you! I beg you, Rāva a, let me go! If you don't, my husband will be so enraged that he and his brother will pulverize you for attacking me. Whatever it is you hope to gain by laying violent hands on me, you've no hope of getting it, for I'd not venture to go on living for long in subjection to an enemy if I couldn't see my godlike
husband. You certainly can't recognize what's for your own good or what will help you, just like a dying man seeking out what will do him harm. You're like all those who hasten their death by refusing what will help them, but I can see you've got Time's noose knotted around your neck. For you not to be afraid in such a terrifying situation, you ten-faced _rāk asa_, you must be seeing golden trees.* You really are looking at the dread river Vaitara ī flowing with streams of blood through its fearful forest with swords for leaves, Rāva a. You'll see a silk-cotton tree* with flowers of refined gold and beautiful beryl all over, yet barbed and studded with iron thorns. You, you pitiless creature, you won't be able to last long after you've dealt such a blow to my noble husband, just as if you'd drunk poison. You, Rāva a, bound in the inexorable noose of Time, where can you go to find sanctuary from my noble husband? He has killed fourteen thousand _rāk asas_ in battle in the mere twinkling of an eye, and without his brother too! The Rāghava hero is mighty and skilled in all weaponry; how could he fail to kill you with his sharp arrows for carrying off his beloved wife?' These bitter reproaches, and more, Vaidehī poured out in a piteous lament, overwhelmed by grief and terror as Rāva a clasped her to his side.
[52.1–4] Vaidehī could see no one to protect her from capture. Then she saw five bulls of _vānaras_ standing on a mountain-peak, and into the middle of them the broad-eyed Maithilī with the shapely hips dropped her gold-coloured silken shawl and fine ornaments, thinking they might tell Rāma about her; Daśagrīva was too agitated to notice her action in taking off her garment and ornaments, and throwing them down into their midst, but the tawny-eyed bulls of _vānaras_ observed the screaming broad-eyed Sītā quite clearly.
[52.5–11] The _rāk asa_ lord passed beyond Pampā and headed towards the city of La kā, grasping the weeping Maithilī. Rāva a was delighted to be carrying her off – she who was to bring about his own death – as if he were clasping a sharp-toothed venomous snake to his bosom. He flew quickly through the sky like an arrow shot from a bow, past forests, rivers, mountains and lakes. When he reached the everlasting abode of Varu a, home of whales and crocodiles, refuge of rivers, he crossed the ocean. Varu a's abode churned its waves and held back its fish and serpents in agitation at Vaidehī's abduction; _cāra as_ in the sky above gave tongue and _siddhas_ proclaimed, 'This will be the end of Daśagrīva.' Yet Rāva a still made for the city of La kā, clasping the struggling Sītā to his bosom, her beauty his own death.
When he reached La kā city with its well-built roads, [52.12–14] Rāva a Daśagrīva produced Sītā like the anti-god Maya producing his magic, and gave orders to some fierce-faced _piśāca_ women:
'No one, man or woman, is to visit Sītā without my authority. [52.14–16] It is my wish that she be given whatever pearls, gems, gold, garments and ornaments she may desire. No one who values her own life shall utter an uncongenial word, whether deliberately or from negligence, to Vaidehī.'
With these instructions to the _rāk asīs_, the mighty lord of [52.17–18] the _rāk asas_ left his private apartment. While he was considering his next move, he caught sight of eight valiant flesh-eating _rāk asas_. Seeing them, the valiant _rāk asa_, deluded by a boon he had been granted, praised their might and courage, then wėnt on:
'Be quick and arm yourselves with all your weapons and [52.19–27] hurry away to Janasthāna. Khara's late haunt is now "the place of the slain". You are to take up your quarters in Janasthāna, empty now the _rāksasas_ have been killed, relying on your strength as heroes and rising far above any fear. That huge force I stationed in Janasthāna under Dū ana and Khara, it's been slaughtered by Rāma's arrows in a battle. I have kept my anger in check up to now, but it is mounting beyond control and begetting intense, savage enmity towards Rāma. I'm determined that I shall requite my enemy's hostility, and I won't sleep until I've killed that enemy in combat; but killing Rāma, that murderer of Khara and Dū a a, will bring me the satisfaction that wealth brings to a beggar. You, good sirs, are to live in Janasthāna and submit accurate reports on Rāma's activities; all night-walkers are to exercise vigilance and exert themselves to kill the Rāghava. I have often proved your might in battle: that is why Janasthāna has been assigned to you.'
[53.1–13] Weak-minded Rāva a considered that in issuing these instructions to the eight ferocious and powerful _rāk asas_, he had done all that was necessary, and his thoughts returned to Vaidehī. Afflicted by Kāma's arrow, Rāva a hurried back into his pleasant palace to see Sītā, but when he entered the living-quarters, the _rāk asa_ overlord saw Sītā sitting amid the _rāk asīs_, given over to grief. He showed Vaidehī all over the marvellous building, and then the evil Rāva a put a proposition to Janaka's daughter.
[53.17–35] 'Sītā, my dear, become my wife, and you'll be mistress over all these many thousands of women in my entourage. Come now! What's the point of you wishing for anything else? Agree to my proposal. Possess me in my passion! Do grant me this grace! La kā here is surrounded by sea for a hundred _yojanas_ ; all the gods and anti-gods and Indra put together couldn't slight it. There's no one to equal me in heroism throughout all the worlds, not among gods, _yak as, gandharvas_ nor sages. What is Rāma to you, ousted from his kingdom, a miserable ascetic, his life all but over, such a puny man? Take me, Sītā, a husband worthy of you. Youth is fleeting. Don't be coy, but take your pleasure here with me. Don't set your heart on seeing the Rāghava again, my beauty. Who could possibly manage to reach here, Sītā, even if his wishes had chariot-wheels?' With this proposition to Janaka's daughter Maithilī, Daśagrīva sealed his fate, thinking, 'She's mine!'
[54.1–19] Vaidehī was racked by grief, yet fearlessly placed a blade of grass between them as she replied to Rāva a's proposition. 'A king called Daśaratha, immovable in his defence of what is right, and renowned for keeping to his pledged word, had a son, the Rāghava, Rāma by name. He is righteous, famed throughout the three worlds, mighty and good-looking. He's my husband and my deity. He was born in the Ik vāku line. He's got shoulders like a lion, he's glorious, and he and his brother Lak ma a will put an end to your life. If he were present to see you lay violent hands on me – on me! – you'd be
lying killed in battle like Khara in Janasthāna. Those _rāk asas_ hailed as ferocious in form and might all lose their venom when confronted by the Rāghava, like snakes before Garu a. Gilded arrows shot from his bowstring will batter your body like waves on Ga gā's banks. Maybe you can't be killed by gods or anti-gods, Rāva a, but after committing such an outrage you won't escape alive from him. The powerful Rāghava will bring an end to what's left of your life, a life with as much security as an animal's at the sacrificial stake. If Rāma were to see you, _rāk asa_, the fury of his fiery eye would shrivel you up at once and exterminate you today. He could destroy the moon in the heavens, he could knock it down to earth, he could dry up the ocean: he could rescue his Sītā! When your prosperity's gone, your senses are gone, your reason is gone, your life's gone, your deed will have reduced La kā to widowhood. You will see no happy ending to this evil deed of yours, snatching me away to separation when I should be at my husband's side in the forest. Now my godlike, many-splendoured husband must display his fearless valour, living in an empty Da aka. He will rain arrows on you in a battle to strip your body of
your arrogance, your strength, your heroism, your vainglory. Whenever Time ordains a destruction of creatures, it achieves its object by driving the doomed to madness. Now you've molested me your time is up, you low-down _rāksasa_ , for you, for the _rāksasas_ and for your harem to be slaughtered. I'm like an altar erected at the centre of a sacrifice, encircled with ladles and other implements, worshipped by the Twice-Born with their _mantras_ , that may not experience the polluting touch of a _candāla_. You may imprison this shell of a body, or have it killed. I don't care about preserving my body nor even my very life, but _rāksasa_ , I refuse to draw upon myself the censure of the world.'
After this vehement repudiation of Rāva a, Vaidehī Maithilī [54.20–21] lapsed into silence, but when he heard Sītā's vehement, horrifying words, he replied with a speech calculated to terrify Sītā.
'Listen to my vow, Maithilī. I'll give you twelve months, my [54.22] proud beauty. If by that time you refuse to yield to me with a sweet smile, then my cooks shall chop you into minced meat for my breakfast.'
[54.23–4] With this dire threat, Rāva a – who could make his foes roar – angrily instructed some _rāk asīs_: 'I want some ugly, fierce-looking, flesh-and-blood-eating _rāk asīs_! They'll soon take away her pride.'
[54.25–6] Ugly and fierce-looking indeed were those who saluted at these words and closed around Maithilī; fierce-looking too was King Rāva a, stamping his feet as if he would convulse and rend the earth.
[54.27–8] 'Maithilī is to be taken to the middle of the _aśoka_ grove,' he commanded. 'There she's to be concealed and guarded with you surrounding her. By ferocious threats alternating with kindness you are all to subdue Maithilī to my will like a wild she-elephant.'
[54.29–31] At Rāva a's orders the _rāk asīs_ encircled Maithilī and went off to the _aśoka_ grove. It was full of all the fruit trees she could wish for, all kinds of flowers and fruit, and home to ever-twittering birds, but Janaka's daughter Maithilī's whole body felt only sorrow: like a doe to tigresses she could but submit to the _rāk asīs_.
[55.1–9] When Rāma had killed Mārīca, that shape-changing _rāksasa_ trotting about in the form of a deer, he quickly turned back in his tracks. As he hurried along in his eagerness to see Maithilī a jackal yelped savagely behind him, setting his hair on end with its vicious cry. Alarmed by the jackal's cry, he thought, 'That jackal's shriek sounds really ominous to me. I hope all's well with Vaidehī, and that _rāksasas_ are not feasting. That shriek Mārīca uttered in the form of a deer – what if Laksmana heard it and recognized it – what if he took it to be me? If Saumitri heard the shriek and then left Maithilī – and she would send him at once! – he'll be coming here after me. _Rāksasas_ eager to kill Sītā must have gathered together, and that's why Mārīca became a golden deer and lured me away! That's why he shouted, "Laksmana, I've been hit!" when he'd led me far away until my arrow killed him and he turned into a _rāksasa_. I do hope those two are all right, now I've left them alone in the forest: Janasthāna has made the _rāksasas_ my enemies. I've noticed a lot of terrible omens today.'
The thought that he had heard a jackal shriek, and had been [55.10–15] decoyed by a _rāk asa_ in the form of a deer, sent Rāghava Rāma back to Janasthāna in alarm. Wildlife clustered, calling ferociously and shunning the noble man in his misery and worry. After these dreadful omens the Rāghava then caught sight of a melancholy Laksmana coming along, and soon Laksmana and Rāma met: gloom joined with gloom, sorrow with fated sorrow. Then the older brother reproached Laksmana for coming, deserting Sītā in that unpeopled, _rāksasa_ -infested wilderness; the pride of the Raghus took hold of Laksmana by the left hand* and in his pain spoke words that wounded despite their outward mildness:
'Oh, Laksmana, my dear brother, you'll answer for what [55.16–18] you've done, deserting Sītā and coming here! I hope it turns out well! My hero, I've no doubt at all, Janaka's daughter's been slaughtered, perhaps even devoured, by _rāk asas_ wandering about in the forest, I've seen so many inauspicious signs. Oh, Laksmana, if only we could find Sītā unharmed!'
At the sight of Laksmana coming miserably through the [56.1–17] wilderness without Vaidehī, Daśaratha's righteous son exclaimed: 'Where is she, Laksmana, the woman who followed my steps to Da aka Forest? Vaidehī, the woman you've deserted by coming here? Where is she, the woman who shared in my sorrow when I was ousted from the kingdom to go running miserably around the Dandakas: slender-waisted Vaidehī? Where is she, you hero, the woman I can't live without even for a moment, my comrade through life: Sītā, truly a deity's daughter? Laksmana, I wouldn't covet the lordship of heaven or earth without her, Janaka's burnished golden daughter. Is she still living, Vaidehī who is dearer than my own life? Dear brother, my exile won't all have been for nothing, will it? Saumitri, with you away and me dead because of Sītā, won't Kaikeyī be pleased at getting what she wanted? Poor Kausalyā! With her son dead will she have to wait politely on Kaikeyī – her son, kingdom and purpose secured? My only thought is to get back to the hermitage and find Vaidehī still
alive. If that virtuous woman is gone, gone will be my life, Laksmana. If Vaidehī, the laughing Sītā, doesn't greet me when I get back to the hermitage, Laksmana, I shall be destroyed. Lak mana, tell me whether Vaidehī is alive or not, or if your carelessness has let her be devoured by _rāksasas_ , poor thing! She's frail, young and unused to suffering; Vaidehī must be in the depths of despair to be separated from me. Even you were frightened by that cunning spiteful _rāksasa_ shouting out "Laksmana", and I can imagine Vaidehī being terrified when she heard that cry like my voice and sending you off at once to find me, but losing sight of Sītā in the forest was quite the wrong thing to do; you've given the cruel _rāksasas_ an opportunity to take their revenge. The flesh-eating _rāksasas_ are mourning the death of Khara. Those savages will kill Sītā, I've no doubt. Oh, what a terrible mess I'm mired in, victorious hero, but what can I do about it now? We shall find that this is what's happened, I'm afraid.'
[56.18(); With thoughts like these about shapely Sītā, the Rāghava ()57.1] hurried Lak ma a back to Janasthāna. Rāma, pride of the Raghus, was tormented by sorrow, and on the way he repeatedly asked Saumitri why he had left the hermitage.
[57.2–4] 'Why have you left Maithilī behind and come away, when I had left her confidently in the forest with you? I was perturbed to see you coming, Lak mana, with Maithilī left behind, and feared the worst. My left eye throbbed, so did my arm and heart when I saw you, Laksmana, in the distance on the path, with Sītā left on her own.'
[57.5–18] These words deepened Lak ma a Saumitri's gloom, favoured though he was by Fortune, and he replied to the gloomy Rāma: 'It wasn't my own idea to leave her and come here; it was her harsh words that drove me to come and find you. A sound reached Maithilī's ears like her noble husband calling out "Oh! Sītā, Laksmana, save me!", and when she heard that anguished cry, Maithilī was beside herself with terror. "Go! Go!" she wept in her tenderness for you. Time and again Maithilī urged me to go, but I answered her with words full of confidence in you. "I can't see any _rāksasa_ frightening him. Calm down. It's not what you think. Somebody was imitating him. How could that noble man stoop to utter such a degrading word as 'save me'? Sītā, he could even save the Thirty Gods! For some reason someone or other is mimicking my brother's voice: it's out of character for him to shout, 'Laksmana, save me!' Madam, don't get wrought up like inferior women do. Stop acting so weak; pull yourself together and don't be frightened. In the three worlds there's not a man born – or not yet born – who could fight a battle against the Rāghava and win." That's what I told Vaidehī, but she was distraught. She burst into tears, and her reply was cruel: "You wicked man, you have set your heart on me! But even if you succeed in getting rid of your brother you won't succeed in getting hold of me. It's in collusion with Bharata that you're trailing after Rāma, and that's why you won't help him when he's crying out for you so. You've been following us on my account as an undercover enemy, hoping the Rāghava would give you a chance; that's why you won't help him." It was this accusation from Vaidehī that drove me from the hermitage, furious, my eyes ablaze, my lips trembling with anger.'
Rāma was tormented by Saumitri's account, and replied, [57.19–23] 'My dear brother, you have done wrong to come here without her. You left, sir, at an angry word from Maithilī, when you know how capable I am of warding off _rāk asas_! I am not pleased with you for coming here: you, leaving Maithilī, because you heard a cross word from an angry woman! It was utterly ill-judged of you to yield to your temper and let Sītā's provocation make you disobey my order. There lies the _rāksasa_ that lured me away from the hermitage in the form of a deer, slain by my arrow.'
Rāma raced back. As he lurched along he felt a throbbing [58.1–3(); below his left eye and he began to tremble. Conscious of these ()59.1–2] repeated portents of disaster, he cried out, 'If only Sītā is safe!' Desperate to see Sītā, he burst into the hut. It was empty. Panic seized him. Rāma searched all around, but the hermitage was empty, the leaf-hut deserted, the seats scattered. There was no Vaidehī to be seen. Daśaratha's son Rāma threw up his beautiful arms and screamed.
'Lak ma a, wherever is Vaidehī? Where has she gone? [59.3–10] Saumitri, who has carried her off? My beloved, who has devoured you? Sītā, if you're just hiding behind a tree for a joke, that's enough of your joke. Be good to me! I'm in such distress. Sītā, dear wife! Your playfellows, the baby animals that trust you, are wondering why you have abandoned them. Their eyes are clouded with tears. If Sītā has been captured it will arouse grief in me great enough to kill me, and my father the Mahārāja is certain to see me in the Otherworld. "What are you doing coming into my presence without completing the time you promised at my command? Shame on you, you selfish, ignoble liar!" That's what my father's certain to say to me in the Otherworld. You've left me here a miserable, feeble wreck, burnt up by grief and broken-hearted, like a crook who's lost his reputation. You've left me, my beauty! Where have you gone, my lovely? If I'm deserted by you I'll end my own life!'
[59.11–12] With this lament Rāma the Rāghava searched frantically for Sītā, grief-stricken at not finding Janaka's daughter. Rāma son of Daśaratha was like an elephant wallowing in a great bog, clasping at Sītā but sinking back, till Lak ma a became anxious for his health and spoke to reassure him.
[59.13–16] 'Don't despair, mighty brother; let's both exert ourselves. The forest is full of pretty hollows, my hero. Maithilī loves wandering about in the woods. She's crazy about the forest. She may have gone off into the forest; she may be in some flowery lotus pool; maybe she's gone to the river with its hordes of fish and water birds, or maybe Vaidehī wants to frighten us, you bull of a man, and she's hiding somewhere in the wood to test us. Your majesty, we'll set to quickly and search for her, we'll ransack the whole forest for Janaka's daughter.'
[59.17–20] Lak ma a's friendly words calmed Rāma, and he and Saumitri began the search. The two sons of Daśaratha searched for Sītā throughout forests and mountains, streams and lakes, slopes, caves and mountain-peaks; they searched everywhere, but nowhere did they come across her. They searched the whole mountain, then Rāma said to Lak ma a, 'Saumitri, I cannot see Vaidehī here on the lovely mountain.'
[59.21–2] Lak ma a was consumed with anguish as he wandered about Da aka Forest, but assured his brilliant, glorious brother, 'You are clever enough to get back Maithilī, Janaka's daughter, just like mighty Vi u won back the earth when he bound Bali.'
The Rāghava's mind was plunged in grief and he answered [59.23–4] heroic Laksmana's words in a miserable voice. 'You're so clever, but we've ransacked the whole forest, its blossoming lotus pools, this mountain and its many hollows and waterfalls. I can't find Vaidehī, and she's dearer to me than my own life!'
Wretched, grief-stricken, haggard at Sītā's capture, as he [59.25–9] sobbed out his thoughts, Rāma was momentarily overcome by panic. In the torment of his misery he uttered a long, loud groan and sank down in a swoon, mind and body overcome by pain. Over and over again lotus-eyed Rāma sighed; over and over again his sobs choked him as he cried out, 'Oh my darling!' Laksmana, dutiful and affectionate as he was, tried to soothe him with respectful words and gestures, but the words that fell from Laksmana's lips could not stop him crying out again and again at not seeing his beloved Sītā.
Then his eye seemed as if it would burn up the ground in his [60.22–4], [32] frenzy when he caught sight of the track of a huge _rāksasa_. His heart in a turmoil, Rāma peered at the footprints of Sītā and the _rāksasa_ and declared to his dear brother: 'Look, Laksmana, here are scraps of gold broken off Vaideh's ornaments, and bits of her garlands; and that war-chariot with its battle standard, resplendent and brilliant as a blazing fire, but abandoned and smashed – whose is it?'
Then in his torment, haggard at Sītā's capture, Rāma was [61.1–3] ready to destroy the worlds like the Doomsday Fire. With rapid breaths he inspected his bow, already strung, as eager for the kill as Rudra was for the beast at Dak a's sacrifice. Lak ma a had never seen Rāma so angry; his mouth dried up as he respectfully gave his advice.
'You have always been gentle and restrained; you've [61.4–15] delighted in the welfare of all creatures. You shouldn't let anger make you untrue to your nature. The moon has its grace, the sun its radiance, the wind its motion, the earth its endurance; just as immutable is your unsurpassable glory. I don't know who this war-chariot belongs to, or the weapons or equipment, or who smashed them, or why. This place has been churned up by hooves and wheels, and splattered dreadfully with blood: a battle has taken place here. You are eloquent, your highness, but this trouble has been caused by only one person, not even by two, and I can see no sign of a large force. For the deed of an individual you ought not to destroy the worlds. Rulers of the earth act with restraint and composure; the punishment they inflict is proportionate. All creatures flock to you, their supreme refuge. Whoever would think it good for you to lose your wife, Rāghava? Rivers, oceans, mountains, gods, _gandharvas_ and _dānavas_ can no more bring themselves to injure you than good people can a consecrated sacrificer. It's the one who has carried off Sītā that you should pursue with your bow, your majesty; I'll back you up, and supreme sages will support you. We'll all ransack sea, mountains, forests, every dreadful cave there is, pools and mountain streams. The worlds of gods and _gandharvas_ , together we'll ransack them all until we come upon the abductor of your wife. And if the Thirty Gods themselves cannot be persuaded to give back your wife, then, Lord of Kosala, you shall act as the occasion demands.'
[62.1–2] Rāma was consumed by grief and mourned as if he had nowhere to turn, distraught and unable to think for sorrow, but Laksmana Saumitri kept on clasping his feet,* and after a moment he was roused by his consolation.
[62.3–20] 'Rāma, it took great asceticism and good deeds for King Daśaratha to be granted you; it was like the immortals getting hold of the ambrosia. Indeed, it was separation from you that caused the Lord of the Earth to join the gods, so attached was he to your virtues, as we heard from Bharata. Kākutstha, if you can't bear the sorrow that's been inflicted on you, then what ordinary man, what weak character, will be able to bear anything similar? If in your distress, sir, you burn up the worlds with your splendour, then where, you tiger of a man, can your tormented subjects turn for peace? It's the way of the world. Nahusa's son Yayāti had succeeded in reaching the same world as Sakra but misfortune struck him down. Even the great sage Vasistha, our father's chaplain, had a hundred sons born to him in a day, but then they were killed. Steadfast lord, even
the Earth has been known to tremble – that goddess, universally revered mother of the world. Even the gods from Śakra downwards experience fortune and misfortune, so we hear, so you ought not to panic, you tiger of a man. You are a blameless hero, and you ought not to grieve like any ordinary man, even if Vaidehī has been captured or done to death. Men of your stamp, Rāma, don't grieve however great the calamity; they always understand reality and don't despair. A great man like you should think it over realistically and rationally; sagacious men use their acumen to discriminate benefit from bane. If you don't examine and weigh up the good and bad points of your actions – unless you do this – you won't get the results you're hoping for. You're the one, my hero, who's taught me this so many times before, for could anyone, even B haspati himself, teach you anything? You are so wise that even the gods find it hard to understand your intelligence. Grief has stupefied your intellect, but I'm reawakening it. Call to mind values divine and human – and your own gallantry, bull of the Ik vākus! It's your enemies you must exert yourself to kill. What's the use of universal destruction, you bull of a man? It's that evil enemy that you must identify and then destroy.'
Despite his seniority, the Rāghava was astute enough to [63.1–3] accept the value of Lak ma a's cogent advice. Mighty Rāma checked his overwhelming wrath and leaned on his glittering bow, asking Laksmana, 'What shall we do, my boy? Laksmana, where shall we go? Work me out some plan for finding Sītā.'
Laksmana replied to the agonized Rāma: 'What you must [63.4–7] do is ransack Janasthāna. It's full of _rāk asas_. It's thick with all sorts of trees and creepers, there are mountain fastnesses, caves and valleys, a lot of fearful hollows crammed with herds of all kinds, the homes of _kinnaras_ and the haunts of _gandharvas_. You should search them systematically along with me. People like you, bull of a man, noble and gifted intellects, stand firm against troubles like mountains in a violent gale.'
All this talk made the wrathful Rāma fit a razor-sharp arrow [63.8–12] to his bow and range about the whole forest with Laksmana until he saw fallen to the ground a mountainous bird, a superlative paragon bathed in blood. It was Jaṭāyus. The sight of his mountain-like form made Rāma declare to Laksmana, 'That's who's eaten Sītā Vaidehī; no doubt about it. It's obvious this is a _rāk asa_ that wanders about the woods in the form of a vulture, and it's resting after devouring broad-eyed Sītā. I'll kill him with my fierce blazing arrows. They never miss.' So saying, the furious Rāma fitted a razor-sharp arrow to his bow and rushed towards the vulture as if he would shake the ocean-girt earth.
[63.13–18] The bird, however, spoke to Rāma son of Daśaratha in a feeble voice, vomiting foaming blood. 'The woman you're searching for in the great forest – like a healing herb though you're healthy – that queen, and my own life too – Rāva a has taken them both. I saw the queen, Rāghava, after you and Laksmana had left her alone; Rāvaņa was carrying her off, but he was too strong for me. I went to Sītā's aid, and knocked Rāva a to the ground. I smashed his chariot and parasol in the fight. This broken bow is his. This shield is his. That war-chariot is his, Rāma, wrecked in the fight. When I was exhausted Rāva a sliced off my wings with his sword, then caught hold of Sītā Vaidehī and flew up into the sky. Don't kill me. The _rāksasa_ 's killed me already.'
[63.19–20] Rāma and Lak ma a wept with relief to hear the news of Sītā and embraced the vulture king. Rāma was saddened to see him gasping for breath, alone in that remote wilderness, and said to Saumitri:
[63.21–5] 'Exile from the kingdom, my home the forest, the loss of Sītā, the death of this bird – such bad fortune as mine would even burn up fire! If I were to cross the whole wide ocean, the Lord of Rivers, now, my bad fortune would be certain to blast it dry! Of all the creatures in this world, fixed or moving, there's not an unluckier than I, I who gained the great earth only to find myself enmeshed in misfortune! It's my calamitous fortune that's left this friend of my father, the aged king of the vultures, lying dead on the ground.' He repeated this over and over again, then, moved by affection for their father, the Rāghava and Lak ma a stroked Jatāyus.
[64.1–7] The sight of the vulture violently hurled to the ground testified to his loyalty. Rāma said to Saumitri, 'It's clear that it was exerting himself on my behalf that got this bird struck down in a battle with the _rāk asa_; that's why he's gasping his life away. There's still some life in his body, Laksmana; he's not speaking, but he's gazing around in confusion. Jaṭāyus, if you can still speak, tell us about Sītā, I beg you, and tell us how you were struck down. Why did Rāva a carry off Sītā? What have I done to him? Is it in response to some provocation by me that Rāva a has carried off my darling? What did her captivating moonlike face look like? What did Sītā say then, you excellent bird? How strong is this _rāk asa_? What does he look like? What is he capable of? Where does he live, my friend? Do answer my questions.'
Jaṭāyus mournfully fixed his eyes on Rāma, who was [64.8–14] lamenting ceaselessly, and whispered feebly, 'Rāva a king of the _rāk asas_ called up many magic storms and gales and carried her off through the sky. When I was exhausted the night-walker sliced off my wings, sir, then caught hold of Sītā Vaidehī and set out towards the south. I'm beginning to choke and my sight is failing, Rāghava. I can see golden trees hairy with cuscus-grass. The moment when Rāva a made off with Sītā is the one when an owner can expect to regain promptly any wealth he loses then – it's called the Vinda moment – but he didn't realize that, Kākutstha. He'll soon perish, like a fish that's taken the hook. So you mustn't be anxious about Janaka's daughter. You'll soon kill that _rāk asa_ in battle and be able to enjoy yourself again with Vaidehī.'
While the clear-sighted vulture was still talking to Rāma, [64.15–18] blood and flesh spurted from his dying mouth. Gasping, 'the very son of Viśravas, Vaiśrava a's brother...', the Lord of Birds gave up his life. Rāma was still pleading with him, 'Tell me, please tell me', while the vulture's life ebbed from his body and fled to the sky. His head jerked to the ground, his feet sprawled out, his frame convulsed and he fell to the earth.
Rāma was overcome with sorrow to see the vulture red-eyed, [64.19–28] lifeless and motionless as a mountain, and spoke sadly to Saumitri. 'This bird has lived for many years undisturbed in the _rāk asas_' home, roaming about in Da aka Forest. Now he lies slain, at the end of a long life; Time is indeed inexorable. Look at this vulture, Lak ma a, our champion. He went to Sītā's aid, and has been killed by Rāva a's superior might – and for my sake! This Lord of Birds has given up his life, renouncing his great ancestral vulture kingdom for my sake. Even among the lower orders, Saumitri, there is virtue, merit, heroism, support. My dear warrior, as a cause for grieving Sītā's abduction comes nowhere near the murder of that vulture for my sake. This Lord of Birds is due as much respect and honour from me as his glorious majesty, King Daśaratha. Bring some logs, Saumitri; I'll kindle fire and cremate the vulture king. It was for my sake he met his end. The lord of the bird world shall be lifted on to the pyre by me. He's been murdered by that cruel _rāksasa_ , Saumitri, and I'm going to cremate him.'
[64.31–5] With these words Rāma lifted the Lord of Birds on to the blazing pyre and devoutly cremated him with the sorrow due to one of his own family. Then heroic Rāma went into the forest with Saumitri and killed some plump gazelles to spread around the bird. Glorious Rāma selected some of the gazelle-meat, cut it up and offered it to the bird on the lovely green turf. Rāma promptly muttered for him all the going-to-heaven _mantras_ prescribed by the Twice-Born for a dead human, then the supreme king's two sons went to the Godāvarī river and both performed the water-ritual for the vulture king.
[65.1–8] After the Rāghavas had performed his water-ritual they then set out towards the west to search the forest for Sītā. Bows, arrows and swords in hand, the two descendants of Ik vāku turned southwards along an untrodden path beset with bushes and trees, screened by curtains of creepers, impassable, dense and dread, but the mighty pair hurried through that huge, terrible forest on their journey south. When the Rāghavas had gone three _krośas_ beyond Janasthāna they plunged fervently into the dense Krauñca Forest. It was thick as billowing clouds, seeming to bristle with pleasure at the lovely colourful flowers and flocks of wildlife filling it on all sides. Eager to find Vaidehī but haggard at Sītā's capture they searched that forest, pausing only here and there, until the splendid Laksmana, upright, virtuous and pure, respectfully warned his brilliant brother:
[65.9–11] 'My arm is throbbing steadily, my mind seems agitated and the signs I can see are mostly unpropitious, so be on your guard, noble brother, and take my words to heart; to me these are the portents of impending trouble. That bird called the _vañculaka_ is shrieking terribly as if to warn us about a mortal battle.'
As they continued to ransack the whole forest, suddenly it [65.12–23] was rent by a loud noise, its serried ranks pounded by an onrush of wind; the noise swelled throughout the forest until it seemed to fill the sky. Looking to see what had caused the noise, Rāma and his younger brother discovered where a huge broad-chested _rāk asa_ was lurking, and ran up. Kabandha stood before them. He was enormous. He had no head or neck, but a face in his belly; his mountainous size was increased by mounds of bristles until he looked like a terrible black cloud, and his voice was like thunder. His single, penetrating eye was in his chest; it was large and broad, with long tawny lashes. He was continually licking his maw with its huge teeth, and devouring ferocious bears, lions, deer and elephants. Each fearsome arm was a _yojana_ long; he was waving them about and seizing all kinds of bears, flocks of birds, and deer in his hands. This was who barred the path the brothers had embarked on, dragging several stag chieftains towards him and tearing them apart. Seeing Kabandha, huge, vicious, fearsome, his arms wrapped around him, scarce a _krośa_ away, they started back, but the strong-armed monster reached out, stretching his interminable arms, and crushed both Rāghavas in his violent grip; their swords, their stout bows, their acute courage, their powerful arms, all the brothers' great might became useless as they were dragged along.
Mighty Kabandha, that supreme _dānava_ , interrogated them. [65.24–6] 'Who are you bull-chested men with your great swords and bows? You are welcome food for me in this place of dread. Tell me your objective: why have you come here? The place you have reached is my haunt; I am tormented by hunger here and you are going into my mouth; you may be like sharp-horned bulls with your bows and arrows and swords, but you'll find it hard to escape from there with your lives.'
Rāma's mouth ran dry on hearing evil Kabandha's words, [65.27–30] and he lamented to Lak ma a, 'We've gone from one trouble to a worse, heroic brother, and now here's a calamity that'll kill us and stop us rescuing my darling! Look, tiger of a man, you and I are both bewildered by these calamities; no creature can bear the weight of his fate, Lak ma a. When their time is up, even warriors on the battlefield collapse like embankments made of sand, however great their strength, however skilful their weaponry.'
[66.1–2] Seeing the brothers Rāma and Lak ma a standing enmeshed in all his coils, Kabandha asked, 'Why stand there when you can see I'm tormented by hunger, you bulls of _k atriyas_? Fate has marked you out for my food and you're as good as dead.'
[66.3–4] Laksmana was overwhelmed with pain at his words but drew confidence from his prowess; his response was swift and apt. 'Before this vile _rāksasa_ can seize us both, let's be quick and cut off his massive arms.'
[66.5–8] Then the two Rāghavas seized the right moment, took their swords and vigorously severed his arms at the shoulder: Rāma, on the right, quickly cut off the right arm with his blade, while the warrior Lak ma a sprang up on the left. Arms severed, the mighty monster crashed down; earth, air and every direction resounded with a noise like a storm-cloud. At the sight of his sliced-off arms and steeped in torrents of blood the miserable _dānava_ asked the heroes, 'Who are you?'
[66.9–12] In answer the mighty Laksmana, favoured by Fortune, declared to Kabandha, 'This is Kākutstha, the famous heir of the Iksvākus, Rāma by name, and I am his younger brother Laksmana. Although his splendour is godlike, he's been living in the unpeopled wilderness. His wife has been carried off by a _rāksasa_ and we have come here in search of her. But then who are you? Why are you writhing about in the forest on broken legs, a mere torso, your blazing mouth in your chest?'
[66.13–15(); ()67.1–6] Lak ma a's words reminded Kabandha of something Indra had told him and he replied in delight, 'Welcome, you two tigers of men! Fortunate indeed am I to see you! Fortunate am I to have had my arms cut off by you! I'll tell you truly about the sin that gave me this deformed frame. Listen, you tiger of a man. Mighty Rāma, powerful, valiant man, I used to have an unimaginable body, famous throughout the three worlds; I was as beautiful as Soma, as Sakra, as Sūrya! But then, Rāma, I took on this huge shape to terrify the world and began to terrorize the sages here in the forest. In that guise I harassed a great sage called Sthūlaśiras as he was gathering all kinds of forest fare, and in his anger he uttered a dreadful curse on the body he saw me in: "May you be condemned to remain in that cruel form!" I implored the angry sage to put a term to the curse, and, although I had brought the curse on myself, he replied, "When in the unpeopled wilderness Rāma cuts off your arms and cremates you, then shall you regain your own body, huge and handsome."
'Lak ma a, you can recognize in me a being resplendent [67.7–17] with grace, a son of Danu. It was Indra's anger on the battlefield that gave me this form. I had gratified the Grand Father by fierce asceticism till he granted me long life; then delusion gripped me. "I have been granted long life," I thought, "so what can Śakra do to me?" With that idea in my head I attacked Śakra in battle. He hurled his hundred-forked lightning bolt at me and drove my head and legs right into my body, but at my entreaty did not dispatch me to Yama's realm. "The Grand Father's words shall be true," he told me. "But how can I live for a very long time?" I asked. "My legs and head and face have been smashed by your thunderbolt, so what shall I do for food?" Śakra then gave me arms a _yojana_ long and provided me with a sharp-toothed mouth in my belly. This is the only way for me to feed, using my long arms to collect up lions, elephants, deer and tigers roaming in the forest. But Indra told me, "When Rāma and Lak ma a cut off your arms in combat, then shall you go to heaven." That's you, Rāma, and I'm thankful. Rāghava, no one but you can kill me, according to what the great sage truly said. Bull of a man, when I've been purified by fire I'll be your ally, with you heart and soul: you'll see.'
With Lak ma a listening, the righteous Rāghava made this [67.18–23] appeal to the Danu. 'My splendid wife Sītā was carried off by Rāva a when I was away from Janasthāna with my brother, unconcerned. But I know this _rāk asa_ only by name, not by sight. Tell me, do, about who has taken Sītā and where to! If you really do know, you'll be doing a great favour to anyone in a grief-stricken, leaderless turmoil.'
[67.24–31] The Rāghava spoke persuasively, but the Danu was a canny speaker and made a judicious reply to Rāma's words. 'I don't have divine knowledge, and I don't know Maithilī, but when I've been cremated and restored to my real form I'll be able to tell you someone who does know her. Until I'm cremated, your majesty, it's impossible for me to know anything about that mighty _rāk asa_ who's captured your Sītā, because when I brought upon myself a form abhorrent to the world, Rāghava, that disabling curse destroyed my intellect. However, before the Sun drives his weary horses home, Rāma, cast me into a pit and cremate me with due ceremony, for if you cremate me properly in a pit, pride of the Raghus, I'll tell you about someone who will know that _rāk asa_. You should enter into an alliance with him in the customary way, Rāghava. He's slight of valour, but he'll organize help for you. There's nothing in the three worlds that he doesn't know, Rāghava, for he used to roam all over the worlds for another reason.'
[68.1–7] At Kabandha's words those two heroic Lords of Men found a mountain gully and kindled a fire, and Laksmana soon had a pyre well alight with great blazing brands. On all sides it blazed out, and Kabandha's huge body was like a lump of _ghī_ , the blubber cooking out of it as the fire gently burned. Suddenly the pyre shook. Suddenly, as if a smokeless fire had been kindled, a mighty figure leapt up in delight, clad in stainless garments and a divine garland, all his limbs ornamented. In a gleaming, glorious, goose-drawn carriage stood Kabandha, radiating his great splendour to the ten Directions; from the air he told Rāma:
[68.7–21] 'Listen, Rāghava, to how you can really get Sītā back. My good friend, you must have an ally. I've thought it over, but I can't see you being successful if you don't get one. Listen, Rāma, while I tell you. There's a _vānara_ called Sugrīva who's been thrown out by his angry brother Vālin, a true Son of Sakra; he's a self-controlled hero, and he's living with four _vānaras_ on Rśyamūka, the excellent mountain on the lovely shore of Pampā. Go straight there now, Rāghava, and make a comrade of him; make common cause with him before the fiery flame. Don't look down on Sugrīva: he's the _vānara_ leader, he will repay a favour, he's a shape-changer, he's heroic, and he's looking for an ally. You two could carry out the thing he wants done, but whether he gets his wish or not he'll do what you need. He's the son of Ṛk arajas, and he roams around Pampā, a true Son of the Sun but suspicious after the injury done him by Vālin. Lay down your weapon at once, Rāghava, and plight true comradeship with the monkey that lives on Rśyamūka and roams its forest. That elephant of a monkey's skilful and he's thoroughly acquainted with all the places in the world where those cannibals live. There's nothing hidden from him in the world, Rāghava, victorious hero, nothing under the sun's thousand scorching rays. He'll search rivers and spreading mountains, hill forts and hollows; he and his _vānaras_ will find your wife. Sītā will be grieving at being separated from you, Rāghava, but he'll send out mighty _vānaras_ to search every direction for her.'
Sensible Kabandha went on to tell Rāma more that he needed [69.1–32] to know if he was to recover Sītā. 'Rāma, this is the path you want: its blossoming trees will point you westwards and entrance you with their appearance: there are _jambūs, priyālas_ , jackfruits, different sorts of figs, ebonies, _aśvatthas, kar ikāras_, mangoes and others. Climb them or else shake them hard to make their fruit fall to the ground; eat it as you go – it'll taste like ambrosia! Journey on through lovely regions, from mountain to mountain, from forest to forest, you heroes, until you reach the lake called Pampā. It's pebble-free and calm, Rāma, with level bathing places and no duckweed but lots of sand, and it's decked out with lotuses and water lilies. Geese, coots, cranes and ospreys wander about there on Pampā's waters, Rāghava, and utter their melodious calls. They're lovely, and they aren't shy of the sight of men, for they're not used to killing; they're fat as lumps of _ghī_ and you shall shoot these birds with your arrows, Rāma Rāghava, and eat them – and the fine fish there in Pampā, carp, crooked-nosed and reed fish. Your loyal Lak ma a shall catch you some plump ones,
take off the skin and fins to leave just the backbone, and cook them for you on an iron grill. When you've eaten your fill of Pampā fish on the flowery grass, Lak ma a shall then draw some sweet lotus-scented water, pleasant and cool, pure and clear as crystal or silver, for you to drink from a lotus leaf. If you gaze at the cool water of Pampā you'll lose your grief, Rāghava, amid the piles of blossom, the _tilakas_ , the _naktamālakas_ , the lotuses and the water lilies. There's no man there to put their garlands on. Some well-conducted sages used to be there, the pupils of Mata ga. They brought such heavy loads of forest produce for their _guru_ that drops of sweat streamed from their bodies to the ground, and these garlands were born from the heat of the sages' mortifications; sprung as they are from drops of sweat, they do not perish, Rāghava. An attendant of theirs still lives there, Kākutstha; she's a nun, very old, and actually a Śabara woman but so steadfast in merit that when she sees your universally honoured godlike form she will go to heaven. Then if you go to the west bank of Pampā, Kākutstha, you'll see hidden away the site of a first-rate hermitage. No
elephant can attack that hermitage, nor the wood either, by ordinance of the sage Mata ga. You'll enjoy yourself in comfort in that forest, Rāma; it looks like Nandana, it could be the forest of the gods, with so many birds scattered about. Blossom-decked Ṛśyamūka lies to the east of Pampā. It's high and steep, and guarded by elephant calves; it was Brahmā of yore who raised it up. If a man lies down at the top of that mountain, Rāma, and dreams of wealth, when he wakes up he'll obtain it. But no wicked sinner can climb it, for _rāk asas_ will surprise him in his sleep and carry him off, and Mata ga's forest-rangers, the elephant calves, will be heard trumpeting their war cries, Rāma, as they sport in Pampā. Matchless elephants roam about singly, cloud-grey and violent, spattered with streaks of blood from their battles. They drink the pure, cool, eternal water, then the forest-rangers turn and plunge once more into the forest. Rāma, on that mountain a great cavern is manifest; it's blocked by a boulder, Kākutstha, and difficult to enter. At this cave's eastern entrance is a large lake with cool water; it's delightful, with many roots and fruits, and
it's surrounded by all sorts of trees. That's where Sugrīva lives with four _vānaras_ , but sometimes he stations himself on the peak of the mountain.'
As Kabandha finished his instructions to them both, to Rāma [69.33–5] and to Laksmana, he blazed powerfully forth in the sky with his garlands, sunlike in splendour. Before Rāma and Laksmana set out they spoke to the distinguished Kabandha standing there in the sky, wishing him well, and he replied, 'May your journey be successful.' Then Kabandha took leave of the delighted pair and set out.
The king's two sons turned west and set out on the route to [70.1–6] Pampā indicated by Kabandha. Rāma and Laksmana could see trees with honey-like fruits covering the mountains as they went to find Sugrīva. The two brothers, pride of the Raghus, paused on the mountain flank, then those Rāghavas made for the western shore of Pampā. When they reached lotus-filled Pampā's western shore they saw the Sabarī's lovely hermitage. They arrived at the hermitage, really lovely among its many surrounding trees, looked around and went up to the Sabarī. The Perfected Woman saw them, stood up and greeted them respectfully, grasping the feet of Rāma and of Laksmana the wise.
Rāma then addressed the disciplined nun: 'Doubtless you [70.7–8] have overcome your problems; doubtless your ascetic power is increasing; doubtless you can control your anger and your diet, so rich is your ascetic power; doubtless you have observed all the prescribed conduct; doubtless your mind is content; doubtless you are reaping the reward of obedience to your _gurus_ , honey-tongued woman?'
At Rāma's questions, that Perfected ascetic whom the Perfected [70.9–13] honoured, the aged Śabarī, came up close to Rāma and told him, 'When you reached Citrakūta those on whom I was waiting were taken up from here to heaven on carriages unequalled in splendour, and those right-knowing, distinguished great sages told me, "Rāma will come to your most holy hermitage. You must receive him as a guest, and Saumitri with him, then the sight of him will allow you to go to the excellent worlds of eternity." So, you bull of a man, I've been gathering for you all kinds of forest produce that grows on Pampā's shores, you tiger of a man.'
()70.14–15 ()So said the Śabarī. This Sabarī had never been excluded from learning, so the Rāghava rightly replied: 'I have heard direct from a Danu the truth about your noble masters' power; I should like to see it for myself, if that seems good to you.'
[70.16–24] Hearing the words that fell from Rāma's lips, the Śabarī showed them both round that great forest. 'See, pride of the Raghus, this is Mata ga's famous forest, billowing like clouds and thronged with wildlife. This is the bathing place, blessed by _mantras_ , where my holy _gurus_ made _mantra_ -conforming oblations. This is the westward-facing altar where those I respected so highly made their offerings of flowers, their hands trembling from weariness. See, best of the Raghus, even today the power of their austerities makes the altars, unequalled in radiance, light up every direction with their splendour. By thought alone they could bring the Seven Seas together here, for fasting had made them so faint and weak they could not go there. Here on the trees they hung out their bark-fibre clothes after they had bathed, but in this place they still have not dried, pride of the Raghus. You have now seen the whole forest and heard all that I have to tell, so with your approval I wish to leave my body. It's my wish to go to join those holy sages whose hermitage this was, and whose attendant I was.'
[70.25–7] The Rāghava's face lit up with delight – Laksmana's too – as he heard that most righteous speech and replied, 'Go, with my leave!' When Rāma gave his permission she offered herself into the sacrificial fire and was gone to heaven with a fiery aura. To the holy place where sport those sages made great by their extreme discipline, there, by the power of her own meditation, went the Śabara woman.
# KIṢKINDHĀ
Rāma went with Saumitri to the lake, his mind in a whirl, and [4,1.1–2] gave way to grief. The sight of the teeming lotuses, water lilies and fish set his senses quivering with delight; desire seized him, and he cried out to Saumitri:
'Saumitri, look at Pampā's lovely wood! It looks as if it's [1.3–46] growing from the tops of mountains, so mountainous are its trees! But I'm weighed down by care and tormented by grief: there's Bharata's trouble and now the capture of Vaidehī! The forest floor gleams green with dark and light patches, carpeted with flowers from the trees. Saumitri, it's the season of balmy breezes, frenzied desire, fragrance – spring, begetter of blossom and fruits on trees. Look, Saumitri, how fair are the forests, decked with flowers! They're like clouds, raining down flowers in floods! In the pretty glades the ground is strewn with flowers fluttering down from the woodland trees, wafted by the breeze. A gentle breeze blows sandal-cool through honey-fragrant forests buzzing with bees. Amid the fair, flower-girt, pleasing summits, whole chains of mountains flaunt their great trees. Look at these _kar ikāras_ all around, with their flowery heads covered in gold: they're like men in yellow clothes! Saumitri, this bird-proclaimed springtime fans the flames of my grief, bereft as I am of Sītā! I'm overwhelmed by grief, and Manmatha's tormenting me! The _kokila_ is raising its voice and calling in delight, and the moorhen calling out in rapture from a pretty forest waterfall makes me grieve, Laksmana, gripped as I am by Manmatha. His bees have brought joy to all sorts of birds, Saumitri; sweetly they sing as they sport with their mates in flocks of their own kind. Saumitri, when I think of
my doe-eyed wife I'm tormented by grief – and now by this cruel springtime breeze blowing through the forest. Manmatha's overwhelming me and the flocks of peafowl displaying to their mates on the mountainsides are augmenting Manmatha's might. Lak ma a, look how that peahen's dancing attendance on her mate, the cock, as he's dancing on the mountain-side. She's suffering from Manmatha! That peacock has certainly not had his beloved stolen by a _rāk asa_ in the forest. It's very hard for me to have to live without her in the springtime. At the end of the winter the forests are enriched by a mass of blossom. Look, Lak ma a, how fruitless for me is that blossom. Flocks of enraptured wildfowl are calling out to each other, their muffled cries making me mad with desire. Sītā must be grieving like me in her captivity – my dark darling with her lotus-petal eyes and sweet voice! This breeze gently wafting the flowers feels cool, but to me it's like a fire when I think of the woman I yearn for. When she was lost, then this winged ranger of the skies sang out; now that crow is calling in delight from
its perch on a tree. The winged sky-ranger kept watch over Vaidehī then; now it shall lead me to my broad-eyed beauty's side. Laksmana, look how the birds in the blossom-capped forest trees are cooing out their impassioning song. Saumitri, see glittering Pampā – we can glimpse it through the trees – its water's radiating lotuses like the rising sun! That's Pampā with its still water, crammed with water lilies and lotuses – blue and red – strewn with geese and coots, and always crammed with sheldrake, its lovely banks and glades graced by herds of elephants and deer in search of water. Laksmana, the sight of those lotus-ball petals reminds me of the eyeballs of Sītā! The captivating breeze blowing clouds of lotus filaments from the forest depths is sighing like Sītā! Saumitri, see on the mountain-side to Pampā's south the wonderful flowery shaft of a _kar ikāra_. That king of a mountain is enriched with so many minerals that the dust blown up from it by the wind is multi-coloured. Everywhere, Saumitri, the mountain-slopes are ablaze with beautiful flame-trees, flowers all over their leafless limbs, indeed the hillsides are flecked all over with their flowers, they're carpeted red and yellow all over! Saumitri, see the
woodland bringing forth its flowers after the end of winter; now it's the flowering season, the trees are vying with each other with their blossom. Saumitri, see too the cool water, choking with lotuses, covered with sheldrake, home to coots, filled with water hens and cranes and the haunt of boar and deer: Pampā is resplendent with cooing birds! The joy of all these birds enflames my yearning as I remember my dark darling, her moon-bright face and her lotus-eyes. See! on the glittering slopes the bucks are accompanied by their does, but I remain desolate without doe-eyed Vaidehī.'
So did he mourn, his mind overcome by his grief, as he gazed [1.47] there at the bright and gleaming waters of lovely Pampā.
Sugrīva noticed Rāma and Laksmana, those noble brothers [2.1–6] with their fine warlike weapons, and grew alarmed. When he saw how mighty they were he was not reassured; the monkey became very frightened and his spirits sank. He thought it over and considered it from all sides, but righteous Sugrīva and all his followers were highly suspicious. So suspicious was Sugrīva, lord of the monkeys, at the sight of Rāma and Laksmana that he told his companions, 'Vālin has obviously sent this pair to that inaccessible forest, to roam about here disguised in bark clothes.'
A glance at the two supreme bowmen sent Sugrīva's companions [2.7–11] panions scurrying from the mountain-side to another lofty peak. These leaders ran to their bull of a leader, and the apes in the _vānara_ chief's guard clustered round him. Up narrow tracks they went, leaping from mountain to mountain, their momentum making the peaks shudder. In their flight, all the mighty monkeys smashed blossoming trees clinging to the fastness, and all the excellent apes startled deer, wild cats and tigers as they came leaping on all sides towards that great mountain.
When Sugrīva's companions had all assembled on the Lord [2.12–13] of Mountains and clustered round the Chief of the Monkeys, they stood and saluted. Hanumān eloquently addressed the timorous Sugrīva, who was terrified by the thought that Vālin might harm him.
[2.14–17] 'Bull of a _vānara_ , you've fled with your mind in a turmoil from savage, grim-faced Vālin, but I can't recognize him here. My dear sir, you're afraid of some evil from your older brother, but evil-natured Vālin is not here. There's nothing to frighten you that I can see. Shame on you! It's plain to see you're just a monkey bounding around, too light-minded to stand firm on anything. You've been gifted with intelligence and understanding: act according to the circumstances! A king who acts without judgement can't tell others what to do.'
[2.18–26] Sugrīva heard all Hanumān's reasonable advice; his reply to Hanumān was yet more reasonable. 'They have strong arms and broad eyes, and they're carrying bows and arrows and swords. Who wouldn't be terrified to see this pair? They look like sons of a god! It's my suspicion that these excellent warriors are agents of Vālin. Kings can call on many confederates: they're not to be trusted. A man should watch out for enemies operating under cover, for the untrustworthy attack the trusting at their weak points. Vālin is shrewd and practical; far-sighted kings eliminate their enemies, and it's for ordinary men to discover them. Monkey, you're just an ordinary person: you can go and investigate them – the clues in their behaviour, their appearance, the way they talk. Assess what mood they're in: are they well disposed? Gain their confidence with repeated courteous remarks and gestures. Act as my frontman, bull of an ape; you, ask the two bowmen why they have come into this forest. Monkey, from their words and behaviour you must judge their intentions: are they, in your opinion, honourable?'
[2.27(); ()3.1–3] At the command of the King of Apes, that true Son of the Wind resolved to go after Rāma and Laksmana. Learning what noble Sugrīva wanted, Hanumān leapt over to the two Rāghavas from mount Ṛśyamūka. When he arrived, that truly valiant, excellent _vānara_ , the mighty Hanumān, approached them with courteous words. The _vānara_ changed his own form into that of a mendicant and addressed the heroes with due deference:
[3.4–21] Fair-skinned, steadfast ascetics, equal to royal sages or gods, why have your Honours come to this region? As you glance all around at the trees growing on Pampā's bank you are startling the herds of deer and other forest wildlife; your golden lustre brightens the river's bright waters. Who are you, so bold, so resolute, to be wearing bark? Lionlike your gaze, lionlike your mighty courage, my heroes; like Sakra's bow are the bows you both grasp in your powerful arms; intrepid as the best of bulls, you are majestic, handsome, glorious bulls of men; like the trunks of elephants are your arms. This Lord of Mountains shines with your splendour! You are worthy to be kings, you could be taken for immortals: why then have you come here? You are warriors, your eyes are like lotus petals, yet you wear your hair matted into a mound; you are warriors, both alike come here from the world of the gods, as if sun and moon had chanced to fall to earth. You are warriors with broad chests, men in the guise of gods; lionlike your shoulders, great your spirit, like rutting bulls are you. Your arms, long and well developed, are like clubs: they're fit for adornment with every kind of ornament – so why are they bare of ornament? You're a pair who could protect this earth – ocean, forests, lovely Vindhya and Meru and all – that's my opinion! These glittering, gilded bows of yours, smooth and glittering with grease, flash like Indra's lightning bolts. Your magnificent quivers are all filled with sharp arrows the like of lethal serpents, dread and blazing. These two estimable swords, long and ornamented with refined gold, sparkle like sloughed snakes. Won't you answer my questions when I'm talking to you like this? There's a certain _vānara_ lord, the righteous Sugrīva by name. This hero has been ill-treated by his brother, and roams the world in sorrow. I have come on the orders of noble Sugrīva, king of the _vānara_ chiefs: I am the _vānara_ named Hanumān. Sugrīva the righteous wishes to make an alliance with you both. Let me introduce myself: I am his minister, a _vānara_ Son of the Wind. I can assume any form I choose and go wherever I choose, and I've come here from Rśyamūka disguised as a mendicant out of desire to please Sugrīva.'
With these words from Hanumān the eloquent to warlike [3.22–3] Rāma and Laksmana – eloquent themselves – he said no more. Majestic Rāma's face lit up to hear his speech, and he said to his brother Lak ma a standing beside him:
[3.24–5] 'This is a companion of the Ape Lord approaching me – that noble Sugrīva, that I so want to meet. Talk to him, Saumitri, with honeyed words: he's an ape, but he's Sugrīva's companion and he's an eloquent warrior, well disposed to us.'
[4.1–2] Those sweetly spoken words delighted Hanumān as he realized the stranger had come out of need, and his mind flew to Sugrīva. 'Noble Sugrīva's coming into his kingdom is about to be realized with the arrival of this person in need; that need is as good as met.'
[4.3–4] Hanumān, the bull of a monkey, was highly delighted and used his skill at speaking to question Rāma in reply. 'What is your purpose in coming with your younger brother to the fearsome forest, girdled by Pampā's woods, impenetrable and teeming with every kind of savage animal and deer?'
[4.5–16] When he heard these words, Laksmana was urged by Rāma to introduce him as noble Rāma, son of Daśaratha. 'A king called Daśaratha was glorious and devoted to doing right; his eldest son, Rāma by name, is world-famous as a refuge for all creatures, a hero faithful to his father's command. This is he, the most distinguished of Daśaratha's sons. He was banished from his kingdom and came to live here in the forest with me; glorious in his self-control, he was accompanied by his wife Sītā, just as the glorious sun is by its radiance at the dying of the day. I am his junior, Laksmana by name. I've been led to serve him because of his distinction: he's appreciative but shrewd, yet sovereignty has been snatched from him and he has taken refuge in the forest. A shape-changing _rāksasa_ carried off his wife in a deserted place, but which _rāksasa_ it was that captured his wife we don't know. A certain Danu, a true Son of Srī but cursed to _rāksasa_ form, told us of Sugrīva, the competent lord of the _vānaras_ , "That hero will know who has captured your wife." When he'd told us that, the brilliant Danu went happily to heaven. I've told you truly all you asked, for Rāma and I have come to Sugrīva for protection. The man who once upheld the world, dispensing wealth and earning glory unparalleled, seeks the aid of Sugrīva, in the expectation that Sugrīva and his lords will be gracious to grief-stricken, heartbroken, supplicant Rāma.'
When Saumitri had sobbed out his pitiful tale, eloquent [4.17–20] Hanumān replied, 'Men like you will be received by the lord of the _vānaras_ , gifted as you are with wisdom, your anger checked, your senses under control. It is by good fortune that you come to see him! He too has been driven out of his kingdom and is in conflict with Vālin; his wife's been seized in the forest, he's been terrified, he's been violently ill-treated by his brother. Sugrīva himself, a true Son of the Sun, and the rest of us, will give you our aid in your search for Sītā.'
Hanumān spoke these gentle words in sweet tones, then said [4.21] to the Rāghava, 'Let's go to Sugrīva.'
Righteous Laksmana duly honoured Hanumān for his [4.22–4] words, then declared to the Rāghava, 'We've found him! and he has a need too, as this delighted ape, this true Son of the Wind, tells us! Your need is met, Rāghava! That doughty Hanumān, that Son of the Wind, can't be telling an untruth; his face and features are calm and it's clear he's delighted at the news.'
Then Hanumān Son of the Wind wisely led the Rāghava [4.25(); ()5.1] heroes to the king of the monkeys, going from Ṛśyamūka to mount Malaya. Hanumān then announced the two Rāghava heroes to the king of the apes.
'It is Rāma who has come, accompanied by his brother [5.2–7] Lak ma a! Rāma the intelligent, steadfast in his courage, truly valiant! Rāma born of the Iksvāku race, son of Daśaratha, renowned for righteously upholding his father's commands! While this noble was living a life of discipline in the forest, a _rāk asa_ carried off his wife, and he has come to you for support. That king was a man of integrity, who gratified the sacrificial flame with _rājasūyas_ and _aśvamedhas_ and gave away cows as sacrificial fees hundreds and thousands of times, protecting the earth with his austerity. It's his son Rāma who's come to you for support on account of his wife. These brothers Rāma and Lak ma a wish to enter into alliance with you, sir; you should receive and honour them, for they are both most worthy of respect.'
Sugrīva was delighted and relieved to hear Hanumān's [5.8–12] words. Shaking off his terrible fear of the Rāghava, Sugrīva the monkey lord assumed a most becoming human form and greeted the Rāghava with pleasure. 'Sir, this true Son of the Wind has told me all about your excellent qualities, how you are schooled in righteousness, courageous, and kind to all. My lord, it is the utmost privilege and benefit that you wish for friendship with me, a _vānara_. If this friendship please you, here is my hand on it; clasp hand in hand and let the bargain be sealed.'
[5.13–18] Hearing Sugrīva's well-phrased speech, Rāma delightedly pressed hand into hand and cordially embraced him as a friend. The warrior Hanumān changed back from a mendicant into his own form, kindled a fire with a pair of sticks, honoured the pure flame with flowers when it blazed, then placed it between them with joyful care. Sugrīva and the Rāghava circled the blazing fire to inaugurate their friendship. Then those two, monkey and Rāghava, could not have enough of gazing at each other, so great was their delight. Illustrious Sugrīva made a wholehearted promise to Daśaratha's all-wise son, Rāma.
[6.1–10] 'Rāma, Hanumān, my companion and best of my counsellors, has told me why you've come to the deserted forest and how, while you've been living in the forest with your brother Lak ma a, Janaka's daughter, your wife Maithilī has been carried off by a _rāk asa_, who sought his opportunity then snatched her away in tears from you and prudent Lak ma a after killing the vulture Jaṭāyus. I will soon release you from the sorrow born of separation from your wife. I'm the one to bring her back to you, like the once-lost Vedic scriptures. Whether she's in the world below or the world above, I'm the one to fetch her and return her to you, victorious warrior. Believe my words, mighty Rāghava, and forsake your grief: I am bringing your darling to you. I realize it must have been Maithilī I saw being carried off by an evil _rāk asa_: no doubt of it! She was incoherently shrieking out "Rāma! Rāma! Lak ma a!" and writhing about in Rāva a's grip like the serpent queen. She saw me standing with four others on a mountain-side and dropped her shawl and fine ornaments. These we gathered up and kept, Rāghava. I'll fetch them; you ought to recognize them.'
Hearing Sugrīva's glad tidings, Rāma cried, 'Fetch them [6.11] quickly, my friend! What are you waiting for?'
At these words, in his eagerness to please the Rāghava, [6.12–17] Sugrīva plunged at once into a hidden cave in the mountain and brought out the shawl and fine ornaments. Saying, 'Look, here they are!' the _vānara_ showed them to Rāma, who took the garment and fine ornaments, clouded with tears like the moon with mist. Tears welling up out of love for Sītā overwhelmed him. 'Oh my darling!' he cried out as he lost his composure and fell to the ground. Again and again he pressed that perfect ornament to his heart, his sighs deep as a snake's raging in its hole. His tears flowed unchecked. Noticing Saumitri at his side he began a sorrowful lament:
'Lak ma a, look at the shawl and jewels Vaidehī's cast off [6.18–22] from her body to the ground as she was being carried off. This jewel was definitely dropped by Sītā on to the grassy earth as she was being carried off: I recognize its shape. Sugrīva, tell me where you saw her, dear to me as my life! Where was that horrific _rāk asa_ taking her? Where does he live, that _rāk asa_, my tormentor? Because of him all _rāk asas_ shall meet destruction at my hands! He's opened the gates of Death to end his own life, so greatly has he enraged me by capturing Maithilī!'
The _vānara_ Sugrīva was overcome by sobbing at Rāma's [7.1–13] sorrowful words; making a respectful gesture he replied through his sobs: 'I know nothing about the evil _rāk asa's_ lair, nor his capability or strength, nor his low-bred lineage. But this I pledge in all truth, victorious hero: I will make such an effort that you'll get Maithilī back. Stop grieving! I will take swift steps to secure your happiness: killing Rāva a and his horde will vindicate my manliness. Don't let weakness overcome you! Remember your natural composure. It's not right for a man like you to be so irrational. I too have incurred great distress by having my wife seized, but I'm not grieving, I'm not losing my composure. I'm only a common _vānara_ , but I'm not grieving over her. You, sir, are noble – and self-controlled too – so you have all the more reason to be resolute. It's for you to restrain your falling tears with composure, and not abandon that resolve which is the guiding principle of those who pursue true integrity. A resolute man draws on his inner resources and doesn't get discouraged by distress or difficulty or deadly fear. It's a foolish man who's always lapsing into frailty; he's bound to sink under his sorrow like an overladen ship in the water. I'm saluting you respectfully, and begging you with deference: be a man and don't give grief a chance. Those who lapse into sorrow never find happiness; their brilliance is dimmed, so you mustn't grieve. I'm not giving you orders, I'm speaking out of friendship: it's in your own interest! Out of respect for that friendship you should stop grieving.'
[7.14–15] The Rāghava was comforted by Sugrīva's gentle words. His face was wet with tears, but at Sugrīva's words he wiped it with the edge of his robe and pulled himself together: he was Lord Kākutstha. He embraced Sugrīva and replied:
[7.16–22] 'Sugrīva, you've done everything that it's right and proper for a dear, kind friend to do. At your prompting I'm myself again, my friend. Such friendship is hard to find even in a relative, especially at a time like this. Even so, you should be getting on with the hunt for Maithilī and that base, ferocious _rāksasa_. What must I do? Tell me that with confidence, and I'll promise to do it; I give you my true word.' Sugrīva and his _vānara_ companions were thrilled to hear the Rāghava's promise.
[8.1–10] The _vānara_ Sugrīva was so delighted by the promise that he cried to Rāma, Lak ma a's senior, 'I must certainly be a favourite of the gods and blessed with every virtue for you, sir, to be my friend! With you to help me I could even win the kingdom of the gods, let alone my own kingdom! Friends and family alike will certainly commend me, Rāghava, for securing a born Rāghava as my ally, with the fire as witness. You will gradually come to recognize me as a fitting friend for you, but I can't begin to list all the virtues of your character. Noble, generous people like you are to the highest degree unwavering in their affection, like self-controlled people in a resolve. To the righteous, the silver and gold, the clothes and the ornaments of the righteous are common property: the highest gain is a friend, rich or poor, miserable or happy, perfect or imperfect. The sight of affection like that will lead a man to lay down wealth, happiness or life itself for the sake of a friend.' Rāma agreed with Sugrīva's welcome words witnessed by wise Lak ma a, another Indra Vāsava in fortune.
Seeing that Rāma and mighty Laksmana were still standing, [8.11–15] Sugrīva looked all round the forest until the Lord of the Apes saw a nearby _sāl_ tree in full flower, covered with small leaves and buzzing with bees. Sugrīva broke a well-flowered branch full of leaves off the _sāl_ and spread it out, sitting down on it with the Rāghava. Seeing them seated, Hanumān too tore a branch off the _sāl_ and courteously invited Laksmana to sit. The delighted Sugrīva addressed Rāma deferentially in a soft, sweet voice, his words filled with joy.
'For my part, I've been badly treated by my brother, so that [8.16–18] I roam this lovely mount Rśyamūka, weighed down by fear and in utter misery from the seizure of my wife. I live here in terror, in the depths of dread, my thoughts in a whirl, injured by my brother Vālin, Rāghava, and at enmity with him. You give security to all the world: do take up my cause. I've no one to turn to, and I'm weighed down by fear of Vālin.'
With a gentle smile illustrious Kākutstha, who knew what [8.19–23] was right and was devoted to doing right, answered Sugrīva: 'The fruit of friendship is aid; injury is the mark of an enemy. This very day I will kill the captor of your wife. These feathered arrows of mine are sharp-edged and very swift: they're the product of Kārtikeya's forest. They are gilded and trimmed with heron feathers, well jointed, their points well honed: they're like angry snakes, they're like great Indra's thunderbolt. That enemy in the guise of a brother, that cause of your torment, you'll see that Vālin laid low by my arrows, like a shattered mountain!'
Commander-in-Chief Sugrīva was immeasurably delighted [8.24–7] to hear the Rāghava's words. 'Well said, well said!' he cried. 'Rāma, I was overwhelmed by sorrow. Sorrow-oppressed people should turn to you, sir. With you as my friend, I can pour out my plaint. You have become my friend, valued above life itself – I swear it in all truth – you gave me your hand – the fire was witness! The alliance we have formed gives me confidence to speak out: the grief possessing my mind is constantly burning me up!'
[8.28–30] These words were enough; tears dimmed his eyes, tears choked his voice, and he could say no more. But in Rāma's presence Sugrīva resolutely stemmed the flood of tears suddenly bearing down on him like a river in full spate. The illustrious _vānara_ checked his tears, wiped his fine eyes, sighed and continued his tale to the Rāghava.
[8.31–9] 'Some time ago, Rāma, Vālin unseated me from my own kingdom, slandered me and drove me out by force. He seized my wife, who is dearer to me than life itself, and imprisoned my friends. Rāghava, the wretch has made efforts to destroy me, and many times have I killed _vānaras_ in his employ. Even when I saw you, Rāghava, it was anxiety on this score that made me afraid to approach you myself, for every alarm frightens me. These have been my sole companions since then, led by Hanumān, as I eke out my hard-lived existence. These affectionate monkeys protect me on all sides: when I go they go with me and when I stay they stay. In short, this is my tale, Rāma. Why spin it out? My eldest brother Vālin, renowned for his manliness, is my enemy. His destruction would end my troubles at once; my happiness – indeed my life – depend on his destruction. I've told you how to end my sorrow, Rāma; I'm tormented by sorrow, and in good times or bad a friend can always rely on a friend.'
[8.40–43] Hearing what he said, Rāma told Sugrīva, 'I wish to hear the true reason for this enmity. When I have heard what caused your enmity, _vānara_ , and thought over the pros and cons, I will at once procure your happiness. Strong indignation is welling up in me to hear how disgracefully you have been treated; my heart is agitated like waters at the onslaught of the rains. Tell me in glad confidence while I string my bow, for when my arrow is released your enemy will be destroyed.'
[8.44–5] So spoke noble Kākutstha. Sugrīva was immeasurably delighted, along with the four _vānaras_. His face full of joy, Sugrīva began to explain to Laksmana's elder brother the true cause of his enmity.
'My victorious elder brother, Vālin by name, used always to [9.1–20] be high in our father's esteem, and in mine, too. On our father's death he, as the eldest, was installed in the kingship by the counsellors as the supremely honoured Lord of the Monkeys, and while he was ruling our great ancestral kingdom, I remained at all times as obedient to him as a servant. Between Vālin and the eldest son of Dundubhi, the illustrious Māyāvin by name, there had once been a notorious, fierce quarrel over some woman. One night while everyone was asleep, Māyāvin came to the gate of Ki kindhā, roaring in rage, and challenged Vālin to fight. Hearing that hideous roaring as he slept, my brother Vālin couldn't contain himself but dashed out at once. His wives and my obedient self tried to prevent him from rushing out in anger to kill that champion of the anti-gods, but the mighty _vānara_ shook us all off and ran on, with me rushing after him, driven by my affection for Vālin. The sight of my brother and me coming in the distance struck terror into the anti-god, and he ran off quickly, so we increased our pace to catch up with his timorous flight, with the rising moon illuminating the chase. The anti-god bolted into a deep cleft in the earth, constricted and hidden in the grass. We ran up quickly and stopped; Vālin was angry and perplexed to see his foe enter the cave, but instructed me, 'Sugrīva, you stay here at the cave entrance on the alert while I go in and fight and kill my enemy.' Despite my entreaties when I heard his instructions, he made me swear by his feet, my lord, then went in. A full year elapsed after he went into the cave, with me standing at the entrance the whole time. When my brother didn't come back I decided he must be dead; in my fondness for him I feared the worst but didn't know what to do. A long time later I was greatly distressed to see red blood come foaming out of the cave. I could hear the sound of anti-gods roaring and the shouts of my respected brother struck down in battle. These signs convinced me that my brother had been slain, so I blocked the cave entrance with a rock the size of a mountain, sorrowfully made a water offering and returned to Ki kindhā, my friend, strenuously concealing what had happened. Nevertheless, the counsellors heard about it and consecrated me publicly.
[9.21–4(); ()10.1–6] 'While I was duly ruling the kingdom, Rāghava, Vālin returned. He had killed his enemy, that anti-god chief! When he saw that I had been consecrated, rage reddened his eyes, he bound my counsellors and he uttered a stream of vituperation. I was quite capable of punishing my evil brother, Rāghava, but respect for him restrained me. I welcomed him with the honour due to his nobility, but his joyless heart spoke no greeting. My wish was to smooth things over and calm my furious brother, so eaten up with anger was he on his return. "Fortune has brought you back safe! You have killed your enemy!" I exclaimed. "My lord, I have no lord but you alone, you who delight the lordless. This many-ribbed parasol is like the risen full moon: take it and the fan that I am holding out to you. It is you who are king, now perpetually to be accorded the homage I have been receiving. The kingdom has been held in trust for you: I restore it to you. Most respectfully do I entreat you by your head, gentle conqueror, not to be angry with me. When the counsellors resident in the city met me, they forced the kingship upon me, lest the vacancy should invite conquest."
[10.7–25] 'That _vānara_ requited my gentle words with insults, crying out "Shame on you!" and much more of that sort. He called together the subjects and the honoured counsellors, and addressed this accusation to me in the midst of my friends. "You know that Māyāvin, that huge, vicious, belligerent, wicked anti-god, challenged me one night. When I heard his roar, I rushed out from the royal palace, followed quickly by this most ruthless brother. Through the darkness the giant saw I had a companion; terror gripped him at the sight of the two of us running towards him and he fled, running at top speed, and bolted into a cavern. When I discovered he was inside that huge, monstrous cave, I told my cruel-faced brother, 'I can't go back to the city without killing him. You keep watch at the cave entrance; I'll kill him myself.' Confident he would stay, I went in with difficulty, and then a year elapsed while I searched, but my dauntless courage enabled me to spy out that terrifying enemy, and I killed the anti-god and his family. As he lay groaning on the ground, a stream of blood came gushing out of his mouth and filled that winding cave. I had overcome my enemy, Dundubhi's audacious son, but found my exit, the mouth of the cave, blocked! I shouted out 'Sugrīva!' again and again, and was devastated to get no answer, but I battered my way out with kick after kick and so managed to come back. That's why I'm enraged with this cruel Sugrīva, who has forgotten all brotherly affection and sought the kingdom for himself." So said that _vānara_ Vālin. When his fury abated he turned me out in just a single garment. Rāghava, not only did he exile me, he seized my wife, and fear of him has sent me roaming the forests and seas of the whole earth, mourning the seizure of my wife, until I reached this lovely mountain, Ṛśyamūka, which for a special reason is out of Vālin's reach. I've given you a lengthy and complete account of our enmity. Rāghava, you can see what misfortune has befallen me, though I am guiltless. Do be gracious to me, valiant protector of the world, and punish Vālin for this fearful persecution.'
Sugrīva had right on his side: knowing where his duty lay, [10.26–9] his glorious hearer told him with a smile, 'These sharp unerring arrows of mine, like the sun, shall fall in fury on that vicious Vālin. That evil Vālin, that scandalous abductor of your wife, shall live only until I catch sight of him. My own experience tells me that you are sunk in a sea of sorrow. I will bear you across and you shall obtain your heart's desire.'
Rāma's words cheered Sugrīva and gave him courage; he [11.1–6] paid homage to him and told the Rāghava, 'You, I'm sure, when roused to anger could burn up the worlds like the sun at Doomsday, tearing bodies open with your blazing, sharp arrows. Listen attentively to what I can tell you about Vālin's courage and might and resolution, then work out what to do next. Before sunrise, his strength restored, Vālin strides from western to eastern ocean, from southern to northern. He climbs to the mountain-tops and even hurls great peaks violently into the air, staunchly catching them again. To demonstrate his strength, Vālin has made short work of smashing all kinds of forest trees full of sap.
'A buffalo called Dundubhi, splendid as Kailāsa's peak, was [11.7–13] courageous and strong as a thousand elephants. Deluded by pride in his valour and the possession of a boon, this ill-natured giant approached the Ocean, Lord of Rivers, and issued a challenge to the billowing waves, the source of gems, the Great Sea, to do battle with him. Then up rose the righteous mighty Ocean, your majesty, and replied to the anti-god, who was hastening to his doom. "I have not the power to do battle with an expert warrior such as you; listen, and I will name one who will do battle with you: the King of the Mountains in the great forest, the ascetics' chief sanctuary, father-in-law to Śiva, clad with caves and torrents, replete with gorges and waterfalls, renowned by the name Himavān! A duel with him would give you unparalleled satisfaction."
[11.14–24] 'Realizing that the Ocean was afraid, that pre-eminent anti-god shot off to Himavān's forest like an arrow from a bow. Dundubhi then pelted the ground with the mountain's own snowy rocks huge as elephant lords, and bellowed until cloud-white Himavān, cool and pleasant to behold, stood on the very summit and addressed him. "Dundubhi, you cleave to what's right: it's not for you to torment me, for I know nothing of warfare. I'm the refuge of ascetics." Hearing what the wise King of the Mountains said, Dundubhi's eyes reddened with rage and he replied, "If you are incapable of fighting or para-lysed by fear, then tell me who will do battle with me today. I want a fight!" When righteous Himavān heard that unprecedented demand he grew angry and eloquently told the pre-eminent anti-god, "A glorious _vānara_ of great wisdom called Vālin, equal to Śakra in might, lives in peerless, splendid Kiskindhā. He's a knowledgeable and expert warrior, and he's the one to give you a duel great as Indra Vāsava's with Namuci. Go straight to him if you want a fight now. He's a difficult warrior to vanquish in feats of arms."
[11.24–30] 'Rage possessed Dundubhi when he heard Himavān's words and he went off to Kiskindhā, Vālin's city. He had the form of a terrifying, sharp-horned buffalo, looking like a huge monsoon cloud full of rain in the sky. When he came to the gate of Kiskindhā, mighty Dundubhi bellowed like a kettledrum, shaking the earth, smashing down the neighbouring trees, pawing up the ground with his hooves and arrogantly scouring the gate with his horns like a tusker. Vālin heard the noise from inside his private apartment and dashed out irritably, surrounded by his wives as the moon is by stars. Vālin, lord of all the apes that roam the forest, enquired of Dundhubi in moderate tones and clearly spoken words, "Why are you obstructing the city gate and bellowing? I know you. Look to your life, mighty Dundubhi!"
'The words of the wise _vānara_ lord made Dundubhi's eyes [11.31–4] redden with rage, and he replied: "A warrior like you shouldn't be prattling away in the presence of women! You should be doing battle with me! Then I'll know how strong you are. Either that, or I'll check my rage for tonight, _vānara_ , and you can indulge yourself to your heart's content until dawn. Killing someone who's drunk, or making love, or asleep, or powerless, or led astray by passion like you, is everywhere rated as bad as procuring an abortion."
'He sent all the women away, led by Tārā, then laughed in [11.35–6] rage and spoke slowly to that supreme anti-god: "Don't dismiss me as drunk, unless you're afraid to fight! If I'm drunk, it's with battle-frenzy!"
'With these words he angrily threw off a golden garland his [11.37–9] father, great Indra, had given him and prepared to do battle. Seizing the mountainous Dundubhi by the horns, Vālin felled him and roared loudly. The life was squeezed out of Dundubhi in that fight to the death; as he fell, blood spurted from his ears, and his great corpse lay lifeless on the ground.
'Impetuously Vālin picked up the inert carcass in his arms ()11.40–42 ()and with one heave flung it for a _yojana_. As he was hurled violently along, drops of blood falling from his mouth were blown by the wind towards Mata ga's hermitage. When the sage saw those spots of gore falling he pronounced a great curse upon Vālin for throwing them there: "Let him not come here on pain of death."
'He went to see the great sage and humbly begged for mercy, [11.43–6] but since then fear of the curse has made that monkey refuse to approach lofty mount Ṛśyamūka, or even to look at it, Lord of Men, so I've been roaming this great forest with my counsellors, free from worry, knowing that he can't come here. You can see the huge, mountainous heap of bones that he hurled here, glorying in his might. That's Dundubhi.
[11.47–9] 'Here are seven spreading _sāl_ trees with drooping branches; it's as much as Vālin can manage to shoot an arrow right through one of them, although I've told you clearly, Rāma, that his might is unmatched. How will you be able to kill Vālin in a fight, your majesty? If you could split these _sāls_ with a single arrow, then, sir, I would know you to be a mighty warrior, capable of killing Vālin.'
[11.50–52] Hearing what noble Sugrīva had to say, the mighty Rāghava lifted Dundubhi's body playfully with his toe and kicked it for ten _yojanas_. Sugrīva's response to seeing the body kicked was pointed: in front of Lak ma a he told Rāma, 'The body was fresh, fleshy and full of moisture when it was thrown before, my friend; now, Rāghava, it's fleshless and light as straw. That makes it impossible to compare your strength and his.'
[12.1–11] When he heard Sugrīva's well-turned speech, glorious Rāma grasped his bow to reassure him. Taking his dread weapon and a single arrow, he deigned to aim at the _sāl_ trees, and shot; the noise of his bowstring filled every direction. The gold-adorned arrow released by his might pierced the seven _sāls_ on the mountain-top and disappeared into the earth, travelled for a moment below ground then quickly burst out again, emerging at great speed to re-enter its own quiver. The bull of a _vānara_ was amazed to see the seven _sāls_ pierced by the impact of Rāma's arrow, and bowed his head with its dangling ornaments to the ground; with the utmost pleasure Sugrīva humbled himself before the Rāghava. Delighted by the deed he declared to the warrior standing before him, Rāma the right-minded supreme exponent of all weaponry, 'You could kill all the gods in battle with your arrows, Indra included, you bull of a man; how much more Vālin, my lord! Kākutstha, who could withstand you in the forefront of battle, when you can rip open seven great _sāls_ , the mountain and the earth with a single arrow? This day is my sorrow fled, this day do I experience extreme pleasure at making a friend of you, great as Indra or Varuna! Please me this very day, Kākutstha, I humbly implore you, by killing Vālin, that enemy in the guise of a brother!'
Sugrīva looked so delighted that Rāma embraced him and, [12.12–13] with Lak ma a's approval, very shrewdly replied, 'Let's leave here at once and go to Ki kindhā. You must lead the way. When you get there, Sugrīva, challenge Vālin, that sham of a brother.'
They all hurried off to Vālin's city of Kiskindhā and halted [12.14–20] in the dense forest, concealing themselves in the trees. Sugrīva girded himself and roared horribly to challenge Vālin, rending the air with the violence of his roars. Hearing his brother's roar, mighty Vālin rushed out, angry and infuriated; it was as if the setting sun had risen again. Then ensued a tumultuous battle between Vālin and Sugrīva, dreadful as the celestial one between the planets Budha and A gāraka. Crazed with rage the brothers fought, striking each other with slaps like thunderclaps and punches like thunderbolts. Rāma, bow at the ready, stared at the two warriors: they were like the twin gods, the Aśvins, so like each other that he could not distinguish Sugrīva from Vālin, so the Rāghava decided not to loose his death-dealing arrow.
While he hesitated, Vālin gained the advantage; finding no [12.21–4] support from his lord, the Rāghava, Sugrīva fled to Rśyamūka, exhausted, bleeding from every limb, battered and disabled. Vālin chased him furiously as far as the great forest, but when he saw him go into that forest, Vālin was afraid of the curse and, mighty as he was, he turned back, shouting, 'You've got away!' The Rāghava and his brother, and Hanumān too, joined the _vānara_ Sugrīva in the forest.
When Sugrīva saw Rāma and Lak ma a coming he asked [12.25–7] with downcast eyes, miserable and shamefaced, 'What did you mean by telling me to challenge him and demonstrating your prowess, then getting me killed by my enemy? You should have told me the truth then and there, Rāghava, that you weren't going to kill Vālin, and then I shouldn't have stirred from here.'
The Rāghava replied to noble Sugrīva's plaintive, pitiful [12.28–35] words, 'Sugrīva, my friend, listen to me, and dispel your anger. The reason I didn't shoot my arrow was that you, Sugrīva, and Vālin look just like one another in ornament, dress, size and bearing. _Vānara_ , I could detect no difference between you in voice, splendour, appearance, prowess or words. That was why, excellent _vānara_ , I could not loose my foe-destroying, irresistible arrow: I was confused by the similarity of your appearance! But very soon you'll see Vālin writhing on the ground. I'll dispatch him from your fight with a single arrow. What you must find, _vānara_ lord, is some way I can recognize you in the course of your duel. Laksma a, pick some of these beautiful elephant-flowers and hang them round noble Sugrīva's neck.'
[12.36–8] Lak ma a picked some of the luxuriant, mountain-born elephant-flower blossoms and hung them round his neck. The creeper round his neck made him glow with glory, like a twilight cloud garlanded by egrets. Rāma's promise reassured him, and he radiated beauty as he went with Rāma to Ki kindhā, stronghold of Vālin.
[14.1–6] They all hurried off to Vālin's stronghold of Kiskindhā and halted in the dense forest, concealing themselves in the trees. Stout-necked Sugrīva gazed all around the woods; his beloved woodland fired him with fury and in the midst of his attendants he uttered a dreadful roar and issued his challenge, rending the air with the violence of his roars. Sugrīva looked like the rising sun, he had the gait of a haughty lion after Rāma's demonstration of his prowess: 'We have arrived,' he said. 'Ape-deterrent snares on all sides, burnished gold gateways, standards and siege-engines in abundance: this is Kiskindhā, Vālin's city! A bramble bears its fruit in due season: now, hero, the time is ripe for your promise to slaughter Vālin to be fulfilled.'
[14.7–17] At Sugrīva's words the Rāghava, that righteous crusher of enemies, then replied: 'Sugrīva, this so-called elephant-flower singles you out for recognition, as the sun in the firmament is distinguished from its garland of constellations. _Vānara_ , by me you shall today be rid of your fear of Vālin's enmity, by the loosing of a single arrow in your struggle. Sugrīva, show me your enemy in the guise of a brother, and Vālin lies writhing in the dust, slain! If I set eyes on him and he returns alive, then, sir, you may turn round at once and reproach me for my wrongdoing. Before your eyes I pierced seven _sāls_ with an arrow: that tells you that today Vālin will meet a violent death at my hands. I've never yet told a lie, valiant prince, even under duress, so eagerly do I yearn for what's right; and in no circumstances will I utter one. I will make my promise bear fruit, like Indra Śatakratu with his rain on the rice sprouting in the field: cast aside your doubts! So, Sugrīva, shout out a challenge to gold-garlanded Vālin that will make that _vānara_ rush out. If it's you that's attacking him, Vālin will think he's already won and will brag about his victory; he relishes a fight and nothing will stop him rushing out from the city. Warriors will not tolerate being attacked by their enemies in war, but trust to their prowess, especially within sight of their womenfolk.'
In response to Rāma's words, tawny-gold Sugrīva then [14.18–20] roared out a roar harsh enough to rend the whole air, terrifying cows with the din, shorn of their glory like women violated by a sinful king huddling together, stampeding wild animals like battle-wounded steeds and dashing birds to the ground like planets whose merit is exhausted.*
From inside his private apartment Vālin heard noble Sugrīva [15.1–5] roaring and lost his temper with his brother. Intoxication vanished in a flash when he heard that world-harrowing roar, and tremendous rage seized him. Vālin was radiant as the rising sun, but when wrath took command of his body he was suddenly stripped of his radiance, as if the sun had been blotted out. In his anger Vālin was like a blazing fire; with his terrible teeth he gleamed like a lake displaying its open lotus flowers and stalks. At the sound of that intolerable noise the ape jumped up hastily, his feet thudding down as if they would rend the earth.
Tender Tārā was fearful and upset; in a demonstration of [15.6–23] affection she flung her arms round him and advised him prudently: 'Come, come, heroic ape! Anger is flooding over you like a river, driving you from your bed! Get rid of it quickly, like a garland you've worn. I don't think you should rush straight out: listen and I'll tell you why I'm holding you back. He's attacked you angrily once before and challenged you to fight. He attacked, but you beat him and put him to flight. For him to come back and challenge you again makes me feel suspicious, when you've defeated him so emphatically and put him to flight. The arrogance and spirit of his bellowing, and the fervour of his shouting, are of no slight concern. I don't think this Sugrīva has come here on his own; he's bellowing because he's got some stout helper to rely on. That _vānara_ Sugrīva is shrewd by nature, and certainly canny too: he won't have brought a companion without testing his prowess. My hero, a little while ago I heard Prince A gada talking. I'll tell you what he said. It's to your advantage. It's that famous Rāma that's helping your brother! He's a fierce fighter who won't yield to hostile force, he blazes like the Doomsday Fire! He's a tree to shelter the good, the prime support of the unfortunate, a refuge for the afflicted – he alone is glorious! He's blessed with knowledge and understanding but content to obey his father: like a mountain of minerals, he's a whole heap of virtues! So it's not for you to oppose that noble, matchless Rāma in warfare: he's unassailable! Heroic ape, I'm going to make a suggestion and I don't want you to take it amiss; just listen, and then do as I say. I'm telling you for your own good. Consecrate Sugrīva as Young King straight away, if you please! Your glorious majesty, don't make war on your brother – he's stronger than you! It's my belief you'd be better off banishing your enmity far away and being on terms of friendship with Rāma and goodwill with Sugrīva. You should cherish this _vānara_ , your younger brother; when all's said and done, he's your own flesh and blood. If you wish to please me and want to do me good, I beg and pray you to act upon my word.'
[16.1–8] While she was still speaking Vālin reviled moonfaced Tārā and replied, 'My beauty, why should I put up with that rabid bellowing by my brother, especially when he's my enemy? You are timid, but unvanquished warriors don't retreat from battle; for them, intolerable harassment is worse than death. I cannot endure that weak-necked Sugrīva bellowing out his passionate hunger for battle. Don't worry about me because of the Rāghava. He knows what's right, and he knows what's happened, so why should he do me any harm? Go back with the women. Why follow me any further? You've demonstrated your affection for me, Tārā, and proved your devotion. It's for me to meet Sugrīva and fight. Stop worrying! I'll rid him of his arrogance, but I won't kill him – I swear that to you on my own life – so wish me victory and turn back. I'll be back when I've fought that brother and taught him enough of a lesson.'
Tārā had spoken kindly, but now she embraced Vālin and [16.9–10] circumambulated him in the auspicious direction, weeping softly, then pronounced a blessing with victory _mantras_ and went with the women into the private apartments, in a turmoil of sorrow.
With Tārā back with the women in her own quarters he [16.11–14] issued angrily from the city, hissing like a great snake. Hissing vehemently in his great fury, majestic Vālin cast his eyes all round, eager to spy out his enemy, until he saw, tawny-golden, well-clad, dauntless as a blazing fire, Sugrīva. Remarking Sugrīva's resolute stance, Vālin flew into a rage and hitched his garment tightly round him.
'My fist is clenched tight: I'll lay its fingers on you so hard [16.18] they'll put an end to your life!' shouted Vālin.
Sugrīva's angry reply to Vālin was, 'It's my fist that shall fall [16.19–24] on your head and put an end to your life!' but as he rushed forwards in fury he received a blow that set the blood bursting from him like mountain springs. Then with a mighty heave Sugrīva completely uprooted a _sāl_ tree and struck Vālin a body blow like a thunderbolt on a high mountain, sending Vālin reeling under the devastating force of that _sāl_ like a heavy-laden boat sinking in the sea. Each displayed dread, vigorous might and the momentum of Garu a, each was puffed-up and ferocious to behold; they were like the sun and moon in the sky. Humiliated by Vālin, his strength ebbing, Sugrīva's resentment at Vālin fuelled his agility.
Then the Rāghava set to his bow an arrow like a poisonous [16.25–6(); ()19.2] snake, and shot the great shaft into Vālin's chest. Cut down by its force, Vālin fell to the ground. His limbs had been shattered by rocks, he had been battered by trees and overcome by Rāma's arrow: his life was drawing to an end and he swooned.
Tārā his wife heard Vālin, that tiger of a monkey, being [19.3–7] struck down in battle by the impact of the arrow shot by Rāma. Hearing her husband's horrible, agonizing death she was terrified and rushed out with her son from the extensive mountain fastness. When the _vānaras_ who attended A gada saw Rāma with his bow, powerful as they were they fled in terror. When she saw frightened apes rushing headlong away like deer scattered from the herd when the leader is killed, she ran to them in her distress; they too were distressed, and as terrified of Rāma as if his arrows were pursuing them. She addressed them all:
[19.8–9] 'You _vānaras_ , attendants of that lion of a king, why have you deserted him in terror and fled in confusion? Is it because brother has been struck down by savage brother to gain the kingship, with Rāma attacking him from afar, shooting his arrows from a distance?'
[19.10–16] The shape-changing monkeys all made the same prompt response to the words of the monkey's wife: 'You have a living son! Turn back and safeguard your son A gada! Death in the form of Rāma has struck Vālin down and is leading him away. Vālin has been laid low as if by a thunderbolt, by arrows that smashed like thunderbolts right through the trees and rocks he was hurling. This whole troop that charged forward has fled; we scattered when that tiger of a monkey, splendid as Śakra, was killed. Get warriors to protect the city and have A gada consecrated. The monkeys will be loyal when Vālin's son takes his place. Do you really think this is a good place to stay, charming lady, with _vānaras_ almost at our gates? Forest-roamers? We're in a turmoil of fear about these relations of ours; wives or not, they're destitute and predatory.'
[19.17–19] True to herself, the lady only smiled sweetly when she heard that, and called after the speakers, already some way off: 'Why should I be bothering about my son, or the kingdom, or myself, while my husband, that distinguished lion of a monkey, is perishing? That noble lord has been laid low by an arrow sent by Rāma; my place is at the soles of his feet.'
[19.20–28(); ()20.1–3] So saying she ran on in tears, haggard with grief and mournfully beating her head and breast with her arms. She roamed on until she saw her husband lying on the earth: he could kill _dānava_ lords, who would not turn tail in a battle; he could hurl lordly mountains like Indra Vāsava with his gales and massed banks of booming clouds can hurl thunderbolts; his valour had equalled Śakra's, now he was like a cloud emptied of its rain; his roar had been fearsome above all roars; that hero struck down by a hero was like the king of beasts killed by a tiger for its prey; he was like a sacred tree universally reverenced with banners and railing, destroyed by Garu a to get at a snake. She saw Rāma standing there, his ample bow grounded, and Rāma's younger brother, her husband's younger brother too, but she ran past them to reach her battle-slain husband; when she saw him she collapsed on the ground, distressed and hysterical. As if in a trance she picked herself up again, wailing, 'Noble prince!' and wept to see her lord fast in the fetters of Death. Sugrīva heard her screeching like an osprey and was seized by pangs of despair to see A gada there. Seeing him on the ground, struck down by the death-dealing arrow shot from5bow, beautiful moonfaced Tārā reached out and clasped her husband in her arms, realizing that Vālin, proud as an elephant, had met his death in that arrow. Tārā's mind was tormented by grief and suffering as she wept over that _vānara_ lord, great as Indra, now like a tree uprooted.
'Why won't you speak to me, you hero above all others, you [20.4–20] monkey-champion, so ferociously courageous in battle? My heart's breaking, I'm not reproaching you now. Get up, you tiger of an ape, and enjoy your beautiful bed! Peerless kings like you don't lie on the ground. It seems you're too much in love with the Earth, Lord of the Earth, it's her you're holding in your arms in death in preference to me. There's an end to what we all used to enjoy in your company in the sweet-scented woods – you too, from time to time! Now that you are departing this life, great lord of lords, I am joyless, hopeless, sunk in a sea of sorrow. My heart must be very hard, to see you laid low on the earth and not to burst into a thousand pieces in a torment of sorrow. What have you gained, monkey overlord, by seizing Sugrīva's wife and exiling him? You were mad to revile me, _vānara_ lord: I acted for the best, I gave you helpful advice, I wanted to do you good. It's Time that's bringing your life to an end, that's certain; that's what has forced you into Sugrīva's clutches in spite of yourself. Life as a widow is miserable and tormented by sorrow; mine has always been abundantly free from sorrow, but now I shall spend it husbandless. And spirited A gada, so cosseted in every ease and luxury, how will he fare when his uncle is out of his mind with rage, I wonder? – Son, hard though you'll find the sight, take a good look at your righteous father, my dear. – You must reassure your son and give him your instructions, then kiss him on the head before you embark on your final journey. Rāma has done a monstrous deed in killing you, but it was to fulfil his promise to Sugrīva here. – You'll get what you want, Sugrīva; Rumā shall be yours. Don't worry, you can enjoy the kingdom; your enemy, your brother, has been punished. – Why won't you give me a kind word in reply to my lament? Lord of the _vānaras_ , just look at all these fine wives of yours!'
[20.21(); ()22.1–2] Hearing her lament, those _vānarīs_ all around clustered about the miserable A gada and wailed in their melancholy. With life ebbing away and breathing feeble, Vālin looked all around, then fixed his gaze on Sugrīva standing before his son; speaking to victorious Sugrīva the monkey lord with affection in his clear voice, he said:
[22.3–16] 'Sugrīva, please don't blame me for the wrong I did while I was in the grip of mental delusion dragging me inexorably along. Dear brother, I don't think we were both destined to be happy at the same time, for the friendship expected of brothers has come to naught. Kingship over these forest-dwellers is now yours, and you can see that I'm on my way to the land of the dead. I'm fast leaving life, kingdom and great splendour, but with my fame high and unimpeached. Since I am in this plight I will tell you where your duty lies, heroic king, though it will not be easy. Look at A gada: he deserves some enjoyment, he's been brought up to comfort; he's not a childish boy but his face is awash with tears as he sprawls on the ground. My son is dearer to me than life itself. Look after him like your own son, and don't let him want for wealth of any sort after losing me. You are Lord of the Monkeys; you should provide for him and look after him in all things, and shield him from harm in my place. Tārā's glorious son is your equal in courage; he will take the lead in slaughtering those _rāk asas_. He'll march boldly into battle and accomplish fitting exploits, will A gada, this dashing, refined son of Tārā. And Su e a's daughter here is in every way thoroughly competent to assess subtle matters and all kinds of portents. Any course of action she approves may be pursued with confidence, for no opinion of Tārā's will be found false. What the Rāghava requires of you should be carried out without hesitation, for it would be wrong not to do so and if you treated him with disrespect he would injure you. I entrust this divine golden garland to you, Sugrīva, the seat of lofty Śrī, lest she forsake it at my death.'
The brotherly affection of Vālin's words stripped Sugrīva of [22.17–18] his joy and made him wretched again, like the Constellations' Lord when engulfed by the Devourer. Pacified by Vālin's speech, his fatigue gone, he duly accepted the golden garland as he was bidden.
When Vālin had handed over the golden garland and was [22.19–23] about to become a ghost, he caught sight of his son standing there, and said affectionately to A gada, 'Now you must adjust yourself to the present situation. Take the rough with the smooth, accepting equally pain and pleasure in their turn, but be submissive to Sugrīva's will. I have always cosseted you, mighty son, but Sugrīva will not think well of such behaviour. Don't associate with anyone except his allies, never with his enemies, victorious prince, but control yourself and seek your master's benefit: be submissive to Sugrīva's will. Too much deference and too little deference are both great faults: so avoid them both, and cultivate a happy medium.'
So saying, his eyes contorted by agony from the arrow, he [22.24] bared his fearsome teeth, and gave up his life.
Sugrīva was tormented by grief; while his garments were still [25.1–3] wet, the monkey ministers clustered around him and waited on him. Then they went up to Rāma the mighty, the tireless, and all stood before him with heads bowed like the sages round Brahmā. Hanumān, a true Son of the Wind, his face like the rising sun, looked like a mountain of gold as he respectfully spoke:
[25.4–7] 'It is by your Honour's favour, my lord, that this great ancestral _vānara_ kingdom, so hard to win, has been conferred on Sugrīva. With your Honour's leave, he will enter the goodly city with his supporters and make all necessary arrangements. He will bathe in the various prescribed perfumes and herbs and single you out for special honour with jewels and garlands. Be so good as to go from here to that pleasant mountain fastness, and rejoice the _vānaras_ by the consecration of their lord.'
[25.8–10] So said Hanumān, but the Rāghava, that slayer of doughty enemies, replied wisely and eloquently to Hanumān: 'Hanumān my friend, for fourteen years I shall observe my father's command and enter neither village nor city. Let the bull of a _vānara_ Sugrīva enter that divinely opulent fastness, and let that hero at once be sprinkled as king according to rule.'
[25.11–55] After these words to Hanumān, Rāma advised Sugrīva, 'My hero, you should also sprinkle A gada here as Young King. This is the first of the rainy months, Srāva a, the start of the monsoon; the designated four months of rain have begun, my friend. This is no time for enterprises. You should enter your fine city, my friend, while I shall reside on this mountain along with Laksma a. This can be my pleasant mountain fastness, my friend: it's spacious and airy, it's got ample water and ample lotuses and water lilies. When Kārtika comes, you should exert yourself so that Rāvana can be killed: that will be our opportunity, my friend. You must go to your own home, consecrate yourself to the kingship and make your friends rejoice.'
[25.16–19] So with Rāma's leave the bull of a _vānara_ Sugrīva entered into Kiskindhā, the lovely city Vālin had watched over. Thousands of _vānaras_ welcomed the _vānara_ lord on his entry and swarmed all around him in delight. At the sight of the Lord of the Ape-hordes all the citizens with one accord bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. Sugrīva their hero greeted his subjects and bade them all rise, then the mighty monkey entered his brother's comfortable private apartments.
[25.20–34] When Sugrīva came out again his companions consecrated that bull of a _vānara_ , as the immortals did Thousand-eyed Indra. They brought him his gold-adorned white parasol and a magnificent pair of gleaming fans with gold handles, jewels of all kinds, and every sort of seed and plant and sprig and blossom from sap-laden trees; gleaming garments too and white ointment, and fragrant garlands culled from earth and water, with divine sandalwood paste and many different perfumes; golden unhusked grain, millet, honey, _ghī_ and curds; a tiger-skin and a pair of boar-skin sandals. Sixteen lovely damsels joyfully approached bearing unguent, and yellow and red pigments. When the bulls of brāhmans had been gratified at the proper time with the prescribed gems and garments and food, people well versed in the _mantras_ offered a _mantra-_ purified oblation into the blazing fire, strewn around with _kuśa_ grass, and with numerous _mantras_ installed the supreme _vānara_ facing the east upon a gorgeous throne on a pedestal of gold, spread with fine cloths and beautified with glittering garlands, upon the splendid palace roof. Water drawn from rivers, streams and holy fords all around and collected from all the oceans was placed, pure and auspicious, in golden jars; using auspicious bull's horns and golden pitchers according to the rules laid down by the great sages and the ritual texts, Gaja, Gavāk a, Gavaya, Śarabha, Gandhamādana, Mainda and Dvivida, Hanumān, Jāmbavān and Nala, bulls of _vānaras_ , sprinkled Sugrīva with clear, fragrant water as the _vasus_ did Thousand-eyed Indra Vāsava, and all the bulls of _vānaras_ , thousands of them, noble and joyful, acclaimed Sugrīva's consecration.
Sugrīva, that bull of an ape, then embraced A gada and [25.35–7] carried out Rāma's suggestion, consecrating him Young King, at which the noble monkeys cheered their approval and honoured Sugrīva. Pleased and prosperous people were everywhere: emblazoned with banners and standards, Ki kindhā city rejoiced in its mountain fastness.
With Sugrīva consecrated and the _vānara_ withdrawn to his [26.1–8] retreat, Rāma went with his brother to mount Prasrava a. Resounding with tigers and deer, swarming with fierce-roaring lions, overgrown by all kinds of bushes and creepers, thronged with trees and home to bears, _vānaras_ and langurs and to wild cats, the mountain was like a towering cloud and was always supplied with pure water. It was at the summit of that mountain that Rāma and Saumitri selected an extensive, spacious cave for their lodging place, and there that the righteous Rāghava settled with Lak ma a among the many picturesque caverns and arbours on mount Prasrava a. Rāma, though, could take no pleasure at all from living on that pleasing, well-provided crag as his memory dwelt on his captive wife, dearer to him than life. At night as he lay in bed, especially when the moon was rising in the east, sleep eluded him. Kākutstha's mind was overwhelmed by weeping for the grief welling up in him. In his grief, he could never shed his sorrow. His brother Laksmana shared his pain and offered a word of consolation.
[26.9–14] 'Stop fretting so! You're a warrior, and shouldn't give way to grief. You know that a low spirit reduces anyone's chances of success. You, sir, carry out all earthly observances; you, sir, are devoted to the gods; you're devout, righteous and resolute; you're the Rāghava! Without resolve you won't have strength to fight and kill any enemy, especially that crafty _rāk asa_. Root out every bit of your grief; cultivate a firm resolve; then you'll root out that _rāk asa_ and his retinue. You're so strong you could even topple the world complete with its oceans, forests and mountains – how much more Rāva a! Your courage is asleep, but I'm arousing it, like a fire smouldering in its ashes when it's time for the oblations to blaze out.'
[26.15–18] The Rāghava courteously acknowledged that Lak ma a's well-meaning words were appropriate and replied to his affectionate comrade, 'Lak ma a, you've said everything there is to be said by a fond, affectionate well-wisher who holds fast to what's true and courageous. I'm rid of the grief that will wreck all my efforts. My spirit has never given way in feats of valour: I will rouse it to courage. Now that the rains have come I can wait till autumn, but then I shall destroy that _rāk asa_, and his country, and his hordes.'
[26.19–22] Laksmana was delighted to hear Rāma's words. Saumitri, joy of his friends, replied, 'Now you've gone back to being Kākutstha. Now you've acknowledged your own courage you should live up to it. Your words are typical of you and your renowned dynasty. So, you tiger of a man, endure these rains that have arrived by thinking about how to punish your enemy. You're the Rāghava!'
Rāma's thoughts were with lotus-petal-eyed Maithilī. His [29.21–37(); ()30.8] mouth ran dry as he remarked to Lak ma a, 'Prince, it's high time for a royal expedition, and I've seen nothing of Sugrīva or of any preparations. The four months of the rains have passed, dear brother, but for me tormented by grief at not being able to see Sītā they've felt more like a hundred rainy seasons. I'm bereft of my darling, I'm grief-stricken, I've been robbed of my kingdom, I'm in exile, but now he's king, Sugrīva shows me no sympathy, Lak ma a. You must go to Ki kindhā and give a message from me to that bull of a _vānara_ , that besotted Sugrīva addicted to his vulgar pleasures. You should be tactful and avoid hard words, but tell Sugrīva that he has exceeded the time limit.'
When his older brother had explained exactly what he [30.9–33] wanted, that bull of a man, that slaughterer of enemy heroes, the warrior Lak ma a went into the city like the blazing Doomsday Fire or an enraged lord of snakes; A gada approached him in terror and despair. Eyes copper-coloured with rage, the renowned prince ordered A gada, 'Young man, give Sugrīva this message about my arrival: "Destroyer of your enemies, Rāma's younger brother has come to have audience with you. He is seething with rage at his brother's distress. Lak ma a is at your door." '
A gada was filled with anguish at what he heard from [30.34(); ()31.1–2] Laksmana. He went up to his father and said, 'Here comes Saumitri!' Sugrīva and his courtiers heard what A gada had to say, and the news that Laksmana was enraged made him leap from his seat, though he retained his composure. He thought out reasons, serious and trivial, then, since he knew how to seek advice and how to take it, he consulted his wise counsellors.
'I have neither said nor done anything wrong. I wonder why [31.3–8] the Rāghava's brother Laksmana is angry? Enemies of mine are always on the lookout for opportunities to be hostile, and they've filled the younger Rāghava's ears with reports of faults I've not committed. Meanwhile let your Honours all exert your brains and work out some rational explanation, thorough but measured. It's certainly not that I'm frightened of Laksmana or even of the Rāghava: it's just that having an ally enraged inappropriately gives rise to uneasiness. It's easy enough to strike up a friendship but harder to maintain it; sentiments are fickle and even a trivial matter can cause a rift in cordiality. That's why I'm frightened of noble Rāma in case I can't repay the help he gave me.'
[31.9–21] That bull of an ape Hanumān replied to Sugrīva's words in the midst of the _vānara_ counsellors with a conjecture of his own. 'It is not at all surprising, Lord of the Ape-hordes, that you have not forgotten the welcome assistance and great friendship with which he favoured you. To please you, the heroic Rāghava banished your fear and killed Vālin, though he was Śakra's equal in might. No doubt it's from injured affection that the Rāghava has dispatched Laksmana, furtherer of Fortune. You are usually the most punctilious person, but you have not noticed the season: auspicious autumn has begun. The _saptacchadas_ are dark with blossom; the clouds have vanished, leaving the sky and its planets and stars spotless; in every direction, streams and lakes are tranquil. Bull of an ape, do you not realize that the time for action has arrived? Clearly Laksmana thinks you negligent; that's why he's come. The noble Rāghava is distressed by his wife's capture, so you should reconcile yourself to harsh words brought from him by an intermediary. You've offended him, and I don't see what else you can do but propitiate Laksmana with hands clasped in submission. A king's appointed counsellors are under an obligation to speak for his own good; that's why I have made bold to give you my considered opinion. If the Rāghava raises his bow in anger he can subjugate the world – gods, anti-gods and _gandharvas_ too! You should remember his previous assistance with gratitude: it's not good to enrage him when you'll only have to placate him again. Bow your head to him, your majesty, you, your son, and your companions, and keep your promise to him, submissive as a wife to her husband.'
Then at Rāma's command Laksmana, that slayer of hostile [32.1–17] warriors, entered the terrible fastness of Ki kindhā. When the huge, powerful apes on guard at the gate saw Lak ma a they all stood up and saluted, but the apes were frightened to see Daśaratha's son snorting with anger and kept away from him. The majestic prince gazed at the great fastness, jewel-built, jewel-encrusted and divine, charming with its blossoming woods, crowded with mansions and palaces, adorned with markets of all kinds, adorned with flowering trees bearing every fruit one could wish for, its beauty set off by shape-changing _vānara_ sons of gods and _gandharvas_ lovely in their divine garlands and garments, its highways joyful with fragrant sandalwood, aloes and lotuses, and with sweet-scented wine and mead. The many-storeyed palaces stood firm as mounts Vindhya and Meru, and the Rāghava could see there pure mountain streams. A gada had a lovely house; so did Mainda and Dvivida, Gavaya, Gavāksa, Gaja and Śarabha. Along the king's highway Lak ma a could see the imposing, lordly dwellings of all these noble monkey lords, gleaming like white clouds, garlanded divinely, rich with goods and grain, bejewelled with women. Then he saw the lovely residence of the _vānara_ lord; it was difficult of access, encircled by a white mountain, like great Indra's seat, and adorned with gleaming turrets like Kailāsa's peaks. He saw flowering trees bearing every fruit one could wish for, and handsome, cloud-dark trees bestowed by great Indra bearing divine flowers and fruit, cool, shady and captivating. Around the splendid, divinely garlanded entrance with its gateways of burnished gold stood powerful apes, sword in hand.
Mighty Saumitri entered Sugrīva's charming palace unhindered, [32.18–26] like the sun entering a great cloud. Once inside the seven courtyards with their many vehicles and benches, the righteous prince saw the extensive, heavily guarded private apartments; on all sides it was beautified by gold and silver couches and many fine benches covered with costly cloths. As he entered he could hear the continual sweet sound of mingled strings and singing, every word, every syllable in harmony. In Sugrīva's palace the mighty prince saw many different women exulting in their youth and beauty. At the sight of these high-born ladies with their necklaces of glittering garlands, absorbed in plaiting fine garlands and adorned with every possible adornment, and of Sugrīva's attendants, resplendent in their livery, content but not self-satisfied, Lak ma a looked all around until he saw Sugrīva, who was seated glorious as the sun on a golden throne covered with costly cloths; in his divine garlands and garments, divine ornaments glittering on his limbs, he looked like a god, like invincible great Indra.
[33.1–5] Sugrīva was agitated to see that bull of a man Laksmana come in unhindered and angry. Seeing that Daśaratha's son was snorting with anger, almost ablaze with splendour in his distress at his brother's misfortune, the ape chief left his golden seat and sprang up just like great Indra's lofty, much-adorned standard. As Sugrīva sprang up, the women sprang up after him, Rumā at their head, like stars crowding after the full moon in the firmament. With reddened eyes, majestic but deferential, he swayed, then stood there, firm as a great wish-granting tree.
[33.6–18] Lak ma a angrily addressed Sugrīva, standing with Rumā at his side surrounded by the women like the moon by the stars: 'A king gains worldwide honour if he is of good lineage, compassionate, self-controlled, grateful and truthful. But a king who persists in doing wrong, dishonouring a promise to allies and supporters! Could anyone be more malign? A lie concerning a horse destroys a hundred, a lie concerning a cow a thousand, while a lie concerning a man destroys teller and family. One who has achieved his object but is ungrateful and does not repay his friends, Lord of Leapers, is universally condemned to death. Monkey, mark this verse, respected the world over; it was sung by Brahmā in anger at the sight of ingratitude: "Expiation has been enjoined by the good for one who kills a brāhman, for one who drinks liquor, for a thief, or for one who has broken a vow; but there is no expiation for an ingrate." You are a low-born, ungrateful liar, _vānara_ , for achieving your own object but not repaying Rāma. Rāma achieved your object for you, _vānara_ , so now you should be anxious to return the favour by exerting yourself in the search for Sītā. Rāma did not realize that you were a snake roaring like a frog, attached to vulgar pleasures and false to your promises! It was by distinguished Rāma's doing, that compassionate, noble prince, that you obtained the kingship of the apes, evil and ill-intentioned as you are. If you don't acknowledge tireless Rāma's action, you will go straight away to join Vālin, killed by his sharp arrows: the path Vālin took at his death is not too narrow for you. Keep your pledge, Sugrīva! Don't follow Vālin's path.'
Lak ma a Saumitri's splendour blazed forth as he spoke, [34.1–22] but it was moonlike Tārā who replied. 'Lak ma a, you should not say such things! The Lord of the Apes here should have to listen to no harsh words, from your mouth in particular. Indeed Sugrīva is not ungrateful, nor is he a deceitful, cruel liar, my lord, and the monkeys' lord is no fraud. This heroic monkey, Sugrīva, certainly has not forgotten the aid lent him by Rāma; another such fighter would be difficult to find, my lord. By Rāma's grace Sugrīva has attained fame and perpetual kingship over the monkeys, victorious warrior; he has also gained Rumā and me. Before then he could get no comfort at night, but now that he has gained the ultimate pleasure he is like the sage Viśvāmitra, and doesn't realize how time has passed. You know Laksmana, when the great sage Viśvāmitra, righteous though he was, was besotted with Gh tācī, he thought ten years was one day. If such a punctilious timekeeper as glorious Viśvāmitra didn't realize how time had passed, how could an ordinary person? Rāma should be patient with one whose carnal appetite has left him exhausted but with his desire still not sated. Lak ma a, you sir shouldn't immediately give way to fury like a common person without investigating the matter. People of integrity like you, bull of a man, don't give way to fury without thought! You know what's right: I earnestly entreat you for Sugrīva's sake to give up this furious passion. It's my belief that Sugrīva would throw us over, Rumā and me, and the ape kingdom – goods, grain, wealth and all – just to please Rāma. Sugrīva will kill Rāva a in battle and reunite the Rāghava with Sītā like the hare-marked Moon with Rohi ī. There must be millions and millions of _rāksasas_ in Lanka.
These _rāk asas_ are hard to overcome and can change shape at will, but unless they're killed there'll be no killing Maithilī's captor, that Rāva a! You won't be able to kill that wicked Rāva a without help, Lak ma a, particularly from Sugrīva. That's what Vālin said, and that Lord of the Apes knew what he was talking about! I've no definite knowledge myself, I'm just telling you what I heard from him. Bull-like apes have already been dispatched to call up large numbers of _vānara_ ape chiefs for warfare in your cause. Those indomitable champions are needed to ensure the success of the Rāghava's mission: that's why the Ape-lord has not yet set out. But Saumitri, this is the very day set by Sugrīva for all those mighty _vānaras_ to arrive. Today thousands of crores of bears and hundreds of langurs will muster around you. Throw off your anger, victorious prince. Kākutstha, there'll be many crores of monkeys blazing in splendour!'
[35.1–4] Saumitri's natural gentleness prompted him to accept Tārā's courteous, right-minded words, and once the speech was accepted the Lord of the Ape-hordes shed his terror of Laksmana like a wet garment. Tearing the many strands of the glittering garland from his neck, Sugrīva, lord of the _vānaras_ , was free from dissipation. Sugrīva the supreme _vānara_ rejoiced and spoke courteously to fearsome, mighty Laksmana.
[35.5–11] 'Majesty, fame and perpetual kingship over the monkeys were lost to me, Saumitri, but by Rāma's favour I have them all back. Heroic, victorious prince, who could repay the prowess shown by this king, so famous for his deeds? The righteous Rāghava will get Sītā back and kill Rāva a by his own glory; I shall be no more than a helper. What help can I be to a man who can shoot an arrow through seven great trees and a mountain, and then into the ground? Lak ma a, when the rattle of his bow shakes the earth and its mountains, what does he need with assistants? Bull of a man, I'll organize a force to accompany the Lord of Men as he goes to kill his enemy Rāva a and his followers. If I have committed any trespass by taking his goodwill for granted, please forgive your servant: no one is faultless.'
[35.12–20] Noble Sugrīva's words mollified Laksmana and his reply was kind. 'Lord of the _vānaras_ , my brother has an excellent protector – and a courteous one too – with you, Sugrīva, to look after him. Whether because of your might, Sugrīva, or because of your unsullied character, you are worthy to enjoy the unsurpassed glory of the kingship of the monkeys. There is no doubt that with you, Sugrīva, to help him, majestic Rāma will soon kill his enemies in battle. Sugrīva, you have made a speech fitting and appropriate to your upright nature, grateful and steadfast in battle. Who else in a position of power other than my senior brother and you, supreme _vānara_ , would acknowledge his faults? You and Rāma are alike in valour and might, bull of an ape; the gods have sent you to be our helper for evermore. Do come at once, though, my hero, and we'll go together to soothe your friend in his distress at the capture of his wife. And I ask you to overlook the harsh words I spoke to you in response to Rāma's heartbroken lament.'
At noble Lak ma a's words, Sugrīva issued instructions to [36.1–15] his minister Hanumān standing at his side. 'Those who are stationed on the peaks of the Five Mountains – Mahendra, Himalaya, Vindhya, Kailāsa and pale-peaked Mandara; those on the mountains on the edge of the Western Ocean, sparkling all around with the hue of the rising sun; also those bulls of apes on the mountain abode of the sun that resembles a cloud at twilight, they who are sheltering among the _padma_ trees and palmyras of the fearsome forest; those too who bound about on mount Añjana, equal to tuskers in strength and black as collyrium clouds; those bright golden _vānaras_ who live in caves of realgar on the flanks of Meru or shelter on mount Dhūmra; and those with the hue of the rising sun who drink mead and wine as they bound about with fearful impetus on mount Mahāru a; those too in the vast, delightfully fragrant forests, and on the forest margins frequented by ascetics: summon them at once, each one of them, all the _vānaras_ on earth! Dispatch _vānaras_ straight away with all the standard inducements and gifts. Swift messengers have already been sent out by me but you should send out more apes to hurry them up. At my command, any self-indulgent _vānaras_ who string things out are to be brought here at once, and on my orders any who are not here within three days are to be executed for malicious non-observance of their king's command. At my command, lions of monkeys – a hundred thousand crores of them – are to set out in all directions, steadfast in implementing my decree. At my command supremely terrible monkeys are to set out, blotting out the sky in their mountainous clouds. At my command every _vānara_ scout is to scour the earth and speedily fetch all the apes.'
[36.16–26] When he heard the _vānara_ king's words, the Wind's true son dispatched valiant _vānaras_ in all directions. On the instant the apes sent out by their king took to the path of birds and light where Vis u strode; in oceans, mountains, forests and streams these vānaras chivvied all other _vānaras_ for Rāma's sake. Hearing the order of the supreme king, Sugrīva, fatal as Death himself, _vānaras_ mustered out of fear of Sugrīva. Three crores of them, black as the collyrium mountain, came leaping swiftly down towards the Rāghava; ten crores sporting on that marvellous mountain where the sun sets came down from it glowing like burnished gold; from Kailāsa's peaks came thousands of crores of _vānaras_ splendid in lionlike manes; of those who had resorted to living on fruit and roots on Himalaya there arrived a thousand thousand crores; in haste flew in thousands of crores of thousands of crores of Vindhya _vānaras_ , dread in demeanour and deed as A gāraka; countless were those who dwelt on the shore of the Milk Ocean or who lived on coconuts in the _tamāla_ forest; from forests and thickets and streams they hurried: as if it would swallow the sun, the _vānara_ host arrived.
[36.27–33] Those heroic _vānaras_ who had gone to hasten all the _vānaras_ saw the mighty trees of the Himālaya mountain, that pleasant, excellent mountain which once used to glow with divine, pleasing sacrifices to the Great God that delighted the minds of all the gods. There the _vānaras_ saw roots and fruits in superabundance sweet as ambrosia, lovely fruit and roots born of the food of the gods; anyone eating it once is satisfied for a month. The fruit-eating leaders of ape troops gathered those divine roots and fruit, together with divine plants, and as they went the _vānaras_ took fragrant flowers from the sacrificial sanctuary to give pleasure to Sugrīva. When all the ape chiefs had called up all the _vānaras_ on earth they hurried off at the head of their troops.
Quickly – in a moment – those nimble troop leaders reached [36.34–6] Ki kindhā where Sugrīva the _vānara_ was, and the _vānaras_ presented him with all the herbs, fruit and roots they had brought, with these words: 'We have all scoured the earth's mountains, oceans and forests and all the _vānaras_ attend you at your command.'
Sugrīva, overlord of the monkeys, was delighted to hear their [36.37(); ()37.1–2] report, and accepted all their tribute with pleasure. When all the tribute had been brought forward and presented, he dismissed all the _vānaras_ politely; with the dismissal of those heroic apes, their task accomplished, he felt that he and the mighty Rāghava had already achieved their objective.
Laksmana delighted the chieftain of all the _vānaras_ , the [37.3] fearsome, mighty Sugrīva, with a courteous invitation: 'May it please you to set out from Kiskindhā, my friend.'
Lak ma a's words were nicely put, and Sugrīva was happy [37.4] to hear them. 'Very well, let us go!' he replied. 'I must adhere to your command.'
So saying to Fortune-favoured Lak ma a, Sugrīva dismissed ()37.5–10 ()Tārā and the other women, then called loudly for the ape chiefs. The apes came as soon as they heard his shout, and when they arrived the king in his sunlike splendour instructed the _vānaras_ to make his palanquin ready at once. When they heard what he said the apes zealously prepared his handsome palanquin, and when he saw it was ready the _vānara_ lord said to Saumitri, 'Get in at once, Lak ma a.'
With these words Sugrīva climbed beside Laksmana into the ()37.11–16 ()golden, sunlike vehicle, borne by many apes. A white parasol was held above his head, gleaming fans were waved all around, conches and kettledrums were sounded and bards sang his praises as Sugrīva set out, possessed of unsurpassed regal pomp. Sword in hand, many hundreds of ferocious _vānaras_ escorted him to where Rāma was waiting. When in his splendour he reached Rāma's beautiful home, he and Laksmana got down from the palanquin and he approached Rāma with a submissive gesture, his deferential pose copied by the _vānaras_.
[37.17–23] Rāma was pleased with Sugrīva when he saw that great army of _vānaras_ like a pool of budding lotuses. When the lord of the apes bowed his head to the Rāghava's feet, he raised him up again, embracing him with affection and esteem. With his arms around him he graciously invited him to sit down; then, seeing him seated on the ground, Rāma spoke. 'A true king, heroic, supreme ape, is one who can always distinguish between duty, profit and pleasure, and seek each in due season; but one who abandons duty and profit to seek pleasure is like someone who goes to sleep in a treetop, and wakes up when he falls out. However, a king who is intent on killing his enemies and delights in collecting allies – who concentrates on his duty – will enjoy the fruits of all three aims. The time to exert yourself has come, destroyer of your foes; you should be making plans in consultation with the apes, Lord of the Monkeys.'
[37.24–33] Rāma's words were answered by Sugrīva: 'Mighty prince, it is by your grace that I have recovered my lost majesty, fame and perpetual kingship over the monkeys. Anyone who failed to repay a favour granted by you, your majesty, exalted conqueror, and by your brother, would bring disgrace on the world. Victorious warrior, these _vānara_ chiefs have assembled in their hundreds, bringing with them all the earth's mighty _vānaras_. Alert warrior bears also and langurs, Rāghava, fearsome to behold and familiar with wildernesses and forest fastnesses, and shape-changing _vānara_ sons of gods and _gandharvas_ escorted by their own troops are on the march, Rāghava. Warriors are leaping along in the midst of hundreds, and of hundreds of thousands, and crores, and myriads, and millions, ravager of your foes; _vānaras_ will come, your majesty, with tens of millions and with hundreds of millions and with thousands of millions and with billions, tawny chiefs of ape troops too with hundreds of billions and with trillions, bold as great Indra, steadfast as Meru and Mandara, from their homes on Vindhya and Meru. They will rally to you, kill Rāva a the _rāk asa_ and his supporters in battle and rescue Maithilī.'
[38.1–7] As Sugrīva spoke, his arms raised in submission, Rāma the supreme upholder of what is right embraced him and replied, 'It's as natural for such a ravager of your foes as you to repay his allies as it is for Indra to shower the earth with rain, or for the sun with its thousand rays to free the sky of darkness, or for the moon to cleanse the earth with its beams, my friend. So it's natural, Sugrīva my friend, for me to acknowledge your favour and your ever-welcome words. With you as my comrade to aid me, I shall triumph over all my enemies in battle; do please give me your assistance, my ally and supporter. That base _rāk asa_ has brought about his own destruction by seizing Vaidehī; it's like Anuhlāda deceiving Śacī, daughter of Puloman. In a short time I shall kill that Rāva a with my sharpened arrows like Indra Śatakratu did Śacī's arrogant father.'
Meanwhile, dust was being kicked up to blot out the hot, [38.8–36] intense brilliance of the thousand-rayed sun in the sky, dust that carried confusion and alarm in every direction till the earth tottered, mountains, forests, groves and everything, and the entire ground disappeared as there leapt along countless monkeys, mountainous, sharp-toothed and mighty, covering it in the twinkling of an eye with chiefs of ape troops and their hundred-crore hordes of thunderous shape-changing mighty apes from rivers, mountains and oceans. Other forest-wanderers came too: _vānaras_ the colour of the rising sun or creamy as the moon, some the colour of lotus filaments, or white ones from their home on Meru. Then appeared a glorious _vānara_ warrior Satabali by name, surrounded by ten thousand crores. Next appeared Tārā's heroic father, brilliant as a golden mountain, with several tens of thousands of crores. Then came Hanumān's father, majestic Kesarin, accompanied by many thousands of _vānara_ battalions; he glowed like a lotus filament, his face was like the rising sun, he was wise, he was a superlative _vānara_ , he was the foremost of all _vānaras_. Gavāksa, mahārāja of langurs, terrible in his valour, could be seen amid a thousand crores of _vānaras_. Dhūmra arrived; that slaughterer of enemies had with him two thousand crores of bears of fearful impetus. A great warrior chief called Panasa brought three crores, wild as great mountains. A gigantic chief, dark as a mound of collyrium, Nīla, could be seen surrounded by ten crores. The might-filled chief Darīmukha approached Sugrīva with a thousand crores, and the mighty twin sons of
the Aśvins, Mainda and Dvivida, could be seen with a thousand crores of crores of _vānaras_. Gandhamādana then arrived, followed at his back by a thousand and a hundred thousand crores of apes. Next came A gada, the Young King, his father's equal in prowess, in the midst of a million millions and a thousand billions, followed at a distance by star-splendid Tāra, an ape of fearsome prowess with five crores of apes. Indrajānu, a heroic ape chief, arrived with the eleven crores he commanded. Then like the rising sun arrived Rambha, surrounded by a myriad and a thousand and a hundred, and the intrepid mighty _vānara_ chief Durmukha arrived with two crores. Like Kailāsa's peak in the midst of a thousand crores of _vānaras_ , dreadful in their valour, came Hanumān. Nala of great prowess brought a hundred crores, a thousand, and a hundred tree-dwellers. Sarabha, Kumuda, Vahni – the _vānara_ Rambha too – these and many other shape-changing _vānaras_ swarmed over the entire earth, mountains and forests as they leapt along, as they leapt around Sugrīva, leaping and bellowing like billowing clouds round the sun and presented themselves with all their equipment to the _vānara_ overlord Sugrīva, bowing their heads with a joyful hullabaloo. Other high-ranking _vānaras_ assembled in the customary manner, saluted Sugrīva and stood respectfully before him. Sugrīva quickly presented all these bulls of _vānaras_ to Rāma, saluted respectfully and gave an appropriate address.
[43.1–6] It was to Hanumān in particular that Sugrīva set out his objective, confident in that ape's supreme ability to achieve his aim. 'Bull of an ape, I see nothing that can stand in your way, on earth or in the air, in the sky, in the abode of the gods, or in the waters. You know all the worlds with their anti-gods, _gandharvas, nāgas_ , men and gods, their oceans and mountains. Great monkey hero, you have all the penetration and speed, the fierceness and gentleness of your father the wild Wind. Indeed, no creature as splendid as you is to be found on earth, so it's for you to bring about a way of rescuing Sītā. You are experienced in proper procedure, Hanumān: in you reside strength, wisdom and valour, and you know how to take the right action at the right time and place.'
When the Rāghava understood that it was Hanumān who [43.7–9] was to be entrusted with the task, he pondered what he knew about Hanumān. 'The Lord of Apes here has every confidence that Hanumān will achieve his aim; Hanumān too is quite sure of his ability to accomplish his task. For him to be chosen on account of his deeds and sent out by his master ensures that the task will be fruitful.'
The mere sight of the ape, so full of resolve, was enough to [43.10–13] delight his glorious heart and mind, as if his purpose was already achieved. In his pleasure, the ravager of his foes gave him a ring that the princess would recognize, for it was decorated with the mark of his own name. 'Excellent ape, this token will see to it that Janaka's daughter will not take fright at you, but will realize you are a messenger from me. Your resolution, heroic ape, your valour and integrity, and your commissioning by Sugrīva all tell me I shall be successful.'
The excellent ape took it and touched it to his head;* then [43.14] the champion bowed to his feet, saluted and leapt off.
In recognition of their lord's stern command, the bulls of [44.1–7] apes set off, swarming over the earth like locusts while Rāma stayed there on Prasrava a with Lak ma a awaiting the end of the month fixed for locating Sītā. The heroic ape Śatabali set out at once for the pleasant northern region guarded by the king of the mountains, while the ape chief Vinata went towards the east. The monkey Son of the Wind, an ape chief, accompanied by Tāra, A gada and others went to the south, home of Agastya, but to the dread west, guarded by Varu a's zeal, went Su e a, tiger of an ape and lord of leaping folk. When the king had duly dispatched his chief monkey commanders in all directions he gladly relaxed and rejoiced.
Acting on the king's orders the _vānara_ chiefs all rushed off [44.8–9] in their designated directions. Calling and crying out as they leapt, jumping and running went the champion leapers, bellowing that they would rescue Sītā and kill Rāva a.
'I'm the one to find Rāva a and kill him in single combat! [44.10–14] I'll pulverize him! Janaka's daughter's trembling and exhausted now, but I'll carry her off!' 'You others can wait here, sirs. I'll be the one to carry Jānakī back on my own from the very Underworld!' 'I'm the one to scatter the trees!' 'I shall tear open mountains!' 'I shall tear open the earth!' 'I shall convulse the oceans!' 'I shall leap hundreds and hundreds of _yojanas_ , you may be sure!' 'Well, I'll leap hundreds and hundreds more!' 'Nothing will stop me on land or sea, on mountains or in forests or even in the middle of the Underworld!'
[44.15] In the presence of the king of apes so spoke each _vānara_ , exulting in his might.
[45.1] When the _vānara_ chiefs had gone, Rāma asked Sugrīva, 'How, sir, do you know so much about the whole round world?'
[45.2–17] Sugrīva humbly replied to Rāma: 'If you will listen, bull of a man, I will tell you the story in all its detail. When Vālin chased Dundubhi, the _dānava_ in the guise of a buffalo, towards mount Malaya, the buffalo plunged into a cave on Malaya and Vālin followed him inside Malaya, anxious to kill him, while I unassumingly kept to my appointed station at the cave entrance. When a year had elapsed and Vālin had not emerged I was astonished to see the cave filled with gushing blood, and grief for my brother poisoned me until I reached the obvious conclusion that my senior had been killed. In despair for his life, I blocked the cave entrance with a mountainous boulder so that the buffalo would be unable to get out and would perish, then went to Ki kindhā. The extensive kingdom was conferred on me; Tārā too became mine in addition to Rumā, and my companions and I lived there undisturbed. Vālin then came back after killing that bull of a _dānava_ , and fear compelled me to give him the kingdom, he being my senior. Evil-natured Vālin's passions were aroused to wish to kill me, and he pursued me angrily as I fled with my ministers. That Vālin set me and my companions running till I could see many rivers, forests and cities; in fact the earth was as clear to me as the surface of a mirror, as the circle traced by a fire-brand, or as a cow's footprint. First I went eastwards, then I sought refuge in the south, and after that, fearful of danger, I went to the west, but when I arrived in the north Hanumān said, "Your majesty, now I remember! In this group of hermitages Vālin lord of the apes was once cursed by Mata ga: if Vālin entered it, his head would shatter into a hundred pieces! We can live there happily and untroubled." So, prince, when Vālin reached mount Ṛśyamūka he kept out for fear of Mata ga. Your majesty, that was how the whole round world unfolded before my eyes until I reached my hiding place.'
As directed, the monkey chiefs sped off to all the places the [46.1–5] monkey king had indicated they should search for Vaidehī: lakes and streams, hiding places and open spaces, cities, swamps and mountains were all ransacked until the _vānara_ chiefs had searched every region specified by Sugrīva, mountains, forests, woods and all. Intent on reaching Sītā, the _vānaras_ all searched through the day and gathered on the ground at night. Each day at nightfall the _vānaras_ found seasonal fruit trees in the area and then slept.
On the day after a month had elapsed, the monkey chiefs [46.6–10] went despondently to meet the king of the monkeys at Prasrava a. Mighty Vinata arrived with his companions after searching as directed in the east, but had not seen Sītā. Then came the great monkey hero Satabali with his army, after searching all the north. Su ena and his _vānaras_ had searched the west before assembling at the end of the month and returning to Sugrīva, who was stationed on Prasrava a peak, seated beside Rāma. When they had arrived and saluted, they reported to Sugrīva:
'Mountains, forests, cities, rivers right down to the edge of [46.11–13] the ocean, also peoples, have all been searched; hiding places have all been searched according to your instructions, also extensive bushes smothered with thick creepers have been searched; gigantic creatures have been located and have been eliminated; dense areas have been searched repeatedly.'
The monkey Hanumān had set off with Tāra and A gada for [47.1–22] the region appointed by Sugrīva. He advanced a considerable distance with all the monkey champions, searching the hiding places and thickets of Vindhya: peaks and swamps, lakes and lofty trees, mixed groves and tree-girt mountains – however hard all those heroic _vānaras_ combed that region they could find no trace of Janaka's daughter Sītā Maithilī. Intrepidly they moved from place to place, living off roots and all kinds of
fruit as they combed, but the area was extensive and hard to search, with its caves and thickets. When they left that area, the indomitable ape chiefs all plunged into another impassable region: here trees were barren of fruit, flowerless, devoid of leaves; here lakes were without water and roots scarce; here were no buffaloes, no deer and no elephants, no tigers nor birds, nor any other forest creatures; in the lotus pools on the tableland here were glossy-leaved lotuses blossoming, spectacular and fragrant, yet bereft of bees. There was a great sage called Ka u, eminent, truthful, rich in austerities but extremely irascible; his observances had made him unassailable, but his son, a ten-year-old child, perished in that wilderness. The great sage was angered that he had lost his life there, and righteously cursed the entire forest land to become shelterless, impassable and empty of wildlife. Even so they rigorously searched its wooded edges, its mountain hollows
and its river sources, but though they carried out Sugrīva's wishes nobly, there too they could find no trace of Janaka's daughter or of her captor Rāva a either. Then when they had come to a dreadful area overgrown with creepers and bushes they saw a savage, sinful anti-god. When the _vānaras_ saw that mountainous monster standing there like a cliff, they all girded themselves tightly at the sight. For his part the brute roared, 'You're done for!' and rushed furiously towards all the _vānaras_ with his fists tight clenched, and attacked them violently. Vālin's son A gada assumed him to be Rāva a and slapped him with his hand. This blow from Vālin's son felled the anti-god to the ground, spewing blood from his mouth; it was as if a mountain had been overturned. When life had left him the _vānaras_ triumphantly searched widely in every hiding place on that mountain. Again they scoured the woodland, and then they all plunged into yet another even more fearful mountain hiding place. After a further wearisome search they tumbled out and sat down at the root of a solitary tree, a despondent group.
[48.1–10] Then weary A gada gently rallied all the _vānaras_ with words of great wisdom: 'Forests, mountains, rivers, fastnesses and thickets, caves and mountain hiding places all around – together we've ransacked them all. We've not laid eyes on Jānakī, nor on that _rāk asa_ who has captured divinely beautiful Sītā. A great deal of our time has been spent, and Sugrīva is a fierce taskmaster. My lords, you must scour the whole place. Shake off the lethargy and disappointment welling up in you – sleep too – and search till we find Janaka's daughter Sītā. This very day you forest-dwellers must search forests and fastnesses; shake off your weariness and search this whole forest again. We're bound to see the fruit of our labours! No more giving way to melancholy! We've no business so much as to close our eyes! Sugrīva's an impatient king, _vānaras_ , and his punishments are harsh. We must always beware of him, and of noble Rāma. I'm telling you this for your own good; act on my suggestion if you agree with it, or else make a better one, _vānaras_.'
Hearing what A gada had to say, Gandhamādana replied in [48.11–14] a low voice weary with thirst and exertion. 'A gada's proposal is certainly apt, well-meant, and also in our interests. Let's do as he says. Let's once more hunt mountains and glens, caves as well, deserted woods and mountain torrents, everywhere noble Sugrīva directed. Let everybody search every forest and mountain fastness.'
The mighty _vānaras_ stood up again and roamed through the [48.15–21] Vindhya forests enveloping the southern region. The _vānaras_ climbed a majestic mountain, silvery as an autumn cloud with its peaks and caves, then the champion apes searched a pleasant _lodhra_ forest and _saptapar a_ forests in their eager hunt to set eyes on Sītā. Strong though they were, they were exhausted when they reached its summit, but they could not find Rāma's beloved queen, Vaidehī. The apes scrutinized the mountain and its many glens, then climbed down, looking everywhere till they reached the ground exhausted and distraught. They stood for a moment, then sank down at the root of a tree, but a moment later they had revived their spirits and recovered a little from their exhaustion, and were again straining to hunt through the whole southern region.
Hunger and thirst were assailing them when, exhausted and [49.7(), ()30–31(); ()50.1] parched, they noticed a cavern set about with creepers and trees. The gallant and glorious _vānaras_ were scouring the cave on all sides when a woman appeared nearby. The sight struck them with terror, for she was an ascetic dressed in bark and black-antelope skins, emaciated from fasting and seeming to blaze with splendour. Hanumān very wisely explained to that illustrious ascetic, who was seeking merit clad in bark and black-antelope skins:
[50.2–8] 'We have been driven into this gloomy cave by exhaustion, hunger and thirst; we are altogether worn out. We came into this great cleft in the earth in the hope of finding something to drink, but we have seen so many different marvels that we feel perplexed, bewildered and confused. There are trees here, golden as the rising sun, their roots and fruit pure and luscious; there are golden mansions and silver houses, their windows burnished gold and their lattices studded all over with gems: whose are they? Whose power created these golden blossoming fruit trees, holy and fragrant, and these golden lotuses born in the spotless water? How is it that golden fish are swimming there alongside turtles? Do please tell us about yourself and your position; whose austerities have brought this about? We are all completely ignorant.'
[50.9–19] At Hanumān's words, the merit-seeking ascetic, devoted to the welfare of all creatures, replied to Hanumān: 'A glorious bull of a _dānava_ , a magician called Maya created all this golden forest by magic. Once upon a time he was appointed architect to the _dānava_ chiefs, and it was he who created this wonderful, heavenly golden residence. He had practised asceticism in the great forest for thousands of years and had been granted a boon by the Grand Father: all the wealth of Uśanas. Lord of everything he could wish for, he had all this built and then lived at ease in this great forest for a while, with the _apsaras_ Hemā as his partner, till Indra Puramdara attacked him and killed that bull of a _dānava_ with his thunderbolt and Brahmā gave this marvellous forest and golden dwelling to Hemā to enjoy in perpetuity to her heart's content. I am Svayamprabhā, daughter of Merusāvar i, excellent _vānara_ , and I watch over Hemā's residence. My dear friend Hemā is skilled in dance and song, and she has given me the privilege of watching over her lovely home. What do you want? Why are you here? This forest is unassailable: how did you cross the wild places and find it? These roots and fruits are good to eat; eat them and drink some water, then please tell me all.'
When the ape chiefs were all revived, the merit-seeking [51.1–2] ascetic with the focused mind spoke to them: 'If eating the fruit has dissipated your weariness, _vānaras_ , and if I'm not intruding, I should like to hear your story; please tell it.'
Hearing her request, Hanumān, that true Son of the Wind, [51.3–17] began to tell her honestly and truthfully. 'The glorious Rāma Dāśarathi, king of all the world, equal to great Indra and Varuna, entered Dandaka forest with his brother Laksmana and his wife Vaidehī. Rāva a forcibly carried off his wife from Janasthāna. It's that king's friend, a heroic _vānara_ called Sugrīva, the king of the _vānara_ chieftains, who has sent us out to the southern region – where Agastya roams and Yama rules – in company with these chief _vānaras_ under the leadership of A gada. All of us jointly have been exhorted to hunt for the shape-changing _rāksasa_ Rāva a and for Sītā Vaidehī. We all searched the whole southern region until we were starving and exhausted, and clustered round the roots of a tree, pale-faced and brooding, sunk so deep in a sea of thought that we could see no way out. Then as we glanced all around we saw a great hole hidden by creepers and trees and shrouded in gloom. Birds were flying out from there, geese damp with water, spraying drops from their wings, and ospreys, and _sārasas_ too. "Hooray! Let's go in!" I told the monkeys. The urgency of their master's task led them all to the same decision: "Let's go! Let's go inside!" They took firm hold of each other's hands then tumbled and scurried down into this gloom-obscured hole. That's our mission and that's why we're here. We came to you miserable and famished. We were burdened by our hunger, but now we've fed on the roots and fruit you gave us in accordance with the laws of hospitality. Tell us what we _vānaras_ can do to repay you for saving us all from starving to death.'
After the _vānaras_ ' words, all-knowing Svayamprabhā gave [51.18–19] her answer to the _vānara_ chiefs. 'It's my pleasure, daring _vānaras_. No one need reward me for doing what's right.'
Hanumān replied to the irreproachable ascetic's pleasant [52.1–5] and creditable words. 'You are our last resort, merit-seeker: noble Sugrīva set us a time, and we passed the limit while we were wandering about in this cavern. Please will you help us get out of this dreadful hole? We've exceeded Sugrīva's command! Our lives are up! Do save us all! We're afraid we're in danger from Sugrīva. We've got a huge task ahead of us, merit-seeker, and that task won't get done by staying here.'
[52.6–8] The ascetic replied to Hanumān's request, 'Once in here I think you would find it hard to get out alive, but I can release you by the power built up by my ascetic observances. Close your eyes, all you bulls of _vānaras_ ; no one can get out unless their eyes are closed.'
[52.9–11] Anxious to be on their way, in delight they all pressed their tapering fingers over their tightly closed eyes, then she released the noble _vānaras_ from the hole, hands covering their faces, in no more than the twinkling of an eye. When the _vānaras_ had all escaped from that strait, the pious ascetic spoke to reassure them:
[52.12–13] 'There is the Vindhya mountain, majestic and thick with trees and creepers; there is mount Prasrava a; and there are the mighty waters of the ocean. I wish you success as I go to my dwelling, bulls of _vānaras_.' So saying Svayamprabhā disappeared into that glorious cavern.
[52.14–18] Then they saw Varu a's dread abode, the boundless ocean, roaring and turbulent with its terrible waves. Knowing they had exceeded the month their king had set as their limit while they were searching the mountain fastness created by Maya's magic, those lords seated themselves among the trees in full bloom at the foot of the Vindhya mountain and deliberated. When they saw how heavily laden with flowers were the tips of the springtime trees, covered with hundreds of creepers, they began to fear danger. They told each other that spring was under way, and collapsed on the ground: the time for them to fulfil their orders was gone.
[52.19–27(); ()54.11–15] That monkey with shoulders like a lion or a bull and long brawny arms, A gada, the sagacious Young King, spoke. 'We all set out at the command of the king of the monkeys. Apes, the month was up while we were stuck in that hole. Why won't you wake up to that fact? Now that the time fixed by Sugrīva himself is over, the only thing all we forest-dwellers can do is sit here and fast to death. Sugrīva is harsh by nature, and now that he's secured his status as ruler he won't condone our having gone off and breached his command. He will certainly do something drastic if he gets no news of Sītā. That's why sitting here in a fast is the right thing for us to do now, abandoning our sons and wives and wealth and homes; if we go back from here the king will have us all executed. It's better for us to die here than suffer a dishonourable slaughter. It wasn't Sugrīva who wanted me to be consecrated Young King; I owe my consecration to that Lord of Men, tireless Rāma. The king is already confirmed in his hostility towards me; his mind is made up. When he sees my shortcoming he will have me punished with a cruel death. How could my friends bear to watch me suffer such a calamity in my prime? I am going to sit here at this holy seashore and fast to death. You should take leave of me, all you _vānaras_ , and go home, but I will not go to the city, that I promise you. I am going to sit here and fast to death. It's better for me to die. You must greet the king for me, my junior father Sugrīva, lord of the _vānaras_ , and enquire after his health. Mother Rumā too should be wished well, and her health enquired about, and you should particularly console my mother Tārā. The poor thing is tender by nature and fond of her son; she is bound to give up her life when she hears I have perished here.'
After this long speech A gada took leave of his elders weeping [54.16–19] despondently and seated himself on the ground on some _kuśa_ grass. To see him seated there made the bulls of _vānaras_ shed hot tears from their sorrowful eyes. They heaped blame on Sugrīva and praise on Vālin, then closed ranks around A gada and decided they would all sit down and fast to death. Those bulls of monkeys recognized the resolve of Vālin's son. They sipped water, then seated themselves on the northern shore, all huddled together facing east on stalks of _kuśa_ with its tips to the south.*
While the apes were engaged in their fast to death, there [55.1–5] came to the part of the mountain tableland where they were sitting a long-lived bird called Sampāti. He was king of the vultures, famed for his manly might, Jaṭāyus' glorious brother. As he stepped out of a hollow in the great Vindhya mountain, he saw the apes seated there and gloated, 'In this world a man is certain to gain his allotted portion! At last my appointed sustenance has arrived. I shall eat these _vānaras_ as they die one after another.' So said the bird when he caught sight of the monkeys.
[55.6–15] A gada was extremely distressed to hear the voracious bird's words, and said to Hanumān, 'Look, Yama Lord of Death has arrived here in person; Sītā was a pretext to bring catastrophe on the _vānaras_. We have not performed Rāma's task or carried out our king's instruction; now this unexpected catastrophe has suddenly befallen the apes. You've heard all about the deed Jatāyus did, how the king of the vultures wanted to help Vaidehī: so you see we can all do something pleasing to Rāma, even if we've been born as animals, even if it means giving up our lives as we are doing. We have worn ourselves out for the Rāghava's sake; we have abandoned our lives; we have taken refuge in the wilderness; yet we have not found Maithilī. But happy is the king of the vultures to have been killed in combat with Rāva a! He is free of fear of Sugrīva and has reaped the ultimate reward. The destruction of Jaṭāyus and of King Daśaratha and the capture of Vaidehī have put the apes at risk; Rāma and Lak ma a's stay in the forest with Sītā; the murder of Vālin by the Rāghava's arrow; the killing of the _rāk asas_ as well – not one escaping Rāma's wrath; all this evil has resulted from granting Kaikeyī her boons.'
[55.16–21] When the sharp-billed vulture heard the words issuing from A gada's mouth, he cried out loudly, 'Who is this talking about the death of my brother Jaṭāyus? I'm beside myself to hear it! He was dearer to me than my life. Why should there have been a battle between a _rāk asa_ and a vulture in Janasthāna? Today's the first time for a long while that I've heard my brother's name. My younger brother was judicious and his bravery commendable: I should like to hear how he can have died, you bulls of _vānaras_. My brother Jaṭāyus lived in Janasthāna, so how was my brother a friend of Daśaratha, whose beloved eldest son Rāma is dear to his elders? My wings have been so burnt up by the sun's rays that I can't move about, but I should like to come down from this mountain, victorious heroes.'
The ape chiefs did not trust what they heard him say; despite [56.1–4] its grief-stricken tones, they were alarmed about what he might do. As they sat there fasting to death, the fearsome sight of the vulture convinced the monkeys that he would devour them all, and that if he did devour them while they sat fasting to death they would achieve their object quickly and successfully. Then all the bulls of _vānaras_ made their decision and helped the vulture down from the top of that mountain-peak. A gada then explained to the bird:
'My grandfather, Rksarajas by name, was a glorious Lord [56.5–19] of the _vānaras_ , a ruler of the earth. Two righteous sons were born to him, both irresistible as a flood, Sugrīva and Vālin. Vālin, my father, famed throughout the world for his deeds, became king. Glorious Rāma Dāśarathi, king of the whole world, great chariot warrior of the Iksvākus, came into the Dandaka Forest with his brother Laksmana and his wife Vaidehī too; he was following the righteous path, devotedly carrying out his father's decree. Rāva a forcibly carried his wife off from Janasthāna. Jatāyus the vulture king, ally of Rāma's father, saw Sītā Vaidehī being carried off through the sky. He brought Rāva a down from his chariot and set Maithilī on the ground, but he was old and exhausted and Rāva a killed him in combat. That's how the vulture was defeated by Rāva a's superior strength; he's gone to his ultimate reward, his funeral rites duly performed by Rāma. Then the Rāghava made an alliance with my father's noble brother, Sugrīva, and killed my father, for Sugrīva and his associates were hostile to my father. When he'd killed Vālin, Rāma had Sugrīva consecrated and established him in the kingdom as Lord of the _vānaras_ , king and commander-in-chief. That's who sent us out; we've been directed by Rāma to hunt here, there and everywhere, but we've discovered no more of Vaidehī than of the radiant sun at night. We scoured Dandaka Forest scrupulously, then made the mistake of going down a deep hole in the ground, a cavern created by Maya's magic. While we were searching it, the month that the king had set as the time limit was up. We've carried out the instructions of the king of the monkeys, but we're all sitting here fasting to death from fear at having exceeded the limit set. If we go back Kākutstha will be angry, Sugrīva and Laksmana too, and life will be over for us all.'
[57.1–7] The _vānaras_ had abandoned life. Hearing their pitiful story the vulture sobbed loudly and replied to the _vānaras_ , 'You tell me Jatāyus has been killed in battle by Rāvana's superior strength: _vānaras_ , he was my younger brother. I must bear the news, for now, old and wingless as I am, I can do nothing to avenge my brother. Once upon a time, around the time V tra was slain, he and I competed in flying towards the blazing rays garlanding the sun. We went wheeling through the sky with the utmost speed, but when the sun reached its zenith, Jatāyus grew faint. I saw that the sun's rays were tormenting my brother so, moved by affection at his great distress, I shielded him with my own wings. My wings were burned, excellent _vānaras_ , and I fell on to Vindhya; living here I could get no news of my brother.'
[57.8–10] Hearing what Jatāyus' brother Sampāti said, the Young King A gada shrewdly replied, 'If you're Jatāyus' brother and you heard what I said, tell us, do you know the lair of this _rāksasa_? If you know that short-sighted lord of _rāksasas_ Rāva a, whether he's nearby or far away, do tell us!'
[57.11–32] True to his nature, Jaṭāyus' glorious older brother delighted the _vānaras_ with his reply. 'Monkeys, I'm a vulture with burnt wings and my prowess is spent, but I'll do all I can to help Rāma with my words alone. Old age has robbed me of my glory, and my life is hanging by a thread: my immediate task is what I can do for Rāma. I saw a lovely young woman, adorned with every ornament, being carried off by that evil Rāva a. The beauty was screaming "Rāma, Rāma! Lak ma a!", squirming about and throwing down her ornaments. Her gorgeous silks lit up the sombre _rāk asa_ like sunrays on a mountain-top, or like lightning against a cloud. Her calling to Rāma makes me think that must have been Sītā. Let me tell you about this _rāk asa's_ lair. The very son of Viśravas,
Vaiśrava a's brother, that _rāk asa_ called Rāva a lives in the city La kā. La kā is a charming town built by Viśvakarman on an island in the sea a full hundred _yojanas_ from here. That's where Vaidehī is living, silk-clad but miserable, imprisoned in Rāva a's private apartments, closely guarded by _rāk asīs_. This La kā is protected by sea on all sides, but you'll find King Janaka's daughter Maithilī there; go to the coast, and a full hundred _yojanas_ beyond you'll land on the sea's southern shore and there you'll find Rāva a. Hurry off there! Bound along quickly, monkeys! My insight tells me it's certain you'll come back when you've seen it all. Drongos and other grain-feeders take the lowest paths; the second is for those that scavenge the ritual offerings and peck fruit on the trees; the third is for hawks, cranes and ospreys; the fourth for eagles; the fifth for ordinary vultures; the sixth path is for graceful, youthful geese, bold and powerful; but the highest is the course of Vinatā's sons. Bulls of _vānaras_ , we were all born as Vinatā's sons, but a deed was committed that condemned us to be carrion-eaters. My sight is such that from where I stand I can make out distant Rāva a and Jānakī, for we also have divine Garu a's eyesight. Our innate inheritance and the prowess demanded of us by our diet, _vānaras_ , have developed in us an unfailing ability to see for more than a hundred _yojanas_. Our nature requires us to seek sustenance from afar, while those that fight with their feet find their sustenance right at their feet. You must find some way of leaping over the salt sea; but when you've found Vaidehī you can go back with your mission accomplished. I should like you, sirs, to help me down to Varu a's abode, the ocean, so that I can make the water offering for my noble brother, now he's gone to heaven.'
The _vānaras_ then were filled with the greatest vigour. They [57.33–4] led Sampāti with his burnt wings to the place on the shore of the Lord of Rivers and Streams, then brought the Bird Lord back again, delighted at the information he had given them.
When the king of the vultures had told his story, the monkeys [63.1–8] leapt up in a happy crowd, bold as lions, and roared. Hearing Sampāti's information about where Rāva a lived, the joyful apes went to the ocean, eager for a glimpse of Sītā. When they got there, the mighty warriors saw it spread out before them like a complete reflection of the wide world. The _vānara_ chiefs reached the northern edge of the southern sea and halted there; elephants of monkeys they were, but their hearts sank to see it crammed with all kinds of great ugly creatures with gaping jaws and enormous bodies playing about in the water, its waves in one place seeming asleep but playful in another and covered with mountainous breakers somewhere else; with its crowds of _dānava_ lords from the depths of the Underworld it was hair-raising. The _vānaras_ gazed at the ocean and suddenly they all lost heart: it would be as hard to cross as the sky, and they asked themselves how it could be done.
[63.9–11] The ape chief saw that the sight of the ocean had depressed the army, and rallied the apprehensive apes. 'We'll have no despondency. Despondency is a grave offence. Despondency kills a man as easily as an angry snake kills a child. Anyone in the grip of despondency now that it's valour that's required will be stripped of his energy and fail to achieve his goal.'
[63.12–15] When that night had passed, A gada and the senior _vānara_ apes assembled and held another consultation. The _vānara_ host with its standards clustering round A gada was resplendent as the army of _maruts_ stationed around Indra Vāsava. Who could stiffen the nerve of this _vānara_ host, who but Vālin's son or Hanumān? Majestic, victorious A gada saluted the senior apes and the army, then made a speech that came straight to the point.
[63.16–20] 'Who has splendour enough to cross the ocean today? Who will enable foe-conquering Sugrīva to keep his word? Which of you heroic monkeys would leap a hundred _yojanas_ and free all these chiefs from dread? Whose grace will allow us to leave here content, with our mission accomplished, and again see wives, sons and homes? Whose grace would let us approach Rāma, mighty Laksmana and mighty Sugriva with delight? If any of you apes is capable of leaping the ocean, let him of his bountiful generosity free us here and now from fear.'
[63.21] No one said anything in reply to A gada's speech. The whole army of apes remained motionless.
[63.22–3] A gada, chief of the apes, again addressed his apes: 'My lords, mightiest of the mighty, you are steadfast in valour, born of distinguished families and recipients of repeated honours: nothing hinders any one of you from going at any time. Declare your ability at leaping, each of you bulls of monkeys.'
When they heard A gada's words, all the _vānara_ chiefs in [64.1–2] turn then stated how far each could go: Gaja, Gavāksa, Gavaya, Śarabha, Gandhamādana, Mainda and Dvivida, Su e a and Jāmbavān.
Said Gaja, 'I could leap ten _yojanas_.' Gavāk a declared, [64.3–9] 'I will go twenty _yojanas_.' The _vānara_ Gavaya then told the other _vānaras_ , 'But monkeys, I will go thirty _yojanas_.' Then the _vānara_ Śarabha told the _vānaras_ , 'I will go forty _yojanas_ , definitely.' But Gandhamādana, that very splendid _vānara_ , claimed, 'I will definitely go fifty _yojanas_.' Mainda the _vānara_ , however, then told the other _vānaras_ , 'I'll venture to leap more than sixty _yojanas_.' Very splendid Dvivida then countered, 'Seventy _yojanas_ is what I'll do, without any doubt.' But that outstanding ape Su e a declared to all the leading monkeys, 'I would leap eighty _yojanas_ , you bulls of monkeys.'
While they were making these assertions, the oldest among [64.10–13] them, Jāmbavān, praised them all but countered, 'Once we too were expert leapers but now we are past our prime. However, this task cannot be ignored, even by one as far-gone as I am; the monkey king and Rāma are both resolved on it. I will tell you how far Time has restricted me to going nowadays: I will go ninety _yojanas_. There's no doubt about that.'
Jāmbavān then resumed, and told all the ape chiefs, 'Certainly [64.14–17] my ability to leap is not what it used to be. Indeed, of old at great Bali's sacrifice I was able to circumambulate eternal Vi u while the triple-strider was striding. I'm old now and my ability to leap has waned, but in my youth no one could rival my power. That's all I reckon I could manage nowadays, and that's not enough to accomplish this task successfully.'
A gada spoke next; his sagacious reply was calculated to [64.18–19] inspire. First he praised the great monkey Jāmbavān. 'For my part, I will go the whole hundred _yojanas_ , but whether I should be able to return I cannot be sure.'
The ape chief Jāmbavān made him an eloquent reply. 'You [64.20–27] are supreme among apes and bears, and your ability to leap is well known. Your Honour is certainly capable of leaping a hundred _yojanas_ , or a thousand, and of returning, but you are not required to do so. My son, a commander deploys others; on no account is he to be deployed himself. Best of leapers, you have all these troops to deploy. Your Honour, in your position as our commander we must protect you like a wife. An army's commander is its wife: that's the way things are, you scorcher of your foes. And so, my son, we must always safeguard you like a wife, your Honour. Besides, your Honour is the very root of this mission, victorious prince, and the root of any enterprise must be safeguarded: that's the tactic employed by those who are experienced in matters of policy, for when the root is whole, the benefits are obtained – flowers, fruit or whatever. Your Honour is truly valiant, and your wise and intrepid character is the basis on which the success of our mission depends, scorcher of your foes. You are not only our leader but the son of our leader, excellent monkey; with your support, your Honour, we shall be capable of accomplishing our goal.'
[64.28–32] The great monkey A gada son of Vālin again replied to Jāmbavān's astute advice, 'But if I don't go, and neither does any other bull of a _vānara_ , then we shall certainly have to proceed with the fast to death, for if we go back to the wise Lord of the Apes without carrying out his order, I can't see us keeping our lives. That ape has mercy at his command, but rage much more so. If we transgressed his orders we would return to our destruction. Your Honour understands the position, so work out some other way of accomplishing our goal.'
[64.33–4] A gada's retort drew from the heroic bull of a leaper Jāmbavān a further reply. 'Heroic A gada, there is nothing lacking for the task. I will encourage the one who can bring the mission to a successful conclusion.'
# BEAUTY
_[It is Hanumān who makes the leap, aided by his ability to increase his size at will. When he arrives in La kā he searches for Sītā at night time in the Palace, at first mistakenly thinking he has found her asleep among Rāva a's women.]_
The great monkey dismissed that idea then pulled himself [5,9.1–3] together and had another thought about Sītā. 'Separated from Rāma, that beautiful woman would not like to sleep or eat, and she wouldn't wear ornaments, or indulge in drink, or let another man near her, even if he were the Lord of the Gods, for there's no one to equal Rāma even among the Thirty. This is somebody else.'
With that conclusion he roamed about in the drinking-hall. [9.3–33] The tiger of a monkey saw that the drinking-hall was stocked with everything that the noble _rāksasa_ lord could wish for in his residence, and he saw that the drinking-hall was set with joints of venison, buffalo and pork. On broad golden dishes the tiger of a monkey saw half-eaten peacocks along with jungle fowl; boar and rhinoceros marinaded in savoury curds; desserts and all kinds of liquor and different eatables; assortments of confectionery too, bitter, savoury and sweet; meats skilfully prepared and spread out in that drinking-hall; various divine clear wines and spirits distilled from sugar and mead, from flowers or from fruit, each flavoured with different aromatic spices. The floor sparkled with a carpet of heaped-up garlands and was covered with golden water pots, crystal vessels and other water pots of alluvial gold. There the monkey saw in silver and gold jars an abundance of choice wines; golden, gem-studded and silver vessels full of liquor were seen by that great monkey. The drinks he saw in one place were half-finished, in another they had been completely drunk, in another they had not been started. As he wandered about he noticed an assortment of food here, drinks served out there, half-eaten scraps everywhere, sometimes broken water pots, sometimes overturned jars, sometimes garlands jumbled among water and fruit. All around a breeze was wafting various scents, cooling sandalwood, sweet tasting liquor, garlands and flowers of all sorts, sandal for bathing and mingled perfumes; the Puspaka Palace was fragrant in that perfumed breeze. The great and glorious monkey viewed everything without exception in Rāva a's private apartment, but Jānakī was nowhere to be seen.
[9.34–6] He pondered deeply, apprehensive and alarmed about what was proper. 'Peering into the private sleeping-quarters of somebody else's wives! Surely I'm committing a shocking breach of propriety! Spying on another person's wives was not my intention, yet I have been looking at this bevy of somebody's wives.'
[9.37–42] As he once more fixed his mind on his one goal, another thought occurred to the wise _vānara_ to guide his actions. 'Granted, I've seen all Rāva a's wives unawares but my mind is none the worse for that. It's the mind that causes the senses to be stimulated in good situations and in bad, and mine is well adjusted. It's no use my searching for Vaidehī anywhere else. If you're serious about looking for a woman, always look among women. Search for any creature among its own kind. If it's a young woman you've lost, don't look for her among deer. My mind has been pure all the time I've been searching this private apartment of Rāva a, but I've not found Jānakī.'
[9.43]; [10.6–14] Heroic Hanumān viewed daughters of gods and _gandharvas, nāga_ girls too, but still he could not find Jānakī. I've seen the whole private apartment, I've seen Rāva a's wives, but I've not seen the virtuous Sītā. I've exerted myself in vain. When I go back all the _vānaras_ will crowd round me, and just what are they going to ask? "Hero, tell us what you've done over there!" What shall I say if I've not seen Janaka's daughter? They'll certainly undertake a fast to death because we've overstayed the time limit. When I'm back across the ocean what will old Jāmbavān and A gada both say, and all the _vānara_ host? Fortune grows from not despairing, the highest happiness comes from not despairing: I will keep on exploring where I haven't explored so far. Not despairing always drives on every undertaking. Whatever a person undertakes, that's what brings it to fruition. So it's for me to bestir myself to make a supreme effort without despairing and explore any areas under Rāva a's control that I've not seen yet. I've already searched drinking-halls, I've searched flower-houses and picture galleries too, and gaming rooms and pleasure-garden pathways, and mansions, thoroughly.' Checking them all off, he began to extend his search.
He jumped up, he jumped down, he stood still, he ran about, [10.15–25] he opened gates, he broke down doors, he went in, he went out, he bounded along, he leapt upwards: the great monkey roamed through the whole area. In Rāva a's private apartment there was no space so much as a hand's breadth that the monkey did not enter. Alleys within the ramparts, platforms around sacred trees, pits, lotus pools: he scanned them all. There Hanumān saw every kind of deformed, distorted _rāk asī_, but not Janaka's daughter. There Hanumān saw fine _vidyādhara_ women unequalled in the world for beauty, but not the Rāghava's darling. There Hanumān saw slinky _nāga_ girls with faces like the full moon, but not slender Sītā. There Hanumān saw _nāga_ girls whom the _rāk asa_ lord had violently abducted, but not the joy of Janaka. Despite all his might the mighty Hanumān Son of the Wind could not see her, and the sight of the other fine women cast him down; Hanumān Son of the Wind descended from the palace with thoughts grief-stricken and began to deliberate.
'La kā has been utterly ransacked in an effort to please [11.3–45] Rāma but I've had no sight of Vaidehī Sītā's lovely frame. Pools, tanks, lakes, streams too, and rivers, shores, forest margins and inaccessible mountains: the whole earth's been ransacked, yet I can't see Jānakī. Sampāti king of the vultures described seeing Sītā here in Rāva a's realm, but I can't see her myself. I think that at the time when the _rāk asa_ had snatched
Sītā and was hurriedly flying upward to escape Rāma's arrows, he might have dropped her. Or else I think that while the noble lady was being carried off on the path frequented by the _siddhas_ , it was her heart that failed when she spied the ocean. Or I think the force of Rāva a's legs and arms squeezed the life out of this noble, broad-eyed lady. Or definitely, as they were climbing higher and higher over the ocean Janaka's daughter struggled free and fell into the sea. Could it be that poor friendless Sītā has been devoured by Rāva a because she preserved her honour against that wretch? Or else the dark-eyed innocent will have been gobbled up by the _rāk asa_ lord's evil wives. Or I think she's imprisoned in Rāva a's palace, feebly lamenting and lamenting like a caged mynah. Rāma's slender wife with the lotus-petal eyes was born in the family of Janaka: how could she submit to Rāva a's authority? Rāma loves his wife, and I can't tell him that Janaka's daughter's been murdered or killed or has died. It would be wrong for me
to make such a report; it would be wrong for me not to make the report. Whatever am I to do? It looks to me a difficult path to tread. If I go back to the _vānara_ lord's city without seeing Sītā, then what will become of my mission? What's Sugrīva going to say, or the ape council, or Daśaratha's two sons when I get back to Kiskindhā? And if I do go back and make Kākutstha the very painful report that I've not found Sītā, then he'll give up on life. It'll kill him to hear the bad news about Sītā, so harsh, savage, cruel, searing, so agonizing! Wise Laksmana is extremely devoted to him; seeing him so miserably breathing his last will kill him too. When he hears that his two brothers have perished, Bharata too will die, and seeing Bharata dead will kill Satrughna. And learning that their sons are dead will be the death of their mothers, Kausalyā, Sumitrā and Kaikeyī, no doubt about it. When the monkey lord Sugrīva sees what's happened to Rāma he'll meet his end out of gratitude and loyalty. Rumā will be despondent, troubled, miserable, joyless, wretched and weighed down by grief for her husband, and will give up her life; Tārā too, weighed down by her grief over Vālin and wasted by sorrow, will not survive the king's death. Then there's young A gada: how can he carry on
his life after the death of his mother and father and the calamity to Sugrīva? That glorious monkey king has been so indulgent with his appeasement, rewards and honours that the _vānaras_ will lay down their lives. Never again will those elephants of monkeys congregate in forests, mountains or valleys and sport there; weighed down by their master's calamity, they will congregate in the heights with their wives, sons and ministers and throw themselves from the cliff tops. When I arrive, dreadful, I think, will be the wailing, and the destruction of the Iksvāku line, and the destruction indeed of the forest-dwellers. I certainly will not leave here for the city of Kiskindhā. I shall build a pyre somewhere with ample roots and fruit and water at the ocean shore, kindle a fire and throw myself into it. Or I will sit still and duly perfect myself, then crows and beasts of prey can eat my body: I believe the sages countenance this method of departure. If I can't find Jānakī I will enter the waters in the prescribed fashion, or else I'll become a disciplined ascetic living beneath the trees. Unless I see that dark-eyed lady, I will not stir from here.'
Thoughts such as these overwhelmed the _vānara_. He had [11.51] not found Sītā. Grief and brooding overcame him, and he racked his brains.
_[Hanumān finally identifies Sītā in the grove of aśoka trees, but hides and watches when Rāva a approaches, surrounded by a bevy of beauties.]_
In her captivity she was miserable, joyless and wretched; [18.1–33] Rāva a made his proposition in honeyed, elegant phrases. 'Your legs are as shapely as elephants' trunks, yet when you see me you hide your breasts and stomach as if you're afraid and want to make yourself invisible. My broad-eyed beauty, I desire you: grant me your favour, my dear. Every part of your body is praiseworthy and altogether ravishing. Here are no men, no shape-changing _rāk asas_, Sītā, and you can dismiss any lurking fear you're harbouring about me! Granted, certainly, timid woman, it's customary for _rāk asas_ to take other men's wives or carry them off violently, but even so I will not touch you against your will, Maithilī, however fervently Desire is coursing through my body. You need have no fear of me
here, lady; trust me, my dear, and show me your affection by your action. Don't be so set on grieving! Your single plait, your sleeping on the ground, your brooding, your soiled clothes, your fasting out of season – they're not right for you. Pretty garlands, sandalwood and aloes, clothing of every kind, divine ornaments, choice wines, conveyances and couches, singing, dancing, music: take them, Maithilī, and then take me! You are a jewel of a woman; don't let yourself go like this. Ornament your limbs! Now you've captivated me you should make yourself worthy of me, shapely woman. Your youth is in full bloom but it is passing, and when it is past, like a swift-flowing stream it will not come back. I think Viśvakarman, designer of all, halted when he had formed you, for you have no rival for your beauty, lovely woman. What man who had possessed you in your youthful beauty, Vaidehī, would look further, even the Grand Father himself? You moonfaced lady, wherever on your body my eye rests it is kept enchained, stately woman. Become my wife, Maithilī. Abandon this delusion. Become the Chief Queen of all my many excellent women.
Bashful creature, whatever treasures I have forced from the worlds are all yours, and this kingdom, and so am I. For you I will conquer the whole earth with its garlands of cities and present it to Janaka, you tease. I can't see anyone in this world who can match my strength. Look at my immense heroism: it's unchallenged in battle. In more than one battle, gods and anti-gods have crumbled before me; their standards have been trampled, their forces could not stand against me. Let me arouse your desire. Reward yourself today in the best possible way and have brilliant ornaments hung on your body. How good it would be to see your beauty suitably adorned. My shy lovely, if you'll behave as you should and be kind to me, you shall enjoy all the delights you desire; you'll have drink and pleasures, and you'll be able to make gifts – the earth and all its riches if you like! You can make merry with me in all confidence and order me about boldly; your relations too shall make merry under my protection, if you will make merry with me. Now you've seen how prosperous, how majestic, how glorious I am, darling, what do you want with bark-clad Rāma
in your good fortune? Rāma's been stripped of his glory and given up conquest to wander in the forest observing vows and sleeping on the bare ground. I don't even know if he's still alive. Rāma won't so much as manage to see you, Vaidehī: you'll be like the moon hidden by egret-heralded monsoon clouds. In any case the Rāghava would be no more able to rescue you from my clutches than Hira yakaśipu was his Kīrti from Indra's clutches. Your smile is lovely, your teeth are lovely, your eyes are lovely; your teasing timidity captivates my mind – you're like Garu a with a snake! The sight of you, clad in soiled silk, gaunt and unadorned though you are, stops me taking my pleasure from my own wives. Jānakī, you can assume power over all the many excellent women I have living in my private apartments. My women are the finest in the three worlds, my raven-tressed beauty, but they shall attend on you like the _apsarases_ on Śrī. You with the lovely forehead and shapely hips, all the gems and wealth of Vaiśrava a and all the worlds are yours to enjoy to your heart's content – and with them, me. My lady, not for ascetic power, not for strength, for prowess, wealth, splendour, and not for reputation can Rāma compare with me.'
Sītā was distressed to hear the fearsome _rāksasa's_ speech, [19.1–3] and replied miserably, hesitantly, in tones of misery. Poor shapely Sītā wept and trembled in the torment of her grief as she thought about the one object of her devotion, her husband. She placed grass between them, smiled sweetly and replied.
'Turn your thoughts away from me; it's on your own kind [19.3–4] that you should let your thoughts dwell. You are no more worthy to woo me than a sinner to aspire to merit. The family I was born into is great; pure is the family I was taken into to have a sole husband. It is unthinkable that I should commit such a contemptible act.'
With these words to Rāva a, glorious Vaidehī turned away [19.5–29] from the _rāk asa_ and went on: 'As the wife of another I am not a proper wife for you. You'd do well to observe the law of morality; you'd do well to follow the example of virtuous people. Other people's wives are to be protected like your own, night-walker. Set yourself up as a model and enjoy the favours
of your own wives. One who is unsatisfied with his own wives, with a roving eye, fickle and deceitful, pursues other men's wives to his own perdition. Whether it's because you have no decent men around you, or whether you don't follow the advice of decent men, spoken wisely for your own good, you are being led astray. When an intemperate king arises who delights in disorder, prosperous countrysides and cities go to rack and ruin. La kā here may be flooded with heaps of gems, but led by you it will soon be destroyed, and it will be your fault alone. People gloat when a wicked person with no foresight is struck down by his own deeds, Rāva a, so those you have injured by your wickedness will be delighted and tell you, "It's a good thing that this disaster has befallen you, fearsome as you are." I can no more exist without the Rāghava than its radiance can without the sun: I cannot be seduced by power or wealth! When I have once had the honoured arm of the world's protector around me, how could I seek the arms of anyone else? I belong to that Lord of the Earth alone, just as wisdom belongs
to a ritually purified, spiritually awakened brāhman. The best thing for you, Rāva a, would be to restore me in my sorrow to Rāma, like an elephant cow longing for her elephant chief in the forest. If you want to maintain your position and avoid a dreadful death, the right thing to do is to make an ally of Rāma, that bull of a man. Someone like you might dodge the divine thunderbolt, for a long time you might escape Death, but not the Lord of the World, the Rāghava, in his wrath. You'll hear the twanging of Rāma's bow roaring like a thunderbolt hurled by Indra Satakratu. Soon well-jointed shafts marked out as Rāma's and Laksmana's shall rain down on this place like blazing-mouthed snakes, slaughtering _rāksasas_ all over the city; devastation will drop with the heron-feathered bolts. With the impetus of his assault Rāma, a mighty second Garu a, will exterminate those great snakes, those _rāksasa_ lords, like Vinatā's son does serpents. My all-conquering husband will speedily rescue me from you, as with his three strides Vi u did Śri from the anti-gods. This sin was all you could manage, _rāk asa_, in response to the defeat of the _rāksasa_ horde that turned Janasthāna into a "place of the slain". It was when
those brothers, that pair of lions of men, were absent foraging that you entered the hermitage and captured me. No one could be more vile! If you'd got so much as a sniff of Rāma and Laksmana you'd have been like a cur before a pair of tigers: you couldn't have withstood their gaze. For you to defeat that pair in battle is as impossible as for V tra's one arm to overcome Indra's two. Like a drop of water disappearing in the sun, your life will shortly be snatched from you by the arrows of Saumitri and of Rāma, my lord.'
The _rāk asa_ overlord heard the harshness of Sītā's words, [20.1–6] and made the lovely Sītā an unlovely reply: 'Giving in to women only lets them dominate us. Our fair words are always met with contempt. My mounting passion for you is bridling my anger as a good charioteer does his galloping steeds on the open road. Passion leads men astray: whoever it fastens on is sure to grow soft and tender-hearted. That's why I haven't had you killed, my beauty, though you deserve death and dishonour for your devotion to that sham ascetic. Maithilī, every harsh word you address to me merits a cruel death.'
After these words to Vaidehī, Rāva a the _rāksasa_ overlord [20.7–9] was overcome by the vehemence of his wrath; he then continued to warn Sītā, 'I shall observe the two months' grace I set for you, my beauty, but then you shall share my bed. If after two months you still reject me as a husband, they can get their hands on you in the kitchen for my breakfast.'
The broad-eyed daughters of gods and _gandharvas_ were [20.10–12] dismayed to see Jānakī being threatened by the _rāk asa_ lord; as the _rāk asa_ threatened, they encouraged Sītā with movements of lips, eyes or faces, emboldening Sītā to address to Rāva a overlord of the _rāk asas_ an edifying speech attesting to her courageous nature.
'You obviously have no one who cares for you enough to [20.13–22] hold you back from this despicable behaviour. Who apart from you in the three worlds would set his sights on me, even only in his mind, when I'm the wife of a righteous man as much as Śacī is of her lord? Vile _rāk asa_, where will you fly to escape the boundless might of Rāma now that you have spoken evil to his wife? It's like an exultant elephant encountering a hare in the forest: Rāma's the tusker and you, you wretch, you're reminiscent of the hare! But you, you're not ashamed to stand here hurling abuse at the Lord of the Ik vākus, just so long as he can't see you. These cruel eyes of yours, ugly, murky and sallow – why haven't they fallen to the ground for staring at me, you uncouth creature? Why has your tongue not shrivelled up, you villain, for talking to me, to me the wife of that righteous man, me the daughter-in-law of Daśaratha? Daśagrīva, I have the power to reduce you to ashes, but in the absence of any such instruction by Rāma, and to conserve the fruits of my asceticism, I will not burn you up. I can't be sundered from sagacious Rāma, so this course of events must have been decreed in order to bring about your death; that's obvious! How could Vaiśrava a's warrior brother with all his armies lure away Rāma to rob him of his wife?'
[20.23–8] When he heard what Sītā had to say, Rāva a overlord of the _rāksasas_ rolled his cruel eyes and glared at Jānakī. Like a thundercloud he looked; his arms and neck were stout, his nature and gait were leonine; he was majestic, his tongue was blazing and his eyes were savage; his tall frame quivered to the tip of his headdress; he was perfumed and glittering with garlands; he was clad in red wreaths and raiment, in ornaments and burnished bracelets; he was tightly girt in a great blue-black girdle like the snake wound around Mandara to churn out the ambrosia; a pair of earrings the colour of the rising sun adorned him, like the red shoots and flowers of a pair of _aśokas_ on a mountain, as Rāva a glared at Vaidehī with rage-reddened eyes, hissing at Sītā like a serpent as he spoke.
[20.29] 'Since you refuse to abandon that wretched pauper, I'm going to rid myself of you now like the might of the sun dispelling the shades of morning.'
[20.30–35] So said Rāva a, the king who made his foes roar, to Maithilī; then he gave orders to all the savage-looking _rāk asīs_. 'All you _rāk asīs_ must co-operate at once in bending Sītā Jānakī immediately to my will. Use threats and blandishments – use inducements, rewards or anything to provoke a rift – violence even, but turn Vaidehī round.'
[20.36–7] The _rāk asa_ lord repeated his orders over and over again, beside himself with lust and fury, then as he was roundly threatening Jānakī the _rāk asī_ Dhānyamālinī hurried up and threw her arms round Daśagrīva with inviting words.
'Have some fun with me, great king; what's this Sītā to you? [20.38] Lusting after an unwilling woman brings torture to the body, but delightful pleasure awaits one whose desire is aroused by a willing woman.'
The _rāksasī's_ words diverted the monster; Daśagrīva and his [20.39–40] entourage of daughters of gods, _gandharvas_ and _nāgas_ returned to his lovely residence, the palace whose colour rivalled the blazing sun.
Rāva a, the king who made his foes roar, had finished speaking [21.1–4] to Maithilī and gone away, leaving all the _rāk asīs_ with their instructions. When the _rāk asa_ lord had left and gone back to his private apartment those savage-looking _rāksasīs_ rushed to surround Sītā; crazed with anger, the _rāk asīs_ came up to Sītā and carried on taunting her in harsh tones: 'Sītā, don't you think it would be a fine thing to be the wife of noble Rāva a Daśagrīva, that most excellent Paulastya?'
A _rāk asī_ called Ekajaṭā with infuriated copper-coloured [21.5–8] eyes then spoke up, telling wasted Sītā, 'You see, the fourth Prajāpati, son of Brahmā's mind – one of the six Prajāpatis – is the famous Pulastya, and Pulastya's glorious, mind-born son is the great sage called Viśravas. His splendour equals a Prajāpati's, and Rāva a, he who makes his foes roar, you broad-eyed beauty, is his son. You are worthy of becoming a wife of this _rāk asa_ lord. You are loveliness through and through. Why won't you accept what I'm telling you?'
Then a _rāksasī_ named Harijatā put in a word. She had eyes [21.9–19] like a cat's, and she rolled them in fury. 'The king of the gods – indeed all Thirty-Three gods – has been defeated by that _rāksasa_ lord, and you are worthy of becoming his wife! He exults in his heroism, he's a warrior who never turns tail in battle, he's mighty, he's utterly heroic: why refuse to become his wife? Mighty King Rāva a will desert his beloved, much prized wife, the most blessed of us all, and turn to you. Rāva a will abandon the thousand women abounding in his jewel-decked private apartment and turn to you. He who has more than once warred against deities and defeated _nāgas, gandharvas_ and _dānavas_ in battle, he has drawn near to you. What reason can you have for refusing to become a wife of the opulent lord of the _rāksasas_ , noble Rāva a, you shabby little woman? The sun dare not scorch him nor the wind blow on him: why won't you yield to him, you with your lozenge-shaped eyes? Out of fear of him trees drop showers of blossom, mountains and clouds bestow water at his whim; you with the smooth brow, why will you not make up your mind to accept your role, my beauty, and be wife to the king of the sons of Disorder, to Rāva a, king of kings? It's in your interest, my lady, it's in your interest, my beauty; it's the truth I've told you. Take our advice, you with your sweet smiles, or it'll be the end of you.'
[22.1–4] They came right up to Sītā, those hideous _rāk asīs_; cruel they were, and cruel the hurtful words they spoke: 'Sītā, why won't you consent to live in the all-entrancing private apartment with its costly couches? It's only because you're a human that you think so much of being the wife of a human. Stop dwelling on Rāma; you'll never belong to him. It's being human, lovely innocent, that makes you yearn for that Rāma, that miserable failure, turned out of his kingdom, that human.'
[22.5–7] As Sītā heard the _rāk asīs_' words her lotus-like eyes filled with tears and she replied, 'What you are all telling me is universally condemned, and such offensive conduct finds no support in my mind. He may be poor, he may have been turned out of his kingdom, but my husband must retain my respect.'
[22.8–11] Sītā's speech brought forth from the anger-crazed _rāk asīs_ the harsh threats Rāva a had demanded. Concealed in the _śimśapā_ tree Hanumān the monkey listened in silence as those _rāk asīs_ menaced Sītā, crowding all around her trembling form, furiously licking their fiery, pendulous lips with gusto. In their great frenzy they snatched their battleaxes, crying, 'She does not deserve Rāva a the _rāk asa_ overlord as a husband.'
[22.12–14] The abuse from the fearsome _rāksasīs_ drove the fair-faced lady nearer to the _śimśapā_ , wiping away a tear till, overwhelmed by sorrow, Sītā stood surrounded by _rāk asīs_ beneath the _śimśapā_ , wasted, her face downcast, her clothes filthy, menaced on all sides by the fearsome _rāk asīs_.
Then Vinatā spoke up; she was a fearsome-looking _rāk asī_, [22.15–22] with frenzied form, gaping maw and pot belly. 'Sītā, up till now you've given ample proof of your affection for your husband, but excess always leads to disaster, gracious lady. You've carried out your duty as a human. Well done! I'm pleased! Now you must carry out my salutary advice, Maithilī. You must enjoy Rāva a, the lord of all the _rāk asas_, as your wedded lord. He is valiant and handsome as Indra Vāsava, lord of the gods; he is adroit and generous, and speaks kindly to all. Give up that wretched human Rāma, and give yourself to Rāva a. Anoint your body with divine unguents, Vaidehī. Adorn it with divine ornaments. From this very day you shall be mistress of all the worlds. You'll be like Agni's queen Svāhā, or Indra's Sacī, my lovely. What do you want with Rāma, that doomed wretch, Vaidehī? If you refuse to follow my advice, we will all gobble you up this instant.'
Another one called Vikatā raised an angry fist above her [22.23–32] sagging breasts, bellowed and said to Sītā, 'Maithilī, you are very ill-natured! We've been kind and gentle enough to put up with a lot of uncongenial talk from you, but you refuse to benefit from our opportune advice. You've been brought to the far side of the ocean, where other people will find it hard to follow; you're in the dread private apartments of Rāva a, Maithilī. You're confined in Rāva a's palace, close guarded by us; not Indra Puramdara in person can rescue you. Profit by my good advice, Maithilī. You've shed enough tears. Give up pointless grief and enjoy pleasure and delight. Climb out of this constant depression. Sītā, have fun with the _rāksasa_ king to your heart's content. You shy girl, you know how fleeting is women's youth; you should take your pleasure before it passes, and roam in pleasant parks and mountain groves with the _rāksasa_ king, you with the enticing eyes. You shall have seven thousand women at your beck and call, fair lady. You must enjoy Rāva a, lord of all the _rāksasas_ , as your wedded lord, or else I will tear out your heart and eat it, Maithilī, if you won't do exactly as I've said.'
[22.33–5] Then a cruel-looking _rāksasī_ named Ca odarī brandishing a long spear spoke up: 'When I saw this woman Rāva a had brought, with the eyes of a tremulous deer and breasts shuddering in terror, an immense craving welled up in me: I yearned to eat her liver, spleen, lights, heart and veins, chitterlings and brain.'
[22.36–7] The _rāksasī_ named Praghasā then suggested, 'Let's strangle this pitiless woman; what are we waiting for? Then we can tell the king, "This human woman is dead," and no doubt he will tell us to eat her.'
[22.38–9] A _rāksasī_ called Ajāmukhī replied, 'Then we must all share. I don't like squabbling.'
[22.40–41] Then a _rāksasī_ named Sūrpa akhā said, 'I certainly agree with what Ajāmukhī has said. Let's send at once for some wine to drive away all our cares. When we've obtained some human meat we can dance the Nikumbhilā.'
[22.42] Sītā was the equal of a daughter of the gods, but such threats from the savage _rāk asīs_ broke down her resistance and she wept.
[23.1–3] While the uncouth _rāksasīs_ were pouring out their cruel taunts, Janaka's daughter wept, but in the depths of her fear clear-minded Vaidehī countered the _rāk asīs_' words in a voice choked with sobs. 'It is not right for a human to become the wife of a _rāk asa_. You can devour me, all of you, but I will not do as you say.'
[23.4–10] Sītā was the equal of a daughter of the gods, but in the torment of her grief and with the _rāksasīs_ crowding round her she could find no refuge from Rāva a's threats. Sītā was like a doe cut off from the herd and harassed by wolves; she shuddered intensely and seemed to shrink into herself. She grasped a spreading branch of the blossoming _aśoka_ for support as her mournful, broken heart flew to her husband. Floods of tears bathed her ample bosom; her gloomy thoughts could not plumb the depths of her sorrow. She quivered like a plantain in a gale, and toppled over; fear of the _rāksasīs_ drained the colour from her face. Her shudders so agitated Sītā's long, thick plait that it looked like a writhing serpent. Moaning in the torment of her grief, out of her mind with sorrow, Maithilī uttered a tormented, tearful lament.
'Oh, Rāma!' came again and again from the grief-tormented [23.11–20] beauty. 'Oh, Laksmana! Oh, my mother-in-law Kausalyā! Oh, Sumitrā! It's true what they say; learned people attest it: "Death will not come to a woman or to a man until it is time," if I can remain alive here in my sorrow, tormented by these cruel _rāksasīs_ , even for a moment in the absence of Rāma. What a wretch I am! How small my store of merit! I shall perish as if I'd been cast adrift, as if I were a heavy-laden boat on the open sea battered by the onslaught of the wind. In the power of these _rāksasīs_ , if I can't see my husband I'm bound to subside under my sorrow like a bank eroded by the water. People prosper from the sight of my lotus-petal-eyed protector; his gait is that of a bold lion, but he's courteous and resourceful. Torn away from sagacious Rāma, for me it's every bit as hard to cling to life as it would be if I'd swallowed a bitter poison. What kind of evil did I do in a previous life to bring this savage, grinding grief upon me? In the depths of my great grief I want to put an end to my life; guarded as I am by these _rāksasīs_ , I shall never see Rāma again. If only I weren't a human! If only I weren't a captive! That's what's preventing me deliberately ending my own life.'
At these words the girl's face swam with tears; Janaka's [24.1–2] daughter hid her face and began to lament. She grieved like a madwoman or a drunkard, thrashing about on the ground like a colt, as if reason had deserted her.
'The shape-changing _rāksasa_ carried me off by force from [24.3–25] the Rāghava's watchful care; I screamed at Rāva a's violence. In the power of these _rāksasīs_ with their savage threats, and brooding as I am in a torment of sorrow, life for me is more than I can bear. Not wealth, not ornaments, not life itself have any purpose for me if I have to live among _rāksasīs_ without Rāma the chariot warrior. Shame on me for being so vile, so sinful as to preserve my life even for a moment when I've been forced apart from him: how wicked I am! How can I have any desire for life or happiness without my beloved, the
sweet-spoken lord too of the whole ocean-girt earth? Let my body be chopped up, let it be devoured even; I abandon it. In any case, I could not long survive the sorrow of being parted from my beloved. I would not touch Rāva a so much as with my left foot;* how much less would I feel desire for that despicable night-walker? He can't understand rejection! He can know nothing of himself or of his race to rely on his savage nature in an attempt to win me over. He can slice me, he can skewer me, he can chop me up or have me roasted over a blazing fire, but I will not wait on Rāva a, so why keep chattering on about it so? The Rāghava is famed for his wisdom, reason and tenderness, but I suspect that this disastrous misfortune of mine has turned his righteousness to ruthlessness. Single-handed he destroyed fourteen thousand _rāk asas_ in Janasthāna, so why hasn't he come to me when I'm held captive by that cowardly _rāk asa_ Rāva a? My husband is certainly capable of killing Rāva a in battle. Rāma killed that bull of a _rāk asa_ Virādha in a fight in Da aka Forest, so why hasn't
he come to me? Granted, it's difficult to attack La kā here in the middle of the sea, but nothing can stand in the way of the Rāghava's arrows. His wife has been carried off by a _rāk asa_, and he's yearning for her, so what can be the reason why steadfast Rāma hasn't come to me? I suppose Lak ma a's older brother can't know where I am, for would that glorious man tolerate the of fence knowingly? The one who knew what happened and might have told the Rāghava about my capture – the king of the vultures, that is – he was cut down in battle by Rāvana; it was a great deed Jaṭāyus performed when he came forward despite his age and engaged Rāva a in a duel. If the Rāghava did know where I'm eking out my existence, he would immediately clear the world of _rāk asas_ with his arrows, in his anger. He would devastate the city of La kā; he would dry up the great sea; he would destroy the fame and name of that vile Rāva a. Then in house after house the _rāk asīs_ whose lords have been killed will surely have more to weep for than I. Rāma and Lak ma a will search out La kā and do away with the _rāk asas_: no enemy that pair sees can survive for another moment. Before long this La kā will look like a cremation
ground: its roads will be choked with smoke from the pyres and swarming with hordes of vultures. Before long I shall get what I'm longing for. Your crime calls down calamity on you all.'
The _rāksasīs_ were crazed with anger at Sītā's fierce riposte. [25.1–3] While some hurried off to report to Rāva a, other savage-looking _rāksasīs_ crowded round Sītā and repeated their harsh words, words that had one point only, a point that it was pointless to pursue: 'Well then, base-born Sītā, since you're determined to come to a bad end, _rāksasīs_ shall today feast on your flesh to their hearts' content.'
The aged _rāksasī_ Trijatā had been asleep; when she saw how [25.4–6] Sītā was being menaced by that rabble she spoke up. 'Eat yourselves, you rabble, for you won't feast on Sītā: she's the beloved daughter of Janaka and the daughter-in-law of Daśaratha. I've just had a horrifying, hair-raising dream about the annihilation of the _rāksasīs_ and the ascendancy of her husband.'
The anger-crazed _rāksasīs_ all took fright at Trijatā's words [25.7–9] and begged Trijatā to tell them about the dream she had had that night. When she heard the words falling from these _rāksasīs_ ' lips, Trijatā told them about her timely dream:
'The Rāghava, mounting a divine aerial carriage made of [25.10–25] ivory and harnessed to a thousand steeds... Sītā standing on a white sea-girt cliff, reunited with Rāma like its radiance with the sun... next I saw the Rāghava mounted on a four-tusked elephant huge as a mountain... he was advancing with Lak ma a... then the prince himself, white garlanded, white clad, was riding with Lak ma a on a chariot drawn by white bulls... eight in the yoke... with him Lak ma a his brother and Sītā his wife. Again, now it was Rāva a I could see, fallen to earth from the Pu paka chariot, black-clad, shaven-headed, being dragged along by a woman... then dispatched to the southern region on an ass-drawn chariot... red-garlanded, red-smeared... he's been plunged into a mire of mud... a red-clad wench, dingy, mire-smeared, has Daśagrīva by the throat, dragging him to the region of Yama... a boar is setting out for the southern region with Daśagrīva... a dolphin with Indrajit... a camel with Kumbhakar a. Next, a din of singing and music, arisen from a carousing crowd of _rāk asas_, red-garlanded, red-clad... this lovely La kā city with its jostling steeds and chariots... I saw it toppled into the sea, its towers and gateways smashed... all the _rāk asa_ women guzzling sesame oil, cavorting and laughing raucously in a La kā smothered by soot... Kumbhakar a and the rest, all these bulls of _rāk asas_ had put red garments on and plunged into a lake of cowdung.
[25.26–37] 'Away with you! Get lost! The Rāghava's rescuing Sītā; all the _rāksasas_ will share in the destruction his immense wrath will wreak. The Rāghava loves and admires the wife who vowed to stay beside him in his life in the forest: he won't tolerate her being threatened or reviled. So that's enough of cruel words from you; we should make peace. I think it would be best for us to appeal to Vaidehī, for such a dream about her in her distress foretells that she will be freed from her great distress and attain the highest bliss. You've threatened her, _rāksasīs_ , but now appeal to her. Why go on talking? The Rāghava bodes dire peril for the _rāksasas_ , but Janaka's daughter Maithilī would be capable of safeguarding us _rāksasīs_ from all peril if we fell at her feet in propitiation. What's more, there's not the slightest sign of anything ominous to be detected anywhere on this broad-eyed lady's body: her suffering has merely drained her of colour. I believe it was because her suffering was unmerited that this lady took her stand in the sky. Vaidehī will achieve her objective, I can see: the destruction of the _rāksasa_ lord and victory for the Rāghava. I can see one of her broad, lotus-petal eyes quivering: that's a portent that she will hear something to bring her great happiness. So, too, one of kind Vaidehī's arms – the left one – is trembling spontaneously, its hairs quivering with anticipation, and her left thigh, matchless, shapely as an elephant's trunk, is throbbing: that points to the Rāghava standing before her, it seems.'
[28.1–2] Valiant Hanumān could hear Sītā, Trijatā and the _rāksasīs_ ' abuse quite clearly. The queen seemed like a goddess in Nandana as he watched, and aroused conflicting thoughts in the _vānara's_ mind.
'I've been the one to locate the woman searched for in all [28.3–36] directions by many thousands and myriads of monkeys, and I've observed as much as a well-trained spy moving about under cover could about the strength of the enemy – and about the distinctive features of the _rāk asas_; the city's been spied out, and so has the might of the _rāksasa_ overlord Rāva a. Now I ought to encourage this wife as she yearns to see her incomparable, universally compassionate husband. This woman with a face like the full moon had seen no suffering, but now she can see no end to her suffering: it's for me to comfort her. To leave without comforting this queen when her mind is overwhelmed with grief would be to leave reprehensibly, for this glorious Princess Jānakī would see no hope of rescue and would give up on life after I'd left. The mighty hero with the face like a full moon is also anxious to see Sītā and needs to be reassured. But it's impossible to talk to her in the presence of these night-roamers. How ever am I to manage it?
I'm in a dilemma. If I don't reassure her somehow or other before the end of the night, there's no doubt she'll give up her life. And if Rāma asks me what message Sītā's sent him, how shall I answer unless I talk to his slender-waisted wife? If I hurry back from here without a message from Sītā, Kākutstha might even be so angry he would burn me up with his searing glance. In any case, there will be no point in allying my master to Rāma's cause, and bringing his army here. What I'll do is wait here until the _rāk asīs_ give me an opportunity to comfort her gently in her many tribulations; I'm tiny, and anyway I'm a _vānara_. But if I launch into a polished speech like a brāhman, Sītā will think I'm Rāva a and take fright. I must talk in ordinary language that she can understand; there's no other way I can console this blameless lady. Jānakī here has already been terrified by the _rāk asas_; when she notices my appearance and words she will be even more terrified. That broad-eyed lady is astute; she would assume me to be the shape-changing Rāva a and would scream out in panic, and Sītā's scream would immediately summon a mob of ferocious, weapon-wielding Deathlike _rāk asīs_ with ugly faces who would surround me on all sides and make all possible efforts to kill or
capture me: they would be worried and alarmed to see me scurrying through the twigs, branches and trunks of these magnificent trees. Then the _rāksasīs_ would summon the _rāksasas_ employed by the _rāksasa_ lord in the _rāksasa_ palace, and they would fall on me with spears and arrows and swords and all sorts of weapons in their hands; the onslaught of their attack would be appalling and would put me into a frenzy, but annihilating the whole _rāksasa_ army would leave me unable to get back to the far side of the ocean; I should be captured and her chance of rescue would be lost, and the mission entrusted to me by Rāma and Sugrīva would be wrecked. Jānakī lives concealed and guarded by _rāksasas_ in this trackless land surrounded by the ocean, and with me slaughtered or captured in a battle with the _rāksasas_ I can't see anyone else being able to help Rāma achieve his goal; racking my brains, I can think of no other _vānara_ who could leap over the great hundred- _yojana_ sea if I am killed. Granted, I'm capable of killing even thousands of _rāksasas_ , but then I wouldn't be able to reach the other side of the ocean. Warfare can be deceptive, and I have to be certain; it's not sensible to take uncalculating risks. That's the big problem about my talking to Sītā: how can I be certain she will hear my words without taking fright?'
[28.40–43] Shrewdly Hanumān pondered, then made his decision: 'Tireless Rāma is her own relative and on that relative her thoughts always dwell; singing his praises won't alarm her. I'll string together some well-merited compliments about learned Rāma, finest of the Ik vākus. I'll let her hear it all spoken in a sweet voice. I'll put it all together in a way that will win her trust.'
[29.1–8] After going over all these conflicting thoughts, the great monkey uttered a sweet speech that Vaidehī could hear: 'There was a king called Daśaratha. He owned chariots, elephants and steeds; he was pious and upright; great was his fame, great his glory; harming none was his constant care; he was generous, compassionate, truly brave, and he was the head of the Iksvāku dynasty; endowed with prosperity, he conferred prosperity; he was every inch a king, his glory was widespread, he was a bull of a king, famed to the four corners of the earth; fortunate himself, he bestowed fortune. His beloved eldest son, Rāma by name, has a face like the lord of the stars; he is discerning, he is the most excellent of archers; he watches over his own conduct, he watches over his people's conduct, he watches over the life of the world and over good order, and he triumphs over his enemies. To keep a promise made by his aged father, the hero set out with his wife and brother to roam the forest. News of the slaughter he had wrought in Janasthāna as he was hunting there in the great forest, and that Khara and Dū ana had been killed, induced the irascible Rāva a to abduct Jānakī.'
So saying, the bull of a _vānara_ halted. Jānakī was transported [29.10–11]; [30.1–2] with amazement at what she heard, and the woman with the lovely curled locks timidly raised her hair-framed face to look into the _śimśapā_ tree. Her mind in a whirl, she peered between the branches and hidden there she spied the courteous, soft-spoken monkey. Beautiful Maithilī glimpsed the excellent ape's modest stance, and thought, 'I must be dreaming.'
With a gesture of the utmost deference, Hanumān, that [31.1–10] splendid Son of the Wind, addressed Sītā in a sweet voice: 'Who are you, blameless lady with eyes as broad as lotus petals, standing clad in worn-out silk, supporting yourself against the branch of a tree? Why are there tears of grief flowing from your eyes like drops scattered from lotus petals? Who are you, radiant lady, which of the gods or anti-gods, _nāgas, gandharvas, rāksasas, yaksas_ or _kinnaras_? Who are you, beautiful lady, which _rudra_ , which _marut_? Shapely lady, which _vasu_ are you? To me you look like a goddess. Are you excellent, goodly Rohi ī, supreme star but snatched away from the Moon and expelled from the heavens? Surely it can't be that you are the virtuous Arundhatī, dark-eyed lady, and that you've angered your husband Vasistha in a moment of anger or madness? The characteristics I discern in you make me think you must be the chief queen of some sovereign, the daughter of some king. Could it be that you are Sītā, carried off by force from Janasthāna by Rāvana? Answer me, I beg you.'
Vaidehī was delighted to hear his speech with its kind words [31.11–27] about Rāma, and replied to Hanumān still perched in the tree: 'I am indeed Sītā, daughter of the noble Janaka of Videha; I am the wife of the wise Rāma. For twelve years I enjoyed every
human pleasure; all I could wish for was heaped upon me in the Rāghava's palace. Then in the thirteenth year, the king and his advisers undertook to consecrate the pride of the Iksvākus for the kingship, but while they were preparing to sprinkle the heir of Raghu, one queen, Kaikeyī, declared to her husband, "Day after day I will not drink, I will eat no food; if Rāma is consecrated it will bring an end to my life. Your excellent majesty, unless you intend to go back on the promise you made when you were pleased with me, have the Rāghava go to the forest." The honourable king remembered that he had offered the queen a boon, and swooned when he heard Kaikeyī's horrible, cruel words. But the venerable king was firm in his pursuit of integrity, and, weeping, asked his glorious eldest son to give up the kingship. That majestic prince valued his father's integrity more highly even than the consecration, and assented with heart as well as voice. Rāma's courageous pursuit of integrity values giving more highly than receiving; he couldn't say an unkind word to save his life! All his costly robes – gloriously he abandoned them! His hope of the kingship – he renounced it! Me he entrusted to his mother, but I set out at once to roam the forest in front of him. Without him I couldn't live happily even in heaven. Right in front went Saumitri, so distinguished, so popular with his friends, his tree-bark garments gracing him in his resolve to accompany his elder brother. Our sole thought, our unshakable resolve, was to keep our lord's command as we three entered the impenetrable, unexplored forest. While that heroic paragon was living in Da aka Forest, I – his wife! – was carried off by the evil _rāk asa_ Rāva a; as for my life, he's given me another two months' grace, but after that two months I shall live no longer.'
[32.1–4] Misery overwhelmed her, but the account of her misery drew further words of comfort from Hanumān the ape chief. 'My lady, I am here at Rāma's command, and as his messenger. Rāma is well, Vaidehī, and he wants to know if you are well. My lady, Rāma Dāśarathi, well versed in Brahmā's missile and in the Vedas – indeed an expert in the Vedas – wants to know if you are well. Illustrious Laksmana too, your husband's beloved attendant, greets you respectfully; he is tormented by grief.'
Moonfaced Sītā gasped to see his respectful demeanour and [32.13–23] replied sweetly to the _vānara_ : 'If you are that master of illusion Rāva a himself and this is an illusion you have created to increase my torment, that's just not right. But if you are a messenger arrived from Rāma, then blessings on you! I beg you, excellent ape – for news of Rāma is so welcome to me – recite to me my darling Rāma's virtues, gentle _vānara_ , and you'll captivate my heart like the current does a river bank. Oh what a sweet dream this is! After my long captivity, to see a forest-dweller like this sent by the Rāghava! If only I could see my hero, the Rāghava, with Lak ma a, even in a dream, I would bear up; yet even my dreaming has been loathsome. But I don't think this can be a dream, for no good can come of seeing a _vānara_ in a dream, yet good has come to me. Can it just be because my thoughts are in turmoil? Perhaps it's a fleeting delusion, or perhaps I'm going out of my mind; or maybe it's a mirage. But then it can't be madness, nor yet delusion that looks like madness: I'm aware of the reality of my condition and of this forest-dweller too.'
Considering it thoroughly from all angles, and knowing that [32.24–6] _rāksasas_ could take on any form at will, Sītā concluded that he must be the _rāksasa_ overlord; when she had reached that conclusion, Janaka's slender-waisted daughter Sītā made no reply to the _vānara_. Hanumān, Son of the Wind, understood what Sītā was thinking and framed welcome words to raise her spirits:
'In splendour he is like the sun, like the moon he is loved the [32.27–39] world over, like divine Vaiśrava a he is king over the whole world; valorous as far-famed Vi u, with a voice as sweet and true as Vācaspati, he is as handsome, as well blessed, as majestic as Kandarpa incarnate; he is the world's champion chariot warrior, venting his wrath where required: this is the noble prince, this is he whose sheltering arms safeguard the world. But that one in the form of a deer who lured the Rāghava away from the hermitage, then carried you off in the wilderness – he'll get his reward, you'll see! The one who will soon do battle with Rāva a and kill him with arrows like blazing brands fired in fury, that hero, that's who has sent me to your presence as his messenger. He is tormented by pain at being parted from you, and he wants to know if you are well. Glorious, mighty Laksmana, that growing joy to Sumitrā, sends his respectful greetings too and wants to know if you are well. Rāma's ally, my lady, the _vānara_ called Sugrīva, king of the _vānara_ lords, also wants to know if you are well. Rāma thinks of you constantly, and so do Sugrīva and Laksmana. Fortune has kept you alive, Vaidehī, in the clutches of these _rāksasīs_. Before long you shall see Rāma, and Laksmana the chariot warrior, amid crores of _vānaras_ – Sugrīva too with his measureless might. I am Sugrīva's minister, the _vānara_ called Hanumān, and I've got into La kā by leaping over the great sea: I've used my mettle to trample on evil Rāva a's head, and I've come to see you. My lady, I'm not what you imagine. Forget that suspicion and believe what I'm telling you.'
[38.1–11] When she heard what the noble Son of the Wind said, divinely beautiful Sītā realized it would benefit her to reply. ' _Vānara_ , I'm delighted to see you! You bring such welcome news, I'm like the earth refreshed by rain on its half-grown grain. To help me fulfil my longing to enfold that tiger of a man in my arms gaunt with grief, most excellent of all the apes, do me this kindness... there's something Rāma will recognize... "the shaft you shot in your anger that put out one of that crow's eyes... the _tilaka_ you painted on my cheek with realgar when my _tilaka_ got rubbed off – surely you remember that! A hero like you... comparable to great Indra and Varuna... how can you bear Sītā to live a captive among _rāk asas_? I've kept this heavenly hair-jewel carefully... gazing at it in my affliction lets me rejoice as if it were you, my blameless husband... I'll send you this majestic pearl. I shan't be able to go on living with this all-consuming grief... but for your sake I'll endure the unbearable pain and heart-rending words of these ferocious _rāk asīs_. For one month I'll cling to life, my enemy-conquering husband; but without you I can't survive beyond a month, my prince. This _rāk asa_ king is fierce and his leering disgusts me; if I heard that you were coming to grief I could not survive for a moment." '
[38.20–22] Janaka's daughter, miserable, her eyes brimming with tears, addressed her swift messenger in a voice choking with sobs, and his spirits rose. 'If you please, Hanumān, assure that lionlike pair of brothers, Rāma and Laksmana, and Sugrīva, his ministers, and everyone, that I am unharmed. Then see to it that the mighty Rāghava gets me out of this dire, water-bound captivity.'
As the _vānara_ made ready to go, she praised him with [39.1–10] expressions of admiration, but on leaving the area he thought, 'Now I've seen the dark-eyed lady there's still one small part of my mission left. The three forms of diplomacy are out of the question, but a fourth tactic remains. If someone finds himself able to accomplish more than he's been commanded to do, without detriment to his main mission, he has an obligation to do so. Even a very limited task can't be accomplished by one tactic alone; to accomplish a mission successfully you have to recognize its complexity. Here is a fine grove belonging to that brute; it could be Nandana, it's so attractive to spirit and senses alike with its mass of different trees and creepers. I will destroy it like wildfire; Rāva a will be incensed when it's wrecked.'
Then the Son of the Wind, furious as the Wind, called up his [39.13–15] dreadful might and set about kicking down the trees with his powerful legs. Heroic Hanumān wrecked the Girls' Grove with its mass of different trees and creepers made merry with ardent birdsong. Dreadful to behold was that grove with its trees smashed, its tanks split open and its hilltops ground to dust.
The clamour of the birds and the sound of splintering trees [40.1–5] bewildered and terrified all La kā's inhabitants. Stampeding animals and birds squealed in alarm and terror, and there appeared signs portending evil to _rāksasas_. Roused from sleep, the ugly _rāksasīs_ saw the shattered grove and that hero, the great monkey, but when the mighty monkey with the noble character and enormous strength saw them, he assumed a huge form that brought terror to the _rāksasīs_. The sight of the mountainous _vānara_ with his enormously powerful body set the _rāksasīs_ questioning Janaka's daughter:
'Who is he? Whose son? Where's he from? What's he come [40.6–7] here for? Why have you been talking to him? Don't be afraid to tell us, you broad-eyed lovely. Why was he talking to you, you dark-eyed beauty?'
[40.8–10] Virtuous Sītā, lovely in every limb, replied, 'What means do I have of telling one _rāksasa_ from another when you can take on any form you like? You're the ones who should know who he is or what he'll do: it takes a snake to see a snake's feet, that's certain. I'm frightened of him as well and I don't know him: whoever is he? I just assume he's some shape-changing _rāk asa_ that's arrived here.'
[40.11–12] Vaidehī's words sent the _rāk asīs_ scurrying off, some to report to Rāva a while others remained at their post. Those ugly _rāk asīs_ who found Rāva a began to tell him about the terrible misshapen _vānara_.
[40.13–21] 'Your majesty, a monkey of terrible form has been talking to Sītā in the middle of the _aśoka_ grove; he's standing there with dauntless spirit. We've asked deer-eyed Sītā Jānakī repeatedly who the ape is but she won't tell us. He may be Indra Vāsava's envoy, or an envoy of Vaiśrava a, he may even have been sent by Rāma yearning to discover Sītā, but that amazing creature has obliterated your girls' enchanting grove, with its teeming flocks of different birds. There's no area that he's not destroyed; only where Sītā Jānakī is has he not destroyed, but we can't tell whether that's from fatigue or in order to protect Jānakī – but then, how would he feel fatigue? He must have been protecting her: he's saved the flourishing _śimśapā_ tree that Sītā was standing under, with its rich canopy of beautiful twigs and leaves. It's for you to ordain a savage punishment for this savage monster for talking to Sītā and destroying this grove. Who could address Sītā – your intended – without forfeiting his life, Lord of _rāksasa_ -hordes?'
[40.22–35] The _rāksasīs_ ' words acted on Rāva a Lord of the _rāksasas_ like oblations offered into a fire: he blazed up, eyes rolling with rage. The potentate ordered some _rāksasas_ , as powerful as himself though just retainers, to go and arrest Hanumān. Eighty thousand vigorous retainers sped off from the palace, armed with cudgels; a fearsome sight with their paunches and fangs, stalwart and belligerent, all were avid to capture Hanumān. The monkey was perched on a gateway when they reached him; like moths rushing towards a flame they fell upon him. Splendid, majestic, mountainous Hanumān pounded the ground with his tail, roaring lustily till the tumultuous din struck them with terror and dread. They gazed at Hanumān as he towered over them like a cloud at twilight, but their master's command stiffened their nerve and the _rāksasas_ fell upon the monkey from all sides with fearsome, glittering weapons. With the warriors completely surrounding him, he reached for the fearsome iron beam barring the gate, wrenched it free with all his might and belaboured the night-roamers. Like Vinatā's son gripping a wriggling snake, the heroic Son of the Wind roamed about with it in the sky. That hero, that true Son of the Wind, struck down the _rāksasa_ retainers; then the hero resumed his position on the gateway, thirsting for a fight, while some _rāksasas_ who had escaped the terrible scene reported to Rāva a that all the retainers had been killed.
Blazing forth with splendour till he looked like mount [41.3–5] Pāriyātra, inviolable Hanumān then violated the platform around the lofty sacred tree. Hanumān Son of the Wind grew to enormous stature and slapped his arms in defiance till the sound filled La kā, tumbling the birds out of the sky as the tumultuous slapping assaulted their ears. Then he bellowed out:
'Victory to Rāma the all-powerful, and to Laksmana the [41.6–9] mighty! The Rāghava will secure victory for King Sugrīva! I am the servant of Kosala's lord, tireless Rāma! I am Hanumān Son of the Wind, slayer of hostile hordes! A thousand Rāva as could not counter me in battle as I hurled rocks and trees by the thousand. I've devastated the city of La kā, I've paid my respects to Maithilī, and now I've achieved my objective I shall leave before any of the _rāksasas_ can blink an eye.'
These words he hurled at those stationed around the sacred [41.10,15] tree from his stance on its tip. Then the bull of an ape roared a fearsome bellow to terrify the _rāksasas_ ; high in the sky the majestic monkey called out:
'Noble, powerful _vānara_ chiefs like me have set out by the [41.16–18] thousand in obedience to Sugrīva's instructions. Sugrīva will arrive with hundreds, and with hundreds of thousands, with crores and with myriads to pulverize you all. Incurring the hostility of the noble Lord of the Ik vākus has brought annihilation on you, on the city of La kā and on Rāva a.'
[42.1–18] On the orders of the lord of the _rāk asas_, Jambumālin, powerful son of Prahasta, set out, bow in hand. With his prominent fangs and the red garlands and garments he was wearing, with his wreaths and flashing earrings, his huge size, his rolling eyes and his fury, he was indomitable in battle. His huge bow was the like of Śakra's bow, with flashing arrows and a noise like the crash of a thunderbolt as he flexed it with vigour, until suddenly every corner of the sky in all directions resounded with the din of the flexing of that bow, but when the impetuous Hanumān saw him coming on his ass-drawn chariot he roared eagerly. As the great monkey Hanumān was standing on the pinnacle of the gateway, mighty Jambumālin struck him with sharpened arrows: the monkey chief's face he wounded with a half-moon tip, his head with an eared-tip, and with ten bolts his arms. Struck by the arrow, his face glowed like a full-blown autumn lotus touched by a ray of sunlight. The great monkey was annoyed at being hit by the _rāk asa's_ arrows. Close by he saw a gigantic boulder, wrenched it up on the instant and hurled it with all his might – that mighty monkey – but the furious _rāk asa_ warded it off with ten arrows. Hanumān was emboldened by rage at seeing that tactic fail; he uprooted a spreading _sāl_ tree, and brandished it heroically. When mighty Jambumālin saw the mighty monkey brandishing the _sāl_ tree, he launched arrows in abundance, piercing the _sāl_ with four and the _vānara_ with five in the arm, one on the chest and ten on the breastbone; his body was filled with arrows and rage came over him. Then he picked up that same beam and whirled it violently around. Possessed by violent might, violently he whirled the beam and brought it down on Jambumālin's huge chest. Then his head was no more, nor his arms nor his knees nor his bow, chariot or horses; even his arrows could be seen no more. The force of the blow laid Jambumālin the chariot warrior dead on the earth, limbs and ornaments ground to dust. The news that Jambumālin as well as the mighty retainers had been killed angered Rāva a; his eyes reddened with rage.
Rāva a showed no emotion at the news that the noble [44.1–3] _vānara_ had killed his counsellor's son, but hit on a further plan. Daśagrīva issued instructions to five generals, Virūpāksa and Yūpāk a, Durdhara the _rāk asa_, Praghasa and Bhāsakar a. These warriors were experienced leaders, swift as the wind in battle, and intent on capturing Hanumān.
'Generals, advance! Each of you take a large supporting [44.4–14] force with steeds, chariots and elephants. This monkey has got to be punished. It is imperative you proceed with caution when you come upon this forest-dweller and employ tactics appropriate to the terrain and the hour. It's my belief he's no mere monkey, to judge by his exploits. He's some great being with a large supporting force, for sure; alternatively he's been created by Indra, by the power of his asceticism, specifically with us in view, because you and I together have roundly defeated the gods, anti-gods and great sages, and the _nāgas, yaksas_ and _gandharvas_. It's only to be expected that they'll ordain some calamity for us. This is it, there's no doubt about that. You'll have to employ force to capture him. Don't despise the mighty savage for being an ape, my lords. I've seen apes who are nimble and extremely brave: there's Vālin and Sugrīva, there's Jāmbavān – he's very strong – there's General Nīla and the rest, especially Dvivida, but not even they have such a fearsome gait, such splendid might, such ingenuity, such strong resolution, such ability to change shape. You must recognize him as some great being assuming the form of a monkey: you'll have to exert a great effort, but make sure you secure him. Granted, not the three worlds – Indra, gods, anti-gods and humans included – are sufficient to withstand your lordships in battle; nevertheless, a shrewd tactician who wants to win a battle should take every care to safeguard himself, for success in warfare can never be guaranteed.'
On receiving these instructions from their master they all [44.15–19] jumped to it, quick and powerful as a blazing fire. The warriors marshalled an ample force of chariots, rutting elephants and swift steeds, with every kind of sharp weapon and all necessary troops, then spied the great fiery monkey, wreathed in the brilliance of his own splendour like the rays of the rising sun. He was standing on the gateway. Great was his energy, great his character, great his might, great his ingenuity, great his determination, great his stature, great his strength; but when they saw him, they took up positions all around him and all fell upon him from all sides with every kind of terrible weapon.
[44.20–26] Like lotus petals falling on his head were the golden tips of the five gleaming sharp iron arrows that Durdhara loosed at him. Then, warlike and mighty, Durdhara advanced on his chariot, bow at the ready, and showered him with hundreds and hundreds of arrows. As he rained down arrows from the sky the monkey baulked him like the wind dispatching a rain cloud at the end of the monsoon. Under Durdhara's harassment the Wind's Son then increased his roaring and raised his battle-frenzy. Suddenly the ape leapt up high and crashed down hard on Durdhara's chariot like a lightning-strike on a mountain, slaughtering its eight horses, wrecking the chariot-pole and axle, and hurling Durdhara lifeless to the ground.
[44.27–30] The sight of him stretched out on the ground fired Virūpāk a and Yūpāk a with frenzy and the indomitable pair of champions sprang into the attack, springing up abruptly to the mighty monkey's station in the clear sky and each striking him on the chest with his hammer. That mighty creature repulsed the frenzied pair's onslaught, then, gallant as Garu a, the _vānara_ Son of the Wind leapt back to earth, ran to a _sāl_ tree, tore it up by the roots and killed both those _rāk asa_ warriors.
[44.31–5] When he realized that the bold _vānara_ had killed those three, energetic Praghasa attacked the ape with vigour, and belligerent Bhāsakar a angrily snatched up a pike; shoulder to shoulder the pair confronted the glorious tiger of a monkey and harried the monkey champion, Praghasa with a sharp-pointed javelin and Bhāsakar a the _rāksasa_ with the pike. They wounded his limbs till his fur ran with blood, enflaming the _vānara_ till he blazed like the rising sun. Heroic Hanumān, that elephant of a monkey, tore off a mountain-peak complete with its deer, beasts of prey and trees, and slaughtered both _rāk asas_.
With the five generals eliminated, the _vānara_ annihilated [44.36–8] the remainder of the army. Horse after horse, elephant after elephant, warrior after warrior, chariot after chariot the monkey destroyed, like Thousand-eyed Indra did the anti-gods. The roads were jammed with the corpses of elephants and chargers and with broken-axled chariots, and the earth was strewn with slain _rāksasas_ on all sides.
[ _Rāvana next sends his son Indrajit to attack. Indrajit succeeds in capturing Hanumān by supernatural means and takes him before Rāvana_.]
Yellow-eyed, he stood before mighty Rāvana; he who makes [48.1–3] the world roar looked at him and flew into a great rage. The king's eyes were copper-coloured with rage as he addressed his excellent counsellor Prahasta with ominous, weighty words that went straight to the point: 'Interrogate this evil creature about his origin, his business and what he means by destroying the grove and threatening the _rāksasīs_.'
When he heard Rāva a's instructions, Prahasta made a [48.4–9] speech. 'Be reassured, honoured sir; monkey, you have no need to feel alarm. Even if it be Indra who has sent you to Rāva a's abode, you can declare the truth. Fear not, _vānara_ ; you will be released. Whether you be sent in this goodly guise to this our city by Vaiśrava a, Yama or Varuna, or even as an envoy from victory-wishful Vis u – for your _vānara_ appearance is belied by your preter- _vānara_ powers – _vānara_ , give an immediate accurate account and you will be released (albeit that utterance of a falsehood will forfeit your life), in particular an account of your purpose in penetrating Rāva a's abode.'
In reply the excellent ape told the _rāksasa_ commander-in- [48.10–16] chief: 'I do not come from Sakra, Yama or Varuna; I have made no alliance with wealth-bestowing Vaiśrava a, and I have not been dispatched by Vis u. I come here as a _vānara_ ; that is my true race. Admittance to the _rāksasa_ lord's presence is difficult to obtain, so I destroyed the grove to secure an audience with the _rāksasa_ king. Then these mighty _rāksasas_ arrived spoiling for a fight and in sheer self-defence I had to engage them in combat. Not even gods or anti-gods can bind me with their missiles or fetters; this is a boon I was granted by the Grand Father. In my wish to see the king I submitted to the force of a missile; the missile could not hold me but I submit to the _rāksasas_ ' force. Let it be known that I am the envoy of the Rāghava of measureless might, and let my lord listen to my salutary message.'
[49.1–34] The ten-faced king's spirit was roused, but with spirit unruffled the excellent ape fixed him with his gaze and made a speech of great significance. 'Lord of the _rāksasas_ , I am here at your court by order of Sugrīva. The Lord of Apes sends you fraternal greetings. Hear the advice of your brother monarch, the noble Sugrīva; his words are rooted in right and in expedience, apt both here and in the hereafter. There was a king named Daśaratha, rich in chariots, elephants and steeds. To the world he was like the father of a family, in radiance he was equal to the Lord of the gods. Pleasure flowed from his regal, powerful eldest son, but at his father's command he left to enter Da daka Forest; the path of righteousness was his refuge, in company with his brother Laksmana and his wife Sītā too. Rāma is his name, and great is his glory. Sītā his wife, daughter of noble Janaka, king of Videha, was devoted to her husband. She disappeared in the forest. The prince and his younger brother hunted for the queen until they reached Rśyamūka and met Sugrīva, who promised him he would organize a search for Sītā. In return Rāma promised Sugrīva kingship over the apes; the prince killed Vālin in battle and established Sugrīva in the kingdom as Lord of the hosts of apes and bears. True to his promise, Sugrīva threw himself into the hunt for Sītā, and the Lord of Apes dispatched apes to every region. Hundreds, thousands, millions of apes are hunting for her in all directions, on earth and in heaven: some are a match for Vinatā's son, others are like the Wind; powerful and swift, those heroic apes can move around without hindrance. For my part, I am Hanumān, true Son of the Wind. For Sītā's sake I even hastened to leap over the hundred- _yojana_ sea and have come here in the hope of finding her. You, my lord, understand both what is right and what is expedient; you have reaped great benefits from asceticism. It is not for you to hold captive someone else's
wife: you are too wise. Intelligent people like your lordship do not persist in deeds that run counter to right and are fundamentally prejudicial and injurious. Who, even among the gods and anti-gods, can withstand arrows fired by Laksmana consequent upon the wrath of Rāma? Your majesty, not anywhere in the three worlds can anyone be found who could prosper after injuring the Rāghava. Ponder this advice, beneficial in all three eras and bound up with expedience as well as morality: have Jānakī restored to the Lord of Men. I have seen that the queen is here: I have accomplished the almost impossible. It is for the Rāghava to determine what happens next. I have seen that Sītā is engulfed in grief; you do not understand that in your clutches she is like a five-tongued serpent, impossible even for immortals and anti-gods to deal with, any more than the strongest constitution can stomach food laced with poison. It is not proper for you to throw away the store of merit you gained by your distressing asceticism: your whole life is at
stake! My lord, you are relying on the invulnerability against gods and anti-gods resulting from your asceticism, and with good reason. But Sugrīva is neither a god nor an anti-god; nor is he a human, a _rāk asa, gandharva, yak a_ or serpent. The Rāghava, your majesty, is human, and Sugrīva is Lord of the Apes, so how, your majesty, will you preserve your life? The fruits of immorality are incompatible with the acquisition of merit. We reap what we sow; virtue triumphs over vice. My lord, it is clear that up till now you have reaped the reward of your righteousness; just so, you will swiftly reap the reward of this sin. The slaughter in Janasthāna has already been brought to your attention; now that the slaughter of Vālin and the alliance of Rāma with Sugrīva have also been brought to your attention, you should pay attention to your own welfare. It is true that I can destroy La kā on my own – steeds, chariots and elephants – but the decision belongs elsewhere, for with the hosts of apes and bears to witness, Rāma has vowed that he will exterminate the enemies who have molested Sītā. Not even Indra himself would prosper after injuring Rāma: how much less someone like you! In that Sītā whom you now regard as
your captive you should see Time's Night of Destruction for all La kā. The noose of Time in the shape of Sītā is around your neck. Free yourself! Consider your own interest!'
[50.1–4] Rāva a was beside himself with anger when he heard the noble _vānara's_ words, and ordered his execution. Vibhī a a did not concur with evil Rāva a's order to execute one who had declared himself an envoy; he adhered to the rules of proper conduct, and when he learned that the angry _rāksasa_ overlord had embarked upon that course, he pondered what he ought to do and came to a decision. Deferentially he sought to placate his belligerent elder brother, eloquently addressing him with words conducive to his good.
[50.5–13] 'Your majesty, doing away with this monkey would breach convention; custom and practice the world over would condemn it as unworthy of a hero like you. Nor can I see any advantage in killing this monkey. It is on those who sent this monkey that your retribution should fall. Good or bad, this person is but the emissary of others. An envoy following his master's orders in connection with his master's business is inviolate. Furthermore, your majesty, if you kill him, I can't see any other creature here who could go flying back to the other side of the ocean. You can conquer hostile forts; you don't need to bother killing him. You should direct your energies towards Indra and the gods, my lord.'
[51.1–4] Hearing his speech with its apt and timely advice, mighty Daśagrīva replied to his brother, 'You've spoken the truth, my lord. The killing of an envoy incurs denunciation. I must find some other form of punishment short of death. Now, the most desirable ornament of a monkey is his tail... I'll have his set alight at once. When it's burning, I'll have him released, so his family and friends, relations and comrades, can all gaze on his miserable state, his body maimed and disfigured.'
[51.5] The _rāksasa_ lord issued an order: ' _Rāksasas_ are to parade him through all the city thoroughfares with his tail ablaze.'
[51.6–9] Obedient to his instructions the rage-envenomed _rāksasas_ bound the tail with cotton rags. While his tail was being bound, the great monkey swelled up like a fire when it spreads to dry kindling in a forest. It was soaked with sesame oil and set alight, but he felled those _rāksasas_ with his blazing tail, so consumed was he with fury and indignation; his face glowed like the rising sun.
The savage _rāksasas_ crowded round and bound him more [51.10–14] tightly, but the excellent heroic ape made a resolution befitting the occasion. 'The _rāksasas_ have no power over me even when I'm bound, that's true. I could snap my bonds, leap up again and kill them, but I need to see La kā by daylight. I couldn't make out the layout of the citadel clearly by night. Let the _rāksasas_ heap more bonds on me and set my tail alight to their hearts' content; it won't bother me.'
The _rāk asas_ seized him and set off in delight, but that great [51.15–18] monkey, that sublime bull of a monkey, remained impassive. The savage _rāk asas_ paraded him through the city, making it resound with the din of conches, drums and their own hullabaloo, while the monkey surveyed its enclosed courtyards and well-planned squares, its highways crammed with houses, and its crossroads.
When the tip of Hanumān's tail was blazing, the ugly-eyed [51.20–21] _rāksasīs_ told the queen the dreadful news. 'Sītā, that monkey with the copper-coloured face who was talking to you is being paraded about with his tail ablaze.'
Those cruel words affected Sītā as much as her own abduction. [51.22–3] Vaidehī burned with anguish and turned to the sacrificial flame, anxious for the great monkey's welfare; devoutly the broad-eyed lady approached the sacrificial flame:
'If I am obedient to my husband, if I have performed austerities, [51.24–8] if I am my husband's one true wife, become cool for Hanumān. If my wise lord retains any tenderness towards me, or if any shred of my auspiciousness remains, become cool for Hanumān. If that righteous man recognizes my virtue and my longing to be with him, become cool for Hanumān.' Then the steady fire flared up, its sharp-tipped flames pointing to the right as if to assure the fawn-eyed lady that it would be gentle towards the monkey.
With his tail alight, the _vānara_ wondered, 'Why is this [51.29–30] blazing fire not burning me all over? It's obviously burning fiercely but yet it's causing me no pain. It's as if winter had arrived and settled on the tip of my tail.'
[51.35–8] Then the glorious Son of the Wind scattered the crowd of _rāk asas_ and bounded on to the city gate, lofty as a mountain-peak. With aplomb he threw off the mountainous size he had assumed and reverted in an instant to being tiny enough to escape from his bonds; once he had broken free, the majestic monkey went back to looking like a mountain. Surveying the scene, he noticed the iron-bound beam barring the gate, snatched it up and again battered all the guards, that mighty Son of the Wind.
[52.1–5] Pleased with his work, the monkey looked round at La kā with mounting determination and wondered what more he should do. 'Now then, what is there left for me to do here that could produce more agony for the _rāk asas_? So far I've laid waste the grove, killed some leading _rāk asas_ and wiped out a division of the army; it just remains to destroy the citadel. The citadel destroyed would be worth the effort it took, and a little exertion would bring a fitting reward for my labours. There's a fire blazing on my tail; it's only right I should satisfy it with these lovely houses.'
[52.6–13] The great monkey Hanumān with his blazing tail was like a cloud flashing lightning as he roamed the roofs of La kā, kindling a conflagration the like of the flaming Doomsday fire. The intense vigour of the mighty fire was fanned by the wind. Like the Doomsday fire it blazed ever more fiercely as the wind drove the burning flames into the houses. Down they go, those great gem-studded palaces, pearly and jewel-built, with their golden lattices! The palaces collapsed to the ground in ruins, like the residences of _siddhas_ falling from heaven when their merit expires. He saw a stream of different ores mingled with diamonds, coral, beryl, pearls and silver flowing from a palace, but Hanumān was no more sated by his slaughter of _rāksasa_ lords than fire is by sticks and straw.
[52.17]; [53.1] Once the ape champion had set the whole of Lanka alight, the great monkey doused the fire in his tail in the sea, then gazed at the blazing ruins of La kā city with its hordes of terrified _rāk asas_. A thought then struck Hanumān the _vānara_.
'I've undermined the whole purpose of my mission! Burning [53.5–16] down La kā has not protected Sītā. Surely my mission was all but accomplished, but I was carried away by anger and I've completely wrecked it. Jānakī must have perished, for it looks as if no part of La kā has escaped burning: the whole city has been reduced to ashes. If I've wrecked my mission by my own stupidity, I'm ready to forfeit my life here and now. Shall I jump into the fire? Or perhaps into the Mare's Head? Or should I present my body to the sea-creatures? How could I appear before the Lord of Apes alive – or those two tigers of men – when I've wrecked the whole mission? My reprehensible rage has certainly demonstrated what all three worlds know: the monkey nature is fickle. Shame on my headstrong, unbridled, irresponsible nature that misled me into not safeguarding Sītā even when I was master of the situation! If Sītā has perished, those brothers will both perish, and when they perish Sugrīva and his family will perish too. Bharata is upright and devoted to his brother; when he hears the news, how will he be able to survive, or Satrughna either? With the annihilation of that most righteous Iksvāku dynasty all their subjects will no doubt be harrowed by a torment of grief. By giving way to this reprehensible rage, I've stripped myself of prosperity and squandered all I've gained from virtue and prudence! It's clear I've destroyed the world!'
While he was musing in this way, well-recognized omens [53.17–23] appeared before his eyes and he had second thoughts. 'On the other hand, that paragon of grace and beauty is safeguarded by her own radiance! She won't have perished: fire can't harm fire. The purifying power shouldn't touch that upright man's wife! His radiance is unbounded, and her own behaviour keeps her safe. It was certainly Rāma's power and Vaidehī's good deeds that kept the fire from burning me at the height of the blaze. She's Rāma's darling, and a goddess to Bharata and his other two brothers: how could she perish? Everywhere fire is the immutable master; its function is to burn. If it can't burn my tail, how could it burn that noble lady? Her asceticism, her integrity, her faithfulness to her one husband are such that she could even burn up fire; fire will not burn her.'
[53.24–6] As Hanumān was reflecting on the queen's many virtues, he heard words uttered by noble _cāra as_: 'Oh who could withstand what Hanumān has done, loosing ferocious fire throughout the _rāk asa_ realm! This city La kā has been burnt, watch-towers, ramparts, gateways and all, but Jānakī has not been burnt. This is a marvel! We're truly amazed!'
[53.27] Hanumān now saw the meaning of the omens; the force of his reasoning and the sages' words relieved him.
[55.18–19]; [59.2–6] The energetic monkey landed, huge as a mountain, on mount Mahendra's tree-thronged peak, to the delight of all the bulls of _vānaras_ who rushed up and crowded around noble Hanumān. With that Son of the Wind at their head, all the bulls of monkeys left the summit of Mahendra and bounded happily along. They were like rutting elephants, huge as Meru and Mandara, seeming to blot out the sky with their enormous, powerful bodies and to uplift with their gaze Hanumān, praised by all for his presence of mind, might and speed. Now they knew that the Rāghava's goal and their master's highest renown were assured, they felt they had achieved their objective and were elated by the success of their mission. All the wise creatures were anxious to tell the good news, all were eager for battle, all were determined to lend Rāma their assistance.
[59.7–11]; [60.1] The forest-dwellers bounded along – bounded up into the sky – then came to a grove filled with trees and creepers, the equal of Nandana, known as the Honey Orchard. This enticing spot was Sugrīva's private preserve, and no one was allowed to damage it; it was in the constant care of Dadhimukha, the noble monkey chief Sugrīva's maternal uncle. When they reached the extensive orchard, so dear to the _vānara_ lord's heart, the vānaras grew highly excited, and in their delight at seeing the great Honey Orchard the honey-golden _vānaras_ begged the prince for mead. That champion ape, that bull of a _vānara_ Hanumān, told them, 'Enjoy the mead, _vānaras_ , with a clear conscience.'
[60.2–3] When he heard Hanumān's command, the ape leader A gada reacted indulgently, 'The apes may drink the mead. Now that he has accomplished his mission I should be obliged to grant a request from Hanumān even if it were wrong. How much more in a case like this!'
The delighted _vānaras_ applauded and praised A gada as [60.4–12] they heard the words falling from his lips. Praising that bull of a _vānara_ A gada, all the _vānaras_ rushed like a river in full spate to the Honey Orchard. They overcame the wardens with violence made the more savage by the leave granted them when they saw it and by the news about Maithilī, and entered the Honey Orchard, where they bounded about in a mob, raining hundreds of blows on the forest-wardens stationed at the Honey Orchard. They picked up vats of mead in their arms and joined in smashing them while some consumed the contents. When the honey-golden ones had drunk their fill, some threw the mead around, drunkenly showering each other with the dregs of mead, while others stood holding on to branches, or, dead drunk, collapsed among the tree roots, scattering the leaves. Some bounded about gleefully, intoxicated out of their minds with mead, throwing punches at each other, while others staggered around. Some poured out abuse, others grew happily maudlin; other apes passed out on the ground, drunk on the mead.
Dadhimukha's servants, whose job was to guard the mead, [60.13–15] scattered in all directions, victims of the wild _vānaras_ dragging them about by their knees and mooning at them. They fled in panic to Dadhimukha and told him, 'The Honey Orchard has been vandalized with Hanumān's permission; they've dragged us about by our knees and mooned at us!'
Dadhimukha the _vānara_ forest-warden was angry to hear of [60.16], [28–32] the damage to the Honey Orchard but calmed the apes. 'Never mind them! Let's go to where our stout-necked master, Sugrīva the _vānara_ , is waiting with Rāma. We'll report A gada's whole offence to the king. When he hears our report he'll be indignant and have those _vānaras_ executed, for noble Sugrīva has treasured his divine, ancestral Honey Orchard, where even the gods are prohibited. Sugrīva will order the execution of all these _vānaras_ and their comrades; their thirst for mead has put an end to their lives. These criminals deserve death for infringing the king's commands; his displeasure and resultant rage will bear the fruit we want.'
[60.33–7] When mighty Dadhimukha had said this to the forest-wardens he leapt up and set off at once surrounded by the forest-wardens. In the twinkling of an eye the forest-dweller reached the wise _vānara_ Sugrīva, Son of the Sun. Seeing Rāma and Laksmana as well as Sugrīva, he leapt down from the sky and came to rest on a level patch of ground. After alighting with his squad of wardens, the Head Warden, that heroic ape Dadhimukha, with a sorrowful countenance saluted with great humility and prostrated himself at Sugrīva's auspicious feet.
[61.1–2] The bull of a _vānara_ was perturbed to see the _vānara_ prostrating himself, and said, 'Stand up, stand up! Why have you fallen at my feet? Have no fear, my hero, but tell me the truth.'
[61.3–10] Reassured by noble Sugrīva, Dadhimukha rose and gave a well-considered report. 'The orchard hitherto prohibited by Ṛk arajas, by yourself, your Majesty, and by Vālin too, has been ransacked by _vānaras_. They were challenged and resisted by these forest-wardens, of course, but paid no heed. They are feasting and drinking the mead, some throwing the dregs about while others are guzzling. When challenged they all just scowled, and those raging bulls of _vānaras_ affronted those who were barring their way to the orchard even more by assaulting them. The superior numbers of those warlike _vānaras_ with their rage-reddened eyes utterly overwhelmed my tawny bulls of _vānaras_ : some they punched, others they kneed; they dragged them about as they liked, they mooned at them. They've assaulted these heroes with you, their lord, standing idly by: indeed they're vandalizing the whole Honey Orchard to their hearts' content.'
[61.11–12] Foe-conquering Lak ma a shrewdly asked the bull of a _vānara_ Sugrīva what the complaint was about. 'Your majesty, why has this _vānara_ forest-warden come here? What information has he brought? Why did he make such a sorrowful report?'
[61.13–23] At noble Lak ma a's questions, Sugrīva made Lak ma a this eloquent reply. 'My lord Laksmana, the monkey hero Dadhimukha has reported that _vānara_ heroes headed by A gada are drinking my mead. They would not be doing such a thing if they had failed in their mission. Taking over the orchard means that the _vānaras_ have accomplished their task. It's clear that they've discovered the queen, and it can only be Hanumān who's done it! No one else could bring success to this mission but Hanumān! In Hanumān, that bull of an ape, astuteness, determination, courage and learning combine to ensure the success of a mission. With Jāmbavān to guide, A gada to command and Hanumān to execute, the mission could have no other outcome. It must be those heroic bulls of apes headed by A gada returning from searching the southern region who are vandalizing the Honey Orchard; the _vānaras_ have got into that Honey Orchard on their way back and made free of it, causing havoc throughout the grove, driving the wardens away and kneeing them. That's the welcome news brought by this notably valiant ape Dadhimukha. Sītā is found, mighty Saumitri! It's obvious! That's why all the _vānaras_ are drinking mead on their way back. The famous forest-dwellers certainly wouldn't be wrecking that divine, god-given orchard, you bull of a man, if they'd failed to find Vaidehī.'
Righteous Laksmana and the Rāghava were thrilled to hear [61.24–6] the welcome tidings falling from Sugrīva's lips. Rāma and illustrious Laksmana were absolutely thrilled by Dadhimukha's account, and Sugrīva too was thrilled. Then Sugrīva replied to the forest-warden. 'I am pleased, dear uncle,' he said, 'for them to enjoy the orchard now they have accomplished their mission. Success demands and receives indulgence.'
At Sugrīva's words the monkey Dadhimukha was delighted. [62.1–5] He saluted the Rāghava, then Lak ma a and Sugrīva, with reverence. After bowing to Sugrīva and the two mighty Rāghavas, he leapt up into the sky with his escort of _vānara_ warriors and hurried back the way he had come, landed back on earth and went into the orchard. As he entered the Honey Orchard he saw the ape chiefs, no longer pissed but all insolently pissing mead. The hero approached them with a gesture of great deference and joyfully addressed A gada with conciliatory words:
[62.6–11] 'Dear nephew, don't be vexed that these wardens barred your way; it was through ignorance that they took offence and refused your Honours admittance. As Young King you are the mighty owner of this orchard. Their earlier error was an act of folly that your Honour should overlook. I went to your uncle, blameless prince, and reported the arrival here of all these forest-roamers; he was delighted to hear that you and these ape chiefs had arrived, and took no offence on hearing of the damage to the orchard. Your uncle King Sugrīva, lord of the _vānaras_ , told me with delight to send you all to him at once.'
[62.12–16] When he heard Dadhimukha's conciliatory speech, A gada the champion ape replied appropriately. 'Ape chiefs, victorious warriors, I imagine Rāma will have heard the news; we shouldn't be dallying here with our mission accomplished. Now we've drunk our fill of mead and we've rested, forest-roamers, it only remains for us to return to Sugrīva, my superior. I will implement your joint recommendation, ape chiefs. I defer to you, my lords. Young King I may be, but it is not for me to order you about; it would ill become me to treat you with disrespect, you who have accomplished your mission.'
[62.17–21] Hearing A gada speaking as he always did, the forest-dwellers responded with joy in their hearts. 'Who but you, your majesty, you bull of a _vānara_ , would talk like that? All who wield power are intoxicated by it and think only of themselves. Your words are just typical of you, but of no one else. Your modesty proclaims a blessed and prosperous future for you. We are indeed all ready to go at a moment's notice to Sugrīva, that ever-constant lord of ape heroes. Without your leave we apes can't put one foot in front of another to go anywhere, and that's the truth we're telling you.'
[62.22–4] Even as they spoke A gada replied with the words 'Agreed! Let's go!' and leapt up off the ground, his leap followed by all the ape chiefs leaping up too until they blotted out the sky like flames flung up from a sacrifice. After their sudden skyward bound the tempestuous leapers roared, their great roar sounding like storm-driven clouds.
[62.25–30] While they were waiting for A gada to arrive, Sugrīva lord of the _vānaras_ spoke to lotus-eyed Rāma, who was still tormented by grief. 'Take heart, I beg you! They've found the queen! There's no doubt about it, otherwise they wouldn't possibly come back with our time limit overstayed. The Young King, the monkey commander mighty A gada, would not enter my presence with his mission bungled. Even if they did venture to return with their mission unaccomplished, his face would be downcast and his spirit overwhelmed by confusion: that monkey lord would not damage my ancestral Honey Orchard, the preserve of my forefathers, unless he had something to celebrate. Kausalyā is blessed in her child, Rāma: your vows will be rewarded, so take heart! It's clear that they've discovered the queen, and it can only be Hanumān who's done it!'
Then, close by in the sky he heard a joyous clamour of [62.34–40] forest-dwellers approaching Kiskindhā, glorying in Hanumān's achievement and bellowing as if to announce their success. When he heard the monkeys' din, the monkey chief uncurled his tail and stretched it out with delight. Eager to see Rāma, the apes arrived and fell in behind A gada and the _vānara_ Hanumān. Led by A gada, those delighted and joyful heroes landed close to the ape king and the Rāghava. Mighty Hanumān bowed his head, then informed the Rāghava that the queen was a prisoner but unharmed. Glad Laksmana gazed admiringly at glad Sugrīva: his faith in this Son of the Wind's success was vindicated. But it was on Hanumān that the admiring gaze of the enemy-slaying Rāghava rested as he rejoiced in gladness.
They went off to the varied woodland on mount Prasrava a, [63.1–5] bowed their heads to Rāma and mighty Laksmana, and formed up behind the Young King. When they had paid their respects to Sugrīva they began to report the news about Sītā: her imprisonment within Rāva a's private quarters, the _rāksasīs_ ' threats, her utter devotion to Rāma, and the time limit imposed on her – all this the apes reported with Rāma looking on. When he heard that Vaidehī was unharmed, Rāma asked in reply, 'Where is Queen Sītā and what are her feelings about me? Tell me everything about Vaidehī, _vānaras_.'
[63.6–7] When they heard Rāma's questions the apes urged Hanumān forward while Rāma looked on. He knew everything there was to tell about Sītā, and when he heard their words Hanumān Son of the Wind gave a well-expressed account of his discovery of Sītā.
[63.8–25] 'In my desire to find Sītā Jānakī I went hunting for her and I jumped over a sea one hundred _yojanas_ wide. There on the southern shore of the southern sea lies evil Rāva a's city, La kā. There I found the virtuous Sītā in Rāva a's private quarters, lovely for you, Rāma, living for you, her trust in you. I saw her surrounded by _rāk asīs_ being threatened every moment, and guarded by hideous _rāk asīs_: she's in his girls' grove. Your virtuous queen, a stranger to suffering, is meeting suffering imprisoned in Rāva a's private quarters and close confined by _rāk asīs_. She's done her hair in a single plait; she's miserable, and she thinks constantly of you; her bed is on the ground and her body is as pale as a lotus pool covered in snow; she utterly repudiates Rāva a and is resolved to die. Kākutstha, the queen's mind dwells on you, and I have managed to discover her. I won her confidence, blameless tiger of a man, by relating little by little the renown of the Ik vāku dynasty. Then I talked to the queen and explained the whole business. She was overjoyed to hear of the alliance between Rāma and Sugrīva. She perseveres strictly in propriety and in devotion to you. That is how I saw the blessed pride of Janaka, practising severe austerity out of devotion to you, you bull of a man. She told me something by which you would recognize her identity, an event involving a crow that took place on Citrakūṭa in your presence, astute Rāghava. "Son of the Wind," said Jānakī to me, "you should tell that tiger of a man Rāma all that you have seen here without exception. And as you are speaking with Sugrīva listening, you should give him this: I have guarded it carefully. It's my majestic hair-jewel that I've guarded with great care for your sake. And remember the realgar _tilaka_ ," she said. "I'll have this majestic pearl brought back to you. Gazing at it in my troubles makes me rejoice as if I were looking at you, blameless man. Son of Daśaratha, I will cling to life for a month, but more than a month I cannot survive in the power
of the _rāksasas_." That's what Sītā told me, her body wasted and her doe-like eyes staring from her imprisonment in Rāva a's private quarters; but she is persevering in her duty. Now that I've given you a full account, Rāghava, you should work out some means of crossing the ocean depths.'
At Hanumān's words Rāma son of Daśaratha pressed the [64.1–2] jewel to his heart and wept, along with Lak ma a; the sight of that magnificent jewel filled his eyes with tears. Wasted by grief, the Rāghava spoke to Sugrīva:
'I'm like a cow overflowing from maternal love for her calf; [64.3–7] the sight of this peerless pearl is making my heart do the same. This peerless pearl was given to Vaidehī by my father-in-law at the time of our marriage, its lustre enhanced by being pinned on her head. This gem of a pearl is her most treasured heirloom, presented by wise Sakra as a mark of his gratification at a sacrifice. The sight of this magnificent jewel makes me think I can see before me my father, and the lord of Videha too, my friend. This is the jewel that adorns my darling's head. Seeing it here and now almost makes me believe I've got her back.
'Good sir, tell me again and again what Sītā Vaidehī said! [64.8–15] Shower me with a stream of words, like water to revive my fainting spirit! But Saumitri, what could give me greater pain than the return of this gem of a pearl without Vaidehī? Vaidehī can cling to life for a month: what a long time! My friend, I feel I can't live for another moment without my dark-eyed lady. Do show me the way to where you found my beloved! I can't stand idle for an instant now I've heard your news. How is my shapely lady bearing up among the savage _rāksasas_? They'll terrify her, she's so very timid! She must be like the clouded autumn moon when it's only just becoming visible: her face won't be radiant in the midst of those _rāksasas_. What did Sītā say, Hanumān? Tell me the truth. That's what will keep me alive, like medicine for a sick man. What did my shapely beauty say? What sweet words could my sweet wife utter, snatched away from me? Tell me, Hanumān!'
Such were the words of the noble Rāghava. Hanumān [65.1–7] reported to the Rāghava everything that Sītā had said. 'Queen Jānakī told me in detail about something that happened once on Citrakūta that you would remember, you bull of a man. You'd been sleeping contentedly together. Jānakī was the first to get up. Suddenly a crow swooped down and clawed her between her breasts. Later, you elder brother of Bharata, you were asleep on the queen's lap when, so says the queen, the bird again startled her, flew back and again clawed her – badly, she says, so that you were woken up by a trickle of her blood. The queen says she woke you up from your contented sleep to find her being repeatedly molested by a crow, you who can burn up your enemies! When you saw her clawed between her breasts you hissed like an enraged poisonous snake and asked:
[65.8] ' "What has clawed you between your breasts, my timid wife? Who is playing with an enraged snake, its mouth agape?"
[65.9–17] 'You looked round and at once spotted the crow standing in front of her with blood on its sharp claws. This crow, she says, was a splendid bird, a son of Sakra, swifly ranging over the earth with the speed of the wind. Your eyes rolled with rage, then, mighty warrior, in your great wisdom you passed a savage sentence on the crow. You plucked a blade of _kuśa_ grass from your couch and infused it with the Brahmā-missile. It blazed like the Doomsday Fire, and flared up towards the bird as you hurled the blazing _kuśa_ blade at the crow. That blazing _kuśa_ pursued the crow as, abandoned by its father and all the gods and great sages, it sped through the three worlds finding no one to save it. It sought your protection and fell to the ground, Kākutstha. You took pity and gave it your protection, saving it from the death it deserved; you were aware that a missile may not be fired to no purpose, Rāghava, so it put out the crow's right eye. The crow paid homage to you, Rāma, and to King Daśaratha; you then released it and it went back home.
[65.18–23] ' "You", she says, "are the foremost expert in missiles, and you are powerful and upright, so why don't you use missiles on the _rāksasas_ , Rāghava? Not _nāgas_ nor _gandharvas_ either, not anti-gods nor _marut_ hordes are able to confront you, Rāma, and withstand you. You're a warrior; if you're at all concerned about me you'll kill Rāva a in battle at once with well-whetted arrows. Again, Laksmana's a champion who can exterminate his enemies: Rāghava, why doesn't he act on his brother's command and save me? Those two tigers of men are both as splendid as Wind and Fire, invincible even to the gods; why are they neglecting me? I must have committed some grave offence for that pair to ignore me when they have the power to exterminate their enemies."
'When I heard the pitiful words Vaidehī was sobbing out to [65.24–9] me, I answered the noble lady: "My lady, Rāma hides his face out of grief over you, I swear it by the truth; and Rāma is so overwhelmed by his pain that it distresses Laksmana too. But one way and another I've found your ladyship; now is not the time to grieve! This moment shall mark the end of your sorrows, lovely lady. Those two princes, both of them tigers of men and slayers of enemies, are determined to find you. They'll reduce La kā to cinders. The mighty Rāghava will kill ferocious Rāva a and his family in battle and take you back to his own city, that's certain. But if you could give me something Rāma would recognize that would cheer him up, please let me have it."
'She looked round in every direction, mighty prince, then [65.30–32] fetched this superb hairpin out of her clothing and gave the jewel to me. For your sake, Raghu chief, I took the divine jewel, then bowed my head low to her to hurry off back. As I increased my size and she saw that I was resolved to leave, Janaka's fair-skinned daughter's face filled with tears; her sobs choked her in her misery as she begged:
' "Hanumān, those two lionlike princes, Rāma and [65.33–4] Laksmana, and Sugrīva and his ministers too, wish them all well from me; but then do please devise some way that the mighty Rāghava can rescue me from the sea of the sorrow of my captivity."
'Then the queen honoured me with further instructions, agitated [66.1–15] by her love for you, you tiger of a man, and concern for me. "You should suggest all sorts of ways to Rāma Dāśarathi that he can fight and kill Rāva a and get me back quickly. Or stay here another day if you think you should, you heroic foe-crusher. You can rest in some hideaway, and leave tomorrow. And your presence in my unhappy lot, _vānara_ , would give me a moment's respite from my burgeoning sorrow. When you've gone, valiant ape, even though you'll be coming back again, I'm not sure I can survive – really not sure. Not being able to see you would grieve and torment me even more; sorrow would beget overwhelming sorrow, I'm so worn out, so beset by sorrow. And I'm still assailed by one doubt, heroic monkey, a very big one, that's certain, and it's this: what about the apes and bears, your comrades? How will those armies of apes and bears – how even will the excellent king's two sons – ever get over the ocean? It's so hard to cross! Only three creatures would be able to leap this ocean: Vinatā's son, Vāyu or you, blameless monkey; so tell me what plan you can devise to achieve such a difficult objective – you're such an expert tactician, heroic monkey! Granted, you slayer of warlike foes, you could accomplish this task on your own, and your might would become legendary as a result, but it would bring glory on Rāma if he and the army he's mustered were to fight and kill Rāva a and take me in triumph back to his own city. The Rāghava should not be like that cowardly _rāk asa_ who snatched me away from that hero in the forest by deceit. Kākutstha should make La kā swarm with his troops, he should crush the hostile troops and then he should release me. That would befit him! It's for you to devise some means for the noble warrior-hero to display his valour."
[66.16–28] 'When I heard her calculated, courteous, well-reasoned words I then made a further reply. "My lady, the monkey chief Sugrīva, commander of the hosts of apes and bears, has espoused your cause with integrity and determination. Under his command lie courageous apes of power and integrity, swift as thought; upwards, downwards, sideways, nothing can impede their progress. Limitless is their might, and they do not shrink from great deeds. Many a time have these well-endowed, powerful _vānaras_ flown around the whole earth, following in the wake of the wind. The forest-dwellers there are either my superiors or my equals: there is no one inferior to me in Sugrīva's presence. If I can reach here, how much more will those mighty ones manage? Envoys are chosen not from the best people, but from the remainder. So give up your anguish, my lady, and dispel your distress. Those ape chiefs will make it to Lanka with a single bound. Like the sun and moon rising the two lions of men will come to you riding on my back, blessed lady. At La kā's gate soon will you see that enemy-slayer, the lionlike Rāghava, and Lak ma a wielding his bow. Soon will you see mustering the heroic _vānaras_ who fight with claws and teeth, like tusker chiefs, brave as any lion or tiger. Before long will you hear the din of monkey chiefs rumbling like mountain clouds on the slopes of La kā's Malaya. And soon will you see the Rāghava, triumphant over his enemies, his forest-life at an end, consecrated in Ayodhyā, together with you." '
# WAR
[6,1.1–15] Rāma was filled with joy to hear Hanumān's well-phrased words and replied: 'Hanumān has completed a momentous mission, hard to accomplish on earth; no one else in the world could even contemplate performing such a thing. Other than Hanumān I can see no one who could cross the ocean, apart from Garu a and Vāyu. La kā city is well guarded by Rāva a, and even gods, _dānavas_ and _yak as, gandharvas, nāgas_ and _rāk asas_ would not be able to take it; if anyone were bold enough to get in, who would get out alive? Who could penetrate the _rāk asa_ defences of that unassailable place unless he had power and courage to equal Hanumān? Hanumān has done Sugrīva a great service, using his innate might and equally great valour. A servant who performs with zeal a difficult task assigned him by his master achieves acclaim, but a servant employed by a king who does not apply all the diligence at his command to perform an assignment is reckoned worthless. Hanumān has performed the task allotted to him without becoming distracted, and that has pleased Sugrīva. His devotion to duty in discovering Vaidehī has today rescued the race of Raghu – myself and mighty Laksmana especially. But it increases my grief, wretch that I am, that I am unable to make a fitting recompense to this bearer of good news: I have reached such a state that all I have left to give to this noble is this embrace. The search for Sītā has gone well up to now, it's true, but my heart fails again when I think about the ocean. How will the troops of apes ever get over to the southern shore of the sea? Its mighty billows are so hard to cross! I may have received good news about Vaidehī, but what about getting the apes to the other side of the sea?'
With this response to Hanumān, Rāma the mighty destroyer [1.16] of his foes, distraught with grief, became lost in thought.
As Daśaratha's son Rāma lamented his woes, majestic [2.1–21] Sugrīva spoke to dispel his sorrow. 'Why are you distressing yourself, heroic prince, just like any ordinary person? You shouldn't behave like this. Drop your distress, like an ungrateful man would a friend. I can't see any reason for you to be distressed, Rāghava, now you've received the news and know where your enemy is lurking. You are resolute, erudite, intelligent and learned, Rāghava. Get rid of this wrong-headed way of thinking, like a self-controlled man would a mere gold-digger! We will leap the crocodile-infested sea! We will scale Lanka! We will kill your enemy! If a man is indecisive, despairing and bowed down by grief, his plans come to nothing and he meets with disaster. We ape chiefs are all heroic and capable; we are resolute enough even to walk through fire to help you. I am delighted to know them and I have absolute confidence that my valour will enable me to kill your enemy and rescue Sītā. Rāghava, you should organize the construction of a causeway to give us a sight of the _rāksasa_ king's city; once we've seen La kā city perched on the top of Trikūta you can consider Rāva a killed in battle from the mere sight. As soon as a causeway's been constructed in the sea leading to La kā and all the army has crossed over, you can consider him as good as defeated. These shape-changing apes are heroic fighters, your majesty, so you can banish all indecision from your mind – it would wreck all your objectives. Grieving robs a man of heroism in this world. The present task calls for boldness in the execution: be sensible and pluck up your courage with vigour. Grieving leads to defeat or death, and wrecks all the objectives of noble human heroes like you. You are highly intelligent, you are erudite on all subjects and you have allies like me; it's for you to defeat your enemy. Rāghava, I can't see anyone in the three worlds who could withstand you and your bow in a battle. Your mission will not fail if you entrust it to the _vānaras_ :
soon will you cross the everlasting sea and behold Sītā. Stop wallowing in grief. You are Lord of the Earth: rely on rage! A wrathful warrior strikes terror into weak and feeble ones. You have come to us to help you cross the fearsome sea, the rivers' lord. You've got a good brain: use it! These shape-changing apes, these heroic fighters, will quell the foes with showers of rocks and trees. We must prepare to face Varuna's abode somehow or other. What's the point of carrying on talking? My lord, complete victory will be yours!'
[3.1–5] Kākutstha listened to Sugrīva's speech and accepted its cogency like the skilled strategist that he was, then addressed Hanumān. 'Whether I exert myself to build a causeway or I dry up the ocean, I shall be well able to get across that ocean somehow. How many fortresses are there on well-fortified La kā? Tell me. I want to know everything as if with my own eyes, _vānara_ : size of the garrison, how the gates have been fortified, what defensive works there are on La kā, the _rāksasas_ ' domestic buildings. You've reconnoitred La kā: in your own time make an accurate and realistic report, utilizing all your skill.'
[3.6–32] At Rāma's words Hanumān Son of the Wind, that excellent speaker, replied to Rāma, 'Listen while I give a detailed report on the disposition of the fortification works: how La kā city is defended and how it is protected by its garrison; La kā's great prosperity and the perils of the ocean; the distribution of the forces flooding everywhere, and the numbers and types of vehicles. La kā is contented and joyful, extensive and thronged with rutting elephants; it's filled with chariots and teeming with hordes of _rāk asas_. It has four gateways, wide and huge; the gates are firmly attached and fitted with massive bolts. On the ramparts are enormous, powerful engines for fighting off an enemy invasion. Dreadful murderous iron-spiked contrivances stand ready beside the gates, built by the _rāk asa_ hordes. The great golden rampart is proof against attack and is studded on the inside with jewels, coral, beryl and pearls. All around are dreadful welcoming moats of cold unfathomed water replete with crocodiles and fish. They are crossed at the gateways by four lengthy bridges with many huge engines of war firmly
embedded there; these engines protect the bridges against the arrival of a hostile army, scattering them into the surrounding moats. One bridge, Rāma, strongly built to be indestructible, is adorned with many a golden pillar and dais where Rāva a can stand, bellicose, vigilant and surrounded by the trappings of power, to review his troops. La kā city is self-sufficient and fearsome: not even the gods can reach it by any of the four means of access – rivers, mountains, forest or constructed. It stands, Rāghava, on the further shore of the wide ocean, without even access by boat through the uncharted waters. This impregnable city has been built on a mountain-top; with its teeming steeds and tuskers it rivals the city of the gods. La kā will be extremely hard to conquer. Furthermore, evil Rāva a's city of La kā is adorned with beams and catapults and siege engines of all types. Ten thousand _rāk asas_ are drawn up at the western gate; all are armed with pikes, all are indomitable, all are champion swordsmen. At the southern gate one hundred
thousand _rāksasas_ are drawn up in a four-square formation; these too are unsurpassed warriors. One million _rāksasas_ are assembled at the eastern gate; all are expert in all weaponry, all bear shields and swords. There are ten million _rāksasas_ drawn up at the northern gate, warriors on chariots, warriors on horses, well born, well respected. But at the central keep are drawn up one hundred times one hundred thousand invincible fiends and whole crores of _rāksasas_. I have smashed the bridges, emptied the moats, burned La kā city and demolished the ramparts, so by whatever route we cross Varuna's abode we _vānaras_ can consider La kā city as good as destroyed. A gada, Dvivida, Mainda, Jāmbavān, Panasa, Nala, Nīla the commander too – do you need me to mention the rest of the army? – they will leap over to Rāva a's great city with its ramparts and houses; they will bring back Maithilī. You should quickly order the whole force to muster for this purpose, and when you are satisfied that the moment is right, dispatch it.'
In La kā the lord of the _rāk asas_ addressed all the _rāk asas_, [6.1–18] his head bowed a little from shame at the sight of the dreadful, terrifying deed performed by noble Hanumān as if he'd been
Śakra. 'Not only has La kā, my impregnable fortress, been slighted and penetrated by this mere _vānara_ , but Sītā Jānakī has been discovered. The palace has been slighted, the sacred tree too, leading _rāk asas_ have been killed and the whole city of La kā has been fouled by Hanumān. What am I to do, good sirs? What is the immediate need? Advise me as to the best and most practical action. Wise statesmen declare victory to be rooted in strategy. That's why I am seeking your advice, mighty _rāk asas_, with regard to Rāma. There are three sorts of people in the world: high-, low- and medium-rated, all with their merits and faults, as I shall state. One who determines policy in consultation with well-disposed, capable advisers, with allies too, or with affectionate relations as well, then embarks on a course of action and exerts himself in accordance with his fate, he is highly rated. The one who considers a matter alone, makes up his mind on its merit alone, and performs the deeds alone, he is middle-rated. But one who undertakes a deed without determining the merits and demerits and without regard to his fate, just thinking "I'll do it", he is rated lowest of all. Just as there are always these three categories – highest, lowest and middle – so too advice can be rated high, low or medium. What
is rated the best advice is produced when counsellors have reached a consensus and are satisfied that it is in line with the prescriptions of the ritual texts. Where counsellors are swayed by many opinions before again reaching a consensus in determining a matter, their advice is traditionally rated medium. Where each remains adamant and completely rejects other opinions, and no viable consensus can be reached, that is rated the worst advice. So you, my lords, who are excellent counsellors, you must deliberate well and advise me plainly what is the most beneficial course of action for me to follow. Rāma is approaching La kā city surrounded by thousands of _vānara_ warriors to lay siege to us. It's perfectly clear that the Rāghava will cross the sea easily with his characteristic energy, together with his younger brother and a supporting force. Give me advice about the best course of action for my city and army when he arrives with the _vānaras_ to carry out his intention of besieging us.'
Thus addressed by the lord of the _rāksasas_ , those powerful [7.1–16] _rāksasas_ all answered the _rāksasa_ lord Rāvana with deference. 'Your majesty, our army is huge and abundantly equipped with maces, spears, lances, pikes and javelins. What reason is there for your lordship to experience despondency? You caused devastation and vanquished Vaiśrava a even though he was dwelling on Kailāsa's peak surrounded by numerous _yak as_. That powerful Protector of the World, priding himself though he did on his comradeship with the Great God, was defeated in furious combat by you, your lordship; when you had stemmed the tide of _yaksas_ , struck them down and routed them, you brought this chariot back from Kailāsa's peak. Out of fear of you, and anxious for an alliance with you, bull of a _rāksasa_ , the _dānava_ lord Maya gave you his daughter for a wife. The _dānava_ lord Madhu, Kumbhīnasī's darling, puffed up with courage and unassailable though he was, was fought and conquered by you. _Nāgas_ have been defeated by you, mighty lord, after they fled to Rasātala: Vāsuki, Taksaka, Sa kha and Jatin have been brought under your sway. For a year, mighty lord, despite their trust in a boon, you battled against those unassailable powerful heroes, the _dānavas_. Whether they relied on their own power or resorted to magic, crowds of them were brought under your sway, foe-crushing overlord of the _rāksasas_. In your might, you fought and defeated Varuna's sons, heroic and powerful though they were, and supported by an entire army. Yama's army is like the sea, with Death's sceptre for the sharks and islands of silk-cotton trees for adornment, yet you dived in and gained a famous victory that fettered Death, delighting all the worlds by your well-fought fight. The earth was crowded with heroic _ksatriyas_ – forests of them – each rivalling Sakra in valour, but you have battered and killed them, your majesty; they were very difficult to defeat, but the Rāghava exerting all the prowess at his command is no match for them in combat. Your majesty, the havoc wrought by this low wretch is beneath your notice; you really should banish it from your heart. You're the one to kill the Rāghava.'
Then Prahasta, a _rāksasa_ dark as a thundercloud and a heroic [8.1–5] general, saluted and spoke: 'If gods, _dānavas, gandharvas_ , _piścas_ , birds and serpents are impotent, what can _vānaras_ do in a battle? It's because we were confident and complacent that Hanumān deceived us all, or that forest-wanderer would not have left here living as long as I was alive. I will wipe out _vānaras_ from the whole of the sea-girt earth, mountains, forests and woodland: just give me the order, my lord. I will organize measures to counter that _vānara_ , night-roamer. No harm shall come to you as a result of your crime.'
[8.6–8] Then spoke the _rāksasa_ Durmukha, highly indignant: 'This assault on us all is not to be endured, and more particularly the humiliation of the city and your private apartment: the lord of the _vānaras_ has attacked the majestic lord of the _rāksasas_! Alone will I strike them down, I will repel the _vānaras_ whether they are in the fearsome ocean, or the sky, or even Rasātala.'
[8.9–11] Then Vajradamstra, furious and mighty, picked up his horrific mace, stained with flesh and blood, and spoke: 'Why bother with this miserable wretch Hanumān, when we are confronted by formidable Rāma, with Sugrīva and Laksmana too? Today will I alone kill Rāma with my mace, Sugrīva and Laksmana too, rout the army of apes, and return.'
[8.12–13] Then Kumbhakarna's heroic son, the warrior Nikumbha, in great fury addressed Rāva a who makes the worlds roar: 'You my lords can stay here clustered round the Mahārāja. I will be the one to kill the Rāghava and Laksmana on my own.'
[8.14–16] Then spoke up a mountainous _rāksasa_ called Vajrahanu, again and again licking his lips with his tongue in his anger: 'Your lordships can go about your business as you please without anxiety. I'm the one who will, on my own, gobble up all the leaders of this army of apes. On my own will I kill Sugrīva and Laksmana, Hanumān and A gada too, and that battle-elephant of a Rāma.'
[9.1–6] Then Nikumbha, Rabhasa, powerful Sūryaśatru, Suptaghna and Yajñakopa, Mahāpārśva, Mahodara and formidable Agniketu, the _rāksasa_ Raśmiketu, splendid Indrajit – Rāvana's mighty son – also Prahasta, Virūpāksa, powerful Vajradamstra, Dhūmrāk a too and Atikāya and even the _rāksasa_ Durmukha seized maces, javelins, darts, spears, pikes, battleaxes, bows and arrows and long, sharp swords and sprang up. All these furious _rāksasas_ seemed to blaze with splendour as they assured Rāva a, 'Today will we slaughter Rāma and Sugrīva, Laksmana too, and that wretch that violated La kā, Hanumān.'
Vibhīsa a restrained all those belligerents and made them [9.7–20] resume their seats, then saluted respectfully and made a speech. 'Sir, authorities have laid down the appropriate occasions for the use of force when someone cannot achieve his objective by any of the three regular means. Force will succeed, sir, against one who is unwary, preoccupied or struck down by Fate, if it is employed in a proper manner and with circumspection. But how can you think of attacking one who is on the alert, avid for victory, supported by an army, imperturbable and indomitable? Who could conceive that Hanumān would leap the dreadful sea, lord of rivers and streams, to perform an almost impossible deed? Night-roamers, those forces are immeasurable and heroic; hasty contempt for such opponents is utterly inexpedient. As for the offence formerly committed against the king of the _rāksasas_ by Rāma, occasioning the abduction of his illustrious wife from Janasthāna: if Khara could be overcome and struck down by Rāma in battle, then it behoves those who remain alive to safeguard their lives to their utmost ability. For that reason Vaidehī poses a great threat to us. She has been abducted, she should be released. There is no advantage in pursuing this dispute. There is no point in us pursuing senseless hostility against this righteous hero. Let Maithilī be returned to him. Before his arrows tear apart the city with its elephants, with its horses, with its multitudes of gems, let Maithilī be returned to him. Before the ferocious, huge, formidable ape army storms our La kā, let Sītā be given back. If the wife Rāma dotes on is not yielded voluntarily, La kā city and all the _rāksasa_ heroes will perish. I entreat you as your brother: follow my advice. I'm speaking to your advantage and for your own good: let Maithilī be returned to him.'
Destiny drove Rāva a to reply harshly to Vibhī a a's sound, [10.1–11] well-reasoned advice. 'One should set up home with a rival or an angry poisonous snake sooner than live with one who professes friendship while serving the enemy. I know the ways of relations in all the worlds, _rāksasa_ : relations always glory in the misfortunes of their relations. If the head of a family is an effective, learned and law-abiding hero, _rāksasa_ , his relations disdain and despise him. Relations are to be feared for constantly gloating over each other's troubles and dreaded for their murderous hypocrisy. There's a proverb once current among the elephants of the Padmavana, verses they sang when they spied men with nooses in their hands; listen while I recite them. "Not fire, not weapons, not nooses can terrify us; it is ferocious relations intent on their own interests that terrify us. It is they who are certain to betray the method of capturing us." We all know that of all the perils there are, the peril from members of our own family is the worst. We look for choice food to cows, for restraint to brāhmans, for fickleness to women, for danger to relations. That is why, dear brother, you are envious of my position in the world, that I was born to be sovereign and have triumphed over my enemies. Anyone else who spoke like that, night-roamer, would meet his end that very moment. You disgrace our family! Shame on you!'
[10.12–13] At that harsh reply to his apt advice, Vibhī a a sprang up, mace in hand, joined by four _rāksasas_. Out of the sky glorious Vibhīsa a spoke in fury to his brother, the _rāksasas_ ' overlord.
[10.14–20] 'Your majesty, you are my brother: you may say what you wish to me, but I will not put up with these cruel lies of yours. Ten-faced king, only undisciplined people in the grip of Time will not accept prudent advice from a well-wisher. Your majesty, yes-men are ten a penny; one who'll tell you, for your own good, what you don't want to hear is one in a million. It's not my desire to witness you, bound in Time's inexorable noose, perish like a blazing hut. It's not my wish to see you slain by Rāma with sharp, gilded arrows like blazing fires. However powerful a warrior may be, however skilled in weaponry, when Time overtakes him on the battlefield he'll collapse like an embankment made of sand. Use any means at your disposal to defend yourself, the city and the _rāksasas_. I wish you well! I'm going. Be happy without me.'
[11.1–5] After these harsh words to Rāva a, Rāva a's junior fled in an instant to the place where Rāma and Laksmana had arrived. From the ground the _vānara_ lords spied him in the sky like mount Meru and brilliant as flashing lightning. When Sugrīva lord of the _vānaras_ and the other indomitable _vānaras_ saw him and his four companions, he wisely reflected, and after a moment's thought told all the _vānaras_ and Hanumān their leader his conclusion: 'Look, there's a fully-armed _rāksasa_ , with four other _rāksasas_! They're coming to kill us, that's certain!'
When the leading _vānaras_ heard Sugrīva's words they all [11.6–7] grasped _sāls_ and rocks, crying, 'Your majesty, give the command at once for us to slay these villains! We'll batter them and lay them lifeless on the ground.'
During this exchange Vibhī a a reached the northern shore [11.8–9] and halted in the sky. From his station in the sky Vibhī a a, great and very wise, saw Sugrīva and the rest and called out to them in a loud voice:
'The wicked _rāksasa_ Rāvana is lord of the _rāksasas_. I am his [11.10–15] younger brother. My name is Vibhī a a. He killed Jatāyus and carried off Sītā from Janasthāna; she is imprisoned against her will, miserable and closely guarded by _rāksasīs_. Again and again I gave him this advice, supported by reasons and any number of arguments: "Very well, have Sītā returned to Rāma." But as if it had been medicine to the perverse, Rāva a refused this salutary advice; he was in the grip of Time. He abused me roundly and scorned me like a slave, so I have abandoned my sons and my wives too, and come to seek asylum with the Rāghava. Announce me quickly to the noble Rāghava, the whole world's refuge; tell him Vibhī a a has arrived.'
Hearing those words enraged the volatile Sugrīva and in [11.16–20] front of Lak mana he told Rāma, 'My lord, Rāva a's younger brother, named Vibhī a a, with four other _rāksasas_ , is seek-ing asylum with you. It's Rāva a who's dispatched him, this Vibhī ana, you can be sure. You're the best person to judge what's proper, but I think the proper thing to do is to arrest him. This _rāksasa_ is designing and sly: he has come to abuse your confidence, Rāghava, and attack you covertly with his cunning. You should have him and his companions suffer condign punishment. This is Vibhī ana, this is savage Rāva a's brother: execute him.'
[11.21–2] With these furious words to well-spoken Rāma the outspoken commander-in-chief fell silent, but on hearing Sugrīva's opinion the mighty Rāma declared to the apes led by Hanumān standing alongside:
[11.23–4] 'You have heard, my lords, the cogent arguments about Rāva a's younger brother advanced by the king of the monkeys: but in distressing matters it is proper to consult any upright, wise and capable comrade with one's interests constantly at heart.'
[11.25–8] Each was eager to help, and at this invitation each gave Rāma his own unstinted, courteous advice. 'There is nothing in the three worlds that you do not know, Rāghava. It redounds to your credit that you should value our friendship enough to ask us, for you are a hero of unfailing integrity, righteous, steadfast, circumspect, heedful yet prepared to trust your comrades. Let all your companions therefore individually, one by one, present their considered, practical opinions, rationally reached.'
[11.29–33] A gada was the first to respond to the invitation; the proposal the astute ape addressed to the Rāghava was that Vibhī a a be investigated. 'His arrival from your enemy's presence inevitably gives rise to suspicion; we should not rush to put our trust in Vibhī a a. Sly-minded people conceal their true nature, prowling around and attacking through any chink in the defences. He might turn out to be a heavy liability. We must weigh up the factors on both sides before coming to a conclusion about him: if found worthy he should make a compact with us, if unworthy he should be sent packing. If the disadvantages are great we should have no hesitation in rejecting him, but if many benefits become apparent we should conclude a compact, your majesty.'
[11.34–5] Sarabha had been thinking hard, and his suggestion was to the point. 'Tiger of a man, you should immediately assign someone to spy on him. When an intelligent spy has been assigned to investigate him in proper fashion we can reach a verdict in due form.'
Jāmbavān was cautious; he pondered the teachings of the [11.36–7] _śāstras_ and made his views known in clear and unambiguous terms: 'Vibhī a a has arrived inopportunely. He has come from the lord of the _rāksasas_ , our evil, sworn enemy. Everything about him arouses suspicion.'
Mainda was experienced in discriminating between good [11.38–40] courses of action and bad; his thoughtful response was well expressed and more judicious: 'Vibhīsa a is indeed Rāva a's brother. Lord of champions, you should have him interrogated gently and patiently, then when you've established his character, bull of a man, you'll be able to make a judgement about whether he is driven by vice or virtue.'
The advice proffered by Hanumān, that erudite leading minister, [11.41–7] was mild, apt, sweet and agreeable. 'B haspati himself is not a more excellent speaker than you, my lord: your advice is perfect, you are practical, your expression is faultless. Your majesty, I shall speak not for the sake of speaking, not out of rivalry or a sense of superiority, not to please myself, Rāma, but because the gravity of the situation demands it. In your ministers' advice, both for and against, I detect a problem, for their proposals are inappropriate. We cannot determine his ability without setting him some task, but I deem the immediate imposition of a task to be unsound. Your ministers' advice as to the suitability of dispatching spies is also inappropriate: the proposal has no purpose. You were told, "Vibhīsa a has arrived inopportunely"; that topic I wish to address. Listen while I present my opinion.
'His arrival here is most opportune. Shifting one's loyalty [11.48–59] from one person to another can either be a vice or indeed a virtue. You should at once turn his earnest enterprise to your advantage. He has witnessed your endeavour and Rāva a's sin; he has heard about the killing of Vālin and consecration of Sugrīva; and he wants the kingship. That is his chief reason for coming here, and if due weight is attached to it, then a compact with him becomes appropriate. I have spoken to the best of my ability in support of the _rāksasa's_ honesty, but it is for you to evaluate all you have heard, for your wisdom is supreme.'
[12.1–3] Indomitable Rāma listened calmly to the words of the judicious Son of the Wind and responded to his advice. 'I too wish to express my opinion about Vibhīsa a. You are all right-minded, my lords, so I wish you to listen to it all. I would in no way reject anyone, even if he were flawed, who came to me in the way of a friend: the righteous would never condemn such behaviour.'
[12.4–7] When Sugrīva lord of the monkeys heard Rāma's words he was impelled by friendship to answer Kākutstha: 'You know what is right, you jewel in the crown of lords of the world! What is there to be wondered at that you should speak nobly, you who are pure and behave with propriety? I know in my heart that Vibhīsa a is pure; I've examined it from every angle, from what I can infer as well as by using my own judgement. So let him join us at once on equal terms, Rāghava; Vibhīsa a is very perceptive, so let him enter the circle of our advisers.'
[12.8–21] When Rāma had deliberated on what he had heard from Sugrīva, he replied most graciously to the bull of an ape. 'What does it matter whether this night-roamer is utterly lawless or not? He can do me no harm, no not the slightest. Worldwide there are _piśācas, dānavas, yaksas_ and _rāksasas_ , but I could kill them with my fingertip if I wished, lord of the ape armies. It's been handed down that a pigeon honoured an enemy that had sought refuge with it, and offered it its own flesh. If a pigeon could accept as a suppliant the one who had taken its wife, _vānara_ chief, how much more should a man of my calibre? Listen to the homily recited of old by that supreme sage the soothsayer Ka du, son of the sage Kanva; it's highly moral: "Enemy-burner, one should not kill an enemy with hands raised in submission, when he is wretched and begging for mercy and asylum. Humiliated or overweening, a foe seeking asylum from strangers should be protected by the scrupulous, heedless of his own life. Should dread, delusion or desire drive him not to afford him all possible protection, then this crime attracts worldwide condemnation. If he stands idly by, offering no protection while one who has sought asylum from him perishes, all the protector's merit perishes with the victim." That's why it would be so wrong in this case not to extend our protection to those who have sought it; it would debar us from heaven, it would sully our good name, and it would sap our strength and morale. It is much more appropriate for me to carry out Ka du's worthy precept: may the deed be accounted righteous, may it bring renown, may heaven be its reward. I give sanctuary from all creatures to any who surrender and pledge their loyalty to me: that I vow. Bring him here, ape lord; I grant him sanctuary, whether he be Vibhīsa a, Sugrīva, or Rāvana himself.'
Granted immunity by the Rāghava, Rāvana's delighted [13.1–3] younger brother bowed and leapt to earth from the sky along with his loyal followers. Righteous Vibhīsa a and the four _rāksasas_ then fell at Rāma's feet and claimed sanctuary. Vibhī a a's words to Rāma were meritorious and apt, but now exultant too:
'I am Rāva a's younger brother, but he has treated me with [13.4–6] contempt. My lord, I have come to seek sanctuary with you, who grant sanctuary to all. I have renounced La kā, friends and wealth; to you, my lord, I surrender the kingdom, along with my life and welfare. I am willing to aid you wholeheartedly in killing _rāksasas_ and attacking La kā; I am willing to join your army.'
Rāma embraced Vibhīsa a as he was speaking, and happily [13.7–8] said to Laksma a, 'Fetch some water quickly from the sea and consecrate this sagacious Vibhīsa a as king of the _rāksasas_ ; I will grant him my blessing and you will confer honour on him.'
Hearing this, Saumitri carried out Rāma's command and [13.9–10] consecrated Vibhī a a king before the leading _vānaras_ , a demonstration of Rāma's goodwill that at once set the monkeys cheering loudly and crying 'Bravo! Bravo!'
Hanumān and Sugrīva both asked Vibhīsa a, 'How are we [13.11–12] to cross the abode of Varuna, the indomitable sea? By what method can we venture on to the lord of rivers and streams, and speedily transport us all, with the army, over Varuna's abode?'
[13.13–14] Vibhī a a knew the correct way to answer this question. 'A king of the Rāghavas should appeal to the Ocean for support. It was Sagara who excavated this huge expanse of water, so that expanse of water ought to do what his kinsman Rāma needs.'
[13.15–16] It was in the Rāghava's nature to value tradition and he approved of the suggestion made by the shrewd _rāksasa_ Vibhīsa a, but as a formality that splendid expert in due form smiled at Laksma a and at Sugrīva lord of the apes and consulted them.
[13.17–18] 'Laksma a, I like Vibhī a a's suggestion. Tell me whether you like it as well – you and Sugrīva. Sugrīva is always erudite, and you, sir, are a shrewd judge of advice. Reflect on the matter, both of you, then give me your opinions.'
[13.19–22] The reply the heroes Sugrīva and Laksma a both made to this request was seemly. 'Rāghava, you tiger of a man, why should we not agree with the beneficial suggestion Vibhīsa a has just made? Unless a causeway is constructed across this savage sea, Varu a's abode, not even gods, anti-gods or Indra himself could reach Lanka. The hero Vibhī a a's suggestion should be put into practice just as he said. We've taken up enough time. The Sea must be won over.'
[13.23]; [14.1–3] Hearing this, Rāma installed himself on the _kuśa_ grass strewn on the seashore like the fire of sacrifice on the altar. Three nights passed with Rāma sleeping on the _kuśa_ -strewn ground, intent on his observances, but the Sea was slow to show himself to Rāma, even though Rāma invoked him with due devotion. Then the corners of Rāma's eyes grew red with anger at the Sea, and he remarked to Fortune-favoured Laksma a, who was standing by his side:
[14.4–13] 'Lak ma a, just see the arrogance of the dastardly Sea, not appearing when he's invoked! Serenity, patience, uprightness and fair words – the qualities good people exhibit – are interpreted by the unprincipled as weakness. The man the world honours is boastful, corrupt, headstrong, impetuous, lashing out on all sides. It's not peace-making that wins renown, Lak ma a, it's not peace-making that wins glory in this world or victory in battle. This very day, Saumitri, shall you see the watery haunt of crocodiles crammed with writhing crocodiles shot through by my shafts. You shall see me pierce arching fishes, sea-elephants' trunks and serpents' coils. This very day in a great battle my arrows shall dry up the sea with its network of conches and pearl-oysters, fish and crocodiles. Just because I am patient, the haunt of crocodiles dismisses me as impotent. Patience is no use with people like that! Saumitri, bring me my bow, and my venomous snakes of arrows! This very day in my anger I shall daunt even the indomitable sea. Varuna's abode with its teeming waves is bounded only by the shores: my arrows shall force it back from its boundaries.'
At the end of this speech Rāma seized his bow, eyes dilated [14.14–20] in fury, formidable as the blazing Doomsday Fire. The world shuddered at his arrows as he bent back his dreadful bow and loosed a savage broadside like Indra Satakratu with his thunderbolts. Those superlative arrows struck panic into the sea-serpents as they blazed their way into the water with irresistible might, whipping up a great turbulence among its swordfish and crocodiles, and a terrifying howling gale. Suddenly the sea became garlanded with strings of towering conch-and oyster-crammed waves and spume-crested breakers. Mouths blazing, eyes blazing, snakes were in turmoil, _dānavas_ too – heroic though they were – in their Underworld haunt, and the swordfish- and crocodile-infested waves of the King of Rivers swelled in their thousands to rival Vindhya and Mandara.
Then from the depths of the sea, like the sun rising over the [15.1–3] great Meru mountain, Ocean himself arose; serpents blazed fire from their jaws as the Sea itself appeared. Smooth as beryl, adorned with gold, red garlanded, red clad, eyes like lotus petals, Ocean approached; the mighty lord announced himself, then with a deferential gesture spoke to the Rāghava, who was still brandishing his arrows.
'Rāghava my friend, earth, wind, ether, water and light pursue [15.4–10] their ordained path according to their immutable characteristics. My nature is to be fathomless and impossible to traverse: it would be a perversion if I could be forded, or so I believe. Prince, not lust nor greed nor fear would make me hold back my crocodile- and swordfish-infested water, but I will tell you what I will submit to, Rāma: no crocodiles shall attack while the army is crossing. This Nala here is the glorious Son of Viśvakarman; his father has passed on to him a talent for construction, my friend. This _vānara_ is very determined: let him build a causeway across me. Him I will tolerate for his resemblance to his father.' With these words, Ocean disappeared.
[15.10–13] Then Nala stood up, an excellent _vānara_ of great strength, and addressed Rāma. 'In reliance on my father's talent I will build a causeway across Varuna's broad abode. It was the truth the great Sea told you: Viśvakarman did grant my mother a boon on Mandara. I am a true Son of Viśvakarman: I take after him, though I would not proclaim my talents unbidden. I agree that we bulls of _vānaras_ should build a causeway this very day.'
[15.14–24] Then at Rāma's command the joyful ape leaders all around descended in their hundreds and thousands on the great forest, where these _vānaras_ , these mountainous bulls of the monkey hordes, demolished the mountains, dragging them into the ocean. As they hurled the mountains in, the water was convulsed with the violence and whipped up to the sky, then gradually retreated. Across the middle of the lord of rivers and streams Nala built the great causeway ten _yojanas_ broad and a hundred _yojanas_ long; the uproar was tumultuous as the boulders and mountains plummeted into that great sea. The causeway Nala constructed across the crocodile-haunted ocean gleamed full of majestic promise as the path of Svātī across the sky, until gods, _gandharvas, siddhas_ and supreme sages assembled in the sky in their eagerness to gaze upon that wonder. The monkeys leapt and bounded about, cheering at that inconceivable, unbearably astonishing marvel, as creatures of all kinds viewed the causeway constructed across the ocean.
[15.25–31] With great energy the thousands of crores of _vānaras_ built the causeway across the ocean until they reached the further shore of the sea. The grand causeway was wide and well constructed, imposing and well packed with beaten earth; it gleamed like a hair-parting in the ocean. Then Vibhīsa a and his companions took up position on the further shore of the sea, mace in hand, to ward off opposition. Majestic Rāma, bow in hand, with Laksma a alongside, led the army; Sugrīva accompanied the righteous man. Some monkeys marched along the middle, some on the edges, some missed their footing, some fell into the water, some flew through the air like birds. The hullabaloo of the fearsome ape army as it crossed masked the fearsome din arising from the sea. When the _vānara_ army had crossed Nala's causeway and reached a part of the shore well supplied with roots, fruit and water, the king had them set up camp.
Rāma Daśaratha's son and his army now being on his side [16.1–8] of the ocean, majestic Rāva a spoke to two of his ministers, Suka and Sāra a. 'The ocean is proof against passage, but the whole _vānara_ army has crossed it! Rāma has constructed a causeway across the ocean: that's unprecedented! I can't believe a causeway has possibly been constructed across the ocean! In any case, I need to have a count made of this _vānara_ army. My lords, you are to infiltrate the _vānara_ army under cover and ascertain precisely its size and capability, the identity of the leading monkeys and the advisers of Rāma and Sugrīva, the formation of the vanguard and the identity of the monkey champions, the design of the causeway across all the ocean waters and of these _vānara_ nobles' encampment, the determination, valour and weapons possessed by Rāma and by dauntless Laksma a, and the identity of this _vānara_ army's commander. As soon as you've established that with accuracy, you are to return.'
With these instructions the _rāksasas_ Suka and Sāra a disguised [16.9–12] themselves as apes and infiltrated the _vānara_ army, but Suka and Sāra a could not manage to count that tremendous, unimaginable _vānara_ army occupying peaks, caves and defiles, seashores, forests and woodland: whether crossing, already across or still anxious to cross, whether encamped or still in the process of encamping, that enormous host was making a fearful din.
[16.13] Vibhīsa a was smart enough to see through their disguise, took Suka and Sāra a prisoner and reported to Rāma, 'Victor over enemy fortresses, two spies have turned up from La kā.'
[16.14–15] They trembled at the sight of Rāma and lost all hope of life; in their terror they surrendered humbly and confessed, 'Sir, pride of the Raghus, Rāva a sent us both here to gain intelligence about your whole army.'
[16.16–21] Their words amused Daśaratha's son Rāma, who rejoiced in the welfare of all creatures. 'When you've seen the full extent of the army, inspected it thoroughly and completed your task as instructed, you may return without hindrance. Go back to La kā, my lords, and report my exact words to the _rāksasa_ king, Vaiśrava a's junior: "In keeping Sītā captive from me you are relying on your army. You may display that army and your confederates as much as you wish, but tomorrow you will see La kā city – ramparts, gateways and _rāksasa_ army – swiftly desolated by my arrows. Tomorrow, like the wielder of the thunderbolt, Indra Vāsava, launching his thunderbolt against the _dānavas_ , I will unleash my fierce wrath; tomorrow, Rāva a, will you feel its weight." '
[16.22–8] With these instructions the _rāksasas_ Suka and Sārana went back to La kā and reported to the _rāksasa_ overlord. 'We were taken prisoner by Vibhīsa a, _rāksasa_ lord, and taken before boundlessly mighty Rāma; he was entitled to order our execution, but magnanimously he released us. There are four bulls of men there, skilled in weaponry, determined and valiant, like Protectors of the World come together – Rāma Dāśarathi the glorious, Laksma a, Vibhīsa a and Sugrīva the splendid, who rivals great Indra in valour. Even if all the _vānaras_ stood idly by, they would be able to tear up La kā city and overturn it, ramparts, gateways and all. Rāma is of such stature and his weapons so fearsome that he could destroy La kā city on his own, with the other three standing idly by. The army under the care of Rāma and Laksma a, and of Sugrīva too, is proof even against all the gods and anti-gods.'
[17.1–3] Sārana's report was well meant and did not spring from cowardice, but King Rāva a retorted to Sāra a, 'I will not return Sītā, not if gods, _gandharvas_ and _dānavas_ should require me, not from fear of all the world. You sir, you've been terrified by the apes. You've quite lost your nerve, and that's why you recommend returning Sītā. What opponent would ever be able to defeat me in a battle?'
With these harsh words Rāva a the imperious overlord of [17.4–6] the _rāksasas_ then climbed to the top of his snow-white palace, tall as many palmyras; Rāva a was anxious to see for himself. With the pair of spies at his side, Rāva a surveyed sea, mountains and forests, and was beside himself with fury when he saw the whole earth round about swarming with monkeys. King Rāva a gazed at that limitless, untold host of _vānaras_ and asked Sārana:
'Identify the warriors to me. Who are the strongest among [17.7–8] the _vānara_ chiefs? Who are the most intrepid of all, and form the vanguard? Whose advice does Sugrīva follow? Who are the overall commanders? Give me a full report, Sārana! Which are the principal monkeys?'
In answer to the _rāksasa_ lord's demand, Sāra a identified [17.9–12] the chief forest-dwellers as far as he knew them. 'That _vānara_ standing roaring in front of La kā, surrounded by a hundred thousand officers, whose hullabaloo is throbbing through all La kā – ramparts, gateways, mountains, forests and woodland: he stands in the vanguard of noble Sugrīva, lord of all monkeys. This commander is the warrior called Nīla.
'The one with the warlike threatening gesture who is pacing [17.13–18] about on the ground opposite La kā, repeatedly snarling with anger, mountainous but wiry as a lotus filament, continually thumping his tail on the earth in fury as if he would make the ten Directions resound with the noise of that tail: that is A gada. Sugrīva king of the _vānaras_ has consecrated him Young King, and he's challenging you to fight. Those bulls of apes on their feet with sinews stiffened, growling, roaring, snarling with anger, invincible, savage, ferocious, ferociously courageous – eight hundred thousand and a thousand crores of them: they are his sandal-painted followers. He boasts of crushing La kā with his own battalion.
'Silvery Sveta with his troop is terrifyingly valiant; that astute [17.19–20] _vānara_ is a hero famed throughout the three worlds. He answered Sugrīva's summons with alacrity, and now the _vānara_ is going around positioning the _vānara_ army and rallying the troops.
[17.21–2] 'There's one who once used to roam the lovely tree-covered mountain called Samkocana on the bank of the Gomatī; he's the ruler there, and he's called Kumuda, the commander of a thousand times a hundred thousand followers.
[17.23–4] 'The one with the long shaggy tail covered with hairs many yards long, copper-coloured, yellow, cream and white: he does terrible deeds, and he's exultant in his anger. He is Can a, and he's spoiling for a fight; he boasts of crushing La kā with his own battalion.
[17.25–7] 'The one with a long mane like a tawny lion, fixing La kā in his gaze as if he'd like to burn it down with his eye: your majesty, he is hereditary ruler of the dark Vindhya mountain and goodly mount Sahya. That commander is called Rambha. Thirty hundred thousand ape officers cluster around him, following him to crush La kā with their might.
[17.28–30] 'Then there's one who's pricking up his ears and always snarling: he doesn't shrink from death or retreat from the foe; his strength is great and he's banished fear. Your majesty, that is the hereditary ruler of lovely mount Sālveya; that mighty commander is called Sarabha, your majesty, and as his mighty lieutenants he leads forty hundred thousand rovers.
[17.31–4] 'There's one standing out among the _vānara_ warriors like Indra Vāsava among the gods; he's like a great cloud blotting out the sky and he's making a terrible din like the drums of monkey lords spoiling for a fight: that's the commander called Panasa; he can never be conquered, and his territory is matchless mount Pāriyātra. At his command that excellent commander has fifty hundred thousand lieutenants with troops in proportion.
[17.35–6] 'Then that ornament of the dread army bounding along the seashore, himself brilliant as a second sea: that commander is called Vinata; he's as mountainous as Dardara, and he drinks from the beautiful river Parnāśā.
[17.37] 'Krathana, leader of a troop of sixty hundred thousand monkeys, is challenging you to battle.
'And that _vānara_ showing off his realgar-coloured coat: he's [17.38–40] called glorious Gavaya, and he's hurling angry defiance at you, backed by seventy hundred thousand. He boasts of crushing La kā with his own battalion. Those are the commanders – the outstanding commanders: they are invincible, ferocious and mighty, they can change shape at will, and they are beyond anyone's ability to count.'
When Sāra a had concluded his report to the _rāksasa_ overlord [19.1–7] Rāva a, Suka ran his eye over the whole force and made his own report. 'Look at them standing there like great rutting elephants, like Ga gā banyans, like Himālayan _sāls_! Your majesty, their might is irresistible and they can change shape at will; they are like _daityas_ and _dānavas_ ; in battle-strength they equal the gods. Sugrīva's comrades number nine plus five plus seven thousand crores, and a thousand billion and a hundred trillion in addition, shape-changing apes born of gods and _gandharvas_ , always at his call in Ki kindhā. See the godlike pair of youths standing there: they are Mainda and Dvivida, and both are unequalled in battle; Brahmā allows them to eat ambrosia. They boast of crushing La kā in violent battle.
'The one you can see standing there like a rutting elephant, [19.9–17] who would be capable even of convulsing the sea when his anger is aroused, that is the _vānara_ who gained access to La kā, to Vaidehī, and to you, my lord. You have seen that _vānara_ before; look, he's come back. Renowned Hanumān, Kesarin's eldest son, is celebrated as a Son of the Wind; it was he who leapt the ocean. That shape-changer, that powerful, handsome ape champion, can no more be resisted than the lordly, inexorable Wind. It's said that as a child he watched the sun rise and wanted a drink, so thinking to himself in youthful pride of his strength, "I'll capture the sun; I refuse to die of starvation," he made a journey of three thousand _yojanas_ , but when he still could not reach the god whom even gods, sages and _dānavas_ find it utterly impossible to approach, he fell down again on to the mountain where the sun rises. Tough though the monkey's jaws are, when he fell on the rocky surface one jaw was cracked: that's why he's called Hanumān. I know all about this ape from previous encounters; his power, grandeur and splendour are beyond description. He boasts that he'll crush La kā by his own unaided might.
[19.18–21] 'The swarthy, lotus-eyed hero nearby is the Iksvāku chariot warrior, world renowned for his courage, who upholds morality, who does not transgress what's right, who is well versed in Brahmā's missile and in the Vedas – indeed an expert in the Vedas – who could pierce the sky with his arrows and even split mountains open, who is wrathful as Death, who is valiant as Sakra, and whose wife Sītā was carried off from Janasthāna by you: that is Rāma, your majesty, and he is advancing to do battle with you.
[19.22–5] 'That broad-chested one on his right, brilliant as burnished gold, with copper-coloured eyes and dark curly hair: that is his brother Laksmana. He's dear to him as his own life, proficient in diplomacy and warfare, and skilled in all the ritual texts; impetuous, invincible, victorious, valiant, shrewd and mighty, he's Rāma's right-hand man, ever his second self. He pays no heed to his own life in the service of the Rāghava. He boasts that he will certainly kill all the _rāksasas_ in battle.
[19.26–7] 'There at Rāma's left side, where he has found asylum, surrounded by a troop of _rāksasas_ stands King Vibhī a a, consecrated by his majestic protector to rule La kā. In his fury against you, he is advancing to do battle.
[19.28–33] 'And the one you can see standing in the middle, immovable as a mountain: that is the unconquered master of the lords of all monkeys. By his might, his renown, his wisdom, his knowledge, his birth, he stands out among monkeys like Himālaya among mountains. Kiskindhā, hidden among dense trees, inaccessible among mountain fastnesses, is where he lives together with his principal commanders. His golden garland glistens, bedecked with a hundred lotuses; Laksmī, desire of gods and men alike, resides there. Rāma presented Sugrīva with this garland, with Tārā and with the hereditary kingship over the monkeys after killing Vālin, so, with a thousand crores and a hundred billion, Sugrīva lord of the _vānaras_ is advancing to do battle.'
[20.1–4] The sight of the ape commanders Suka had listed, of his own brother Vibhī a a standing beside Rāma, of Rāma's intrepid right-hand man Laksmana, and of Sugrīva, terrifyingly valiant king of all the _vānaras_ rather perturbed Rāvana; when Suka and Sāra a finished their report he grew angry and furiously berated those stout warriors with cutting words, his voice choking with rage.
'For courtiers to make statements displeasing to their king, [20.5–13] who has power to punish or reward, is not at all in keeping with their dependent status. It is certainly inexpedient for you two to praise hostile enemies in that way when they are advancing to do battle. By not grasping the central tenet of the treatises on kingship that should rule your lives you have been honouring your teachers, instructors and elders in vain. Either that, or you have not taken in and understood the full significance of what you have learned. With stupid courtiers like you to serve me, it's only good luck that keeps me alive! Why aren't you afraid for your lives to speak harsh words to me, whose tongue has the power to decree either good or ill? Trees may survive a forest fire, but blackguards incurring the censure of the king don't survive his retribution. I would kill these two villains for praising the enemy if it weren't that their past record of support inclines my anger to clemency. Out of my sight! Get out! I don't want to kill you. I remember what you've done for me in the past. This pair are dead to me now they've forgotten my favours and turned their backs on me.' Humiliated by his tirade, Suka and Sāra a saluted Rāva a, wished him victory, and slunk away.
Daśagrīva told Mahodara, who was in attendance, to find [20.14–16] him at once some spies expert in strategy. Spies were hastily produced at the king's command; they presented themselves, saluted and acclaimed him with hopes of victory. These spies were reliable, intrepid warriors in whose loyalty Rāva a had confidence, so the _rāksasa_ overlord issued his instructions.
'Go and reconnoitre: what does Rāma intend to do? Who [20.17–19] are his favourites and intimate advisers? How does he sleep, how does he wake? What other plans does he have? When you have thoroughly verified everything, you are to return without delay. When a well-informed sovereign has gained intelligence through espionage, he will overcome his enemy's attack without difficulty.'
[20.20.23]; [21.1–2] The spies were delighted to accept their orders. They circumambulated the _rāksasa_ lord, then went to find Rāma and Laksmana. They went in disguise to mount Suvela, where they saw Rāma and Laksmana, but Vibhī a a the righteous lord of _rāksasas_ saw the _rāksasas_ standing there, surprised them and took them prisoner; they were groaning and dazed when they arrived back in La kā after suffering at the hands of the nimble, valiant _vānaras_. The spies then briefed La kā's overlord about Rāma's encampment on mount Suvela with his dauntless host. This report from the spies of the arrival of Rāma's mighty force rather perturbed Rāva a and he addressed Sārdūla:
[21.3–4] 'You are downcast, night-roamer, and you do not have your accustomed colour: have you perhaps suffered at the hands of our angry enemies?' Nervous and fearful, tigerlike Sārdūla responded feebly to the _rāk asa_ tiger's demand.
[21.5–13] 'Your majesty, it's impossible for you to spy on those bulls of _vānaras_ : they are valiant and mighty, and the Rāghava watches over them. Nor is it possible to open talks with them; there's no question about that. Mountainlike _vānaras_ guard all approach routes. I was identified when I had scarcely penetrated the host, before I had been able to gain any intelligence; I was set upon by numerous assailants and practically torn to shreds. I was kneed, punched, bitten and slapped, and paraded around by the incensed mighty apes; then after I had been paraded everywhere I was taken before Rāma's council, panic-stricken, my senses failing and with all my limbs streaming with blood. The apes were battering me though I begged for mercy, but the Rāghava rescued me and by some chance I've managed to survive. Rāma has filled in the ocean with mountains and rocks, he's reached the gate of La kā, and he's taken up position with his weapons: he's deploying the Garu a formation, flanked on all sides by apes. Now he's released me he's advancing with great power on La kā itself. Quickly, before he reaches the rampart, you must act in one of two ways: either offer to return Sītā with all speed, or mount a stout counter-attack.'
Rāva a overlord of the _rāksasas_ burned with indignation to [21.14–15] hear Sārdūla's recommendation. 'I will not return Sītā, not if gods, _gandharvas_ and _dānavas_ should fight me, not from fear of all the world.'
After this initial reaction, mighty Rāva a went on, 'You sir, [21.16–18] you've observed the army. Which of these monkeys are the leading warriors? What are they like, these indomitable _vānaras_? How effective are they? Whose sons and grandsons are they? Give me an accurate report, _rāksasa_ , then when I know their strengths and weaknesses I will take the offensive. It is imperative to size up the opposition before engaging battle.'
At Rāva a's command that outstanding spy Sārdūla began [21.19–35] laying his report before Rāva a. 'First, your majesty, there is the son of Rksarajas, who will be very hard to defeat in battle; next there is Gadgada's son, the renowned Jāmbavān, whose son devastated the _rāksasas_ single-handed. Then there's Su ena, sir: he's the righteous, heroic Son of Dharma; and Soma's son, your majesty, the monkey Dadhimukha. There's Sumukha and there's Durmukha, and there's the _vānara_ Vegadarśin: he was begotten by Brahmā, definitely Death in the form of a _vānara_. There's General Nala himself, Son of the Sacrificial Fire, and there's the Wind's son, renowned as Hanumān. There's A gada, a dauntless, mighty youth, grandson of Sakra, there's a pair, Mainda and Dvivida, mighty offspring of the A vins, and there are five Sons of Death equal to Time that puts an end to all: Gaja, Gavāksa, Gavaya, Sarabha and Gandhamādana. There are Sveta and Jyotirmukha, Sons of the Sun, and there's Varuna's son, the monkey Hemakūta. There's Viśvakarman's son Nala, a heroic, outstanding monkey, and ten crores of heroic _vānaras_ , glorious sons of gods, thirsting for battle – I can't even begin to list the remainder. And then there's that youth with the brawn of a lion who killed Dū ana, Khara and Triśiras: the son of Daśaratha! He's killed Virādha and Death-like Kabandha. There's no one in the world to equal Rāma in valour. Who on this earth could recite the virtues of
Rāma, who killed so many _rāksasas_ in Janasthāna? Righteous Laksmana too, that bull elephant: not even Indra Vāsava could survive being the target of his arrows. Even the _rāksasa_ champion, your brother Vibhī a a, is there: he's had La kā city conferred on him, and he's devoted himself to furthering the Rāghava's cause. That's all I can tell you about the _vānara_ army encamped on mount Suvela: it's for you, my lord, to direct the consequential action.'
[22.1–3] So the king's spies made their report in La kā about the Rāghava's encampment on mount Suvela with his dauntless host. This report from the spies of the arrival of Rāma's mighty force rather perturbed Rāva a and he addressed his courtiers: 'The counsellors are to assemble at once, _rāksasas_ , for all to deliberate diligently now the time has come for us to make our plans.'
[22.4–7] When they heard his command, the counsellors came running and he discussed the situation with his _rāk asa_ courtiers, at once seeking their advice about the best course of action; then, unbowed, he dismissed the court and entered his private apartments, summoned Vidyujjihva, an expert in powerful magic, and went to Maithilī's quarters. The _rāk asa_ overlord said to the cunning Vidyujjihva:
[22.7–8] 'We will use magic to deceive Sītā Janaka's daughter. Magic me a head of the Rāghava, night-roamer, bring it and a big bow and some arrows, and come with me.'
[22.9–12] The night-roamer Vidyujjihva assented to these instructions, pleasing the king, who presented him with a jewel. Then Vaiśravana's mighty junior went to the _aśoka_ grove and saw the miserable woman suffering such unmerited misery: she was sitting on the ground, head bowed, wrapped up in her grief, her thoughts fixed on her husband, consigned to the _aśoka_ grove and closely surrounded by fearsome _rāk asīs_. He crept up on Sītā, exultantly announced himself and brazenly addressed Janaka's daughter.
[22.13–15] 'Khara's killer, the Rāghava, the husband in whose favour you recoil from my advances, has been killed in battle. I have completely severed your root and humbled your pride. This misfortune of yours, Sītā, will make you become my wife. Worthless, deluded woman, you think you're so clever, but you've lost your purpose in life! Listen, Sītā, while I tell you about your husband's death; it was terrible as the death of Vrtra.
'The Rāghava arrived at the edge of the sea surrounded by [22.16–34] a vast army led by the _vānara_ lord: he was going to kill me! Rāma encamped with his vast army when he reached the sea's southern shore as the sun was setting. The army was fatigued by the march when it arrived and was stood down; at midnight, when it was sleeping securely, spies made an initial reconnaissance, then that army of Rāma's and Laksmana's was destroyed at night by my vast army led by Prahasta. Repeatedly the _rāksasas_ rained down on the _vānaras_ javelins, maces, swords, discuses, great iron bars, skeins of arrows, pikes, gleaming cudgels, staves, lances, darts, discuses and clubs. Then at a stroke Prahasta, broadsword in hand, violently severed Rāma's head as he slept. Vibhī a a jumped up, but was surprised and captured; Laksmana and all the monkeys were scattered in all directions; Sugrīva, overlord of the monkeys, lies with his fine neck broken; Hanumān lies with his jaw smashed, struck down by _rāksasas_. Then Jāmbavān fell to his knees, felled like a tree, killed in the battle, riddled with spears. That pair of _vānara_ bulls, Mainda and Dvivida, died screaming, shrieking and groaning, spattered with blood. Cut in two by a sword, Panasa the foe-crusher crashed to the ground like a _panasa_ tree. Darīmukha is lying in a ditch riddled with bolts, and mighty Kumuda is moaning, cut down by arrows. A gada is a fallen anklet; when the _rāksasas_ reached him, they riddled him with arrows and felled him to the ground spewing blood. Apes have been crushed, some by elephants, some by squadrons of chariots; they have been laid low and shredded like clouds by a boisterous wind. Others have been struck from behind as they fled in panic, _rāksasas_ pursuing them like lions after great elephants. Some have plunged into the ocean, some have taken to the sky, and bears and _vānaras_ alike have climbed into trees. On ocean shores, on mountains, in forests, many are the tawny-eyed apes the hideous-eyed _rāksasas_ have killed. And so your husband and his army have been slain by my army; here, streaming blood and encrusted with dust, is his head.'
[22.35–6] Then Rāva a, invincible lord of the _rāksasas_ , instructed a _rāksasī_ in Sītā's hearing, 'Fetch the savage _rāksasa_ Vidyujjihva, the one who brought the Rāghava's head from the battle.'
[22.37–9] Then, carrying that head and the bow, Vidyujjihva stepped forward and bowed his head to Rāva a, and King Rāva a said to his constant companion as he stood there, Vidyujjihva of the lolling tongue, 'Place the head of Dāśarathi before Sītā at once, so that the wretched woman can clearly see what her husband has come to.'
[22.40–42] On these orders the _rāk asa_ threw down before Sītā the head she loved to look at, and quickly vanished. Rāva a threw down in addition the great gleaming bow famed throughout the three worlds, telling Sītā, 'Here is your Rāma's bow, bowstring and all; Prahasta brought it back during the night after he had killed that mortal.'
[ _Sītā is taken in and mourns, but after Rāvana has left to confer with his advisers a friendly rāksasī called Saramā tells her she has been tricked by magic_.]
[25.1–2] At Saramā's speech the distressed, swooning woman recovered like the earth when watered by the sky. Out of friendship her friend was anxious to comfort her; realizing the time had arrived for a well-timed offer, she smiled and suggested,
[25.3–4] 'Black-eyed lady, I would make bold to go in secret to Rāma myself and give him a message from you to tell him you are well, and then to come back. Not the Wind, not even Garu a can follow my path when I course through the vault of heaven.'
[25.5–11] Sītā replied sweetly to Saramā's offer in a soft voice still faint from her earlier grief. 'You are capable of reaching the heavens or even Rasātala. I know you could achieve the impossible for my sake. If you are determined to do something to please me, I should like you to go after Rāva a and let me know what he is doing, for cruel Rāva a, he who makes his enemies roar, bewilders me with his magic power, the villain, just as if I had drunk alcohol. He has me threatened all the time, he has me menaced repeatedly by the savage _rāk asīs_ perpetually guarding me. I'm in a turmoil of suspicion and I'm not in command of my mind, I've been in such a turmoil of terror about him since I've been in the _aśoka_ grove. If you could bring me a full report of the discussion, or even what they decide, that would do me a very great favour.'
Sītā's plea was met with caresses and a tender reply from [25.12–13] Saramā, her voice choked with sobs: 'If that is what you wish, Jānakī, that is what I'll go and do; I'll be back when I'm in possession of your enemy's intention: you'll see.'
With these words she went off and got close to Rāva a, and [25.14–18] heard what that _rāksasa_ was discussing with his counsellors. When she had heard what the unyielding villain had resolved, she hurried back to the _aśoka_ grove, went in and saw Janaka's daughter watching out for her like Sri with a withered lotus. When tender-hearted Saramā got back, Sītā hugged her with great affection and sat her down. 'Sit down comfortably', she said, 'and tell me in detail all this villain Rāva a's plans.'
As Sītā trembled, Saramā replied with an account of all [25.19–26] the deliberations of Rāva a and his counsellors. 'Vaidehī, the _rāksasa_ lord's mother made a strong plea for your release, supported by the senior counsellor Aviddha: "Do homage to the Lord of Men, and give Maithilī back to him. You've seen the prodigious feat he performed in Janasthāna, and how Hanumān leapt the ocean to see her: that should be enough for you! What other man on earth could have fought and slaughtered those _rāksasas_?" His mother and the senior counsellors persisted in their pleas, but he's as incapable of letting go of you as a miser is of his wealth. He'll not bring himself to let you go till he's been killed in battle, Maithilī: that's the decision of this savage and his ministers. He is obdurate in his determination, so eager is he for death. Fear won't make him release you as long as he's unvanquished in battle: nothing will, short of the total annihilation of the _rāksasas_ , himself included. By whatever means, Rāma will kill Rāva a in battle with his honed arrows and take you back to Ayodhyā, you black-eyed beauty.'
Meanwhile, the earth-shaking din of drums and conches [25.27]; could be heard throughout the armies: that noise of mingled [26.1–4] drums and conches heralded the advance of Rāma, the Rāghava, the mighty conqueror of enemy citadels. Hearing the noise, Rāva a lord of the _rāksasas_ took thought for a moment, then looked at his courtiers; mighty Rāva a then addressed the whole court, his voice resounding throughout the counsel chamber. 'My lords, I've listened to all you've had to say about the crossing of the ocean, about his prowess, and about the huge force Rāma has assembled; but I also know how truly valiant your lordships are in battle.'
[26.5–10] Then a very wise _rāksasa_ called Mālyavān, Rāva a's mother's uncle, responded to his declaration: 'Your majesty, that king who controls his instincts with wisdom and exercises statesmanship long reigns sovereign and triumphs over his enemies. His empire increases by the contracting of alliances, or the waging of war on his enemies, as occasion requires to promote his own interests: a weaker or equal king should contract an alliance – an opponent should not be underrated – but a stronger may make war. Hence, Rāva a, I recommend contracting an alliance with Rāma. Sītā is the object of the operation: let her be restored to him. Gods, sages and _gandharvas_ alike are all desirous of victory for him. Let there be no hostility with him; be pleased to contract an alliance with him.
[26.11–20] 'Now the blessed Grand Father created two opposing parties, gods and anti-gods, supporters respectively of _dharma_ and _adharma_ : the noble gods are recognized as being on the side of _dharma_ , Rāva a, and the _rāksasas_ and anti-gods of _adharma_. When it was the K ta Age, _dharma_ devoured _adharma_ ; now it is Tisya, _adharma_ is devouring _dharma_. By rampaging around the worlds attacking _dharma_ and promoting _adharma_ you've in fact been lending strength to our opponents. That snake _adharma_ has battened on your recklessness till it is we who are being devoured and the cause of the gods that is being advanced; it is tipping the balance in favour of the gods. Self-indulgent and self-willed, you have aroused great trepidation among the fire-pure sages, whose power is as irresistible as a blazing fire. These Twice-Born are intent on promoting _dharma_ by their asceticism and holiness, continually offering every kind of the most excellent sacrifices, together with oblations duly offered into the fires, and with recitation of the Vedas. Vedic chants arose from them when the _rāksasas_ were overcome, scattered in all directions like thunder in the hot season. The smoke rising from the fire-oblations of fire-pure sages pervades the ten Directions and strips _rāksasas_ of their energy, and the fierce asceticism performed in all those holy regions by those who are committed to their vows commits the _rāksasas_ to torment.
'I foresee the destruction of all the _rāksasas_ , so many different [26.21–30] awesome portents have I seen. Dreadful clouds are braying thunder and terrifying all La kā with showers of hot blood. Weeping steeds are shedding tears. Standards have toppled and faded, losing their wonted lustre. Wild beasts, jackals and vultures keep on invading La kā in packs, their horrific shrieking echoed in people's dreams by the mockery of sombre women with white teeth pillaging their homes. In the houses dogs are devouring the _bali_ offerings. Cows are giving birth to donkeys, mongooses to rats. Cats are mating with leopards, boars with bitches, and _kinnaras_ even with _rāksasas_ and men. Pigeons are roaming about, pale, red-footed birds, dispatched by Time to destroy the _rāksasas_. Squabblesome mynahs, caught and tethered, are flying around in the houses screaming " _vīcīkūcī_ ". Time, in the person of a dun-dark, gaping-jawed, hairless monster, is on the prowl, inspecting everyone's house in turn. These and more are the evil omens springing up.'
But the ten-faced villain was in thrall to Time and he would [27.1–2] not accept Mālyavān's beneficial advice. Anger overcame him: his brow contorted into a scowl and his eyes rolled with resentment as he declared to Mālyavān:
'I will not listen to your speech, since you have gone over to [27.3–13] the enemy. You may have meant well, but your words are detrimental and vicious. Rāma has been cast out by his father to live in the forest; he's a miserable mortal who's had to turn to monkeys for aid; what do you think he can do on his own? I am lord of the _rāksasas_ , I strike terror into the gods; in what way do you think me inferior? There is no feat of arms in which I am inferior. I suspect you are envious of my courage or have sided with the enemy and that's why you're berating me; maybe it's the enemy that's put you up to it. What scholar who has studied the treatises in depth would direct harsh words at a well-established potentate, unless an enemy had put him up to it? I've brought Sītā here from the forest, like Srī without her lotus; what fear could make me give her back to the Rāghava? In a few days you shall see me slay the Rāghava – Sugrīva and Laksmana too – surrounded by crores of _vānaras_. Of whom shall that Rāva a be afraid, he against whom not even the gods can withstand a duel? I would be broken in two rather than bow before anyone. This is an innate flaw in my character; there's no changing one's natural disposition. But if against all the odds Rāma has managed to build a causeway across the sea, is it any wonder that fear should grip you? This Rāma may have crossed the sea with the _vānara_ army, but he shall not go back alive, I promise you; and that's the truth.'
[27.14–15] Mālyavān was crestfallen when he realized the rage and fury with which Rāva a spoke, and said not another word; after praising the king with the customary good wishes for victory, Mālyavān took his leave and went to his own quarters.
[27.16–21] Rāva a consulted his ministers and deliberated with them, then the _rāksasa_ took unparalleled steps to improve La kā's security. The _rāksasa_ Prahasta he appointed to the eastern gate and the valiant pair Mahāpārśva and Mahodara to the southern; then to the western gate he appointed his son Indrajit, a powerful magician, surrounded by many _rāksasas_. Appointing Suka and Sāra a to the northern gate of the city, he told the counsellors, 'I'll be there in person.' At the central keep he established with numerous _rāksasas_ Virūpāksa, a _rāksasa_ of great courage and prowess. With this disposition of his forces around La kā the bull of the _rāksasas_ thought his goal was achieved. He was in the grip of Fate.
[28.1–3] The king of men and the king of _vānaras_ , the monkey Son of the Wind, Jāmbavān king of bears, the _rāksasa_ Vibhī a a, Vālin's son A gada, Saumitri, the monkey Sarabha, Su e a and his heirs Mainda and Dvivida, Gaja, Gavāksa, Kumuda, Nala and Panasa too assembled when they had reached enemy territory, and made their plans.
'From here we can see La ka, the city watched over by [28.4–5] Rāvana; even the gods together with anti-gods, _nāgas_ and _gandharvas_ would find it hard to conquer. Let us consider carefully the best means of achieving our goal, for the _rāk asa_ overlord Rāva a is always on his guard here.'
As they were talking in this way, Rāva a's younger brother [28.6–18] Vibhī a a made a speech that was urbane and to the point: 'My ministers Anala and Sarabha, Sampāti and Praghasa, are back from an expedition to La ka city. They all became birds and penetrated the enemy army, surveyed what disposition has been ordered, and returned. Listen, Rāma, while I tell you in detail all they report about the dispositions evil Rāva a has made. Prahasta has been sent to the eastern gate and taken up position there with his force, and the valiant pair Mahāpārśva and Mahodara are at the southern. Indrajit, Rāva a's son, is stationed at the west gate, surrounded by a large number of _rāksasas_ wielding spears, swords, and bows; but at the northern gate of the city, with many thousands of fully-armed _rāksasas_ , Rāva a has stationed himself. At the central keep, with a great force of _rāksasas_ equipped with pikes, swords and bows, is stationed Virūpāksa. My ministers all observed these various defensive arrangements in La kā and then returned with speed. There are one thousand elephants in the city, ten thousand chariots, twice ten thousand horses and a full crore of _rāksasas_ , night-roamers selected by the _rāksasa_ king to be ever valiant, powerful and death-dealing in battle. Each single fighting _rāksasa_ is drawn from a pool of one thousand thousand, your majesty.'
Vibhī a a augmented his counsellors' report from La kā, [28.19–23] telling lotus-petal-eyed Rāma, 'Now Rāma, when Rāva a made war on Kubera there went forth sixty hundred thousand _rāksasas_ , in prowess, courage, energy, sturdiness of character and arrogance the equals of evil Rāva a. In this situation you must not be carried away by fury, nor is it my wish to frighten you: I am urging you to unleash your wrath, for you have prowess enough to overcome even the gods. My lord, you have the support of an army strong in all four divisions; deploy the _vānara_ host and you will pulverize Rāva a.'
[28.24–34] While Rāva a's younger brother was still speaking, the Rāghava was issuing his instructions for the slaughter of his enemies. 'At the eastern gate of La kā it is that bull of a _vānara_ Nīla who should take on Prahasta, accompanied by a large number of _vānaras_. At the southern gate Vālin's son A gada accompanied by a large force is to attack Mahāpārśva and Mahodara. Hanumān, that superlative Son of the Wind, is to put the western gate under pressure and gain entry with a large monkey force. But as for that savage who takes pleasure in hurting groups of _daityas_ and _dānavas_ , noble sages too, relying on the power granted him by his boon to roam all the worlds tormenting their inhabitants – as for that _rāksasa_ lord, him I am resolved to kill myself. Together, Saumitri and I will put the city's northern gate under pressure and lead the host to Rāva a. The central keep shall be for the mighty lord of the _vānaras_ , and Jāmbavān king of the bears and also the _rāksasa_ lord's younger brother. Furthermore, the apes are not to take on human form when fighting. In this war let us adopt this means of identification for the _vānara_ army: _vānaras_ , distinguish yourselves by keeping to your natural form. Just we seven will fight the foe as humans: I, of course, along with my very mighty brother Laksmana, and also my five comrades – Vibhī a a and the others.'
[28.35]; [29.1–2] With these instructions to Vibhī a a about the successful achievement of their objective, Rāma judiciously came to a conclusion: the decision to ascend Suvela. Once he had taken the decision, endorsed by Laksmana, to climb Suvela, Rāma turned to Sugrīva and to Vibhī a a, the night-roamer who was virtuous and dependable, whose counsel was right and proper, and addressed them in a loud, clear voice.
[29.3–7] 'Come on! We're going to climb Suvela, this lord of mountains, this store of a hundred ores! This night we'll camp there and inspect La kā, lair of that depraved _rāksasa_ who has brought down death upon himself by carrying off my wife! The deliberate act of that evil _rāksasa_ is a crime against morality, against propriety, and against family values! My mounting anger at the crime of this villain, notorious as the worst of _rāksasas_ , will be demonstrated when I slaughter the _rāksasas_. It takes one individual caught in the noose of Time to commit a crime, but that wicked sin can bring destruction on the whole family.'
After this consultation Rāma set off to climb the glittering [29.8–17] slopes of Suvela and camp there, filled with anger towards Rāva a. Alert and brandishing his bow and arrow, Laksmana followed at his back, relishing a deed worthy of his superlative prowess. After him climbed Sugrīva and his ministers, then Vibhī a a. Hanumān, A gada, Nīla, Mainda and Dvivida too, Gaja, Gavāksa, Gavaya, Sarabha, Gandhamādana, Panasa and Kumuda as well, and Hara and the commander Rambha: these and many other fleet, mountain-roaming _vānaras_ , imbued with the force of the wind, climbed up Suvela behind the Rāghava in their hundreds. They had not been climbing long when, from all over, they were able to see the city on the summit, apparently hanging from the sky: goodly La kā with its fine gateways was visible to the ape chiefs, adorned with superb walls and thronged with _rāksasas_ , the swarthy night-roamers looking to the ape champions like a further wall standing on top of the high ramparts. At the sight, while Rāma gazed, all the _vānaras_ there and then let out loud roars in their eagerness to fight the _rāksasas_. Then the sun sank down, reddened by the twilight, leaving the dark shades to be lit up by a full moon.
The _rāksasas_ went to Rāva a's palace and reported that [32.1–5] Rāma and the _vānaras_ were besieging the city; the night-roamer's anger flared at the news of the siege of the town. He repeated his instructions, then climbed to the top of his palace and saw La kā with its mountains, forests and groves surrounded on all sides by countless troops of battle-hungry apes. As he gazed at the _vānaras_ swallowing up the whole earth, he pondered hard how they could be destroyed. After a great deal of thought Rāva a regained his resolve and looked wide-eyed at the Rāghava and the hordes of apes.
As the lord of _rāksasas_ watched, these hosts successively [32.6–13] scaled La ka in their desire to please the Rāghava. Ready to lay down their lives for Rāma's sake, the copper-faced, golden-hued monkeys attacked La ka with a battery of _sāls_ , palmyras and rocks, pounding gateways and lofty palace-roofs alike with trees, mountain-tops and their fists. The _vānaras_ filled in the clear waters of the moats with dust and with mountain-tops, with straws and with logs, then commanders of companies a thousand strong, companies of a crore, and others with companies a hundred crores strong, led the leap to La kā; huge as tuskers the leaping monkeys trampled the golden gateways, smashed barbicans tall as Kailāsa's peak, leapt here, leapt there, roaring as they leapt at La kā, 'Victory to Rāma's supreme strength and to Laksmana's great might! Victory to King Sugrīva, ally of the Rāghava!'
[32.14–24] With such shouts and roars the shape-changing monkeys hurled themselves at the La kā rampart. Vīrabāhu, Subāhu and the forest-roamer Nala charged the rampart, then these ape commanders established a bridgehead there and quickly set up their headquarters. Accompanied by ten crores, Kumuda besieged the east gate and heroically took up position there in triumph with his apes. Accompanied by twenty crores, the monkey warrior Śatabali reached the south gate, besieged it and heroically took up position there. Accompanied by sixty crores, the ape Su ena, father of Tārā, went to the west gate, besieged it and heroically took up position there. With Sugrīva, lord of the apes, Rāma and Saumitri won through to the north gate, besieged it and heroically took up position there. Accompanied by a crore, Gavāksa the enormous dreadful-looking langur heroically took up position beside Rāma. Accompanied by a crore of bears of ferocious vigour, Dhūmra the foe-crusher heroically took up position beside Rāma. Accompanied by his alert comrades, mighty Vibhī a a, mace in hand and fully equipped, heroically took up position there. Gaja, Gavāksa, Gavaya, Sarabha and Gandhamādana encircled the ape army protectively.
[32.25–32] Rage coursed through Rāva a's whole being; hurriedly the _rāksasa_ lord ordered a sortie by his entire army. At Rāva a's urging his gleeful troops poured out like waves in the great ocean, constantly replenished; before all were out, _rāksasas_ were engaging _vānaras_ in a battle fierce as that between gods and anti-gods of old. With blazing maces, with spears, pikes and axes they lashed out savagely at the _vānaras_ , boasting of their mighty deeds. The gigantic _vānaras_ violently counter-attacked the _rāksasas_ with trees and mountain-tops, claws and teeth, while from up on the rampart other fearsome _rāksasas_ were piercing them on the ground with javelins, swords and pikes. The _vānaras_ on the ground were enraged; up leapt monkeys, felling _rāksasas_ standing on the rampart. The tumultuous, prodigious battle that broke out between _rāksasas_ and _vānaras_ was a mire of flesh and blood.
Great was the ferocity of the battle that raged as the noble [33.1–15] _vānaras_ fought the _rāksasas_. With standards flaming like fire and exquisite armour, _rāksasa_ tigers set out on horses with golden chaplets and on chariots shining like the sun. The savage _rāksasas_ made all ten Directions resound with their cries of victory for Rāva a, but that host of shape-changing _rāksasas_ was attacked by a large force of _vānaras_ just as eager for victory. As _rāksasas_ confronted _vānaras_ , duels developed: the glorious _rāksasa_ Indrajit fought against Vālin's son A gada, like Andhaka against Tryambaka; Sampāti, always irresistible in battle, against Praja gha; against Jambumālin the _vānara_ Hanumān joined battle; Rāva a's younger brother, the frenzied _rāksasa_ Vibhī a a, met violent Mitraghna in battle; mighty Gaja encountered the _rāksasa_ Tapana; glorious Nīla fought against Nikumbha; Sugrīva lord of the _vānaras_ met Praghasa; majestic Laksmana met Virūpāksa in battle; dauntless Agniketu and the _rāksasa_ Raśmiketu, Suptaghna and Yajñakopa too were taken on by Rāma; Vajramusti by Mainda and Aśaniprabha by Dvivida – these ferocious _rāksasas_ were taken on by the champion monkey pair; the fierce _rāksasa_ warrior Pratapana, an indomitable fighter, battled against vehement Nala; powerful Su ena, that great monkey, that renowned Son of Dharma, fought against Vidyunmālin; and other fearsome _vānaras_ plunged time and again into single combat with many _rāksasa_ opponents.
Great was the battle, tumultuous and horrifying, between [33.16–34] _rāksasas_ and _vānara_ heroes as they strove for victory; from the bodies of apes and _rāksasas_ streamed rivers of blood, bearing along rafts of corpses through hair instead of weeds. Like Indra
Śatakratu with his thunderbolt, infuriated Indrajit clubbed A gada, the hero who could cut through hostile armies, but the glorious, indomitable monkey A gada pounded his chariot's carcass of glittering gold, his horses and charioteer too. Sampāti was hit by Praja gha with three arrows, then hit Praja gha with an _aśvakar a_ tree in the heat of the battle. Mighty Jambumālin, mounted on his chariot, furious in the fray, wounded Hanumān on the breastbone with a chariot-spear, but Hanumān Son of the Wind attacked his chariot, rapidly smashing it and the _rāksasa_ too with the flat of his hand. Though wounded in the limbs with his sharp arrows, Gaja battered the swift-handed _rāksasa_ Tapana with a fist like a mountain-top. Praghasa seemed to be swallowing up armies, but the _vānara_ ruler Sugrīva cleaved him with a _saptaparna_ tree and killed him. Laksmana harassed Virūpāksa with a shower of arrows, then killed the dreadful-looking _rāksasa_ with a single shaft. Dauntless Agniketu and the _rāksasa_ Raśmiketu, Suptaghna and
Yajñakopa wounded Rāma with arrows, but with four dread battle-arrows like blazing flames Rāma angrily severed the heads of all four. Vajramusti, cut down by a violent blow from Mainda's fist, collapsed to the ground like a city watch-tower, chariot and horses too. Dvivida, whose touch was like a thunderbolt, struck down Aśaniprabha with a mountain-peak within sight of all the _rāksasas_. Nikumbha, though, was battling against Nīla; his sharp arrows tore into that dark collyrium-like mound like sunbeams into a cloud, then that swift-handed night-roamer Nikumbha attacked again, ripping Nīla open with a hundred more arrows and sneering, until Nīla, a second Vis u in battle, retaliated by slicing off the heads of Nikumbha and his charioteer with a chariot-wheel.
[33.43–5] Terrible was the fighting taking place with arrows, swords and maces, with spears, lances and javelins. The ground was littered with chariots and war horses, shattered and smashed, with slain elephants in rut, with _vānaras_ and _rāksasas_ , with broken wheels, axles, yokes and poles; headless corpses of _vānaras_ and _rāksasas_ lay heaped up in all directions. The conflict was as tumultuous as the battle between the gods and the anti-gods, and packs of jackals stood by.
Even as the _vānaras_ and _rāksasas_ were fighting, the sun went [34.1–15] home to mount Asta and night came on to snatch away lives. Then _vānaras_ and _rāksasas_ , staunch in their mutual hostility, ferocious and desperate for victory, embarked on a night battle. With cries of 'You're a _rāksasa_!' from apes and 'You're an ape!' from _rāksasas_ , they cut each other down in the battle in that fearsome gloom. 'Strike! Tear apart! Come on! Why are you running away?' Such was the tumult of shouts ringing out through the gloom. Black _rāksasas_ were visible through the gloom from the gleaming of their golden armour, like imperious mountains with forests and grass alight. In that impenetrable gloom frenzied _rāksasas_ fell furiously upon the monkeys to devour them; but they, fearsome too in their rage, leapt at the horses with their golden chaplets and flame-like pennants, tearing them apart with their sharp teeth, clawing and digging their teeth into elephants, mahouts, chariots, flags and standards, beside themselves with anger. Laksmana and Rāma too struck down the foremost _rāksasas_ , visible or invisible, with arrows like venomous serpents. The dust kicked up from the earth by the horses' hooves and stirred up by the chariot-wheels clogged the ears and eyes of the fighters. As the savage, horrifying battle raged, rivers of blood spurted out and gushed along, and there arose a prodigious banging of drums, tabors and cymbals mingled with the blaring of conches and pipes. Horrible was the din from weapons, from _vānaras_ , and from the groans of dying _rāksasas_. The battleground was strewn with an offering, not of flowers but of weapons; it was unrecognizable and impassable, churned to mud by streaming blood. That night that bore away apes and _rāksasas_ was as terrible as the inexorable Night of Time that bears away all beings.
Then in that fearsome gloom, the gleeful _rāk asas_ attacked [34.16–23] Rāma with showers of arrows giving out as they fell an angry roar like the turbulent crashing of the seven seas. In the mere blink of an eye, with six arrows honed and blazing like flames, Rāma struck down six of those night-roamers: Yajñaśatru the invincible, Mahāpārśva and Mahodara, Vajradamstra the giant, and the pair Suka and Sāra a, wounded to the quick by the flood of Rāma's arrows, slunk away from the battle at their last gasp. Then the all-powerful warrior made every direction round about bright with his arrows, their shafts glittering with gold and blazing like flames; the _rāk asa_ warriors who had remained to face him rushed forward but were destroyed like moths by a fire. The well-feathered, gold-notched shafts he shot in their thousands made the night bright as if with autumnal fireflies.
[34.24–6] Then that frightful night was made more frightful by the screaming of _rāksasas_ and the bellowing of apes. The abundant ravines of mount Trikūta seemed to howl with the hullabaloo as it swelled all around. Gigantic langurs no less dark than the gloom enfolding them choked the life from night-roamers with their arms.
[34.27–30] A gada was determined to kill his opponent in the duel and quickly struck down Rāvan's charioteer and horses, but Indrajit, horses slain, charioteer slain too by A gada, abandoned his chariot and used his magic skill to make himself invisible. Once that evil Rāvani had made use of the boon Brahmā had granted him and vanished, Rāva i, that unscrupulous warrior, invisible in his frenzy, let fly honed arrows flashing like lightning, until the furious _rāksasa_ had wounded Rāma and Laksmana in all their limbs with his savage, serpentine shafts.
[35.1–10] Powerful, majestic Prince Rāma commissioned ten _vānara_ commanders to find out where he had gone: Susena's two heirs, that bull of a monkey Nīla, Vālin's son A gada, bold Sarabha, Vinata, Jāmbavān, mighty Sānuprastha, Rsabha and Rsabhaskandha were the ones selected by the foe-slayer. The delighted apes brandished fearsome trees, then all took to the sky to search the ten Directions, but Rāva i countered their ferocious onslaught with his even more ferocious arrows, handling his fine missile with expertise. Wounded and bleeding from his bolts in their fierce onslaught, the _vānaras_ could no more see him in the darkness than the sun hidden behind clouds. All-conquering Rāva i drove his arrows into Rāma and Laksmana, piercing them all over to the quick until those heroic brothers, Rāma and Laksmana, had their whole bodies swathed in the venomous arrows of the furious Indrajit. Blood poured from their veins till both looked like flame-trees in bloom. Then the invisible Rāva i taunted the brothers, his eyes reddened at the edges and his body like a heap of powdered collyrium.
'Not even Sakra Lord of the Thirty can see or get near me [35.11–12] when I become invisible to fight, so how could you two? Rage completely encompasses me: I'm dispatching you to Yama's realm.'
So saying he transfixed virtuous Rāma and Laksmana [35.13–25] with sharp arrows, shouting in exultation. Dark as a heap of powdered collyrium, he flourished his broad bow and savagely released more and more arrows in that great battle. He knew the vulnerable points of Rāma and Laksmana, and into those vulnerable points the warrior plunged his sharpened arrows, yelling repeatedly. In the heart of the battle, in no more than the twinkling of an eye, both were bound in chains of arrows, unable to see what was happening. Wounded all over their bodies, arrowheads embedded in them, they tottered like two of great Indra's standards broken free from their ropes. Wounded to the quick and weakened, the heroic great archers toppled: those Lords of the Earth fell to the earth, that bed of heroes, where those heroes lay streaming with blood, distressed and crushed, their whole bodies encased in arrows. Not one of their limbs was left unwounded save their fingers, down to their hands no part was not slashed or immobilized by the unerring arrows. Struck down by that savage shape-changing _rāksasa_ , they streamed blood as if it were water from two Prasrava as. Rāma was the first to collapse, wounded to the quick by the arrows of furious Indrajit, who had once even defeated Sakra; he sprawled on the bed of heroes, clutching his triple-curved, gold-adorned bow, now unstrung and split across the grip. When he saw that bull of a man Rāma collapse beneath the weight of arrows, then Laksmana too lost hope of life.
The forest-dwellers keeping watch over heaven and earth [36.1–10] saw the brothers Rāma and Laksmana wounded all over by arrows; his task accomplished, the _rāksasa_ ceased his storm like the god his rain. Vibhīsa a and Sugrīva came up, and at once Nīla, Dvivida and Mainda, and Su ena, Sumukha and A gada, along with Hanumān, raised a lament for the two Rāghavas lying there motionless and still, scarcely breathing, streams of blood flooding over them, enmeshed in arrows, arrows for their beds. On the bed of heroes the heroes lay motionless, sighing like snakes, their strength sapped, the streaming blood making their bodies bright as burnished standards, their movements feeble. The commanders clustered round them, tears clouding their eyes. The sight of the fallen Rāghavas covered in a mesh of arrows harrowed Vibhīsa a and all the _vānaras_. The _vānaras_ searched the sky in all directions but could not see Rāva i, hidden by magic means from the fray, but by magic means Vibhīsa a was able to see him and spied his brother's son concealed by magic but standing at the ready; that warrior of unparalleled achievement, unrivalled in warfare and hidden by virtue of a boon, was visible to Vibhī a a.
[36.11–16] Indrajit looked at the pair as they lay, and exulted at what he had done, boasting to the delight of the sons of Disorder, 'Rāma and his brother Laksmana were strong enough to kill Dū ana and Khara, but my arrows have laid them low. All the gods, anti-gods and hosts of sages cannot help them escape their arrow-fetters. It is because of him that my father has been brooding and tormented by sorrow, and has not laid his body on his bed throughout the three watches of this night. It is because of him – this wretch who pulls everything up by the roots – that Lanka here has been churned up like a river in the rains, and I have struck him down. The might of Rāma, of Laksmana, and of all the forest-dwellers is as barren as clouds in autumn.'
[36.17–19] With these words to all the _rāk asas_ thronging round him, mighty Rāva i assailed all the _vānara_ chiefs, distressing and terrifying them with floods of arrows, then sneered, ' _Rāk asas_, just look at those brothers, both of them caught in my savage arrow-fetters in front of their army!'
[36.20–24] The _rāksasas_ who had been fighting by subterfuge were all astonished to hear his words; they rejoiced at the deed and all cheered and thundered like clouds. Learning that Rāma had been struck down they did honour to Rāva i, and when they saw Rāma and Laksmana motionless and not breathing they assumed they were dead. Consumed by delight, all-conquering Indrajit entered La ka city, to the rapture of all the sons of Disorder, but the sight of Rāma and Laksmana, their bodies, their limbs and every part buried beneath the arrows, overcame Sugrīva with fear.
Vibhīsa a urged the miserable, terrified _vānara_ lord with [36.25–8] his tearful face and grief-clouded eyes, 'Give up your terror, Sugrīva, and check your flowing tears. This is mostly the way with battles: victory cannot be guaranteed. If fortune has not entirely deserted us, heroic _vānara_ , these brothers Rāma and Laksmana will recover from their swoon. Pull yourself together and support me, _vānara_ , for I have no one to turn to; those who are devoted to true righteousness have no need to fear death.'
So saying Vibhī a a wet his hand and washed Sugrīva's fine [36.29–30] eyes; when he had wiped the wise monkey king's face, he calmly gave him this timely advice:
'Lord of the monkey kings, this is no time to give way to [36.31–8] weakness. Too much emotion at this inopportune time will be fatal. Weakness brings failure to all enterprises, so rise above it and consider what would be best for the armies Rāma leads, or rather have Rāma protected as long as he remains unconscious, so that when the two Kākutsthas regain consciousness they will drive away our fear. To Rāma this is as nothing! Rāma won't surrender to death. Good fortune comes with difficulty to the dying, but will not desert him. So take courage yourself and encourage your own force, while I rally all the armies again. Rumours are circulating in ear after ear among the apes, you bull of an ape; their eyes are staring with fear and consternation; but when they see me hurrying around encouraging the troops, the apes will shed their terror like a used garland.'
When he had reassured Sugrīva, Vibhī a a lord of the [36.39–42] _vānaras_ swiftly reassured the _vānara_ host, but Indrajit the sorceror led his whole army back into La kā city and went to his father. He greeted the seated Rāva a respectfully and gave his father the welcome news that Rāma and Lak ma a had been killed. Hearing of the fall of his enemies, Rāva a sprang up in delight and embraced his son in the midst of the _rāk asas_, kissed him on the head with satisfaction and questioned him; in answer to his father's questions he related all that had taken place.
[37.1–4] When Rāva a's son had gone back into La kā, his mission accomplished, grieving bulls of _vānaras_ formed up around the Rāghava and mounted guard: Hanumān, A gada, Nīla, Su ena, Kumuda, Nala, Gaja, Gavāksa, Gavaya, Sarabha, Gandhamādana, Jāmbavān, Rsabha, Sunda, Rambha, Satabali, P thu. With their forces drawn up and on the alert, armed everywhere with trees, the _vānaras_ scanned all directions, around and upwards: if even the grass moved they thought, ' _Rāksasas_!'
[37.5–6] Rāva a was delighted with his son; when Indrajit had taken his leave he sent for the _rāksasīs_ guarding Sītā. At his command the _rāksasīs_ including Trijatā attended on him, and the delighted _rāksasa_ lord gave the _rāksasīs_ their instructions:
[37.7–10] 'Tell Vaidehī that Rāma and Laksmana have been killed by Indrajit. Put her in the Puspaka Chariot and show her them killed on the battlefield. It's this husband of hers she's been obstinately relying on in refusing to be mine: he and his brother have been exterminated in battle! Without hesitation, without trembling, without a backward glance, beautified with every ornament, Sītā Maithilī shall come to me! Today when she sees that Rāma, along with Laksmana, has succumbed to Time in battle, her hopes will be overthrown and she will see no other way out.'
[37.11–15] The _rāksasīs_ accepted evil Rāva a's instructions; they went for the Puspaka Chariot; those _rāksasīs_ fetched the Puspaka Chariot; on Rāva a's order they took it to Maithilī in the _aśoka_ grove; on to the Puspaka Chariot the _rāksasīs_ lifted Sītā, plunged in grief for her husband. When Sītā was mounted, along with Trijatā, on the Puspaka Chariot, Rāva a sent it round La kā, now garlanded with flags and standards, and the delighted _rāksasa_ ruler had the news proclaimed around Lanka that the Rāghava and Laksmana too had been killed in battle by Indrajit.
[37.16–20] As Sītā went around in the carriage with Trijatā she saw all the host of fallen _vānaras_ ; she saw too the excited flesh-eaters and grief-stricken _vānaras_ at the side of Rāma and Laksmana. Then, lying on two mounds of arrows, unconscious, weighed down by arrows, Sītā saw Laksmana, she saw Rāma; with their armour smashed, their bows shattered, wounded in every limb by arrows, the heroes were nothing but fallen columns of arrows. The sight of those heroic brothers, those bulls of men, tortured Sītā with the most agonizing grief, and she mourned pitiably.
Sītā, already pitifully wasted from grief, mourned most [38.1–14] pathetically to see her husband laid low beside mighty Laksmana. 'Ignorant liars, all of them, now Rāma's been killed, those fortune-tellers who foretold I should bear sons and not be a widow! Ignorant liars, all of them, now Rāma's been killed, those who foretold I should be chief queen of a sacrificer and wife of an oblation-maker! Ignorant liars, all of them, now Rāma's been killed, those who declared my fortune was made when I became the wife of a heroic king! Ignorant liars, all of them, now Rāma's been killed, those Twice-Born astrologers who publicly labelled me auspicious! Each of my feet, certainly, bears the lotuses which are supposed to deck women destined with their kingly husbands for monarchy, and even without my lucky signs, search as I may I cannot discern in myself any of the signs which doom ill-omened women to widowhood. These lotuses, supposedly a true sign of a woman's fortune, have today become untrue for me now Rāma's been killed. With my fine, smooth, dark hair, my unjoined eyebrows, my shapely, hairless calves, my gapless teeth, my neat temples, eyes, hands, feet, ankles and thighs, my glossy rounded nails, my even fingers, my smooth, swelling breasts with their sunken nipples, my sunken, deep-set navel, my firm sides and chest, my pearly complexion and my soft body-hair, I was said to be provided with the twelve signs of good fortune. The tellers of girls' fortunes noted my gentle smile and my unblemished, well-coloured hands and feet with all the right barleycorn marks. And then my husband and I were to be consecrated by brāhmans into the monarchy... All the predictions of those skilled in divination have come to nothing.
[38.15–21] 'Those brothers, who cleansed Janasthāna, who crossed the immutable ocean when they heard news of me, to be killed in a puddle Surely they would have employed their missiles from Varuna, from Agni, Indra, Vāyu, or even the Brahmā's Head missile, those Rāghavas! It must have been someone using sorcery to make himself invisible in battle that struck down Indra Vāsava's equals, Rāma and Laksmana, those who should defend me in my defencelessness, for no enemy would escape from battle with his life once the Rāghava had set eyes on him, not even if he were swift as thought. Rāma lies beside his brother, fallen in battle: surely there is no greater force than Time, surely Fate is inexorable. I mourn not so much for my dead husband, or Laksmana, or myself, or even my mother: it's for my poor mother-in-law. She will be constantly thinking that the vow has been completed, wondering, "When shall I see both Sītā and Rāma again, and Laksmana?" '
[38.22–33] The _rāksasī_ Trijatā replied to her lament: 'Don't despair, my lady; this husband of yours is alive. I'll give you good reasons that will convince you, my lady, that these brothers, Rāma and Laksmana, are alive. Soldiers' faces don't become suffused with fury and battle-frenzy when their leader's been killed. Vaidehī, this divine vehicle called the Puspaka Chariot would not carry you if that pair had met their end. An army that loses a heroic leader loses its nerve and wanders about in battle as aimlessly as a ship that's lost its rudder on the water. This army though is not in disarray, nor is it panic-stricken; they're guarding the Kākutsthas vigorously, because it's magic that's overcome them in battle. These pointers to a happy outcome should fill you with confidence. Look, the Kākutsthas have not been killed. It's out of affection that I'm telling you this: I've never yet told an untruth and I never shall. Your comportment and courtesy have won my heart. These two cannot be defeated in battle by gods and anti-gods together, Indra included, I'm telling you straight, now I've seen their faces. And look carefully, Maithilī: there's a very important sign. Even though they're unconscious, Laksmī is definitely not abandoning either of them; usually when you look at the faces of men whose spirit and life are at an end, a horrible transformation occurs. Daughter of Janaka, give up your sorrow and grief and delusion about Rāma and Laksmana. Not still be alive? That's impossible!'
When Sītā Maithilī, truly a deity's daughter, heard her words [38.34–6] she raised her hands and prayed that it might be so. But the Puspaka Chariot that moved as swift as thought was turned round, and poor Sītā was taken back into La kā by Trijatā; she dismounted from the Puspaka Chariot along with Trijatā and was taken straight back to the _aśoka_ grove by the _rāksasīs_.
Moaning like hissing snakes, Daśaratha's blood-spattered [39.1–4] sons were lying weighed down by the mass of savage arrows. Sugrīva and all the mighty _vānara_ chiefs stood around the noble pair, plunged in the depths of grief. At that moment heroic Rāma, stalwart and steadfast, regained consciousness amid his arrow-fetters, but when he saw his bloodstained brother laid low, motionless and dismal looking, he uttered a sorrowful lament:
'What's the use of Sītā, what's the use of my life now I can [39.5–12] see my brother lying defeated in battle? If I searched the world I could find another wife as good as Sītā, but not a brother as good as Laksmana, my comrade-in-arms. If that growing joy to Sumitrā has met his end, then I will give up my life too in the sight of the _vānaras_. Whatever shall I say to Kausalyā, my mother? What to Kaikeyī? And how can I tell Sumitrā, his mamma, who is desperate to see her son? She'll be quaking and screeching like an osprey at losing her pet: how can I comfort her if I go back without him? How can I say to Satrughna and illustrious Bharata, "He went with me to the forest, but I have come back without him"? Oh, Sumitrā will blame me, and I shan't be able to bear it. Here and now I give up on life, for I've lost the strength to live. Shame on me, ignoble sinner that I am! It's because of me that Laksmana there is lying lifeless, fallen on to a bed of arrows.
'Laksmana, you always comforted me when I was dejected, [39.13–21] but now life has left you, you can no longer speak to me in my distress. Just now in the battle he struck down many _rāksasas_ to the ground, and now on that same ground he lies struck down by others. Lying on this bed of arrows, drenched with his own blood, enmeshed in arrows, he's glowing like the sun setting on Asta. The arrows piercing his vitals prevent him looking around and the colour of his face bears silent testimony to the anguish he's in. Just as that radiant man followed me when I left for the forest, so indeed will I follow him to Yama's realm. He was always devoted to his beloved family, to me especially, and now it's my bad judgement that's brought him to this state: what a wretch I am! I can never remember hearing a harsh word from Laksmana, or even an unpleasant one, not ever, even when that hero was roused to fury. Laksmana who could fire off five hundred arrows in a single burst, who knew more about archery and missiles than Kārtavīrya, whose missiles could overcome the missiles of noble Sakra: he was used to a costly couch, but here he lies on the earth, struck down.
[39.22–9] 'I feel real burning shame about my vain rhetoric: Vibhī a a has not been made king of the _rāksasas_. Sugrīva, it's time you went back; mighty Rāva a would attack, your majesty, if he thought you no longer had me with you. Set A gada to lead you, with your army and your comrades, Sugrīva, and re-cross the ocean by the same causeway. Hanumān has performed an action in this war that others would find hard to emulate; the king of the bears and the overlord of langurs have pleased me; A gada, Mainda and Dvivida have done their duty; Kesarin and Sampāti have fought fiercely in the fray; Gavaya, Gavāksa and Sarabha, along with Gaja and the rest, have been prepared to lay down their lives for my sake in this war. Sugrīva, men cannot escape their fate, but you, my lord Sugrīva, mighty conqueror, have done everything a comrade or friend possibly could in your anxiety to do what's right. My lords, bulls of _vānaras_ , you have performed everything expected of a friend; now I give you all leave to go wherever you wish.'
[39.30–32] As the _vānaras_ all heard his lament their eyes grew dim and they shed streams of tears. Then Vibhī a a halted all the troops and hurried up to the Rāghava, mace in hand; seeing him rushing up, dark as a mound of collyrium, all the _vānaras_ fled, thinking he was Rāva i.
[40.1] Then the glorious, mighty king of apes asked, 'Why is the army agitated like a boat being blown this way and that on the water?'
In answer to Sugrīva's question, Vālin's son A gada replied, [40.2–3] 'Can't you see Rāma and mighty Laksmana? Both those noble heroic sons of Daśaratha are lying drenched in blood, enmeshed in arrows, arrows for their bed.'
Then Sugrīva lord of the _vānaras_ told his heir A gada, 'I [40.4–6] don't think it can be for no reason; something must have frightened them. These despairing-looking apes have thrown away their weapons and are fleeing in all directions, eyes staring in panic; no one hides his shame, but without a backward glance they are dragging their fallen comrades along and leaping away.'
Meanwhile the warrior Vibhī a a, mace in hand, paid homage [40.7–8] to Sugrīva and inspected the Rāghava. Sugrīva saw that it was Vibhī a a who had made the _vānaras_ panic and told Jāmbavān king of the bears standing nearby:
'Here comes Vibhī a a. It's the sight of him that's terrified [40.9–10] those bulls of _vānaras_ into running away; they think he may be Rāva a's son. Reassure them quickly in their panic. They've fled in all directions. Tell them it's Vibhī a a who's arrived.'
On Sugrīva's instructions Jāmbavān king of the bears halted [40.11–14] the _vānaras_ ' flight, brought them back and calmed them. When they heard the bear king's voice and realized it was Vibhī a a, the _vānaras_ all cast off their agitation and returned, but when Vibhī a a saw Rāma's body heaped with arrows, Laksmana's too, that upright _rāksasa_ became distraught. He moistened his hand and washed their eyes, weeping and lamenting, his mind weighed down by grief.
'It's by duplicity that _rāksasa_ warriors have brought this [40.15–19] stout-hearted, valiant, martial pair to this state! It's my brother's son, his wicked son, that villain, who has toppled these upright heroes with his crooked _rāksasa_ craft! Blood-spattered and shot through by arrows aplenty, they look like porcupines asleep on the earth. I hoped that seeking the protection of those heroes would bring me the paramountcy, but now those bulls of men have both lost consciousness they will lose their lives too. I'm still alive, but I'm ruined! I've lost the kingship my heart desired and my enemy Rāva a has achieved his aim and got everything he wanted.'
[40.20–22] Sugrīva, the stout-hearted king of the apes, embraced Vibhī a a as he lamented, saying, 'You are righteous, and you will gain the kingship of La kā; there's no doubt about it. Rāva a and his son shall not hold on to sovereignty here. They are weighed down by arrows now, but the Rāghava and Laksmana will recover from their swoon and together slaughter Rāvana and his hordes in battle.'
[40.23–5] When he had calmed and reassured the _rāksasa_ , Sugrīva turned to his father-in-law Su ena and told him, 'When Rāma and Laksmana recover consciousness, you and the hordes of ape warriors are to take those enemy-subduing brothers back to Kiskindhā, while I kill Rāva a and his son and family and rescue Maithilī like Sakra did his lost Srī.'
[40.26–32] Hearing that from the _vānara_ lord, Su ena made a suggestion: 'A ferocious war arose between gods and anti-gods. The gods were experts in weaponry and directed their arrows with skill, but by dint of repeatedly making themselves invisible the _dānavas_ overcame the gods, leaving them distressed and unconscious; their lives were ebbing away, but B haspati healed them with a combination of spells, _mantras_ and herbs. You should immediately dispatch _vānaras_ to the Milk Ocean to fetch those salves with all speed – Sampāti, Panasa and others – the apes know these two mountain herbs, Samjīvakara ī the divine and Viśalyā the god-created. Those two mountains – Candra one's called, and Drona – in the ultimate ocean, where the ambrosia was churned – that's where these eminent herbs are – those two mountains were ordained by the gods to bear those eminent herbs. Hanumān here, your majesty, he's the Son of the Wind, he's the one you should send.'
[40.33–41] Just at that moment the water of the ocean was tossed about by gales and lightning clouds wild enough to shake mountains; all the island's lofty trees were uprooted by a great flapping of wings and plunged into the salt sea, their branches torn off; its inhabitants, the writhing serpents, took fright and its monsters all dived swiftly into its salty depths. Then, a moment later, the _vānaras_ all saw mighty Garu a, Vinatā's son, blazing as a fire, and the arrows fettering the pair of mighty heroes turned back into snakes and fled when they saw him arrive. Seeing the Kākutsthas, the Bird saluted them and with his hands stroked the moonlike brilliance of their faces. At the touch of Vinatā's son their wounds closed and their bodies quickly regained their colour and bloom; their power, heroism, might, vigour and resolve, their foresight, intelligence and memory – all their great qualities – were redoubled. Garu a helped them up, then delightedly embraced those heroes, each the equal of Indra Vāsava, to be told by Rāma:
'My lord, your beneficence has rescued us from the great [40.42–4] calamity inflicted on us by Rāva i, and promptly restored our strength. Your lordship's presence is as welcome to my heart as would be that of my father Daśaratha or an ancestor. Who might your lordship be, with your handsome appearance and your divine garlands and unguents, clad in a spotless garment set off with divine adornments?'
Vinatā's splendid, mighty son, king of the birds, was gratified [40.45–54] and replied to him with eyes filled with delight. 'Kākutstha, I am Garu a, your comrade, your dear second self. I have come here out of solidarity with you both. Not the bold anti-gods nor the mighty _dānavas_ , not even the gods and _gandharvas_ with Indra Satakratu at their head are able to release these terrible arrow-fetters devised by vicious Indrajit by the power of his sorcery. Those sharp-fanged venomous snakes, the offspring of Kadrū, were turned into arrows by the power of that _rāksasa's_ sorcery and clung fast to you. Fortune is with you, righteous, truly valiant Rāma, you and your brother Laksmana, that slayer of foes in battle, for when I heard the news I immediately rushed here out of affection for you both, as a mark of my comradeship. Now that you are free of these terrible arrow-fetters you must be constantly on your guard, for _rāksasas_ are all naturally duplicitous fighters, whereas your lordships are honourable heroes whose strength is your honesty. So be wary of _rāksasas_ in battle, for this is an example of ever-devious _rāksasa_ behaviour.'
So saying, the mighty Bird embraced Rāma and bade his [40.55–7] comrade an affectionate farewell: 'Rāghava my friend, you who know what's right, you who treat even your enemies with kindness, I wish to take my leave: I am going back. With your waves of arrows you will strip La kā of all but children and old people; you will kill your enemy Rāva a and you will recover Sītā.'
[40.58–63]; [41.1–2] When the mettlesome Bird had finished speaking and freed Rāma from pain amid the forest-dwellers, he circumambulated and embraced him; then off into the sky like the wind went the heroic Bird. When the _vānara_ chiefs saw the Rāghavas free of pain, they roared out lionlike roars and shook their tails, banging drums, beating tabors, blowing conches in delight and frisking around like before. Valiant _vānaras_ by the hundred thousand ran to and fro uprooting every kind of tree to use as weapons, and formed up. Hurling out loud roars that terrified the night-roamers, the monkeys marched on La kā's gates, eager for the fray, till the tumultuous hullabaloo bellowed by the bold _vānaras_ reached the ears of Rāvana and the _rāksasas_. When he heard the uproarious booming he told his assembled counsellors:
[41.3–5] 'The thunderous din billowing from so many delighted _vānaras_ must mean they have something to cheer about. There's no doubt about it, for the loud noise is churning up Varuna's abode – but the brothers Rāma and Laksmana have been fettered by sharp arrows! This great clamour is enough to breed doubts in me.'
[41.6–7] After telling that to his counsellors the _rāksasa_ lord turned to address the sons of Disorder attending him: 'Be quick and find out what has made all those forest-roamers so cheerful after they've been so mournful.'
[41.8–11] Perturbed by his words they climbed the rampart and saw the army under the leadership of noble Sugrīva, but when they caught sight of the two Rāghavas on their feet, alive and well and liberated from the terrible arrow-fetters, the _rāksasas_ ' spirits sank; with fear in their hearts they climbed down from the rampart and approached the _rāksasa_ lord with downcast faces. Looking miserable and choosing their words carefully, the night-roamers gave Rāva a their unwelcome report, complete and accurate:
'The brothers Rāma and Laksmana whom Indrajit fettered [41.12–13] in the fray with arrow-fetters, pinioning their arms, can be seen on the battlefield freed from the arrow-fetters like elephants broken loose from their chains, intrepid as elephant lords.'
The powerful lord of the _rāksasas_ was overcome by vexation [41.14–17] and alarm when he heard their report. With downcast face he mused, 'With great force Indrajit fettered that pair in the fray with dread, unerring, sunlike arrows, venomous as snakes, that he had been given as a boon. If my enemies have been released after being fettered by those missiles, I can see all my power being put at risk. The arrows may have incorporated the power of Vāsuki but they have turned out fruitless if my enemies have been restored to life in the battle.'
When he had spoken, hissing like a snake in his anger, he [41.18–19] instructed a _rāksasa_ called Dhūmrāk a, in the midst of the _rāksasas_ , 'You are to take a large force of ferocious _rāksasas_ and set forth to slaughter Rāma and the _vānaras_.'
The shrewd _rāk asa_ lord's command delighted Dhūmrāk a, [41.20–21] who saluted and left the monarch's palace. Once through the gate he told an officer, 'Quick! Hurry up the troops! Why delay? I'm eager to do battle!'
At Dhūmrāk a's command the orderly officer assembled a [41.22–34] force to carry out Rāva a's order at the double. Dreadful-looking, mighty night-roamers bound on bells and roared in delight as they surrounded Dhūmrāk a, carrying every kind of weapon: with spears and hammers in their hands, with clubs, javelins, staves, abundant iron pestles, maces, darts, quarrels, projectiles and battleaxes the dread _rāksasas_ set out, thundering like clouds. Others came in their armour on chariots adorned with standards and gold lattice-work: their asses had the faces of different creatures, their horses were supremely swift, their elephant chiefs were _musth_ -maddened. Unassailable as tigers were those tigers of _rāksasas_ as they set out; Dhūmrāk a brayed as he mounted a divine, gold-ornamented chariot harnessed to asses with the faces of wolves and lions. Stalwart Dhūmrāk a laughed as he set out surrounded by _rāksasas_ for the western gate, the one assigned to Hanumnān's charge, but as the dreadful, fearsome-looking _rāksasa_ set out he was mobbed by savage fowls of the air; a terrifying vulture swooped down on to the chariot-head and skeins of scavengers swooped down to the standard's tip. Near Dhūmrāk a a huge white torso drenched in blood fell to earth, shrieking horribly. The heavens rained blood and the earth quaked; a gale blew in tempestuous squalls with the noise of a thunderstorm, and a flood of darkness blotted out the light in every direction. The sight of these dread portents of doom for the _rāksasas_ appearing filled Dhūmrāk a with alarm.
[42.1–16] All the battle-hungry _vānaras_ roared with delight when they noticed the _rāksasa_ Dhūmrāk a setting out amid his dreadful uproar, and a tumultuous battle broke out with apes and _rāksasas_ belabouring each other savagely with trees, pikes and hammers. All around, fierce _vānaras_ were cut down by _rāksasas, rāksasas_ were brought to the ground with trees by _vānaras_ , and enraged _rāksasas_ pierced _vānaras_ with fearsome-looking arrows, sharp, heron-feathered, unerring. With dread clubs, javelins, cudgels, sharpened tridents and ferocious glittering iron maces the _rāksasas_ wounded the mighty _vānaras_ , but resentment fuelled their courage and they acquitted themselves as if they had nothing to fear. Though arrows pierced their limbs, though pikes pierced their bodies, the ape chiefs snatched up trees and boulders. Fearful was the assault of the
apes, roaring out their war cries again and again as they battered the fearsome _rāksasas_ ; amazing was the ferocious battle with boulders and many-branched trees between _vānaras_ and _rāksasas_. Some _rāksasas_ were battered by triumphant _vānaras_ ; blood gushed from the mouths of those who were used to feasting on blood; some had their flanks sliced open; some were knocked into a heap by trees, some were pulverized by boulders, some were lacerated by teeth; with standards battered and broken, asses felled and chariots smashed, night-roamers were dashed down. Impetuous _rāksasas_ had their faces slashed by the sharp claws of fearsomely valiant _vānaras_ leaping everywhere, till the smell of blood sent them swooning to the ground with wan faces and tousled locks. Other highly enraged _rāksasas_ of fearsome valour were laying into the apes, slapping them with the force of a bolt of lightning, but however
impetuous their attack, the _vānaras_ , more impetuous still, crushed them with fists and feet, with teeth and trees.
When that bull of a _rāksasa_ Dhūmrāk a saw his army was [42.17–24] fleeing, he angrily set about butchering the battle-hungry _vānaras_. Some _vānaras_ he pelted with darts till they streamed with blood; some he knocked to the ground with hammers; some he pounded with maces or gashed with javelins; some he struck with spears till they were reeling at their last gasp. Some forest-dwellers he hurled to earth drenched in blood, some he put to flight to be destroyed in battle by furious _rāksasas_ , some lay on their sides, their hearts cut through, some impaled on tridents had their entrails spilling out. Terrifying was the battle joined by ape- and _rāksasa_ -hordes with a multitude of weapons and with boulders and trees in profusion. Bow in hand, Dhūmrāk a exultantly drove the _vānaras_ in all directions from the fray with showers of arrows.
The Son of the Wind was enraged to see the army being [42.25–36] beaten and routed by Dhūmrāk a; he snatched up a huge boulder and attacked. His eyes grew twice as red with fury and his strength equalled his father's as he hurled that boulder against Dhūmrāk a's chariot. Seeing the boulder falling he frantically brandished his club and hastily jumped from his chariot to take his stand on the ground. The boulder shattered chariot, wheels, pole, horses, standard and bow as it fell to earth. With the chariot smashed, Hanumān Son of the Wind set about slaughtering _rāksasas_ with tree-trunks and branches; _rāksasas_ with blood pouring from gashes in their heads were pounded with trees and fell to the ground. With the _rāksasa_ army on the run, Hanumān Son of the Wind picked up a mountain peak and ran towards Dhūmrāk a. Bravely Dhūmrāk a brandished his club and ran vehemently at Hanumān, attacking him with a roar, then angrily and violently Dhūmrāk a brought that many-spiked club down on Hanumān's skull. The ape with the power of the wind ignored the blow and the wound inflicted by that horrific club, and dropped the mountain-peak on to the middle of Dhūmrāk a's head; his limbs tottered beneath the force of that mountain-peak and he crashed to the ground like a shattered mountain. When they saw Dhūmrāk a slain, the surviving night-roamers fled back to La ka in terror, the monkeys continuing to slaughter them as they went.
[43.1–2] When he heard Dhūmrāk a was slain, Rāva a lord of the _rāksasas_ spoke to an officer standing respectfully beside him: 'Straight away, send out some indomitable _rāksasas_ , ferocious and savage, under the command of Akampana; he is an expert in all weapons.'
[43.3–10] Leading _rāksasas_ , fully armed, flocked to answer the officer's summons; fearsome were their eyes, fearsome their appearance. In his earrings of burnished gold, Akampana mounted his imposing chariot and set out, surrounded by the ferocious _rāksasas_. Then, as he hastened furiously along, eager for battle, the horses pulling his chariot were struck by an unexplained listlessness. Though he rejoiced at the prospect of battle, his left eye began to throb, the colour drained from his face and his voice faltered. Brightness turned to gloom and a gale lashed them; the calls of birds and beasts took on a note of savagery and terror. He had the towering shoulders of a lion, he had the courage of a tiger, and he ignored these portents, pressing on to the battlefield; surrounded by his _rāksasas_ , the _rāksasa_ gave out a roar loud enough to shake the ocean.
[43.11–27] The _vānara_ host were terrified by the din, but grasped trees and boulders for weapons and stood their ground against the assault. With monkeys and _rāksasas_ alike utterly regardless of their lives in the service of Rāma and Rāva a, the battle that broke out was savage. All the warriors were stalwart; apes or _rāksasas_ , all were mountainous and lusting to slaughter one another. A tremendous uproar arose as with valiant fervour they bellowed in anger at each other, and dreadful drab-coloured dust was kicked up in profusion by the apes and _rāksasas_ to hide all ten Directions. Creatures enveloped by this dust as if by billowing garments of pale silk could not distinguish one another on the battlefield. Standards, flags, armour, steeds even, weapons and vehicles: all were invisible in the pall. No shapes could be made out, but the tumult of their roars as they rushed together in that turbulent battle could be heard. Frenzied apes struck down apes in combat; _rāksasas_ too struck down _rāksasas_ in the gloom. Striking at friend and foe alike,
_vānaras_ and _rāksasas_ turned the mud-anointed earth wet with gore, sprinkling it with fountains of blood that laid the dust till the ground emerged again, corpse-strewn. With gusto, apes and _rāksasas_ were swiftly killing each other with trees and lances, rocks and darts, with clubs, with maces, with javelins. Fearsome were the exploits performed by mountainous apes as they fought in that battle, battering the _rāksasas_ with their mace-like arms, but the raging _rāksasas_ were armed with darts and javelins, and they replied by striking out at the apes with their vicious weapons. The apes returned to the charge with huge trees and huge boulders, heroically smashing their weapons and wounding the _rāksasas_. At that point the frenzied ape warriors Kumuda, Nala and Mainda launched an unparalleled assault; it was child's play for these irresistible ape chiefs with their trees to devastate the _rāksasas_ in the face of their army.
When Akampana saw the exploit accomplished by the [44.1–2] _vānara_ champions, he summoned up his ferocious battle-frenzy; the sight of his enemies' exploit sent anger coursing through his frame. He flourished his mighty bow and gave orders to his charioteer.
'Come on, charioteer! Be quick now and get my chariot [44.3–5] ready! A large force is slaughtering large numbers of _rāksasas_ in the fray! There before me stand mighty _vānaras_ of fearsome physique, armed with trees and rocks. They may vaunt their prowess in battle, but it's my intention to slay them! Look at them, belabouring the whole _rāksasa_ army!'
Then from his chariot, drawn by speedy horses, that supreme [44.6–7] chariot warrior Akampana angrily pounded the apes with tangles of arrows. The _vānaras_ were unable to resist, much less to fight back in that battle; broken by Akampana's arrows they all fled.
When mighty Hanumān saw that Death in the form of [44.8–24] Akampana had them in his grip, he came to his kinsmen's aid. The sight of that great monkey had all the heroic chiefs leaping up as one, crowding around and surrounding him in the fray. Hanumān's resolute demeanour reassured the ape chiefs and his strength gave them strength. Like great Indra's floods were
the arrows Akampana poured on to Hanumān, but he looked as immovable as a mountain, ignoring the floods of keen arrows falling on to his body as he concentrated with might and main on his objective, the killing of Akampana. Hanumān, splendid Son of the Wind, laughed, then made an earth-shaking rush at the _rāksasa_ , bellowing and blazing in his splendour till his figure became as unendurable as Agni's blaze. The wrathful bull of an ape realized he had no weapon and violently tore up a mountain; carrying that great mountain in one hand, the Son of the Wind let out a tremendous roar and whirled it around heroically, then rushed towards the _rāksasa_ lord Akampana like Indra Puramdara with his thunderbolt in his battle against Namuci. But when in the distance Akampana saw the mountain-peak being brandished, he shot it through with great crescent-headed arrows. Hanumān was maddened with rage to see the mountain-top in the sky shot through by the _rāksasa's_ arrows, shattered and fallen, but full of disdainful fury the ape found an _aśvakarna_ tall as a high mountain and swiftly uprooted it. Picking up the _aśvakarna_ with its huge trunk he laughed with the utmost pleasure and majestically whirled it in the fray as he ran forward, smashing down trees with the impetus of his legs, till in his fervent frenzy Hanumān split the earth open with his feet. Elephants and mahouts, chariots and chariot warriors, _rāksasa_ infantry: expertly Hanumān destroyed them. Seeing Hanumān snatching away their lives in the battle like an angry Death, the _rāksasas_ fled.
[44.25–9] Heroic Akampana roared with anger when he saw how the furious onslaught was panicking the _rāksasas_. Fourteen sharp body-penetrating arrows Akampana drove into valiant Hanumān. Transfixed by shower after shower of arrows, heroic Hanumān looked like a mountain bristling with trees, but uprooting another tree he made a supreme assault and swiftly smote the _rāksasa_ lord Akampana on the head. The _rāksasa_ fell down dead, struck down with the tree by that noble, wrathful _vānara_ lord.
[44.30–33] All the _rāksasas_ trembled like trees in an earthquake at the sight of the _rāksasa_ lord Akampana slain on the earth. The defeated _rāksasas_ all threw away their weapons and retreated in terror to La kā, pursued by the _vānaras_ ; dishevelled and confused, unnerved, routed and groaning, their bodies running with sweat from the exertion, they fled. In their fear they pummelled each other to enter the city, all the time looking behind them in panic.
With the _rāksasas_ sheltering in La kā, the powerful apes [44.34–6] gathered and congratulated Hanumān. Gallant Hanumān too was delighted, and successively paid tribute to the deserving apes. The triumphant apes cheered themselves hoarse and dragged back there any _rāksasas_ still left alive.
The lord of the _rāksasas_ was truly angered by the news of [45.1–4] Akampana's death, and he looked at his courtiers with some dismay in his face. He could see that La kā city was guarded by hordes of _rāksasas_ , hidden behind numerous fortifications and garlanded with flags and banners, but Rāva a lord of the _rāksasas_ was indignant to see the city under siege and gave a timely order to an experienced warrior, Prahasta.
'You are an expert in warfare, but I can see no way of [45.5–11] releasing the city from the oppression of this severe siege except by battle. I or Kumbhakar a, Indrajit or Nikumbha, or you, Commander-in-Chief – all of us are capable of shouldering a burden of this nature. You're the one! Be quick about it! Select and assemble a detachment and make a victorious sortie against the forest-dwellers' position. A sortie by you will be sure to put the wavering ape army to flight when they hear the sound of _rāksasa_ lords roaring; wavering, undisciplined, irresolute _vānaras_ will no more endure your roaring than elephants will the roaring of a lion. With that force routed, Rāma and Saumitri will have lost both their loyalty and their support, and will succumb to you, Prahasta... Better to meet trouble halfway than wait for it to come to us... Am I right or wrong?... What do you think would be best?'
At Rāva a's words, General Prahasta replied to the lord of [45.12–16] _rāksasas_ like Uśanas to the lord of the anti-gods. 'Your majesty, we and your experienced counsellors discussed this matter previously and a dispute arose between us as we debated together. I held it best to return Sītā, and that war would ensue from her non-return; it has transpired as predicted. I have ever been honoured by you with gifts, distinctions and courtesies of many kinds; now the time has come, what would I not do to please you? I will not hold back my life, nor my sons, wives or wealth. Look on me! For your sake I am ready to offer up my life in battle.'
[45.17–18] With this declaration to his suzerain Rāva a, General Prahasta instructed the orderly officers standing before him, 'Quick! Bring me a large force of _rāksasas_. Today let birds gorge on the flesh of woodland-dwellers slain on the battlefield by the velocity of my thunderbolts of arrows!'
[45.19–23] On Prahasta's command, the orderly officers hastily drew up a force right there in the _rāksasa's_ palace, the _rāksasa_ warriors crowding La kā in an instant with all their weapons, spiky as tuskers. As they were gratifying the fire with oblations and doing obeisance to brāhmans, a fragrant breeze wafted the scent of _ghī_ , and the exuberant, battle-ready _rāksasas_ snatched up all sorts of consecrated garlands and put them on. Mailed and bow-wielding, the spirited _rāksasas_ bounded up to honour King Rāva a, and formed up around Prahasta.
[45.24–38] Prahasta then took leave of the king, beat his dread drum and mounted his divine chariot. It was ready and waiting, harnessed to swift-paced steeds and driven by an expert charioteer; it rumbled like huge clouds, it dazzled with the brilliance of moon and sun; it was protected by its serpent-standard and safeguarded by its stout rail; its frame was sturdy, its lattice-work was golden, and it seemed to be exulting in its splendour. That was the chariot he mounted when, given command by Rāva a of the hastily assembled host, he sallied forth from La kā. Then, as the general set out, there was heard a loud drumming like the sound of Parjanya, and a booming of conches. Forth from the eastern gate he sallied, around him arrayed a ferocious host the like of a herd of elephants. Forth sallied Prahasta in haste, wrathful and lethal as Time. The commotion of his sallying forth and the bellowing of his _rāksasas_ raised an echoing cacophony from all creatures in La kā. Ferocious, carrion-feasting, blood-guzzling jackals spewing out flames and fire leapt into the cloudless sky and howled; a meteor fell from the air; a violent gale got up; quarrelsome planets hid their light in anger, raining blood on him and spattering his vanguard; a vulture perched on top of his standard and looked to the south;* as the driver urged on the horses to plunge into the fray, the whip fell repeatedly from the charioteer's hand. Then in an instant his radiant Glory, who had attended his sallying forth, deserted him irretrievably: the horses stumbled on level ground.
As Prahasta sallied forth, vaunting his manly might, the army [45.39–41] of apes took up their weapons to launch a counter-attack; tremendous was the din raised by the apes as they broke down trees or snatched up heavy rocks. Both armies, _rāksasa_ hordes and forest-dwellers, were exhilarated: both fought with vigour, both were able, eager for the kill and belligerent. Ear-splitting was the din they made.
Then Nīla saw Prahasta standing on his chariot, pouring out [46.30–48] a flood of arrows and vigorously striking down the monkeys. Watching his terrible onslaught, the great monkey Nīla flew into a violent rage, snatched up a huge rock and attacked, swiftly hurling the rock at the battle-hungry Prahasta's head as he was fighting with a pestle in the fray; the terrible rock thrown by that monkey chief smashed Prahasta's skull to smithereens. Life, luck, spirit and senses all left him and he collapsed violently to the ground like a tree whose roots have been severed, blood streaming from his shattered head and pouring from his body like torrents from a mountain. Nīla had killed Prahasta, and his great, unwavering army now fled in dismay to La kā.
Then glorious, heroic Rāma picked up his bow and caught [49.1–4] sight of Kumbhakar a, a diademed giant. When this mountain-like _rāksasa_ chief appeared, looking like Lord Nārāya a when of old he strode across space – on seeing him, towering up like a rain cloud, ornamented with golden bracelets, the _vānara_ army again fled. Rāma was astonished to see the army running away and the _rāksasa_ strength growing, and asked Vibhī a a:
'Who is that mountainlike, diademed, tawny-eyed warrior I [49.5–7] can see like a lightning cloud in La ka? He's visible standing out on his own like a flagpole in the ground! Seeing him, all the _vānaras_ are running away all over the place! Tell me, who is this giant? A _rāksasa_? Or an anti-god? I've never seen anyone like him before!'
[49.8–18] Vibhīsa a knew all about him, and replied to the question Prince Rāma, untiring Kākutstha, had asked. 'Death has been defeated by him in battle; Indra Vāsava too. He is the mighty Kumbhakar a, a son of Viśravas. The Thirty were unable to kill scowling Kumbhakar a, powerful and armed with his pike; in their panic they thought he was Time. The other _rāksasa_ lords owe their power to some boon they've been given, but Kumbhakar a here's splendour and might are innate. As soon as this noble _rāksasa_ was born, he was famished and devoured many thousands of created beings, whose panic-stricken offspring sought protection from Sakra and told him what was happening. The din from wily Kumbhakarna's perpetual squalling further frightened the frightened earth. In fury against great Indra, lusty Kumbhakar a pulled a tusk out of Airāvata and struck Indra Vāsava on the chest. Vāsava staggered with the pain of Kumbhakarna's blow, and gods, brāhman sages and _dānavas_ at once despaired.
[49.19–20] 'Śakra went with the created beings to Brahmā's abode, and told that Lord of Creatures about Kumbhakarna's depravity – how he was devouring the created beings and even assaulting the gods: "If he goes on devouring created beings like this the world will soon become empty."
[49.21–3] 'Hearing Vāsava's speech, the Grand Father of all the world summoned the _rāksasas_ and saw Kumbhakarna; the Lord of Creatures was frightened indeed when he had inspected Kumbhakar a. Brahmā gazed at him, sighed, and declared: "Paulastya engendered you to bring destruction upon the world, that's certain. From today onwards you shall lie like a corpse."
[49.23–5] 'Overcome by Brahmā's curse he collapsed in front of the Lord. Rāva a was utterly bewildered and pleaded, "A mature golden tree is being cut down at harvest time. Prajāpati, it is not proper for you to curse your own progeny in this way, but your decrees cannot be unspoken; sleep he certainly must, but do determine a time for waking as well as for sleeping."
'Hearing Rāva a's plea, Brahmā replied, "For six months he [49.26] shall sleep, then for one day he shall wake."
'But this warrior, famished, roaming the earth with gaping [49.27–31] maw for just one day would devour the worlds like a raging foe. It's because King Rāva a has suffered a reverse and is so frightened of you that he's woken Kumbhakar a now. This warrior hero will sally forth famished and infuriated, no doubt, and will devour the _vānaras_. The apes have fled at the mere sight of Kumbhakarna; how will they stand against his battle-frenzy? Pass the word around all the _vānaras_ that it's a machine that has reared up; if they believe that, the apes will lose their fear.'
The Rāghava listened to Vibhī a a's sensible, well-spoken [49.32–4] words and then gave orders to General Nīla. 'Go, Son of Fire! Form up all the troops and take up your position. Secure all La kā's gates, access roads and bridges. Stockpile mountain-tops, trees and rocks, and position all the _vānaras_ , fully armed, boulders to hand.'
Nīla, commander of the ape army, that elephant of a [49.35–6] monkey, instructed the _vānara_ army in accordance with the Rāghava's orders. Then mountainous Gavāksa, Sarabha, Hanumān, A gada and Nala each picked up a mountain-top and went to his gate.
The tiger of a _rāksasa_ was quite drunk with sleep as he went [50.1–7] along the king's highway, but his prowess was immense and he basked in glory. Thousands of _rāksasas_ crowded around that almost unconquerable warrior as he went, showered with flowers scattered down from the houses. Then the _rāksasa_ lord's delightful, spacious residence came into view, looking brilliant as the sun with its covering of golden lattice-work. When he reached his brother's dwelling, he burst into the courtyard and saw his agitated senior seated in the Pu aka Palace. Noticing his arrival, Daśagrīva jumped up in delight and brought him close. When he had resumed his seat on his couch, mighty Kumbhakar a saluted his brother's feet and asked, 'What do you want?'
[50.7–10] Rāva a then leapt up ecstatically and embraced him. Embraced by his brother and greeted in due form, Kumbhakar a was honoured with a splendid, divine throne, but once seated powerful Kumbhakar a, eyes reddened with rage, addressed Rāva a. 'Your majesty, what's your reason for waking me up to honour me? Tell me what it is you're afraid of. Who is to become a ghost today?'
[50.11–18] Rāva a's eyes began to roll as he explained to his angry brother Kumbhakar a beside him: 'You've been asleep for a long time now, mighty brother, in blissful ignorance of the threat posed by Rāma. This Rāma is a powerful son of Daśaratha, and along with Sugrīva and an army he's crossed the sea to eradicate us. Come and look! La kā's forests and groves are just one sea of _vānaras_! They came easily over a causeway, and the _vānaras_ have killed the foremost _rāksasas_ in battle. I can't see any means of destroying the _vānaras_ in battle. Help me! My treasury's utterly depleted. It's up to you to save La kā city – it's only got children and old people left. Mighty brother, for your brother's sake, carry out this difficult task. I've never appealed to anyone like this before, victorious warrior, but I'm fond of you and I rate you highly. Many are the times, bull of a _rāksasa_ , in fights between the gods and anti-gods, when you've defeated gods and anti-gods alike in battle array. There's not a stronger creature than you to be found anywhere.'
[53.45–6]; [54.1–2] Impelled by the power of Fate, Kumbhakar a went out. The mountainous _rāksasa_ jumped over the rampart and saw the stupendous _vānara_ army massed like a bank of cloud; he uttered a roar loud enough to make the sea boom, to beget thunder, even to scatter mountains. Judging that their terrible-eyed attacker could be killed neither by Indra the Bountiful, nor by Yama, nor by Varuna, the _vānaras_ fled.
[54.3–6] But A gada was the son of Vālin; when he saw their flight he called to Nala, Nīla, Gavāksa and mighty Kumuda, 'Where are you going? You're as terrified and panic-stricken as common apes! You're forgetting yourselves, your deeds of valour, and your lineage! Come on friends! Turn back! What do you mean by safeguarding your lives? The _rāksasa_ 's not up to the fight. It's just scare tactics! The _rāksasas_ have put this giant up to scare us, but our valour will get rid of him. Come back, monkeys!'
With an effort they pulled themselves together and [54.7–15] regrouped; from all quarters they returned to the battlefield, trees and mountains in hand. Their anger restored, the mighty forest-dwellers, like rutting elephants, belaboured Kumbhakar a with lofty mountain-peaks, with rocks, with blossom-tipped trees. He did not flinch from the blows. The rocks shattered into a hundred pieces when they fell on to his limbs, and the blossom-tipped trees splintered and crashed to the ground. Furious too, he used all his strength to pulverize the mighty _vānara_ armies, like a fire raging through forests: many the bulls of _vānaras_ , like crimson-blossomed trees, lying drenched in gore, tossed and hurled to the ground. Without a backward glance the _vānaras_ leapt or ran, some jumping into the sea, some seeking safety in the air. In the face of the _rāksasa's_ murderous might, some warriors raced back along the very path that had brought them across the ocean, some to heights or hollows, their faces dismayed by fear; bears climbed trees or sought safety in mountains. Some dived into the sea, some hid in caves; some monkeys collapsed; some lost their resolve.
When A gada saw that the _vānaras_ were being broken, he [54.16–24] called, 'Stand firm, monkeys! We're fighting! Come back! I can't see you finding any place to rest in the whole world if you break! Come back, all of you! What do you mean by safeguarding your lives? To throw away your weapons as you run, so as not to be hampered in your flight! How manly! Your wives will scorn you, and that's a living death. You've all been born in good families, prosperous and great, but you'll certainly be ignoble if you desert and run away. Where now is your proud, puffed up boasting in front of the assembled people? Cries of "coward" will ring in the ears of one who lives with reproach. Keep to the path prescribed by the virtuous; forget your fear! We may be struck down and lie expiring on the earth, we may be crushed in battle and attain the unattainable world of Brahmā, or we may win renown by killing the enemy in combat: Kumbhakar a won't survive the sight of Kākutstha – he'll be like a moth flying into a flaming fire! But if we run for our lives we shall live disgraced. We are many: if we can be smashed by just one, our good name will perish.'
[54.25–6] So urged heroic A gada of the golden bracelet, but the fugitives answered that hero with reprehensible words: 'Terrible is the carnage caused among us by the _rāksasa_ Kumbhakar a. This is no time for making a stand. We're going. We value our lives.'
[54.27–8] The sight of the dread _rāksasa_ with his dreadful eyes approaching sent all the _vānara_ commanders scattering with no more ado in every direction, until A gada's inducements and flattery persuaded his fleeing wrinkle-faced warriors to turn back.
[56.1–5] When the _rāksasas_ saw that the noble Rāghava had killed Kumbhakar a, they reported the news to Rāva a, lord of the _rāksasas_. Rāva a was tormented by grief to hear that mighty Kumbhakar a had been killed in the battle, and fell down in a faint. Devāntaka and Narāntaka, Triśiras and Atikāya were burdened by grief and wept to hear of the death of their uncle. Mahodara and Mahāpārśva were overwhelmed by grief to hear that their brother had been killed by tireless Rāma. When that bull of a _rāksasa_ Rāva a had struggled back to consciousness, he gave vent to his sadness at Kumbhakarna's death.
[56.6–18] 'Alas, mighty Kumbhakar a, you've left me! You hero, you destroyer of enemy pride, you who single-handed tormented the hostile host, where are you gone? Now I am certainly lost! My mainstay is fallen, my right arm, my shelter from fear of gods and anti-gods! How could such a hero, murderous as the Doomsday Fire, capable of humbling gods and _dānavas_ , how could he be killed in battle today by the Rāghava? A thunderbolt-strike would never trouble you – how can you have fallen asleep on the ground, hurt by an arrow from Rāma? Hordes of gods and sages gathered in the firmament are crowing with delight to see you slain in battle. This very day triumphant monkeys will be swarming in delight all over La kā's impregnable gates. Kingship's nothing to me. What do I want with Sītā? I've no pleasure in life now Kumbhakarna's been torn from me. I must be the one to kill my brother's killer, the Rāghava, in battle; if not, death would be better for me than this purposeless life. This very day I shall follow where my brother's gone. I'll not endure life for an instant without my brothers. When the gods see me, their erstwhile scourge, they'll mock me. Kumbhakar a, how will I be able to conquer Indra, now you've been killed? Noble Vibhī a a's salutary advice comes back to me; it was ignorant of me to reject it, and it's to my shame that this savage slaughter of Kumbhakar a and Prahasta has fulfilled Vibhī a a's prediction. It's for banishing glorious, virtuous Vibhīsa a that I'm reaping this grim harvest.'
[ _In further fighting, Nikumbha's brother Kumbha is killed._ ]
Nikumbha burned with rage to see his brother killed by [64.1–11] Sugrīva. Glaring at the lord of the _vānaras_ , the warrior picked up his mace. It was enchained and girdled with garlands five fingers long, it was magnificent as a lordly mountain-peak, it was crowned with a golden fillet; adorned with diamonds and coral, fearsome as Yama's rod, it dispelled the _rāksasas_ ' terror, in battle it was like Sakra's standard. Splendid Nikumbha whirled it with awesome might and bellowed from his gaping maw. Pectoral on his chest, bracelets on his arms, a pair of burnished earrings, glittering garlands – Nikumbha's ornaments and mace lit him up like lightning or like Indra's bow against a thunder-cloud, and the noble warrior's mace created a whirlwind raging around its tip, blazing and crackling like a smokeless fire. Vitapāvatī city and its lovely _gandharva_ dwellings, Amarāvatī too and all its dwellings, the hosts of stars, the constellations, moon and great planets – the whole sky shimmered at the whirling of Nikumbha's mace. Rage fanned Nikumbha's flames till, added to the splendour of his mace and ornaments, he became as hard to withstand as the fire that springs up at Doomsday. In their terror, _rāksasas_ and _vānaras_ alike were unable so much as to tremble.
Baring his chest, however, mighty Hanumān confronted him. [64.11–23] Then the mighty _rāksasa_ used his mace-like arms to bring his sun-splendid mace down on that mighty monkey's chest: like a hundred shooting stars in the sky, the mace shattered and burst into a hundred fragments against the unyielding chest spread out before him. The great ape was no more ruffled by the mace – no more shaken by the blow – than a mountain by an earthquake, and that champion monkey Hanumān responded forcefully to the attack with a violent punch. The glorious, vehement hero with the valour of the Wind raised his fist and landed it vehemently on Nikumbha's chest; the hide burst, the blood flowed; lightning-like sparks flamed out from that fist. Nikumbha staggered beneath the blow but recovered enough to grab hold of mighty Hanumān. The inhabitants of La kā uttered fearsome cries at the sight of Nikumbha dragging mighty Hanumān along, but even as Kumbhakarna's son was dragging him, the Son of the Wind punched him with the force of a thunderbolt and freed himself. Hanumān Son of the Wind then leapt to the ground and immediately laid into Nikumbha. Courageous and determined, he flailed at him, he pounded him, he took a gigantic leap and landed on his chest, seized him in his arms, grabbed him by the neck and tore off his dreadful, screeching head.
[65.1–3] The news that Nikumbha had been killed and Kumbha also struck down kindled Rāva a's resentment to a blaze. Beside himself with anger, beside himself with grief, the son of Disorder called upon Khara's son, broad-eyed Makarāk a, urging him, 'Go, my son, I command you. Take a troop and kill the Rāghava; Laksma a too, and the forest-dwellers.'
[65.4–9] Hearing Rāva a's words, Khara's son, boastful of his night-roamer heroism, replied in delight, 'Without fail!' He saluted Daśagrīva and circumambulated him, then ordered his chariot to be brought at once and the army quickly assembled. The night-roamer orderly officer marshalled vehicle and troops close by; the night-roamer circumambulated the chariot, mounted, and urged his charioteer to drive the chariot off immediately. Makarāksa then addressed all the _rāksasas_ :
[65.9–12] 'All you _rāksasas_ are to precede me into battle. Noble Rāva a, king of the _rāksasas_ , has commanded me to kill both Rāma and Laksma a in battle. Today, night-roamers, with my superb arrows I shall kill Rāma and Laksmana, the monkey Sugrīva too, and the _vānaras_. Today with my spear-thrusts I shall set fire to the advancing host of _vānaras_ , like a flame to dry kindling.'
In obedience to Makarāksa's words, the assembled nightroamers, [65.13–20] all of them mighty and well armed, formed up around Khara's stout son; those stout shape-changing warriors, dread-ful with their fangs, their yellow eyes and their wild hair, were trumpeting like elephants as they marched off in delight, making the earth shake. On all sides there swelled a din from thousands of conches, drums being beaten, growling and clapping, but suddenly the whip slipped and fell from the charioteer's hand; so too did the _rāksasa's_ standard. The steeds harnessed to the chariot lost all vigour and rhythm from their stride and plodded on with sorrowful, tear-stained faces. A harsh, biting, sand-laden gale was blowing as fierce, malicious Makarāksa advanced. The audacious _rāksasas_ all observed the portents but paid no heed as they marched against Rāma and Laksmana.
When the bulls of _vānaras_ saw Makarāksa advancing, they [66.1–7] all immediately leapt forward, ready for anything and eager for battle. The battle that broke out between monkeys and night-roamers was as stupendous and hair-raising as any between gods and _dānavas_ : trees thudded, pikes were thrust, boulders and maces fell, as monkeys and night-roamers pounded each other. Night-roamers with spears and pikes and clubs and swords, with lances, javelins and darts, with flights of arrows on all sides, night-walkers with nooses, with hammers, with staves and other weapons of war made havoc among the lions of monkeys until, tormented by the floods of arrows from Khara's son, the _vānaras_ all fled in bewilderment, burdened by fear. At the sight of the forest-dwellers running, lionlike roars arose from all the delighted _rāksasas_ : the _rāksasas_ were triumphant!
While the _vānaras_ were fleeing all around, Rāma held the [66.8–9] _rāksasas_ at bay with a storm of arrows. When Makarāksa the night-roamer saw that the _rāksasas_ were being impeded, anger flared up in him and he issued this challenge:
[66.10–16] 'Rāma, stand against me! I will fight a duel with you. I will snatch your life away from you with sharp arrows shot from my bow. That you can stand in front of me after killing my father in Da daka Forest! When I remember what you've done my rage increases. You evil-natured Rāghava, my whole body is on fire at not having met you then in the great forest. Fortune has brought you here to my sight, Rāma. Like a hunger-crazed lion lusting after another deer, so do I for you. Today the force of my arrows shall dispatch you to the realm of the King of the Dead to join those heroes you have slain. Why bother with a long speech? Listen to what I say, Rāma. Let the worlds in their entirety witness you and me on the battlefield. With missiles or with a club, in a great wrestling match with your two arms or by whatever means, engage in combat with me.'
[66.17–19] When he heard what Makarāksa had to say, Rāma son of Daśaratha retaliated derisively with ever more potent threats. 'In Da daka there were slain by me fourteen thousand _rāksasas_ , and Triśiras, and Dūsa a too, besides your father. Evil _rāksasa_ , today with their sharp beaks and claws and fangs shall vultures, jackals and crows gorge on your flesh!'
[66.20–37] At Rama's words Khara's night-roamer son loosed floods of arrows towards the Rāghava on the battlefield, but with repeated storms of arrows Rama splintered those gold-notched arrows, and they fell to earth by the thousand. Violent was the battle that ensued when the son of the _rāksasa_ Khara confronted the son of Dasaratha; strident the tones of string on wristguard heard ringing out over the battlefield from their bows as if from two clouds in the sky. Gods and _dānavas, gandharvas, kinnaras_ and great _nagas_ all gathered in the sky in their eagerness to watch this wonder. The strength of each was redoubled with each wound, as blow was answered by blow on the battlefield: the _rāksasa_ splintered the floods of arrows loosed by Rama in the contest, and with his arrows Rama repeatedly splintered those loosed by the _rāksasa_. Every single direction was inundated with arrows, and all around
even the earth was lost to view. Then in his fury the mighty-armed prince snapped the _rāksasa's_ bow; next the Rāghava drove eight bolts through his driver; finally Rāma shattered the chariot with his arrows, throwing chariot and horses to the ground. Chariot gone, Makarāksa the night-roamer took his stance on the ground. The _rāksasa_ stood on the ground holding in his hand a spear equalling the Doomsday Fire in splendour; it would terrify any creature. The night-roamer brandished that great blazing spear, then hurled it at the Rāghava in angry defiance, but as the blazing spear launched by the hand of Khara's son neared, the Rāghava sliced through it in the sky with three arrows; the force of Rāma's arrows cut that divinely gilded spear into pieces, scattering it over the earth like shooting stars. As they watched Rāma's amazing action in destroying that spear the heavenly creatures cheered; when the night-roamer Makarāksa saw the spear destroyed, he raised his fist and shouted to Kākutstha to stand and fight. Rāma, pride of the Raghus, laughed to see him falling upon him, and fitted the Fire-missile to his bow. The missile struck. The _rāksasa's_ heart was violently torn apart by Kākutstha, and he fell dead. The sight of Makarāksa's fall sent the _rāksasas_ all rushing back to La kā, pursued by Rāma's arrows.
When all-conquering Rāva a heard that Makarāksa had [67.1–3] been killed, he angrily ordered his son Indrajit into battle. 'Rāma and Laksmana are brothers of enormous prowess. You're a hero. Kill them. Visible or invisible, you are in every way their superior in power. You can triumph over Indra – and his martial exploits are unmatched – so how could you fail to find, confront and kill two men?'
When the lord of the _rāksasas_ had finished speaking, [67.4–15] Indrajit accepted his father's command; he then offered the prescribed oblation to the Fire at the sacrifice ground. Red-turbaned women, agitated _rāksasīs_ , attended Rāva i at the fire-offering with swords and arrow-feathers, with fuel and _vibhītaka_ nuts, with red garments and an iron ladle. He heaped arrow-feathers all around the fire, then seized a live, pitch-black goat by the throat.* The oblations were pleasing fuel, and the flames leapt up smoke-free as signs and tokens of victory. With rightward-turning flames like refined gold, the fire blazed up of its own accord and accepted the oblation. With the oblation offered to the fire he gratified gods, _dānavas_ and _rāksasas_ , then made his excellent, splendid chariot invisible and stepped on to it, splendid himself in that supreme carriage with its four steeds, sharp arrows and great bow mounted beside him. Beauty blazed and blazed out from ornaments of burnished gold. Secure in the possession of Brahmā's sunlike missile, mighty Rāva i felt himself invincible. All-conquering Indrajit, oblation offered to the fire, invisibility conferred on him by _rāksasa mantras_ , emerged from the city, declaring:
[67.16–17] 'Today I shall fight and kill those two who became sham hermits in the forest, and present my father Rāva a with an overwhelming victory. For me to kill Rāma and Laksmana and strip the world of _vānaras_ will give him exquisite pleasure.' With this boast he became invisible.
[67.18–35] At Daśagrīva's urging, Indra's angry foe launched himself into the fray, ferocious with his ferocious bow and bolts. He saw the two heroic warriors in the midst of the _vānaras_ , like triple-headed snakes firing off networks of arrows, concluded that they were the ones and strung his bow, inundating them with arrows like Parjanya the rain-maker. He took to the sky in his chariot, out of sight of Rāma and Laksmana, and wounded them with sharpened shafts, but amid the onslaught of his arrows Rāma and Laksmana fitted arrows to their bows and deployed their divine missiles; though, radiant as gods, they blotted out the sky with their curtains of arrows, the mighty pair could touch him neither with missiles nor with arrows. The majestic _rāksasa_ created a smokescreen that hid the sky and blotted out the surroundings, concealing himself behind mist and fog. Not a sound of bowstring on wristguard, nor of wheel-rim and hoof could be heard as he roamed about; there was no glint of his shape. In the gloomy clouds of darkness the mighty warrior rained down storms of bolts and arrows like a stupendous avalanche. Battle-frenzied Rāva i used his boon to wound Rāma sorely in every limb with his sun-bright arrows, but when the two tigers of men were struck by his bolts, like mountains by torrents, they loosed off honed
gold-notched arrows, heron-feathered, that flew into the sky, gashing Rāva i as they flew and falling to earth sprinkled with blood. The two champions were pressed beyond endurance by the flood of arrows, but the two Dāśarathis shattered the falling shafts with any number of arrows, aiming their finest weapons at wherever they saw the arrows coming from, until Rāva i the chariot warrior, darting about everywhere in his chariot and handling his weapons with agility, tore open the Dāśarathis with his sharp shafts: he wounded those heroic Dāśarathis so sorely with his well-made gold-notched arrows that they looked as if they had turned into flowering flame-trees. No one knew where he was or what he looked like; his bow, his arrows, everything was as undiscernible as the sun when it plunges into a thundercloud, and apes fell to the ground by the hundred, wounded and struck lifeless.
Laksmana grew furious and declared to his brother, 'I want [67.36] to kill every _rāksasa_! I'm going to use Brahmā's missile!'
But Rāma replied to Fortune-favoured Laksmana, 'You [67.37–40] shouldn't destroy the world for the sake of one _rāksasa_. It's not right for you to kill non-combatants or fugitives, nor any who have surrendered, sought asylum, fled or been driven mad. We'll exert ourselves to kill him, mighty brother. We'll deploy venomous missiles of great impact, and when the _vānara_ chiefs find that foul _rāksasa_ sorcerer with the invisible chariot, they'll pound him to death.'
When he realized what the noble Rāghava had in mind, he [68.1–6] avoided a confrontation and went back to the city, but Indrajit Paulastya remembered how those bold _rāksasas_ had been slaughtered. The brilliant warrior's eyes reddened with rage and he returned to the attack via the western gate, surrounded by _rāksasas_ , an intrepid bane of the gods, but at the sight of the heroic brothers Rāma and Laksmana prepared to do battle, Indrajit displayed his magic. He magicked up a Sītā and set her on his chariot, surrounded by a large troop. Indrajit planned to slay her; the villain had determined he would delude everyone by killing this Sītā before the _vānaras_ ' eyes.
When the woodland-dwellers saw him advancing they were [68.7–13] infuriated; up they jumped, stones in hand, eager for the fight, led by that elephant of a monkey Hanumān, who had snatched up an impossibly huge mountain-peak. Then he saw the Sītā on Indrajit's chariot. She was woebegone and miserable, her hair was in a single plait, her face was wasted with fasting, her only garment was worn out, she was unwashed. The Rāghava's darling, that dainty woman: her whole body was caked with dust and grime. For a moment he gazed at her, then concluded that she was Maithilī. Hanumān was dismayed, and sobs contorted his face. Seeing the Sītā there in the chariot, racked by grief, joyless and wretched, at the mercy of the lord of _rāksasas_ ' son, he asked, 'What does he mean to do?'
[68.13–15] Suspicion drove the great monkey and the _vānara_ chiefs to attack Rāva i, but seeing that _vānara_ host, anger-crazed Rāva i unsheathed his sword and grasped the Sītā by the head. As they looked on, Rāva i struck the magic-created woman on the chariot. 'Rāma! Rāma!' she screamed.
[68.16–21] Hanumān was disconsolate to see her seized by the hair and wept sorrowful tears. Then in fury the Son of the Wind spoke harsh words to the son of the _rāksasa_ suzerain. 'You may have been conceived in a _rāksasa_ womb, but you were born in a line of brāhman sages: shame on you, you villain, for even thinking of such a plan! You're a cruel, low-down, wicked, vile coward! This is not the act of a noble person! You've no pity! You're heartless! Maithilī has lost home, kingdom and Rāma's hand. What's she ever done to you that you want to kill her? You kill Sītā, and you've not long to live! A deed like that calls for death, and you'll get it at my hands! Then when you've lost your life, after death, you'll go to the worlds assigned to slayers of women – worlds abominated even by universally condemned criminals.'
[68.22–4] While he was speaking, Hanumān was rushing furiously towards the _rāksasa_ lord's son with a company of armed apes, but as they attacked he beat back the heroic army of forest-dwellers with a fierce charge by his _rāksasa_ force. A thousand arrows caused the ape army to flinch, then Indrajit replied to the ape leader Hanumān:
()68.25–8 ()'I'm going to kill Vaidehī today, and you're going to watch me. She's the reason you and Sugrīva and Rāma have come here. And when I've killed her, then I'm going to kill Rāma, and Laksmana, and you, _vānara_ , and Sugrīva, and that low-down Vibhī a a. Monkey, you may say it's wrong to kill a woman, but that's why I'm going to do it, because it will distress my enemies.'
So saying, Indrajit personally killed the weeping magiccreated [68.28–30] Sītā with his sharp-edged sword, and that poor woman, that shapely beauty, collapsed to the ground, her body slashed in two. With that woman slain, Indrajit told Hanumān, 'Look at Rāma's wife now, crushed by my fury!'
Indrajit was exultant at having killed her with his own broadsword, [68.31–2(); ()69.1–2] and mounted his chariot bellowing raucously; the bellowing resounding from his gaping maw as he regained the fortress reached the ears of the _vānaras_ drawn up nearby. Hearing the fearsome roaring, loud as Sakra's thunderbolt, the bulls of _vānaras_ glanced around and fled in all directions. Faces despairing, miserable and frightened they all scattered, but Hanumān Son of the Wind called out:
'Monkeys, why are you bounding away in despair, abandoning [69.3–4] your resolution for the fight? Wherever has your courage gone? Follow me where I lead you into battle! It's not right for high-born heroes to retreat.'
These wise words from the Son of the Wind reassured them [69.5–14] and they furiously snatched up mountain-peaks and trees. The bulls of _vānaras_ roared and fell upon the _rāksasas_ , surrounding Hanumān and following him into the thick of the fighting, where Hanumān, surrounded on all sides by these _vānara_ chiefs, burned up the enemy host like a blazing sacrificial flame. In the midst of the _vānara_ army, the gigantic monkey massacred _rāksasas_ ; he was like Time, he was like Death, he was like Yama. Grief and rage possessed Hanumān as the great monkey hurled a huge rock at Rāvani's chariot, but the charioteer saw it coming; his horses were responsive and he drove the chariot well away, preventing the rock from hitting Indrajit standing on the chariot beside the driver. Snatched up to no effect, it split open the earth and re-entered. Nevertheless, the fall of the rock threw the _rāksasa_ army into confusion. The woodland-dwellers roared into the attack in their hundreds. Enormous _vānaras_ of fearsome valour snatched up trees and mountain-tops and threw them into the midst of the enemy, and fierce-looking night-roamers writhed about on the battlefield beneath the heroic onslaught of these tree-wielding _vānara_ warriors.
[69.15–19] Then Indrajit surveyed the havoc the _vānaras_ were causing his own army. Angrily he seized his weapons and went for his opponents, loosing floods of arrows from the midst of his own troops, demonstrating his prowess and killing many tigers of monkeys with pikes, clubs, swords, javelins and cudgels. The _vānaras_ fought back against his followers in the fray: mighty Hanumān devastated the ruthless _rāksasas_ with _sāl_ trunks and branches and with rocks, but when he had warded off the enemy army Hanumān ordered the forest-dwellers:
[69.19–22] 'Fall back! We can't overcome this force. We're losing our lives in our effort to please Rāma, but Janaka's daughter, the cause of the battle, has been killed. We should report this news to Rāma, Sugrīva as well, and then do whatever those two command.' When that leading _vānara_ had issued this order he halted all the _vānaras_ and gradually withdrew his troops in an orderly fashion.
[69.23–5] When Indrajit observed Hanumān marching off to the Rāghava, he went to Nikumbhilā and made an offering to the Fire, and the fire on that sacrificial ground flared up and consumed the libation of blood ceremonially poured out by the _rāksasa_. Wrapped in radiance like the sun at twilight, the fire rose fiercely, gratified by the offering of blood.
[70.7–9] The glorious _vānara_ rushed towards the ape army and sadly told Rāma his news. 'While we were fighting the battle, before our eyes Rāva a's son – that Indrajit – killed the weeping Sītā. I saw her! I was so agitated and dismayed, destroyer of your enemies, that I've come to make my report to your lordship.'
[70.10(); ()71.5] When he heard his news, Rāghava fell to the ground like a tree with severed roots, fainting with grief. Vibhī a a was devastated and grief-striken at the sight of Rāma laid low by anguish and asked, 'What's the matter?'
[71.6–7] Laksmana was overcome by sobs, but seeing Sugrīva and the _vānaras_ with Vibhī a a at their head he told them, 'My friend, Hanumān says that Indrajit's killed Sītā! When he heard that, the Rāghava fainted.'
As Saumitri spoke, Vibhī a a interrupted and addressed the [71.8–9(); ()72.8–10] dazed Rāma with words of encouragement. 'Sovereign lord, what Hanumān told you in his distress is no more probable than for the ocean to run dry. That's my opinion! Stop grieving, your majesty! Don't distress yourself for nothing! Don't give the enemy the satisfaction of thinking you believe it! You'll have to act like a hero, pull yourself together, and keep up your morale if you're to rescue Sītā and kill the night-roamers. I'll tell you what to do, pride of the Raghus; just listen while I explain the best course. Well now, let Saumitri here lead a large troop to Nikumbhilā to challenge and kill Rāva i.'
Vibhī a a's spirits rose again when he had made this suggestion [74.1–3] to Saumitri. He hurried off, bow in hand, to a forest close by; once inside, Vibhī a a showed Laksmana what was going on. Rāva a's glorious brother pointed out to Laksmana a fearsome-looking banyan like a dark cloud.
'That is where Rāva a's mighty son offers up an oblation of [74.4–7] living beings before going off to battle; then the _rāksasa_ becomes invisible to all creatures, kills his foe in combat and fetters them with his supreme shafts. With your sharp shafts you must deflect that mighty son of Rāva a, chariot, horses and charioteer too, before he enters that banyan.'
Saumitri agreed, and that splendid joy of his allies took up [74.7–9] his stance there, flexing his glittering bow, when Rāva a's mighty son Indrajit appeared with his armour, sword and standard on his flame-coloured chariot. The splendid warrior called out to the unvanquished Paulastya, 'I challenge you to battle! Give me a fair fight!'
Seeing Vibhī a a there, Rāva a's splendid son reflected on [74.10–16] what he had heard and reviled him: 'There you are, before my eyes, my father's brother born and bred. How can you do harm to his son, you, my uncle, a _rāksasa_? You've no family feeling, no friendship, no breeding, you schemer! You don't measure up to the duties of a full brother! You're a disgrace! Decent people will grieve for you, you villain, and blame you for deserting your own kind and stooping to serve the enemy. You're so weak-witted you don't know there's a huge difference between living with your own and dishonourably consorting with foreigners. The foreigners may be strong, your own people may be weak, but your own people are better, right or wrong. A foreigner is a foreigner. Such a lack of sympathy as yours for your own people – you alone could hold such a cruel attitude, younger brother of Rāvana!'
[74.17–26] Vibhī a a responded to his nephew's tirade: 'Don't you know my character, _rāksasa_? Why are you getting above yourself? Stop talking so spitefully to your elder, you disreputable son of the _rāksasa_ lord. Even though I was born a _rāksasa_ in a family of savages, I have the best qualities of humans: my character is non- _rāksasa_. I take no pleasure in cruelty, nor indeed do I take pleasure in immorality. My brother's so depraved, yet how could even he cast out his brother? Taking what belongs to someone else, laying hands on the wife of another, undue suspicion of well-wishers: any of these three sins ensures ruin. Ferociously slaughtering great sages, making war on all the gods, his arrogance, his rage, his belligerent and disagreeable nature: my brother's sins will destroy his life and his sovereignty, blotting out his good qualities like clouds over mountains. These are the sins that made me desert my brother, your father. La kā, you, your father – they are nothing to me. You're arrogant, you're childish, you're wicked, _rāksasa_ , and you're in the grip of Time's noose. You can say what you like to me now, but calamity is on its way to you today, and then what will you say? You can't get into the banyan, vile _rāksasa_. Now you've outraged the two Kākutsthas you've no longer to live. Fight a battle against that godlike man Laksmana. You will be killed and go to serve the gods in Yama's realm.'
[75.1–4] Maddened with fury, Rāva i replied to Vibhī a a's words with a savage exclamation, then launched a violent attack. He looked like Time the Ender, standing brandishing weapons and sword on his great, well-adorned chariot with its team of black horses; the bow he wielded was huge – enormous, powerful, sturdy, fearsome. In fury he seized some foe-destroying arrows and told Saumitri, Vibhī a a and the tigers of _vānaras_ :
'See my might! Today you will feel the weight of a merciless [75.4–8] storm of arrows loosed from my bow in this battle, like rain pouring from the sky. Today the arrows I launch from my great bow shall rage through your bodies like fire in a heap of cotton. Today I shall dispatch you all to Yama's realm, impaled on sharp shafts, pikes, spears, lances and javelins. When I stand in battle like a thundering cloud, shooting out showers of shafts with my nimble hands, who will withstand me?'
No fear discomposed Laksmana's features when he heard [75.9–13] the _rāksasa_ lord's fulmination; he responded to Rāva i with anger: 'Hard will it be for you, _rāksasa_ , to make good the boasts you've made; wise is the man whose actions fulfil his aims. The goal you've set yourself would be hard for anyone to reach: you'll never get there! You think you've reached your goal just by bragging about it, you villain! Your combat tactic of making yourself invisible befits a thief, not a warrior! I'm standing before you now, within reach of your arrows. Show your prowess! Or are your boasts just words?'
This challenge had mighty, all-conquering Indrajit grasping [75.14–17] his fearsome bow and shooting off sharp shafts. The irresistible arrows he shot, venomous as snakes, fell like hissing serpents on Laksmana. In that battle Rāva a's irresistible son Indrajit wounded Fortune-favoured Saumitri with arrows of irresistible force, until glorious Laksmana, his limbs shot through by arrows, drenched in blood, glowed like a smokeless fire.
Drawing close to examine what he had done, Indrajit [75.18–22] bellowed uproariously and declared, 'Saumitri, these feathered, sharp-edged arrows I've loosed from my bow shall today take your life; they're death-dealing! Today let swarms of jackals, swarms of hawks and vultures descend upon you, lifeless, struck dead by me. Today that unwarlike warrior, that low-down, villainous Rāma, shall watch as I kill his devoted brother, slice through your armour, snap your bow and cut off your head: Saumitri, he'll see you on the ground, slain by me!'
Laksmana's retort to the frenzied words of Rāva a's savage [75.23–5] son was well-judged and appropriate. 'Why are you boasting about a deed you've not yet done, _rāksasa_? Do the deed: then I'll believe your boasts. I'm making no savage threats, I'm not hurling abuse, I'm not bragging, but I am going to kill you. You watch me, cannibal!'
[75.26–32] So saying, Laksmana drew back to his ear five bolts, irresistible reeds, and drilled them into the _rāksasa's_ chest. Rāva a's son was enraged to be struck by Laksmana's arrows and wounded him in return with three well-directed shafts. There ensued a terrifying, tumultuous conflict between those two lions – the _rāksasa_ and the man – both lusting to kill each other in the battle, both powerfully built, both courageous, both bold and expert in weaponry and missiles, both invincible and matchless in strength and splendour; the great warriors fought like two planets in the sky. Like Bala and V tra, or like two lions, the noble warriors fought that battle; both were unassailable. Many were the floods of arrows they gleefully poured out as they struggled, those two unyielding lions, the _rāksasa_ and the man.
[76.1–4] Then the all-conquering Dāśarathi, angry as a hissing serpent, fitted an arrow and shot it at the _rāksasa_ lord; colour drained from the face of Rāva a's son when he heard the sound of string on wristguard and he glared at Laksmana. When Vibhī a a saw that Rāva a's _rāksasa_ son's face was troubled, he told staunch Saumitri, 'I can see portentous signs about this son of Rāva a, so hurry, mighty prince. He is weakening, I'm sure.'
[76.5–8] Then Saumitri fitted arrows like tongues of flame and loosed those sharpened shafts at him like venom-laden snakes. When Laksmana's arrows hit him with the force of Sakra's thunderbolt he swooned momentarily and lost control of his senses, but regained consciousness after a moment and came to. Then the warrior saw Daśaratha's warlike son standing on guard, and fell upon Saumitri with rage-reddened eyes, howling as he went:
[76.9–12] 'What, can't you remember our first battle, when my prowess had you and your brother writhing about in my fetters in that battle? That great battle, when I first knocked you senseless to the ground, you two and your escort, with shafts like Sakra's thunderbolt? If you insist on attacking me I can only think you've lost your memory, or else you clearly want to go to Yama's realm. If my prowess wasn't apparent to you in the first battle, I'll demonstrate it to you today. On guard!'
So saying, he drove seven arrows into Laksmana and ten [76.13–16] into Hanumān, savage-edged supreme shafts; then, his rage doubly aroused, the warrior impaled Vibhī a a with a hundred well-directed arrows. When Rāma's younger brother saw what Indrajit had done he dismissed it with disdain. 'That's nothing,' he said. No fear discomposed the features of Laksmana, that bull of a man; he took ferocious arrows and fired them furiously at Rāvani in the battle.
'That's not the way a warrior attacks in a battle, nightroamer! [76.17–18] These nice arrows of yours are gentle and ineffective. Warriors don't fight like that in a battle they want to win!' With these taunts he showered him with a storm of arrows.
Shattered by the arrows, his gold-adorned armour cascaded [76.19–33] to the chariot floor like a tracery of stars from the sky. The warrior Indrajit, like an enormous mountain, now had nothing left to protect him in the battle, and sustained wounds from the bolts. Continuously the pair panted as tumultuously they battled; their limbs were all slashed by arrows and completely drenched in blood. Those supreme missile-exponents went on deploying their missiles until they burdened the sky with arrows of every description, their shooting unerring, agile, versatile, exemplary. Fierce was the tumult raised both by man and by _rāksasa_. A terrible slapping of bowstrings arose from each one of that ferocious pair, like the crashing of two clouds in the sky. The gold-notched arrows ricocheted bloodstained from their bodies in that battle, fell to earth and stuck in the ground. Arrows collided with well-sharpened shafts in the sky, smashing and shattering them by the thousand. The dreadful arrows piled up in the fray like piles of _kuśa_ grass round two blazing fires at a sacrifice. The wounded bodies of those two nobles glowed like a silk-cotton and a flame-tree flowering leafless in the forest. Each desperate to defeat the other, Indrajit and Laksmana kept up their tumultuous, fierce onslaught. Laksmana struck Rāva i in their struggle, Rāva i _struck_ Laksmana: neither gave way to fatigue. Those energetic warriors with masses of arrows embedded in their bodies looked spectacular, like mountains bristling with vegetation. Concealed behind their covering of arrows, their blood-drenched limbs all sparkled like blazing fires. A long time passed while they struggled, but neither succumbed to fatigue, neither lost his appetite for the battle.
[77.1–6] Seeing the intensity with which man and _rāksasa_ were fighting, Rāva a's heroic brother entered the field of battle, flexed his great bow in readiness and loosed sharp-pointed shafts at the _rāksasas_ , fiery shafts that fell as one, slicing through the _rāksasas_ like thunderbolts cleaving great mountains. Vibhī a a's followers were outstanding among _rāksasas_ : with pikes and swords and javelins they too cut down _rāksasa_ warriors in combat, but Vibhī a a stood out among his gleeful escort like a bull elephant among its young. Then that _rāksasa_ chief realized it was time to encourage the apes in their eagerness to fight the _rāksasas_ and made a well-timed speech.
[77.7–14] 'That lone warrior is the last one the _rāksasa_ lord can rely on; this is all that's left of his army. What are you waiting for, lords of the apes? Once this evil _rāksasa_ 's been killed in pitched battle, that's the whole army destroyed apart from Rāva a. We've killed Prahasta the warrior, mighty Nikumbha, Kumbhakar a and Kumbha, Dhūmrāk a the night-roamer, Akampana, Supārśva, Cakramālin the _rāksasa_ , Kampana and that spirited pair, Devāntaka and Narāntaka. You've slaughtered all those enormously powerful, elite _rāksasas_ , the work of your hands has brought you across the ocean: you can leap over this tiny puddle! _Vānaras_ , this is the only one you have left to conquer: slain is every _rāksasa_ swaggering in his might that you've confronted. It would be improper for me to bring about the death of my father's son, but my brother's son I would kill: for Rāma's sake I would suppress all pity, only there's a tear clouding my death-dealing eye. It's for mighty Laksmana here to silence him, and for you _vānaras_ in a body to kill his escort.'
[77.15–21] This encouragement from that most renowned _rāksasa_ cheered the _vānara_ lords and they thumped their tails; the tigers of apes growled and growled, calling and screeching like peacocks at the sight of clouds. Supported by all his own troops, Jāmbavān assailed the _rāksasas_ with stones, claws and teeth, but the well-equipped, powerful _rāksasas_ fearlessly encircled the ruler of bears as he attacked; as Jāmbavān struck the _rāksasa_ host in the fray, so they struck him with arrows, keen axes, javelins, staves and lances, setting off a tumultuous conflict between apes and _rāksasas_ , as fearsome and clamorous as if they were gods and anti-gods. Hanumān too in fury tore out a _sāl_ from a mountain, ran to the _rāksasas_ and massacred them by the thousand.
Indrajit battled violently against his uncle in the fray, then [77.22–8] again rushed at Laksmana, that killer of enemy warriors. Laksmana and the _rāksasa_ confronted each other with heroism in that battle, each smiting the other with storming floods of arrows, till the powerful, nimble pair disappeared repeatedly behind curtains of arrows, like the sun and moon behind clouds at the end of the hot season. So deft were the hands of those combatants that no movement could be seen as they picked up arrows, placed, bent their bows and shot, drew back and let fly, aimed and struck. With the entire sky blotted out by the curtains of arrows loosed by the vigour of their bows, no shapes could be made out. Hidden in that gloom, everything took on a more terrifying aspect. No wind blew; not a fire blazed. 'May all be well with the worlds!' intoned great sages; _gandharvas_ and _cāra as_ fled the scene.
Then Saumitri sent four arrows through that lion of a [77.29–37] _rāksasa's_ four black, gold-adorned steeds; as the charioteer struggled to regain control, with his next arrow that glorious Rāghava adroitly severed his head from his body. At the sight of his driver killed in battle, Rāva a's son lost his stomach for the fight and despaired. The ape chiefs rejoiced to see the despair on the _rāksasa's_ face and congratulated Laksmana, and four ape lords, Pramāthin, Sarabha, Rabhasa and Gandhamādana, launched an impetuous assault. With fearsome daring and tremendous heroism, the _vānaras_ leapt up and suddenly fell upon his four champion steeds; the impact of those mountainous _vānaras_ brought blood gushing from the horses' mouths. Steeds killed and chariot smashed, they rapidly leapt up again and returned to Laksmana's side, but Rāva i jumped out of his chariot with its dead horses and overthrown driver and attacked Saumitri with a storm of arrows.
()78.1–10 ()Horses destroyed, the mighty night-roamer Indrajit took his stand on the ground, infuriated and ablaze with splendour. Like two bull elephants in the forest the bowmen confronted each other with their arrows, desperately eager for the kill. _Rāksasas_ and forest-dwellers alike supported their own master in the struggle, pounding each other and attacking again and again. Taking aim, he rained down on Laksmana with the utmost agility storms of arrows the equal of Indra Puramdara's storms of rain, but Laksmana, that vanquisher of his foes, was unperturbed and warded off that irresistible hail of arrows poured out by Indrajit. Judging that he would be unable to pierce Laksmana's armour, Indrajit dexterously wounded him on the forehead with three well-notched shafts, but despite the pain from the _rāksasa's_ arrows Laksmana immediately returned his fire and wounded him with five arrows. Fearsome in their valour, the warriors Laksmana and Indrajit struck each other with well-feathered arrows from their powerful bows, attacking and wounding one another in every limb with savage shafts; the two bowmen were intent on victory.
[78.11–23] Vibhī a a's fury grew against the now horseless fighter and he fired off five arrows with the impact of thunderbolts at his chest, gold-notched shafts that met their mark, sliced open his body and emerged bloodstained like great scarlet serpents. Indrajit was enraged at his uncle; surrounded by his _rāksasas_ the mighty warrior selected a special arrow given him by Yama, but when powerful Laksmana, of fearsome prowess, observed him fitting that great reed, he too selected an arrow, hard to overcome, hard even for gods and anti-gods, Indra included, to withstand: it had been given him while he slept by Kubera in person. Both arrows were supreme, both were put to excellent bows and drawn back by the warriors; both blazed with extreme radiance. Loosed from the bows, those well-feathered shafts lit up the sky as they smashed directly into each other in a violent collision. They had looked like great planets, but after their battle-collision they fell to earth in a hundred pieces. Laksmana and Indrajit alike were taken aback and infuriated to see their arrows shattered in the fray: Saumitri in his fury seized a Varuna missile while dauntless Indrajit deployed a Rudra one, and there ensued between them a prodigiously tumultuous struggle. Celestial beings clustered round Laksmana. Throughout that dreadful conflict, ringing with the dreadful cries of _vānaras_ and _rāksasas_ , beings of all kinds graced the sky, awestruck: sages, ancestors, gods, _gandharvas_ , Garu a and his snakes all gathered behind Indra Satakratu to protect Laksmana in that battle.
Then the younger Rāghava, the hero, set another excellent [78.24–31] arrow to tear through Rāva a's son: its impact great as fire, well feathered, well proportioned, well fitted, well designed, gold-adorned, a body-destroying arrow, hard to avoid, hard to suffer, it filled the _rāksasas_ with fear as if it were a venomous serpent; the assembled gods held it in awe. Of old, in the war between gods and anti-gods, it had been used by the splendid, heroic lord Sakra with his team of bays to defeat the _dānavas_ , and now Saumitri the champion set to his champion bow that champion arrow, unsurpassed in battle, the Indra missile. He set it, he drew back his bow, that cleaver of adversaries, bent by the bowstring; he was as irresistible as Time at the end of the world. He set it to his fine bow, he bent it, then Fortune-favoured Laksmana spoke words to further his cause: 'If Rāma Dāśarathi is righteous, true to his word and unsurpassed in manliness, then kill Rāva i.'
With these words the warrior Laksmana drew back the [78.32–7] unerring arrow to his ear and loosed it at Indrajit in the battle – the Indra missile, primed by Laksmana, that slayer of hostile warriors. From Indrajit's trunk it tore his majestic head complete with helmet and flashing earrings, and fell to the ground. Blood-spattered, the great golden head lay on the ground for all to see, hewn from the shoulders of the _rāksasa's_ heir, and Rāva a's son at once fell dead upon the earth, shattered along with his armour, helmet and bow. Then Vibhī a a and all the _vānaras_ shouted with joy at his slaughter as the gods did at the slaying of V tra, and the air was filled with the cheers of its populace, noble sages, _gandharvas_ and _apsarases_.
When the great army of _rāksasas_ took in that he was fallen, [78.38–44] they fled in all directions, massacred by the triumphant apes. The _rāksasas_ all lost their nerve in response to the _vānara_ slaughter, threw down their weapons and ran for La kā; spears, swords and battleaxes, all their arms were cast aside in panic as the _rāksasas_ fled by the hundred in a rabble in every direction. Terrified, some were harried by _vānaras_ until they reached La kā, others jumped into the sea, yet others sought refuge on the mountain; not one among the thousands of rāksasas remained once they had seen Indrajit lying slain on the battlefield. Just as when the sun goes to rest its rays disappear, so at his fall the _rāksasas_ were gone in all directions. Like the sun with its rays extinguished, like a fire put out, that brilliant warrior's life was over and done.
[78.45–8] The world was filled with joy at the fall of the _rāksasa_ lord's son; with its enemy destroyed, its multifarious burdens were eased. Sakra the Blessed also, in company with all the bulls of gods, was filled with delight when that evil _rāksasa_ was slain. The pure waters and the sky rejoiced. _Daityas_ and _dānavas_ gathered when the one who had brought fear upon all the world was killed. All the assembled gods, _gandharvas_ and _dānavas_ proclaimed, 'Brāhmans may now wander without agitation or fear of pollution.'
[78.49–53] The ape commanders were delighted at the battle and exulted at seeing that matchless bull, that son of Disorder, slain. Vibhī a a, Hanumān and the bear commander Jāmbavān exulted at the victory and congratulated Laksmana. Their aim achieved, the monkeys growled and bellowed and roared as they crowded round Raghu's son to acclaim him. Thumping their tails and blurting out 'Laksmana's won!' the _vānaras_ raised their voices. With delight in their hearts the monkeys hugged each other and recounted all manner of tales of Rāghava exploits.
[80.1–2] When Paulastya's courtiers had confirmed the rumour of Indrajit's slaughter, they reported to Daśagrīva with trepidation, 'Mahārāja, great is your splendour; while we were watching, your son was killed in battle by Laksmana, assisted by Vibhī a a.'
[83.1–5] Rāva a could hear in family after family throughout La ka the piteous lamentation of distressed _rāksasīs_ ; heaving a long sigh he stood momentarily lost in thought. Then Rāva a grew furious and took on a terrifying aspect: he bit his lip between his teeth, his eyes reddened with rage, he was as frenzied as the fire at Doomsday, and even the _rāksasas_ were frightened to look at him. The _rāksasa_ lord turned his blazing eye on some _rāksasas_ stammering in terror nearby – Mahodara, Mahāpārśva and the _rāksasa_ Virūpāksa – and ordered, 'Send troops out at once under my command.'
Apprehensive at the king's command, those _rāksasas_ summoned [83.6–9] some unwavering _rāksasas_ ; all the fearsome-looking _rāksasas_ assented, voiced their hopes for success, and assembled before Rāva a. Rāva a they honoured in due form, then with a respectful salute the chariot warriors all wished their master victory. Rāva a was beside himself with fury and told Mahodara, Mahāpārśva and the _rāksasa_ Virūpāksa with a sneer:
'Today from my bow shall I fire arrows like the Doomsday [83.10–20] blaze to dispatch the Rāghava and Laksmana to the realm of Yama. Today shall I exact retribution for Khara, Kumbhakar a, Prahasta and Indrajit by slaughtering the enemy: not the air, not the regions around, not rivers, not even the ocean will be visible – all will be blotted out by the clouds of my arrows. Today like the sea shall my bow send forth successive waves of arrows to pulverize the troops of those leading _vānaras_. Today like an elephant shall I rampage through lakes of their troops, trampling their faces like full-blown lotuses decked with their filaments. Today in the battle shall _vānara_ commanders adorn the earth, their arrow-studded faces looking like lotuses and their stalks. Today with the release of a single arrow in battle shall I tear open hundreds and hundreds of those bellicose apes who war with trees. Today by my slaughter of the enemy shall I wipe away the tears of those who have lost husband, brother or sons. Today shall I strew the earth with expiring _vānaras_ , torn open by my arrows in the battle, till it well-nigh disappears. Today shall I glut jackals, vultures and all carrion-eaters with the arrow-vexed flesh of my foes. At once let my chariot be made ready, my bow be brought, and let all remaining night-roamers accompany me into battle.'
[83.21] At these words Mahāpārśva told the orderly officers in attendance, 'Hurry the troops along.'
[83.22–5] The nimble orderlies raced round La kā, furiously rounding up _rāksasas_ from house after house, and a moment later _rāksasas_ of fearsome valour tumbled out with a roar. Fearsome were their faces; many were the weapons in their hands – swords, javelins, pikes, clubs, pestles, ploughs, sharp-edged spears, great cudgels, darts, bludgeons and other fine weapons.
[83.26–31] Then on Rāvana's order four orderly officers rapidly summoned his chariot and charioteer, drawn by eight coursers; that divine chariot radiated its own brilliance, and Rāva a seemed to be harrowing the earth with his unfathomable nature as he mounted. Mahāpārśva, Mahodara and invincible Virūpāksa were ordered out by Rāva a and mounted their chariots, delightedly raising a dreadful bellow fit to rend the earth with its noise, and set out lusting for victory. Finally the chariot warrior set out for battle, brandishing his bow, vigorous and supported by his army of _rāksasa_ troops, looking like deadly Time or Yama on his chariot with its fleet horses, and left through the gate closest to Rāma and Laksmana's position.
[83.32–7] Then the sun was stripped of its splendour and the regions all around were plunged into gloom; fierce birds called out and the earth quaked; blood rained down from heaven and the coursers stumbled; a vulture alighted atop his standard and jackals howled out their message of doom; his left eye twitched, his left arm throbbed, colour drained from his face and his voice grew hushed: signs arising to presage his death in combat as Daśagrīva the _rāksasa_ rushed out to battle. A meteor hurtled from the sky with a noise like thunder, vultures gave ominous calls that were echoed by crows, but Rāva a thought nothing of all the grim portents around him and pressed on, madly seeking his own slaughter; he was in the grip of Time.
[83.38–41(); ()84.1–4] The sound of those noble _rāksasas'_ chariots mobilized the _vānara_ army too for battle, and a tumultuous struggle ensued between apes and _rāksasas_ as they angrily challenged each other in their desire for victory. Angrily Daśagrīva dealt great destruction among the divisions of _vānaras_ with his gold-adorned arrows: some of the wrinkle-faced warriors had their heads cut off by Rāva a, others were struck down lifeless, some were run through, some had their heads cleaved, some had their eyes put out. Daśagrīva's arrows tore limbs from the apes, scattering them until the ground was covered. Unbearable was the impact of the arrows from the lone Rāva a, and they could no more endure it than moths can a blazing fire; tormented by the sharpened shafts they fled, bellowing like elephants that have been caught in the flames of a fire and burnt. Rāva a himself went about in the fray routing the monkey divisions with his arrows like clouds in a gale, rapidly devastating the forest-dwellers; before long the _rāksasa_ lord met with the Rāghava in combat.
Sugrīva saw that the monkeys had broken in combat and [84.6–12] were running away. He decided to enter the fray at once, assigning to his command post Su ena, a _vānara_ warrior who was his equal; when he had been dispatched, Sugrīva took his stand in front of the enemy, armed with a tree. Beside and behind him the commanders all snatched up boulders too, and enormous trees of every description. The great Sugrīva roared out his great battle-cry, laying low in death some notable _rāksasas_. The gigantic _vānara_ lord flattened the _rāksasas_ like the wind does huge mountains at the end of an Era, raining a shower of boulders on the _rāksasa_ divisions like a cloud scattering hailstones over flocks of woodland birds. The storm of rocks hurled by the king of monkeys smashed the _rāksasas'_ heads and they collapsed like demolished mountains.
When the _rāksasas_ all around, broken, collapsing and [84.13–31] screaming, were being annihilated by Sugrīva, the _rāksasa_ Virūpāksa, that irresistible bowman, yelled out his own name, jumped down from his chariot and sprang on to an elephant's shoulder. Riding that tusker, the chariot warrior Virūpāksa bellowed a fearsome roar and charged the _vānaras_ , firing fierce arrows at Sugrīva in the vanguard, rallying the shrinking _rāksasas_ and emboldening them. The monkey lord was angered by the wounds from the _rāksasa's_ sharp shafts; his anger thoroughly roused, he made up his mind to kill him. The heroic
ape tore up a tree in the struggle, leapt forward and bludgeoned his great elephant in the face with it, till Sugrīva's blows sent the great elephant reeling away a bowshot distance; it sank down trumpeting. The _rāksasa_ warrior hurriedly dismounted from the lurching elephant and faced up to his monkey adversary; nimbly he caught up a bull-hide shield and a sword and attacked Sugrīva, who stood ready to receive his threat. This enraged Sugrīva, who snatched up a boulder mighty as a cloud and hurled it towards Virūpāksa. The bull of a _rāksasa_ saw the boulder coming and dodged, then boldly struck at him with his sword in his anger, shattering Sugrīva's armour with the sword in front of his troops and knocking him down with the force of that sword-blow. Back on his feet, the fallen monkey aimed at him a slap like a fearsome clap of thunder. Sugrīva's slap galvanized the _rāksasa_ : expertly recovering, he punched him on the chest. Sugrīva lord of the _vānaras_ was even more enraged to see the _rāksasa_ had escaped his own blow, but the _vānara_ spied an opening in Virūpāksa's guard and furiously landed a powerful slap on his temple; his palm was like great Indra's thunderbolt, and the blow sent him drenched with gore to the ground, vomiting blood. Ugly-eyed Virūpāksa could be seen weltering in foaming blood, eyes even uglier and rolling from rage. The monkeys gazed at their quivering, blood-spattered enemy thrashing about on his side and screaming piteously.
[85.1–4] The armies were killing each other at such a rate in that great battle that they were like two lakes being dried up at the height of summer. Rāva a overlord of the _rāksasas_ had double cause for wrath: the slaughter of his army and the death of Virūpāksa. He saw his army diminishing, killed by wrinkle-faced monkeys; he observed the reversal of fortunes in that battle. Agitation overcame him, and he spoke to all-conquering Mahodara standing nearby:
[85.4–5] 'We're in a crisis, mighty warrior! My hope of victory rests on you. Now display your heroic prowess and kill the enemy army. The time has come for you to repay your master's bounty. May you fight well.'
[85.6–7] Mahodara assented to the _rāksasa_ lord's command and plunged like a moth to the fire into the hostile host. Lustily the mighty warrior devastated the _vānaras_ , at his master's command and urged on by his own boldness.
Sugrīva saw that the great _vānara_ army was breaking in the [85.8–12] battle and at once rushed towards Mahodara. The lord of apes snatched up a boulder, enormous, awesome, mountainous, and hurled it with all his might to kill him, but Mahodara was unruffled to see that irresistible boulder hurtling towards him, and shattered it with arrows. The _rāksasa_ shot the boulder into a thousand pieces with a flood of arrows and it fell to earth like a flock of squabbling vultures. Sugrīva was infuriated by the sight of the boulder being shattered, so he uprooted a _sāl_ and threw it at the _rāksasa_ in the midst of the fray, only to have it riddled with arrows by that warlike conqueror of enemy forts.
Next in his anger he spotted a mace lying on the ground. [85.13–18] That blazing mace he swung defiantly before him and battered his choice steeds violently with the mace tip. Steeds killed, the _rāksasa_ warrior Mahodara jumped down from that great chariot and angrily snatched up a club. Club and mace in hand, the two heroes confronted each other in battle, bellowing like bulls or like two thunder-clouds. With the mace the lord of apes struck the other's club, but the mace was shattered by the club and fell to the ground. Then from the earth the glorious Sugrīva snatched up an iron pestle, dreadful and adorned all over with gold; he brandished it, he threw it, but another club was hurled; they collided, they shattered, they both fell to the ground.
Then, with their weapons destroyed, those two closed with [85.19–21] each other hand to hand, both radiating the energy and power of sacrificial flames. Again and again they struck each other and roared; blows from each other's palms laid both on the ground. Undefeated, the two heroes quickly sprang up and landed further blows, then grappled each other with their arms.
Finally Mahodara, that mettlesome _rāksasa_ , snatched up a [85.22–9] sword that happened to be nearby, together with a shield. Sugrīva too, that even more mettlesome champion _vānara_ , snatched up a huge sword that had been dropped along with a shield. Then those two experts in battle-weaponry, rage coursing through their whole bodies, attacked each other with roars, gleefully wielding those swords in the fray. Rapidly they circled, each keeping the other on his right, both enraged, both intent on victory. Then malicious Mahodara, that mettlesome warrior, brought down his sword on the great shield, parading his heroism, but as he was raising the sword he had in his grip, with his own sword that elephant of a monkey lopped off his head, helmet, earrings and all. The _rāksasa_ lord's troops lingered there no longer when they saw him stretched headless on the ground, while the joyful ape who had killed him roared together with the _vānaras_. Daśagrīva grew angry; the Rāghava exulted.
[86.1–4] When Mahodara had been killed, mighty Mahāpārśva harried A gada's fearsome army with his arrows. On all sides heads were ripped from _vānara_ chiefs' bodies like fruit from its stalk in a gale. The _rāksasa_ slashed the arms and shoulders of some _vānaras_ with arrows and wrathfully transfixed others. The _vānaras_ were tormented by Mahāpārśva with his storm of arrows; dejected, their faces fell, and they all lost heart.
[86.5–23] When mighty A gada saw that his troops were being worried and tormented by the _rāksasa_ , a tide of anger rose in him like the sea at full moon. The _vānara_ leader snatched up an iron mace splendid as the sun's rays and brought it down violently on Mahāpārśva; Mahāpārśva was stunned by the blow and with his charioteer fell from the chariot to the ground, senseless. Then the glorious bear king, dark as a heap of collyrium, valiantly leapt out of his own cloudlike troop and angrily seized a huge, mountainous boulder; swiftly he battered the horses and smashed the chariot. But Mahāpārśva was very strong and regained consciousness after a moment. With many arrows he again wounded A gada, with three arrows he hit Jāmbavān king of the bears on the breastbone, and he struck Gavāksa with many shafts. A gada was beside himself with anger to see Gavāksa and Jāmbavān weighed down with arrows, and snatched up his dreadful mace. In his rage against that far-off _rāksasa_ he lifted the iron mace, splendid as the sun's rays, in
both hands, whirled it violently and threw it; Vālin's son was intent on the death of Mahāpārśva. Hurled by that mighty monkey, the mace knocked bow and arrows out of his hand – the _rāksasa's_ helmet too. Vālin's mighty son rushed quickly up and slapped him furiously on the lobe of his ring-decked ear, but Mahāpārśva, brilliant, forceful and furious, picked up in one hand an enormous axe, oiled and polished, spotless, adamantine, tough; in his fury the _rāksasa_ was bringing it down on Vālin's son, but A gada, enraged, dodged and caught the axe violently on his shield's left shoulder. Very angry and equalling his father in prowess, the heroic A gada himself threw a punch like a thunderbolt. He knew the vulnerable area and aimed his fist beneath the _rāksasa's_ ribs up towards his heart with the force of Indra's thunderbolt; the violence of the blow burst the _rāksasa's_ heart and he fell dead to the ground. His fall to the ground dismayed his troops, and Rāva a was overwhelmed with battle-fury.
[ _The duel between Rāva a and Rāma begins_.]
The destruction of his missile redoubled Rāva a's anger, [88.1–12] and in his anger Rāva a the very splendid _rāksasa_ overlord prepared to launch his next missile against the Rāghava, another awesome, Maya-made missile, the Rudra. Pikes and clubs and pestles, blazing and diamond hard, were streaking in all directions from his bow, and cudgels, nooses and flaming thunderbolts, varied and ferocious, were flying like winds at the end of an Era. That ultimate exponent of extreme weaponry, the radiant Rāghava, majestically destroyed that missile with his supreme _gandharva_ missile. With frightful force wily Daśagrīva dispatched from his bow discuses, sunlike and huge, hurtling to every quarter and landing everywhere around; they set the sky ablaze as if they were the blazing sun, moon and planets, but with torrents of arrows the Rāghava splintered the glittering weapons coming from Rāva a at the vanguard of his army, those discuses. When Rāva a saw that his missile had been destroyed, the _rāksasa_ overlord wounded Rāma at all his vulnerable points with ten arrows, but though wounded by those ten arrows shot from his great bow by glorious Rāva a, the Rāghava did not waver; instead, the all-conquering Rāghava in great anger wounded Rāva a with many arrows in all his limbs.
[88.13–16] Meanwhile Laksmana, that slayer of hostile heroes, the Rāghava's powerful junior, angrily laid hold of seven arrows, arrows of great impetus with which the glorious prince repeatedly pierced Rāva a's standard with its human head. Next it was the head of his charioteer – a son of Disorder – that majestic, mighty Laksmana shot off with an arrow, then with five sharpened shafts Laksmana severed the _rāksasa_ lord's bow, although it was like an elephant's trunk.
[88.17–27] Vibhī a a then sprang forward and clubbed Rāva a's fine, black-cloudlike, mountainous horses. With the horses killed, vigorous Rāva a leapt with vigour from the great chariot, incensed with anger against his brother. Then the mighty lord of _rāksasas_ used his great might to launch a spear fiery as a fiery thunderbolt at Vibhī a a, but before ever it arrived Laksmana had sliced through it with three arrows, bringing a loud cheer from the battling _vānaras_. The spear was garlanded with gold, and it fell from the sky triply smashed, flashing and sparkling like a great shooting star. Next he seized a long spear that he thought would fare better. Even Time would find it hard to overcome this one with its blazing splendour; handled by evil, mighty Rāva a it blazed up with frightful power, its radiance that of Sakra's thunderbolt. At this critical juncture, Vibhī a a was in danger of his life, but heroic Laksmana ran rapidly to his aid, wielding his bow to rescue him; spear still in hand, Rāva a was sprayed by a storm of arrows by Laksmana the heroic. His courage gave way before the torrent of arrows spraying him, loosed by the noble prince; he saw that his brother had been rescued by Laksmana, and he decided against the attack. Confronting Laksmana, Rāva a declared:
[88.28–9] 'All right, you braggart, you've rescued Vibhī a a, but the spear that's spared the _rāksasa_ shall fall on you! When I hurl this spear, my mace-like arms shall send it tearing through your heart, weltering in gore, and with it take your life.'
[88.30–38] So saying, Rāva a directed the spear at Laksmana. It had eight bells, it boomed, it had been made by Maya's magic, it was unerring, it was lethal to foes, it radiated splendour, and with an infuriated bellow he hurled it. Fearsome was the power with which it was hurled. With a crash like Sakra's thunderbolt the spear flew violently towards Laksmana in the thick of the battle. As the spear was about to fall, the Rāghava prayed, 'May all be well with Laksmana! Go astray! Lose your force!' but with a great impact it pierced Laksmana's chest, blazing and brilliant as the snake king's tongue. Driven far in by Rāva a's force, the spear clove his heart. Laksmana collapsed. When he saw Laksmana in this state, the resplendent Rāghava close by was moved by affection for his brother and lost courage. Tears clouded his eyes, but after a moment's thought his wrath grew like the Doomsday Fire and the Rāghava, realizing that this was no time for despair, waged all-out war in his determination to slaughter Rāva a.
Then Rāma gazed at Laksmana, blood streaming down him [88.39–43] like snakes down a mountain, ripped open in the combat by that spear: so powerfully had Rāva a hurled it that the efforts of even the best of the apes, harassed as they were by the floods of arrows from the _rāksasa's_ nimble hands, were insufficient to dislodge that spear. It had gone right through Saumitri and was stuck in the ground. Angrily, violently, Rāma grasped that awe-inspiring spear in his hands and broke it off, then pulled it out with vigour. As he was pulling the spear out, Rāva a took advantage and poured down lethal arrows on all his limbs, but the Rāghava ignored the arrows and took Laksmana in his arms, instructing Hanumān and Sugrīva:
'Stay here, _vānara_ chiefs, and guard Laksmana. The longdesired [88.43–54] time for me to display my valour has arrived. I yearn to kill this evil, malicious Daśagrīva like a _stokaka_ yearns for the sight of clouds at the end of summer. This instant, _vānaras_ , without delay, I promise you truly, you shall see the world without Rāva a, or without Rāma. Losing the kingship, life in the forest, trailing around Da daka, the outrage against Vaidehī that caused that confrontation with the _rāksasas_ , and then the terrible calamity that I sustained, with the hellish grief it brought – today all shall be forgotten when I kill that Rāva a in battle. It was on account of him that I assembled this army of _vānaras_ , killed Vālin in battle and then installed Sugrīva as king, it was on account of him that we crossed the sea and built a causeway across the ocean, and today I have set eyes on him in battle, that evil-doer. Now I've set eyes on him, this Rāva a will die as surely as if I were a serpent darting venom from my eyes. Station yourselves at ease on the mountain-tops, invincible bulls of _vānaras_ , and watch the battle – the one between me and Rāva a. The three worlds with _gandharvas_ , gods, sages and _cāra as_ – today let them watch Rāma fight, let them see what makes me Rāma! As long as the earth endures, the worlds with their beings, animate and inanimate, gods too, shall tell of the deed I shall perform today.' With this declaration, Rāma attacked Daśagrīva with sharp, gold-adorned arrows, intent on battle.
[88.55–8] Then Rāva a too showered Rāma with blazing bolts and pestles like storms from a cloud. Arrow after arrow fired by Rāma and Rāva a alike collided with a tumultuous crash. Tips ablaze, the arrows of Rāma and Rāva a alike splintered and scattered as they fell from sky to ground. Prodigious was the noise of string on wristguard from Rāma and Rāva a alike. All creatures took fright.
[89.1–5] Tumultuous was the attack he launched at evil Rāvana; he showered him with arrows, but then declared to Su ena: 'Laksmana here, this hero, has been knocked to the ground by Rāva a's onslaught. He's writhing about like a snake! It's breaking my heart! How can I find the strength to fight while I can see this hero drenched in blood? He's dearer to me than my own life, and my mind's in a turmoil! My brother here, this proud warrior, favoured by Fortune – if he's met his end how shall I enjoy life any more? I almost feel ashamed of my own vitality, my bow seems to be slipping from my hand, my arrows are falling short, I can't see properly for sobbing, I'm getting increasingly agitated, and I wish I was dead!'
[89.6–8] The sight of his brother struck down by evil Rāva a drove him to the utmost despair; his mind in a whirl, he lamented. 'I shouldn't be bothering with fighting or my life or with Sītā when I can see my brother Laksmana slain in the dust of battle. What do I want with kingship, what do I want with life? I can see no reason in fighting when Laksmana here lies killed on the battlefield.'
Su ena the warrior spoke words of encouragement to Rāma. [89.8–12] 'Laksmana here, the mighty furtherer of Fortune, is not dead! His complexion is neither marred nor dark; it's not lost its glow. His face looks glowing and peaceful, the palms of his hands are like red lotuses and his eyes are quite clear. That's not the appearance of one whose life is over, your majesty. You're a victorious hero: don't despair, he's alive! He's just unconscious, sprawled on the ground; his breathing, and the regular beating of his heart tell you that.'
After these appropriate words to the Rāghava, Su ena issued [89.13–16] urgent instructions to Hanumān, who was standing nearby. 'Comrade, make haste from here to that mountain, the herb mountain, the holy one that Jāmbavān told you about earlier, heroic monkey. Fetch the sacred plant that frees from pain – it's called the Viśalyā herb and it grows on the southern peak – to revive the noble hero, Laksmana.'
Unbounded was the strength of that Son of the Wind, and [89.18–21] he was determined to fulfil his commission. 'Right, I'll pick up the peak of this mountain and take him that, for if I go back without taking the Viśalyā herb, valuable time will be lost and great despair will arise,' thought mighty Hanumān, and he hurried back. 'I can't distinguish between these herbs, you bull of an ape, so I've brought the whole mountain-peak.'
The _vānara_ chief Su ena congratulated the Son of the Wind [89.22–4] on his words, then uprooted and picked the herbs. When he had crushed some, Su ena, splendid leader of the _vānaras_ , held the herb to Laksmana's nose. Laksmana smelt it, then that wounded slayer of hostile warriors got up from the ground, healed of his wounds and his pain.
The sight of Laksmana on his feet filled the apes with joy [89.25–6] and they cheered Su ena, 'Bravo! Bravo!' 'Come here, come here!' cried Rāma the slayer of hostile warriors to Laksmana and embraced him with deep affection, eyes clouded with tears.
When the Rāghava had embraced Saumitri, he said, 'Fortune [89.27–8] has brought you back from death before my eyes, you hero! Life, and Sītā, and victory – they were useless to me – what point would there be in living if you'd met your end?'
[89.29–34] Laksmana was still weak, and replied to the Rāghava's words in a feeble voice. 'You've once given your word, and a champion of integrity like you shouldn't be saying such things like any spiritless lightweight! You are irreproachable, and people of integrity don't break their word; keeping promises is the sign of a man of character. You are irreproachable, so stop acting so helpless on my account. Keep your word and kill Rāva a today. When your enemy encounters your arrows he will live no longer than a great elephant in the sharp teeth of a roaring lion. For my part I want that villain killed straightaway, before the sun up there finishes its day's work and goes to its rest.'
[90.1–4] When the Rāghava heard what Laksmana said he shot savage shafts against Rāva a at the head of his army. In return, from his stance on the chariot Daśagrīva struck Rāma with arrows like thunderbolts flooding ferociously down as if from a cloud, while Rāma assiduously wounded Daśagrīva in the battle with gold-adorned arrows like blazing fires. 'With the _rāksasa_ mounted on his chariot, Rāma on the ground is at a disadvantage in the battle,' cried gods, _gandharvas_ and _dānavas_.
[90.8–12] Then, there stood Mātali, charioteer of Thousand-eyed Indra, with chariot and goad, saluting Rāma with deference and explaining: 'The Thousand-eyed sends you this glorious, foe-destroying chariot to win you victory, heroic spirit, together with Indra's great bow, a fire-like cuirass, arrows like the sun's rays and a sharp, untarnished spear. Hero, mount this chariot and kill Rāva a the _rāksasa_ , with me, Rāma, as your charioteer, as great Indra did the _dānavas_.' At this invitation Rāma responded courteously, circumambulated the chariot and mounted; his splendour lit up all the worlds.
[90.13(); Then ensued a marvellous contest, a horrific chariot-duel ()92.1–9] between Rāma the mighty and Rāva a the _rāksasa_. The braggart warrior Rāva a was infuriated to be harassed in the battle by the angry Kākutstha. Rage blazed from his eyes as he heroically brandished his bow and furiously launched an almighty onslaught against the Rāghava. Rāva a poured out thousands of streams of arrows like a cloud in the sky, and filled the Rāghava with arrows like a pond, but though skeins of arrows shot from his bow in that battle filled him, the Kākutstha wavered no more than an immovable great mountain. As if they were sunbeams that steadfast hero welcomed those skeins of shafts, warding them off with his own shafts. Then in his fury the nimble night-roamer fired off thousands of arrows into the noble Rāghava's chest, and blood streamed from Laksmana's senior in that battle till he looked like a huge flame-tree flowering in a forest. The impact of the arrows infuriated Kākutstha too; brilliant as the Doomsday sun, he radiated power as he seized his shafts. Rāma and Rāva a alike were so infuriated with each other that arrows blotted each from the sight of the other as they fought.
Then Rāma, heroic son of Daśaratha, was overwhelmed with [92.10–22] anger. He mocked Rāva a and addressed him with contempt: 'Knowing no better than to make off with my wife from Janasthāna against her will doesn't make you a hero! You're the least of all _rāksasas_! You made off with Vaidehī by force when I had left her on her own in her wretched forest-existence, so you think: "What a hero I am!" You abuser of other people's wives, you hero, you act like a low-down scoundrel towards defenceless women, so you think: "What a hero I am!" You break all the bounds of propriety, you act without shame or valour, you snatch at death in your arrogance, and you think: "What a hero I am!" What a great exploit for a warrior surrounded by armies! That will bring praise and renown to a brother of Vaiśravana! Today you are going to taste the terrible fruit of that great exploit, infamous and ill-advised, that your arrogance led you to commit. You villain, you believe you're a hero, and you've no shame over dragging Sītā away like a thief. If I'd been there when you laid violent hands on Sītā my arrows would have sent you lifeless to join your brother Khara, but now that fortune has brought you within my sight, you blackguard, my sharp shafts shall dispatch you today to Yama's realm. Today shall my arrows sever your head with its fiery earrings: carrion-eaters can tear it to pieces and drag it away through the dust of the battlefield! You shall be thrown to the ground, Rāvana: then vultures can swoop down on to your chest and thirstily gulp down the gore gushing from the wounds of my arrows. Today shall you fall lifeless, ripped open by my arrows: then birds can tear at your entrails like Garudas at snakes.'
[92.23–30] So saying, Rāma the heroic conqueror of his foes showered arrows over the _rāk asa_ lord standing nearby. As Rāma lusted after his enemy's end his courage, his strength, his exultation at the battle and even the might of his missiles were doubled; the missiles of that sagacious warrior of great splendour all manifested themselves and his agility increased with delight. Rāma recognized how auspicious were the signs accompanying him and pressed home his attack on Rāva a to make an end of the _rāk asa_. Daśagrīva was so demoralized at being struck by the masses of rocks from the apes and the storms of arrows from the Rāghava that he could not keep hold of his weapon or draw back his bow; his spirits sank and he could offer the hero no resistance. No arrow he could launch, not one of his weapons, was equal to its task in this battle; the hour of his death was upon him. However, the driver guiding his chariot was aware of the predicament; calmly he edged his chariot out of the fight.
[93.1–9] Delusion enraged Rāvana; impelled by the power of Fate, eyes red with anger, he turned on his charioteer. 'So I've lost my courage, I'm useless, I'm not a man, I'm timid and lightweight, I've no spirit, no drive, my magic's all deserted me, I've no missiles left – is that why you despise me, you scoundrel? You're acting according to your own lights! What do you mean by despising me and disregarding my wishes, withdrawing my chariot in full view of my enemy? You, you scum, have destroyed in a day the renown, heroism, splendour and credibility that I've built up over a long period. I was lusting after battle, but you've turned me into a nobody – and while an enemy who is celebrated for his courage and can appreciate deeds of valour was looking on! But if it's not your own stupidity that's making you drive the chariot away, you rascal, then that proves my suspicion: you've been got at by the other side. This does not look like the action of a friend who wishes me well: it's more like that of an enemy, and you're ill-advised to carry it out. If you're one of my retainers, or if you remember what I'm capable of, you'll turn the chariot round at once while my enemy's still there.'
The charioteer had meant well, and replied with tact and [93.10–23] good advice to injudicious Rāva a's harsh words. 'I'm not afraid and I'm not deluded; I've not been suborned by enemies and I'm not negligent; I don't lack affection for you and I've not forgotten how kindly you've treated me. It was in your interest and with affection welling from my heart that I performed the action that displeases you, hoping to do you good and safeguard your prestige. Great king, in this case you shouldn't be finding fault with me as mere scum, when I'm intent on your welfare and happiness. Hear me out, and I'll explain why I turned the chariot round in the battle like the incoming tide checking the flow of a river. You're exhausted by your great feats of war. I realized that, because I could detect no composure or joy in your face, heroic lord. And then there's these chariot steeds: they're worn out with pulling the chariot, and they're as miserable and weary of the heat as cows drenched by a downpour. A growing succession of portents has been vouchsafed to us, but all of them indicate doom. We must make allowance for place and time, and take account of omens like distress and exultation, weariness and the strength or debility of the chariot warrior. We must watch out for the humps and hollows in the ground, the rough places and the smooth, as well as the opportunity, and we must detect a weak point in the adversary. Advancing or retreating, standing or fleeing – all that is for the driver to determine from his stance on the chariot. It was because of your exhaustion, and that of these chariot-steeds, that I took the proper course of action to counter your terrible weariness. It wasn't to please myself that I drove the chariot away, heroic lord; I did it overflowing with affection for my master, mighty lord. Give the order, heroic conqueror, and I will do exactly as you say, with not a thought of disobedience.'
[93.24–5] Rāva a approved of the charioteer's words, and commended him repeatedly. He was eager for the fray, and ordered, 'Bring the chariot round to face the Rāghava, driver; Rāva a will not retreat from a battle until he's killed his enemies.'
[94.1–3] The king of men watched the headlong approach of the _rāk asa_ king's chariot. With its great standard it roared along, drawn by black horses, dreadful in its brilliance, plastered with banners like flashes of lightning, equipped with the armoury of an Indra and discharging rivers of arrows like a cloud made of rivers. When Rāma saw his enemy's chariot advancing like a cloud, with the crashing noise of a mountain being split apart under the impact of a thunderbolt, he addressed Mātali, charioteer of Thousand-eyed Indra.
[94.4–7] 'Mātali, see our enemy's chariot furiously approaching. He's attacking me again from the left.* It's clear he intends to kill me in battle. So take your stand with vigilance, and advance towards the enemy's chariot. I want to tear him to shreds, like the wind does a billowing cloud. Take the reins and apply yourself calmly and resolutely, with clear head and clear sight; hurry the chariot along at once. Of course it is not for me to direct you: you are accustomed to the chariot of Indra Puramdara. It's because my sole desire is to fight; I'm only reminding you, not instructing you.'
[94.8–11] Expert charioteer of the gods, Mātali was delighted by Rāma's words and urged the chariot onwards. He approached Rāva a's chariot from the left, discomforting him with the dust thrown up by the wheels, but he, eyes rolling and copper-coloured with anger, harassed Rāma approaching in his chariot with arrows, an attack that aroused his resentment until rage overcame his composure and he grasped the Indra-bow: great was its power in battle, and the radiance of its arrows equalled the sun's rays in splendour.
[94.12–27] Great was the battle into which they plunged then as they squared up to each other like two proud lions eager for the kill. Gods, _gandharvas, siddhas_ and supreme sages gathered to watch the chariot-duel, anxious for Rāva a to be overpowered. Portents appeared, baneful and horrendous, signalling destruction for Rāva a and victory for the Rāghava. Blood rained down from the heavens on to Rāva a's chariot, intense whirlwinds blasted him from the left, a huge flock of sky-borne vultures swooped over his chariot wherever it went; in broad daylight La kā was shrouded by a twilight glow red as a _japā_ flower and it seemed as if the earth was ablaze; great meteors pernicious to Rāva a demoralized the _rāk asas_ with their thunderous crashing, the earth quaked beneath Rāva a, the _rāk asas_ felt their arms being held back as they attacked; the sun's rays falling on Rāva a's body gleamed coppery, yellow, cream and white like mineral deposits on a mountain, furious jackals escorted by vultures vomited flames from their mouths as they peered into his face and howled inauspiciously; the _rāk asa_ king was blinded by the battle-dust swirled up by a contrary wind, Indra's dread thunderbolts with their unbearable din fell from a cloudless sky on his army all around, every area in every direction was shrouded in gloom and the sky disappeared behind a great dust storm; savage mynahs squabbling ferociously with savage squawks swooped down on his chariot by the hundred, his horses continuously shed fire and water in equal measure – sparks from their flanks and tears from their eyes. Many were the terrifying portents of this kind that arose, savage signs of annihilation for Rāva a.
For Rāma though, sweet, auspicious signs sprang up on all [94.28] sides, presages of victory.
Savage was the momentous chariot-duel waged then by [95.1–7] Rāma and Rāva a alike, a struggle to bring fear to the whole world. The _rāk asa_ army and the ape host both halted, weapons in hand, all hearts captivated and lost in utter amaze-ment at the sight of man and _rāk asa_ fighting with might; their arms were engaged with their many weapons but their minds were amazed, and they stood watching the battle rather than attacking each other till the glittering armies looked like a painting, _rāk asas_ gazing at Rāva a and _vānaras_ at the Rāghava. The Rāghava and Rāva a had both seen the omens, but both had made up their minds, both were resolute and resentful, both fought fearlessly. 'He must be defeated,' thought Kākutstha. 'He must be killed,' thought Rāva a. Steadfastly they then displayed their whole stock of battle heroism.
[95.8–12] Then Daśagrīva, wrathful and warlike, set arrows and shot them towards the standard mounted on the Rāghava's chariot, but those arrows fell short of the standard on Indra Puramdara's chariot, just touching its shaft as they fell to the ground. Then in his warlike wrath Rāma bent his bow and applied his mind to how he should retaliate. He aimed at Rāva a's standard and loosed a sharpened shaft as insupportable as a great serpent that blazed with its own radiance. The arrow sliced through Daśagrīva's standard and fell to earth; splintered, Rāva a's chariot standard fell to the ground.
[95.13–20] Anger fuelled the fire in mighty Rāva a when he saw his standard toppled and he blazed into battle, in thrall to rage, spewing out a great storm of arrows, arrows with which Rāva a pierced Rāma's divine steeds, but despite their wounds the horses did not stumble or even waver; their hearts were as stout as if the blows came from lotus stalks. Rāvana was even more enraged to see the tenacity of those horses and fired off a storm of arrows, along with clubs and maces, discuses and pestles, mountain-peaks and trees, pikes and axes too. Unwearied by the effort, he poured out that storm of magic weapons, and then thousands of arrows: great was the battle tumult of those different weapons, terrifying, horrific, its fearsome resonance hard to endure. Throughout the _vānara_ host he shot them, quickly making the Rāghava's chariot and the air itself solid with arrows: Daśagrīva was firing at random.
[95.21–6] Kākutstha watched the strenuous efforts Rāva a was making in the fray and disdainfully aimed his sharp shafts, releasing those battle arrows by hundreds and thousands; Rāva a's response to the sight was to cram the sky with his own arrows, till the gleaming arrow-storm they deployed seemed to create a second gleaming firmament of arrows. No arrow but met its target, none that exceeded its goal, none that was unproductive, of those arrows poured out in the battle between Rāma and Rāva a. Without pause they fought; shots from both sides choked the sky with their floods of arrows. Rāma on Rāva a's steeds, Rāva a on Rāma's steeds, both scored hits, then they pounded each other blow for blow.
[96.1–7] All creatures looked on with wondering minds as Rāma and Rāva a fought out their battle. Both took on a dreadful appearance as they tested their magnificent chariots to the limit in their determination to kill each other. The charioteers displayed the whole range of their driving ability, wheeling and charging, advancing and retreating. Rāma injured Rāva a, and Rāva a the Rāghava as their own momentum carried them forward and back; their superlative vehicles roamed over the field of conflict like two rain clouds as they shot their skeins of arrows. When they had demonstrated their many skills they again came to a halt and faced each other in the fray: yoke to chariot-yoke, face to horse's face, flag to flag they halted.
Four sharp shafts fired from Rāma's bow then induced [96.8–19] Rāva a's four radiant horses to give ground. The night-roamer was overcome with rage at his horses giving ground and loosed sharpened shafts at the Rāghava, but the Rāghava, ripped open though he was by the powerful Daśagrīva, remained unmoved and was not even perturbed. The night-roamer bombarded the Thunderbolt Wielder's charioteer with arrows that crashed loud as thunderbolts, but the great impact of the arrows landing on his body did not disconcert or rock Mātali in the least. The Rāghava was enraged more by the assault on Mātali than on himself and repulsed his enemy with a storm of arrows: the warrior Rāghava fired arrows at his enemy's chariot in twenties, thirties, sixties, hundreds and thousands. The seven seas were stirred up by the commotion of clubs and pestles and maces and by the wake of the arrows. Then gods, _gandharvas_ , _siddhas_ , supreme sages and _kinnaras_ and _nāgas_ too offered a prayer: 'May all go well with cows and brāhmans; may the worlds endure for ever; may the Rāghava be victorious in battle against Rāva a lord of the _rāk asas_.'
Then Rāma set to his bow a razor-edged arrow like a venomous [96.20–24] snake and sliced off Rāva a's majestic head with its flashing earrings. The three worlds saw the head fall to the ground, but then there stood Rāva a complete with an identical head! Quick to react, quick to act, Rāma quickly sliced off Rāva a's second head with his battle arrows, but no sooner was that head cut off than another appeared. That too was cut off by Rāma with arrows like thunderbolts. And so a whole hundred of equally splendid heads were cut off with no result: Rāva a's life remained intact.
[96.25–7] Then the Rāghava, that growing joy to Kausalyā, that hero who was expert in all missiles, reflected on the many arrows he had employed. 'The one that killed Mārīca, the ones that killed Khara and Dū ana, and Virādha in Krauñca Forest and Kabandha in Da daka Forest – all these were arrows I could rely on in battle; so why are they ineffective against Rāvana?'
[96.28–31] The Rāghava thought hard but remained focused on the fight and rained a storm of arrows on to Rāva a's chest. From his stance on his chariot Rāva a, angry lord of the _rāk asas_, then counter-attacked Rāma in the fray with a storm of clubs and pestles. Gods, _dānavas, yaksas, piśācas, nāgas_ and _rāk asas_ looked on while that great battle continued through the night: not by night or by day, not for an hour, not for a moment was there any pause in the battle of Rāma and Rāva a.
[97.1–2] Then Mātali suggested to the Rāghava, 'Heroic prince, why are you heedlessly not pressing home your advantage? Mighty lord, you should use the weapon of the Grand Father to bring about his death. The time of destruction ordained by the gods has now arrived.'
[97.3–19] Prompted by Mātali's words, Rāma selected a blazing arrow like a hissing snake first given to the hero by the blessed sage Agastya; the gift of Brahmā, it never missed its mark in battle. Brahmā of measureless might had once fashioned it to aid Indra and had given it to the Lord of the Gods when he wanted to conquer the three worlds, imparting Wind to its feathering, Fire and Sun to its tip; Ether composed its shaft, Meru and Mandara its weights; beauty ever flamed forth from its gold-adorned notch; all beings had lent it their radiance, the sun had lent it its lustre; smoking like the Doomsday Fire, blazing like a venomous snake, it could shatter nimble troops of chariots, elephants and horses, it could batter down gates and barriers, mountains too; it was stained all over with gore, it was bathed in grease, it was very savage; diamond-hard and thunderous, savage in every conflict, terrifying all, fearsome as a hissing snake, in warfare it was a constant source of food for flocks of herons and vultures and packs of jackals and _rāk asas_, a second Yama, inspiring terror, bringing joy to _vānaras_ and despair to _rāk asas_; its layers of feathering glistened and glittered with feathers from Garu a. That arrow, supreme in the worlds, destroying Iksvāku fear, effacing the fame of their foes to his own delight – that great arrow, uttering a _mantra_ and reciting a Vedic precept, Rāma the mighty, the powerful, set to his bow. Wrathful, his whole attention concentrated, he drew back his bow to its fullest extent and fired that lethal arrow. Irresistible as a thunderbolt, loosed by arms with the power of a thunderbolt, unavoidable as Fate, it struck Rāva a's chest. The colossal impact of that flying bolt annihilated the body and tore open the heart of evil Rāvana; drenched with blood, the lethal shaft thudded into the ground, taking with it Rāva a's life, then, wet with blood, the arrow flew quietly back to its own quiver, its task accomplished. Rāva a was dead.
As life and breath left him, bow and arrows slid quickly [97.20–21] from the hand of the slain; life at an end, like V tra slain by the thunderbolt, with a fearful crash the brilliant Lord of the sons of Disorder fell from his chariot to the earth.
When the surviving night-roamers saw him lying on the [97.22–5] ground they fled in all directions, panic-stricken that their leader had been killed; _vānaras_ armed with trees fell on them, cheering at the sight of Daśagrīva's death and the Rāghava's victory. Harassed by the joyful _vānaras_ they rushed in terror to La kā, their mournful faces awash with tears at the killing of their protector, while the jubilant and triumphant _vānaras_ cheered and proclaimed the victory of the Rāghava and the death of Rāvana.
Then in the sky the Thirty Gods' kettledrum was heard softly [97.26–30] beating, and divine perfumes were wafted on a gentle breeze, beauteous rare blooms showered down from sky to earth, strewing the Rāghava's chariot, and in heaven were heard the melodious voices of noble deities cheering and praising the Rāghava. Great joy filled gods and _cāra as_ too when ferocious Rāva a, that terrifier of all the worlds, was killed. The killing of that bull of a _rāk asa_ brought contentment to Sugrīva and mighty A gada, and gladness to the Rāghava.
When the _rāk asīs_ heard that Rāvana had been killed by the [98.1–5] noble Rāghava, they came rushing out of the private apartments, haggard with grief, flinging themselves this way and that, writhing about on the ground in the dust with their hair unfastened, distressed and sorrowful as cows whose calves have been killed. They left by the northern gate with an escort of _rāk asas_ and entered the dreadful battleground to search for their slain lord. 'Noble prince!' they called, and 'Alas for our lord!' as they darted all over the blood-muddied ground amid the corpses lying in its lap. Their eyes filled with tears as grief for their husband overmastered them, and their cries were like the trumpeting of elephant cows whose herd-leader has been killed.
[98.6–11] Then gigantic, heroic, brilliant Rāva a came into view, slain, like a heap of dark collyrium on the ground. Suddenly finding their lord lying in the battle dust, they collapsed on his body like forest creepers torn from their support. Out of love for him they wept. One threw her arms around him, one clasped his feet, one hung from his neck, one threw up her arms and rolled about on the ground, one swooned at the sight of the corpse's face, one cradled his head in her lap as she wept at the sight of his face, blotting out his face with her tears like a lotus with mists. So distressed were they to see Rāvana their husband slain on the ground that they wailed repeatedly from sorrow, and lamented again and again.
[98.12–17] 'The one who terrified Sakra, who terrified Yama, who dispossessed King Vaiśrava a of the Puspaka Chariot, the one who spread fear among _gandharvas_ , sages and noble gods – that one lies killed in battle! Knowing no fear from anti-gods, gods or even _nāgas_ – to him fear has come from a human. Not gods, _dānavas_ nor _rāk asas_ could kill him, but he lies there killed in battle by a human footsoldier. Not deities, not _yaksas_ , not anti-gods either could kill him, but he has been sent to his death by one subject to death, like a person of no consequence.' So saying over and over again his wives wept and lamented again and again in the torment of their grief.
[98.18–26] 'It's because you refused to listen to your well-wishers, who always gave you good advice, that they and we have been cut down today just like you. When your dear brother Vibhī a a gave good advice, in your folly you humiliated and abused him, seeking your own death. If you had sent Sītā Maithilī back to Rāma this dreadful calamity would not have occurred to eradicate us wholly. Your brother would be content, Rāma would be back with friends and family, we would not be widows and your enemies would not be exulting. But your cruel and violent imprisonment of Sītā has brought down a threefold destruction – on you, us and the _rāksasas_ alike. Admittedly it's not your own desire that's been driving you, it's been divine will; all killings are ordained by the divine will. This slaughter of _vānaras_ , of your _rāksasas_ , and of you yourself has come about by divine ordinance. Indeed, not wealth, nor desire, nor valour nor ignorance can check the working out of the divine will in the world once it has been set in motion.' Tears dimmed the eyes of the _rāksasa_ overlord's young wives and grief tormented them as they wailed like ospreys in their misery.
While the _rāksasa's_ girls were pouring out this lament, his [99.1–2] dear senior wife was gazing miserably at her husband. At the sight of Daśagrīva her lord killed by Rāma's unimaginable prowess, Mandodarī mourned in anguish.
'You are Vaiśravana's mighty junior! Surely even Indra Puramndara [99.3–13] is afraid to confront you in your anger! Surely even those gods on earth the sages, glorious _gandharvas_ and _cāra as_ too, have scattered in all directions through fear of you! This Rāma is nothing more than a man, and he's defeated you in battle! Why don't you shrink back in shame, you, a king, a bull of a _rāksasa_? You've trampled the three worlds underfoot, you're gifted with majesty and prowess, you're invincible – how could a human forest-dweller kill you? You operate in a sphere inaccessible to humans, you can change shape at will; it's not right that you should be destroyed in battle by Rāma! I can't believe what Rāma's done on the battlefield – how could he get through to you with your followers all around you? Of old you subdued the threefold world by subduing your appetites; now your appetites have taken their revenge and overcome you. Or it must be that Indra Vāsava has appeared in person in the form of Rāma and it's his magic that's taken you unawares and destroyed you. That was no human that killed your brother Khara amid a host of _rāksasas_ in Janasthāna! Then when Hanumān intrepidly got into La kā, a city even the gods can scarcely enter, that really unnerved us, but when I told you, "Don't antagonize the Rāghava," you took no notice, and this is what's come of it.
[99.14–20] 'Anyway, you bull of a _rāksasa_ , you'd no reason to lust after Sītā to the destruction of your sovereignty, your life and your own people, or to demean yourself by conceiving that evil deed, assaulting Sītā when you should have respected her as superior to Arundhatī or even Rohinī! Not in family, not in beauty, not in ability is Maithilī superior to me or even equal, but you were too besotted to notice. Death never occurs in any creature without a harbinger; Maithilī was certainly the harbinger of your death. Maithilī will make merry with Rāma free of sorrow, but for my sins I am plunged into a dreadful sea of sorrow. I used to make merry with you on Kailāsa, Mandara, Meru as well, and in the Caitraratha forest and all the divine pleasure gardens; I used to travel in fitting style in a carriage of unparalleled splendour; and now your death, my hero, has plummeted me from pleasure and enjoyment.
[99.21–2] 'My distinguished brother-in-law spoke the truth when he predicted, "The annihilation of the chief _rāksasas_ is at hand: this emotion-born disaster is springing from your lust and rancour." It is you who have robbed the _rāksasa_ race of its lord.
[99.23–9] 'You don't need my grief; your might and manliness are well known. But my feminine, emotional nature stirs me to compassion. You've gone to meet your reward, the fruit of your good deeds and bad. It's myself I'm grieving for in my sorrowful separation from you. Why are you lying there like a black cloud clad in yellow and fine bracelets, bathed in blood and your limbs sprawled about? You look as if you're asleep. Why won't you answer me in my grief and sorrow? I was born into a noble house, so why are you ignoring me? The mace you've been using to batter your foes in battle, like a thunderbolt from Indra the Thunderbolt Wielder: you always honoured it, with its sunlike radiance and the golden filigree adorning it. It cudgelled your enemies in the fray, but arrows have shattered it into a thousand splinters. Shame on me! A thousand splinters is what my sorrow-laden heart should have burst into when you met your end.'
Meanwhile Rāma had been telling Vibhīsa a he should perform [99.30–31] his brother's funeral rite and console the wives. Vibhī a a knew what was proper, and he brought his mind to bear on the suggestion he had heard; was it right? was it advantageous? Then he replied to Rāma's words:
'I'm not the right person to purify him: he abandoned all the [99.32–4] constraints of morality; he was cruel, vicious, deceitful, and he molested other people's wives. This Rāva a was my enemy in the guise of a brother, always intent on doing harm, and though I should respect him as my elder he deserves no respect from me. Humans the world over, Rāma, will call me cruel, but when they hear what he was like they will all applaud me.'
Rāma was delighted by his answer, but that supreme upholder [99.35–40] of morality replied persuasively to Vibhī a a's well-chosen words: 'I must yield to your wishes, for your support has brought me victory, but it is incumbent upon me to give you appropriate advice, Lord of the _rāksasas_. Certain it is that this night-roamer clung to evil and deceit but in battle he was ever a glorious, mighty warrior. It's said that this noble, powerful Rāva a who could make the worlds roar could not be defeated by the gods led by Indra Satakratu. Death cancels out enmity. We've achieved our goal. Let me join you in performing his funeral rite. You know tradition lays down that the funeral ought to be carried out quickly, in due form and in your presence, mighty warrior. It will redound to your credit.'
Hearing the Rāghava's words, Vibhīsa a made haste to [99.41–4] organize a decent funeral for Rāva a. Vibhīsa a performed the ordained cremation, then quieted the wives with repeated words of consolation. When all the _rāksasīs_ had gone back in, Vibhīsa a approached Rāma and stood deferentially at his side, while Rāma, together with Sugrīva, Laksma a and the whole army, exulted at the killing of the enemy, like Indra Satakratu about Vrtra.
When gods, _gandharvas_ and _dānavas_ saw that Rāva a had [100.1–3] been killed they assembled, each in his own chariot, talking over the auspicious events: the dreadful death of Rāva a, the prowess of the Rāghava, the dogged fighting of the _vānaras_ , Sugrīva's advice and the loyalty and heroism of Laksma a Saumitri – the illustrious beings talked them over and went back as they had come, rejoicing.
[100.4–8] Then the illustrious Rāghava paid his respects to Mātali and sent back the divine chariot splendid as fire, lent him by Indra; dismissed by the Rāghava, Sakra's charioteer Mātali mounted the divine chariot and rose up to heaven. When the supreme divine charioteer had risen to heaven the Rāghava embraced Sugrīva ecstatically; after embracing Sugrīva he went to the encampment, saluted by Laksma a and honoured by the ape chiefs. Finding stout-hearted Laksma a Saumitri blazing with brilliance nearby, Rāma told him:
[100.9–10] Dear brother, consecrate Vibhī a a here king of La kā; he has been loyal and devoted, and a great support to me. Dear brother, it is my dearest wish to see Rāvana's younger brother Vibhī a a consecrated in La kā.'
[100.11–18] Saumitri concurred with the noble Rāghava's words and joyfully picked up a golden vessel; from that vessel at Rāma's command Saumitri sprinkled Vibhī a a king over La kā in front of the _rāksasas_. Vibhī a a of the pure heart was consecrated by that upright man, and his ministers and loyal _rāksasas_ rejoiced. The Rāghava and Laksma a were overjoyed to see Vibhī a a consecrated in Lankā as lord of the _rāksasas_. With the kingship in Rāma's gift conferred on him, Vibhī a a spoke reassuringly to his subjects, then stood beside Rāma, while the night-roamer citizens in their delight presented to him unhusked grain, sweets, parched rice and divine blossoms; that dauntless hero accepted the holy gifts and offered all their holiness to the Rāghava and to Laksma a. Rāma could see that Vibhī a a had completed his task and achieved his objective; anxious to please him, he accepted it all.
[100.19–22] Then the Rāghava addressed the mountainous hero standing respectfully beside him, the monkey Hanumān: 'My friend, with the permission of King Vibhī a a here, go to Rāva a's palace, approach Vaidehī with decorum and tell her, chief of conquerors, that Sugrīva, Laksma a and I are well, and that I have killed Rāva a. When you have told Maithilī the good news and learned her wishes, lord of apes, be so good as to return.'
With these orders Hanumān Son of the Wind entered La kā [101.1–3] city to a warm reception from the night-roamers, rushed to Rāva a's palace and saw her wasted like Rohi ī parted from the Moon. Gently, humbly and deferentially he approached, greeted her and began to give her Rāma's message in its entirety.
'Vaidehī, all is well with Rāma – Sugrīva and Laksma a too. [101.4–11] He is asking after you. He has achieved his objective: the conqueror has killed his enemy. My lady, with the support of Vibhī a a and the apes and the guidance of Laksma a, Rāma has killed Rāva a. I've told you the good news, my lady, but what I have to share with you goes on: "Virtuous lady, your life is safe! By good fortune I've gained the victory. We've won the war, Sītā! You can rest content, your terrors at an end. Our enemy Rāva a has been killed and La kā here subjugated. I took no rest, so determined was I to win you back; to carry out my resolve we built a causeway across the sea. You've no need to worry about living in Rāva a's palace, for I've placed the sovereignty over La kā under Vibhī a a's control." There! You can breathe as easily as if you were living in your own house. He's on his way! He's overjoyed and eager to set eyes on you!'
Sītā jumped up at that message, her face shining like the [101.12–13] moon, but she was too overwhelmed by delight to utter a word. When Sītā made no response the champion ape asked, 'My lady, why are you so thoughtful? Why won't you answer me?'
Sītā had clung steadfastly to what was right, and she was [101.14–18] overjoyed at Hanumān's message. In a voice choking with delight she replied, 'The joyful news I've heard about my husband's victory has overwhelmed me with delight; just for a moment I'm speechless. However much I think about it, monkey, I can't find a suitable reward for telling me this good news. Dear _vānara_ , I can't think of anything on earth to give you that could remotely compare with the good news you've given me. Gold ornaments or ingots, jewels of any sort, kingship over the three worlds – none of them is fit to be mentioned!'
[101.19–28] The monkey stood before Sītā Vaidehī in a deferential pose and replied to her words: 'Such kind words are just what you might be expected to say, so intent are you on your husband's pleasure and welfare, so eager for your husband's victory. Dear lady, your kind words mean more to me than any heaps of jewels or even the kingship of the gods. Besides, I really do feel I've been granted all good things – kingship of the gods and everything – when I can see Rāma standing victorious, his enemy slain. Those _rāksasīs_ with their vicious tales: that's the boon I beg from you. They are terribly vicious creatures, lovely lady, and I long to kill them by every possible means, fists, hands, feet, pounding them hard with my knees and tearing them with my teeth, devouring their ears and noses and tearing out their hair until their mouths are absolutely dry with terror at the heavy blows I heap on them. That's the kind of injuries I want to inflict on them, illustrious queen, slaughtering those who did you wrong.'
[101.29–37] Janaka's illustrious daughter Vaidehī gave a pious reply to Hanumān's tirade: 'Who could be angry at slaves, reliant on their king for survival and bound to obey orders, _vānara_ chief? It's the chance consequence of an earlier injustice and my own bad deeds that I've been suffering all this: one must reap what one has sown. It was the operation of Fate that ordained it was my lot to submit in my weakness to these slaves of Rāva a. It was on Rāva a's orders that these _rāksasīs_ threatened me; now he's been killed they won't threaten me, excellent _vānara_. The bear once chanted an ancient verse to the tiger. Listen to it, monkey, it's full of piety: "Do not return evil for evil. Their conduct is the ornament of the good. Keep to that tradition." A noble person should show mercy to evil and to good, monkey, even to those who deserve death; no one is without sin. It would be wrong to punish shape-changing _rāksasas_ even for doing evil; it's their nature to take pleasure in harming the whole world.'
[101.38–9] Thus admonished by Sītā, Hanumān gave a tactful reply to Rāma's illustrious wife: 'Your splendour, my lady, befits the lawful wife of Rāma. With your permission I will return to the Rāghava.'
At Hanumān's words, Janaka's daughter Vaidehī said, 'I [101.40] desire to see my husband, excellent _vānara_.'
Hanumān, that splendid Son of the Wind, was overjoyed to [101.41–2] hear her request and answered Maithilī: 'Like Sacī did the Lord of the Thirty, noble lady, you shall gaze on Rāma and his full-moon face – Laksma a too – secure among his allies, his enemy destroyed.'
With this promise to Sītā, radiant as Sri herself, Hanumān [101.43(); rushed back to the Rāghava, bounded up to wise Rāma, that ()102.1–4] supreme archer, and came straight to the point. 'Do receive Maithilī as your queen. She's been tormented by grief, and she is the reason we undertook this enterprise with its resultant success. Maithilī was overwhelmed by grief and she couldn't see for sobbing, but the news of your victory has brought her delight. Once I had reassured and encouraged her she told me, "I desire to see my triumphant husband, and Laksma a." '
The message Hanumān had delivered plunged Rāma into a [102.5–7] deep reverie and that supreme pillar of righteousness gave way to tears. Long and passionately he sighed, gazing down at the earth, then spoke to Vibhī a a standing like a gigantic cloud nearby. 'Fetch Sitā Vaidehī here without delay, but first let her body be anointed with divine unguents and adorned with divine ornaments, and her head bathed.'
Vibhī a a raced into the private apartments to carry out [102.8–9] Rāma's instructions and roused Sītā and his own wives to action. 'Vaidehī, anoint your body with divine unguents and adorn yourself with divine ornaments! Then mount this vehicle, I beg you; your husband wants to see you.'
Then King Vaiśrava a, Yama the foe-famisher, great Indra the [105.1,3(); Thousand-eyed and Varu a who burns up his enemies all drew ()108.1–2] near in their sun-splendid chariots. They reached La kā city and approached the Rāghava. As the Rāghava stood respectfully bowing, great Indra, Punisher of Pāka, addressed him in great delight: 'Rama annihilator of your foes, this vision of us shall not be fruitless for you. I am delighted with you. Tell me your heart's desire.'
[108.3–8] At this invitation Kākutstha bowed, his brother Lak ma a and his wife Sītā too, and he replied, 'If you have been pleased with me, lord of all the gods, I will beg you to grant this wish of mine, eloquent lord. In my cause valiant _vānaras_ have been dispatched to Yama's realm; let them all be restored to life! It was to please me that they took no account of death; let us be reunited by your grace! That is the boon I choose. You who can bestow favours, I desire to see the langurs and bears free of pain and free of wounds, their might and manliness renewed. And wherever the _vānaras_ roam, let there be luscious roots and fruit and limpid streams, even out of season.'
[108.9–12] Great Indra showed his pleasure at what the noble Rāghava had said, and replied, 'Great is the boon you have sought, dear son, pride of the Raghus. The apes shall be made whole again as if they had awoken from sleep, and shall be reunited with friends, family, kinsmen and their own kind; all will be filled with rejoicing. Out of season, trees shall be spangled with blossom and fruit, great bowman, and rivers shall abound in water.'
[108.13] All the _vānaras_ whose bodies had been shattered by wounds again became sound and free from wounds, wondering, 'What has happened?'
[108.14–16] The almighty gods all offered well-merited congratulations to Kākutstha and to Lak ma a on having achieved his goal, then said, 'Hero, leave here and return to Ayodhyā. Take leave of the _vānaras_ and comfort Maithilī, whose devotion to you has brought her suffering. Seek out your brother Bharata, who is living like an ascetic out of sympathy for you, and have yourself consecrated. Your arrival will bring joy to your people.'
[108.17–18] With these instructions the gods graciously took leave of Rāma and Saumitri and returned to heaven in their sunlike chariots. Kākutstha and his brother Laksma a paid homage to the Lords of the Thirty, then gave orders to make camp.
[109.1–3] It was a happy Rāma who got up after spending that night. Vibhī a a saluted the conqueror with deep respect, hailed his victory and announced: 'Baths await to anoint your bodies! There are garments and ornaments, divine sandalwood paste and garlands of many kinds, and lotus-eyed women – artists in adornment – are in attendance to bathe you becomingly, Rāghava.'
Kākutstha replied to Vibhī a a's words, 'Offer the bath to [109.4–7] the apes, their leader Sugrīva in particular. There's a righteous prince, mighty and famed for his integrity but refined and accustomed to comfort, who's suffering because of me: without Kaikeyī's upright son Bharata I set little store by baths or clothes and ornaments. I'm setting off straightaway on the path to Ayodhyā city; it's a long way and the path's very difficult.'
Vibhī a a responded to Kākutstha, 'Prince, I'll get you to [109.8–14] that city in one day! Bless you, the sun-splendid Puspaka Chariot's at your disposal! Rāva a commandeered it forcibly from my brother Kubera, and now that vehicle, massive as a cloud, stands waiting. Your worries are at an end; that carriage will ferry you back to Ayodhyā. But if you owe me any favours, if you remember anything good about me, if in your wisdom you bear me any friendship, stay here a little while. You, your brother Laksma a and your wife Vaidehī shall be honoured with everything you could wish for; then you can go, Rāma. Enjoy yourself just for a while, Rāma, you, your army and this host of your friends, and accept the hospitality I'm offering; it's your due, and it's all ready. It's out of respect and esteem and friendship that I'm begging you, Rāghava. I'm yours to command; I wouldn't dream of giving orders to you.'
In the hearing of the _rāksasas_ and all the _vānaras_ Rāma [109.15–21] replied to Vibhī a a's speech. 'I would never refuse a request of yours, _rāksasa_ lord; only my heart is impatient to see my brother – he went out to Citrakūṭa to call me back and I turned down his humble entreaty – and there's Kausalyā, Sumitrā and illustrious Kaikeyī as well, and the lords, my friends, and the citizens and their families. Lord of the _rāksasas_ , do have the carriage brought to me quickly. How could I ever agree to remain here now my task is done? Vibhī a a, my dear friend, I am honoured, but let me go. You really mustn't be offended with me because I'm in such a hurry to take my leave.'
[109.27(); Vibhī a a's reply to Rāma was to summon that matchless ()110.1–2] carriage, swift as thought, to be brought up to Rāma, and he stood waiting till he saw the flower-decked Puspaka Chariot drive up and halt nearby. Then with a deferential gesture the lord of _rāksasas_ humbly and courteously hastened to ask the Rāghava, 'What may I do?'
[110.3–7] The Rāghava thought in a flash and, with Lak ma a's approval, made this affectionate suggestion: 'Vibhī a a, for the efforts they have made, requite the forest-dwellers with jewels and wealth and ornaments of all kinds. They took part in the siege and conquest of La kā, _rāksasa_ lord; in their zeal they laid aside fear for their lives and never turned tail in battle. It lies in your gift to gratify these ape chiefs with the respect and rewards they deserve from your gratitude. Then they will understand that you can give as well as receive, that you are kind as well as glorious. That's my advice to you.'
[110.8–10] At Rāma's suggestion Vibhī a a rewarded all the _vānaras_ , distributing jewels and wealth among them; when Rāma had seen the chiefs rewarded with their jewels and wealth, he stepped into that matchless carriage, clasping to his side Vaidehī, glorious but bashful, along with his brother Lak ma a, that bold wielder of the bow.
[110.11–15] From his stance on the carriage Kākutstha addressed heroic Sugrīva and all the _vānaras_ , Vibhī ana the _rāksasa_ too: 'My lords, best of the _vānaras_ , you have achieved the objective of the alliance. I give you leave to go wherever you wish. Victorious Sugrīva, ever anxious to do what was right, you have fulfilled all the obligations of a comrade or a friend, my lord; go back quickly to Kiskindhā escorted by your army. Vibhī a a, live on in La kā as your own kingdom; I present it to you. Not even the heavenly beings with Indra at their head can overcome you. I will go back to Ayodhyā, my father's capital. I wish to take my leave. Farewell to you all.'
[110.16–17] At Rāma's words the mighty _vānaras_ and Vibhī a a the _rāksasa_ cried out with great respect, 'We wish to go to Ayodhyā; do take us all, sir! When we have witnessed your consecration ceremony and paid our respects to Kausalyā, then after a short time we will go back home, your highness.'
So entreated the _vānaras_ and Vibhī a a. The majestic [110.18–20] Rāghava knew they were right, and responded to their leaders Sugrīva and Vibhī a a, 'For me and mine to return to the city in the company of all your lordships will heap joy upon joy for me. Step into the carriage at once, Sugrīva, you and the _vānaras_ , and you and your ministers get in too, Vibhī a a, lord of the _rāksasas_.'
Then Sugrīva and his army, and Vibhī a a and his ministers, [110.21–3] made haste and jumped quickly into that celestial Puspaka Chariot; when they had all mounted Kubera's lofty throne, the Rāghava gave the word and it leapt into the sky. Drawn by geese, the radiant carriage bore along, resplendent as Kubera, the joyful and triumphant Rāma.
# Afterthoughts
... _and so they lived happily ever after... didn't they?_
That, undoubtedly, was the expectation of the first tellers. But they had created a romantic idyll about their hero, so popular, so perfect, that generations of their successors were determined both to preserve it and to contribute to making it more perfect still, and that is why the reader who has known and loved the _Rāmāya a_, maybe from early childhood, may by now be feeling a little cheated. Why are so many of the best-loved episodes of the story absent from this translation? It is because many of these cherished familiar components of the Rāma story (so familiar that the absence of some may even have escaped the reader's notice) are the creation of later generations.
As with the first stage, this process was a continuous one and the boundaries between subsequent stages should not be sharply defined. The inherited text was elaborated in three broad ways: by poetic embellishment, by attempts to explain matters now seen as difficult, and by the introduction of completely new episodes, until, by about the first century AD, these individual, often contradictory, oral contributions were compiled to swell the text to approximately double its length (represented by the text of the Critical Edition, _Ayodhyā_ to _Yuddhakā a_). The new material conforms to later patterns of diction, style, vocabulary and verse forms, and also reflects the more developed material and social culture of its authors and their ethical outlook, but the story was now so popular that although a certain amount of the earliest text was evidently overwhelmed by the first elaborations, the compilers apparently felt unable to jettison any more or to alter the main lines of the narrative; inevitably, this situation led to tensions and even inconsistencies between the different textual layers.
From this second stage onwards the plot would have been so well known to the audience that any surprise element had long been lost, a situation that could lead to greater banality, as when Bharata's adoption of the ascetic life is not reserved until the end of the War Book, but narrated at its logical place towards the end of the Ayodhyā Book; in the hands of a sensitive poet, however, it was a situation that could be exploited to increase the pathos. A wistful description of winter put into Lak ma a's mouth is a highly successful lyrical passage typical of the _kāvya_ style, expressive of the exiles' longing to return home, a passage of beauty in its own right, but a triumph of irony as well as artistry for an audience that knows the next _sarga_ will bring Sūrpanakhā's calamitous arrival. Such insertions take many forms and are of varying poetic achievement: large-scale elaborations of the narrative high point – the abduction – detract neither from plot nor characterization; others, pedantic and obtrusive, may consist of nothing more than lists of trees, weapons, trades or characters' ancestors, showing off the redactor's knowledge without adding to the enjoyment or understanding of the audience. We may perhaps imagine some being delivered tongue-in-cheek by a wily performer anxious to tantalize his audience with his delaying tactics, perhaps hoping to secure some material inducement to move on to the next more exciting episode. A number more duels are introduced into the war, including an unlikely preliminary, inconclusive fight between Rāma and Rāva a, spinning the tale out but detracting from the pace and variety of the original.
Many of the narrative additions are closely linked to the changing conceptions of the main characters, particularly Rāma. As is clear from the text translated, he was orginally seen as wholly human, and a warrior; his power was appropriately superhuman and fantastic, but not supernatural, and his actions were dictated, first by the original author's need to progress his story, and secondly by the warrior code. He did what was necessary to win his war, and he was admired for doing so. This admiration developed until he came to be seen as primarily a moral hero, and the ethics of some of his exploits are questioned and must be justified. The most notable example is the underhand means he adopts to kill Vālin, intervening unannounced into a private fight between the _vānara_ brothers, an intervention that inadvertently evokes a slightly more sympathetic image of its victim and is even criticized in the _Mahābhārata_.
Events leading to Rāma's departure to the forest have been so elaborated that the storyline can no longer be determined with any certainty, but it is clear that a great need was felt to exonerate Daśaratha as far as possible from the charge of being harsh, unjust and feeble, if only to ensure that Rāma is of the noblest stock. Yet the king's decree cannot be eliminated from the well-known story. One attempt to absolve him of responsibility for his conduct appears first at this stage. The night of his death, the king recalls a curse laid on him by the helpless, blind, ascetic parents of a boy he had accidentally killed: he, like they, is to die grieving for his son. The boy is not named anywhere in the _Rāmāya a_. The story spread to vernacular tales, often unrelated to the Rāma story, and developed many new features: in Buddhist versions the boy is resurrected and all ends happily; elsewhere, the boy (sometimes now called Yajñadatta, more often some variant of Srāvana) gains enormous merit by carrying his parents on a pilgrimage in a pair of paniers, and is now a major figure of Hindu culture, exemplifying filial devotion.
Around the first to third centuries AD brāhman rather than _ksatriya_ values came to dominate the text. The details of the process are not entirely clear, but seem to have involved a change to a new set of redactors; probably at this time the text was first committed to writing, although it continued to be presented orally. A new ending was added to the War Book, but most of the additional material was collected into two new framing books, the _Bāla_ and _Uttarakā as _('Childhood' and 'Further'), where issues of sovereignty and the ritual purity that now forms part of this concept come to the fore, ideas which introduced a harsh note to the romantic idyll. The nation's prosperity came to be seen as entirely dependent on the king's personal purity, a purity which extended to the wife who must share his role; if that wife were not wholly and rigorously pure herself, the nation would not prosper. The redactors knew that Rāma had welcomed back to his side a wife who had been physically touched by another male, who had spent several months in his power if not technically under his roof (even the earliest tellers had taken the precaution of keeping her out of doors, in the _aśoka_ grove, during the monsoon), and their attempts to exonerate their hero from any possible taint make him seem harsh and uncaring, very different from the man who had been driven to distraction by her capture. First, he rejects her coldly when she appears before him after her liberation, and she is so distraught that she attempts to commit suicide in a fire, only to be safeguarded in the flames by Agni, god of fire and purity, and given back to Rāma with the assurance that he should accept her again. For a while Ayodhyā prospers under their happy and benevolent rule, but then the suspicions of the citizens oblige him to exile her once again, now pregnant (later versions of the tale introduce new devices to explain the unjust suspicions and divert blame from Rama). This time Sītā does not return to him: after giving birth to twin sons, Kuśa and Lava, and bringing them up to the verge of manhood, when they are recognized by their father as his heirs, she calls on the Earth to vindicate her, and is swallowed up in a final demonstration of her purity, a poignant sacrifice of personal happiness to the wider national interest that echoes the opening of the romance.
The three younger brothers each conquers territory of his own. Each of the four brothers has two sons, and each scrupulously divides his kingdom between them. The loving unity that has always characterized the four princes is carefully preserved in the latter part of the Further Book; maybe its authors had seen too much of the consequences of royal family squabbles in real life.
The text translated in this volume tells us virtually nothing about Rāma's life before the beginning of the story: he is the eldest of four brothers, the only one of them to be married, and he has come to the aid of Viśvāmitra in a youthful encounter with Mārīca. It was mostly the poets of the Childhood Book who filled in the details. Lak ma a and Śatrughna must now be no longer older and younger brother respectively but twins, for all four brothers are born more or less simultaneously, and no longer just as a result of the private devotions of their parents but following elaborate rituals conducted by the sage Ṛśyaś ga.
Mārīca's reference to an earlier encounter with Rāma is seized upon and expanded into a detailed narrative with many additional tales of mythical heroes loosely integrated into the framework. On this occasion the authors must take care to ensure that the youthful prince does not kill Mārīca, only frighten him away, for the _rāksasa_ must reappear later to help in the abduction of Sītā.
This episode then leads into an account of the marriage of all four princes (created out of a brief second-stage remark by Sītā to Anasūyā). Rāma wins Sītā by bending and breaking a huge bow that no one else has the strength to string, a common enough motif in heroic tales, and one which does not conflict with the earlier phases of the poem; but this is the first suggestion that his three brothers are also married, and in the same ceremony. In the first-stage narrative, Rāma's specific statement to Śūrpa akhā that Lak ma a was unmarried was part of a joke, but surely was not intended as a lie; and if Lak ma a had left his wife behind in Ayodhyā when he went to the forest, he gave no sign of missing her, nor Sītā of missing her sister.
Sītā was originally considered the natural-born daughter of Janaka, but in the Childhood Book she too is given a fantastic birth-story which has Janaka find her in a furrow. Even so, there are none of the wilder elaborations of this story found in later adaptations (such as the _Adbhuta_ and _Ānanda Rāmāya as_ and some Jain versions, where she is the daughter of Rāva a, destined to cause his downfall, or, in some Buddhist versions, even of Daśaratha).
Rāma the moral warrior hero was still portrayed as a human,
but a human who was being constantly aggrandized by his redactors. One way this was achieved was by associating him with various figures known from mythology, and a number of pre-existent tales were incorporated at this third stage, with only the most tenuous link to the plot or situation. Another way was to aggrandize his opponents and allies, the task of a large part of the Further Book, which recounts the earlier exploits first of Rāva a and his family, then of Vālin and of Hanumān, again expanded out of stray remarks in the earlier stages. If Rāma can defeat opponents of such awesome might, he must be a very great man indeed, both physically and morally. In the older portions of the text he had been associated in comparisons with the martial Indra; now that god was increasingly becoming portrayed as morally degenerate, these were still retained despite the inappropriateness, but in the newer layers Rāma became increasingly compared to the rising figure of Vi u, and at the conclusion of the War Book a chorus of gods declared him to be divine. Finally, a further account clumsily grafted on to his birth-story identified Rāma and his
brothers as partial incarnations of Vi u. The belief that Rāma was an _avatāra_ of Vi u is rare even in this third stage of development, found only here and in the brothers' final self-immolation, and is a development that sits uneasily alongside the many statements still retained in the earlier text stressing that Rāma is human, as well as the boon developed from hints in the first stage that Rāva a cannot be killed by gods, only by a human; the taut logic that governed the creators of the Rāma story was of less concern to their successors than their desire to aggrandize Rāma. It was this desire that led to the change in genre undergone by the text at this point. It is no longer a romance concerning the private antagonism between one man and his lustful enemy, or even of national importance; it is a struggle of cosmic significance, with Rāva a's exploits threatening the stability of the universe and the existence of the gods themselves, and the gods themselves must take a hand to remedy the situation. In Western terms, the romance has been transformed into an epic, and the abduction of Sītā is merely an excuse, or even opportunity, for Vi u to intervene.
The other creation of this stage is the figure of Vālmīki (although there is still no suggestion of several legends later attributed to him: that he created Kuśa magically after thinking he had lost the baby Lava, that he had been a bandit, and that so strong were his powers of concentration that he allowed an ant-hill to grow up around him as he meditated). He appears at the beginning of the Childhood Book, invents the _śloka_ metre in his grief at seeing a mating crane killed by a hunter (in fact the _Śloka_ is a development from an older, Vedic metre), and is commissioned by Brahmā to compose the story of Rāma in this metre. This he does mentally, then teaches it to Kuśa and Lava, who sing, before Rāma, what purports to be the rest of the text, a scene which is not explained until the middle of the Further Book, when Vālmīki gives the exiled Sītā sanctuary at his hermitage, where she gives birth to her sons and brings them up; it is their singing of his story that leads Rāma to recognize and acknowledge them as his sons. It has become conventional to refer to the Sanskrit text of the Rāma story as the Vālmīki _Rāmāya a_ (and to attribute some later, independent versions to his authorship), but there is no textual warrant to confirm this identification.
Committing the tale to writing in manuscripts that had to be frequently recopied led to further stages of elaboration in the development of separate but interlocking recensions from about the fourth century AD onwards. Passages in all seven books were elaborated and narrative insertions made by poets who adopted a process similar to that of the poets of the second stage, equally reflecting the diction, style and outlook of their own day; they filled out the story, but did not extend it to any great degree forward or backward. Large-scale alteration ended perhaps about the twelfth century; by this time Rāma the originally human hero had become widely recognized as God. After this time rare hints are introduced, sometimes in only a few manuscripts, of concepts such as _bhakti_ , the saving grace of Rāma's name, and – rarest of all – _rāmacandra_ as the name of the hero.
The successive generations of poets who adapted and transmitted the so-called Vālmīki _Rāmāya a_ were constantly limited and constrained not only by their own talent, outlook and interests, but by the now well-known outline and even details of the story they had inherited. Audience expectation and participation in oral presentations demanded elaboration of detail but would allow of no radical reinterpretation of the basic story. By contrast, those who from a relatively early date adapted the story or some of its episodes into different genres and languages, and for different religious or didactic purposes, felt less constraint, and it is to their works that we should look for many of the now most familiar aspects or episodes of the tale of Rāma.
The Purā as developed the religious implications of the _Rāmāya a_, and at the same general period many works of classical Sanskrit literature were drawing on its literary aspects. The _Raghuvamśa_ , 'The Dynasty of Raghu', by the most famous Sanskrit playwright and poet, Kālidāsa ( _c_. fifth century AD), precedes his summary of Rāma's life with stories of four of his ancestors, and follows it with tales or names of twenty-four descendants from Kuśa onwards.
Kuśa and Lava and their recognition as true heirs of Rāma figure in a number of independent versions where their story is developed. Instead of being noticed because they sing the Rāma story at the horse sacrifice Rāma is preparing to celebrate, they establish their credentials by attacking the sacrificial horse's guards, and in some versions they defeat or even kill Rāma himself, who is then brought back to life by Sītā. Only sons of Ráma would be capable of defeating Rāma, so they must be Rāma's sons.
Understanding of Sītā is extended dramatically in the _Adbhuta Rāmāya a_ (perhaps fifteenth century) where she is viewed from a _śākta_ perspective. She scornfully tells Rāma that his feat in killing Rāvana is of little value while a much more powerful relative of the _rāksasa_ remains alive, and, when Rāma is overcome by this new enemy, promptly defeats him herself. This episode, which has its roots in a widespread unrelated traditional tale, is assimilated to the Rāma story in several different versions. In some the relative is named Mahīrāvana; when he captures Rāma and Lak ma a and is about to sacrifice them to the Goddess, it is Hanumān who rescues them.
There are folk tellings in which Hanumān's status as a monkey god is greater than that of the human Rāma, but whether or not the cult that has seen the erection of ever more imposing modern temples to Hanumān owes its origin to some pre-existent, independent monkey deity, it has certainly been promoted by the _Rāmāya a's_ lovable ape. Hanumān's role had continued to grow from the quite modest early beginnings to considerably greater prominence in the later Vālmīki _Rāmāya a_, and has continued to expand ever since. As a subordinate to the _vānara_ leaders he could be portrayed with a heroic yet naive, impulsive charm inappropriate to his masters but calculated to lighten the tone of the poem and endear him to generations of audiences. Miniature painters delighted in capturing his pride in his devotion to Rāma, and a familiar image of him nowadays, particularly in bazaar paintings, represents him ripping open his chest to show that Rāma and Sītā are enshrined in his heart. It is all the more curious that the _Harivamśa_ (a supplement to the _Mahābhārata_ within which the life-story of K a is embedded), though incorporating a large number of allusions to the _Rāmāya a_ and its characters, studiously ignores Hanumān.
Guarding Sītā (and therefore, by extension, Rāma) from pollution continued to be a major pre-occupation of authors who placed ever-increasing stress on bodily purity at the expense of purity of character, and by doing so wrecked the original authors' conception of the tale. Ever since the composition of the Further Book we have known that Sītā' terror and staunch resistance, and Rāma's agony, have been quite unnecessary: Rāva a is under a curse not to rape her. But an important theological development appears in the _Kūrma Purā a_, where Agni creates – at Rāma's behest – an illusory Sītā before her abduction by Rāva a, which has the purpose of safeguarding the real Sītā's purity until she is returned to Rāma in the fire-suicide episode after the battle. Because of its theological implications, this idea is taken over by the _Adhy_ _ātma Rāmāya a_, followed by Tulsīdās in his _Rāmcaritmānas_. The _Adhyātma Rāmāyana_ , which combines a strongly devotional belief in Rāma's saving grace with an Advaitin understanding of the world as mere illusion imposed on the unitary Absolute, is perhaps the best known of the sectarian recastings in Sanskrit, and has exercised a great influence on modern devotional interpretation of the Rāma story. In Hindi, Tulsīdās, _Rāmcaritmānas_ (late sixteenth century) is most notable for his stress on the name of Rāma, which for him is the essence of the supreme deity and has immense saving power. For Tulsīdās, the state of _rāmarājya_ (Rāma's ideal rule) was accessible to the individual in the degenerate age of the world in which we live through Rāma's saving name. It is the _Rāmcaritmānas_ that has become in Hindi-speaking areas the text for the _Rāmlīlās_ that was mentioned in the Introduction. Staged annually at the Daśahrā festival, this enactment of the story in dramatic form has obviously been a potent force in shaping the nature of popular religion. The extent to which each local community is involved in the organization and in the acting is noteworthy.
The earliest versions of the Rāma story in languages other than Sanskrit are Buddhist and Jain: the _Dasaratha Jātaka_ of the fifth century AD (sometimes but wrongly held to be an independent version), and Jain versions which are essentially reductionist critiques of the story, absolving Rāma from the taint of killing even animals. The first version in a vernacular language is one of the major works of Tamil literature, Kampan's _Irāmāva-tāram_ in perhaps the tenth century AD; it shows a clearly devotional, _bhakti_ , approach to the story with something of the emphasis on the name of Rāma later to be seen most prominently in the work of Tulsīdās. In North India, the first major adaptation into a modern language was the version of K ttibās, probably composed early in the fifteenth century, to be followed by several other Bengali versions.
The spread of the Rāma story into the rest of Asia is both dramatic and early, and the extent to which it has become part of the local culture in its new homeland is marked. The spread of Buddhism carried versions of the tale to Central Asia and even China. Sculptural and inscriptional evidence indicates that it must have reached Indonesia by the seventh century AD, and the Old Javanese version dates from the early tenth century. There are multiple versions in Khmer, Laotian and Thai, and its popularity in Thailand is demonstrated by the adoption of the name Rāma by its rulers from the eighteenth century. In Malaysia, Muslim elements have been absorbed, and it has reached as far as Japan and even the Philippines. More recent movements of population have brought it to Britain, where individuals and communities have drawn on it to create or maintain a sense of identity. In the land of his birth, devotion to Rāma and his story are exemplified both by the enthusiastic yet pious reception of the adaptation televised in 1987–8, but also by actions performed in his name that would surely not be approved by the one who was gracious even to his enemies.
_So yes, they have lived ever after, and clearly they will continue to live, but with what degree of happiness? That is for the reader to decide, but for us all to determine._
# Note on the Text Translated
The lists in the later part of this Note employ the sigla for manuscripts used in the Critical Edition. The following abbreviations are used:
Crit. Ed. = Critical Edition (1960–75, see Further Reading).
_Critical Notes_ = The notes on the text at the end of individual volumes of the _Rāmāyana_ , Crit. Ed.
_MB 2002_ = Mary Brockington, 'The rise and fall of Mārīca', in _Stages and Transitions: temporal and historical frameworks in epic and Purā ic literature_, Proceedings of the Second Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Purā as, August 1999, edited by Mary Brockington (Zagreb: Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2002), pp. 177–92.
_RR_ = John Brockington, _Righteous Rāma: The Evolution of an Epic_ (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985).
_Skt Epics_ = John Brockington, _The Sanskrit Epics_ , Handbuch der Orientalistik 2.12 (Leiden: Brill, 1998).
_Söhnen_ = Renate Söhnen, _Untersuchungen zur Komposition und Gesprächen im Rāmāya a_, Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik, 2 vols. (Reinbek: Verlag fur orientalistische Fachpublikationen, 1979).
The text translated has been established according to a rigorous linguistic analysis of the Baroda Critical Edition, conducted by John Brockington. Details have been published in a series of articles which were then summarized in his book _Righteous Rāma_ , where he went on to draw out the implications. He examined grammatical and stylistic features (formation and declensions of nouns and adjectives, verbal forms, use of tenses, etc.), noting the frequency with which each occurred in each _sarga_. The vocabulary, formulae (building blocks of composition, characteristic of an orally composed work), use of imagery and figures of speech were subjected to the same statistical analysis. It soon became apparent that some features occurred more frequently in some _sargas_ than in others, and that similar features were clustered in these _sargas_. A number of these features were already known to be characteristic of the later, elaborate Classical style; others clearly pointed to the existence of a distinctive epic diction similar to that studied by earlier scholars of the _Mahābhārata_ , but with significant differences.
The types both of verbal and of nominal forms used are less complex than they become by the second stage; the vocabulary is simple and well defined, and considerably less extensive than in the later parts of the text. Essentially simple, too, is the use of figures of speech: similes are much the commonest figure employed, but even their usage is noticeably more restrained than in later, more ornate, passages, with the imagery largely confined to the natural world and martial pursuits.
The relatively small number of verses in longer metres, either _tri-stubhs_ or other more elaborate lyrical metres, have been identified as forming part of the expansion in the second stage; mostly they are added at the end of _sloka sargas_ , and betray their lateness by the variability with which they are added within the manuscript tradition, as well as by their narrative redundancy.
Five stages of development were identified: in terms of the Crit. Ed., the first two are the earlier and later _sargas_ in the printed text of the five core Books 'Ayodhyā' to 'War' ( _Ayodhyākā a_ to _Yuddhakā a_); each stage represents around 35% of the Crit. Ed. text. Stage 3 is the framing Books 1 and 7 ('Childhood' and 'Further', _Bālakā a_ and _Uttarakān a_), and perhaps the last few _sargas_ of 'War' (the remaining three tenths). Stages 4 and 5 comprise those many passages found in the manuscript sources but not regarded as part of the constituted text by the Baroda editors and therefore printed in the critical apparatus, either as so-called *passages or in the Appendix.
The _sargas_ identified as stage 1 (listed below as table A), with a few further refinements, form the base text for this translation. A number of verses or part verses have been omitted where it is felt that the manuscript evidence did not justify their inclusion by the editors of the Crit. Ed., who, in following the Southern recension, have sometimes given insufficient weight to the absence of a verse or passage in a group of Northern manuscripts (list B). The complete _sarga_ , the smallest base unit practicable for meaningful statistical analysis, has always been recognized to be a clumsy and arbitrary unit, not least because there is no certainty that the division into _sargas_ is original; equally, it is clear that some have been expanded, with earlier and later material interwoven. A number of passages in first-stage sargas have therefore been excluded for reasons discussed in _Righteous Rāma_ (list C). Where expansions and elaborations have obscured the narrative thread, a few verses have where possible been translated from otherwise second-stage _sargas_ to avoid interrupting the narrative flow (list D): none of the verses selected contains identifiably second-stage diction. Where this has not been possible, the translators have composed brief bridging passages, printed in italics within square brackets, to give the reader the necessary help. Variant readings adopted in the translation are also listed at the end of this Note.
In tabular form, the text translated comprises:
_A) Complete sargas (sloka verses only)_
2.31–45 | 3.5–7 | 4.1–12 | 5.9–11 | 6.1–3
---|---|---|---|---
48–56 | 12 | 14–16 | 18–25 | 6–17
59–60 | 14 | 19–20 | 28–32 | 19–22
62–4 | 16–24 | 22 | 38–42 | 25–9
70–73 | 26–7 | 25–6 | 44 | 32–45
76–84 | 31–2 | 31–8 | 48–53 | 49–50
86–7 | 34–9 | 43–8 | 59–66 | 54
90–91 | 41–3 | 50–57
| |
56
93 | 46–9 | 63–4
| |
64–9
96–7 | 51–2
| | |
74–8
99 | 54–7
| | |
83–6
103–5 | 59
| | |
88–9
109 | 61–70
| | |
92–101
| | | |
108–10
_B) Individual verses or part verses excised as insufficiently supported by the manuscript evidence_
2,41.29–33
2,56.2
2,93.4c–5b
3,41.6–7, 36–44b
3,47.26c-27b, 36
3,49.1, 16–17, 33
3,51.4ef ( _as suggested in the Critical Notes_ )
3,52.12c–13b
3,59.16ef
3,62.10–11
3,64.29–30
3,65.29ab
3,67.20cd, 21cd-22 ( _also re-ordering as in Northern mss_ )
3,68.5ab, 8–9
3,69.13–14ab
4,2.2
4,4.10ab
4,16.15–17
4,20.7
4, 32.26ef
4,37.7cd
4,46.13ab
4,48.6, 22
4,57.13
5,9.4–9, 13c-14d, 15c-18b, 26–8, 31–32, 34ab, 44
5,10.15ab, 24
5,11.1–2, 6, 13–14, 19, 21, 32, 36, 38cd–40, 44, 46–50, 52–67
5,20.31–3
5,22.7a–d, 38cd, 39cd
5,24.26–49
5, 25.11ab, 13–16
5,28.17cd, 25, 29ab, 36cd–39 (37–9 = 5,2.37–9)
5,29.2ef, 9
5,31.8
5,32.5–12, 15–16
5,38.12–20ab
5,40.27
5,41.1–2, 11–15ab
5,44.21
5,49.35
5, 51.12–13ab, 17, 19, 27, 34
5,53.2–4
5,59.1, 12–13
5,60.17–27
5,62.8 ( _as suggested in Critical Notes_ ), 30ef–33
5,64.15ef ( _as suggested in Critical Notes_ )
6,8.16ab
6,11.49–56b
6,14.21 ( _also rare vocabulary_ )
6,15.18
6,19.8
6,2o.4ab
6,21.21ab, 28cd
6,26.31–2
6,28.11d–12a, 13ab
6,33.30–31, 35–42.
6,35.12ab
6,43.5
6,45.2, 29, 31ab, 33cd
6,65.5cd–6ab
6,67.12C–13
6,68.17ab
6,78.6ef-7
6,83.25ab
6,88.6
6, 89.16a–d, 17, 20cd
6,93.26
6,96.16–17, 2oab
6,99.20cd, 26ab, 31ef
6,101.6, 23–4
6,109.16
_C) Passages considered for other reasons to be secondary expansions (amplifying or modifying the listing in_ Righteous Rāma _)_
2,31.1 – 12 _essentially a continuation of 2,1–30_
2,32.21 _breaks narrative continuity_
2,40.13–30 _rare vocabulary_
2,75 _and_ 76.1–16 _repeat too much, destroying narrative logic; language and style are more elaborate_
2,77.12–15 _a list of tradesmen, cf. RR p. 66 §2 and Skt Epics p. 409_
2,82.5–8 _ornate description, typical of second stage_
2,92 _redundant; also absent from D4.5.7_
2,103.1–11 _continuation of second-stage sargas 100–102_
2,104.1–8 _cf. RR p. 212 §1; also Söhnen pp. 273–81, 285_
3,5.1–5 _an anomalous and clearly late list of various types of ascetics – in reality a continuation of 3.4_
3,14.15–18 _a list of trees, cf. RR p. 104 n_. 29
3,22.26–9 cf. _RR p. 212 n. 30_
3,36.20–27 _cf. MB 2002_
3,46.1 _out of place, also absent from Śi, Ñ1 and D1–3_
4,1.35–40 a _list of trees, cf. RR p. 104 n. 29_
4,19.1 _conclusion of second-stage sargas 17–18_
4,32.10–11 _a list of vānara names not found elsewhere, also some signs of textual disturbance_
4,52.28–54.11b _a number of later features of language, especially vocabulary, reinforce the obvious incongruity of subject-matter_
4,58 and 62 _form a unit with 59–61 (stage 2); some less decisive signs of lateness than in those sargas_
5, 51.31–3 _late vocabulary and incongruity of subject-matter_
6,15.16–17 _a list of trees, cf. RR p. 104 n. 29 (following verse, 6,15.18, omitted because of insufficient manuscript support)_
6,18 _intrusive development of sarga 17 in a more elaborate style; 17 is complete in itself and leads naturally into 19_
6,35.23 _list of weapons, see RR p. 142_
6,42.23 _elaborate metaphor with rare vocabulary_
6,51–2 _in a more elaborate style, with many rare words_
6,108.1a _belongs with 6,102–7 (stage 2)_
6,109.22–6 _elaborate description using many long compounds_
_D) Passages from expanded sargas included to aid the narrative flow_
2, 23.1–7, 17–31
2,26.1–5, 10–14, 17–22
2,27.27–32
2,28.1–11
2,30.1
2,61.1–3
3,10.26–32
3,25.22–3
3,30.1–3 _(first stage in style)_
3,33.1, 4, 36–8
3,44.1–2
3,53.1–3, 13, 17–23, 35
3,58.1–3
3,60.22–4, 32
4,29.21, 31–3, 37
4,30.8–9, 31–4
4,49.7, 30–31
5,55.18–19
6,46.30, 43–8
6,53.45cd-46 ( _cf. also 1153 * / 1154*_ )
6,70.7–10
6,71.5–9
6,72.8–10
6,80.1–2
6,90.1–4, 8–13
6,102.1–9
6,105.1,3
VARIANT READINGS ADOPTED IN THE TRANSLATION
2,23.30c _bharata_ (with all but 3 mss)
2,41.15 _avidūratah_ for _vidūratah_
2,60.2 reading _dvividha_ \- with most mss (cf. 1518*1)
2,86.12ab translated in the light of 2049 * 1
2, 109.1b v.l. of Dt1, Ct adopted
2,109.23b dividing as _vā śubhah_
3,35.9d reading _ahite_ for _ca hite_ (cf. vv.ll.)
3,35.12c reading _duhśrutam_ (with majority of mss)
3,35.20 not adding 688* (as suggested in the Critical Notes)
3, 36.6a v.l. 'twelve years' of all S mss (and Ñ1) adopted
3,43.35d _urah prati_ ° for _udaram pra_ °
3,47.26a reading _na tu_ for _nanu_ (with 11 mss)
3,69.16a _tesām_ for _tāni_ (with most N mss)
4,31.20b reading _prasādyah_ for - _dya_ (with N mss)
4,50.1a reading _atha tām hanumān prājñah_ (with most NE mss)
4,57.29a _saupar a_ for _sauvar a_ (10 mss for _p_ , 13 for _v, 9 other_ )
4,63.11a reading _vi ādo yam_ for _vi ādo 'yam_
5,44.1 plural replaced by singular in _pāda_ a, following excision of _sarga_ 43
5,50.6a reading _pravi ṭā_ for _prah ṭā_ (with majority of mss)
6,17.27a reading _enam_ for _satam_ (for consistency with 17.30c, 34a, 37a, 39a)
6,28.12b reading _āsthito_ for _āvrto_ (with N mss)
6,40.43b reading as N mss ( _yathā ca prapitāmaham_ )
6,44.22a read _ūru_ \- for _uru_ \- (with many mss, cf. 5,54.20a)
6,49.29 adopt N readings (futures – last also in M1.2)
6,78.6b read _vivyādha laghuhastavat_ with all N mss
6,83.13a read _-mukhyānām_ for _-yūthānām_ (with majority of mss)
6,99.31a read _uvāca_ for _praśritam_ with the N mss
# Appendix 1
Rituals and greetings
The general character of the early _Rāmāya a_ reflects its origin as a product of the warrior aristocracy ( _ksatriyas_ ). By comparison with many other early works, rituals are rarely mentioned, apart from those closely connected with _ksatriyas_. A new ruler is consecrated by sprinkling with water (the _abhiseka_ ceremony) and by being presented with auspicious objects and symbols of sovereignty, including white parasols and fans, usually made from yaks' tails.
One particularly simple ritual, _samdhyā_ , the twilight ritual of invocation to the deities with a few muttered verses, is performed at dawn and sunset by every individual belonging to the upper three classes or _varnas_ , so by _ksatriy_ as as much as brāhmans.
Funeral rituals featuring in the narrative involve cremation of the corpse, normally as soon after death as possible. The funeral pyre is lit by the nearest male relative (ideally, the oldest son), who subsequently makes an offering of a ball of rice (exceptionally, of other food); he and other mourners also make a water-offering, in which they commonly stand in a stream or river and pour water back into it from cupped hands.
Water plays an important part in purification customs, and the presence of a good supply with readily accessible places for ritual bathing is an essential for a hermitage site. Touching water is a solemn gesture guaranteeing a promise (cf. the Western custom of taking an oath by resting the hand on a sword or on the Bible).
Fire is another purifying element, significant because of its importance in sacrifices and other rituals. It is often personified as the god Agni, one of the most frequently invoked deities in the Vedic hymns. Properly qualified brāhmans maintain and tend their ritual fire, which may therefore be enquired about as a matter of politeness. A frequent ritual act consists of pouring _ghī_ into the fire, which then blazes up brightly, but Indrajit also once makes a libation of blood into the fire. This is in conflict with the Vedic ritual practice, in which the animal victim was strangled and parts of the carcass burnt in the sacrificial fire. Another form of ritual offering (especially to malign deities and semi-deities) is a portion of food left on the ground for them to consume.
Many rituals involve the spreading of _kuśa_ , a particular type of grass, on the ground where they are performed. Temple worship is unknown (though beginning to be mentioned by the second stage), but certain trees, either single specimens surrounded by a railing ( _caityas_ ), or groves, have sacred value.
By due performance of the prescribed rituals, and in particular of ascetic observances, a stock of merit can be accumulated which secures a period in the realm of one of the gods (especially that of Indra), only for this exalted state to be reversed when the merit is exhausted. Other meritorious actions include immediate obedience to parental wishes. Truth is an important concept, regarded as having an inherent power by which events can be affected.
Brāhmans are also known as Twice-Born. At the transition from childhood to adulthood, males are invested with the sacred thread – worn diagonally from the left shoulder to the waist on the right – in a ceremony which is considered a second birth. Giving to brāhmans is another meritorious action, so much so that it is sanctioned by custom for brāhmans (only) to threaten to fast to death as a way to coerce someone else to grant what they want.
Many of the hermits whom Rāma and his companions meet in the forest are brāhmans, but some clearly are not and, while their lifestyle is simple, they have not abandoned all links with society (the later better-known pattern of the _samnyāsin_ ). Some are accompanied by their wives, they perform simple rituals and they are happy to welcome visitors to their hermitages. Their dress consists regularly of cloth made from bark and of animal skins; their hair is matted ( _jatā_ ), originally no doubt simply from lack of attention but often symbolically done to mark adopting this way of life by piling up the hair into a kind of topknot and fixing it with tree sap.
A variety of persons and objects can confer auspiciousness on an undertaking; courtesans are regarded as auspicious but widows have not yet acquired the negative connotations of later times. Particular marks on the body are among the many manifestations interpreted as omens of good or ill fortune. Seeing golden trees or silk-cotton trees is a special presage of imminent death.
Directional symbolism plays an important role. Omens occurring on a man's left are regarded as bad and those on his right as good: the reverse for women. To clasp a man by the left hand is a sign of disfavour, and to approach a warrior from the left in battle seems tantamount to a challenge (as it was in Old Irish heroic tales). The south, the realm of Yama, is generally inauspicious, and a dream of a journey to the south is a gloomy portent. Circumambulation ( _pradak i a_) is an action of great respect or reverence, performed in a clockwise direction (the term 'sunwise' would be more appropriate); the reverse direction is unlucky or a marker of inauspicious events such as funerals.
The normal form of greeting in the period of the _Rāmāya a_, especially for an inferior to a superior, is the _añjali_ , in which the cupped hands are raised to the level of the chest or even of the head; nowadays, when this gesture is used the hands are more often placed together, as in the common attitude of Christian prayer. We have not attempted to translate such gestures literally, but have substituted expressions like 'deferential gesture', 'respectfully' or 'salute', as appropriate to the context. Bowing could well go as far as clasping the feet of the respected senior person or even touching them with one's head, a gesture of the greatest respect, since the feet are regarded as the most impure and unworthy part of the body and the head by contrast as the purest. In developments of this, Bharata places Rāma's sandals on his head to take them back as the symbol of Rāma's authority, and Sītā declares that she would not touch Rāvana even with her left foot. The word 'kiss' renders the so-called 'sniff-kiss', a greeting of particular affection involving sniffing at or smelling the head of another, especially one's child.
Arrivals and departures tended to be highly formalized. A visitor is announced by a servant, an ascetic's pupil or someone else of junior status and is commonly greeted by being offered various auspicious items, principally and sometimes solely water (indeed, in more recent times some of the other items would actually be placed in the water). Correspondingly, rather than simply saying goodbye, one would seek the permission of one's host before leaving, and might well make a clockwise circumambulation of him as a mark of respect.
# Appendix 2
Genealogies
_The families of Rāma, Sugrīva and Rāva a as they appear in the translation_
_Rāma and the Rāghavas_
_Sugrīva and the vānaras_
At 6,28.2 and 6,35.2 Su e a is also said to be the father of Mainda and Dvivida.
At 5,59.9 and 5,61.25 Dadhimukha is Sugrīva's maternal uncle.
_Rāva a and the rāk asas_
At 6,26.5 Mālyavān is the maternal great-uncle of Rāva a; the relationship is not explained in detail until 7,25.23–4 (not translated).
At 6,56.3–4 Mahodara and Mahāparśva are said to be brothers of Kumbhakar a, and Atikāya, Devāntaka, Narāntaka and Triśiras are his nephews (specifically identified as sons of Rāva a in passages added in the second stage).
# Notes
_Ayodhyā_
. _Some comes from a father... worship her husband_ : Proverb found also in the _Mahābhārata_ (12,144.6) and in several later texts.
. _if you resort to him_ : Throughout Indian culture, it has been common for a weaker or inferior person to seek the protection and patronage of a stronger or superior person (including a deity) in what is often essentially a patron-client relationship. This is not a matter of temporarily seeking refuge, but involves a continuing relationship.
. _broad-shouldered_ : Literally, 'great-armed'.
. _like lambs to the slaughter_ : Literally, 'like cattle to a butcher'.
. _goose_ : The call of the wild goose (admired in India for its lofty, purposeful flight) is both musical and penetrating, especially its alarm call. Here and at 2,104.15 the comparison underlines the urgency of Rāma's words.
. _It took mantras and mortifications and all sorts of trouble to produce him_ : The text gives no explanation of what meritorious deeds Daśaratha performed to bring about the birth of such an outstanding son, either here, at 2,80.12 or at 3,62.3; the explanations provided by the later poets are mentioned in Afterthoughts.
. _tonsured seer_ : Literally, 'with skull-like head', which we take to mean that their heads have been shaved, although other interpretations are possible, including that they are white-haired through age. The usual hairstyle for brāhmans and hermits is to shave the head except for one topknot: _śikhin_ , 'having a peak', as Rāma is described at 3,36.11, also translated 'tonsured'.
. _sweet smile_ : Literally, 'round teeth'.
. _thistle_ : Literally, 'snake-gourd' ( _kimpāka, Trichosanthespalmata_), a sour, indigestible fruit, as the Sanskrit name indicates.
. _All creatures are subject to three pairs of opposing states_ : Early Indian thought typically sees the world as made up of complementary opposites, such as pleasure and pain, gain and loss; the third pair here is no doubt life and death (or existence and non-existence).
. _his own flesh and blood_ : Literally, 'breath of himself', since the Indian tradition regards the breath ( _prāna_ ) as being the life of anyone (as in the English 'vital breaths').
. _dung... stacked... ready for the cold weather_ : To be used for fuel.
. _It is because a son saves his father from the hell called Put that he is called a 'son'_ : An early etymology (a 'folk' etymology) for the word _putra_ , 'son', which derives it from the root _trā_ , 'to save', and a name for a hell, _Put_ , occurring only in this context and evidently invented for the purpose.
_The Forest_
. _won all worlds by my pious deeds_ : In older Indian thought there are several heavenly realms above the earth which can be reached as a reward for one's religious and moral activities (especially asceticism).
. _cut off her ears and nose_ : Widespread traditional punishment for a loose woman.
. _like a sārasa separating out milk mixed in water to drink_ : The goose or, as here, the sarus crane is reputed to be able to drink only the milk from a mixture of milk and water.
. _well-feathered_ : There is some ambiguity about the term ( _vi-śikha_ ). It could also mean 'very pointed' or, alternatively, either 'unpointed' or 'unfeathered', if the prefix _vi_ -, which we have taken to mean 'well, very', has its more usual dissociative sense. We have also translated it 'well-feathered' at its other occurrences (6,34.23a; 6,78.9d,17b).
. _rickshaws_ : The text has _ratha_ , 'chariot.
. _the Crow with the Palm Tree_ : Fable not extant; the derivative expression ('like the Crow with the Palm Tree') elsewhere usually indicates an accidental coincidence but here seems to indicate something unexpected or unforeseen.
. _the same agony that Urvaśī did when she kicked Purūravas_ : The love story of the mortal king Purūravas and the _apsaras_ Urvasī is found already in the Veda, although no extant version has anything precisely corresponding to this incident of Urvaśī insulting or spurning Purūravas.
. _its fans and its parasol_ : Symbols of sovereignty (as also at 4,10.3 and 4,25.21). The fan ( _vyajana, cāmara_ ), which also functions as a fly-whisk, is usually made from a yak's tail. Both it and the parasol are white.
. _placed a blade of grass between them_ : Presumably as a symbolic barrier between them (as also at 5,19.3); cf. J. L. Brockington, 'Guarded by Grass: a Rāmāya a motif and some Western parallels', _Indologica Taurinensia_ 13 (1985–6), pp. 15–28.
. _it took great asceticism and good deeds for King Daśaratha to be granted you_ : See Ayodhyā n. 6.
_Kiskindhā_
. _This many-ribbed parasol... the fan_ : Symbols of sovereignty (as also at 3,49.14 and 4,25.21).
. _rising sun_ : Or 'setting' (the Sanskrit term _samdhyā_ denotes both the morning and the evening twilight: dawn and dusk).
. _his garments were still wet_ : From making the water-offering at Vālin's funeral.
. _gold-adorned white parasol and a magnificent pair of gleaming fans with gold handles_ : Symbols of sovereignty (as also at 3,49.14 and 4,10.3). The subsequent items listed in this paragraph symbolize power or prosperity (and so in more general terms sovereignty).
. _A lie concerning a horse destroys a hundred... teller and family_ : Proverbial and somewhat elliptical; a parallel passage in the _Laws of Manu_ (8.97–9) makes explicit that the numbers are the totals of his relatives that a liar destroys by his falsehoods.
. _Expiation has been enjoined... no expiation for an ingrate_ : Another proverbial saying, also found in the _Mahābhārata_ (12,166.24; cf. 5,105.10) and in later texts.
. _that marvellous mountain where the sun sets_ : Elsewhere this mountain is named as Asta.
. _duty, profit and pleasure_ : These are the three traditional aims of life ( _dharma, artha, kāma_ ), ranked in order of precedence; all may be pursued but _dharma_ has priority.
. _like Indra Satakratu did Śaī's arrogant father_ : This tale is obscure, as the varying explanations by the commentators reveal. The context suggests that there was some sort of collusion between Anuhlāda, who as Hira yakaśipu's son is a natural enemy of Indra, and Śacī's father, Puloman, but no such episode is actually extant.
. _those that fight with their feet_ : Cocks (the gamecock is descended from the Indian red junglefowl, _Gallus gallus murghi_ ).
_Beauty_
. _tanks_ : These are specifically bodies of water impounded for irrigation, rather than simply ornamental ponds.
. _single plait_ : This is a style worn by a woman whose husband is absent.
. _She placed grass between them_ : See The Forest n. 9 (on 3,54.1).
. _threats and blandishments_ : Literally, 'against the hair or with the hair'.
. _wasted_ : Literally, 'whose stomach was <flat as> the palm of a hand'.
. _She grasped a spreading branch of the blossoming aśoka for support_ : Although Sītā here clearly holds the branch for support (as his mother does on giving birth to the Buddha), it is interesting to note that a frequent motif in literature and in art is that of the _śālabhañjikā_ , a young woman who coaxes a tree into bloom by grasping or more often kicking it. Is this episode a precursor of that motif?
. _no good can come of seeing a vānara in a dream_ : This appears to be a general popular belief, from which Sītā infers that the welcome outcome means that this is reality, not a dream.
. _a fourth tactic remains_ : The three forms of diplomacy are conciliation, gifts and creating dissension (as is spelt out in a longer verse added into the text here), while the fourth tactic is the use of force (cf. also 6,9.8).
. _snake's feet_ : There is a popular belief that in fact snakes do have feet (and legs) but only another snake can see them.
. _three eras_ : Past, present and future.
. _like a five-tongued serpent_ : This simile is usually applied to the warrior's hand grasping his weapon – the fingers corresponding to the heads of the snake (esp. cobra) – but here the point must be to highlight the degree of threat that Sītā poses.
. _If I am obedient... become cool for Hanumān_ : This is an example of the 'act of truth' in which someone affirms some truth about his or her self, especially one that is or should be characteristic, and uses the power inherent in the utterance to achieve a particular goal. There is another example at 6,78.31.
. _a cow overflowing from maternal love for her calf_ : There is a general and ancient Indian belief that a cow's milk flows specifically at the sight of her calf.
_War_
. _You caused devastation... you have battered and killed them, your majesty_ : The quarrel with Vaiśrava a is the only one of these exploits to be recorded in the early part of the text; others, such as the conflict with Madhu, have been elaborated – with significant differences of detail – in later parts.
. _three regular means_ : Of diplomacy, i.e. conciliation, gifts and creating dissension; cf. Beauty n. 8 (on 5,39.2).
. _There's a proverb... capturing us_ : This saying seems unknown elsewhere.
. _I was born to be sovereign_ : Rāva a is not being accurate here, since Vaiśrava a is his older brother, whom he ousted.
. _a pigeon... flesh_ : There are a number of versions of this tale, illustrating the virtue of generosity. A pigeon offers its own flesh to a hunter or a bird of prey which has already killed its mate. The best-known form is that of King Śibi (often alluded to with similar brevity, e.g. at _Mahābhārata_ 3,199.6).
. _the homily recited of old... perishes with the victim_ : Parts of this homily are quoted in later anthologies as proverbial sayings but other early sources are lacking.
. _Vaiśrava a's junior_: In referring to Rāva a in this way Rāma seems pointedly to be insulting or taunting him (cf. n. 4 above on 6,10.10).
. _Sugrīva... fine neck broken_ : The passage from here up to _A gada is a fallen anklet_ is particularly rich in puns on the _vānaras_ ' names; details can be found in the Index / Glossary.
. _dharma and adharma_ : The connotations of _dharma_ and its opposite are too all-encompassing here to allow one of our usual translations, especially since it carries overtones of the Vedic _ ta_ , the principle of cosmic order worked out also within human society.
. _autumn_ : Literally, 'at the end of the rains', by which time any clouds remaining are empty of rain.
. _puddle_ : Literally, 'cow-print', but so translated here and at 6,77.11 to underline the pejorative overtones, absent from the term's other occurrence at 4,45.12.
. _hands_ : Garu a is usually portrayed as having a bird's body but here is more fully anthropomorphic.
. _slashed in two_ : Literally, 'cut along the path of the sacred thread', that is, diagonally across the body, since at the transition from childhood to adulthood male brāhmans are invested with the thread which is worn diagonally from the left shoulder to the waist on the right.
. _enters that banyan_ : The aerial roots dropping from its branches gradually turn a single tree into a thick grove.
. _If Rāma Dāśarathi is righteous... kill Rāva i_: Another example of an 'act of truth', seen already at 5,51.24–7 (cf. Beauty n. 11).
. _the missiles of that sagacious warrior of great splendour all manifested themselves_ : The divine missiles earlier granted to Rāma, which are evidently envisaged as some kind of spell, become incorporated into his actual weapons.
. _Do not return... that tradition_ : Parallels to this verse are lacking, although it is clearly proverbial, as the style of our translation is intended to indicate and as Böhtlingk recognized by including it in his collection of Indian aphorisms, _Indische Sprüche_ (2nd edn, 3 vols., St Petersburg: Commissionäre der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1870–73).
# Index / Glossary
**Abhikāla** _place in Punjab_
**abortion**
**_Adbhuta Rāmāya a_** ,
**_Adhyātma Rāmāya a_** 370–71
**Aditi** _'unlimited', Vedic goddess, mother of a major group of gods and also of Dhāt _
**Advaitin** _'non-dualist', the philosophical school seeing the Absolute (Brahman) as the sole reality and so regarding the world as ultimately unreal_
**afterlife** xv, , , 32–3, , , , , 63–5, , , , , , 132–3, , , , ,
**Agastya** _sage_ legendary colonizer of India south of the Vindhya mountains , , visited by Rāma, directs him to Pañcavatī 74–6 concern for Sītā's welfare has given Rāma arrow with which he kills Rāva a
Agni 'fire', god of fire , , , missile _in later versions_ , affirms Sītā's purity , _also called_ Fire
**Agniketu** _'having fire as banner', rāksasa_ assures Rāva a of victory killed by Rāma 279–80
**Airāvata** _'from mount Irāvata', Indra's elephant_ attacked by baby Kumbhakar a
**Ajāmukhī** _'having face of nanny-goat', rāksasī resisted by Sītā_
**Akampana** _'unshakable', rāksasa general_ killed by Hanumān 298–301,
**alcohol** _see_ drunkenness, _madhūka_, mead, wine
**aloe** _(agaru_ , Aquilaria agallocha _Roxb.) tree with fragrant wood_ , ,
**Amarāvatī** _'possessing immortality', Indra's city_ ,
**ambrosia** _(am ta, 'immortal') food of immortality produced at the Churning of the Ocean_ , , , , Brahmā allows Mainda and Dvivida to eat it
**Amśumatī** = Yamunā
**Anala** _'fire', rāksasa minister of Vibhī a a, spies out La kā_
**_Ānanda Rāmāyana_**
**Anasūyā** _'free of envy', woman ascetic, wife of Atri_ 69–70
**ancestors** _(pitarah, 'fathers') group of one's ancestors to be reverenced in funeral and memorial ritual_ , ,
**Andhaka** _'blind', anti-god killed by Śiva_
**A gada** _'bracelet', son of vānara king Vālin and Tārā_ knows of Rāma's alliance with Sugrīva witnesses death of Vālin 158–61 consecrated Young King at Rāma's suggestion , , 184–5 house perturbed by Lak ma a's anger brings _vānaras_ to help in search leads party searching south , 179–92 kills anti-god, thinking him Rāva a resolves to fast to death 185–8, gives judicious advice identified to Rāva a by Sāra a Sītā told he has been defeated assigned to southern gate encounter with Indrajit 279–80, mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a rallies _vānaras_ to fight Kumbhakar a 306–8 prowess equals his father's , fears Sugrīva , 185–6, _metaphorically called_ grandson of Sakra _also named at_ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , _see also_ Young King
**A gāraka** _planet Mars_ , _also called_ Lohitā ga
**Anila** = the Wind
**Añjana** _'collyrium', mountain_ 171–2
**anomalies** xxv–xxvi
**Antaka** = Death, Ender
**anti-gods** _(asura) group of divine beings comparable to the gods (devas) and in conflict with them, within which are subgroups such as daityas and dānavas_ , , , , 113–15, 147–8, 150–51, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 292–3, , , , , 325–7,
**Anuhlāda** _anti-god, son of Hiranyakaśipu_
**apsaras** _class of minor female deities, companions of the gandharvas and seducers of sages, causing them to lose their merit and powers_ , ,
**armour** , , , , , , , , , , , , , helmet 334–5
**army, regular** _(usually catura ga) comprising four components or divisions (elephants, cavalry, chariots and footsoldiers)_ , , , , ,
**arrow** _(śara, bā a, i u) passim_ types _(ardhacandra, kar in, vikar in, k ura, śilīmukha) passim_ _see also_ bolt, quarrel
**Arundhatī** _Vasi ṭha's faithful wife, identified with star Alcor in Ursa Major_ , ,
**Asamañja** _evil son of King Sagara of Ik vāku dynasty_
**Aśaniprabha** _'brilliant as thunder', rāk asa killed by Dvivida_ 279–80
**ascetics** 381–3 austerities, power of xvi, , , 71–2, , , , , , , , , , 224–5, 229–30, 272–3 diet xv, , , , 25–7, , , , , female ascetics _see_ Anasūyā, Sabarī, Svayamprabhā matted hair , , , , , , persecuted by _rāk asas_ , , shaven heads _see also_ cloth, clothing, sages, _individual names_
**Aśoka** _'sorrowless', envoy sent to recall Bharata from Rājag ha_
**aśoka** ' _sorrowless_ ' (Saraca asoca _(Roxb.) De Wilde), small evergreen tree with spreading branches_ , _aśoka_ grove _place of Sītā's captivity within Rāva a's palace_ , , , , , ,
**asses** _(khara)_ draw _rāksasa_ chariots , , , , 295–6 _see also_ donkey
**Asta** _'home, setting', mountain on which sun is said to set_ , , ,
**astronomy/astrology** xiv, , 83–4, , , , , , 309–10, 381–3 _see also_ A gāraka, B haspati, Budha, constellations, eclipse, Lohitā ga, stars, Triśa ku
**_asura_** = anti-god
**_aśvakar a_** _'horse-ear', tree sometimes identified with the sāl_ , ,
**_aśvamedha_** _'horse sacrifice', ritual by which a king asserts his sovereignty over his neighbours_
**Aśvapati** _'master of horses', king of Kekaya people_ father of Kaikeyī , 39–40, presents gifts to Bharata
**_aśvattha_** _(_ Ficus religiosa _L.) sacred fig tree_
**Aśvins** _'horsemen', twin gods_ , , ,
**Atikāya** _'huge-bodied', rāksasa, nephew of Kumbhakar a_ assures Rāva a of victory
**Atri** _'eater', ascetic sage, husband of Anasūyā_
**auspiciousness** 381–3 auspicious marks auspicious objects , , , conferred by courtesans and merchants xiv, , _see also_ circumambulation, cow, directional symbolism, dreams, Ga gā, left hand, lotuses, Maitra, red, right hand, _tilaka_, twilight ritual, Vinda
**austerities** _see_ ascetics
**authorship** xii, xvi-xxii, xxvi-xxviii, 368–9
**Aviddha** _'unpierced', rāk asa minister of Rāva a_ advises release of Sītā
**axe** _(parasu, paraśvadha) weapon_ , , , , , , , ,
**Ayodhyā** _'invincible', capital of Daśaratha and then Rāma, identified with modern Faizabad_ citizens' affection for Rāma and distress at his departure xiii, 12–15, 18–21, citizens join Bharata's expedition 45–6, described , , , _also named at_ xii, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**badam** _(i gudī_, Terminalia catappa _L.) Bengal almond, tall tree producing oil-bearing nuts_ , 50–51 _badam_ flour _a poor substitute for the rice-flour from which the offering for the dead should be made_
**Bāhlīka** _people and territory between Beas and Sutlej rivers_
**Bala** _'force', daitya conquered by Indra (= Vedic Vala, 'enclosure')_
**_Bālakānda_** _see_ Childhood Book
**Bali** _'tribute', daitya king, son of Virocana, defeated by Vi u_ ,
**_bali_** **offering** _'tribute', offering of food made to minor, esp. malevolent, divine beings placed on ground_
**bamboo** ( _vamśa_ , Bambusa _species or_ Dendrocalamus strictus) , ,
**banyan** (Ficus bengalensis _L_.) _large spreading tree with aerial roots, which over time becomes almost a grove_ , , 319–20
**bard** xxvii,
**bark-fibre** _used for producing coarse clothing, worn by hermits or ascetics_ _see_ cloth, clothing
**bathing, ritual** , , 76–7, , , 381–3
**battleaxe** _see_ axe
**bear** _( k a_, Melursus ursinus, _Sloth Bear, or_ Selenarctos thibetanus, _Himalayan Black Bear, both forest animals) companions of the vānaras_ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**bedding** _see_ cloth, clothing
**bees** , , erotic imagery
**bells** , ,
**beryl** _(vaidūrya)_ , , , , ,
**Bhāgīrathī** _river Ga gā, made to do his bidding by the sage Bhagīratha_ ,
**_bhakti_** _'loyalty, devotion', applied esp. to the movements in which worshippers direct intense emotional devotion towards a single deity (Vi u, one of his incarnations, or Śiva)_ ,
**Bharadvāja** _'bearing swiftness', ascetic sage_ visited by Rāma, Lak ma a and Sītā 25–7 performs fire-oblation , recommends a suitable site for exiles' hermitage visited by Bharata, directs him to Citrakūta , 53–6, , 67–8
**Bharata** _Daśaratha's second son, born to Kaikeyī_ unknowingly supplants Rāma as Young King 3–4, 6–8, 14–15, , , , visits grandfather's court, dream presages death of Daśaratha 37–40 describes Kaikeyī , , , grief at Daśaratha's death and exile of Rāma, performs funeral ritual 40–43 protects Kaikeyī and Mantharā from Śatrughna repudiates kingship and resolves to replace or accompany Rāma in exile xix-xx, 44–5, 51–2, , 63–4 expedition to Citrakūṭa 45–69, , meets Guha and allays his suspicions 47–53 visits Bharadvāja and allays his suspicions 53–6, 67–8 dressed as ascetic attempts to fast to death 65–6 agrees to act as Rāma's regent xix-xx, practises asceticism xx, 358–9, _also named at_ xii-xiii, , , , , , , _in later versions_ , birth, marriage, kingdom, sons, death 365–8 _also called_ Kaikeyī's son, pride of the Ik vākus, Rāghava
**Bharata's elder brother** _(Bharatāgraja)_ = Rāma ,
**Bhāsakar a** _'hawk-eared', rāksasa general, killed by Hanumān_ 221–2
**Bhāskara** _'radiance-maker'_ = Sun
**Bhogavatī** _'having enjoyments', subterranean home of mythical snakes (nāgas)_
**Bird, the** _(suparna) Garu a_ 293–4
**blackbuck** _(k amrga_, Antilope cervicapra _(L.)) a game animal_
**blood** causes pollution showers as portent of disaster , , , , 344–5 blood offering _see_ fire
**bludgeon** _(śataghnī: also translated_ catapult _)_
**boar** _(varāha, sūkara)_ , , , skin
**bolt** _(nārāca) type of arrow, probably iron_ , 89–90, , , , , , 313–14, , ,
**boons** _see also_ Brahmā, _dānavas_, Grand Father, Indrajit, Kabandha, Kaikeyī, Mārīca, Maya, Nala, Rāva a
**Bountiful, the** _(Maghavān)_ = Indra
**bow** _(dhanus, dhanvan, cāpa, kārmuka) passim_
**bowstring** _(jyā)_ , , , 89–90, , , , , , , , , 322–3,
**Brahmā** _creator deity_ gave missiles to Rāma , , , , , , 314–15, 348–9 raises up Ṛśyamūka gives golden forest to Hemā allows Mainda and Dvivida to eat ambrosia said to have begotten Vegadarśin grants boon of invisibility to Indrajit curses baby Kumbhakar a to sleep 304–5 world (a heaven) , _also named at_ , , , , , , _also called_ Grand Father _(Pitāmaha)_
**brāhmans** _the class concerned with guarding and transmitting traditions, esp. ritual_ , , , , , , , , , , , 381–3 accompany Bharata's expedition brāhman murder , fasting to death gifts to brāhmans 5–6, , honoured in La kā polished speech qualities influence on later versions 364–5 _also called_ Twice-Born
**bravado** _formalized boasting before a duel commonly found in heroic literature_ _rāksasas_ 247–9, 311–12, Rāma , Rāvana _vānaras_ 177–8, , 307–8
**B haspati** _'lord of prayer / strength', preceptor of other gods, identified with planet Jupiter_ , , heals injured gods
**Buddhist tales** , ,
**Budha** _planet Mercury (regarded as malign)_ , ,
**buffalo** _(_ Bubalus bubalis _(L.))_ ,
**Caitraratha** _Kubera's forest, tended by Citraratha_ ,
**_caitya_** = sacred tree
**_cakora_** _(_ Alectoris chukar _J. E. Gray) Chukor partridge, game bird_
**Cakramālin** _'garlanded with a wheel', rāk asa_
**camel** ( _u ṭra_, Camelus dromedarius) ,
**Ca a** _'fierce', vānara identified to Rāvana by Sāra a_
**ca āla** _despised group, whose touch pollutes higher castes_
**Ca odarī** _'fierce-belly', rāk asī resisted by Sītā_
**Candra** _'shining', mythical mountain, source of healing herb_
**cāra a** _celestial singer_ , , , , ,
**carp** _(rohita_ , Cyprinus rohitaka _Ham.)_
**cashew** _(bhallātaka_ , Semecarpus anacardium _L. f.) Marking-nut tree_
**cat** _see_ wild cat
**catapult** ( _śataghnī: also translated_ bludgeon)
**causeway to La kā** , 258–9, , , ,
**cedarwood** ( _devadāru_ , Cedrus deodara _Laws_ ) _deodar, sweet-smelling wood_
**chariot** _(major items only)_ _rāksasa_ chariots , , , Rāva a's chariots , , , , , components , , , , 222–3, 280–81, , _see also_ Pu paka Chariot
**charioteer** xvi, xxvii, , 89–90, , , , , 302–3, 310–11, , , 325–6, , , , 342–4, _see also_ Mātali, Sumantra
**cherrywood** _(padmaka_ , Prunus cerasoides _D. Don) sweet-smelling wood_
**Childhood Book** _(Bālakā a)_ xxiv, , 366–8,
**chital** _(prsata_ , Axis axis _Erxleben) spotted antelope_ , 56–7, 100–102
**Churning of the Ocean** _contest between gods and anti-gods, using Mount Mandara as the paddle and nāga king Vāsuki as the rope, to churn the ocean (as for butter), to produce amrta and other good things_ , ,
**circumambulation** , , , , 55–6, 67–8, , , , , , , , , 381–3
**Citrā** _12th lunar mansion_
**Citrakūta** _'glittering peak', mountain south of river Ga gā and near river Mandākinī, frequented by ascetics, site of Rāma's first hermitage_ xiii, 26–8, 54–7, 59–60, , 71–2, , , ,
**cloth, clothing** bark-fibre , , , , 63–4, , 92–3, , , , , , , , bedding _kuśa_ grass , silk , , , , , skins , , , , 92–3, , _see also_ cotton
**club** _(gadā)_ , , , , 295–6, , 311–12, , , , , 346–8
**cock** _(kukkuta)_ ,
**coconut** _(nālikera_ , Cocos nucifera _L.)_
**collyrium** _a black pigment (lampblack or antimony) applied to eyelashes or as eyeshadow_ 171–2, , , , , ,
**conch** _(śa kha_, Turbinella pyrum _Auct.) large shellfish_ shell used as trumpet , , , , ,
**consecration ceremonies** _(abhiseka, lit. 'sprinkling')_ 381–3 king , , 162–3, , , Young King 3–4, , , , 162–3, , ,
**constellations** _(naksatra)_ , , Constellations' Lord _(u urāṭ) moon_
**coot** ( _kārandava_ , Fulica atra _L_.) , 136–7
**coral** _(vidruma)_ , ,
**cosmetics** _see_ lac
**cotton** as cloth _(kārpāsika)_ raw _(tūla)_
**counsellors** _see_ ministers
**courtesans** _see_ auspiciousness
**cow** symbol of plenty and auspiciousness , 16–17, , , , , , , , , gift to brāhmans offered in welcome sacrificial fee
**cowdung** _see_ dung
**cow's footprint** translated 'puddle' ,
**crane** _(krauñca_ , Anthropoides virgo _L., Demoiselle crane, or_ Grus grus lilfordi _Sharpe, Eastern common crane)_ , , , ,
**Creatures / Creation, Lord of** _(Prajāpati) creator deity_ , _also called_ Prajāpati
**crocodile** _(makara, nakra, grāha_ , Crocodylus palustris _Lesson and_ C. porosus _Schneider)_ , , , , , 243–4, 257–8
**crooked-nosed fish** _(vakratunda, unidentified)_
**crore** _(koti, ten millions)_ , , , 174–6, , , , , , 263–4, , 274–5,
**crow** , , crow that molests Sītā ,
**cudgel** _(kūṭamudgara)_ , , , , ,
**curses** 129–30, , , 178–80
**cuscus grass** _(_ Andropogon muricatus _Retz) grass with scented roots_
**cymbals** _(panava)_
**Dadhimukha** _'curd-faced', vānara, Sugrīva's maternal uncle, warden of Honey Orchard_ 230–4 _metaphorically called_ Son of Soma
**_daitya_** _class of anti-gods, descendants of Aditi's sister, Diti_ , , ,
**Daksa** _'dextrous', mythical sage, father of Siva's wife Satī and so father-in-law of Rudra/Śiva, who disrupts Dak a's cosmic sacrifice when excluded from it_ ,
**_dānava_** _class of anti-gods, descendants of Danu_ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 292–3, , 311–12, , 327–8, , , , reliance on boon
**Da aka Forest** _'staff, stick', main forest area between Ga gā and Godāvarī rivers_ , , , , 64–5, , , 80–82, 91–3, 95–7, , , , , , , , , , ,
**Danu** _mother of dānavas, daughter of Daksa_ = _dānava_ 129–30, ,
**Dardara** _'having caves', mountain_
**Darīmukha** _'having face <like a> ditch', vānara chief_ Sītā told he has been killed
**dart** _(prāsa)_ , , , , , , ,
**Daśagrīva** _'ten-necked', epithet of Rāva a_ , 104–6, 108–10, 112–14, 202–3, , , , , , , , , 330–31, , 337–8, , , 346–7, ,
**Daśaratha** _'having ten chariots', king of Ayodhyā, father of Rāma_ urged by Viśvāmitra to allow youthful Rāma to protect him 95–6 grants Kaikeyī's boons and exiles Rāma; rejects Kaikeyī 3–9, 14–15, , exiles take leave of him; he urges Rāma to depose him; presents jewels to Sītā 6–10 grief at Rāma's departure, seeks comfort from Kausalyā xviii, 6–16, hears Sumantra's report 30–32 death 35–6, , , Bharata dreams of his death 38–9 Agastya's affection for him 5 sacrificer three hundred and fifty wives , , 13–14, , , 62–4 _also named at_ xxii, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , _in later versions_ , cursed for accidentally killing boy ascetic _also called_ Rāghava _see also_ truth, integrity
**Daśaratha's son** _(Daśarathātmaja)_ designates Lak ma a designates Rāma , , , , , , , 140–42, , , 236–7, , , , , designates Rāma + Lak ma a , ,
**Dāśarathi** _'son of Daśaratha'_ designates Lak ma a designates Rāma , , , , , , , , , , , , designates Rāma + Lak ma a
**date of composition** ix, xii, xvi-xvii
**Dead, King** of = Yama
**Death** (Antaka, M tyu, Vaivasvata) , , 88–9, , , , 105–7, , , 158–60, , , , , , , , , , , , defeated by Kumbhakar a noose , , , , , , , , , , _also called_ the Ender
**death and afterlife** _see_ afterlife
**deer** , , , 75–6, , , _see also_ hunting
**deer, golden** _decoys Rāma from hermitage, enabling Rāva a to abduct Sītā_ xxv Mārīca 93–102, Rāva a , unidentified 118–19
**deities of the forest** , ,
**Devāntaka** _'destroyer of the gods', rāk asa, nephew of Kumbhakar a_ ,
**Devourer, the** _(graha)_ = Rāhu
**Dhanada** _'giver of wealth'_ = Vaiśrava a
**Dhanadānuja** _Vaiśrava a's younger brother_ = Rāva a
**Dhānyamālinī** _'garlanded with grain', rāksasī who protects Sītā by seducing Rāvana_
**_dharma_** _(elsewhere translated) a broad concept covering customs, tradition, propriety, morality and righteousness_
**Dharma** _'duty, right', personified as a deity, with Su e a metaphorically called his Son_ ,
**Dhāt ** _'placer, disposer', deity_
**Dhūmra** _'smoke-coloured, smoky'_ bear chief, takes up position at northern gate , mountain
**Dhūmrāk a** _'smoky-eyed', rāksasa general_ assures Rāvana of victory ordered into battle, killed by Hanumān 295–8,
**diamond** _(vajra, also thunderbolt)_ , , , ,
**diction and language** xxiv-xxv, xxviii-xxix
**directional symbolism** 381–3 east _auspicious_ , , south _symbolizing death_ , , , _see also_ left-hand side, right-hand side
**Directions, ten** _(diśo daśa, the eight compass points and intermediate compass points, together with zenith and nadir)_ , , , , ,
**discus** _(cakra)_ , , ,
**Disorder, son of** _(nair ta) son/descendant of Nir ti_ , 284–5, , , , ,
**Dissolution** _(avadāranakāla) the dissolution of the world back into its elements_
**divination**
**dogs** _portent of disaster_
**dolphin** _(śimśumāra_ , Platanista gangetica _(Lebeck))_ ,
**donkey** _(khara)_ _see also_ asses
**doom, presages of** _see_ portents
**Doomsday Fire** _(kālāgni, 'fire of Time') major component of the dissolution of the world_ , , , , , , , , 308–9, , , , ,
**dreams** Bharata's dream presages death of Daśaratha 38–9 Trijaṭā's dream presages destruction for _rāksasas_ 209–10 Sītā wonders whether Hanumān's arrival is a dream 213–15
**Dro a** _'bucket, tub', mythical mountain, source of healing herb_
**drongo** (Dicrurus paradiseus (L.) _or related species) a largely ground-feeding bird_
**drums** _(dundubhi, bherī, m da ga)_ , , , , , , , , ,
**drunkenness** xv, xx, , , , 193–4, 230–34,
**duckweed** _(śaivala_ , Blyxa octandra roxburghii _Rich)_ ,
**Dundubhi** _'kettledrum', anti-god in buffalo form_ conflated with Māyāvin xxvi, father of Māyāvin 147–9 killed by Vālin 149–52
**dung** _unclean but useful when dried as fuel_ , cowdung ,
**Durdhara** _'hard to bear', rāksasa general killed by Hanuman_ 221–2
**Durjaya** _'hard to conquer', rāk asa_
**Durmukha** _'ugly-faced'_ _rāksasa_ who assures Rāva a of victory _vānara_ leader ,
**Dū a a** _'spoiler', rāk asa, Khara's general, killed in battle by Rāma in Da aka Forest_ , , 88–93, , , , , , named as brother of Sūrpa akhā, Khara and Rāva a
**Dvivida** _'twofold', vānara chief, brother of Mainda, metaphorically called twin Sons of the Aśvins_ son of Su e a , member of party searching south strength known to Rāva a identified to Rāva a by Suka Sītā told he has been killed kills Aśaniprabha 279–80 searches for invisible Indra jit _also named at_ , , , , , , ,
**eagle** _(śyena) noted for its lofty flight_
**Earth** _(p thivī, mahī) personified as goddess, esp. as married to kings_ _in later versions_ , vindicates Sītā's purity
**earthquake** , as portent of disaster , ,
**ebony** ( _tinduka_ , Diospyros peregrina _(Gaertn.) Gurke)_
**eclipse** _an ill omen, visualized as the sun or moon being seized by Rāhu, the Devourer_ , , , _see also_ nodal time
**education** xiv,
**egret** ( _balāka_ , Ardea alba alba _L._ ) _large white egret thought to frequent rain clouds and herald monsoon_ ,
**Ekajatā** _'having one braid', rāksasī resisted by Sītā_
**elephants** _(dvipa, gaja, hastin, kalabha, kuñjara, māta ga, nāga_, Elephas maximus _L.)_ in Ayodhyā _etc_. in battle _etc_. in Bharata's expedition _etc_. in forest _etc_. in imagery _etc_. _see also_ hunting, Indraśiras, Irāvata, mahouts, _musth_, Śatrumjaya, Virūpāksa
**elephant-flower** _(gajapuspī_ , Arum campanulatum _Roxb.) kind of yam with large flowers_
**Ender, the** (Antaka) = Death ,
**envoys, inviolability of**
**Era** _(yuga) one of the four ages of the world, or the set of four_ ,
**erotic imagery** 135–7
**fan** _symbolic of sovereignty_ , ,
**fasting to death** , 185–8, ,
**Fate, fate** _(daiva, daśāyoga, krtānta)_ , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**fig** _(nyagrodha_ , Ficus bengalensis _L., banyan, and plaksa_ , Ficus infec-toria _Willd., wavy-leaved fig tree)_ ,
**Fire** 381–3 Agni ' _fire_ ' Hutavaha ' _oblation-carrier_ ' Pāvaka ' _purifying_ ' , Fire-missile _(Pāvaka)_ Son of Fire _(Pāvaki)_ = Nīla
**fire, forest**
**fire, ritual** _offerings and libations (esp. of ghī) are made into the ritual fire which all brāhmans should constantly maintain_ , , , 60–61, , , , , , , 272–3, 381–3 in La kā , , 313–14 blood offering
**fireflies** _(khadyota_ , Lampyridae _family)_
**fish** , as food , 131–2
**flags** 52–3, , , , ,
**flame-tree** ( _kimśuka, palāśa_ , Butea monosperma _(Lam.) Taub.) treewith showy red flowers, compared to blood_ 27–8, , , , ,
**food** , , meat-eating xv, , , Rāma fasts in forest 18–19, , _see also_ ascetics, _badam_ flour, _bali_ offering, fish
**Fortune-favoured, furtherer of Fortune** _(śubhalak a a, laksmī-vardhana) alliterative epithets of Lak ma a_ , , , , , , , , 338–9
**fortune-tellers** predict that Sītā will bear sons and not be widowed
**funerals** xvi, 381–3 Daśaratha , , , , , , , Jatāyus , , Kabandha Rāvana Vālin ,
**Further Book** _(Uttarakānda)_ xxiv, 364–8, ,
**Gadgada** _'stammerer', vānara, father of Jāmbavān_
**Gaja** _'elephant', vānara chief_ member of party searching south kills Tapana 279–80 mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a _also named at_ , , , , , ,
**Gandhamādana** _'delighting with perfume', mountain_
**Gandhamādana** _'intoxicated with scents', vānara chief_ member of party searching south , mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Laksma a _also named at_ , , , 277–8,
**_gandharva, gandharvī_** _class of celestial singers and musicians_ , 79–80, , 91–2, , , , 122–3, 166–7, , , , , 203–4, , , , , , , , , , , , 327–8, , , , 350–51, city of _gandharvas term for a mirage or illusion_ _gandharva_ missile _a divine missile_
**Ga gā** _(Ganges) holy river, also called Bhāgīrathī, Jāhnavī_ xii, xvi–xvii, , , , 46–7, 52–3, , , auspiciousness ,
**garlands** consecrated _see also_ Pampā, Sugrīva, Vālin
**Garu a** _divine bird, devourer of snakes and famous for the speed and strength of his flight_ heals Rāma and Laksma a, warns against _rāksasa_ sorcery, predicts victory for Rāma 292–4 _also named at_ , , , , , , 199–200, , , , , , _also called_ the Bird, Vinatā's son
**Garu a formation** _battle formation having shape of bird_
**Garutmān** = Garu a
**Gautama** _family name of sage Sarabha ga_
**Gavāk a** _'cow-eyed', vānara chief_ mahārāja of langurs member of party searching south takes up position at northern gate mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a _also named at_ , , , , 277–8, , , ,
**Gavaya** _'gayal (cow-like wild animal)', vānara chief_ member of party searching south identified to Rāvana by Sārana mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a _also named at_ , , , , 277–8,
**Gaya** _'gayal', royal sage living at Gayā_
**Gayā** _pilgrimage site, associated with worship of ancestors (supposedly named after Gaya)_
**gazelle** ( _rohi_ , Gazella gazella _(Pallas)) mod. chinkara_
**genealogies** , 385–8
**genre** x, ,
**ghī** _(gh ta) clarified butter, symbolic of richness and used in oblations into fire_ , 130–31, ,
**ghost** _(bhūta, preta)_ , ,
**Gh tācī** _'abounding in ghī', apsaras who seduced Viśvāmitra_
**gifts** presented to Aśvapati and Yudhājit by envoys from Ayodhyā , presented to Bharata by Aśvapati and Yudhājit _ksatriya_ attitude _see also_ brāhmans
**Girivraja** ' _mountain cow-pen_ ' = Rājag ha
**Girls' Grove** _part of the inner quarters of Rāva a's palace_ 217–18,
**Glory** _goddess of sovereignty and fortune_ _also called_ Sri
**goats** ,
**Godāvarī** _'granting cows', name of various rivers (perhaps a generic term)_ 75–7, , ,
**Goddess, the** _concept of one goddess as supreme deity_
**golden deer** _see_ deer
**golden trees** _presage of death_ ,
**Gomatī** _'possessing cows', river near Ayodhyā (modern Gumtī)_ ,
**goose, geese** _(hamsa_ , Anser indicus _(Latham)) barheaded goose, noted for its strong, lofty migration flight (so harnessed to Kubera's chariot) and musical call_ , , , , , , ,
**Grand Father, the** _(Pitāmaha) Brahmā as progenitor of all creatures_ grants boon of long life to Kabandha grants boon of wealth to Maya grants boon to Hanumān that he cannot be fettered 223–4 _also named at_ , , , ,
**Great God, the** (Mahādeva, Maheśvara) _Śiva, who resides on mount Kailāsa in the Himālayas_ , ,
**greetings** 25–6, 30–31, , , , 61–3, , , , , , 138–9, , , , 211–14, , , 381–3
**growth and spread of text** x-xi, xxiii-xxviii, 362–72
**Guha** _'hidden', chief of the Ni āda tribe_ friend of Rāma, welcomes him 22–4, 46–8 conversation at night with Lak ma a 23–4 initially suspicious of Bharata's motives, welcomes his expedition 46–8 conversation at night with Bharata 48–50 orders fishing fleet to ferry Bharata and his force across the Ga gā 52–3 _also named at_ ,
**guru** _'heavy, weighty' (in sense of religious guide)_ 132–4 Vasi ṭha , _for more usual sense of 'parent' or 'respected family member' see the relevant term_
**Haimavata** – Himālayan
**hairstyles** _see_ ascetics, plait
**hammer** _(mudgara)_ , 295–7, _also called_ mallet
**Hanumān** _'having a <big> jaw', vānara courtier of Sugrīva, who leaps to La kā_ son of Kesarin , previous exploits, origin of name , boon that he cannot be fettered 223–4 accosts Rāma and Lak ma a in guise of mendicant, introduces them to Sugrīva 137–42 reminds Sugrīva to keep his promise to Rāma ordered to muster _vānaras_ for search 171–2 entrusted with major role in search 176–7 member of southern search party , 182–4, , leaps ocean , , , , , , searches all over La kā for Sītā 193–7 meeting with Sītā , 210–17 wrecks Girls' Grove 217–18, , kills Rāva a's 80,000 retainers, then Jambumālin, Virūpāk a, Yūpāksa, Durdhara, Praghāsa and Bhāsakar a 218–23 submits to being taken before Rāva a and paraded through La kā 223–7 fires La kā 228–30, 245–6 returns to Ki kindhā and reports to Rāma 230–31, 235–41 advises accepting Vibhī a a 253–4 identified to Rāva a by Suka 263–4 Sītā told he has been killed assigned to western gate, confronts Indrajit , , 316–18 kills Jambumālin , 279–80 mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a kills Dhūmrāk a, Akampana, Nikumbha 295–7, 299–300, 309–10 sent to fetch herb to heal Lak ma a, brings mountain xxi, sent to tell Sītā of Rāma's victory, forbidden by her to punish her guards, returns with her message 355–7 _in later versions_ , growth of status _also named at_ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , _also metaphorically called_ Son of the Wind _etc. see also_ shape changing
**Hara** _'seizer', vānara chief_
**hare** ( _śaśa_ , Lepus nigricollis _F. Cuvier)_ 201–2 _see also_ Moon
**Harijatā** _'with tawny braid', rāksasī resisted by Sītā_
**_Harivamśa_** _supplement to the Mahābhārata_
**Hastinapura** _'elephant city', city of the Kurus on Ga gā_
**hawk** _(bhāsa, śyena_ , Aquila _or_ Haliaeetus _species)_ ,
**Hemā** _'golden', apsaras, partner of dānava Maya_
**Hemakūṭa** _'golden crested', vānara_
**herbs, healing** ,
**heron** ( _ka ka_, Ardea cinerea _L. and_ A. purpurea _Meyen_ ) heron-feathered arrows , , , ,
**Himalaya** _'abode of snow' (also Himavān 'possessing snow')_ site of hermitages , , 171–2, 263–4
**Himavān** _Himālaya personified esp. as father of Pārvatī, Siva's wife_ refuses to fight Dundubhi
**Hira yakaśipu** _'having golden garments', a daitya king_
**honey** _(madhu)_ , ,
**Honey Orchard** _(Madhuvana) part of Sugrīva's personal estate, wrecked by exultant vānaras_ xv, xx, 230–35
**horses** _(ásva, turaga, turamga, vājin, haya)_ care for , 22–3 in battle _etc_. of Indra of the Sun stumbling or listlessness a portent of disaster , , , , weep , , ,
**humour, irony, mockery** xx-xxi, xxix, , 77–9, , , 108–9, 231–3, 304–6, , ,
**hunting** for food xv, , , for sacrifice for sport xv, , , 100–101
**Hutavaha** _'oblation-bearer'_ = Fire
**Ik vākus** _dynasty to which Rāma belongs_ , , , , , , , , , 71–2, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 'pride of the Ik vākus' designates Bharata 'pride of the Ik vākus' designates Rāma
**Indra** _chief god of Vedic pantheon, warrior and thunder god, Protector of East_ visit to Sutīk na carries off Śacī enmity with Kabandha 128–9 defeated by baby Kumbhakar a congratulates victorious Rāma, grants boon of restoring fallen _vānaras_ to life and perpetually providing them with food 357–8 armed with thunderbolt , , , , , Indra's bolts _perhaps hail rather than thunderbolts_ Indra's bow _rainbow_ missile , Indra's standard _pole erected for festival (something like maypole)_ , , , , called the Bountiful _(Maghavān)_ , , called great Indra _(Mahendra)_ , , , , , , 151–2, , 167–8, , , , , , , , , , 357–8 called Punisher of Pāka _(Pākaśā a a)_ , called Puramdara _('destroyer of forts')_ , , , , , , , , called Śatakratu _('having a hundred powers')_ , , , , , , , , , called Thousand-eyed _(Sahasrāk a)_ , , , , , , called Thunderbolt Wielder _(Vajradhara, Vajrahasta, Vajravān)_ , , , called Vāsava '< _chief_ > _of Vasus ('good, prosperous')_ ' , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , _also named at_ xv-xvi, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , _also called_ Śakra
**Indrajānu** _'having Indra's knees', vānara general_
**Indrajit** _'conqueror of Indra', Ravana's son_ previous exploits 282–3, in Trijatā's dream 209–10 assures Rāva a of victory defends western gate 274–5, fights against A gada 279–80, invisibility 282–4, , 314–15 disables Rāma and Lak ma a, reports their death to Rāva a 282–6, practises magic 284–5, , , 314–17 ordered to kill Rāma and Lak ma a, performs sacrifice 313–14 apparently kills illusory Sītā 315–17 reviles Vibhī ana, fights and is killed by Lak ma a 319–27 boons , , _also named at_ , , , , _also called_ Rāvani
**Indraśiras** _'Indra's head', mountain famed for elephants_
**integrity** _see_ truth
**invisibility** _see_ Indrajit
**Irāvata** _'possessing food', mountain famed for elephants_
**Jābāli** _counsellor of Daśaratha_
**jackal** _(gomāyu, śivā_ , Canis aureus _L.)_ scavenger, portent of disaster , , , , , , , , 329–30, ,
**jackfruit** _(panasa_ , Artocarpus integrifolia _L. f.) evergreen tree with huge edible fruit_ ,
**Jāhnavī** _'daughter of Jahnu (an ancient sage)'_ = Ga gā
**Jain versions** ,
**Jāmbavān** _vānara chief, king of bears; meaning unknown_ senior member of party searching south, dissuades A gada from attempting the leap to La ka, knows who can accomplish it 191–2 strength known to Rāva a suspicious of Vibhī a a Sītā told he has been killed assigned to central keep searches for invisible Indrajit mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a rallies _vānaras_ play on words with _jānu_ 'knee' son said to have devastated _rāk asas_ _also named at_ , , , , , , ,
**_jambū_** (Syzygium cumini _(L.) Skeels (formerly_ Eugenia jambolana _Lam.), jambolan or Black Plum) forest tree with edible fruit_
**Jambumālin** ' _garlanded with jambu / jambū', rāksasa_ son of Prahasta, killed by Hanumān killed by Hanumān 279–80
**Janaka** ' _progenitor', father of Sītā and king of Videha/Mithilā_ xxvii, , 195–6, , , 236–7,
**Janaka's daughter** _(Janakātmajā) Sītā_ , , 25–6, , 94–5, 103–4, , , , 116–17, , , , 179–80, , , 194–6, 206–7, 209–10, , 215–17, , , , , , , 356–7
**Jānakī** _' <daughter> of Janaka ('father')', Sītā_ , , , , , , 194–5, , , 201–3, 211–13, , , 229–30, 236–8, ,
**Janasthāna** _'place of people', a forest area_ 82–4, , , 93–4, 102–3, 107–8, 113–15, 117–18, , , , 186–7, , , , , , , , , , , called 'place of the slain' ,
**_japā_** _red-flowered plant (doubtfully identified as_ Hibiscus rosa-sinensis _L., China rose)_
**Jatāyus** _bird, king of vultures_ intervenes in abduction of Sītā xx, 107–11, , 186–7, , discovered dying by Rāma and Lak ma a, gives them news of Sītā and Rāvana 123–5 cremation 125–6, friend of Daśaratha younger brother of Sampāti
**Jatin** _'having a braid', nāga defeated by Rāvana_
**javelin** _(pattasa/pattiśa, bhindipāla)_ 81–3, , 247–8, , 279–80, 295–7, , , , , 324–5,
**Jayanta** _'victorious', envoy sent to recall Bharata from Rājag ha_
**jewels, jewelry** , , , , 109–10, presented to Sītā by Daśaratha adorn golden deer 100–101 dropped by Sītā as clue for Rāma, retrieved by _vānaras_ , 142–3 offered to Sītā by Rāva a , recognition tokens , , 236–7, in La kā _see also_ beryl, coral, diamond, pearl
**jujube** ( _badarī_ , Zizyphus jujuba _Lam_.) _small, thorny tree with edible fruit_
**jungle fowl** _see_ cock
**Jyotirmukha** _'having head of light', vānara chief, metaphorically called Son of the Sun_
**Kabandha** _'barrel, headless trunk', a dānava_ appearance a punishment for former misdeeds and misuse of boon of long life xxvi, 127–9 attacks Rama and Lak ma a, killed and cremated by them 127–30, advises Rama and Lak ma a to seek alliance with Sugrīva 130–33, _see also_ shape changing
**Kadrū** _'tawny', mythical mother of snakes (nāgas)_
**Kaikayī** = Kaikeyī
**Kaikeya, the** _king of the Kekaya people, father of Kaikeyī_
**Kaikeyī** _Daśaratha's favourite wife, mother of Bharata_ misuses boons to contrive5exile , , , 63–6, , safeguards Bharata's interests presented to Bharadvāja by Bharata 55–6 visits Rāma on Citrakūṭa 62–7 _also named at_ xiii, xvii-xviii, xxvi, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**Kaikeyī's son** _Bharata_ , , 63–4,
**Kailāsa** _northern mountain, abode of Vaiśrava a and of Śiva_ , , , 171–2, , , ,
**Kākutstha** _descendant of Kakutstha ('standing on a peak'), an earlier member of the Ik vāku dynasty, often with implication 'resolute/ steadfast'_ designates Bharata , , designates Daśaratha , designates Lak ma a , designates Rāma , , , , , , , , , , 66–7, , , , , , 87–8, , , , , , , , 144–6, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 340–41, 345–6, 358–60 designates Rāma + Lak ma a , , , ,
**Kāla** = Time, doom
**Kālakārmuka** _'bow of Time', rāk asa companion of Khara_
**Kālidāsa** _playwright and poet_
**Kālindī** _'belonging to (i.e. rising on) mount Kalinda'_ = Yamunā
**Kāma** _'desire', god of love_ _also called_ Kandarpa, Manmatha
**Kampan** _author of Tamil version of Rāmāyana_
**Kampana** _'shaker', rāk asa warrior_
**_kā da_** _main subdivision of whole work, 'book'_ xxviii
**Kandarpa** _god of love, himself handsome_ , , _also called_ Kāma, Manmatha
**Ka u** _a sage_ , 254–5
**Ka va** _Vedic sage, father of Ka u_
**Karavīrāk a** _'oleander-eyed', rāk asa companion of Khara_
**kar ikāra** (Pterospermum acerifolium _Willd.) evergreen tree with large, fragrant flowers opening at night and falling by morning_ , , ,
**Kārtavīrya** _'son of K tavīrya', Arjuna, prince of Haihayμs and famous archer_
**Kārtika** _'belonging to Krttikās (Pleiades)', month after monsoon (approx. Oct.–Nov.)_
**Kārtikeya's forest** _reed-bed, in which was born Kārtikeya, the war god, stepson of K ttikās (Pleiades)_
**Kausalyā** _'of Kosala', Daśaratha's senior wife and mother of Rāma_ bids farewell to Rāma and Sītā, runs with Daśaratha after departing chariot 10–13 attends to Daśaratha 14–17 reaction to Sumantra's report 29–30, 32–5 grief at Daśaratha's death 36–7 cares for Bharata presented to Bharadvāja by Bharata visits Rāma on Citrakūṭa 62–7 sees Rāma's funeral offering for Daśaratha xxvi, wealth _also named at_ xiii, xx, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**_kāvya_** _the more ornate style of classical Sanskrit poetry_
**Kekaya** _king of Kekaya people, i.e. Aśvapati, father of Kaikeyī_
**Kesarin** _'maned', vānara general, father of Hanumān_ , ,
**_khadira_** - **wood** (Acacia catechu _Willd. L.) cutch tree, tree with hard wood, used for sacrificial stake_
**Khara** _'harsh, ass (from harsh bray)', rāk asa, brother of Śūrpa akhā, Rāva a, Dū a a and others_ sends fourteen _rāksasas_ to avenge Sūrpanakhā's mutilation 79–80 leads 14,000 _rāksasas_ to avenge Sūrpanakhā's mutilation 82–90 killed by Rāma 90–93, , , 108–10, , , , _also named at_ , , , 310–13, , , ,
**_kinnara, kinnarī_** _class of semi-divine beings, similar to yaksas and gandharvas_ , , , , , , , ,
**Kīrti** _'fame', wife (?) of Hira yakaśipu (not otherwise known)_
**Kiskindhā** _capital of the vānara kingdom_ xiii, , , 153–4, 162–3, , , , 196–7, , 263–4, , description , 167–8
**kissing** 381–3 Aśvapati kisses Bharata as he leaves dying Vālin urged to kiss A gada Rāva a kisses Indrajit
**_kokila_** _(_ Eudynamys scolopacea scolopacea _L.) koel, bird noted for shrill, whistling call_
**Kosala** _a people and their territory, ruled by Daśaratha_ xii, , , , people distressed by Rāma's exile
**_kovidāra_** (Bauhinia purpurea _L.) purple mountain-ebony, emblem on Bharata's standard_ ,
**Krathana** _vānara general, identified to Rāva a by Sāra a_
**Krauñca Forest** ' _Crane Forest', part of the Dandaka Forest_ ,
**_krośa_** ' _shout', measure of short distance_ 26–7, , 126–7
**K ta** ' _made', first and best of four ages of world (yuga)_
**K ttibās** _author of best-known Bengali version of Rāmāya a_
**k atriya** _warrior, aristocratic class_ xvii, xxiv, xxvii, 93–4, , values xi, xiii, , ,
**K īroda** = Milk Ocean
**Kubera** _god of wealth, Rāva a's dispossessed older half-brother, Protector of North_ war with Rāvana , , presents sleeping Lak ma a with arrow _also called_ Vaiśravana
**Kuli gā** _town in Punjab_
**Kumbha** _'pot', son of Kumbhakar a, brother of Nikumbha_ ,
**Kumbhakar a** _'pot-ears', gigantic brother of Rāva a_ previous exploits, cursed by Brahmā to sleep , 304–5 in Trijaṭā's dream persuaded by Rāva a to join battle, killed by Rāma xix, xxi, 303–9 _also named at_ , , , ,
**Kumbhīnasī** _'pot-nosed', wife of dānava Madhu_
**Kumuda** _'water-lily', vānara general_ identified to Rāvana by Sāra a Sītā told he has been defeated besieges eastern gate mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Laksmana _also named at_ , , , ,
**Kuru** _people and territory (in modern Haryana)_
**Kuśa** _in a later development, one of the twins born to Sītā in Vālmīki's hermitage after her banishment_ , 368–9
**_kuśa_** **grass** _(_ Eragrostis cynosuroides _Retz. Beauv.) pointed grass used for scattering on ground at rituals_ , , , , , , , , , _see also_ cloth, clothing _darbha (alternative name)_ 61–2,
**lac** _secretion of an insect (_ Kerria lacca _(Kerr), formerly Laccifer lacca) used to colour hands and feet scarlet_
**Lak ma a** _'having <lucky> marks', son of Daśaratha and Sumitrā (major items only)_ called Rāma's younger brother _(Rāmānuja)_ , , , is unmarried cares for Rāma and Sītā in exile , , , , 48–9, , 76–7, 131–2 conversation with Guha 23–4 inaugurates hut at Pañcavaṭī with offering of flowers ordered by Rāma to hide Sītā during attack by Khara suspects golden deer is Mārīca disobeys instructions to stay with Sītā while Rāma hunts golden deer , 103–4, 116–19 calms Rāma's distress 120–23, 164–5 prompts Sugrīva to begin search 165–71 consecrates Vibhī a a king , identified to Rāva a by Suka Sītā told he has been routed takes up position at northern gate, kills Virūpāk a 278–80 disabled by Indrajit, healed by Garu a's touch 282–93, 322–3 fights and kills Indrajit 319–27 presented while asleep with arrow by Kubera performs act of truth to enable him to kill Indrajit wounded by Rāva a's spear, healed by herb 337–40 appearance 138–9, volatile nature , 58–9, 165–9, _in later versions_ , description of winter _in later versions_ , birth, marriage, kingdom, sons, death 365–7 _also called_ Saumitri _see also_ Daśaratha's son, Dāśarathi, Fortune-favoured, pride of the Raghus
Laksmī 'prosperity', goddess of good fortune , , _see also_ Fortune-favoured
**lance** _(tomara)_ , , , , , , , ,
**language, linguistic features** _see_ diction and language
**langur** _(_ Presbytis _species, esp_. P. entellus, _Hanuman langur) type of monkey_ , , , 174–5, ,
**La ka** ' _island', Rāva a's city_ description , 193–5, , 244–5 built by Viśvakarman Vaiśrava a driven out by Rāvana surveyed and burnt by Hanumān 227–30 _also named at_ xiii, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 242–360 _passim_
**La kā's fortifications** 244–5 parts defended by Virūpāk a, Prahasta, Mahāpārśva + Mahodara, Indrajit, Śuka + Sāra a with Rāva a
**Lava** _in a later development, one of the twins born to Sītā in Vālmīki's hermitage after her banishment_ , 368–9
**leopard** _(dvīpin_ , Panthera pardus _(L.))_
**leave-taking** 3–7, , 39–40, , , , , 293–4, , 381–3
**left-hand side** auspicious for women , 382–3 inauspicious for men , 117–18, , , , 344–5, 382–3
**lion** _(simha)_ ,
**locusts** _(śalabha)_
**_lodhra_** _(_ Symplocos racemosa _Roxb.) sweetleaf tree_
**Lohitā ga** _'red-limbed', planet Mars_ , also called A gāraka
**_lokapāla_** = Protector of the World
**lotuses** _(ambuja, kamala, nalina, padma, pa kaja, pu arīka, pu -kara_, Nelumbo nucifera _Gaertn.) water plant with glossy white or pink flowers, which shed water, as do the leaves, symbolic of beauty_ auspicious sign , emblem of Śrī/Lak mī , , , _also mentioned at_ xiv-xv, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**mace** _(parigha) type of club_ , , 247–8, , , , , , 290–91, 295–7, , 309–11, 333–6, 346–7, 352–3
**Madhu** _dānava chief defeated by Rāva a_
**_madhūka_** _(mahua_ , Madhuca latifolia _Macbride) tree with flowers that can be eaten or used to make alcohol_
**Madhuvana** = Honey Orchard
**Maghavān** _'Bountiful'_ = Indra
**_Mahābhārata_** ix-x, xv, xvii, xix, xxiii-xxiv, xxix,
**Mahādeva** = Great God
**Mahākapāla** _'with great skull', rāk asa companion of Khara_
**Mahāmālin** _'with great garland', rāk asa companion of Khara_
**Mahāpārśva** _'with great sides', rāksasa general_ assures Rāva a of victory with Mahodara defends La kā's southern gate 274–6 defeated by Ráma laments death of brother Kumbhakar a accompanies Rāva a into battle, killed by A gada 329–30, 334–5
**Mahāru a** _'great reddish <mountain>', mountain frequented by vānaras_
**Mahendra** _'great Indra'_ = Indra
**Mahendra** _'great Indra'_ = _mountain opposite La kā_ ,
**Maheśvara** = Great God
**Mahīrāva a** _'Rāva a of the earth', in some later versions the even more formidable relative of Rāva a who lives underground and has to be defeated by Hanumān, or by Sītā herself_ 369–70
**Mahodara** _'big-bellied', rāksasa general_ assures Rāva a of victory finds spies for Rāva a with Mahāpārśva defends La kā's southern gate 274–6 defeated by Rāma laments death of brother Kumbhakar a accompanies Rāva a into battle, killed by Sugrīva 329–30, 332–4
**mahouts** _elephant riders_ , ,
**Mainda** _vānara chief, brother of Dvivida, metaphorically called twin Sons of the Aśvins_ son of Su e a , member of party searching south gives judicious advice identified to Rāva a by Suka Sītā told he has been killed kills Vajramu ṭi searches for invisible Indrajit _also named at_ , , , , , , , , ,
**Maithilī** _'daughter of king of Mithilā', Sītā_ xii, , , , , , , 69–70, 74–5, , , 104–6, 111-I2, 114–16, 118–19, , 142–4, , , , , 186–7, , 197–8, 201–3, , , , , , , , , , , , 288–9, , , 351–2, , 357–8
**Maitra** _'of Mitra', a particular auspicious time-division early in day_
**Makarāk a** _'crocodile-eyed', rāksasa, son of Khara_ attempts to avenge father, but is killed by Rāma xxi, 310–13
**Malaya** _mountains_ near Kiskindhā in La kā
**Mālyavān** _'garlanded', maternal great-uncle of Rāva a_ advises that Sītā be given back 272–4
**mallet** _(mudgara)_ _also called_ hammer
**Mandākinī** _'slow-flowing', river near mount Citrakūta (probably modern Paiśuni)_ 55–6, , , ,
**Mandara** _'sluggish', mythical mountain, used as paddle at the Churning of the Ocean_ , , , , , 257–8, ,
**Mandodarī** _'slack-bellied', Rāva a's chief queen_ mourns his death 351–3 claims to have recommended returning Sītā
**mango** ( _cūta_ , Mangifera indica _L_.) _tree with delicious fruit_
**Manmatha** _'mind-churning', god of love_ , , 135–6 _also called_ Kāma, Kandarpa
**Mantharā** _'stirrer up', Kaikeyī's hunchbacked maid_ incites Kaikeyī to claim her boons , 42–3 attacked by Satrughna, protected by Bharata 43–4
**_mantra_** _form of words (usually drawn from Vedas) with special power if correctly uttered_ , , , , , , , ,
**Manu** _'thinking', ancestor of human race, first king and lawgiver_
**Mare's Head** _(va avāmukha) mythical submarine fire_
**Mārīca** _'descendant of Marīci ('sunbeam')', rāksasa ascetic_ previous encounters with Rāma xxv, 95–7, coerced by Rāva a into becoming a golden deer 93–9 entrances Sītā, decoys Rāma, killed, calls out in Rāma's voice 100–102 boon _also named at_ , _see also_ golden deer, shape changing
**marriage rituals**
**_marut_** _group of storm gods, Indra's attendants_ , ,
**Māruta** _'belonging to maruts'_ = the Wind
**Mātali** _Indra's charioteer_ brings chariot so that Rāma shall no longer be at a disadvantage against Rāva a xvi, , , 347–8, _also named at_
**Mata ga** _'going deliberately, elephant', ascetic sage_ curse excludes Vālin from Rśyamūka 151–2, 178–9 hermitage now inhabited by Sabarī 132–4
**matted hair** _see_ ascetics
**Maya** _'maker', dānava magician, architect of anti-gods_ , 335–6 father-in-law to Rāva a granted boon of wealth, creates golden forest, killed by Indra , ,
**Māyāvin** _'deceitful', anti-god, son of Dundubhi, killed by Vālin_ 147–9
**mead** _(madhu)_ , , , 230–34
**Meghamālin** _'cloud-garlanded', rāk asa companion of Khara_
**merchants** _see_ auspiciousness
**merit** , , , , , 70–71, , , 182–4, , , , 381–3
**Meru** _mythical mountain, the axis of the world_ , , , , , , 174–5, , , , ,
**Merusavar i** _sage, father of Svayamprabhā_
**meteor** _(ulkā)_ , , , , , _also called_ shooting star
**metre** xxviii, ,
**Milk Ocean** _(Ksīroda) mythical cosmic ocean_ ,
**millet** ( _priya gu_, Panicum italicum _L.)_
**ministers** xiii Dasaratha's ministers act as regents after king's death 37–8, accompany Bharata to Citrakūta , , , Bharata urged to act on their advice Rāva a's ministers 98–9, , 246–50, , , 271–4 _vānara_ ministers 138–9, , 147–8, , , 165–7, 178–9, , 252–4
**missiles, divine** _see_ Agni, Brahmā, Indra, Rudra, Vāyu, Varuna
**Mitraghna** ' _killer of god Mitra', rāksasa warrior_ fights against Vibhī a a
**mockery** _see_ humour
**mongoose** ( _nakula_ , Herpestes edwardsii _(Geoffroy))_
**Moon** _personification of moon_ , , , , 'hare-marked' _(śaśin; the outline of a hare is thought to be visible on the moon's surface)_ , _also called_ Constellations' Lord, lord of stars
**moorhen** _(natyūha_ , Gallinula chloropus indica _Blyth)_ ,
**moth** , , , ,
**M tyu** = Death
**music** xiv, , , , ,
**_musth_** _excitable condition of bull elephants on heat_ 56–7,
**mynah** _(sārikā_ , Acridotheres tristis tristis _L., Indian mynah, or_ Gracula religiosa _L., hill mynah) bird noted for the variety of its calls, often caged and taught to mimic_ , , ,
**_nāga_** _class of minor deities, visualized as snakes_ , 194–5, 203–4, , , , , , , , 347–8,
**Nahusa** _king, father of Yayāti_
**nair ta** = Disorder, son of
**naksatra** = constellation, stars
**_naktamālaka_** _'night-garland'_ (Pongamia pinnata _(L.) Merrill) riverside tree_
**Nala** _'reed', vānara general_ builds causeway across sea 258–9 charges ramparts, fights against Pratapana 278–9 mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a _metaphorically called_ Son of Viśvakarman as result of boon to mother , _also named at_ , , , , , ,
**Namuci** _'not releasing', anti-god killed by Indra_ , ,
**Nandana** _'gladdening'_ envoy sent to recall Bharata from Rājag ha forest in Indra's heaven , , , ,
**Narāntaka** _'destroyer of men', rāksasa, nephew of Kumbhakarna_ ,
**Naravāhana** _'borne by men', Vaiśrava a Kubera_
**Nārāya a** _god, identified with Vi u_
**nature** appealed to by Sītā for help as reflection of sentiments , , 31–2, 135–7
**night battles** false 269–70 real 281–4
**night-roamer, night-walker** _(niśācara, rajanīcara) = rāk asa_
**Nikūla** _'downhill', a tree granting wishes_
**Nikumbha** _'without pot (?)', rāksasa_ assures Rāva a of victory killed by Nīla 279–80 son of Kumbhakarna and brother of Kumbha, killed by Hanumān , 309–10,
**Nikumbhilā** _sacred tree (caitya) at which dances are performed and offerings made_ , 318–19
**Nīla** _'dark', vānara general_ strength known to Rāva a identified to Rāva a by Sāra a assigned La kā's eastern gate kills Nikumbha 279–80 searches for invisible Indrajit mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a kills Prahasta prepares for Kumbhakar a's attack _metaphorically called_ Son of Fire , _also named at_ , , , ,
**nilgai** _(ruru_ , Boselaphus tragocamelus _(Pallas)) blue bull, large, stocky antelope_
**_Nirrti_** = Disorder
**Nisāda** _tribe of hunters and boatmen living beside Ga gā and ruled by Guha_ xii, , 46–7, ,
**nodal time** _(parvan, lit. 'joint') time at which eclipse can occur_ ,
**noose** _(pāśa) weapon_ , , _see also_ Death
**ocean** xiii leapt by Hanumān , , , crossed by _vānara_ army , 242–4, , 255–9, , , 306–7,
**Ocean** _(Sāgara) personified, called Lord of Rivers_ refuses to fight Vālin reluctantly helps _vānara_ army to cross 256–8 _also named at_
**omens** _see_ portents
**orality** ix, xx, xxii-xxiv, xxvi, xxix-xxx, 363–4,
**osprey** _(kurara_ , Pandion haliaetus haliaetus _L.) fish-eating bird with shrill cry_ , , , , ,
**_padma_** _(probably Prunus cerasoides D. Don, Himalayan wild cherry)_ _padmaka, forest tree_
**Padmavana** _'Lotus Forest/Forest of Padma (cosmic elephant)'_
**Pāka, Punisher of** _(Pākasā a a)_ = Indra, _killer of daitya Pāka_
**palanquin**
**palmyra** (Borassus flabellifer _L.) toddy-palm, a tall palm_ , , , ,
**Pampā** _beautiful river and lake near Kiskindhā_ , , 131–3, 138–40 garlands born from drops of sages' sweat
**_panasa_** (Artocarpus integrifolia _L. f_.) _'jackfruit', evergreen tree with huge edible fruit_ ,
**Panasa** _'jackfruit', vānara chief_ identified to Rāva a by Sāra a Sītā told he has been killed _also named at_ , , , ,
**Pāñcāla** _'belonging to Pañcāla clan', region in Punjab_
**Pañcavatī** _'five fig-trees', part of forest near river Godāvarī, where Rāma and Lak ma a build hermitage on Agastya's recommendation_ 75–7
**Pā ini** _Sanskrit grammarian_ xxix
**parasol** _symbolic of sovereignty_ , , ,
**Pāriyātra** _'journeying round', mountain range (western Vindhyas), home to Panasa_ ,
**Parjanya** _Vedic god of rain_ , , , farmers long for Parjanya (i.e. rain)
**Par āśā** _'eating leaves', river, home of Vinata_
**Parusa** _'rough', rāksasa companion of Khara_
**Pātāla** = Underworld
**Paulastya** _'descendant of Pulastya', patronymic of rāk asas_ , , , , , ,
**Pāvaka** _'purifying'_ = the Fire
**Pavana** _'purifier'_ = the Wind
**peacock** _(barhin, mayūra_ , Pavo cristatus _L.)_ , , , , , , harbingers of rain _(peacocks are thought to dance at the sight of clouds)_
**pearl** _(muktā)_ , , , , , , 236–7, , pearl-oyster _(śukti_ , Pinctada vulgaris)
**Perfected** _(siddha) one who has achieved semi-divine status through asceticism_ , _also called siddha_
**pestle** _(musala) weapon_ , , , , , , , 346–8
**pigeon** _(kapota, Columbia livia Gmelin) Blue Rock Pigeon_ ,
**pike** _(śūla) weapon_ , , , , 247–8, , , , , , , , , , , ,
**Pinākin** ' _bowman_ ' = Śiva
**pinewood** _(sarala_ , Pinus roxburghii _Sargent) sweet-smelling resinous wood of chir pine, Himālayan tree_
**pipes** _(venu) wind instrument made from bamboo_
**_pisāca_** _'flesh-eating (?)', class of malignant minor deities_ , , , , , , ,
**Pitāmaha** = Grand Father
**plait, single** _symbolic of penance or mourning, esp. worn by a woman whose husband is absent_ , ,
**plantain** _(kadalī_ , Musa paradisiaca _L.) banana tree, easily toppled palm_ , ,
**plough** _(hala) weapon_
**pollution** _see_ blood, _ca āla_
**porcupine** ( _śalyaka_ , Hystrix indica Kerr)
**portents** of disaster 84–5, , 116–19, 126–7, 209–10, , , , , 302–3, , , , 343–5 of success , , , , ,
**Praghasa** _'devourer'_ _rāksasa_ general killed by Hanumān 221–3 _rāksasa_ general killed by Sugrīva 279–80 _rāksasa_ minister of Vibhīsa a, spies out La kā
**Praghasā** _'devourer', rāk asī resisted by Sītā_
**Prahasta** _'hands forward', rāksasa Commander-in-Chief and counsellor of Rāvana_ father of Jambumālin interrogates Hanumān xx, assures Rāva a of victory 247–8 Sītā told he has slaughtered the _vānara_ army 269–70 stationed at eastern gate of La ka 274–6, claims to have advised return of Sītā ordered into battle, killed by Nīla 301–3 _also named at_ , ,
**Praja gha** _'long-shanks', vānara warrior, fights against Sampāti_ 279–80
**Prajāpati** _'lord of creatures', creator deity or deities (mind-born sons of Brahmā)_ , , _also called_ Lord of Creatures / Creation
**Pramāthin** _'confuser'_ _rāk asa_, companion of Khara _vānara_ general
**Prasrava a** _'flowing forth', mountain near Kiskindhā where Rāma and Lak ma a spend monsoon_ , 163–4, , , , ,
**Pratapana** _'heating, tormenting', rāksasa, fights against Nala_
**Prayāga** _'sacrifice place', city at confluence of Ga gā and Yamunā (modern Allahabad)_ 25–6,
**primogeniture** xiii, , ,
**_priyaka_** _tree with smooth fruit_
**_priyāla_** (Buchanania latifolia _Roxb_.) _fruiting tree_
**proverbs** , , , , , , , 254–5,
**Protector of the World** _(lokapāla) grouping of four gods to guard the compass points (Yama S, Varuna W, Kubera N, Indra E)_ , ,
**Prthu** _'broad', vānara_ mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a
**P thugrīva** _'broad-necked', rāksasa companion of Khara_
**Pulastya** _a Prajāpati, ancestor of rāk asas (Paulastyas)_
**Puloman** _anti-god, father of Sacī (Paulomī) and killed by Indra_
**Puramdara** _'destroyer of forts'_ = Indra
**Purā as** 369–70
**purity, ritual**
**Purūravas** _'crying much', mortal king in love with apsaras Urvaśī_
**Puspaka Chariot** _'flowery', Vaiśrava a's aerial chariot, taken by Rāvana_ , , takes Sītā to see apparently dead Rāma and Lak ma a 286–9 takes Rāma, Vibhī a a and _vānaras_ to Ayodhyā 359–61
**Pu paka Palace** _'flowery', part of Rāva a's palace_ ,
**quarrel** _(bhalla) type of missile or arrow_
**quiver** _(tūnī, kalāpa) worn in pairs_ , , , arrows return to quiver after accomplishing task ,
**Rabhasa** _'impetuous, violent'_ _rāk asa_ who assures Rāva a of victory _vānara_
**Rāghava** _'descendant of Raghu'_ designates Bharata , 44–5, , 52–3, , , , designates Daśaratha , designates Lak ma a , , , designates Raghu dynasty , , 53–4 designates Rāma _passim_ designates Rāma + Lak ma a , , , 126–8, , , , , , , designates Rāma + Lak ma a or just Lak ma a designates Sagara
**Rāghavānuja** _'younger brother of the Rāghava'_ designates Lak ma a , ,
**Raghu** _'speedy', earlier Iksvāku king_ , , , pride of the Raghus ( _raghunandana_ ) designates Rāma , , , , 117–18, , , , , , designates Lak ma a designates Rāma + Lak ma a
**Rāhu** _'seizer', daitya thought to seize the sun and moon, causing eclipses, and regarded as a planet_ , , _also called_ the Devourer
**Rājag ha** _'king's house', Aśvapati's city, also called_ Girivraja xii, 37–9
**_rājasūya_** _'reinvigoration of king', ritual confirming king's rule_
**_rāk asa, rāk asī_** _'guarding', class of minor deities hostile to humans (major items only)_ drink human blood and eat human flesh , , , , , , , , , 205–6, , persecute sages , 95–7, portion of sacrifice left for _rāk asas_ _also called_ night-walker, night-roamer, son of Disorder
**Rāma** _'pleasing, charming', Daśaratha's oldest son, born to Kausalyā (major items only)_ LIFE birth, called Bharata's elder brother _(Bharatāgraja)_ , , , , , , 366–7 previous encounters with Mārīca 95–7, allows Sītā and Lak ma a to accompany him in exile xvii-xix, 4–6 return envisaged by Kausalyā rejects or avoids company in exile 8–9, , , visits to forest sages 25–7, 69–75, 133–4 hut on Citrakūta, decision to leave xiii, , 60–61, 68–9 refuses Bharata's offer to replace him 64–7 encounter with Sūrpa akhā and slaughter of Khara and his army 77–92, , kills golden deer 100–102 discovers dying Jatāyus, cremates him 123–6 kills and cremates Kabandha 127–33 contracts alliance with Sugrīva demonstrates strength , kills Vālin 145–6, , 153–8, , , , recommends A gada's consecration as Young King 162–3, spends rainy months on mount Prasrava a, impatient to resume search 162–5 entrusts recognition token to Hanumān identified to Rāva a by Śuka his magic severed head shown to Sītā 268–70 takes up position at northern gate, kills or defeats _rāk asas_ , 280–82, 310–13 disabled by Indrajit, healed by Garu a's touch 282–93, 322–3 laments apparent deaths of Lak ma a and Sītā 289–90, 318–19, 338–9 fights and kills Rāva a, aided by Mātāli 335–49 prompts Vibhī a a to give Rāva a decent funeral orders Vibhī a a's consecration as king , seeks reunion with Sītā 354–5 visited by four gods, asks for fallen _vānaras_ to be restored to life and perpetually provided with food; told to return with Sītā to Ayodhyā where Bharata is living as ascetic, and be consecrated xix-xx, 357–8 immediate return to Ayodhyā accompanied by Vibhī a a and all the _vānaras_ 359–61 ACCOMPLISHMENTS enjoys hunting for sport , expert in Vedas and ritual , friendship for Guha , CHARACTER xviii, xix, , , 93–5, 121–3, , , affection for mother, concern for her welfare 4–5, , , filial obedience and duty , , grace to a suppliant (crow that molests Sītā, Vibhī a a, spies, non-combatants) , 236–8, 254–5, , , popularity with the citizens of Ayodhyā, concern for their welfare , 12–16, 18–21, , 28–9 seeks advice from _vānaras_ 252–4 sight of him, or death at his hands, confers happiness 128–30, , understanding of sovereignty , EMOTIONS angered by Ocean's failure to answer invocation 256–7 calms Lak ma a's impetuous rage at Bharata grief at abduction, reproaches to Lak ma a 116–26, 135–7, , NATURE: appearance , , , , , , , , , , 138–9 called human/mortal , , , , , 105–6, 204–5, , , , , 350–51, , 366–7 _in later versions_ , marriage, inconclusive fight with Rāva a, sons, death , 365–9 _also called_ Dasaratha's son, Dāsarathi, pride of the Ik vākus, Kākutstha, Rāghava, pride of the Raghus
**Rambha** _'support', vānara general_ identified to Rāva a by Sāra a mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a _also named at_ ,
**Rāmlilā** xi,
**Rasātala** _'plane of moisture', underworld home of nāgas (snakes)_ , 147–8,
**Raśmiketu** _'sunbeam-bannered', rāksasa_ assures Rāva a of victory killed by Rāma
**rat** _(mūsika_ , Rattus rattus) _Roof Rat_
**Rāva a** _'causing roars (?)', king of rāksasas (major items only)_ 'who made his foes /the world roar' _(satrurāva a/lokarāvana)_ , , 202–3, , , , called Vaisrava a's brother 104–6, , , , , , previous exploits , , 203–4, , , , 304–5, 350–51, 366–7, boon , 224–5, lust for Sītā aroused by Sūrpa akhā 92–3 enlists Mārīca's aid, approaches Sītā in guise of mendicant and abducts her 93–107 fights and kills Jatāyus 109–11 dispatches eight spies to Janasthāna 113–14 sets time limit on Sītā's submission 115–16, , , , woos Sītā with kindness and threats, consigns her to _aśoka_ grove xxi, 105–6, 113–16, 197–9, orders Hanumān to be arrested and tail set alight , provokes Vibhī a a to defect 249–50 dispatches spies to _vā nara_ camp, angered and perturbed by their reports xxi, 259–68 attempts to convince Sītā that Rāma is dead 268–70, 286–7 defends northern gate 274–5 orders counter-attack orders successive champions into battle , , , appeals to Kumbhakarna for help, grieves at his death xix, , 308–9 on Indrajit's death, decides to accompany three generals into battle 329–31 fights Rāma, berates his charioteer, killed xxi-xxii, 335–49 appearance and powers , _in later versions_ , inconclusive fight with Rāma, curse , _also called_ Daśagrīva _see also_ chariot, golden deer, ministers, shape changing, spies
**Rāva a's mother** urges release of Sītā
**Rāva a's wives** , 194–6, 198–201, distraught at his death 349–53
**Rāva i** ' _son of Rāva a_' = Indrajit 282–4, , 313–14, 319–21, , ,
**realgar** _arsenic sulphide, used as a red pigment_ , ,
**recensions** xxiii, ,
**red** _inauspicious or threatening, as the colour of blood_ , , , 209–10, , , ,
**reed fish** _(nalamīna, perhaps_ Mastocembalus aromatus) _type of eel_ 131–2
**resin** _used in funeral rituals_
**rhinoceros** ( _vārdhrā asa_, Rhinoceros unicornis _L_.)
**rice** (Oryza sativa _L_.) wild rice
**right-hand side** , , 382–3
**rituals** xv-xvi, 381–3 performed by Rāma to inaugurate hut on Citrakūta performed by Sītā _see also_ funeral rituals, marriage rituals, sacrifices, twilight ritual
**Ṛk arajas** _'bear-dust', vānara, father of Vālin and Sugrīva_ , , ,
**Rohi ī** ' _reddish', star Aldebaran, regarded as favourite wife of moon_ , , , , ,
**Rsabha** ' _bull', vānara general, searches for invisible Indrajit_ mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a
**Rsabhaskandha** ' _bull-shouldered', vānara general, searches for invisible Indrajit_
**Rśyamūka** ' _lacking antelope', mountain near lake Pampā where Sugrīva lives in exile_ 130–32, 138–9, , , , , , , legends connected with it
**Rśyaś ga** ' _having deer's horns', in a later development of the story, a young sage who performs for Daśaratha the rituals that provide him with sons_
**Rudhirāśana** _'devouring blood', rāk asa companion of Khara_
**Rudra** _'red/howler', Vedic god_ , Rudra missile _a divine missile_ , _also called_ Śiva
**_rudra_** _class of Vedic deity (headed by Rudra)_
**Rumā** _Sugrīva's wife_ seized by Vālin , , 145–6, , , 168–9, ,
**Śabara / Śabarī** _forest tribe, one of whom is a female ascetic in Mata ga's former hermitage_ 132–4
**Śacī** _'might', Indra's wife_ , , , ,
**sacred tree** _(caitya) commonly surrounded by a railing_ , , , , , 381–3
**sacrifices** xiii, , portion left for _rāk asas_ , 381–3 sacrificial fees sacrificial objects , , _see also_ _aśvamedha_, _rājasūya_, _soma_
**sacrificial grass** _(barhis) slept on by Rāma_ _see also_ _kuśa_ grass
**Sagara** _'with poison', Iksvāku king who dug out the ocean (sāgara), father of Asamañja_ ,
**sages** and forest life xvi, , , , , , 73–5, , 132–4, associated with various semi-divine groups, often as a chorus commenting on the action , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 350–51 _see also_ ascetics, _individual names_
**_Sahasrāksa_** ' _Thousand-eyed_ ' = Indra
**Sahya** _'to be borne', mountain range (central Western Ghats)_
**Sakra** _'mighty', Indra_ , , , , , , , , , , 158–9, , , , 237–8, , , , , , , , , , 327–8, , ,
**_śākta_** _the view that sees the Goddess as the energy producing the cosmos and hence as the supreme deity_
**_sāl_** tree ( _sāla_ , Shorea robusta _Gaertn. f._ ) _tall timber tree_ , 60–61, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**Sālmalī** _a river in Punjab_
**Sālveya** _'belonging to Sālva tribe', mountain in north-west, realm of vānara Śarabha_
**_sāman_** **singers** _class of priest, specialists in Sāmaveda ('Veda of chants')_
**Samjīvakara ī** _'revivifying', healing herb_
**Samkocana** _'contracting', mountain near river Gomatī, home of Kumuda_
**Sampāti** _'flying together'_ _rāksasa_ minister of Vibhī a a, spies out La kā _rāksasa_ , fights on Rāva a's side against Praja gha 279–80 _vānara_ , vulture, older brother of Jatāyus, who tells _vānaras_ where Sītā is imprisoned 186–9,
**sandal** _(candana) aromatic wood of tree_ (Santalum album _L._ ), _ground to produce paste, used as perfume or unguent_ , , , , , , , , , ,
**sandals** _as symbol of sovereignty (of respect for superior)_ 67–8, , 381–3
**Śa kara** _'beneficent'_ = Śiva
**Sa kha** _'conch', nāga (snake) defeated by Rāvana_
**Sānuprastha** _'standing on a ridge', vānara who searches for invisible Indrajit_
**_saptacchada_** _'seven-leaved' (_ Alstonia scholar is _Brown) 'milk-wood', a flowering tree_
**_saptapar a_** _'seven-leaved', same as preceding_ ,
**Śarabha** _' <kind of> deer', rāk asa, minister of Vibhī a a_ spies out La kā
**Śarabha** '< _kind of_ > _deer', vānara general_ member of party searching south gives judicious advice 252–3 identified to Rāva a by Sāra a searches for invisible Indrajit mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a _also named at_ , , , , , , , , ,
**Śarabha ga** _'arrow-breaking', ascetic sage_
**Śarada ā** _'with reed stalks', river_
**Saramā** _'swift', friendly rāksasī guard of Sītā, who reports to her on ministers' deliberations_ 270–71
**Sāra a** _'flowing', rāksasa_ sent with Suka by Rāva a to spy on Rāma's camp; identifies _vānara_ warriors to Rāva a xxi, 259–63, with Suka defends northern gate defeated by Rāma
**_sārasa_** _(_ Grus antigone antigone _L.) sarus crane, a large crane_ , , able to separate milk from water
**Sarayū** _'flowing, swift', river flowing past Ayodhyā, identified with modern river Gharghara_ xii, , ,
**Sārdūla** _'tiger', rāksasa spy_ xxi, 266–8
**_sarga_** _group of verses, roughly 'chapter'_ xxviii, 374–5
**Sarpāsya** _'snake-faced', rāksasa companion of Khara_
**_sāstras_** _'teachings', classes of texts on ritual, duty, etc_. ,
**Satabali** _'with hundred gifts', vānara warrior_ leads search of north , attacks southern gate mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a _also named at_
**Satakratu** ' _having a hundred powers_ ' = Indra
**Satrughna** _'killer of enemies', Lak ma a's uterine brother_ accompanies Bharata on visit to Rājag ha grieves for father, deplores exile of Rāma, treats Mantharā harshly, berates Kaikeyī 42–4 called Lak ma a's younger brother ( _Lak ma ānuja_) 43–4 _in later versions_ , birth, marriage, kingdom, sons, death 366–7 _also named at_ , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**Satrumjaya** _'conquering enemies', Dásaratha's elephant_
**Saumitri** _'son of Sumitrā', Lak ma a_ 5–6, , 18–19, 22–3, , 27–8, , 58–9, 62–3, , 73–7, , , , 103–4, 116–19, , 125–6, , 135–7, 140–41, , 164–5, , 169–70, , , , , , , , , , , , 319–22, , , , , ,
**Saupar a** _'with good feathers'_ = Garu a
**Savitr** _'stimulator'_ = the Sun
**scimitar** _(asi)_ _see also_ sword
**sea** _see_ ocean
**search parties** 176–9 southern party 179–92
**seasons** , 135–7, 164–6, , , , , , , , _see also_ Kārtika, Srāva a
**sesame oil** _(taila) oil from seeds of tree (tila_ , Sesamum indicum _DC)_ preserves Daśaratha's corpse until cremation (apparently) inauspicious , incendiary agent
**sexual activity/morals** , , , , 199–203
**shape changing** Hanumān 138–42, , , , , Indrajit Kabandha 129–30 Mārīca , 96–7, 100–102, _rāksasas_ , , , , , , , , Rāva a , , , , , Sugrīva , Sūrpa akhā 78–9 _vānaras_ , , 174–6, ,
**shark** _(grāha)_
**sheath (for sword)** _(kośa)_ ,
**sheldrake** _(cakravāka_ , Tadorna ferruginea _(Pallas)) Brahmini duck, ruddy sheldrake_ , 136–7
**shield** _(carman)_ , , , , , , 332–5
**_siddha_** _'successful, perfected', one who has achieved semi-divine status through asceticism_ , , , , , , , _also called_ Perfected
**Siddhārtha** _'successful in his aims', counsellor of Daśaratha_ challenges Kaikeyī in support of Rāma sent to recall Bharata from Rājag ha
**siege-engine** _(yantra)_ , 244–5
**silk** _see_ cloth, clothing
**silk-cotton tree** _(śālmalī_ , Bombax ceiba _L.) spiny tree with red flowers, regarded as ill-omened_ , ,
**_śimśapa_** **tree** (Dalbergia sissoo _Roxb.) mod. sissoo, medium to large timber tree_ 204–5, ,
**Sītā** _'furrow', daughter of Janaka, wife of Rāma (major items only)_ birth xxvii, , , , education, predictions of fortune-tellers , 10–11, performs rituals, act of truth , fidelity to Rāma, threatens suicide , 103–4, enjoys forest life , commended by Agastya and Anasūyā 69–70, encounter with Sūrpa akhā and with Khara's army , desires golden deer, believes deer's scream is Ráma's voice, sends Lak ma a to investigate xvii, xxv, 100–104 abduction, consignment to _aśoka_ grove 106–16, resists Rāvana and _rāksasīs_ xxi, 105–6, 111–12, 114–15, 199–209 believes Rāvana was golden deer xxv, expects Rāma to rescue her xxv, , 111–12, 114–15, 200–201, drops shawl and ornaments near _vānaras_ , 142–3, meeting with Hanumán xxv, 213–17 message and hair-jewel for Rāma , 236–40 Rāva a attempts to deceive her with magic head of Rāma 268–70 asks Saramā to report on ministers' deliberations 270–71 taken to see apparently dead Rāma and Lak ma a by Trijatā, who reassures her 286–9 illusory Sītā created and killed by Indrajit 315–17 Hanumān brings news of Rāma's victory; she forbids him to punish her guards 354–7 appearance 197–9, , cosmetics and jewels , daughter of Janaka, king of Mithilá, and wife of Rāma xii in later versions, marriage, doubts about her purity, birth of two sons in Vālmīki's hermitage, suicide 365–8 in śākta versions _also called_ Janaka's daughter, Jānakī, Maithilī, Vaidehī
**Siva** _'auspicious', deity_ called Pinákin ' _bowman_ ' called Sa kara _'beneficent'_ _also called_ Rudra, Tryambaka
**_śloka_** _See_ metre
**snakes** _passim_ enemies of Garu a , , , , 292–3,
**_soma_** _plant from which drink central to Vedic sacrificial ritual was pressed; yet to be convincingly identified_
**Soma** _Vedic deity (personification of preceding) identified with moon (symbol of gentleness)_ , Dadhimukha metaphorically called his Son
**south** _see_ directional symbolism
**sovereignty** duties xiii, , , , , , , 90–91, , , 168–9, , , 365–6 power of punishment 171–2 symbols 381–3 _see also_ fan, parasol
**spear** _(śakti, rsti)_ 81–2, , 247–8, , , , , 295–7, , , , , , 336–7,
**spice**
**spies** , , 252–3, , Śuka and Sāra a 259–65 Śārdūla's party of spies 265–8
**Srāva a** _'belonging to Sravana (presiding naksatra)', month at start of monsoon (approx. July-Aug.)_
**Srāvana** _'hearing', in later versions, boy accidentally killed by Daśaratha_
**Sri** _'glory, beauty', goddess, symbol of divine or human sovereignty and of beauty, commonly wearing lotus-bloom_ , , , , , 199–200, , , , _also called_ Glory
**_srmara_** _large wild animal (similar to yak)_
**S gaverapura** _'ginger-town', town on northern bank of Ga gā, seat of Guha, king of the Nisādas_ ,
**stages of transmission** xxiii-xxvi, 373–4
**standard** , , 83–4, 86–7, 89–90, , , , , , , , , , , 296–8, , , , , , , _see also_ Indra
**stars** _(tārā, also jyotis, naksatra)_ 36–7, 83–6, , , , , , _see also_ Svātī star, shooting _(ulkā)_ , , _also called_ meteor stars, lord of _(tārādhipa) moon_
**statecraft** , , , , , 71–2, , , 94–5, 98–9, , , , , , 249–50, 252–5, , 272–4
**staves** _(danda, yasti)_ , , ,
**Sthūlāksa** _'dim-eyed', rāksasa companion of Khara_
**Sthūlaśiras** _'blockhead', an ascetic sage_
**_stokaka_** (Clamator jacobinus serratus _(Sparrman)) pied crested cuckoo, bird supposed to live on raindrops, migrant arriving with monsoon_
**storytelling** , ,
**Subāhu** _'with good arms', vānara who charges ramparts_
**Sudāman** _'giving well', mountain in Bāhlīka_
**sugar**
**Sugrīva** _'with good neck', king of vānaras, son of Rk arajas and brother of Vālin (major items only)_ expelled by Vālin, wife seized, lives on Rśyamūka 130–33, 137–8, , 145–9, 178–9 Kabandha advises Rāma to form alliance with him 130–31 alarmed by appearance of Rāma and Lak ma a 137–8, offers alliance with Rāma, pledges to search for Sītā 142–3 feared by Tārā, A gada, Hanumān 155–6, , 184–6, fights Vālin xix, 153–7 makes peace with dying Vālin, who invests him with his golden garland xix, 160–61, musters _vānaras_ , dispatches search parties 170–78 strength known to Rāvana realizes that wrecking of Honey Orchard proclaims success of Hanumān's mission 232–3 initially suspicious of Vibhī a a 251–2, identified to Rāvana by Suka Sītā told he has been killed a ssigned to central keep, takes up position at northern gate, kills Praghasa , 278–80 distressed that Indrajit has overcome Rāma and Lak ma a, reassured by Vibhī a a wish to accompany Rāma to Ayodhyā granted 360–61 _metaphorically called_ Son of the Sun , , _see also_ shape changing
**suicide** Śabarī 132–4 contemplated by Sītā , , , 207–8 contemplated by Hanumān , threatened by Rāma _see also_ fasting to death
**Suka** _'parrot', rāksasa_ sent with Sāra a by Rāvana to spy on Rāma's camp 259–60 identifies _vānara_ warriors to Rāva a xxi, 263–5 defends northern gate defeated by Rāma 281–2
**Sukra** _'bright', preceptor of anti-gods_
**Sumantra** _'with good advice', Daśaratha's charioteer and minister_ drives Rāma, Sītā and Lak ma a into exile , , 12–13, 19–20, returns to Ayodhyā, reports to Daśaratha, comforts Kausalyā , 28–33 comforts Satrughna organizes force to accompany Bharata's expedition introduces Guha to Bharata accompanies Bharata and Vasistha to find Rāma , , ,
**Sumitrā** _'good friend', Daśaratha's third wife, mother of Lak ma a and Śatrughna_ bids farewell to Lak ma a 11–12 comforts Kausalyā grief at Daśaratha's death presented to Bharadvāja by Bharata visits Rāma on Citrakūṭa 62–4 _also named at_ , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**Sumitrā's son** = Lak ma a , , _also called_ Saumitri
**Sumukha** _'with good face', vānara_ ,
**Sun, the** (Bhāskara ' _radiance-maker_ , Savit _'stimulator') also called_ Sūrya ,
**Sunda** _'handsome', vānara who mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a_
**Supar a** ' _with good feathers_ ' = Garu a
**Supārśva** _'with good sides', rāksasa_
**Suptaghna** _'killing sleepers', rāksasa_ assures Rāvana of victory killed by Rāma
**Sūrpa akhā** _'with nails like winnowing-fans', rāksasī sister of Khara, Dū ana, Rāvana, etc_. appearance 77–9 encounters Rāma in the forest, attacks Sītā, mutilated by Lak ma a xvii, 77–9, , complains to Khara, guides his army to find Rāma 80–83, , flees to La kā, reproaches Rāvana, excites his lust for Sītā 90–93 name of _rāksasī_ guard resisted by Sītā in La ka _see also_ shape changing
**Sūrya** = the Sun _(as deity)_
**Sūryaśatru** _'enemy of the sun', rāksasa who assures Rāvana of victory_
**Su ena** _'with good army', vānara_ father of Tārā, Mainda and Dvivida , , , , , leads search of west , member of party searching south attacks western gate, fights against Vidyunmālin 278–9 mounts guard over unconscious Rāma and Lak ma a suggests sending Hanumān to fetch healing herbs, revives Lak ma a , 338–9 _metaphorically called_ Son of Dharma , _also named at_ ,
**Sutīk a** _'very sharp', ascetic sage, hermitage visited by Rāma_ 72–4
**Suvela** _'with good limit', mountain overlooking city of La kā_ , , 276–7
**Svāhā** _exclamation to accompany oblation, personified as wife of Agni (sacrificial fire)_
**Svarbhānu** ' _brightness of sunlight_ ' = Rāhu
**_svastika_** **sign** _(from sv asti, 'it is well') good-luck symbol_
**Svātī** _star Arcturus_
**Svayambhū** _'self-produced'_ = Brahmā
**Svayamprabhā** _'having own lustre', ascetic woman, daughter of Merusāvar i, custodian of Hemā's residence_ 182–4
**Sveta** _'white, pale', vānara_ identified to Rāva a by Sāra a 261–2 _metaphorically called_ Son of the Sun
**sword** _(asi, kha ga, nistrimśa)_ , , , , , , , , , , 126–8, 138–9, , , , , , , 279–80, , , 316–20, , , , 332–3 _see also_ scimitar, sheath
**swordfish** _(nakra)_
**Syandikā** _'flowing', river (modern Sai)_
**Śyenagāmin** _'hawk-gait', rāksasa companion of Khara_
**tabor** _(m da ga, also 'drum')_ ,
**Taksaka** _'carpenter', nāga king, defeated by Rāvana_
**_tamāla_** _(_ Garcinia xanthochymus _Hook f.) forest tree_
**Tamasā** _'gloomy', river (modern Tons)_ 18–20
**tank** _small area of water impounded for irrigation or water supply_ ,
**Tapana** _'heater, tormenter', rāk asa, killed by Gaja_ 279–80
**Tāra** _'protector', vānara general_ member of party searching south ,
**Tarā** _'star', vānarī, daughter of Su ena, mother of A gada_ wife of Vālin , 155–61 wife of Sugrīva 169–70, , , _also named at_ , , ,
**taxation**
**Tejobhibhavana** _'overcoming with brilliance', village_
**Thirty, the** _the major gods (simplification of Vedic Thirty-Three)_ , , , , , , , 357–8 Thirty-Three gods
**Thousand-eyed** _(Sahasrāksa)_ = Indra
**throbbing arm/eye** _portent of disaster or triumph_ , 118–19, , , ,
**Thunderbolt Wielder** _(Vajradhara, Vajrahasta, Vajravān)_ = Indra
**tides**
**tiger** _(sārdūla)_ , , , skin
**_tilaka_** red spot applied by married women above eyebrows as auspicious mark , flowering tree _(_ Clerodendron phlomoides _L. f.)_
**Time** _(Kāla)_ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Night of Time _period of destruction at the end of an Era_ , noose _see_ Death
**Timidhvaja** _'having whale as standard', dānava king_ xxvi,
**Tisya** _fourth and worst of the ages of the world (from presiding constellation)_
**tonsure** _see_ ascetics
**trident** _(triśūla) weapon_
**Trijaṭā** _'triple braid', rāksasī guard of Sītā_ dream presages doom for _rāksasas_ 209–10 takes Sītā to see apparently dead Rāma and Lak ma a, reassures her 286–9
**Trikūṭa** _'triple peak', mountain in La kā_ ,
**Triśa ku** _'triple peg', constellation (Southern Cross)_
**Triśiras** _'triple-headed', rāk asa_ companion of Khara, killed by Rāma , 88–90, 92–3, , nephew of Kumbhakar a
**truth, integrity** 3–5, , , , , 65–6, , , , , , , 229–30 act of truth , , 381–3
**Tryambaka** _'three-eyed', Siva_
**Tulsīdās** _author of best-known Hindi version of Rāmāyana_
**Twice-Born** _(dvija, dvijāti) term for brāhmans as having had a second birth at their investiture with the sacred thread_ , , , , , , , , , 272–3,
**twilight ritual** _muttered invocation to the deities performed at dawn and sunset_ , , , , , ,
**Underworld** _(Pātāla)_ , ,
**Urvaśī** _'spreading wide', apsaras who married mo tal king Purūravas_
**Uśanas** _ancient sage (identified with Śukra), preceptor of anti-gods, noted for his wealth_
**_Uttarakā a_** _see_ Further Book
**Vācaspati** _'lord of speech', Vedic deity_
**Vahni** _'conveyer, fire', vānara_
**Vaidehī** _'daughter of king of Videha', Sītā_ , , , , 17–18, , , , , , , , , , , 69–70, , 75–6, 78–80, , , , 97–8, , 103–5, 107–21, 123–6, 135–7, , , , , , 186–7, , 194–5, 198–9, 201–2, 205–6, , 212–14, , , , , , , , , 242–3, , , , , , , , , , , 359–60
**Vainateya** = Vinatā's son
**Vaisnava** = of Vi u
**Vaiśrava a** _'son of Viśravas'_ = Kubera elder half-brother of Rāva a , , , , , , formerly king of La kā, driven out to live on Kailāsa by Rāva a 104–5, , , , congratulates victorious Rama 357–8 called Naravāhana _'having a man as mount'_ possesses great wealth _also named at_
**Vaitara ī** _'hard to cross', river crossed at death_
**Vaivasvata** _'son of Vivasvat ('brilliant')'_ = Death
**Vajradamstra** _'with teeth like adamant/thunderbolt', rāksasa_ assures Rāva a of victory defeated by Rāma
**Vajrahanu** _'with jaws like adamant / thunderbolt', rāksasa counsellor_ assures Rāvana of victory
**Vajramusti** _'with fist like adamant/thunderbolt', rāksasa, killed by Mainda_ 279–80
**Vālin** _'having tail-hair', vānara king, son of Rksarajas, brother of Sugrīva_ previous exploits 150–52, expels Sugrīva, seizes Rumā, rules in Kiskindhā , 137–8, , 145–9, , , 178–9 rejects Tārā's advice to appease Sugrīva 155–7, 159–60 fights Sugrīva, killed by Rāma xix, 152–61, , , 224–5, , , , makes peace with Sugrīva, invests Sugrīva with golden garland given him by Indra xix, , , 160–61 mourned by Tārā 158–60 strength and ability 149–52, , wives , _metaphorically called_ Son of Indra , , _also named at_ , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**Vālmīki**
**Vāmadeva** _'with pleasant deity', a chaplain of Daśaratha_
**_vānara, vānarī_** _'of forest (vana)', group ruled by Sugrīva who help Rāma, monkeys with human characteristics_ _etc_.
**_vañculaka_** _'deceiver', unidentified bird_
**Varuna** _Vedic high god, ruler of ocean, Protector of West_ congratulates victorious Rāma 357–8 sons said to have been defeated by Rāva a Varuna missile , Varu a's abode _designation of ocean_ , , , 244–5, 255–8, _also named at_ xvi, , , , , , , , , ,
**Vāsava** ' _& lt;chief> of Vasus_' = Indra
**Vasi ṭha** _'best', Daśaratha's chaplain and counsellor_ oversees succession and conduct of funeral after Daśaratha's death 37–8, 40–42 visits Bharadvāja with Bharata , 67–8 accompanies Bharata and Sumantra to find Rāma 56–7 escorts Daśaratha's wives to see Rāma , 62–3 said to have suggested symbolic sandals identified with Vedic sage, husband of Arundhatī and father of one hundred sons ,
**_vasu_** _'good, prosperous', class of Vedic deities_ ,
**Vāsuki** _nāga (snake) king_ defeated by Rāvana
**Vāyu** _'wind', Vedic deity_ Vāyu's missile _also named at_ 239–40, , _also called_ the Wind
**Vedas, Vedic literature** _'knowledge', religious texts, orally transmitted and regarded as revealed and absolutely authoritative, roughly 12th to 8th centuries_ _BC_ xiv-xvi, xxiii-xxiv, xxvi-xxix, , , , , ,
**Vedaśrutī** _'hearing of Vedas', river in Kosala_
**Vegadarśin** _'seeing vigorously', vānara, said to have been begotten by Brahmā_
**Vibhāvasu** _'rich in brightness'_ = Agni
**Vibhī ana** _'terrifying', rāksasa, Rāva a's younger brother_ advises against killing an envoy rejection of advice to Rāvana to return Sītā provokes him to defect with four companions 249–55, , 350–51 hopes for kingship , 291–2 consecrated king , , protects _vānaras_ as they cross causeway identifies Rāva a's spies , Suka points him out to Rāvana 264–5 Sītā told he has been captured reports on mission of his own spies assigned to central keep, takes up position at northern gate , fights against Mitraghna ability to see invisible Indrajit rallies _vānaras_ , is reassured by Sugrīva , 290–92 identifies Kumbhakar a to Rāma 303–5 reassures Rāma about illusory Sītā: aids Lak ma a to kill Indra-jit 318–28 reviles Indrajit fights Rāva a unwillingly performs Rāva a's funeral rites, then consecrated king xxii, 353–4 provides Puspaka Chariot to take Rāma back to Ayodhyā, agrees to reward _vānaras_ , asks to accompany Rāma 359–61 virtue recognized , _also named at_ , , , , , _see also_ shape changing
**_vibhītaka_** **nuts** _fruit of tree (_ Terminalia bellerica _Roxb.) commonly used for dice, particularly in rituals_
**_vīcīkūcī_** _alarm call of the mynah_ ,
**Videha** _'bodiless', territory ruled by Janaka_ xii, , , king of Videha _(Vaideha) designation of Janaka_ , ,
**_vidyādhara_** _'bearing knowledge', class of minor deities, regarded as magicians_
**Vidyujjihva** _'lightning-tongued', rāksasa who produces magic head of Rāma_ ,
**Vidyunmālin** _'lightning-garlanded', rāksasa_ fights against Su e a
**Vihamgama** _'going in air', rāk asa companion of Khara_
**Vijaya** _'victory', envoy sent to recall Bharata from Rājag ha_
**Vikatā** _'deformed', rāksasī resisted by Sītā_
**_vīnā_** _musical instrument, kind of lute_
**Vinata** _'bent', vānara_ leads search of east , identified to Rāvana by Sāra a searches for invisible Indrajit
**Vinatā** _'bent', mythical female, mother of Garu a and vultures_ Vinatā's son _Garu a_ , , , , 292–3
**Vinatā** _'bent', rāksasī resisted by Sītā_
**Vinda moment** _'finding', identification uncertain but evidently favourable_
**Vindhya** _southern mountain, now identified with range separating north India from Deccan_ xiii, , , 171–2, , , , , , , ,
**Vipāśā** _'unfettered', river (modern Beas)_
**Vīrabāhu** _'arms of a hero', vānara warrior who charges ramparts_
**Virādha** _'vexation', rāksasa said to have been killed in forest by Rāma_ , ,
**Virūpāksa** _'ugly-eyed', rāksasa_ killed by Hanumān 221–3 assures Rāvana of victory defends central keep 274–5 killed by Lak ma a 279–80 accompanies Rāvana into battle, rides elephant in preference to chariot, killed by Sugrīva 329–32
**Viśākhā** _'branched, forked', constellation in Libra_
**Viśalyā** _'wound-free', healing herb_ ,
**Vi u** _'pervader', Vedic deity_ xi, xvi, takes three strides through cosmos to win it for the gods , , , warrior activity , ,
**Vi u's Footstep** _landmark in Punjab (not the later better-known one at Gayā in Bihar)_
**Viśravas** _'wide fame', son of Pulastya and father of Vaiśrava a Kubera, Rāvana, etc_. , , ,
**Viśvakarman** _'maker of all', architect/artificer of the gods_ , built Lanka granted boon to Nala's mother
**Viśmitra** _'friend of all', royal sage_ seeks youthful Rāma's protection from Mārīca 95–6 besotted with Gh tācī
**Vitapāvatī** _'having branches', city of gandharvas_
**V tra** _'obstacle', anti-god killed by Indra with his thunderbolt_ , , , , , , ,
**vulture** _(_ Gyps indicus _(Scopoli) and related species) a bird with particularly keen eyesight, usually of ill omen_ Jatāyus 123–6, , 186–7, Sampāti 186–9, carrion-eater , , , , , , , portent of disaster , , , , _also mentioned at_
**War Book** _(Yuddhakānda)_ new ending , ,
**water** 381–3 offered to welcome a guest , , sipping or touching water , , _see also_ funerals
**water hen** _(plava_ , Amaurornis phoenicurus _Pennant)_
**water lily** _(indīvara, utpala_ , Nymphaea caerulea _Savign.) blue-flowered_ , , 135–6,
**weapons** xv, xxvi _see also_ arrow, axe, bludgeon, bolt, bow, bowstring, catapult, club, cudgel, dart, discus, hammer, javelin, lance, mace, noose, pestle, pike, quarrel, quiver, scimitar, sheath, shield, siege-engine, spear, staves, sword
**whales** _(timi_ , Balaenoptera _species)_
**widowhood** xiv envisaged by Tārā fortune-tellers predict that Sītā will not be widowed lamented by Rāva a's wives 350–51
**wild cat** _(mārjāra_ , Felis chaus _Güldenstaedt, Jungle Cat, or_ Felis bengalensis _Kerr, Leopard Cat)_ , , ,
**Wind, the** Anila Māruta , , Pavana _also called_ Vāyu
**Wind, Son of the** _metaphorical designation of Hanumān_ Anilasuta Anilātmaja , Mārutātmaja , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 316–17, Māruti , , , , , Pavanātmaja , , , , , , Vātātmaja Vāyuputra , , Vāyusūnu Vāyusuta , , , ,
**wine** , , , , ,
**wish-granting tree** _(kalpavrksa)_ _see also_ Nikūla
**wolf** _(koka, vrka_ , Canis lupus pallipes _)_ ,
**women** duties of wives xiv, , 10–12 husband is wife's deity 10–11, , , , inviolability , 316–17 nagging, backbiting 5–6, , 20–21, , , , , 351–2 stereotyping xvii-xviii, , , ,
**wrestling**
**wristguard** , , ,
**writing, written transmission** xiv, xxii-xxiii, xxx, ,
**Yajñakopa** _'anger against sacrifice', rāksasa warrior_ assures Rāvana of victory killed by Rāma 279–80
**Yajñadatta** _'given for sacrifice', in later versions, boy accidentally killed by Daśaratha_
**Yajñaśatru** _'enemy of sacrifice', rāksasa_ companion of Khara defeated by Rāma
**yak** _(_ Bos grunniens _L.)_
**_yaksa, yaksī_** _'apparition (?)', class of minor deities esp. associated with trees and forests_ , , , , , , , , ,
**Yama** _'twin', first man who becomes divine as ruler of the world of the dead, Protector of South_ fettered by Rāvana , congratulates victorious Rāma 357–8 rod _(danda)_ _also named at_ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
**Yamunā** _river, also called_ Amśumatī, Kālindī , ,
**Yayāti** _'striver', son of Nahusa, king who gained heaven but fell again after his merit was exhausted_ ,
**yes-men** ,
**_yojana_** _unit of distance (usually comprising 4 krośas) of up to 8 miles but somewhat variable, like 'league'_ , , , , , , 151–2, , 189–92, , , , ,
**Young King** _(yuvarāja) heir consecrated as junior, but joint, ruler_ A gada 162–3, 184–5, 234–5, Bharata 3–4, , Sugrīva
**_Yuddhakānda_** _see_ War Book
**Yudhājit** _'winning in battle', Bharata's uncle_ , 39–40
**_yuga_** _see_ Era, K ta, Ti ya
**Yūpāksa** _'stake-eyed', rāksasa general killed by Hanumān_ 221–3
|
{
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The present invention is directed to a hand held tool for cleaning and applying an antiseptic to a pierced body part, and may be particularly valuable to a freshly pierced body part where infection may result in a painful situation. Though earlobes may be the most common body part to be pierced, current lifestyles reveal that various and different body parts are being pierced to receive an earring or other ornamentation. Accordingly, the invention should not be limited to ear piercing, but rather body piercing, and the treatment thereof, in general.
It is now a common practice to pierce body parts, such as one's earlobes, so that earrings can be worn. This practice spans all ages, from infants to adults, male and female. Currently, it is popular to place multiple holes in an earlobe, and even continuing up to the top of the ear, so that many earrings may be worn at the same time.
The holes in the earlobes may be subject to infection at the initial piercing, or over time may be subject to buildup of residue including dried soap and shampoo, body oils and skin shed by the scar tissue formed around the hole. These residues can collect in the hole and on the earrings facilitating the growth of bacteria which can lead to further infection. As a result frequent cleansing and treatment is critical to a wearer of body piercing ornamentation.
The prior art describes a number of devices or systems for cleaning or applying medication to a pierced body part, most commonly an earlobe. Such devices or systems are reflected in the following U.S. patents:
a.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,461, to Hobbs, relates to a strand device for pierced earlobe cleansing, and comprises a flexible monofilament nylon or nylon-like material which is folded in half so that the two ends meet and are parallel. The ends are bonded by heating and melting the strands to form a single stem from the two strands, the stem having a greater stiffness than the single strand alone. The melting simultaneously creates a rounded tip at the end of the stem. The ends of the strand are joined so that a loop remains open at the fold. The stem is sufficiently stiff so that it can be fed through a pierced ear hole with the rounded end of the stem facilitating feeding the stem through the hole. The loop, which normally is open is compressed as the stem is pulled out the opposite side of the ear. The resilience of the loop is sufficient to permit it to remain slightly expanded so that its greater diameter "scrapes" the ear hole as it passes through. The loop resiles to its original shape as it exits the ear hole. PA1 b.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,216, to McCarty et al., also discloses a threaded member for cleansing a pierced earlobe. The thread is impregnated with a hypo-allergenic, anti-bacterial astringent for cleansing and conditioning pierced ear lobes. PA1 c.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,402, to Karos, teaches an apparatus for cleaning and sterilizing ear lobe holes for pierced earrings which utilizes a string of absorbent material having attached thereto a firm tip. Both the string and the tip are maintained in a sealed envelope adjacent a pad of absorbent material saturated with an antiseptic fluid in contact with the string to saturate the string with the fluid. When it is desired to clean and sterilize the ear lobe hole, the package and the string and tip are run through the ear lobe hole. The string both cleans the ear lobe hole and imparts the sterilizing fluid to the hole. PA1 d.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,370, to Evans, is directed to a device for cleaning the pierced ear hole of the earlobe. A grooved or ruffled rod member containing an absorbent material loaded with a cleaning agent is adapted to be passed into and out of the earlobe hole and then disposed of. In another embodiment, the ear rod is constructed as part of a permanent earring which can be worn to provide a constant supply of cleaning solution to the earlobe to prevent infection of the ear hole. PA1 e.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,946, to Barton, relates to a medicated member that is adapted to be passed through the ear lobe of a pierced ear and to be retained therein thereby speeding the healing of the process. PA1 f.) U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,829, to Abramowitz, teaches an apparatus for piercing the lobe of a human ear with a minimum of pain and with means for substantially eliminating the possibility of infection thereafter and while wearing the earring. PA1 g.) U.S. Pat. No. Des. 346,443, to Franklin, is directed to a pierced ear cleaner device.
While the prior art offers some assistance to provide cleansing and applying medication to pierced earlobes, none appear to give the simplicity and effectiveness of the present invention. The manner by which this simplicity and effectiveness is achieved will become more apparent from the following description, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
|
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"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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This is the illuminated, rotating Ferris wheel that plays Christmas carols and year-round songs. The 1'-diameter Ferris wheel’s integrated speakers play 15 instrumental versions of Joy to the World, O Come, All Ye Faithful, and other Christmas songs and 15 classic tunes like Give My Regards to Broadway, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, and The Band Played On. The Ferris wheel’s girders are lined with 175 LEDs that cast a golden, holiday hue. The motorized Ferris wheel rotates at five revolutions per minute and the 20 gondolas sway back and forth as the unit spins at its leisurely pace. The Ferris wheel is perched atop a World’s Fair-themed boardwalk with three-dimensional figurines of holiday revelers. Plugs into AC. 15 1/4" H x 10 3/4" W x 5" D. (3 1/2 lbs.)
Lifetime Guarantee
The Musical Illuminated Ferris Wheel comes with The Hammacher Schlemmer Lifetime Guarantee at no additional charge. If this product ever disappoints you, for any reason, you may return your Hammacher Schlemmer purchase for exchange, credit, or refund.
Should you have any questions, we are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Please call 1-800-321-1484 to speak with a product specialist or email us at customerservice@hammacher.com to receive a response within one hour.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
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Blonde Hot Amateur Flashes Tits And Pussy In Public For Money And Fucking Hard In The Wood
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Other Samples from publicsexadventures.com
Watch as hot girls too horny to stop getting naughty for the cam in all kinds of public places! Once I get them started, they keep going until sore and full of jism. PublicSexAdventures is full of 100% real videos I shot myself! Hell, these girls don't even know they're on the internet now. I never stop shootin new stuff, so come on and join today!
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{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
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Simple practice changes lead to better patient experiences.
ABOUT 250 patients a month used to have falls at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. But when, in August, nurse managers introduced a new system to assess, monitor and check patients at risk of falling, the figure almost halved, to 140.
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{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
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Introduction {#sec1}
============
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the presence of Aβ~1--42~ amyloid plaques in the brain and tangles of tau protein inside the neuron cells, which lead to progressive dementia and finally death. Among various environmental risk factors, persistent infection of brain cells by bacteria and virus, especially herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1), has been observed to play a role in AD.^[@ref1]−[@ref5]^ The presence of HSV-1 in association with amyloid deposition in the cerebral cortex region of the brain was established more than a decade ago in patients with familial AD.^[@ref6]^ HSV-1 was also shown to upregulate Aβ generation in cultured neuronal and glial cells,^[@ref7]^ and later its genomic DNA was shown to colocalize with amyloid plaques found in the brain of patients with AD.^[@ref8]^ A few other studies have implicated this virus for increased risk of dementia, disruption of genetic and molecular networks,^[@ref9]^ seeding β-amyloidosis in brain cells,^[@ref10]^ and AD-specific phosphorylation of tau protein.^[@ref11]^ The data discussed so far have correlated HSV-1 infection and AD comprehensively; however, mechanistic events still remain poorly understood. Even though a peptide derived from glycoprotein B of HSV-1 has been reported earlier to form β amyloid-like aggregates,^[@ref12]^ the aggregation potential of HSV-1 proteome has not been analyzed to date. The current study adopts a hypothetical cellular proteasomal activity as the basis for the generation of HSV-1 peptides, as the proteasomes, in addition to maintaining cellular protein turnover, are also involved in generating peptides from viral proteins, which are then presented on the cell surface of T-cells^[@ref13]^ and demonstrate the aggregation properties of one such peptide *in silico* and *in vitro*. The sequences of HSV-1 proteins were retrieved from online databanks and screened for identifying aggregation-prone proteins using software TANGO and AGGRESCAN. Further, the 20S proteasome cleavage sites within the selected proteins were predicted using an *in silico* support vector machine (SVM) method using an online server. The aggregation-prone peptides were identified using the data of 20S proteasome cleavage sites and analysis of the hydrophobic regions present along the entire length of the selected proteins (gM and gK). These studies led to the identification of a peptide (~208~LYHRPAIGVIVGCELMLRFVAVGLIVGT~235~) derived from HSV-1 glycoprotein K (HSV-1 gK~208--235~), which showed the aggregation score and hydrophobicity value equivalent to those of the Aβ~1--42~ peptide. Additionally, the sequence comparison of HSV-1 gK~208--235~ and Aβ~1--42~ peptide revealed homology at their C-termini. Thereafter, the synthetic peptide was subjected to *in vitro* solubilization and the resultant aggregates were characterized using Congo red and Thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence assays and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. All of these studies suggested the formation of amyloid-like aggregates. The overall shape of the peptide aggregates was found to be spheroid instead of classical fibrillar structures, as revealed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The cytotoxicity of the spheroid aggregates was assessed via cell viability assay performed using primary cells---mouse splenocytes, wherein the dose-dependent toxicity was observed.
Results {#sec2}
=======
*In Silico* Screening for Selection of Aggregation-Prone HSV Proteins {#sec2.1}
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The average aggregation scores of 70 proteins of HSV-1 \[Supporting Information (SI), [Table S1](http://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acsomega.0c00730/suppl_file/ao0c00730_si_001.pdf)\], FMRP-1 (Fragile-X-Mental Retardation-1 Protein), low aggregation-prone protein (negative control), and a well-established amyloidogenic peptide, Aβ~1--42~ (positive control) were calculated using software TANGO and AGGRESCAN. FMRP-1 was chosen as a negative control protein as it is highly abundant in neuron cells and plays a role in synapse, cell-to-cell communication,^[@ref14]^ and is not known to have amyloidogenic properties. On the other hand, the Aβ~1--42~ peptide was chosen as the positive control peptide as its amyloidogenic aggregation properties are well characterized in the literature and is known to form amyloid fibrils.^[@ref15],[@ref16]^ Therefore, the protein/peptide, which showed an aggregation score close to that of the Aβ~1--42~ peptide, could be considered as aggregation-prone candidates. The average aggregation score of each protein is calculated by summing up the aggregation scores of each residue (total aggregation score) of the protein and dividing it by the total number of residues in the protein or peptide. The TANGO/AGGRESCAN average aggregation scores of all proteins were compared to the score of negative control protein FMRP-1 (score of 2.59/0.6) and the positive control peptide Aβ~1--42~ (score of 36.48/3.6). Software TANGO and AGGRESCAN both identified glycoprotein M and K as the most aggregation-prone proteins, as suggested by their highest average scores (SI, [Table S1](http://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acsomega.0c00730/suppl_file/ao0c00730_si_001.pdf)). As shown in [Figure [1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}A, the gM and gK showed TANGO average aggregation scores comparable to that of the peptide Aβ~1--42~, whereas in the case of AGGRESCAN scores, the values of gM and gK were found to be more than 3 times higher than those of the Aβ~1--42~ peptide. Hence, these two proteins were chosen for further analysis. It is important to note here that the shorter length of the Aβ~1--42~ peptide may influence its score; therefore, to neutralize this bias and compare the aggregation properties of control and test subjects more explicitly, the aggregation scores, which are calculated per residue across the entire length of the proteins, were determined using TANGO and AGGRESCAN. As shown in [Figure [1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}B, both gM and gK demonstrated several intermittent segments displaying aggregation scores equivalent to (TANGO) or more (AGGRESCAN) than Aβ~1--42~ peptide, whereas the negative control, FMRP-1, exhibited a minimum number of such regions, which were of smaller lengths and aggregation scores. This analysis further reaffirms the high inherent aggregation propensity of the selected proteins.
{#fig1}
Prediction of 20S Proteasome Cleavage Sites and Identification of Aggregation-Prone Peptide(s) {#sec2.2}
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 20S proteasome cleavage sites present in the glycoprotein M and K were predicted *in silico* by the Pcleavage, an SVM-based method, and NetChop algorithms. According to the obtained data, the majority of the predicted cleavage sites in the proteins were positioned within the regions identified as aggregation-prone (SI, [Table S2](http://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acsomega.0c00730/suppl_file/ao0c00730_si_001.pdf)), leaving a few such regions intact. The aggregation-prone regions in gM and gK (identified using TANGO) that were located between two consecutive 20S cleavage sites were considered for peptide selection. Across the entire length of gK and gM, seven and eight such regions were observed, respectively, as shown in SI [Table S2](http://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acsomega.0c00730/suppl_file/ao0c00730_si_001.pdf). Analysis of sequences of all of the 15 aggregation-prone regions of gM and gK combined and the positions of the cleavage sites (predicted by Pcleavage) revealed only one continuous peptide, a 28-residue-long stretch of gK (HSV-1 gK~208--235~). The 20S cleavage sites, which were predicted using the NetChop algorithm, had placed two more sites in the middle of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide region, producing two peptides out of the same regions, but of much shorter length. Between the two prediction tools, Pcleavage and NetChop, the former has been reported to predict cleavage sites with a higher accuracy;^[@ref17]−[@ref19]^ therefore, peptide HSV-1 gK~208--235~, generated using the Pcleavage algorithm, was chosen for further analysis. The average aggregation score and hydrophobicity values of the Aβ~1--42~ and HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptides were recalculated using the TANGO/AGGRESCAN algorithms and peptide analyzing tool (Thermo Fisher), respectively, and compared. The hydrophobicity value of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide (58.68) was found to be slightly higher than that of Aβ~1--42~ peptide (54.77), as shown in [Figure [2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}A. The TANGO average aggregation score of HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide (32.58) was found to be equivalent to that of the Aβ~1--42~ peptide (36.48), with the latter having a slightly higher value ([Figure [2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}B). In contrast to this, the AGGRESCAN average aggregation score of HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide (12.33) was found to be slightly higher than 3 times the value of the Aβ~1--42~ peptide (3.61), as shown in [Figure [2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}B, indicating a high propensity of the test peptide for aggregation. A sequence analysis of these peptides revealed that the C-terminal sequences of both HSV-1 gK~208--235~ (~22~VGLIVG~27~) and Aβ~1--42~ (~32~IGLMVG~37~) peptides were homologous to each other ([Figure [2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}C). Additionally, the presence of a cysteine residue in the middle of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide may form disulfide bonds among aggregated species, further stabilizing the aggregates. The Aβ~1--42~ and HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptides were also analyzed using AMYLPRED2, a web tool that uses a consensus of different methods, which are developed to predict the amyloidogenic features of protein/peptide. The output of the program revealed that, in the case of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide, 23 out of 28 residues showed amyloidogenic propensity, a tally higher than the positive control Aβ~1--42~ peptide (SI, [Figure S1](http://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acsomega.0c00730/suppl_file/ao0c00730_si_001.pdf)), suggesting the potential of the test peptide to form amyloidogenic aggregates. The glycoprotein K was also examined for the presence of glycosylation sites across its primary sequence using UniProt database (P68333). The only two residues at positions 48 (Asparagine) and 58 (Asparagine) were reported to be glycosylated, which did not fall within the sequence of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide, further suggesting that the behavior of its aggregation will not be affected by glycosylation. These *in silico* analyses of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide suggested that it has amyloidogenic properties and therefore it was selected for further *in vitro* studies.
![(A) Graphical comparison of hydrophobicity of the Aβ~1--42~ and HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptides. (B) The predicted TANGO and AGGRESCAN average aggregation scores of Aβ~1--42~ and HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptides. The HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide demonstrates comparable aggregation (TANGO and AGGRESCAN) values to that of the Aβ~1--42~ peptide. (C) Graphical representation of TANGO and AGGRESCAN aggregation scores per residue of Aβ~1--42~ and HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptides. The C-termini of the two peptides showed equivalent aggregation scores, and the homologous sequences toward the C-terminal of Aβ~1--42~ (~32~[IGLMVG]{.ul}~37~) and HSV-1 gK~208--235~ (~22~[VGLIVG]{.ul}~27~) peptides have been enlarged and underlined.](ao0c00730_0002){#fig2}
*In Vitro* Aggregation Analysis {#sec2.3}
-------------------------------
The peptide HSV-1 gK~208--235~ was solubilized in the buffer and allowed to aggregate during *in vitro* experiments. Samples of the peptide were prepared at 55, 100, 200, 300, and 600 μM concentrations in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for the aggregation analysis, as described in the [Materials and Methods](#sec4){ref-type="other"} section. The lowest concentration of 55 μM was used in the assay because lower than 50 μM peptide concentrations did not produce enough detectable signals.^[@ref20]^ Second, since the aggregation samples were required to be diluted to a final concentration of 50 μM for fluorescence emission recording, a slightly higher concentration of 55 μM was used as the minimum peptide concentration to maintain the uniformity among the tested samples. The solutions of the peptide were observed to turn turbid instantaneously upon dilution with PBS at all of the five tested concentrations, suggesting thereby a strong propensity of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide to aggregate. The sample prepared at a 100 μM peptide concentration was analyzed for the presence of amyloid aggregates by Congo red assay. As shown in [Figure [3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}, the sample produced a characteristic red bathochromic shift in the absorption maxima of Congo red dye, from 483 to 507 nm. This 24 nm shift in Congo red absorption maxima indicated the possibility of the presence of amyloid-like aggregates. To confirm this nature of the aggregates, the samples were further subjected to amyloid-specific ThT fluorescence assay.
{#fig3}
The peptide samples prepared at 55, 100, 200, 300, and 600 μM concentrations were mixed with the ThT dye, as explained in the [Materials and Methods](#sec4){ref-type="other"} section. The resultant samples were excited at 450 nm, and the emission scan was recorded at 470--700 nm with the peak intensity at 485 nm. As shown in [Figure [4](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}A, a concentration-dependent increase in the fluorescence signal was recorded with peptide samples prepared at 55, 100, and 200 μM; however, the increment in the fluorescence signal, obtained with the sample prepared at 200 μM concentration, was not similar to what was observed with the sample prepared at the 100 μM peptide concentration. This suggested the occurrence of a phenomenon of self-association among the initially formed aggregates, wherein self-association reduces the number of sites available for ThT dye binding and hence results in decreased fluorescence emission. As shown in [Figure [4](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}A, the fluorescence signals remained almost similar for samples prepared at 100, 200, and 300 μM, suggesting the self-association events to be the reason behind the observation. Likewise, the fluorescence emission of the sample prepared at 600 μM concentration reduced further, demonstrating the increased association of aggregates at such a high concentration ([Figure [4](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}A). Such behavior of self-association has been reported earlier with the amyloid fibrils at high peptide concentrations.^[@ref21]^ These observations indicate the possible presence of amyloid-like aggregates in the samples. Further, the kinetics of the peptide aggregation was studied over a period of 48 h using samples prepared at 100 μM peptide concentration. After setting up the aggregation reaction, the samples were withdrawn at 0 h and thereafter after every 4 h, up to 16 h, and the latter samples were withdrawn at 24 and 48 h. The diluted samples were mixed with the ThT dye, and an emission scan was recorded as described earlier. Since the peptide showed instant aggregation, the maximum fluorescence intensity was recorded at 0 h. Thereafter a decrease in fluorescence intensity was recorded up to 24 h. The fluorescence intensity was observed to have stabilized thereafter as the emission graph of the 48 h sample almost overlapped with the 24 h sample ([Figure [4](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}B). A similar behavior of instant aggregation and a subsequent decrease in fluorescence intensities have been reported earlier. Cloe et al. (2011) showed that a shorter mutant peptide ΔE22-Aβ~1--39~, generated from a mutant ΔE693 (Japanese) β-amyloid precursor protein, aggregates instantly and also forms amyloid fibrils.^[@ref21]^ In another recently reported study, Adler et al. (2017) enhanced the hydrophobicity of the Aβ~1-40~ peptides by chemically modifying their N-terminus with saturated octanoyl or palmitoyl lipid chains. The lipid modification increased the local hydrophobicity of the peptide, which led to the acceleration in fibrillation kinetics.^[@ref22]^
{#fig4}
The aggregation sample prepared at a 100 μM peptide concentration was further analyzed to determine the structural features of the peptide aggregates. The sample was prepared as described in the [Materials and Methods](#sec4){ref-type="other"} section and subjected to AFM. The peptide aggregates were observed to form spheroid oligomeric species of diameter ∼15 nm ([Figure [5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}A). Further, the *z* (axis) profile analysis revealed the height of the oligomer as ∼12 nm, as depicted in [Figure [5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}B. No classical amyloid fibrils were observed in the AFM analysis.
{#fig5}
Secondary Structure of Peptide Aggregate {#sec2.4}
----------------------------------------
To further affirm if the spheroid oligomeric aggregates contain amyloid-like structures, the aggregation sample was subjected to attenuated total reflection (ATR)-FTIR spectroscopy. The analysis of FTIR spectra allows the prediction of the protein secondary structure content. The infrared spectrum of a protein often contains peaks of multiple amide bonds due to the vibrational contributions from the amino acid side chains and protein backbone. The absorption band generated by C=O stretching in the peptide is designated as amide I, and the N--H banding pattern is denoted as amide II. The amide I band in the spectra is useful in predicting the secondary structure of protein/peptide.^[@ref23]^ The amide bands at 1634/1635 cm^--1^, 1645 cm^--1^, and 1651/1653/1655 cm^--1^ correspond to the β-sheet, random coil, and α-helix secondary structures, respectively.^[@ref24],[@ref25]^ The FTIR spectra of spheroid aggregate showed a sharp band at 1634.84 cm^--1^ ([Figure [6](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}), indicating the presence of a high β-sheet content. The wide band between 3100 and 3500 cm^--1^ shows the presence of residual moisture (H~2~O) in the peptide aggregate. A highly symmetrical amide I band made it difficult to process spectra for deconvolution to estimate the random coil/α-helix in the spheroid aggregate. This symmetrical and prominent amide I band at ∼1634 cm^--1^ suggests the presence of a high β-sheet content in the spheroid oligomer, further indicating the formation of amyloid-like aggregates.
{#fig6}
Cytotoxic Properties of HSV-1 gK~208--235~ Peptide {#sec2.5}
--------------------------------------------------
Accumulation of the neurodegenerative plaques, composed of Aβ~1--42~ peptide, is the most prominent of all pathological hallmarks observed in the brain of patients with AD. The toxic effects of Aβ~1--42~ amyloid aggregates have been established in neurons and many other cells when applied extracellularly.^[@ref26],[@ref27]^ To determine if HSV-1 gK~208--235~ amyloid-like spheroid aggregates were cytotoxic, a preliminary cell viability assay was performed using mouse primary cells. The splenocytes were isolated from mouse spleen and were grown in culture in the presence of viral peptide aggregates at concentrations 2.5, 5, 10, and 20 μM for 48 h. The estimation of viable cells was performed at 24 and 48 h after culture, as described in the [Materials and Methods](#sec4){ref-type="other"} section. Although untreated cells appeared healthy up to 48 h with a negligible reduction in viable cell percentage, dose-dependent cell death was observed in treated cells, wherein extensive cell death was observed at 10 μM and higher concentrations of aggregates after 48 h of culturing ([Figure [7](#fig7){ref-type="fig"}](#fig7){ref-type="fig"}A,B). The median toxic dose (TD~50~) of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide aggregates against the mouse primary splenocyte cells was observed at 7.11 and 4.35 μM for 24 and 48 h, respectively. Collectively, the *in silico* and *in vitro* results suggest that the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide is capable of self-assembly into spheroid oligomeric amyloid-like aggregates that are toxic to primary cells. Hence, we hypothesize that primary or recurrent infections of HSV-1 may lead to the release of HSV-1 gK~208--235~ and/or other such peptides inside host cells, leading to the formation of amyloid-like aggregates, and prove toxic to neurons or other host cells.
{#fig7}
Discussion {#sec3}
==========
Herpes simplex virus-1, a neurotropic virus, following its primary infection establishes a latent infection in sensory ganglia, especially the trigeminal, through retrograde axonal transport.^[@ref28]^ The recurrent activation of HSV-1 may allow it to enter the central nervous system (CNS) in either manifesting a disease condition, for example, herpetic encephalitis, or entering latency.^[@ref29],[@ref30]^ By employing CD8^+^ T cells, which recognize viral antigen peptides presented on the infected cell surface in complex with major histocompatibility complex-1 (MHC-1) molecules, the immune system effectively eliminates virus-infected cells and keeps viral spread under check. In relation to antigen presentation in the CNS, the expression of MHC-I molecules in the hippocampus area of the human brain, endothelium and microglia, was reported long before it was observed in patients with AD.^[@ref31]^ According to the earlier belief, neurons were devoid of major histocompatibility complex-1 (MHC-1) expression and were considered immune-privileged.^[@ref32]^ However, many studies have shown the expression of MHC-I molecules in neurons of the human brain.^[@ref33]−[@ref35]^ Additionally, the potential of the neuroinflammatory machinery is well studied in a neurodegenerative disease like Parkinson's disease (PD).^[@ref36]^ According to a recent study, the recurrent infection of HSV-1 in mice was shown to induce hallmarks of neurodegeneration as observed in AD, e.g., accumulation of Aβ protein, hyperphosphorylation of tau protein, and induction of neuroinflammation.^[@ref37]^ The periodic reactivation of HSV-1 suggests its effective evasion of the immune system at least in the initial stages of the infection. Since the presentation of peptides with MHC-I is the key step of antigen presentation and is linked to cytotoxic cell death,^[@ref38]^ blocking antigen presentation to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) helps the virus to remain hidden. In cells including neurons, peptides used for antigen presentation are primarily released by the 20S proteasome activity. The proteases and peptidases located in the cytoplasmic and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) then trim these larger peptides at the amino terminus for MHC-1 presentation.^[@ref39],[@ref40]^ These antigenic peptides are transported across the ER through a transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP). Inside the ER, these peptides are further trimmed into shorter peptides by peptidases and loaded on to MHC-1 molecules for surface display.^[@ref41]−[@ref45]^ Under normal physiological conditions, this mechanism leads to the recognition of virus-infected cells by the host immune system, especially for CTL responses. In 1995, two research groups demonstrated separately that HSV-1 evades host immune response by blocking the MHC-1 presentation of its antigenic peptides.^[@ref46],[@ref47]^ Both the groups demonstrated that infected cell protein-47 (ICP-47), encoded by HSV-1, inhibits the transport of peptides across the ER, leading to the inhibition of MHC-1-mediated antigen presentation. HSV-2 has also been reported to encode ICP-47 variant protein with the same function.^[@ref48]^ Recently, a report demonstrated that a conserved sequence, "~50~PLL~52~", present within the central region of ICP-47 is essential for its inhibitory activity.^[@ref48]^ These earlier findings and the observations made with the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide in the current study led us to hypothesize that blocking of TAP by HSV-1-encoded ICP-47 may create a transient accumulation of HSV-1-derived peptides in addition to cellular peptides. This milieu of peptides of HSV-1 origin generated by 20S proteasome activity, which may include HSV-1 gK~208--235~ as well as other peptides of HSV-1, if not during every occasion of reactivation, at some point of time may contribute to intracellular aggregation events. The hypothesis is schematically depicted in [Figure [8](#fig8){ref-type="fig"}](#fig8){ref-type="fig"}. The HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide, which was identified in the current study, showed self-assembly into spheroid and cytotoxic aggregates.
{#fig8}
Peptide HSV-1 gK~208--235~ showed aggregation propensities equivalent to control Aβ~1--42~ peptide even though it is half the size of the latter. In addition to showing equivalent scores of aggregation and hydrophobicity, the two peptides also share a short homologous sequence of six amino acid residues at their respective carboxyl termini. The abundance of hydrophobic amino acid residues across the entire length of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide, as reflected in its aggregation parameters, makes it prone to instant aggregation. This behavior of the peptide was clearly reflected during *in vitro* solubilization studies aimed at analyzing the kinetics of its aggregation. The maximum aggregation, measured in terms of ThT fluorescence intensity, was obtained at 0 h, which suggests that the monomeric peptide, dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), upon diluting with aqueous buffer aggregated instantly. The samples, collected up to 48 h, showed a decline in fluorescence up to 24 h and got stabilized thereafter. This observation is indicative of a dynamic aggregation process undergoing continuous peptide association and dissociation and stabilizes upon reaching an equilibrium-like state, as was observed with the stabilization of the ThT fluorescence. The C-terminus of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide is homologous to the C-terminus of the Aβ~1--42~ peptide ([Figure [2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}B). An N-terminal truncated Aβ~1--42~ peptide has been shown to form spherical oligomeric channels instead of amyloid fibrils, and this form of aggregates also has been found to be neurotoxic.^[@ref49]^ The truncated Aβ~1--42~ peptide is of the length equivalent to that of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide. The similarity between these two peptides at the level of length, sequence, and shape of their amyloid-like spheroid aggregates suggests a similar function for the HSV-1 peptide. For performing cytotoxicity experiments, aggregates of the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide were generated at a 100 μM concentration, and thereafter, diluted samples were added to the splenocyte cultures. The fact that the peptide is highly prone to aggregation is shown by the kinetics of its aggregation, and its presence in free form is highly unlikely and it was assumed that the aggregation samples contained a negligible amount of free peptide. The AFM data had shown the structure of the aggregates to be nonfibrillar and of spheroid shape. A recent study, where the oligomeric species were found to be more toxic compared to the fibrils,^[@ref50]^ suggests that nonfibril structures are potent toxins. Additionally, the aggregates showed concentration-dependent cytotoxicity, even at aggregate concentrations as low as 2.5 μM, indicating the role of aggregates in the observed cytotoxicity. Although the actual mechanism of action of these aggregates remains to be elucidated and may be pursued in future studies, it may be noted that spherical aggregates were prepared at 100 μM (∼0.33 mg/mL); however, their cytotoxicity was observed at a much lower concentration (\<10 μM). The 10 μM peptide concentration is equivalent to 0.03 mg/mL, which is much lower than that of the cytoplasmic protein concentration, estimated to be ∼100 mg/mL,^[@ref51]^ and the total macromolecular concentration, including proteins, lipids, and sugar, of ∼400 mg/mL.^[@ref52]^ However, the crowded environment of the cell cytoplasm may provide a condition where the effective concentration of the freshly released peptides, after 20S proteasome cleavage, may remain high due to low diffusion amidst crowding and aided by their blocked transport into the ER lumen. These events may not be common under normal conditions, but may arise during HSV-1 infection and may lead to aggregation events at low peptide concentrations. Once the aggregates are formed, they were found toxic at very low concentrations, as shown in our study.
Additionally, according to one report, proteins that are involved in neurodegenerative disease were found more likely to form amyloid fibrils under crowded conditions than in dilute solutions.^[@ref53]^ However, the effect of such molecular crowding on the HSV-1 gK~208--235~ peptide aggregation needs to be pursued further.
We would like to link hypothetically another hallmark event that is observed in AD pathology, which is hyperphosphorylation of tau protein with HSV-1 recurrent infection.^[@ref54]^ The HSV-1 infection has been shown to contribute directly to the hyperphosphorylated forms of tau, which are extremely prone to aggregation.^[@ref11]^ Hence, HSV-1 during active infection is likely to express the protein ICP-47, which may block the TAP-facilitated transport of peptides across ER, and simultaneously HSV-1 kinase may phosphorylate tau protein making it prone to aggregation. The intraneuronal buildup of aggregation-prone viral peptides and hyperphosphorylated tau protein may trigger the aggregation process.
With the background knowledge about established facts of HSV-1 infection and AD pathology and the observations made during the current study, we would like to propose a theory that HSV-1 peptides, which may be generated during HSV-1 infection due to proteasomal activity, may contribute to AD etiology and pathology in combination with other events triggered by the viral infection. This mechanistic hypothesis offers a fresh look at the events that follow an HSV-1 infection and may play a combined role in AD; although, the hypothesis still remains to be validated by more substantial *in vitro* and *in vivo* support.
Materials and Methods {#sec4}
=====================
Protein Sequences {#sec4.1}
-----------------
Protein sequences of HSV-1 were retrieved from the NCBI protein database (<http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/protein/>) and UniProt (<http://uniprot.org/>) using keywords like human herpesvirus 1, envelope glycoproteins, or by the respective protein name. The protein sequence of Fragile-X-Mental Retardation-1 Protein (FMRP-1), an abundant and constitutively expressed protein in normal healthy brain neurons,^[@ref55]^ (UniProt, Q06787), and a well-established amyloidogenic peptide, Aβ~1--42~,^[@ref15]^ were used as negative and positive controls, respectively, for *in silico* aggregation prediction.
Prediction Tools {#sec4.2}
----------------
Online software TANGO (<http://tango.crg.es/>), AGGRESCAN (<http://bioinf.uab.es/aggrescan/>), and AMYLPRED2 (<http://aias.biol.uoa.gr/AMYLPRED2/>), based on computer algorithms, were used for the prediction of aggregation-prone regions in unfolded polypeptide/peptide chains.^[@ref56]−[@ref59]^ For predicting the proteasome cleavage sites of proteins, Pcleavage, a support vector machine (SVM)-based method (<http://www.imtech.res.in/raghava/pcleavage/index.html>), and NetChop V3.0, based on artificial neural network (<http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetChop/>), were used.^[@ref17],[@ref18]^ The hydrophobicity of the peptide fragments was calculated using an online peptide analyzing tool (Thermo Fisher).
Prediction of 20S Proteasome Cleavage Sites {#sec4.3}
-------------------------------------------
The retrieved protein sequences were scrutinized for aggregation score using software TANGO and AGGRESCAN at default parameter values, viz., pH 7.4 and 310 K temperature. No sliding window was used for the TANGO and AGGRESCAN score calculation. Selected glycoproteins of HSV-1 were fed into the proteasome cleavage prediction tools Pcleavage and NetChop with threshold/cutoff values of 0.6 and 0.9, respectively.
Aggregation Sample Preparation {#sec4.4}
------------------------------
A 28-residue-long peptide fragment (~208~LYHRPAIGVIVGCELMLRFVAVGLIVGT~235~) derived from HSV-1 glycoprotein K was chemically synthesized in the lyophilized form with \>95% purity ("S" BioChem, India). The 1 mg peptide was dissolved in a small amount (∼25 μL) of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and diluted with Milli-Q water to prepare a stock solution of 1 mg/mL such that the concentration of DMSO remains less than 3%. The stock solution was then centrifuged at 15 000*g* for 2 min. The final concentration of the dissolved peptide in the stock solution was estimated by Bradford's assay. Aggregation samples were prepared by mixing desired volumes of peptide and phosphate-buffered saline (10 × PBS) stock to obtain desired concentrations, viz., 55, 100, 200, 300, and 600 μM, of the peptide in 1 × PBS. The resultant peptide solutions were incubated on a thermomixer at 37 °C and stirred at 1200 rpm for the desired period. The samples were then analyzed using Congo red absorption and Thioflavin T fluorescence assays.
Congo Red Absorption Assay {#sec4.5}
--------------------------
The aggregation samples were mixed with Congo red dye (Sigma-Aldrich) for absorption assay. A working solution of 15 μM Congo red was prepared from a stock of (0.1%) 1435 μM stock solution. The aggregation sample (150 μL, 100 μM) was mixed with 3.13 μL of Congo red stock solution in such a way that the final prepared concentration of 50 μM of peptide aggregate and 15 μM Congo red is achieved in a total of 300 μL volume of 1 × PBS. The absorption spectra of the resultant samples were recorded at 400--600 nm wavelength at a resolution of 1 nm using an ELISA plate reader (Thermo Fisher).
Thioflavin T (ThT) Fluorescence Assay {#sec4.6}
-------------------------------------
The selective binding of mature amyloid fibrils with Thioflavin T emits fluorescence in the wavelength range of 485--500 nm.^[@ref60]^ Different volumes of samples of aggregation reactions, set at 55, 100, 200, 300, and 600 μM concentrations of peptide, were mixed with the ThT stock solution (10×) in 1 × PBS to obtain a final concentration of 20 μM ThT and a peptide concentration of 50 μM. The resultant samples were excited at 450 nm, and the fluorescence was recorded in the range of 470--700 nm on a fluorescence spectrophotometer (Cary Eclipse, Agilent Technologies). The slit width of excitation and emission was 5 nm. The peak intensity of fluorescence at 485 nm was used for statistical analysis (mean values and standard error mean).
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) {#sec4.7}
-----------------------------
A custom cut 10 × 10 mm glass slide of thickness 1 mm was treated with a saturated solution of potassium hydroxide in absolute ethanol, as described in ref ([@ref61]), to minimize the surface roughness. The peptide aggregate was washed three times with Milli-Q water by centrifugation (12 000*g* for 2 min) and resuspension cycles. The washed peptide aggregate was incubated on a glass slide and dried in a dust-free environment for 10 min, and the images were obtained by AFM scan. The AFM data were analyzed using WSxM software.^[@ref62]^ Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was performed at Material Research Centre, Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.
ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy {#sec4.8}
---------------------
The peptide aggregate was analyzed by attenuated total reflection--Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. The peptide aggregate sample washed with 10 μL of Milli-Q water was dried on a diamond crystal in an ATR cell. A PerkinElmer Spectrum Two FTIR spectrometer with an MCT detector was used to measure the spectrum in the spectral range of 4000--400 cm^--1^ at a resolution of 1 cm^--1^ and an average of 64 scans. FTIR spectroscopy was performed at Material Research Centre, Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.
Cell Viability Assay {#sec4.9}
--------------------
The C57BL/6 mice were kept at the animal house facility of the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. The splenocytes were gifted by Dr. A. S. Ansari's lab for the current experiment. The mice were sacrificed, and the spleen was removed aseptically. The isolated spleen was washed in cold PBS. The spleen was teased gently against a sterile frosted glass slide to dislodge the cell mass in RPMI 1640 medium. The resultant splenocyte suspension was washed in PBS and the cells were collected by centrifugation at 200*g* for 5 min at 4 °C. The pellet obtained was suspended in a red blood cell (RBC) lysis buffer (155 mM NH~4~Cl, 12 mM NaHCO~3,~ and 0.1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, EDTA) and incubated for 10 min on ice, and the cells were collected by centrifugation at 200*g* for 5 min. The collected cell pellet was washed again in RPMI 1640 medium and finally resuspended in 2 mL of RPMI 1640 medium with 10% serum. The counting of viable cells was performed by mixing the diluted cell suspension with 0.4% trypan blue in a 1:1 ratio and loading the mixture onto a hemocytometer, wherein the cells were counted using an inverted microscope (Zeiss Primovert). The final splenocyte count was adjusted to 1 × 10^6^ cell/mL. The splenocyte (0.5 mL) in RPMI 1640 medium with 10% serum was added to the wells of 24-well culture plates with different concentrations (2.5, 5, 10, and 20 μM) of peptide aggregate and incubated in a 5% CO~2~ incubator at 37 °C up to 48 h. The peptide aggregates were prepared at a concentration of 100 μM, as described earlier. The images of the cells were captured by a Zeiss Primovert inverted microscope at a final magnification of 400×, and the counting of viable cells was performed by mixing the cell suspension with 0.4% trypan blue at a 1:1 ratio.
Statistical Analysis {#sec4.10}
--------------------
The statistical significance was accepted at *P* \< 0.05. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used for statistical analysis. Statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism 6.0 software.
The Supporting Information is available free of charge at [https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.0c00730](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.0c00730?goto=supporting-info).Average aggregation of scores (low to high) of protein sequences of HSV-1; depiction of 20S proteasome cleavage sites of gK and gM of HSV-1, predicted with Pcleavage and NetChop; analysis of HSV-1 gK~208--235~ and Aβ~1--42~ peptides using AMYLPRED2 algorithm ([PDF](http://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acsomega.0c00730/suppl_file/ao0c00730_si_001.pdf))
Supplementary Material
======================
######
ao0c00730_si_001.pdf
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
The authors have complied with all relevant guidelines and regulations of the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) of University of Rajasthan (CPCSEA registration no. 1678/GO/RE/S/12/CPCSEA) for animal testing and research. All of the experimental protocols performed were approved by IAEC for a study in collaboration with Dr. A. S. Ansari's lab (IAEC approval No: UDZ/IAEC/II/04; dated 10-05-2019) in C57BL/6 strain of mice. The splenocytes, from the above-mentioned lot of mice, were obtained from Dr. A. S. Ansari's lab, University of Rajasthan.
The authors thank Dr. Jay Kant Yadav for suggestions on peptide stock preparation and Dr. Anuj K. Sharma for providing the fluorescence spectrophotometer facility at Central University of Rajasthan. The authors gratefully acknowledge the generous gift of splenocytes of C57BL/6 mice by Dr. A. S. Ansari, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. They also thank the Material Research Centre, MNIT, Jaipur, for allowing them to perform AFM and FTIR spectroscopy at their facility. They gratefully acknowledge the funding received from SERB, India, in the form of a research grant (SERB Grant ref No. YSS/2015/000138). VKS and SK thank UGC for research fellowships. The authors thank Central University of Rajasthan for support.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
}
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Fiad
Fiad is a village in Somogy county, Hungary.
External links
Street map (Hungarian)
References
Category:Populated places in Somogy County
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{
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
}
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Incontinence and urinary symptoms of frequency and urgency are prevalent in post-menopausal women. This project is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of topical estrogen in the behavioral treatment of urinary symptoms and incontinence.
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{
"pile_set_name": "NIH ExPorter"
}
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Generalized eczéma craquelé as a presenting feature of lymphoma.
Two cases of lymphoma are reported--in both, extensive eczéma craquelé resistant to treatment was a presenting feature.
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{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Q:
Pass file from file() to Perl program PHP
I have a PHP code that stores contents of a url by file() method like
$contents=file("http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/files/2AID.pdb");
I need to pass these $contents to a perl program by shell_exec() method , something like following
$result=shell_exec("perl_prog.pl $contents");
My question is how to pass this $contents to Perl program. I tried like following
@file=<@ARGV>;
but its not working. Please help me.
A:
That shell_exec() code is utterly vulnerable to shell injection - you're trusting that the remote service won't include something like:
; rm -rf /
As well, file() returns the file contents as an array - you can't pass arrays over the command line directly. Only strings.
A moderately safer version is:
$contents = file_get_contents('http://etc....');
$safe_contents = escapeshellarg($contents);
$result = shell_exec('perl_prog.pl $safe_contents');
On the Perl side, you'd use
my ($contents) = @ARGV;
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
秋の味覚、トリュフは美味しい？ 白トリュフを食べるなら、旬である今がチャンス！
白トリュフをたっぷりかけたチーズ入りラビオリ。超美味！
秋はきのこが美味しい季節……日本ではもちろん松茸ですよね！
世界的なきのことしては、キャビアやフォアグラと並んで世界三大珍味に数えられる「トリュフ」も、まさしく今が旬です。
魅惑的な香りで人々をとりこにしてきた“黒いダイヤ”こと「黒トリュフ」に、それを上まわる芳香を放つといわれる「白トリュフ」。
トリュフの何が、どう、スゴいのでしょう？
高そうだけど一度は食べてみたい……そんなトリュフについてご紹介します！
トリュフって何？ トリュフは30種類ほどあり、フランス語でtruffe、英語でtruffle、イタリア語ではtartufoといい、日本では「西洋松露（せいようしょうろ）」という名がついています。
きのことはいえ、ぱっと見は石ころのような塊。チャワンタケ類の仲間が進化する過程で地下に潜るようになり、丸くなっていったと考えられています。
ブナ科のコナラ、カバノキ科のイヌシデ、マツ科のクロマツなどの樹木の根から栄養をもらって共生し、樹の根元付近に埋まっています。
トリュフを探すのは従来メスの豚でしたが、見つけると食べてしまうため、現在は訓練された犬を使って収穫する方法が一般的です。
ちなみに、チョコレートのトリュフはこのトリュフをかたどったものだってご存じですよね。
トリュフの代名詞、黒トリュフ “黒いダイヤモンド”と言われる黒トリュフ。 黒トリュフはほとんどがヨーロッパ産で、フランスのプロヴァンス地方が本場、次いでスペイン、イタリアなどが生産地です。特に有名な黒トリュフはフランスのペリゴール産で、優雅な香りをもっています。
最近は中国・雲南省でも収穫されていますが、種類が違うため香りが弱いのだとか。年間を通して産出され、上質なものは秋から冬に採れたもので、断面は黒くマーブルのような模様があります。
料理には加熱して使うことが多く、黒トリュフを使うことで知られているのが「ロッシーニ風ステーキ」です。
美食家だった作曲家のロッシーニ（オペラ「セビリアの理髪師」などが有名）にちなんだメニューで、ヒレステーキの上にフォアグラと黒トリュフのソテーを乗せた贅沢な一品。結婚式などで提供されることがあるので、食べた人も多いのでは？
その他、リゾットや卵などと相性がよく、ソースにも利用されます。柔らかい香りなので、あまり感じない人もいるようです。
さらに希少な白トリュフ イタリア・アルバ産の白トリュフ（タルトゥッフォ・ビアンコ） 黒トリュフと違い、白トリュフは栽培ができないためすべて天然物。しかも秋から冬にしか収穫できないため、黒トリュフの数倍の値段で取り引きされます。
有名な産地はイタリアのピエモンテ州で、特に品質が高いのはトリノの南、アルバ産です。アルバでは、毎年10月中旬から11月中旬までの毎週土曜と日曜に「トリュフ祭り」が開かれ、白トリュフの見本市も行われます。この時ばかりは小さな街もトリュフの取引業者や観光客で大賑わいです。
白トリュフが珍重されるのは、その香りの豊かさゆえ。
食べる直前に、生のまま薄くスライスしていただきます。一番美味しく味わえる料理はクリームタリアテッレに、なんと目玉焼き！
スライスする前から漂う強く豊潤な香り。たっぷり削られた白トリュフをソースやチーズと混ぜ合わせて食べると、得もいわれぬ妖艶な風味が口の中いっぱいに広がります。
これは食材というより嗜好品に近い存在かもしれません。
冬にかけてのこれからの時季、日本でもイタリアンレストランなどでは白トリュフを提供するところが増えているようですが、その分お値段が張りますので、そのつもりのお財布でお出かけくださいね。
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
Primary health care.
Development of primary care in Japan in still relatively unorganized and unstructured. As mentioned above, the author describes some strengths and weaknesses of the Japanese primary care system. In addressing the weaknesses the following suggestions are offered for the Japanese primary care delivery system: Increase the number of emergency rooms for all day, especially on holidays and at night. Introduce an appointment system. Introduce an open system of hospitals. Coordinate with public hospitals and primary care clinics. Organize the referral system between private practitioners and community hospitals. Increase the number of paramedical staff. Strengthen group practice among primary care physicians. Increase the establishment of departments of primary care practice with government financial incentives to medical schools and teaching hospitals. Develop a more active and direct teaching role for primary care practice or family practice at undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels. Improve and maintain present health insurance payment method, shifting from quantity of care to quality and continuity of care. Introduce formal continuing education. Introduce formal training programs of primary care and strengthen ambulatory care teaching programs.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Q:
Rails - Alphanumeric field validation
In rails 4, I need to validate the alphanumeric field which can accept only dot(.), hyphen(-), slash(/) and space in between the characters.
Eg: AB123-GH345 or AB45.NH744 or KHJ3/SD34 or HJS23 JKA34
I have tried with /^[0-9]+#$/ and /^\d+([.,]\d+)?$/ and /^[0-9]+#$/ but it is not working as per the requirement.
Value should be accept as per the examples. Please help me to validate this field.
A:
I think this might help you:
/^[A-Za-z0-9-\/\.\s]+$/
This worked for all the examples you have provided
AB123-GH345 or AB45.NH744 or KHJ3/SD34 or HJS23 JKA34
and rejected when I inserted a character like ? in the middle(HJS23?JKA34).
Update
If you don't want multiline anchors then you can use it like this:
/\A[A-Za-z0-9-\/\.\s]+\z/
You can use this Rubular site to validate your Regex codes.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Q:
Sorting Color in C# on the basis of brightness or YIQ scale
I am looking for sorting some colors in our project on the basis of the brightness, so probably I need YIQ representation of the color on basis of which I can sort.
So I am pricesely looking for the YIQ representaion of some given RGB format color in C#
I found this formula on wiki and some other sites for conversion from RGB to YIQ scale:
Here is the RGB -> YIQ conversion:
[ Y ] [ 0.299 0.587 0.114 ] [ R ]
[ I ] = [ 0.596 -0.275 -0.321 ] [ G ]
[ Q ] [ 0.212 -0.523 0.311 ] [ B ]
But now how to get the Color value in C# from this Y, I and Q values which we would get from this formula.
So if I have this color: #FF832727 which is in RGB format, how to get its corresponding color in YIQ scale.
A:
Possible implementation, if I´ve understood your right
List<Color> colors = new List<Color> {
Color.Wheat,
Color.Black,
Color.Red,
Color.FromArgb(unchecked ((int)0xFF832727U))
};
// You don't need convert colors into YIQ (i.e. matrix multiplication)
// just compare brightness (Y component)
colors.Sort((Comparison<Color>) (
(Color left, Color right) =>
(left.R * 299 + left.G * 587 + left.B * 114).CompareTo(
right.R * 299 + right.G * 587 + right.B * 114)
));
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Q:
How to determine where biggest files/directories on my system are stored?
I was wondering how do you know where the largest files in my system are stored.
For example---
Disk Space Used: 1GB
Java: 500MB
Java Percentage: 50% maybe represented in a pie chart. Maybe?
I know this maybe a feature overkill. I sometimes forget having stored things and wonder why my disk is so full.
So basically a command that will allow me to run on the file system and provide me with information on disk space used.
Please and thank you.
A:
The Disk Usage Analyzer is available under Ubuntu > Accessories > Disk Usage Analyzer. It provides you with a snazzy pie graph showing what files and folders take up the most space:
The documentation on it is a little sparse, but you can find more information on the Ubuntu wiki, and the project page.
If you're interested in using the command line, there's du which is described here.
A:
Unless it changed recently, baobab only shows directories; check out kdirstat for an alternative that actually shows files, coloured by type.
A commandline alternative is
du -a | sort -nr | head
A:
The solution that @UncleZeiv proposed is not working when there is really no more space left, since sort is using the /tmp folder when there are multiple lines to sort.
du -a | sort -nr | head
sort: write failed: /tmp/sortuCYq8E: No space left on device
An alternative is a combination of the answer from @UncleZeiv and @Yoav Weiss, plus adding another path for the temporary location:
sudo du -a | sort -nr -T /media/usb-key
Finally, my preferred solution will be a human-readable one that doesn't depend on temp folder and list root directory (/):
sudo du -ah --max-depth=1 / | sort -hr
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{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Q:
Javers - How to add extra commit metadata?
Currently Javers records the username and the timestamp of the audit in the commit metadata but I would like to store the user id as well. Is it possible to add more fields to Javers commit metadata like user id or ip address?
A:
Yes, commit properties. It's the Map of String properties that you can add to each commit and then use in queries. See example - https://javers.org/documentation/jql-examples/#commit-property-filter
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
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Contributed by andrew13. Posted by Meg on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at 10:00 PM (EST)
Love Equals Death have announced that they were recently robbed in Sacramento. The band detailed the incident in their blog:
We were in Sacramento and we went to Walmart for 30 minutes to buy a clip light for the merch area so people could see the T-shirts. While we were in the store, some asshole came up to our locked van, popped the lock with a tool, unlocked the van, and it seems like two of them quickly grabbed the G.P.S. that Chon got for Christmas and we had been using to find venues on this tour, two Ipods (mine and Tonio's), Tonio's backpack, Chon's laptop, and my new laptop. That's it...
The band will head into the studio next month to record three tracks for a split with Death By Stereo.
...Listen, we're not idiots. Shit happens. Nature of life and all that. I am sure that there are people who are fans of this band, and who are reading these words that jack shit all the time. Listen...if I can convince you of one thing....if you have to steal at all....don't fucking steal from people. You want to steal from big businesses and stores...fine...whatever...that's your deal....don't steal from other people. There isn't anything redeeming or cool about it. It's an evil fucking act. Plain and simple. All you do is hurt people. All the things we lost can be replaced, its just the sheer cruelty of the act that really is a fucking bitch.
You know?
Morale? Don't fucking steal from actual people. It's where the lines aren't so blurry and the act becomes just a pure evil one.
When I realized many of the things robbed were recent christmas gifts, some tears ran over my face. The last time that had happened was the day fat announced they signed Love Equals Death. Circle´s closed.
true, but when you hear something like this, of how bands got robbed of all this expensive shit (iPods, GPS, some bands have PSPs and shit like that), then why dont they use the money they used to buy all that shit, and get the alarm, then buy the other shit.
Finnaly! Someone with a good sense of music. If I ever end up obtaining the split with Love equals Suck and death by fecal drowning... It will become a coaster for the rest of my coasters to sit on, while on the coffee table, OR something else to use for target practice when I am rubbing one out.
I'll say that this does suck balls. I've heard nothing but amazing things regarding these guys. Not to mention they read the Org.
I keep planning to have them on SSR but it just hasn't panned out. Well, that and I need at least one Fat band on reserve so I don't go through em all and it's them and the Mad Caddies, thus far.
-Dante
robbing from a business is still robbing from someone. Higher prices because of shrink, someone possibly losing their job for not controlling shrink, and stealing money from the sharholders, who ARE people. (I know, I know, shareholders are not teh punx, but his statement is still wrong. I am a shareholder through my 401k. Don't steal.)
Not a fan of the band, but a shitty thing to happen. If you can't back that trailer against a wall, you'd better be leaving someone with it. Yes, it sucks. But it sucks a hell of a lot less than getting yr. shit taken.
This sucks BUT
This HAS to be the most poorly written statement I've ever read. Fucking awful run on sentence, and I love the explanations of things (the gps that we use to find venues!, a lamp so people can see our shirts! popped the lock WITH A TOOL!)
This reminds me of the time my band played a few shows and nothing was stolen. Or the time I was mistaken as the bass player for a different band. Unfortunately, the news didn't get on the internets...
When I realized many of the things robbed were recent christmas gifts, some tears ran over my face. The last time that had happened was the day fat announced they signed Love Equals Death. Circle´s closed.
Oh no! Chongs xmas present got stolen! and how will we ever replace our ipods full of Afi and My chemical romance?! that shit is totally out of print yo! What a bunch of wussy fuckers. Calling this a "cruel act?!" The holocaust was cruel, this is water under the bridge baby.
"morale of the story, don't suck ass so much and it won't be neccesary to leave all of your valubles unattended in a van to go purchase a clip light from a store whose low prices are a result of slave labor in third world countries in hopes that naieve kids will buy your shitty t-shirts so they can look like every other emo-boy with a shirt on that has a skull and a heart on it."
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
/*! jQuery UI - v1.11.4 - 2015-03-11
* http://jqueryui.com
* Includes: core.css, accordion.css, autocomplete.css, button.css, datepicker.css, dialog.css, draggable.css, menu.css, progressbar.css, resizable.css, selectable.css, selectmenu.css, slider.css, sortable.css, spinner.css, tabs.css, tooltip.css, theme.css
* To view and modify this theme, visit http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/?ffDefault=Verdana%2CArial%2Csans-serif&fwDefault=normal&fsDefault=1.1em&cornerRadius=4px&bgColorHeader=333333&bgTextureHeader=diagonals_thick&bgImgOpacityHeader=8&borderColorHeader=a3a3a3&fcHeader=eeeeee&iconColorHeader=bbbbbb&bgColorContent=f9f9f9&bgTextureContent=highlight_hard&bgImgOpacityContent=100&borderColorContent=cccccc&fcContent=222222&iconColorContent=222222&bgColorDefault=111111&bgTextureDefault=glass&bgImgOpacityDefault=40&borderColorDefault=777777&fcDefault=e3e3e3&iconColorDefault=ededed&bgColorHover=1c1c1c&bgTextureHover=glass&bgImgOpacityHover=55&borderColorHover=000000&fcHover=ffffff&iconColorHover=ffffff&bgColorActive=ffffff&bgTextureActive=flat&bgImgOpacityActive=65&borderColorActive=cccccc&fcActive=222222&iconColorActive=222222&bgColorHighlight=ffeb80&bgTextureHighlight=inset_hard&bgImgOpacityHighlight=55&borderColorHighlight=ffde2e&fcHighlight=363636&iconColorHighlight=4ca300&bgColorError=cd0a0a&bgTextureError=inset_hard&bgImgOpacityError=45&borderColorError=9e0505&fcError=ffffff&iconColorError=ffcf29&bgColorOverlay=aaaaaa&bgTextureOverlay=highlight_hard&bgImgOpacityOverlay=40&opacityOverlay=30&bgColorShadow=aaaaaa&bgTextureShadow=highlight_soft&bgImgOpacityShadow=50&opacityShadow=20&thicknessShadow=8px&offsetTopShadow=-8px&offsetLeftShadow=-8px&cornerRadiusShadow=8px
* Copyright 2015 jQuery Foundation and other contributors; Licensed MIT */
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min-height: 0; /* support: IE7 */
}
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top: 0;
left: 0;
position: absolute;
opacity: 0;
filter:Alpha(Opacity=0); /* support: IE8 */
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z-index: 100;
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cursor: default !important;
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/* Icons
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margin: 2px 0 0 0;
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width: 9px;
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right: -5px;
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z-index: 100;
border: 1px dotted black;
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display: block;
border: 0;
background-position: 0 0;
}
/* support: IE8 - See #6727 */
.ui-slider.ui-state-disabled .ui-slider-handle,
.ui-slider.ui-state-disabled .ui-slider-range {
filter: inherit;
}
.ui-slider-horizontal {
height: .8em;
}
.ui-slider-horizontal .ui-slider-handle {
top: -.3em;
margin-left: -.6em;
}
.ui-slider-horizontal .ui-slider-range {
top: 0;
height: 100%;
}
.ui-slider-horizontal .ui-slider-range-min {
left: 0;
}
.ui-slider-horizontal .ui-slider-range-max {
right: 0;
}
.ui-slider-vertical {
width: .8em;
height: 100px;
}
.ui-slider-vertical .ui-slider-handle {
left: -.3em;
margin-left: 0;
margin-bottom: -.6em;
}
.ui-slider-vertical .ui-slider-range {
left: 0;
width: 100%;
}
.ui-slider-vertical .ui-slider-range-min {
bottom: 0;
}
.ui-slider-vertical .ui-slider-range-max {
top: 0;
}
.ui-sortable-handle {
-ms-touch-action: none;
touch-action: none;
}
.ui-spinner {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
overflow: hidden;
padding: 0;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.ui-spinner-input {
border: none;
background: none;
color: inherit;
padding: 0;
margin: .2em 0;
vertical-align: middle;
margin-left: .4em;
margin-right: 22px;
}
.ui-spinner-button {
width: 16px;
height: 50%;
font-size: .5em;
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
text-align: center;
position: absolute;
cursor: default;
display: block;
overflow: hidden;
right: 0;
}
/* more specificity required here to override default borders */
.ui-spinner a.ui-spinner-button {
border-top: none;
border-bottom: none;
border-right: none;
}
/* vertically center icon */
.ui-spinner .ui-icon {
position: absolute;
margin-top: -8px;
top: 50%;
left: 0;
}
.ui-spinner-up {
top: 0;
}
.ui-spinner-down {
bottom: 0;
}
/* TR overrides */
.ui-spinner .ui-icon-triangle-1-s {
/* need to fix icons sprite */
background-position: -65px -16px;
}
.ui-tabs {
position: relative;/* position: relative prevents IE scroll bug (element with position: relative inside container with overflow: auto appear as "fixed") */
padding: .2em;
}
.ui-tabs .ui-tabs-nav {
margin: 0;
padding: .2em .2em 0;
}
.ui-tabs .ui-tabs-nav li {
list-style: none;
float: left;
position: relative;
top: 0;
margin: 1px .2em 0 0;
border-bottom-width: 0;
padding: 0;
white-space: nowrap;
}
.ui-tabs .ui-tabs-nav .ui-tabs-anchor {
float: left;
padding: .5em 1em;
text-decoration: none;
}
.ui-tabs .ui-tabs-nav li.ui-tabs-active {
margin-bottom: -1px;
padding-bottom: 1px;
}
.ui-tabs .ui-tabs-nav li.ui-tabs-active .ui-tabs-anchor,
.ui-tabs .ui-tabs-nav li.ui-state-disabled .ui-tabs-anchor,
.ui-tabs .ui-tabs-nav li.ui-tabs-loading .ui-tabs-anchor {
cursor: text;
}
.ui-tabs-collapsible .ui-tabs-nav li.ui-tabs-active .ui-tabs-anchor {
cursor: pointer;
}
.ui-tabs .ui-tabs-panel {
display: block;
border-width: 0;
padding: 1em 1.4em;
background: none;
}
.ui-tooltip {
padding: 8px;
position: absolute;
z-index: 9999;
max-width: 300px;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 5px #aaa;
box-shadow: 0 0 5px #aaa;
}
body .ui-tooltip {
border-width: 2px;
}
/* Component containers
----------------------------------*/
.ui-widget {
font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;
font-size: 1.1em;
}
.ui-widget .ui-widget {
font-size: 1em;
}
.ui-widget input,
.ui-widget select,
.ui-widget textarea,
.ui-widget button {
font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;
font-size: 1em;
}
.ui-widget-content {
border: 1px solid #cccccc;
background: #f9f9f9 url("images/ui-bg_highlight-hard_100_f9f9f9_1x100.png") 50% top repeat-x;
color: #222222;
}
.ui-widget-content a {
color: #222222;
}
.ui-widget-header {
border: 1px solid #a3a3a3;
background: #333333 url("images/ui-bg_diagonals-thick_8_333333_40x40.png") 50% 50% repeat;
color: #eeeeee;
font-weight: bold;
}
.ui-widget-header a {
color: #eeeeee;
}
/* Interaction states
----------------------------------*/
.ui-state-default,
.ui-widget-content .ui-state-default,
.ui-widget-header .ui-state-default {
border: 1px solid #777777;
background: #111111 url("images/ui-bg_glass_40_111111_1x400.png") 50% 50% repeat-x;
font-weight: normal;
color: #e3e3e3;
}
.ui-state-default a,
.ui-state-default a:link,
.ui-state-default a:visited {
color: #e3e3e3;
text-decoration: none;
}
.ui-state-hover,
.ui-widget-content .ui-state-hover,
.ui-widget-header .ui-state-hover,
.ui-state-focus,
.ui-widget-content .ui-state-focus,
.ui-widget-header .ui-state-focus {
border: 1px solid #000000;
background: #1c1c1c url("images/ui-bg_glass_55_1c1c1c_1x400.png") 50% 50% repeat-x;
font-weight: normal;
color: #ffffff;
}
.ui-state-hover a,
.ui-state-hover a:hover,
.ui-state-hover a:link,
.ui-state-hover a:visited,
.ui-state-focus a,
.ui-state-focus a:hover,
.ui-state-focus a:link,
.ui-state-focus a:visited {
color: #ffffff;
text-decoration: none;
}
.ui-state-active,
.ui-widget-content .ui-state-active,
.ui-widget-header .ui-state-active {
border: 1px solid #cccccc;
background: #ffffff url("images/ui-bg_flat_65_ffffff_40x100.png") 50% 50% repeat-x;
font-weight: normal;
color: #222222;
}
.ui-state-active a,
.ui-state-active a:link,
.ui-state-active a:visited {
color: #222222;
text-decoration: none;
}
/* Interaction Cues
----------------------------------*/
.ui-state-highlight,
.ui-widget-content .ui-state-highlight,
.ui-widget-header .ui-state-highlight {
border: 1px solid #ffde2e;
background: #ffeb80 url("images/ui-bg_inset-hard_55_ffeb80_1x100.png") 50% bottom repeat-x;
color: #363636;
}
.ui-state-highlight a,
.ui-widget-content .ui-state-highlight a,
.ui-widget-header .ui-state-highlight a {
color: #363636;
}
.ui-state-error,
.ui-widget-content .ui-state-error,
.ui-widget-header .ui-state-error {
border: 1px solid #9e0505;
background: #cd0a0a url("images/ui-bg_inset-hard_45_cd0a0a_1x100.png") 50% bottom repeat-x;
color: #ffffff;
}
.ui-state-error a,
.ui-widget-content .ui-state-error a,
.ui-widget-header .ui-state-error a {
color: #ffffff;
}
.ui-state-error-text,
.ui-widget-content .ui-state-error-text,
.ui-widget-header .ui-state-error-text {
color: #ffffff;
}
.ui-priority-primary,
.ui-widget-content .ui-priority-primary,
.ui-widget-header .ui-priority-primary {
font-weight: bold;
}
.ui-priority-secondary,
.ui-widget-content .ui-priority-secondary,
.ui-widget-header .ui-priority-secondary {
opacity: .7;
filter:Alpha(Opacity=70); /* support: IE8 */
font-weight: normal;
}
.ui-state-disabled,
.ui-widget-content .ui-state-disabled,
.ui-widget-header .ui-state-disabled {
opacity: .35;
filter:Alpha(Opacity=35); /* support: IE8 */
background-image: none;
}
.ui-state-disabled .ui-icon {
filter:Alpha(Opacity=35); /* support: IE8 - See #6059 */
}
/* Icons
----------------------------------*/
/* states and images */
.ui-icon {
width: 16px;
height: 16px;
}
.ui-icon,
.ui-widget-content .ui-icon {
background-image: url("images/ui-icons_222222_256x240.png");
}
.ui-widget-header .ui-icon {
background-image: url("images/ui-icons_bbbbbb_256x240.png");
}
.ui-state-default .ui-icon {
background-image: url("images/ui-icons_ededed_256x240.png");
}
.ui-state-hover .ui-icon,
.ui-state-focus .ui-icon {
background-image: url("images/ui-icons_ffffff_256x240.png");
}
.ui-state-active .ui-icon {
background-image: url("images/ui-icons_222222_256x240.png");
}
.ui-state-highlight .ui-icon {
background-image: url("images/ui-icons_4ca300_256x240.png");
}
.ui-state-error .ui-icon,
.ui-state-error-text .ui-icon {
background-image: url("images/ui-icons_ffcf29_256x240.png");
}
/* positioning */
.ui-icon-blank { background-position: 16px 16px; }
.ui-icon-carat-1-n { background-position: 0 0; }
.ui-icon-carat-1-ne { background-position: -16px 0; }
.ui-icon-carat-1-e { background-position: -32px 0; }
.ui-icon-carat-1-se { background-position: -48px 0; }
.ui-icon-carat-1-s { background-position: -64px 0; }
.ui-icon-carat-1-sw { background-position: -80px 0; }
.ui-icon-carat-1-w { background-position: -96px 0; }
.ui-icon-carat-1-nw { background-position: -112px 0; }
.ui-icon-carat-2-n-s { background-position: -128px 0; }
.ui-icon-carat-2-e-w { background-position: -144px 0; }
.ui-icon-triangle-1-n { background-position: 0 -16px; }
.ui-icon-triangle-1-ne { background-position: -16px -16px; }
.ui-icon-triangle-1-e { background-position: -32px -16px; }
.ui-icon-triangle-1-se { background-position: -48px -16px; }
.ui-icon-triangle-1-s { background-position: -64px -16px; }
.ui-icon-triangle-1-sw { background-position: -80px -16px; }
.ui-icon-triangle-1-w { background-position: -96px -16px; }
.ui-icon-triangle-1-nw { background-position: -112px -16px; }
.ui-icon-triangle-2-n-s { background-position: -128px -16px; }
.ui-icon-triangle-2-e-w { background-position: -144px -16px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-1-n { background-position: 0 -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-1-ne { background-position: -16px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-1-e { background-position: -32px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-1-se { background-position: -48px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-1-s { background-position: -64px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-1-sw { background-position: -80px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-1-w { background-position: -96px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-1-nw { background-position: -112px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-2-n-s { background-position: -128px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-2-ne-sw { background-position: -144px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-2-e-w { background-position: -160px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-2-se-nw { background-position: -176px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrowstop-1-n { background-position: -192px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrowstop-1-e { background-position: -208px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrowstop-1-s { background-position: -224px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrowstop-1-w { background-position: -240px -32px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-1-n { background-position: 0 -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-1-ne { background-position: -16px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-1-e { background-position: -32px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-1-se { background-position: -48px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-1-s { background-position: -64px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-1-sw { background-position: -80px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-1-w { background-position: -96px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-1-nw { background-position: -112px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-2-n-s { background-position: -128px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-2-ne-sw { background-position: -144px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-2-e-w { background-position: -160px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthick-2-se-nw { background-position: -176px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthickstop-1-n { background-position: -192px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthickstop-1-e { background-position: -208px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthickstop-1-s { background-position: -224px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowthickstop-1-w { background-position: -240px -48px; }
.ui-icon-arrowreturnthick-1-w { background-position: 0 -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowreturnthick-1-n { background-position: -16px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowreturnthick-1-e { background-position: -32px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowreturnthick-1-s { background-position: -48px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowreturn-1-w { background-position: -64px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowreturn-1-n { background-position: -80px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowreturn-1-e { background-position: -96px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowreturn-1-s { background-position: -112px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowrefresh-1-w { background-position: -128px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowrefresh-1-n { background-position: -144px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowrefresh-1-e { background-position: -160px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrowrefresh-1-s { background-position: -176px -64px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-4 { background-position: 0 -80px; }
.ui-icon-arrow-4-diag { background-position: -16px -80px; }
.ui-icon-extlink { background-position: -32px -80px; }
.ui-icon-newwin { background-position: -48px -80px; }
.ui-icon-refresh { background-position: -64px -80px; }
.ui-icon-shuffle { background-position: -80px -80px; }
.ui-icon-transfer-e-w { background-position: -96px -80px; }
.ui-icon-transferthick-e-w { background-position: -112px -80px; }
.ui-icon-folder-collapsed { background-position: 0 -96px; }
.ui-icon-folder-open { background-position: -16px -96px; }
.ui-icon-document { background-position: -32px -96px; }
.ui-icon-document-b { background-position: -48px -96px; }
.ui-icon-note { background-position: -64px -96px; }
.ui-icon-mail-closed { background-position: -80px -96px; }
.ui-icon-mail-open { background-position: -96px -96px; }
.ui-icon-suitcase { background-position: -112px -96px; }
.ui-icon-comment { background-position: -128px -96px; }
.ui-icon-person { background-position: -144px -96px; }
.ui-icon-print { background-position: -160px -96px; }
.ui-icon-trash { background-position: -176px -96px; }
.ui-icon-locked { background-position: -192px -96px; }
.ui-icon-unlocked { background-position: -208px -96px; }
.ui-icon-bookmark { background-position: -224px -96px; }
.ui-icon-tag { background-position: -240px -96px; }
.ui-icon-home { background-position: 0 -112px; }
.ui-icon-flag { background-position: -16px -112px; }
.ui-icon-calendar { background-position: -32px -112px; }
.ui-icon-cart { background-position: -48px -112px; }
.ui-icon-pencil { background-position: -64px -112px; }
.ui-icon-clock { background-position: -80px -112px; }
.ui-icon-disk { background-position: -96px -112px; }
.ui-icon-calculator { background-position: -112px -112px; }
.ui-icon-zoomin { background-position: -128px -112px; }
.ui-icon-zoomout { background-position: -144px -112px; }
.ui-icon-search { background-position: -160px -112px; }
.ui-icon-wrench { background-position: -176px -112px; }
.ui-icon-gear { background-position: -192px -112px; }
.ui-icon-heart { background-position: -208px -112px; }
.ui-icon-star { background-position: -224px -112px; }
.ui-icon-link { background-position: -240px -112px; }
.ui-icon-cancel { background-position: 0 -128px; }
.ui-icon-plus { background-position: -16px -128px; }
.ui-icon-plusthick { background-position: -32px -128px; }
.ui-icon-minus { background-position: -48px -128px; }
.ui-icon-minusthick { background-position: -64px -128px; }
.ui-icon-close { background-position: -80px -128px; }
.ui-icon-closethick { background-position: -96px -128px; }
.ui-icon-key { background-position: -112px -128px; }
.ui-icon-lightbulb { background-position: -128px -128px; }
.ui-icon-scissors { background-position: -144px -128px; }
.ui-icon-clipboard { background-position: -160px -128px; }
.ui-icon-copy { background-position: -176px -128px; }
.ui-icon-contact { background-position: -192px -128px; }
.ui-icon-image { background-position: -208px -128px; }
.ui-icon-video { background-position: -224px -128px; }
.ui-icon-script { background-position: -240px -128px; }
.ui-icon-alert { background-position: 0 -144px; }
.ui-icon-info { background-position: -16px -144px; }
.ui-icon-notice { background-position: -32px -144px; }
.ui-icon-help { background-position: -48px -144px; }
.ui-icon-check { background-position: -64px -144px; }
.ui-icon-bullet { background-position: -80px -144px; }
.ui-icon-radio-on { background-position: -96px -144px; }
.ui-icon-radio-off { background-position: -112px -144px; }
.ui-icon-pin-w { background-position: -128px -144px; }
.ui-icon-pin-s { background-position: -144px -144px; }
.ui-icon-play { background-position: 0 -160px; }
.ui-icon-pause { background-position: -16px -160px; }
.ui-icon-seek-next { background-position: -32px -160px; }
.ui-icon-seek-prev { background-position: -48px -160px; }
.ui-icon-seek-end { background-position: -64px -160px; }
.ui-icon-seek-start { background-position: -80px -160px; }
/* ui-icon-seek-first is deprecated, use ui-icon-seek-start instead */
.ui-icon-seek-first { background-position: -80px -160px; }
.ui-icon-stop { background-position: -96px -160px; }
.ui-icon-eject { background-position: -112px -160px; }
.ui-icon-volume-off { background-position: -128px -160px; }
.ui-icon-volume-on { background-position: -144px -160px; }
.ui-icon-power { background-position: 0 -176px; }
.ui-icon-signal-diag { background-position: -16px -176px; }
.ui-icon-signal { background-position: -32px -176px; }
.ui-icon-battery-0 { background-position: -48px -176px; }
.ui-icon-battery-1 { background-position: -64px -176px; }
.ui-icon-battery-2 { background-position: -80px -176px; }
.ui-icon-battery-3 { background-position: -96px -176px; }
.ui-icon-circle-plus { background-position: 0 -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-minus { background-position: -16px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-close { background-position: -32px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-triangle-e { background-position: -48px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-triangle-s { background-position: -64px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-triangle-w { background-position: -80px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-triangle-n { background-position: -96px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-arrow-e { background-position: -112px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-arrow-s { background-position: -128px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-arrow-w { background-position: -144px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-arrow-n { background-position: -160px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-zoomin { background-position: -176px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-zoomout { background-position: -192px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circle-check { background-position: -208px -192px; }
.ui-icon-circlesmall-plus { background-position: 0 -208px; }
.ui-icon-circlesmall-minus { background-position: -16px -208px; }
.ui-icon-circlesmall-close { background-position: -32px -208px; }
.ui-icon-squaresmall-plus { background-position: -48px -208px; }
.ui-icon-squaresmall-minus { background-position: -64px -208px; }
.ui-icon-squaresmall-close { background-position: -80px -208px; }
.ui-icon-grip-dotted-vertical { background-position: 0 -224px; }
.ui-icon-grip-dotted-horizontal { background-position: -16px -224px; }
.ui-icon-grip-solid-vertical { background-position: -32px -224px; }
.ui-icon-grip-solid-horizontal { background-position: -48px -224px; }
.ui-icon-gripsmall-diagonal-se { background-position: -64px -224px; }
.ui-icon-grip-diagonal-se { background-position: -80px -224px; }
/* Misc visuals
----------------------------------*/
/* Corner radius */
.ui-corner-all,
.ui-corner-top,
.ui-corner-left,
.ui-corner-tl {
border-top-left-radius: 4px;
}
.ui-corner-all,
.ui-corner-top,
.ui-corner-right,
.ui-corner-tr {
border-top-right-radius: 4px;
}
.ui-corner-all,
.ui-corner-bottom,
.ui-corner-left,
.ui-corner-bl {
border-bottom-left-radius: 4px;
}
.ui-corner-all,
.ui-corner-bottom,
.ui-corner-right,
.ui-corner-br {
border-bottom-right-radius: 4px;
}
/* Overlays */
.ui-widget-overlay {
background: #aaaaaa url("images/ui-bg_highlight-hard_40_aaaaaa_1x100.png") 50% top repeat-x;
opacity: .3;
filter: Alpha(Opacity=30); /* support: IE8 */
}
.ui-widget-shadow {
margin: -8px 0 0 -8px;
padding: 8px;
background: #aaaaaa url("images/ui-bg_highlight-soft_50_aaaaaa_1x100.png") 50% top repeat-x;
opacity: .2;
filter: Alpha(Opacity=20); /* support: IE8 */
border-radius: 8px;
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
[Health care in agricultural work in the Sicilian Services of Prevention and Healthcare].
Agriculture is a work sector at high risk for the health of those who work there. The services of prevention and safety in the work area of the AA.SS.PP. (Provincial Health Agencies) of the Sicilian Region began a program of prevention, in the three year term 2010/2013, in this sector. A plan that has been laid out in the "Regional Plan for Prevention and Safety in Agriculture and Fowl Farming" outlined in DA (Administrative Decree number 1174/10. To be able to activate such a plan, the SPreSAL (Prevention and Health Service for the Work Area), have received extra resources that have permitted us to reach pre-planned objectives. The activity carried out brought to light serious defects, in respect to the maintenance of health and safety at work. These tend to derive mainly from the individual and family typologies of companies in the sector. For a more efficient activity of prevention we have shown the opportunity to underline and empower the preventative activity of a support type, rather than surveillance, and to reinforce the Services in such a way that, with their multi-disciplinary competences, they will be able to recover their capacity to carry out a direct control over the risk factors present in the work area.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
WorldPride in Madrid 2017
Amid the carnage of terrorism, WorldPride rises again, this year in Madrid.
No evil force will ever defeat the vitality and light of LGBT lives everywhere–not in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Nigeria, Jamaica, Guinea … “we will not merely endure we will prevail” because we represent the future of dignity and truth on this earth!
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Lega Nord Liguria
Lega Nord Liguria (English: Northern League Liguria) is a regionalist political party in Liguria. It joined Lega Nord in 1991 and, since then, it has functioned as its "national" (hence, regional) section in the region.
The party's current national secretary is Edoardo Rixi, its president Francesco Bruzzone.
History
The party was founded in 1987 by Bruno Ravera as Ligurian Union (Uniun Ligure). It participated to the 1989 European Parliament election as part of the coalition Lega Lombarda – Alleanza Nord. In 1989–1990 it took part in the process of federating the Northern regionalist parties, ahead of the regional elections. In February 1991 it was one of the founding members of Lega Nord, taking the current name, and since then it has been the "national" section of that party in Liguria. At the 1992 general election the LNL obtained 14.3% of the vote in Liguria, making it one of the early strongholds of the LN.
The LNL played a big role in party politics since the beginning. In 1993 Maurizio Balocchi was appointed federal administrative secretary (i.e. treasurer). In February 2010, after the sudden death of Balocchi, Francesco Belsito, Ligurian and close aide of Balocchi, was appointed in his place. The LNL has also been represented in Silvio Berlusconi's governments by Sergio Cappelli (1994–1995), Balocchi (2001–2006, 2008–2010), Belsito (2010–2012), and Sonia Viale (2010–2012).
Over the years, the party suffered several splits, including one led by Ravera, who was welcomed back in 1998 and appointed "president for life". In 2001 a group of keen separatists led by Vincenzo Matteucci formed the Ligurian Independentist Movement (MIL).
In the 2010 regional election the LNL gained 10.2% of the vote and three regional councillors.
In April 2012 Belsito was charged of money-laundering, embezzlement and fraud at the expenses of the federal party and was thus expelled. Being Belsito a Ligurian, the scandal hit the LNL and its leadership. Francesco Bruzzone, who had been secretary since 1998, decided to step down after that he was asked to do so by leading members of the party. Viale secured the support of 80% of delegates (115 votes) in a party congress, against the 20% (28) of her opponent Giacomo Chiappori, and was elected in his place, while Bruzzone was elected president and Andrea Corrado, who had been president since 1992, honorary president.
In the 2015 regional election the LNL obtained its best result ever with 20.3% of the vote and was instrumental for the election of Forza Italia's Giovanni Toti as President of Liguria. In fact, the LNL had renounced to run its own candidate, Edoardo Rixi, in favour of Toti in the run-up of the election and won almost twice the votes of Forza Italia in the election itself. As a result, the LNL returned to participate in the regional government, led by its leader Viale, who was appointed Vice President and minister of Health by Toti, while Rixi minister of Economic Development. Contextually, Bruzzone was elected President of the Regional Council.
In December 2015, during a national congress, Rixi (144 votes, 61% of the total) beat and succeeded to Viale (83) as secretary.
In the 2018 general election the party confirmed its strength in Liguria with 19.9% of the vote.
Popular support
Lega Nord Liguria has suffered a steady decline in term of votes since 1992 (when it obtained 14.3% at the regional level), but has recently re-gained strength and reached 20.3% in the 2015 regional election, its best result ever. The party is usually stronger in the western part of the region, indeed in the latest election it got 22.7% of the vote in the Province of Imperia, 24.4% in Savona, 18.7% in Genoa and 18.5% in La Spezia.
The electoral results of Lega Nord Liguria in the region are shown in the tables below.
Leadership
National Secretary: Bruno Ravera (1987–1994), Giacomo Chiappori (1994–1998), Francesco Bruzzone (1998–2012), Sonia Viale (2012–2015), Edoardo Rixi (2015–present)
National President: Andrea Corrado (1992–2012), Francesco Bruzzone (2012–present)
President for life: Bruno Ravera (1998–2017)
Honorary President: Andrea Corrado (2012–2018)
External links
Official website
References
Category:1989 establishments in Italy
Category:Federalist parties in Italy
Category:Lega Nord
Category:Political parties established in 1989
Category:Political parties in Liguria
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{
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
}
|
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>Flot Examples: Visitors</title>
<link href="../examples.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<!--[if lte IE 8]><script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="../../excanvas.min.js"></script><![endif]-->
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="../../jquery.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="../../jquery.flot.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="../../jquery.flot.time.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="../../jquery.flot.selection.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
var d = [[1196463600000, 0], [1196550000000, 0], [1196636400000, 0], [1196722800000, 77], [1196809200000, 3636], [1196895600000, 3575], [1196982000000, 2736], [1197068400000, 1086], [1197154800000, 676], [1197241200000, 1205], [1197327600000, 906], [1197414000000, 710], [1197500400000, 639], [1197586800000, 540], [1197673200000, 435], [1197759600000, 301], [1197846000000, 575], [1197932400000, 481], [1198018800000, 591], [1198105200000, 608], [1198191600000, 459], [1198278000000, 234], [1198364400000, 1352], [1198450800000, 686], [1198537200000, 279], [1198623600000, 449], [1198710000000, 468], [1198796400000, 392], [1198882800000, 282], [1198969200000, 208], [1199055600000, 229], [1199142000000, 177], [1199228400000, 374], [1199314800000, 436], [1199401200000, 404], [1199487600000, 253], [1199574000000, 218], [1199660400000, 476], [1199746800000, 462], [1199833200000, 448], [1199919600000, 442], [1200006000000, 403], [1200092400000, 204], [1200178800000, 194], [1200265200000, 327], [1200351600000, 374], [1200438000000, 507], [1200524400000, 546], [1200610800000, 482], [1200697200000, 283], [1200783600000, 221], [1200870000000, 483], [1200956400000, 523], [1201042800000, 528], [1201129200000, 483], [1201215600000, 452], [1201302000000, 270], [1201388400000, 222], [1201474800000, 439], [1201561200000, 559], [1201647600000, 521], [1201734000000, 477], [1201820400000, 442], [1201906800000, 252], [1201993200000, 236], [1202079600000, 525], [1202166000000, 477], [1202252400000, 386], [1202338800000, 409], [1202425200000, 408], [1202511600000, 237], [1202598000000, 193], [1202684400000, 357], [1202770800000, 414], [1202857200000, 393], [1202943600000, 353], [1203030000000, 364], [1203116400000, 215], [1203202800000, 214], [1203289200000, 356], [1203375600000, 399], [1203462000000, 334], [1203548400000, 348], [1203634800000, 243], [1203721200000, 126], [1203807600000, 157], [1203894000000, 288]];
// first correct the timestamps - they are recorded as the daily
// midnights in UTC+0100, but Flot always displays dates in UTC
// so we have to add one hour to hit the midnights in the plot
for (var i = 0; i < d.length; ++i) {
d[i][0] += 60 * 60 * 1000;
}
// helper for returning the weekends in a period
function weekendAreas(axes) {
var markings = [],
d = new Date(axes.xaxis.min);
// go to the first Saturday
d.setUTCDate(d.getUTCDate() - ((d.getUTCDay() + 1) % 7))
d.setUTCSeconds(0);
d.setUTCMinutes(0);
d.setUTCHours(0);
var i = d.getTime();
// when we don't set yaxis, the rectangle automatically
// extends to infinity upwards and downwards
do {
markings.push({ xaxis: { from: i, to: i + 2 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000 } });
i += 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000;
} while (i < axes.xaxis.max);
return markings;
}
var options = {
xaxis: {
mode: "time",
tickLength: 5
},
selection: {
mode: "x"
},
grid: {
markings: weekendAreas
}
};
var plot = $.plot("#placeholder", [d], options);
var overview = $.plot("#overview", [d], {
series: {
lines: {
show: true,
lineWidth: 1
},
shadowSize: 0
},
xaxis: {
ticks: [],
mode: "time"
},
yaxis: {
ticks: [],
min: 0,
autoscaleMargin: 0.1
},
selection: {
mode: "x"
}
});
// now connect the two
$("#placeholder").bind("plotselected", function (event, ranges) {
// do the zooming
$.each(plot.getXAxes(), function(_, axis) {
var opts = axis.options;
opts.min = ranges.xaxis.from;
opts.max = ranges.xaxis.to;
});
plot.setupGrid();
plot.draw();
plot.clearSelection();
// don't fire event on the overview to prevent eternal loop
overview.setSelection(ranges, true);
});
$("#overview").bind("plotselected", function (event, ranges) {
plot.setSelection(ranges);
});
// Add the Flot version string to the footer
$("#footer").prepend("Flot " + $.plot.version + " – ");
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="header">
<h2>Visitors</h2>
</div>
<div id="content">
<div class="demo-container">
<div id="placeholder" class="demo-placeholder"></div>
</div>
<div class="demo-container" style="height:150px;">
<div id="overview" class="demo-placeholder"></div>
</div>
<p>This plot shows visitors per day to the Flot homepage, with weekends colored.</p>
<p>The smaller plot is linked to the main plot, so it acts as an overview. Try dragging a selection on either plot, and watch the behavior of the other.</p>
</div>
<div id="footer">
Copyright © 2007 - 2014 IOLA and Ole Laursen
</div>
</body>
</html>
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Orthopaedic prostheses are commonly utilized to repair and/or replace damaged bone and tissue in the human body. For a damaged knee, a knee prosthesis may be implanted using a proximal tibial baseplate component, a tibial bearing component, and a distal femoral component. The tibial baseplate component is affixed to a proximal end of the patient's tibia, which is typically resected to accept the baseplate component. The femoral component is implanted on a distal end of the patient's femur, which is also typically resected to accept the femoral component. The tibial bearing component is placed between the tibial baseplate component and the femoral component, and may be fixed or slidably coupled to the tibial baseplate component.
The tibial baseplate component provides support for the tibial bearing component. Forces generated by use of the knee prosthesis are transferred through the tibial bearing component to the tibial baseplate component, and ultimately to the tibia. In order to ensure long term performance of the knee prosthesis, stable and firm securement of the tibial baseplate component to the proximal end of the patient's tibia is desired.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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Chemocoagulation of metastatic lymph nodes using a suspension of mitomycin C-adsorbing activated carbon particles in 80% ethanol.
Chemocoagulation therapy was evaluated in an experimental model of metastasis of murine lymph nodes following injection of a suspension of mitomycin C--containing activated carbon particles in 80% ethanol (MMC-CH-ET) into the popliteal lymph node. Lymph node metastasis was induced in the left popliteal and the lumbar lymph nodes 8 days after injection of mouse leukemia P388 cells into the footpad of the left hindleg of BDF1 mice. When MMC-CH-ET was injected into the left popliteal lymph node, it immediately left this site and entered the lumbar lymph node via lymphatic vessels. When compared with tissue concentrations of mitomycin C following injection of an aqueous solution of this drug, the mitomycin C concentration of MMC-CH-ET was maintained at significantly higher levels for 2 hr following injection both at the site of injection and at secondary lymph nodes. Furthermore, coagulative necrosis was identified histologically throughout the injected lymph node and the secondary lymph node, including the metastatic site. The mortality of mice treated with MMC-CH-ET injection was significantly reduced and lymph node metastasis was controlled with MMC-CH-ET when compared with the results for mice treated with an aqueous solution of mitomycin C or treated by surgical lymph node dissection. In this report, we suggest that the use of MMC-CH-ET as a therapeutic agent may be useful in targeting lymph node metastasis.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Tag Archives: resolution
January has ended. Have you broken your new year’s resolution? Don’t give up just yet.
Remember that you will always slide, slack off and give in to temptations. It’s not the end, but a continuous process. Change did not happen on new year’s eve. It is happening every moment every day.
Last year, I made a score sheet for all my resolutions. Drink alcohol only 20 times the whole year, eat pork/beef/chicken only 10 times per month, go to bed before 10 pm, don’t be late, finish a book, learn a new skill… Every accomplishment and failure tallied.
As the months passed, I adjusted towards more “realistic” targets. And by the end of April, I completely junked the score sheet after a long vacation where I broke everything. It was a good exercise after all.
The problem is, resolutions are normally unrealistic and lacks planning. Why not do it gradually — 40 cigarettes per day, down to 30, to 20, 10… Lose 1 pound per month. Set special dates when you would indulge in a huge chocolate cake to avoid feelings of over-deprivation. At least every month, evaluate yourself and keep going.
Now start again and don’t wait for another NEW year for a shot at self-improvement. You owe it to yourself.
In the coming of 2012, I vowed not to underprice myself. I’ve always been forward, straightforward, aggressive, resolute in getting what I want. To the point of leaving no self-preservation (well, not really).
I’ve always been the one who reaches out, who makes herself very transparent (because I don’t believe that humans have much guessing to do), I’m confrontational and I say things that people don’t expect to hear (at least that’s what Haze said). If I say it, I mean it (to the best of my consciousness). If I don’t, don’t assume.
But this year, I want to see investment. I want to feel that I’m worth risking for. I want to be offered crazy unconditional love.
On the other end, Haze has vowed not to overprice this year!“The first time I’m willing to love someone without guarantees of being loved back.” To let down her guard and to take a risk.
How funny can life get? I learned from Haze, she learned from me. The differences that once caused tension between us, in the end, have helped each find her balance. What’s the more noble way to live? Who can tell.
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{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Q:
How to parse a loosely structured document
I am analyzing data feeds which have data somewhat like this
RAM 4 GB DDR3
RAM 16GB DIMM
memory 4GB DDR3 MHz // no value for MHz
memory 4GB DDR3 1333 MHz // no the order of MHz is not fixed
ram 6GB, 1333 MHz, DDR3 // comma used as delimiter
Processor Intel Core i7-3612QM
Processor Intel Core i7 2630QM
processor i3-380,2.53 GHz //380 used for model number instead of 380M and model number separated by '-' and clock speed separated by ','
Processor Core i3-380 2.53 GHz
Processor Intel Ci3 - 2330 (2nd Gen), 2.53 GHz // multiple symbols used as delimiters(',','-')
Hard drive 500GB 5400RPM
Hard Disk Drive 1.5 TB
Hard Disk 256 GB
now i need to analyze what each specification means like in ram 6GB, 1333 MHz, DDR3 i need to figure out that 6GB is the capacity, 1333 MHz is the frequency and DDR3 is the type of ram. But the problem as you can see is these are very irregular(some entries have some fields and dont have others and sometimes whitespaces are used as separators ,sometimes ,s and sometimes -s). My first reaction was using regex but i soon realised that it was stupid. Then i thought that i can split on the separator(, in the above case) but even the separator is not fixed. Also this approach would be useless for entries like this memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 Using whitespace as separator for this entry would make it look like 4 GB 1333 MHz are different but actually 4 GB and 1333 MHz are different.
Also how can i programatically decide that Intel Core i3, Core i3, i3-380 and Ci3 imply Intel Core i3? I understand that i have to tell the library once that Intel Core i3, Core i3 and Ci3 mean the same thing. But later when analysis the text it should be able to figure out.
The above mentioned lists of entries show how variable can the entries be. Is there some python library(or in any other language) that can help me in dealing with these tasks?
A:
If you're able to build a set of classes that directly correspond to each type of entry, then that's probably the way to go. For example, a class for RAM might be:
class Memory:
def __init__(self, s):
if not 'RAM' in s and not 'memory' in s:
raise ValueError("Not a string that describes RAM.")
self.capacity = int(re.match(r'(\d+) ?GB', s)[1])
Then just try each class until one fits.
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{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Leading Economists: A Strong Carbon Price Needed to Drive Large-Scale Climate Action
Berlin, May 29, 2017 – Meeting the world’s agreed climate goals in the most cost-effective way while fostering growth requires countries to set a strong carbon price, with the goal of reaching $40-$80 per tonne of CO2 by 2020 and $50-100 per tonne by 2030. That’s the key conclusion of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices, led by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Lord Nicholas Stern.
Convened by the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC)[1] at Marrakesh in 2016 and supported by the Government of France and the World Bank Group, the Commission brought together 13 leading economists from nine developing and developed countries to identify the range of carbon prices that, together with other supportive policies, would deliver on the Paris climate targets agreed by nearly 200 countries in December 2015.
“The world’s transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy is the story of growth for this century,” said Commission co-chairs Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern. “We’re already seeing the potential that this transformation represents in terms of more innovation, greater resilience, more livable cities, improved air quality and better health. Our report builds on the growing understanding of the opportunities for carbon pricing, together with other policies, to drive the sustainable growth and poverty reduction which can deliver on the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.”
The Commission’s report, released today in Berlin at the Think20 Summit[2], concludes that a well-designed carbon price is an indispensable part of a strategy for efficiently reducing greenhouse gas emissions while also fostering growth. It states that a strong and predictable carbon-price trajectory provides a powerful signal to individuals and firms that the future is low carbon, inducing the changes needed in global investment, production, and consumption patterns.
The Commission concluded that a $40-$80 range in 2020, rising to $50-$100 by 2030, is consistent with the core objective of the Paris Agreement of keeping temperature rise below 2 degrees. Carbon prices and instruments will differ across countries, and implementation and timetables will depend on the country context. The temperature target remains achievable with lower near-term carbon prices if complemented by other policies and instruments and followed by higher carbon prices later. However, this may increase the aggregate cost of the transition.
The Commission noted the importance of complementing carbon pricing with a range of well-designed policies to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, innovation and technological development, long-term investment in sustainable infrastructure, as well as measures to support the population in the transition to low-carbon growth.
“Specific carbon price levels will need to be tailored to country conditions and policy choices,” said Commission member, Professor Harald Winkler of the University of Cape Town, South Africa. “Carbon pricing makes sense in all countries but low-income countries, which may be more challenged to protect the people vulnerable to the initial economic impacts, may decide to start pricing carbon at a lower level and gradually increase over time.”
In its five months of deliberations, the Commissioners explored multiple lines of evidence to reach its conclusion on the level of carbon pricing that would be consistent with achieving the 2C-or-below temperature objective of the Paris Agreement. They analyzed national mitigation and development pathways, technological roadmaps, and global integrated assessment models.
The Commission found that explicit carbon-pricing instruments, like a carbon tax or cap-and-trade scheme, can raise revenue for countries efficiently and these revenues can be used to foster green growth in an equitable way, depending on their circumstances. Options include returning the revenue as household rebates, reducing taxes on labor or investment, supporting poorer groups in society through cash-transfer programs, supporting new green technologies, helping companies transition to lower-carbon technologies or investing in basic services like energy, water and sanitation.
The report also points to action on carbon pricing by the private sector with hundreds of corporations already setting internal carbon prices to help inform their decision-making. Together with the Carbon Pricing Corridor Initiative led by We Mean Business and the Carbon Disclosure Project which focuses on carbon pricing in the power sector, the Commission’s report will help contribute to the design of climate policies and carbon pricing instruments around the world.
Report: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54ff9c5ce4b0a53decccfb4c/t/59244eed17bffc0ac256cf16/1495551740633/CarbonPricing_Final_May29.pdf
Contacts:
At CPLC: Isabel Saldarriaga isaldarriaga@worldbankgroup.org; +1 202-812-1533
At World Bank: Elisabeth Mealey emealey@worldbankgroup.org; +1 202-4139457
Press release in French
The High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices is:
Co-Chairs:
Nicholas Stern, Kt, PBA, FRS, Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment; Professor, London School of Economics
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Professor at Columbia University, Chief Economist of The Roosevelt Institute
Commissioners:
Maosheng Duan, Director of China Carbon Market Center (CCMC) of Tsinghua University, China
Ottmar Edenhofer, Deputy Director and Chief Economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany
Gaël Giraud, Chief Economist and Executive Director of the Research and Knowledge Directorate of the Agence Française de Développement, France
Geoff Heal, Donald C. Waite III Professor of Social Enterprise Columbia Business School, USA
Emilio Lebre la Rovere, Executive Coordinator of the Center for Integrated Studies on Climate Change and the Environment, Federal University of Rio, Brazil
Adele Morris, Senior Fellow and Policy Director for Climate and Energy Economics at the Brookings Institution, USA
Elisabeth Moyer, Associate Professor, Atmospheric Science, University of Chicago, USA
Mari Pangestu, Senior Fellow at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs Columbia University, USA/Indonesia
Priyadarshi R. Shukla, co-chair Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, India
Youba Sokona, Vice-Chair Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Mali
Harald Winkler, Professor and Director of the Energy Research Centre (ERC) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa
[1] The Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition is a voluntary partnership of national and sub-national governments, businesses, and civil society organizations that agree to advance the carbon pricing agenda by working towards the objective of a carbon price applied throughout the global economy. It was convened and is housed by the World Bank Group.
[2] The Think20 (T20) is a network of research institutes and think tanks from G20 countries that provides research-based policy advice to the G20, facilitates interaction among its members and the policy community, and communicates with the broader public about issues of global importance.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
Q:
Slide up/down layout on click
I am looking to slide/up down a nested layout on its parent layout click.
Ie the parent layout will have a hidden child. On click I would like the parents height to animate down (slide down) to fit the child layout. On click again I would like the child to animate up (slide up). Basically just animating the parents height to show/hide the child.
I have found this which looks to work but seems like a lot of code:
http://gmariotti.blogspot.com/2013/09/expand-and-collapse-animation.html
I have seen a lot of things using 'animateLayoutChanges' to animate things however I cannot get that to work.
I have tried this:
<LinearLayout android:id="@+id/parent"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView android:id="@+id/text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
<LinearLayout android:id="@+id/child"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:visibility="gone"
android:animateLayoutChanges="true">
<TextView android:id="@+id/message"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Some text to show/hide"/>
</LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
Then in code:
LinearLayout parent = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.parent);
parent.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
LinearLayout child = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.child);
child.setVisibility(child.getVisibility() == View.VISIBLE ? View.GONE : View.VISIBLE);
}
});
That sets the visibility of the child view correctly but there is absolutely no animation.
A:
Well, first of all android:animateLayoutChanges effects the child elements. So, obviously, if you are changing the properties of the element itself, it will not be animated.
I think you can accomplish what you are trying to in API 16 by enabling the LayoutTransition.CHANGING animation.
<LinearLayout android:id="@+id/parent"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:animateLayoutChanges="true">
<TextView android:id="@+id/text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Title"/>
<TextView android:id="@+id/message"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="0dp"
android:text="Some text to show/hide"/>
</LinearLayout>
LinearLayout parent = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.parent);
parent.getLayoutTransition().enableTransitionType(LayoutTransition.CHANGING);
View text = findViewById(R.id.text);
text.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
View message = findViewById(R.id.message);
ViewGroup.LayoutParams params = message.getLayoutParams();
params.height = params.height == 0 ? ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT : 0;
message.setLayoutParams(params);
}
});
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Britain is being forced to pour millions of pounds of new funds into the troubled F-35 stealth fighter programme being developed in America and considered a vital part of the UK’s future defences.
The F-35, being built by the US in partnership with countries including the UK, is the costliest weapon ever developed by the Pentagon. It is scheduled to go into service in the UK in 2018 and into full production in 2019, and is intended to be a cornerstone of UK defences for decades to come, flying off two new aircraft carriers.
But huge problems remain unresolved, in particular with the F-35’s advanced software, on which the whole project rests. The software is supposed to be the plane’s “brain”, running everything from ensuring a steady supply of parts to relaying masses of data to the pilot’s visor during combat.
President Donald Trump has twice tweeted about the F-35, saying the programme, whose cost has jumped from $233bn in 2001 to around $379bn now, was “out of control”. He has asked his defence secretary, General James Mattis, to conduct a review and has suggested looking at alternatives such as Boeing’s F-18 Super Hornet.
Any such shift would leave the UK, which has invested heavily in the F-35, seriously exposed, renewing questions about British reliance on the US. However, on Friday the president approved an $8bn order for the latest batch of 90 F-35s at an improved unit cost below $100m per jet, amid competing claims about how this saving had been achieved.
The F-35 was scheduled for completion in 2012 but finally began service with the US Marines and air force only last year, flying even though the software problems remain unresolved.
The fighter jets are scheduled to fly off the UK’s two new aircraft carriers, scheduled from around 2020, and by 2018 from RAF Marham in Norfolk, which is being upgraded for their arrival at a cost of £142m. Five have been sent to the UK so far. The British government has refused to publish an estimate of the overall cost of the 138 F-35s it is to buy, as well as its contribution to development costs, but the figure will run into the tens of billions.
In a damning assessment, Michael Gilmore, director of the US office of operational test and evaluation, who reports directly to Mattis, cited the software, the Autonomic Logistics Information System (Alis), as one of a number of problems likely to cause delays. The estimated cost of Alis is about $17bn.
In his annual report, published by Congress on 4 January, Gilmore predicted that the initial operational test and evaluation, scheduled for August 2017, would not begin until late 2018 at the earliest and more likely early 2019.
The SNP’s Douglas Chapman, who is a member of the UK defence committee, put down a parliamentary question to the Ministry of Defence asking if, in the light of Gilmore’s report, the UK would have to provide additional funding.
Defence minister Harriett Baldwin, in a reply on 26 January, said: “The Ministry of Defence has made a funding allocation for future development of Alis as part of the F-35 follow-on modernisation programme.”
She added: “I am withholding details of this funding as its disclosure would prejudice commercial interests.”
In a 2013 report, the Pentagon said any delays or problems with Alis could add $20bn to the F-35 programme cost. While the US would have to pick up most of that, the UK would have to pay a share.
Baldwin said that testing on Alis was expected to be completed by February 2017. But Gilmore’s report suggests that may be overly optimistic.
Asked about Gilmore’s report, the MoD said: “We are committed to the F-35 programme, which remains on time and within costs, and believe it offers the best capability for our armed forces.”
Chapman said he was not reassured by Baldwin’s response. “We would like far more transparency on big-ticket items such as the F-35,” he said. “The F-35, in terms of capability, is absolutely crucial to the defence of the UK but there are still significant questions. This does not fill people with confidence that everything is as tightly managed as it should be.”
He emphasised the vital part software plays in modern warfare, citing the malfunction in the Trident nuclear missile that resulted in a failed test-firing by HMS Vengeance off the coast of Florida last year.
Lockheed Martin, which is producing the F-35, referred questions about Alis to the Joint Program Office, which coordinates the US air force, navy and army and the 12 nations involved in the project, including the UK.
Joe DellaVedova, public affairs director of the JPO, said: “The F-35 programme continues to make steady progress, tracking to plan on our key schedule milestones and performance parameters, as well as improving overall affordability of the weapons system.”
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 18: Miles Wood #44 of the New Jersey Devils skates against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on September 18, 2019 in New York City. The Devils defeated the Rangers 4-3. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Miles Wood had a rough season a year ago for the New Jersey Devils. We hoped he would bounce back this season, but it hasn’t started well.
Two seasons ago, the New Jersey Devils started the season with a flurry of interesting roster moves. One of which was leaving Miles Wood off the opening night roster. He played 60 games the year before, but head coach John Hynes did not just give him a roster spot, he made him earn it. We all remember the face Wood made when he was introduced on opening night while sitting in the owner’s box. It was not fun for him.
He ended up only missing five other games the rest of that season, two of which were due to suspension. Wood was amazing that season. Of course, he was hit and miss because that is his game, but every night he was in someone’s face and making life hard for the other team.
He won at least three games for the Devils. There was a hat trick scored against the Chicago Blackhawks in November. In February, he was all over the place against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and built off the last great Eddie Lack game to win. Then, at the end of the season, he scored the game-winning goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Last season, he was a tire fire. This was after a lengthy contract holdout that bled into the preseason. It caused an insane drought to start the year. He had two two-point games in October. Outside that, he only had points in two other games in October AND November. It was not good, as the Devils were unraveling at the seams.
Wood is always going to be streaky. It’s just how his game works. You put him in the lineup because at any point he can score four points. However, he could also go five games without making a peep. It’s the clear high risk, high reward play.
Here’s the problem, Wood’s game might not fit on this year’s New Jersey Devils team. He’s having trouble making a mark this preseason. He’s taken two minor penalties in three games. While he avoided the penalty box in his last game, he only earned about 13 minutes with a less than stellar group of forwards.
Maybe Wood is just going through one of his streaks where he is cold and he needs some time to warm up. The problem with that is he might be fighting for a roster spot. That sounds preposterous since he has three years left on his contract paying him $2.75 million per season, but the Devils could try something.
There are really four options when it comes to Wood. The first option is to force him on the roster by hook or by crook. If the Devils want to make this easy, that’s what they’ll do. They can make him the extra if he doesn’t turn it around in the next two preseason games.
A second option is to trade Wood. There are plenty of teams that would be willing to give Wood a second chance, even if he hasn’t tanked his value all that much. He just needs a team that’s willing to let him play through his rough times until they get better again.
The third option is to send Wood down through waivers to play in the AHL. That would allow other teams to claim him for nothing. Literally nothing. If the Devils are so enamored with a player like Mike McLeod or Mikhail Maltsev, they may be forced to push Wood out. If he goes through waivers, great, then the Devils can let him work out some issues in Binghamton, and he’ll eventually be ready to return to the NHL.
The last option is a buyout, but they couldn’t use that until after the season. It’s surprisingly cheap to buyout Wood’s contract. According to CapFriendly’s buyout calculator, the Devils would pay $750,000 next year against the cap, they would save an extra $250,000 on the cap the next season, then it would cost $500,000 in season three and four.
There are still two games left in the preseason, and we expect Hynes to build his rosters with more players fighting for spots than not. That means players like Wood will get ample minutes to prove his worth. That also means John Hayden and Kevin Rooney will also get the time to prove they deserve a spot more than Wood. If Wood is going to show he should be on this roster, he needs to prove it himself.
Wood is just missing a certain physicality in his game right now. It doesn’t take long to get it back, but he has to work at it. He’s back to relying too much on his God-given ability over making better decisions. Sure, he can fly from one side of the ice to the other to cause a turnover, but if he does it by himself while his teammates make a change, the end result is the same as if he never skated in the zone. He needs to be better at timing his use of his speed and explosiveness.
Want your voice heard? Join the Pucks And Pitchforks team! Write for us!
Wood will be given all the chances in the world, but it says something that many fans have him missing out on the roster altogether. If we were a betting blog, which would be legal in New Jersey, we’d say he makes the team. However, the odds are going down.
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Drug-related admissions to a family medicine inpatient service.
Admissions to a family medicine inpatient service were monitored retrospectively over a one-year period to determine the incidence of drug-related hospitalizations. Of the 293 admissions, 45 (15.4%) were identified as drug related; in 29 admissions (9.9%), a drug-related problem was identified as the primary cause of hospitalization. The two patient characteristics associated with a drug-related admission (DRA) were marital status (divorced) and age (older patients). The two most common types of DRAs were adverse drug reactions (17/45, 37.8%) and drug abuse (14/45, 31.1%), with alcohol being the most commonly abused agent. Adverse drug reactions were most commonly implicated in DRAs for patients over 70 years old, with drug abuse more evenly distributed among age groups. Educational programs that incorporate pharmacoepidemiologic strategies into all health care disciplines are necessary to address this public health issue.
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> 本文作者来自 [华尔街见闻技术团队](https://www.zhihu.com/org/hua-er-jie-jian-wen-ji-zhu-tuan-dui-92/activities) - [花裤衩](https://github.com/PanJiaChen)
前几天 webpack 作者 [Tobias Koppers](https://github.com/sokra) 发布了一篇新的文章 [webpack 4.0 to 4.16: Did you know?](https://medium.com/webpack/webpack-4-0-to-4-16-did-you-know-71e25a57fa6b)(需翻墙)，总结了一下`webpack 4`发布以来，做了哪些调整和优化。
并且说自己正在着手开发 `webpack 5`。
> Oh you are still on webpack 3. I’m sorry, what is blocking you? We already working on webpack 5, so your stack might be outdated soon…
翻译成中文就是：
正好我也在使用一个文档生成工具 [docz](https://github.com/pedronauck/docz)(安利一波) 也最低需要`webpack 4+`，新版`webpack`性能提高了不少，而且`webpack 4` 都已经发布五个多月了，想必应该已经没什么坑了，应该可以安心的按照别人写的升级攻略升级了。之前一直迟迟不升级完全是被去年被 `webpack 3` 坑怕了。它在 `code splitting` 的情况下 `CommonsChunkPlugin`会完全失效。过了好一段时间才修复，欲哭无泪。
所以这次我等了快大半年才准备升级到`webpack 4` **但万万没想到还是遇到了不少的问题！** 有很多之前遗留的问题还是没有很好地解决。但最主要的问题还是它的文档有所欠缺，已经废除了的东西如`commonsChunkPlugin`还在官方文档中到处出现，很多重要的东西却一笔带过，甚至没写，需要用户自己去看源码才能解决。
还比如在`v4.16.0`版本中废除了`optimization.occurrenceOrder`、`optimization.namedChunks`、`optimization.hashedModuleIds`、`optimization.namedModules` 这几个配置项，替换成了`optimization.moduleIds` 和 `optimization.chunkIds`，但文档完中全没有任何体现，所以你在新版本中还按照文档那样配置其实是没有任何效果的。
最新最完整的文档还是看他项目的配置[WebpackOptions.json](https://github.com/webpack/webpack/blob/master/schemas/WebpackOptions.json)，强烈建议遇到不清楚的配置项可以看这个，因为它一定保证是和最新代码同步的。
吐槽了这么多，我们言归正传。由于本次手摸手篇幅有些长，所以拆解成了上下两篇文章：
- 上篇 -- 就是普通的在`webpack 3`的基础上升级，要做哪些操作和遇到了哪些坑
- 下篇 -- 是在`webpack 4`下怎么合理的打包和拆包，并且如何最大化利用 `long term caching`
**本文章不是手摸手从零教你 webpack 配置，所以并不会讲太多很基础的配置问题**。比如如何处理 css 文件，如何配置 webpack-dev-server，讲述 file-loader 和 url-loader 之间的区别等等，有需求的推荐看 [官方文档](https://webpack.js.org/concepts/) 或者 [survivejs](https://survivejs.com/webpack/developing/webpack-dev-server/) 出的一个系列教程。或者推荐看我司的另一篇 wbepack 入门文章，已同步到 webpack4 [传送门](https://github.com/wallstreetcn/webpack-and-spa-guide)。
## 升级篇
### 前言
我一直认为模仿和借鉴是学习一个新东西最高效的方法。所以我建议还是通过借鉴一些成熟的 webpack 配置比较好。比如你项目是基于 react 生态圈的话可以借鉴 [create-react-app](https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app) ，下载之后`npm run eject` 就可以看到它详细的 webpack 配置了。vue 的话由于新版`vue cli`不支持 `eject`了，而且改用 [webpack-chain](https://github.com/mozilla-neutrino/webpack-chain)来配置，所以借鉴起来可能会不太方便，主要配置 [地址](https://github.com/vuejs/vue-cli/tree/dev/packages/@vue/cli-service/lib/config)。觉得麻烦的话你可以直接借鉴 `vue-element-admin` 的 [配置](https://github.com/PanJiaChen/vue-element-admin/pull/889)。或者你想自己发挥，你可以借鉴 webpack 官方的各种 [examples](https://github.com/webpack/webpack/tree/master/examples)，来组合你的配置。
### 升级 webpack
首先将 webpack 升级到 4 之后，直接运行`webpack --xxx`是不行的，因为新版本将命令行相关的东西单独拆了出去封装成了`webpack-cli`。会报如下错误：
> The CLI moved into a separate package: webpack-cli.
> Please install `webpack-cli` in addition to webpack itself to use the CLI.
所有你需要安装`npm install webpack-cli -D -S`。你也可将它安装在全局。
同时新版 webpack 需要`Node.js 的最低支持版本为 6.11.5`不要忘了升级。如果还需要维护老项目可以使用 [nvm](https://github.com/creationix/nvm) 来做一下 node 版本管理。
**升级所有依赖**
因为`webpack4`改了 它的`hook` api ，所以所有的`loaders`、`plugins`都需要升级才能够适配。
可以使用命令行 `npm outdated`，列出所以可以更新的包。免得再一个个去`npm`找相对于的可用版本了。
反正把`devDependencies`的依赖都升级一下，总归不会有错。
### 带来的变化
其实这次升级带来了不少改变，但大部分其实对于普通用户来说是不需要关注的，比如这次升级带来的功能`SideEffects`、`Module Type’s Introduced`、`WebAssembly Support`，基本平时是用不到的。我们主要关注那些对我们影响比较大的改动如：`optimization.splitChunks`代替原有的`CommonsChunkPlugin`(下篇文章会着重介绍)，和`Better Defaults-mode`更好的默认配置，这是大家稍微需要关注一下的。
> 如果想进一步了解 `Tree Shaking`和`SideEffects`的可见文末拓展阅读。
> _上图参考 [Webpack 4 进阶](https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/35407642)_
### 默认配置
webpack 4 引入了`零配置`的概念，被 [parcel](https://github.com/parcel-bundler/parcel) 刺激到了。 不管效果怎样，这改变还是值得称赞的。
> 最近又新出了 [Fastpack](http://fastpack.io/) 可以关注一下。
言归正题，我们来看看 webpack 默认帮我们做了些什么?
`development` 模式下，默认开启了`NamedChunksPlugin` 和`NamedModulesPlugin`方便调试，提供了更完整的错误信息，更快的重新编译的速度。
```diff
module.exports = {
+ mode: 'development'
- devtool: 'eval',
- plugins: [
- new webpack.NamedModulesPlugin(),
- new webpack.NamedChunksPlugin(),
- new webpack.DefinePlugin({ "process.env.NODE_ENV": JSON.stringify("development") }),
- ]
}
```
`production` 模式下，由于提供了`splitChunks`和`minimize`，所以基本零配置，代码就会自动分割、压缩、优化，同时 webpack 也会自动帮你 `Scope hoisting` 和 `Tree-shaking`。
```diff
module.exports = {
+ mode: 'production',
- plugins: [
- new UglifyJsPlugin(/* ... */),
- new webpack.DefinePlugin({ "process.env.NODE_ENV": JSON.stringify("production") }),
- new webpack.optimize.ModuleConcatenationPlugin(),
- new webpack.NoEmitOnErrorsPlugin()
- ]
}
```
webpack 一直以来最饱受诟病的就是其配置门槛极高，配置内容极其复杂和繁琐，容易让人从入门到放弃，而它的后起之秀如 rollup、parcel 等均在配置流程上做了极大的优化，做到开箱即用，所以`webpack 4` 也从中借鉴了不少经验来提升自身的配置效率。**愿世间再也不需要 webpack 配置工程师**。
## html-webpack-plugin
用最新版本的的 `html-webpack-plugin`你可能还会遇到如下的错误：
`throw new Error('Cyclic dependency' + nodeRep)`
产生这个 bug 的原因是循环引用依赖，如果你没有这个问题可以忽略。
目前解决方案可以使用 Alpha 版本，`npm i --save-dev html-webpack-plugin@next`
或者加入`chunksSortMode: 'none'`就可以了。
但仔细查看文档发现设置成`chunksSortMode: 'none'`这样是会有问题的。
> Allows to control how chunks should be sorted before they are included to the HTML.
这属性会决定你 chunks 的加载顺序，如果设置为`none`，你的 chunk 加载在页面中加载的顺序就不能够保证了，可能会出现样式被覆盖的情况。比如我在`app.css`里面修改了一个第三方库`element-ui`的样式，通过加载顺序的先后来覆盖它，但由于设置为了`none`，打包出来的结果变成了这样：
```html
<link href="/app.8945fbfc.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="/chunk-elementUI.2db88087.css" rel="stylesheet" />
```
`app.css`被先加载了，之前写的样式覆盖就失效了，除非你使用`important`或者其它 css 权重的方式覆盖它，但这明显是不太合理的。
`vue-cli`正好也有这个相关 [issue](https://github.com/vuejs/vue-cli/issues/1978#issuecomment-409267484)，尤雨溪也在不使用`@next`版本的基础上 hack 了它，有兴趣的可以自己研究一下，本人在项目中直接使用了`@next`版本，也没遇到其它什么问题（除了不兼容 webpack 的 `prefetch/preload` 相关 [issue](https://github.com/jantimon/html-webpack-plugin/issues/934)）。两种方案都可以，自行选择。
其它 `html-webpack-plugin` 的配置和之前使用没有什么区别。
## mini-css-extract-plugin
### 与 extract-text-webpack-plugin 区别
由于`webpack4`对 css 模块支持的完善以及在处理 css 文件提取的方式上也做了些调整，所以之前我们一直使用的`extract-text-webpack-plugin`也完成了它的历史使命，将让位于`mini-css-extract-plugin`。
使用方式也很简单，大家看着 [文档](https://github.com/webpack-contrib/mini-css-extract-plugin#minimal-example) 抄就可以了。
它与`extract-text-webpack-plugin`最大的区别是：它在`code spliting`的时候会将原先内联写在每一个 js `chunk bundle`的 css，单独拆成了一个个 css 文件。
原先 css 是这样内联在 js 文件里的：
将 css 独立拆包最大的好处就是 js 和 css 的改动，不会影响对方。比如我改了 js 文件并不会导致 css 文件的缓存失效。而且现在它自动会配合`optimization.splitChunks`的配置，可以自定义拆分 css 文件，比如我单独配置了`element-ui`作为单独一个`bundle`,它会自动也将它的样式单独打包成一个 css 文件，不会像以前默认将第三方的 css 全部打包成一个几十甚至上百 KB 的`app.xxx.css`文件了。
### 压缩与优化
打包 css 之后查看源码，我们发现它并没有帮我们做代码压缩，这时候需要使用 [optimize-css-assets-webpack-plugin](https://github.com/NMFR/optimize-css-assets-webpack-plugin) 这个插件，它不仅能帮你压缩 css 还能优化你的代码。
```js
//配置
optimization: {
minimizer: [new OptimizeCSSAssetsPlugin()]
}
```
如上图测试用例所示，由于`optimize-css-assets-webpack-plugin`这个插件默认使用了 [cssnano](https://github.com/cssnano/cssnano) 来作 css 优化，
所以它不仅压缩了代码、删掉了代码中无用的注释、还去除了冗余的 css、优化了 css 的书写顺序，优化了你的代码 `margin: 10px 20px 10px 20px;` =>`margin:10px 20px;`。同时大大减小了你 css 的文件大小。更多优化的细节见[文档](https://cssnano.co/guides/optimisations)。
### contenthash
但使用 `MiniCssExtractPlugin` 有一个需求特别注意的地方，在默认文档中它是这样配置的：
```js
new MiniCssExtractPlugin({
// Options similar to the same options in webpackOptions.output
// both options are optional
filename: devMode ? '[name].css' : '[name].[hash].css',
chunkFilename: devMode ? '[id].css' : '[id].[hash].css'
})
```
> 简单说明一下： `filename` 是指在你入口文件`entry`中引入生成出来的文件名，而`chunkname`是指那些未被在入口文件`entry`引入，但又通过按需加载（异步）模块的时候引入的文件。
在 **copy** 如上代码使用之后发现情况不对！每次改动一个`xx.js`文件，它对应的 css 虽然没做任何改动，但它的 文件 hash 还是会发生变化。仔细对比发现原来是 `hash` 惹的祸。 `6.f3bfa3af.css` => `6.40bc56f6.css`
但我这是根据官方文档来写的！为什么还有问题！后来在文档的**最最最**下面发下了这么一段话！
> For long term caching use filename: `[contenthash].css`. Optionally add [name].
非常的不理解，这么关键的一句话会放在 `Maintainers` 还后面的地方，默认写在配置里面提示大家不是更好？有热心群众已经开了一个`pr`，将文档默认配置为 `contenthash`。`chunkhash` => `contenthash`相关 [issue](https://github.com/webpack/webpack.js.org/issues/2096)。
这个真的蛮过分的，稍不注意就会让自己的 css 文件缓存无效。而且很多用户平时修改代码的时候都不会在意自己最终打包出来的 `dist`文件夹中到底有哪些变化。所以这个问题可能就一直存在了。浪费了多少资源！人艰不拆！大家觉得 webpack 难用不是没道理的。
**补充一点**：目前`MiniCssExtractPlugin`也不是非常完美的，它现在默认会将每个 bundle 的 css 独立于 js 文件， 单独拆成一个 css 文件。但这样会产生一个新的问题。比如我有一个页面它只有一行 css，但也会被拆成了一个独立的 css 文件，还需要额外的一次 http 请求，非常的不合理。所以我就给官方提了一个 [issue](https://github.com/webpack-contrib/mini-css-extract-plugin/issues/234)，呼吁增加一个`minSize`，当 css 的内容小于这个`size`的时候还是内联到 js 文件中，期待官方增加这个功能。
### 这里再简单说明一下几种 hash 的区别：
- **hash**
`hash` 和每次 `build`有关，没有任何改变的情况下，每次编译出来的 `hash`都是一样的，但当你改变了任何一点东西，它的`hash`就会发生改变。
简单理解，你改了任何东西，`hash` 就会和上次不一样了。
- **chunkhash**
`chunkhash`是根据具体每一个模块文件自己的的内容包括它的依赖计算所得的`hash`，所以某个文件的改动只会影响它本身的`hash`，不会影响其它文件。
- **contenthash**
它的出现主要是为了解决，让`css`文件不受`js`文件的影响。比如`foo.css`被`foo.js`引用了，所以它们共用相同的`chunkhash`值。但这样子是有问题的，如果`foo.js`修改了代码，`css`文件就算内容没有任何改变，由于是该模块的 `hash` 发生了改变，其`css`文件的`hash`也会随之改变。
这个时候我们就可以使用`contenthash`了，保证即使`css`文件所处的模块里有任何内容的改变，只要 css 文件内容不变，那么它的`hash`就不会发生变化。
`contenthash` 你可以简单理解为是 `moduleId` + `content` 所生成的 `hash`。
## 热更新速度
其实相对 webpack 线上打包速度，我更关心的本地开发热更新速度，毕竟这才是和我们每一个程序员每天真正打交道的东西，打包一般都会扔给`CI`自动执行，而且一般项目每天也不会打包很多次。
`webpack 4`一直说自己更好的利用了`cache`提高了编译速度，但实测发现是有一定的提升，但当你一个项目，路由懒加载的页面多了之后，50+之后，热更新慢的问题会很明显，之前的[文章](https://juejin.im/post/595b4d776fb9a06bbe7dba56#heading-1)中也提到过这个问题，原以为新版本会解决这个问题，但并没有。
不过你首先要排斥你的热更新慢不是，如：
- 没有使用合理的 [Devtool](https://webpack.js.org/configuration/devtool/#devtool) souce map 导致
- 没有正确使用 [exclude/include](https://webpack.js.org/configuration/module/#rule-include) 处理了不需要处理的如`node_modules`
- 在开发环境不要压缩代码`UglifyJs`、提取 css、babel polyfill、计算文件 hash 等不需要的操作
**旧方案**
最早的方案是开发环境中不是用路由懒加载了，只在线上环境中使用。封装一个`_import`函数，通过环境变区分是否需要懒加载。
开发环境：
```js
module.exports = file => require('@/views/' + file + '.vue').default
```
生成环境：
```js
module.exports = file => () => import('@/views/' + file + '.vue')
```
但由于 webpack `import`实现机制问题，会产生一定的副作用。如上面的写法就会导致`@/views/`下的 所有`.vue` 文件都会被打包。不管你是否被依赖引用了，会多打包一些可能永远都用不到 js 代码。 [相关 issue](https://github.com/PanJiaChen/vue-element-admin/issues/292)
目前新的解决方案思路还是一样的，只在生成模式中使用路由懒加载，本地开发不使用懒加载。但换了一种没副作用的实现方式。
**新方案**
使用`babel` 的 `plugins` [babel-plugin-dynamic-import-node](https://github.com/airbnb/babel-plugin-dynamic-import-node)。它只做一件事就是：将所有的`import()`转化为`require()`，这样就可以用这个插件将所有异步组件都用同步的方式引入了，并结合 [BABEL_ENV](https://babeljs.io/docs/usage/babelrc/#env-option) 这个`bebel`环境变量，让它只作用于开发环境下。将开发环境中所有`import()`转化为`require()`，这种方案解决了之前重复打包的问题，同时对代码的侵入性也很小，你平时写路由的时候只需要按照官方[文档](https://router.vuejs.org/zh/guide/advanced/lazy-loading.html)路由懒加载的方式就可以了，其它的都交给`babel`来处理，当你不想用这个方案的时候，也只需要将它从`babel` 的 `plugins`中移除就可以了。
**具体代码：**
首先在`package.json`中增加`BABEL_ENV`
```json
"dev": "BABEL_ENV=development webpack-dev-server XXXX"
```
接着在`.babelrc`只能加入`babel-plugin-dynamic-import-node`这个`plugins`，并让它只有在`development`模式中才生效。
```json
{
"env": {
"development": {
"plugins": ["dynamic-import-node"]
}
}
}
```
之后就大功告成了，路由只要像平时一样写就可以了。[文档](https://panjiachen.github.io/vue-element-admin-site/zh/guide/advanced/lazy-loading.html#%E6%96%B0%E6%96%B9%E6%A1%88)
```js
{ path: '/login', component: () => import('@/views/login/index')}
```
这样能大大提升你热更新的速度。基本两百加页面也能在`2000ms`的热跟新完成，基本做到无感刷新。当然你的项目本身就不大页面也不多，完全没必要搞这些。**当你的页面变化跟不是你写代码速度的时候再考虑也不迟。**
## 打包速度
`webpack 4` 在项目中实际测了下，普遍能提高 20%~30%的打包速度。
本文不准备太深入的讲解这部分内容，详细的打包优化速度可以参考[ slack 团队的这篇文章](https://slack.engineering/keep-webpack-fast-a-field-guide-for-better-build-performance-f56a5995e8f1)，掘金还有[译文](https://github.com/xitu/gold-miner/blob/master/TODO/keep-webpack-fast-a-field-guide-for-better-build-performance.md).
这里有几个建议来帮你加速 webpack 的打包速度。
首先你需要知道你目前打包慢，是慢在哪里。
我们可以用 [speed-measure-webpack-plugin](https://github.com/stephencookdev/speed-measure-webpack-plugin#readme) 这个插件，它能监控 webpack 每一步操作的耗时。如下图：
可以看出其实大部分打包花费的时间是在`Uglifyjs`压缩代码。和前面的提升热更新的切入点差不多，查看`source map`的正确与否，`exclude/include`的正确使用等等。
使用新版的`UglifyJsPlugin`的时候记住可以加上`cache: true`、`parall: true`，可以提搞代码打包压缩速度。更多配置可以参考 [文档](https://github.com/webpack-contrib/uglifyjs-webpack-plugin) 或者 vue-cli 的 [配置](https://github.com/vuejs/vue-cli/blob/dev/packages/@vue/cli-service/lib/config/uglifyOptions.js)。
编译的时候还有还有一个很慢的原因是那些第三方库。比如`echarts`、`element-ui`其实都非常的大，比如`echarts`打包完也还有 775kb。所以你想大大提高编译速度，可以将这些第三方库 `externals` 出去，使用`script`的方式引入，或者使用 `dll`的方式打包。经测试一般如`echarts`这样大的包可以节省十几秒到几十秒不等。
还有可以使用一些并行执行 webpack 的库：如[parallel-webpack](https://github.com/trivago/parallel-webpack)、[happypack](https://github.com/amireh/happypack)。
**顺便说一下，升级一下`node`可能有惊喜。前不久将`CI`里面的 node 版本依赖从 `6.9.2` => `8.11.3`，打包速度直接提升了一分多钟。**
总之我觉得打包时间控制在差不多的范围内就可以了，没必要过分的优化。可能你研究了半天，改了一堆参数发现其实也就提升了几秒，但维护成本上去了，得不偿失。还不如升级 node、升级 webpack、升级你的编译环境的硬件水平来的实在和简单。
比如我司`CI`使用的是腾讯云普通的的 8 核 16g 的机器，这个项目也是一个很大的后台管理项目 200+页面，引用了很多第三方的库，但没有使用什么`happypack`、`dll`，只是用了最新版的`webpack4`，`node@8.11.3`。
编译速度稳定在两分多钟，完全不觉得有什么要优化的必要。
## Tree-Shaking
这其实并不是 webpack 4 才提出来的概念，最早是 [rollup](https://github.com/rollup/rollup) 提出来并实现的，后来在 webpack 2 中就实现了，本次在 webpack 4 只是增加了 `JSON Tree Shaking`和`sideEffects`能让你能更好的**摇**。
不过这里还是要提一下，默认 webpack 是支持`Tree-Shaking`的，但在你的项目中可能会因为`babel`的原因导致它失效。
因为`Tree Shaking`这个功能是基于`ES6 modules` 的静态特性检测，来找出未使用的代码，所以如果你使用了 babel 插件的时候，如：[babel-preset-env](https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-preset-env/)，它默认会将模块打包成`commonjs`，这样就会让`Tree Shaking`失效了。
其实在 webpack 2 之后它自己就支持模块化处理。所以只要让 babel 不`transform modules`就可以了。配置如下：
```js
// .babelrc
{
"presets": [
["env", {
modules: false,
...
}]
]
}
```
顺便说一下都 8102 年了，请不要在使用`babel-preset-esxxxx`系列了，请用`babel-preset-env`，相关文章 [再见，babel-preset-2015](https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/29506685)。
## 下部分内容
- [手摸手，带你用合理的姿势使用 webpack4 （下）](https://juejin.im/post/5b5d6d6f6fb9a04fea58aabc)
## 拓展阅读
- [Webpack 4 和单页应用入门](https://github.com/wallstreetcn/webpack-and-spa-guide)
- [Webpack 中的 sideEffects 到底该怎么用？](https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/40052192)
- [你的 Tree-Shaking 并没什么卵用](https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/32831172)
- [对 webpack 文档的吐槽](https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/32148338)
- [Tree-Shaking 性能优化实践 - 原理篇](https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/32554436)
- [再见，babel-preset-2015](https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/29506685)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Q:
SBS 2003 - Rename Domain Netbios Name Without Renaming Active Directory Domain Name
I have client running a Small Business Server 2003 R2 network with a strangely named domain. The fully qualified domain name is a straightforward contoso.local. The domain netbios name (shown as pre-Windows 2000 domain name), however, is contoso2. While not good esthetically, the domain name mismatch has not presented any real problems until recently.
After migrating to Windows 7, when users try to remote into their PC’s, the default domain name at the login prompt is contoso (eg “contoso\username”). This is incorrect (it should be “contoso2\...” or “contoso.local\...”) and is causing all kinds of grief for the users. So now I am looking at finally fixing this domain name mismatch.
Through my Google research I’ve found the following resources:
http://www.techieshelp.com/how-to-rename-a-server-2008-domain/
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1347.renaming-a-windows-server-2008-active-directory-domain-dsforum2wiki.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794869.aspx
I’m not much of an Active Directory expert. These articles only discuss renaming a Server 2008 domain so I’m not sure what applies to 2003 R2 or not. Seeing also that I’m renaming the Win2000 domain name but not the FQDN, I’m wondering if there some steps that are changed or I don’t need to do.
Thanks!
A:
Sounds as if you want to change the NetBIOS name, but not the DNS name. Windows 2000 domains do not support renames. Domain must have forest functional level of 2003 or higher. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738208%28v=ws.10%29.aspx. You also cannot rename a domains that uses Exchange (see article). Sounds as if when you do the rename you could change the NetBIOS name and leave the DNS name the same. Build a different test domain with a few VM's and test it out if you can. The rendom tool and more checklists at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb405948.aspx
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Q:
Save data to two different resources
I'm trying to save a user's full record, but I depend on two separate tables. Profile data is saved in one resource, and the address in another. How can I write the code so that it saves the profile first, and from the generated id, save the address? It's possible?
Profile form
Address form
Here is my Create User code:
export const BarberCreate = (props) => {
return (
<Create {...props}>
<TabbedForm toolbar={<BarberCreateToolbar />}>
<FormTab label="Perfil">
<TextInput source="name" />
<TextInput source="email" />
<DateInput source="birthday" />
<TextInput source="phone" placeholder="(99) 99999-9999" />
<TextInput source="transport" />
</FormTab>
<FormTab label="Endereço">
<TextInput source="street" label="Rua" />
<TextInput source="city" label="Cidade" />
<TextInput source="district" label="Bairro" />
</FormTab>
</TabbedForm>
</Create>
);
};```
A:
The best would be do that on the backend, possibly with transaction support, but if you can't, one way to go on react-admin side is decorating the dataProvider.
v3
const userSaverDataProvider = dataProvider => ({
...dataProvider,
create: async (resource, params) => {
if (resource === 'users') {
const profile = await dataProvider.create('profile', {data: {
name: params.data.name,
....
}})
await dataProvider.create('address', {data: {
profileID: profile.data.id,
street: params.data.street,
...
}})
return profile
}
return dataProvider.create(resource, params)
}
})
Maybe necessary decorate createMany too if you do bulk creating of users on react-admin. Also, checkout https://github.com/FusionWorks/react-admin-google-maps, it migtht be useful
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Q:
Knockout JS - databind to a literal?
Currently I have the following element
<h6 class="header">
Chance of Precipitation: <span data-bind="text: PrecipitationLabel"></span>
</h6>
This works fine, but I don't really need a span tag in my case --the observable only loads for display, so I don't need to update an element. I know I could bind with a computed/dependent variable that combines the "Chance..." text with PrecipitationLabel, but that takes some of the static markup out of the view, which is not ideal.
Is there something similar to Razor's tags to output just a literal?
A:
The functionality you are looking for was added to github 11 days ago. The syntax would be:
<h6 class="header">
Chance of Precipitation: <!-- ko text: PrecipitationLabel --><!-- /ko -->
</h6>
It is not yet included in any published download.
A:
Or you may use this,
<h6 class="header" data-bind="text: 'Chance of Precipitation: ' + PrecipitationLabel()" />
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Q:
Two dimensional strings in C++
I want to write something like 2d strings in C++.
I tried with :
vector< vector<string> > table;
int m,n,i,j;
string s;
cin>>n>>m;
for(i=0;i<n;i++) {
for(j=0;j<m;j++) {
cin>>s;
table[i][j] = s;
}
}
cout << "\n\n\n\n";
for(i=0;i<n;i++) {
for(j=0;j<m;j++) {
cout<<table[i][j]<<" ";
}
cout<<"\n";
}
no compile errors, but when i enter input like:
10 20
.....#..............
.....#..............
.....#..............
.....#..............
######..............
.......###..........
.......#.#..........
.......###...#######
.............#.....#
.............#######
It gives me segmentation fault. Why ? What's wrong ? And how it should be done so it would work correctly ? Thank you.
A:
The question seems to imply that the data structure needed is a set of n lines with m characters each. There are two ways to think of this -- as an nxm char matrix, or as n m-character vectors (and a string is similar but not identical to vector<char>).
So it seems you don't want a vector of vectors of strings, you want either a vector of vectors of chars, or just a vector of strings.
In any event, you have to allocate the appropriate amount of space before using table[i][j] or (slightly more idiomatic c++, but not necessary in this case since m and n are known beforehand) use something like push_back to add to the end.
Note also that the cin>>s reads an entire line from stdin (which makes the vector<string> solution a bit easier to deal with, I think).
A:
When inserting something new into a vector, you can't just allocate by index - you need to use the push_back method or something similar.
for(i=0;i<n;i++) {
vector<string> row;
for(j=0;j<m;j++) {
cin>>s;
row.push_back(s);
}
table.push_back(row);
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Introduction {#s1}
============
Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world. At least 2 million people have primary open-angle glaucoma in the United States, and the number is rising.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b01]^ Glaucoma is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, and patients need to be monitored so that clinicians can detect evidence of progression in a timely manner. By examining the optic nerve, clinicians can look for signs of progression or signs that may be associated with progression of the optic nerve, such as neuroretinal rim defects, optic disc hemorrhage, peripapillary atrophy, and retinal nerve fiber layer abnormalities, all of which are important for the identification of glaucomatous progression.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b02]^
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been an important aid in monitoring glaucoma progression. To date, the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) measurement concentric to the optic nerve has been the most commonly used parameter to achieve this goal.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b03][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b04][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b05][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b06]--[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b07]^ Nevertheless, detection of glaucoma progression remains one of the most challenging tasks in the management of glaucoma.
Review of stereoscopic disc photographs is one of the fundamental forms of image analysis that allows structural changes to be identified by clinicians.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b08]^ Determination of structural progression with serial optic disc photographs suffers from poor interobserver agreement. Several studies such as the one conducted by Jampel and associates^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b09]^ have shown this poor interobserver reliability (*j* = 0.20) when glaucoma specialists compared optic disc photographs for signs of structural progression.
This study was designed to compare the accuracy of optic disc photograph subtraction as an aid to detect glaucoma progression to that of the traditional method of examining serial stereoscopic disc photographs by glaucoma specialists. We propose an optic disc image subtraction method as part of a software tool that provides clinicians with supplemental information regarding signs of glaucoma deterioration as part of the electronic medical record and in real time, and we evaluate its performance with regard to detection of glaucoma progression.
Methods {#s2}
=======
Participants {#s2a}
------------
Ninety-two glaucomatous eyes of 65 patients were selected from the Glaucoma Division\'s database at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Diagnosis of glaucoma was based on presence of thinning or notching of the neuroretinal rim, RNFL defects or significant asymmetry in the neuroretinal rim between the two eyes, and visual field loss that was entirely consistent with the optic nerve damage, as measured with standard automated perimetry. Eyes with a minimum of 1-year follow-up were included. Exclusion criteria were (1) concomitant ocular disease other than glaucoma; (2) any media opacity that would interfere with imaging and lead to poor-quality optic disc photographs; (3) poor illumination of the photographs; and (4) improper stereoscopy (large vertical shift on the screen between the stereoscopic pairs. The quality of the images was assessed on the basis of good-quality stereoscopy, contrast, clarity, illumination, and absence of excessive vertical shift between the stereoscopic pair. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of UCLA and was performed in adherence with the Declaration of Helsinki.
Disc Photograph Review {#s2b}
----------------------
Stereoscopic disc photographs taken at baseline and last follow-up were reviewed by three expert glaucoma specialists (JC, KNM, and RA) 2 years prior to initiation of the study and were identified as either progressive or stable. The experts were masked to clinical information and each other\'s decisions. Progression of glaucoma was defined as a loss of neuroretinal rim that could be accompanied by an increase in peripapillary atrophy, by worsening of visible RNFL defects, or by optic disc hemorrhages.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b10]^ A decision was made if at least two observers agreed on the progression (or stability) of the eyes. Thirty-three eyes were identified as having progressive optic nerve damage. Fifty-nine eyes were identified as stable based on review of stereoscopic disc photographs.
Imaging Methods {#s2c}
---------------
All photographs were obtained by the same fundus camera (Model 60306; Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, West Germany) at the flash 3 setting (240 watts). One baseline and follow-up image each from each eye were aligned with software (i2k Align Retina; DualAlign, LLC, Clifton Park, NY) based on the dual-bootstrap algorithm. Only the right image of each stereo pair was used. In a preprocessing step, the original stereo fundus photographs (4400 × 3600 pixels) were rescaled to 1100 × 900 pixels for computational efficiency. Images were stored in an uncompressed, lossless TIFF format. These images were then converted to gray scale and underwent histogram matching to enhance contrast and remove the influence of changes in global illumination from baseline to follow-up visit ([Fig. 1](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f01){ref-type="fig"}).
{#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f01}
The intensity of the baseline image was subtracted from the follow-up image, and the difference was shown as a colormap superimposed on the grayscale follow-up image. Thresholding of the difference image was performed by the triangle method.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b11][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b12]--[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b13]^ In the subtraction colormaps, red pixels within the optic disc area indicate a decrease in intensity from the baseline to the follow-up image, and green pixels indicate an increase ([Fig. 2](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f02){ref-type="fig"}). All green (or red) pixels have the same color intensity. In case of progressive neural rim thinning, red regions, indicating an increase in brightness, were superimposed on the thinning part of the rim (both examples in [Fig. 2](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f02){ref-type="fig"}). If the optic disc was stable, no large areas of red or green pixels were created in the colormap ([Fig. 3](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f03){ref-type="fig"}). All the image-processing procedures were streamlined and performed in MATLAB (R2015b; The Mathworks, Natick, MA). A software tool with a user-friendly interface was developed that allows clinicians to choose optic disc photographs with multiple image file formats.
{#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f02}
{#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f03}
Grading Method {#s2d}
--------------
These subtraction colormap images were reviewed and graded by three masked glaucoma experts (RA, NP, and JC) solely based on these images. The grading was performed in two different scales: (1) a progression scale ranging from 1 (no progression) to 5 (significant progression) and (2) a binary scale where 1 represents glaucoma progression and 0 represents stability.
Statistical Analysis {#s2e}
--------------------
The decision of the expert panel after review of follow-up and baseline stereoscopic disc photographs was considered the gold standard for the calculation of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the gradings based on the colormaps. Sensitivity was calculated as the proportion of progressive eyes that were correctly identified as such. Specificity measured the proportion of stable eyes that were correctly identified as stable. Accuracy was the ratio of truly progressive and truly stable eyes to the total number of eyes.
κ Statistics (weighted κ) were used to estimate agreement of ordered categorical grading between observers. Agreement (κ) can be calculated by dividing the degree of agreement actually achieved beyond chance by the degree of agreement that is attainable beyond chance.
Results {#s3}
=======
Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study sample are shown in [Table 1](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-t01){ref-type="table"}. The median time interval between baseline and follow-up visits was 4.4 years (range: 1.0--16.8, interquartile range \[IQR\]: 3.2--5.9).
######
Demographic Data and Baseline/Follow-up Characteristics of the Study Cohort
In this cohort, 31 (out of 33) progressive eyes had progressive rim loss, and only two eyes experienced RNFL thinning as the only sign of progression. In the areas of RFNL loss, the light is absorbed by the RPE; thus, the affected areas appear darker. As such, they are superimposed with green pixels in the subtraction colormap (green areas in the in the peripapillary area in [Fig. 2C](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f02){ref-type="fig"}).
Three eyes had optic disc hemorrhages at baseline, which disappeared at the subsequent visit and were followed by progressive rim loss in the same location. The software was able to highlight the disappearance of all three disc hemorrhages indicated by red pixels in the corresponding area of the optic disc as shown in [Figure 4](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f04){ref-type="fig"}.
{#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f04}
With the aid of subtraction maps, clinicians detected glaucoma progression in 25 to 27 (out of 33) of the progressive eyes and 8 to 10 (out of 59) of stable eyes. [Table 2](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-t02){ref-type="table"} summarizes sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy results. Classification accuracy for the examination performed by the three clinicians was 81.5%, 81.5%, and 84.8%. Sensitivities of the examination performed by the three clinicians were 0.76, 0.79, and 0.82, and the specificities were 0.85, 0.83, and 0.86, respectively. Weighted κ scores revealed good agreement between clinicians (weighted κ = 0.68; 95% confidence interval \[CI\]: 0.60--0.77) for progression grades (1--5 scales). Agreement among clinicians was substantial (weighted κ = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.74--0.85) for binary scores.
######
Analysis of Sensitivity, Specificity, and Accuracy of Individual Reviewers Using the Subtraction Colormaps Produced by the Software to Detect Glaucomatous Structural Changes
In order to validate the image subtraction algorithm and check for possible false-positive results, 10 pairs of disc photographs taken on the same day, as well as 10 pairs of identical disc photos, were fed to the software; as expected, no false-positive results were observed, and the resulting subtraction maps were all clear ([Fig. 5](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f05){ref-type="fig"}).
{#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f05}
On review of clinically progressing eyes where the colormaps failed to identify progression, we found that longitudinal optic disc changes tended to be more subtle; hence, a false-negative result was produced ([Fig. 6](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f06){ref-type="fig"}). Also, in the case of uneven illumination in disc photographs, the histogram-matching technique failed in removing the effect of inhomogeneous illumination. Accordingly, distortions in the form of large areas of red and green pixels were produced in the periphery of subtraction colormaps for three progressive eyes as well as four stable eyes ([Fig. 7](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f07){ref-type="fig"}). As a result of such distortions, clinicians might mistake stable eyes for progressive eyes. [Figure 8](#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f08){ref-type="fig"} shows how the software could highlight fundus camera artifacts in the form of circle-shaped darker areas in the central (red pixels) and temporal (green pixels) regions of the optic disc.
{#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f06}
{#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f07}
{#i2164-2591-6-5-14-f08}
Discussion {#s4}
==========
Detection of glaucoma progression involves monitoring changes in both functional (visual field) and structural (optic disc or RNFL) domains. Stereoscopic disc photographs have been used widely by ophthalmologists to document the optic disc appearance and detect changes over time. This approach has been demonstrated to be superior to subjective documentation and drawings of the disc.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b14]^ This method has been used in numerous glaucoma studies such as the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study,^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b15]^ Early Manifest Glaucoma Trial,^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b16]^ and The Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b17]^
Evidence suggests that structural damage can often be detected before development of detectable visual field defects.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b18][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b19][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b20][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b21][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b22][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b23][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b24]--[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b25]^ Some signs of structural progression are not easily detectable. With the proliferation of electronic medical record systems, incorporation of optic disc image subtraction tools, and in general, change detection software, may help clinicians detect glaucoma deterioration. The idea of utilizing image subtraction to detect optic nerve changes and glaucomatous damage progression is not novel.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b26][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b27][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b28][@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b29]--[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b30]^ Reus and associates^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b20]^ found that the accuracy of diagnosing glaucoma by reviewing stereoscopic optic disc photographs to be at best 81%. New computer software such as matched flicker software programs^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b31],[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b32]^ or optic disc photograph subtraction proposed in this study could assist clinicians in highlighting possible changes of the optic nerve head.
With the subtraction colormaps, clinicians had an acceptable accuracy in finding glaucoma progression, which was consistent among three glaucoma experts, as measured by the weighted κ statistic. This interobserver agreement was good for progression grades, and it understandably improved when binary scores were used. Furthermore, fundus camera artifacts were highlighted by the software.
In this study, for the sake of analysis, clinicians used only the subtraction colormaps to find progression. However, the identification of glaucomatous optic nerve change is only a part of the bigger clinical picture for each patient and should be used along with all the other modalities. To reach this goal, as stated in previous studies,^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b32]^ we believe that ancillary tests in glaucoma should have higher specificity (the percentage of negative designations that are truly negative) rather than higher sensitivity (the proportion of positive diagnoses that are truly positive) because of the low incidence of progression in eyes under treatment. In our study, the overall specificity was 85%. Distortions in the subtraction colormaps as a result of inhomogeneous illumination caused false-positive results. For instance, clinicians may perceive such distortions as RNFL thinning. Fundus camera artifacts are potentially another source of false positives. If these artifacts are located within the clinical disc margin, they could be mistaken for neural rim loss, although the pattern can usually be recognized as spurious.
Parallax often appeared on subtraction maps, suggesting that the proposed optic disc image subtraction method has the potential to automatically detect parallax. A separate study is worthwhile to evaluate the accuracy of parallax detection. Newer fundus cameras ensure that fixed-angle photographs of the optic disc can be taken. In the absence of fixed-angle optic disc photographs, parallax will cause apparent shifts in vessel position that may be perceived as glaucoma-related change. Radcliffe et al.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b31]^ have shown that retinal blood vessels shift locations in eyes with progressive neuroretinal rim loss due to glaucoma. In general, only global blood vessel positional shifts may result from parallax, which is a global image transform and cannot distort a small region of a blood vessel. Less experienced clinicians should use caution when distinguishing focal blood vessel shift from global shifts or expansion/contraction of arteries (without displacement).
Our study demonstrated that the subtraction colormaps produced by the optic disc image subtraction software offered fair sensitivity for detecting glaucomatous progression and could also rule out its presence with a good specificity. Observation of subtraction colormaps yielded good to substantial interobserver agreement and provided additional information to the clinician, in a real time, for detecting glaucoma progression. Compared to viewing of stereoscopic optic disc photographs and matched flicker software, the advantages of the proposed image subtraction tool are the ease of use, independence from stereoscopic photographs, and its potential use in real time; the printout is static and can be placed either on physical charts or electronic medical records. It should be noted that the optic disc image subtraction tool is meant to complement existing methods for detection of progression, not to replace them.
This study had a number of limitations. First, image quality is a concern for every imaging modality and study. We used only images with acceptable quality in this study, although in clinical settings, suboptimal optic disc photos (decentered, motion artifact, low illumination) are not infrequent. The diagnostic value of subtraction colormaps significantly depends on the quality of the baseline and follow-up optic disc photographs. Several qualitative aspects are important as far as stereoscopic disc photographs are involved, such as image resolution (governed by camera resolution and field of view), uniformity of retinal illumination (determined by the acquisition condition and the spherical geometry of the eye), and the contrast of objects (blood vessels, optic disc, nerve fibers, hemorrhages, etc.) on the retina. Enhancement of the last item through histogram matching was considered in this study. As expected, the histogram-matching method was not able to compensate for uneven illumination on baseline or follow-up images. This was apparent in seven eyes in our cohort. Uneven illumination due to nonideal acquisition conditions can introduce distortions into optic disc images. These distortions are commonly perceived as smooth intensity variations across the optic disc photographs^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b33],[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b34]^ and must be eliminated in the future version of the proposed software. Presence of cataract or other media opacities could also compromise the results. In future work, we plan to enhance the histogram-matching method by subdividing the image into smaller segments and performing histogram-matching in an adaptive manner. These modifications will enable the software to tolerate uneven illumination and moderate levels of media opacity.
Second, we used an external software tool to align the baseline and follow-up images. Incorporation of the image alignment step into the proposed software will produce a more clinically useful tool for use in routine care of patients.
Third, confirmation of progression in glaucomatous eyes can be challenging. Therefore, there may be no consensus among clinicians regarding progression in some glaucomatous eyes; in this study, we used the decision of an expert panel on progression (or stability) of each eye. Such decisions were considered the gold standard in evaluation of the performance of the proposed software. There is a possibility that subtle signs of glaucoma progression might have been missed.
The majority of progressing eyes in our study were identified based on changes in the neuroretinal rim. Since the number of eyes with disc hemorrhages or RNFL thinning was relatively low, a statistically meaningful subgroup analysis was not possible. We are planning to include more patients with disc hemorrhages or RNFL thinning in order to make this subgroup analysis statistically meaningful.
Last, although our approach has the potential to improve the interobserver agreement on structural progression, evaluation of serial optic disc photographs that are augmented with subtraction colormaps was still qualitative rather than quantitative, and expert opinions may vary. In the context of glaucoma progression detection with confocal scanning laser tomography, and in particular the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph (HRT; Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany), Chauhan and coinvestigators^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b35]^ have quantified and evaluated the size and depth of clusters of pixels that have undergone significant change from the baseline. They indicated that HRT\'s topographic change analysis algorithm performs at least as well as observer classifications of disc photographs. Progressive RNFL thinning measured with OCT can be used to detect progressive disease. Leung and colleagues used the RNFL thickness map provided by event-based change analysis software, called the Guided Progression Analysis (GPA), for detecting and identifying patterns of RNFL progression.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b03]^ The GPA software compares the RNFL thickness patterns of follow-up scans to a baseline scan and indicates thinning as possible loss (yellow) or likely loss (red).
Even though we evaluated the performance of the proposed image subtraction technique by clinicians solely looking at the subtraction colormaps, in practice this technique must be used along with other routine structural (e.g., side-by-side viewing of stereoscopic optic disc photographs, circumpapillary RNFL thickness, and optic nerve head parameters) as well as functional tests. The correlation between the extent of change shown on subtraction colormaps and other structural/functional changes needs to be thoroughly explored.
The proposed software tool and the underlying image subtraction method produce a single static image (subtraction colormap) that can highlight areas of possible concern. The performance of the proposed image subtraction method will need to be compared to other means of detecting structural glaucomatous changes, such as alternation flicker, in future studies.^[@i2164-2591-6-5-14-b36]^
Supplementary Material
======================
######
Click here for additional data file.
Supported by an unrestricted departmental grant from Research to Prevent Blindness.
Presented as a poster at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), Baltimore, Maryland, United States, May 7--11, 2017.
Disclosure: **N. Amini**, None; **R. Alizadeh**, None; **N. Parivisutt**, None; **E. Kim**, None; **K. Nouri-Mahdavi**, None; **J. Caprioli**, None
|
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|
Ask HN: How Many Applications Received from Who's Hiring Posts? - burger_moon
I'm a job seeker, and I'm curious about how many job applicants you the employers are seeing from your posts on the monthly Who is Hiring threads.<p>The number of companies posting jobs has been increasing every month this year (I'm assuming as the site gets more popular) which would indicate there is also many more job seekers coming here every month applying.<p>I've been relying on just this site for finding jobs for a few months now and haven't had a breakthrough yet, so I'm curious if I'm just a low quality applicant or is the competition really that fierce.<p>Post from throwaways or don't include your company's name if you don't feel comfortable. I'm just interested in seeing some numbers.<p>Thanks.
======
loumf
We probably need a little more information to help. In my experience, I got
enough very close matches from past companies (1 or 2) that I didn't need to
look at other promising candidates. The number of applicants is irrelevant --
what matters is the number of good applicants that are a match for what I am
looking for and I only need 1.
There is generally a shortage of engineers, but you still need to find a good
match for what you can offer.
1\. Are you applying to jobs where your skills/level/location match what was
being advertised?
2\. Is that clear from your application? Did you write a custom cover letter
that specifically draws attention to the match?
3\. Generally what level are you? What is your strongest tech stack/language?
Location?
I recommend trying out other places. I got my current job on
careers.stackoverflow.com -- if you need an invite, email me at loumfranco on
gmail. There is also hired.com.
------
rskinner
We have Greenhouse as an ATS and use custom links for sources. Here is what
I've measured since beginning to use this channel. Overall, it competes evenly
with AngelList on volume and funnel performance.
59 applications since 12/14
15.3% interview rate
1.7 % hire rate
------
IpV8
I've posted a couple adds and usually get 0-5 hits. I think that it has to do
with what time you post, how exciting the post sounds, and what technologies
are being used.
------
smeyer
>I've been relying on just this site for finding jobs for a few months now
Any particular reason you're not using anything other than this site?
------
cowpig
It's hard to say, because not everyone lists that they came via HN in their
applications, but probably ~100.
------
giaour
I've always gotten between 0 and 2.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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|
Construction barriers for personnel and equipment have historically been made of building materials available at a construction site, such as sheets of plywood and two-by-fours, hard-mounted to the floor of construction sites by way of nails or bolts. This type of barrier is constructed primarily for safety, as they are typically employed near the edge of a working area on the second floor (or higher) of a construction site for purposes of preventing personnel and equipment from falling off the edge of a work area to the floor or ground below. The barriers provide a measure of safety as people work near the edge of the construction site.
Traditionally, these safety barriers have been mounted to the floor of the second or third story of a home construction site, where a single story floor can be as high as 20 feet from the ground. Equipment falling from that height would certainly be damaged, but may also cause serious injury or death if it were to impact someone standing below. In an effort to reduce the likelihood of equipment damage and personnel injury, wooden barriers are typically erected to keep equipment, personnel, and debris from falling off a construction site. Typically mounted to the vertical members (studs) of a home construction site or other larger commercial buildings, these barriers usually employ a handrail three to four feet tall for personnel safety, in addition to a further barrier on or near the floor, preventing equipment and debris from sliding or rolling off the second (or higher) story of the construction site. Ordinarily, two-by-fours are used and simply nailed together in vertical and horizontal supports to create a fence, of sorts. Often plywood is nailed to the outside creating a more secure, yet resource-intensive wall. The amount of wood used is heavy, making even a small barrier cumbersome, time consuming, difficult to erect, even harder to remove, and uses an inordinate amount of building material to construct.
In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide a bracket and support system that utilizes fewer building resources, increases safety and productivity, while significantly reducing the time for setup and removal of these safety barriers.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
Diaper changing pads as well as diaper changing stations are widely used to change a child's diaper on the go. However, conventional diaper changing pads are rectangular in shape and are cumbersome for the parent. The conventional changing pads are disadvantageous, because the rectangular shape of the pad requires the child to be aligned on the pad properly to ensure complete coverage from the supporting surface. This may be quite difficult if the child does not lay still or likes to roll over while being changed.
What is needed is a diaper-changing article which is convenient for the parent to change the child's diaper.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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A critical analysis of new molecular targets and strategies for drug developments in Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease (AD), a progressive, degenerative disorder of the brain, is believed to be the most common cause of dementia amongst the elderly. AD is characterized by the presence of amyloid deposits and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain of afflicted individuals. AD is associated with a loss of the presynaptic markers of the cholinergic system in the brain areas related to memory and learning. AD appears to have a heterogeneous etiology with a large percentage termed sporadic AD arising from unknown causes and a smaller fraction of early onset familial AD (FAD) caused by mutations in one of several genes, such as the beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilins (PS1, PS2). These proteins along with tau, secretases, such as beta-amyloid cleaving enzyme (BACE), and apolipoprotein E play important roles in the pathology of AD. On therapeutic fronts, there is significant research underway in the development of new inhibitors for BACE, PS-1 and gamma-secretase as targets for treatment of AD. There is also a remarkable advancement in understanding the function of cholinesterase (ChE) in the brain and the use of ChE-inhibitors in AD. A new generation of acetyl- and butyryl cholinesterase inhibitors is being studied and tested in human clinical trials for AD. The development of vaccination strategies, anti-inflammatory agents, cholesterol-lowering agents, anti-oxidants and hormone therapy are examples of new approaches for treating or slowing the progression of AD. In addition, nutritional, genetic and environmental factors highlight more effective preventive strategies for AD. Developments of early diagnostic tools and of quantitative markers are critical to better follow the course of the disease and to evaluate different therapeutic strategies. In this review, we attempt to critically examine recent trends in AD research from molecular, genetic to clinical areas. We discuss various neurobiological mechanisms that provide the basis of new targets for AD drug development. All these current research efforts should lead to a deeper understanding of the pathobiochemical processes that occur in the AD brain in order to effectively diagnose and prevent their occurrence.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
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Public Employees Ex-President in Cincinnati Sentenced for $750K+ Embezzlement
Diana Frey wasn’t surprised at the sentence she received for embezzling from the public-sector union she had set up years before. Those thefts, after all, nearly put the union out of existence. On June 7, Frey, former president of Cincinnati Organized and Dedicated Employees (CODE), was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio to 51 months in prison and three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $758,056 in restitution plus a $100 assessment. Last September she pled guilty to one count of wire fraud. For more than six years Frey, an ex-employee with the Cincinnati Metropolitan Sewer District, obtained union funds through a variety of illegal means. Whether the union gets its money back depends on whether the federal government can seize properties she bought with the stolen funds.
Union Corruption Update provided extensive coverage of this story last year. CODE is an 800-member independent union consisting of Cincinnati-area public-sector middle managers, professionals, technicians and nurses. Diana Frey founded the union in the middle part of the last decade and ran it until last summer. Unfortunately, she also nearly ran it into the ground. Last July 20, federal prosecutors charged that Frey, now 52 and a Cincinnati resident, during 2005-11 transferred $757,009 in member dues (a figure since slightly upped to $758,056) for use by her and family members. She obtained the funds by writing unauthorized union checks, and making unauthorized union wire transfers, ATM withdrawals and credit card purchases. An anonymous tip to the U.S. Department of Labor led to a departmental investigation and an indictment by a grand jury. Frey initially pleaded not guilty at her arraignment on July 28, but the evidence of guilt became so compelling that she changed her plea to guilty on September 21.
Federal sentencing guidelines had recommended Frey serve between 33 and 41 months in prison. But U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott exercised her discretion to extend that period to 51 months, citing the defendant’s “blatant pattern” of deceit and theft. “In white-collar crime, a person can do with a pen what a drug dealer is doing with his gun,” said Dlott. “It’s not really any different.” Most of the stolen money went into Frey’s purchase, sale or improvements of six residential properties during 2007-09 on behalf of family members. Toward that end, the judge issued a preliminary forfeiture order under which the government could seize her interest in three homes plus several cars. Without such recourse, CODE might not cover mounting bills. Frey, for her part, is remorseful. At sentencing, she apologized to her family, CODE members and the city “for the shame and embarrassment I’ve caused all of them.” The union might be relieved at her display of contrition, but it still wants its money back.
|
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"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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Will End Of El Niño Mean A Stormier Season?
As anyone who lives near the Atlantic and Gulf coast knows too well, hurricane season has been in the breeze since June 1, and will last through November; the heart of the season is mid-August through mid-October. All the latest long-range hurricane forecasts so far have predicted higher than normal storm activity this season, which is being blamed on a waning El Niño perhaps transitioning to a weak La Niña condition during the peak of the season.
“This is an ‘El Niño rebound’ year, in which the previous winter’s El Niño has ended,” according to Stu Ostro, senior meteorologist with The Weather Channel. “Such hurricane seasons have historically been dangerous.
[smartads]
“Also, water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic have been running at record high levels, which is another factor conducive to this being an active year,” said Ostro. “What can’t be predicted as part of a seasonal forecast is the track of each tropical storm and hurricane, so folks in all coastal locations ought to be closely monitoring the latest developments in the tropics.”
El Niño is characterized by warmer than average ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific; La Niña is characterized by colder than average ocean temperatures there. The two conditions are a naturally occurring climate cycle that varies in timing and intensity — and both entail a significant transfer of energy via water temperature that can have major climate impacts. The change in water temperature brings a change in the jet stream — which guides weather systems worldwide.
Long-term research indicates El Niño conditions about a third of the time, La Niña conditions about a quarter of the time, and “neutral” (or transitions from one to the other) for the rest.
Ostro noted that the El Niño effect is more of an inhibitor of Atlantic hurricanes than La Niña is a driver. “Atlantic hurricane seasons tend to be active also when ‘neutral’ conditions – neither El Niño nor La Niña – are present. As an extreme example, the record 2005 season was a ‘neutral’ one,” said Ostro. “The seasonal outlooks that have been calling for a lot of storms have been based more on those record warm ocean temperatures and the end of El Niño, rather than on whether or not La Niña develops.”
For more information about and forecasts of the 2010 hurricane season, go to www.weather.com.
|
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|
“We have been attacked. We are at war.”
So begins a video released today by The Committee to Investigate Russia, an organization founded by When Harry Met Sally director Rob Reiner and neoconservative senior editor of The Atlantic David Frum. The video, which stars Morgan Freeman and is rife with patriotic images of American flags, soldiers and bald eagles, continues as follows:
Imagine this movie script: A former KGB spy, angry at the collapse of his motherland, plots a course for revenge. Taking advantage of the chaos, he works his way up through the ranks of a post-Soviet Russia, and becomes president. He establishes an authoritarian regime, then he sets his sights on his sworn enemy: the United States. And like the true KGB spy he is, he secretly uses cyber warfare to attack democracies around the world. Using social media to spread propaganda and false information, he convinces people in democratic societies to distrust their media, their political processes, even their neighbors. And he wins. Vladimir Putin is that spy, and this is no movie script. We need our president to speak directly to us and tell us the truth. We need him to sit behind the desk in the Oval Office and say, “My fellow Americans. During this past election, we came under attack by the Russian government. I’ve called on Congress and our intelligence community to use every resource available to conduct a thorough investigation to determine exactly how this happened.” The free world is counting on us for leadership. For 241 years, our democracy has been a shining example to the world of what we can all aspire to. And we owe it to the brave people who have fought and died to protect this great nation and save democracy. And we owe it to our future generations to continue the fight.
Wow. There’s a lot going on there.
Firstly, the establishment narrative that Russia used cyber warfare to hand the election to Donald Trump remains wholly unsubstantiated and riddled with gaping plot holes that the US intelligence community has yet to address; there is currently no publicly available evidence whatsoever that the Russian government did what Morgan Freeman tells us it did, let alone that Donald Trump was involved in it. The Russian hacking narrative is getting flimsier by the day, with the assertion that WikiLeaks is a Kremlin proxy being sorely weakened just today by a new leak drop on Russian surveillance activities, which itself comes on the back of an extensive amount of critical Russia-related leaks that the transparency organization had already published.
Establishment loyalists only believe the Russian government hacked the Democratic party and gave its emails to WikiLeaks because pundits, politicians and celebrities have been saying this happened in an authoritative tone, not because there’s any publicly available evidence for it. In a post-Iraq invasion world, this is simply unacceptable.
Secondly, the assertion that America is currently at war with Russia is horrifying, and if Americans start swallowing this disgusting propaganda there’ll be no public outcry if the US really does enter into actual warfare with the only other nuclear superpower on the planet. The evidence-free assertion that America has “been attacked” is plainly geared to elicit a fear response from the video’s intended audience and manufacture support for counter-attacks and/or dangerous new cold war escalations.
Third, a blatant war psy-op advanced by Bush-era neocons bitching about the Russian government using propaganda is hilarious.
Fourth, the notion that “the free world is counting” on the US for leadership is moronic flag-waving, chest-pounding bullshit. I assure you that the free world is not counting on any such thing. The idea that America is destined to occupy a dominant role in world affairs is an integral part of neoconservative PNAC doctrine, which posits that its victory in the Cold War means history has selected the United States to hold a unique position of leadership over the rest of the world. Most US military aggression since the end of the Cold War can be seen as a nonstop global disruption campaign to prevent the rise of another rival superpower like the Soviet Union, and the neocons have been responsible for spearheading this initiative.
David Frum, author of President George W. Bush’s infamous “Axis of Evil” talking point, is a notorious neoconservative who has been pushing for war at every opportunity for nearly two decades. He is an unforgivable bloodthirsty psychopath, and everything he touches is cancer.
In addition to Reiner — a virulent #Resistance Clintonist and Russiagate conspiracy theorist — Frum’s advisory board for his new Committee to Start World War Three includes PNAC signatory Max Boot, who has relentlessly pushed for increased US military aggression throughout his entire career, and who once called in plain English for America to “unambiguously to embrace its imperial role.”
There’s also former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has on more than one occasion voiced blatantly racist opinions about the nefarious genetic predispositions of the entire population of Russia. This eugenicist bigot’s handful of hand-picked analysts were behind the conclusions drawn in the intelligence community’s official statements regarding the alleged Russian election interference, forming both (A) the basis for the false narrative that there is unanimous consensus within the intelligence community about Russian hacking and (B) the foundation for the entire Russiagate conspiracy theory.
Also on the advisory board are Norman Ornstein of the neocon think tank American Enterprise Institute and conservative never-Trump pundit Charlie Sykes, who laughably just used the term “strange bedfellows” in reference to the idea of neoconservative Democrats working with neoconservative Republicans to advance their common goal of endless war.
As viscerally disturbing as it is to see the actor who played God conducting a brazen psy-op on the American people, it is already a well-documented fact that the CIA, the NSA and the Pentagon have been balls deep in Hollywood for decades. They’re just being more blatant about that collaboration now.
As Noam Chomsky puts it:
“Control of thought is more important for governments that are free and popular than for despotic and military states. The logic is straightforward: a despotic state can control its domestic enemies by force, but as the state loses this weapon, other devices are required to prevent the ignorant masses from interfering with public affairs, which are none of their business…the public are to be observers, not participants, consumers of ideology as well as products.”
Don’t let them control your mind. Fight the propaganda machine, disrupt their craven agendas, and wake up the others.
— — —
I’m a 100 percent reader-funded journalist so if you enjoyed this, please consider helping me out by sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, or throwing some money into my hat on Patreon.
|
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"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
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