Рамаяна: Том 1: Балаканда и Айодхьяканда · Часть 1
Полный четырёхтомник Манматхи Натха Датта, английский, Калькутта, 1891–1894. Все четыре тома конкретного перевода М. Н. Датта: Балаканда, Айодхьяканда, Араньяканда, Кишкиндхаканда, Сундараканда, Юддхаканда и Уттараканда. Полный текст выбранного четырёхтомного издания; это не собрание всех версий Рамаяны.
Все четыре тома конкретного перевода М. Н. Датта: Балаканда, Айодхьяканда, Араньяканда, Кишкиндхаканда, Сундараканда, Юддхаканда и Уттараканда. Полный текст выбранного четырёхтомного издания; это не собрание всех версий Рамаяны.
Project Gutenberg identifies each of the four ebooks as public domain in the USA. Translator Manmatha Nath Dutt lived 1855–1912; historical editions 1891, 1891, 1893, 1894. CRLF normalized to LF, outside whitespace trimmed, complete body split at paragraph boundaries for the reader. No text within the selected body dropped. Полные сведения об издании и лицензия
Produced by James Simmons.
This file was produced from page images at the Internet Archive.
Transcriber's Note
This book was transcribed from scans of several different copies of the
original found at the Internet Archive. The typesetters of the original
book represented the letter a (with a macron above) as a (with
circumflex above) when italicized, but this etext uses the macron
throughout. Words in italics in this etext were italicized in the
original book. I have corrected obvious misspellings (for example in one
place the word "spices" was used when "spies" was clearly meant) but
I've left variant spellings alone.
THE RAMAYANA
Translated into English Prose from the original Sanskrit of Valmiki
BALAKANDAM.
EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY
MANMATHA NATH DUTT, M. A.
Rector, Keshub Academy.
printed by Girish Chandra Chackravarti, Deva Press, 65/2, Beadon Street.
CALCUTTA. 1891
[All rights reserved.]
FOR THE COMPLETE SET, IN ADVANCE. INCLUDING POSTAGE.
In India Rs. 16.
In Europe L 2.
THE RAMAYANA IN AN ENGLISH GARB.
The immortal Epic of Valmiki is undoubtedly one of the gems of
literature,--indeed, some considering it as the Kohinur of the literary
region, which has for centuries, and from a time reaching to the dim and
far past been shedding unparalleled and undying halo upon the domain
presided over by "the vision and the faculty divine." The burthen of the
bard's song is the perpetual contest between good and evil,that is
everywhere going on in this mysteriously-ordered world of ours,and which
seemingly sometimes ending in the victory of the former,and at others in
that of the latter,vitally and spiritually results in the utter
overthrow and confusion of evil and in the triumph and final conquest of
good. Rama sprung from the bright loins of the effulgent luminary of
day, and bringing his life and being from a long and illustrious
ancestry of sovereigns, Rama taking birth among the sons of men for
chastising and repressing rampant Iniquity and Injustice, typifies the
spirit of good that obtains in this world,--Ravana, that grim and
terrible Ten-headed one, a Rakshasa by virtue of birth, and worthy to be
the chief and foremost of Rakshasas by virtue of his many misdeeds and
impieties, who challenges and keeps in awe the whole host of the
celestials--"to whom the Sun did not shine too hot, and about whom the
Wind did not dare to breathe," represents the spirit of unrighteousness
and evil. Lakshmana, disregrading the pomp and splendours of princely
life, to follow his beloved brother Rama into the forest, and cheerfully
undergoing there a world of trials and privations, and daily and nightly
keeping watch and ward over his brother and his spouse in their
cottage,--and Bharata, stoutly and persistently declining, despite the
exhortations of the elders and the spiritual guides, to govern the
kingdom during Rama's absence in the forest, and holding the royal
umbrella over his brother's sandals,are personations of the _ne plus
ultra_ of fraternal love, and consummate and perfect ideals of their
kind. The righteous Bibhishana, who for Rama's cause forsook his royal
brother, and set small store by the splendours of royalty, who suffered
no earthly considerations to interfere with his entire and absolute
devotion to his friend, embodies in his person the sterling virtues
going under the precious name of friendship. The ever-devoted Hanumana
glorying in the appellation of Rama's servant,--ever-prompt at the beck
and call of his master to lay down his life--is the grandest and
loftiest conception of the faithful servant that is to be found in all
literature. Shall we say aught of Rama and Sita, or keep silence over
themes too sacred for babblement and frofane mouthing? The kingdom is
astir and alive with the jubilations of the populace at the prospect of
Rama's coronation; pennons by thousands are streaming like meteors in
the air at the tops of stately edifices; and drums and _panavas_ and
other musical instruments are sounding forth the auspicious anouncement.
The royal household swims in a sea of bliss surging and heaving on all
sides. Delight and Joy move about and laugh and talk under the names of
Dacaratha and Kaucalya. Anon a thunder-clap bursts in the midst of the
Merry-making, and converts delight into dole, the sounds of laughter and
hilarity into loud wails and lamentations issuing from hearts knowing no
consolation. All is lost! Rama is to be banished into the woods for
fourteen years. He cheerfully makes up his mind and repairs to the
forest in consonance with his father's promise. Sita steps forth--a
divinity clad in flesh--Sita would follow the fortunes of her lord. She
considers it as the height of undutifulness to remain behind, continuing
to enjoy the pleasures of the palace, while her beloved Rama is leading
a life of toils and privations in the remote woods. The daughter as well
as the daughter-in-law of kings, brought up in the lap of luxury and
amidst the soft ministrations of those pleasures that pertain to a royal
household, Sita, the idol of every one's love and regard, boldly and
with alacrity faces all the toils and terrors of a forest-life, in
preferance to remaining in Dacaratha's residence, bereft of the company
of her sweet lord.
All these and various other characters that figure on the fascinating
and enchanting boards of Valmiki, have been developed fully and
elaborately, and with and perfect consistency of portraiture through the
length of his gigantic poem of Ramayana. Ravana standing before us in
stupendous proportions as the personation of terror and wrong-doing,
before whom the human spirit trembles as Sita in the Asoka wood; the
lotus-eyed Rama self-forgetful and heroic, and possessed of the highest
perfections that can adorn humanity, and through the extremes of misery
and misfortune ever abiding by righteousness and truth; Sita the best
and fairest of her sex, the embodiment of all loveliness and grace
physical and mental, she who rose from the sacrificial fire of
inspiration--a goddess in all her manifold perfections and unsurpassed
exellences, whose name carries in the very mention a world of pathos;
the faithful Lakshmana, aye cleaving to his brother on the perilous edge
of raging battle, and in the dreary forest leading a life lorn and
desolate,--these and others whom we forbear reluctantly to name, have
been pourtrayed to the life; they are quick with the Promethean spark
and occupy prominent positions in that ideal world brought into being by
those mighty intellectual wizards--the poets; and are the perennial
fountains of our joy and sorrow, never suffering the good and the
beautiful to degenerate into cant and commonplace in our minds. Oh! the
privilege of genius.
The influence exercised by the Ramayana upon the Hindus reaching down to
the lowest strata of the society, is literally and in actual fact
immense. Truly of the Ramayana it can be said in Baconian language that
it has come home to the business and bosoms of all men. If there is one
test which more than another distinguishes the true from the false in
Art, it is the circumstance of a work influencing or not influencing
life: a work that assimilates itself with the mental constitution of a
nation, lending energy to impulse, contributing to clearness of thought,
and ennobling and spiritualis- ing the higher emotions and aspirations,
must by the very reason of its doing so, be true; while that which fails
in doing so, is not the real and genuine thing and can well be spared.
The Ramayana has become a household-word in Hindu Society, and
expressions embodying the memories of incidents celebrated in the epic,
pass current amongst all ranks of the people, being mouthed alike by
high and low, by prince and peasantry the aristocracy and the nobility
of the land, by merchants and mechanics, by cultivators ploughing the
field, and by shepherds keeping the flock, by princesses and high-born
dames in towering edifices, and the women of the peasantry plying their
daily tasks, religionists and politicians and men of letters,--in short
by the community universally. Such absolute and all-commanding and
comprehensive sway and influence of literature is perhaps unknown in the
West, with the single exception of the Bible. _Rama's regime_ embodies
the popular conception of administrative perfection--the ideal of a
monarchy. Ravana is remembered not only in consequence of the prominent
part he plays in the Ramayana, but also on account of his famous advice
to Rama immediately before his death,--namely that the execution of evil
projects should be deferred, but that good ones should be promptly
executed,--a very sage counsel doubtless, answering partially to
Macbeth's observation on hearing of Macduff's escape:
"----------From this moment
The very firstlings of my heart shall be
The firstlings of my hand------"
"The vow concerning the bow-breaking," applied sarcastically to a case
of contumacy, "The war between Rama and Ravana is matched by that war
alone," "Ravana's family." "Ravana hath been ruined by domestic
disclosure," "Lanka hath met with destruction in consequence of excess
of pride," "That won't render the Ramayana incorrect,"--these are some
of the adages universally current in Hindu society, mixing constantly
into common talk. Does not this unequivocally and unmistakably prove
that the influence of Valmiki has entered into the pith and marrow of
the nation, and vitally sways its intellectual and emotional tendencies?
Sita has become the grand exemplar to Hindu women as the embodiment of
purity, chastity, and wifely fidelity. She has furnished Hindu ladies
with the highest and noblest conception of their duties in their various
and manifold relations in life. Her empire is both wide and deep over
the hearts of her sex, performing for their eternal behoof spiritual
services of incalculable worth. She should be looked upon as one of the
greatest teachers of her kind--as a teacher in that highest and best
sense in which Christ and Chaitanya, Nanat and Socrates are called
teachers. Ah, who can say how many women have turned away in the budding
prime of youth from the primrose path of dalliance, and have in
preferance followed virtue, who alone is truly fair,--how many stirred
and influenced by the example of her matchless self-sacrifice have
firmly made up their minds to tread in her foot-steps? In like manner it
may be said of almost all the principal characters of the Ramayana, that
they have more or less deeply influenced the thoughts and sentiments of
the people.
Further, the Ramayana has been all along a reservoir upon which
subsequent writers have drawn ceaselessly. Indeed most of the succeeding
poems owe to the Mahabharata and the Ramayana for their subjects. Not to
mention writers of less note, even Kalidasa's self has dunk deep of that
fountain. Bhababhuti not less celebrated has composed a poem treating of
the latter part of Rama's life and saturated with a pathos which perhaps
no other pen has surpassed.
Источники и права
