[32] Mr. Griffith’s “Ramayana,” vol. iii., p. 324.
[33] As respects the Vanars it has to be noted that while implying that they were monkeys and nothing more, the poet has, for the most part, represented them—if we may judge by their sentiments and actions—as beings of a very superior order.
[34] This car from the hand of Visvakarma recalls the famous embossed shield of Achilles, the masterpiece of Vulcan’s art, made of brass, tin, gold and silver, and divided into twelve compartments, each representing a distinct and complicated scene (for example, a wedding procession or a battle) wrought with marvellous skill.
[35] There can be no doubt whatever that the seclusion of women was the common practice in ancient India. Wherever polygamy exists the seclusion of women is a necessity, and that polygamy did exist in the India of the “Ramayana” is abundantly evident from what we are told concerning the courts of Dasahratha, Sugriva and Ravana. The Greeks kept their women a good deal in the background; but Helen’s position in the court of her husband Menelaus, or Penelope’s in that of Ulysses, was far more free than the position of any queen mentioned in the “Ramayana.”
[36] The lover of English poetry will recall to mind the similar description of sleeping beauties in the sixth canto of “Don Juan,” stanzas lxiv. - lxix.
[37] The contrast between the fair Vaidehi and her ruthless persecutors in the enchanting ashoka grove might make a striking subject for the canvas of an able artist. Indeed, there is in the “Ramayana” no lack of suggestive and satisfactory motifs for the chisel and the brush. It is, indeed, a mine not yet wrought.
[38] Whoever has not forgotten his Virgil will probably be reminded of the famous storm in the “Æneid” and of Neptune’s serene and majestic appearance above the troubled waters of the sea.
[39] Some hundred thousand billions (see note to Griffith’s “Ramayana,” vol. v., p. 88).
[40] Camped; but not like a modern army under canvas. The Vanars, I trow, needed no commissariat department, living as they did on fruits and roots. And the sons of Raghu were nearly as well used to woodland fare and lodging as their simian allies.
[41] “The chariots of Ravana’s present army are said to have been one hundred and fifty million in number, with three hundred million elephants and twelve hundred million horses and asses. The footmen are merely said to have been unnumbered.”—Note to Griffith’s “Ramayana,” book vi., canto xcvi.