{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry008.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry008.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry008.htm","text":"There reigned a king of name revered,\n To country and to town endeared,\n Great Das'aratha, good and sage.\n Well read in Scripture's holy page:\n \n \n \n Upon his kingdom's weal intent,\n Mighty and brave and provident;\n The pride of old Ikshv\u00e1ku's seed\n For lofty thought and righteous deed.\n Peer of the saints, for virtues famed,\n For foes subdued and passions tamed:\n A rival in his wealth untold\n Of Indra and the Lord of Gold.\n Like Manu first of kings, he reigned.\n And worthily his state maintained,\n For firm and just and ever true\n Love, duty, gain he kept in view,\n And ruled his city rich and free,\n Like Indra's Amar\u00e1vat\u00ed.\n And worthy of so fair a place\n There dwelt a just and happy race\n \u00a0\u00a0 With troops of children blest.\n Each man contented sought no more,\n Nor longed with envy for the store\n \u00a0\u00a0 By richer friends possessed.\n For poverty was there unknown,\n And each man counted as his own\n \u00a0\u00a0 Kine, steeds, and gold, and grain.\n All dressed in raiment bright and clean,\n And every townsman might be seen\n With earrings, wreath, or chain.\n None deigned to feed on broken fare,\n And none was false or stingy there.\n A piece of gold, the smallest pay,\n Was earned by labour for a day.\n On every arm were bracelets worn,\n And none was faithless or forsworn,\n \u00a0\u00a0 A braggart or unkind.\n None lived upon another's wealth,\n None pined with dread or broken health,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Or dark disease of mind.\n High-souled were all. The slanderous word,\n The boastful lie, were never heard.\n Each man was constant to his vows,\n And lived devoted to his spouse.\n No other love his fancy knew,\n And she was tender, kind, and true.\n Her dames were fair of form and face,\n With charm of wit and gentle grace,\n With modest raiment simply neat,\n And winning manners soft and sweet.\n The twice-born sages, whose delight\n Was Scripture's page and holy rite,\n Their calm and settled course pursued,\n Nor sought the menial multitude.\n In many a Scripture each was versed,\n And each the flame of worship nursed,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And gave with lavish hand.\n Each paid to Heaven the offerings due,\n And none was godless or untrue\n \u00a0\u00a0 In all that holy band.\n To Br\u00e1hmans, as the laws ordain,\n The Warrior caste were ever fain\n \u00a0\u00a0 The reverence due to pay;\n And these the Vais'yas' peaceful crowd,\n Who trade and toil for gain, were proud\n \n \n \u00a0\u00a0 To honour and obey;\n And all were by the S'\u00fadras \u00a01 served,\n Who never from their duty swerved,\n Their proper worship all addressed\n To Br\u00e1hman, spirits, God, and guest.\n Pure and unmixt their rites remained,\n Their race's honour ne'er was stained. \u00a02\n Cheered by his grandsons, sons, and wife,\n Each passed a long and happy life.\n Thus was that famous city held\n By one who all his race excelled,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Blest in his gentle reign,\n As the whole land aforetime swayed\n By Manu, prince of men, obeyed\n \u00a0\u00a0 Her king from main to main.\n And heroes kept her, strong and brave,\n As lions guard their mountain cave:\n Fierce as devouring flame they burned,\n And fought till death, but never turned.\n Horses had she of noblest breed,\n Like Indra's for their form and speed,\n From V\u00e1hl\u00ed's \u00a03 hills and Sindhu's \u00a04 sand,\n Van\u00e1yu \u00a05 and K\u00e1mboja's land. \u00a06\n \n \n Her noble elephants had strayed\n Through Vindhyan and Him\u00e1layan shade,\n Gigantic in their bulk and height,\n Yet gentle in their matchless might.\n They rivalled well the world-spread fame\n Of the great stock from which they came,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Of V\u00e1man, vast of size,\n Of Mah\u00e1padma's glorious line,\n Thine, Aujan, and, Air\u00e1vat, thine.\u00a01\n \u00a0\u00a0 Upholders of the skies.\n With those, enrolled in fourfold class,\n Who all their mighty kin surpass,\n Whom men Matangas name,\n And Mrigas spotted black and white,\n And Bhadras of unwearied might,\n And Mandras hard to tame. \u00a02\n Thus, worthy of the name she bore,\u00a03\n Ayodhy\u00e1 for a league or more\n \u00a0\u00a0 Cast a bright glory round,\n Where Das'aratha wise and great\n Governed his fair ancestral state,\n \u00a0\u00a0 With every virtue crowned.\n Like Indra in the skies he reigned\n In that, good town whose wall contained\n \u00a0\u00a0 High domes and turrets proud,\n With gates and arcs of triumph decked,\n And sturdy barriers to protect\n \u00a0\u00a0 Her gay and countless crowd.\n \n \n \n \n12:1b The Sataghn\u00ed, i. e. centicide, or slayer of a hundred, is generally supposed to be a sort of fire-arms, or the ancient Indian rocket; but it is also described as a stone set round with iron spikes.\n12:2b The N\u00e1gas (serpents) are demigods with a human face and serpent body. They inhabit P\u00e1t\u00e1la or the regions under the earth. Bhogavat\u00ed is the name of their capital city. Serpents are still worshipped in India. See Fergusson'a Tree and Serpent Worship.\n13:1 The fourth and lowest pure caste whose duty was to serve the three first classes.\n13:2 By forbidden marriages between persons of different castes.\n13:3 V\u00e1hl\u00ed or V\u00e1hlika is Bactriana; its name is preserved in the modern Balkh.\n13:4 The Sanskrit word Sindhu is in the singular the name of the river Indus, in the plural of the people and territories on its banks. The name appears as Hidhu in the cuneiform inscription of Darius son of Hystaspes, in which the nations tributary to that king are enumerated.\nThe Hebrew form is Hodda (Esther, 1. I.) In Zend it appears as Hendu in a somewhat wider sense. With the Persians later the signification of Hind seems to have co-extended with their increasing acquaintance with the country. The weak Ionic dialect omitted the Persian h, and we find in Hecat\u00e6us and Herodotus Indos and hae Indikae. In this form the Romans received the names and transmitted them to us. The Arabian geographers in their ignorance that Hind and Sind are two forms of the same word have made of them two brothers and traced their decent from Noah. See Lassen's Indische Alterthumskunde Vol. I. pp. 2, 3.\n13:5 The situation of Van\u00e1yu is not exactly determined: it seems to have lain to the north-west of India.\n13:6 K\u00e1mboja was probably still further to the north-west. Lassen thinks that the p. 14 name is etymologically connected with Cambyses which in the cuneiform inscription of Behistun is written Ka(m)bujia.","title":"BOOK I: Canto VI.: The King.","type":"page"}