{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry373.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry373.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry373.htm","text":"Down from the tree Hanum\u00e1n came\n And humbly stood before the dame.\n Then joining reverent palm to palm\n Addressed her thus with words of balm:\n 'Why should the tears of sorrow rise,\n Sweet lady, to those lovely eyes,\n As when the wind-swept river floods\n Two half expanded lotus buds?\n Who art thou, O most fair of face?\n Of Asur,\u00a01 or celestial race?\n Did N\u00e1ga mother give thee birth?\n For sure thou art no child of earth.\n Do Rudras \u00a02 claim that heavenly form?\n Or the swift Gods \u00a03 who ride the storm?\n Or art thou Rohin\u00ed \u00a04 the blest,\n That star more lovely than the rest,--\n Reft from the Moon thou lovest well\n And doomed a while on earth to dwell?\n Or canst thou, fairest wonder, be\n The starry queen Arundhat\u00ed,\u00a05\n Fled in thy wrath or jealous pride\n From her dear lord Vas'ishtha's side?\n Who is the husband, father, son\n Or brother, O thou loveliest one,\n Gone from this world in heaven to dwell,\n For whom those eyes with weeping swell?\n Yet, by the tears those sweet eyes shed,\n Yet, by the earth that bears thy tread,\u00a06\n By calling on a monarch's name,\n No Goddess but a royal dame.\n Art thou the queen, fair lady, say,\n Whom R\u00e1van stole and bore away?\n Yea, by that agony of woe,\n That form unrivalled here below,\n That votive garb, thou art, I ween,\n King Janak's child and R\u00e1ma's queen.'\n \n \n Hope at the name of R\u00e1ma woke,\n And thus the gentle lady spoke:\n 'I am that S\u00edt\u00e1 wooed and won\n By Das'aratha's royal son,\n The noblest of Ikshv\u00e1ku's line;\n And every earthly joy was mine.\n But R\u00e1ma left his royal home\n In Dandak's tangled wilds to roam.\n Where with Sumitr\u00e1's son and me,\n He lived a saintly devotee.\n The giant R\u00e1van came with guile\n And bore me thence to Lank\u00e1's isle.\n Some respite yet the fiend allows,\n Two months of life, to R\u00e1ma's spouse.\n Two moons of hopeless woe remain.\n And then the captive will be slain.'\n \n \n \n \n413:1 The Asurs were the fierce enemies of the Gods.\n413:2 The Rudras are manifestations of S'iva.\n413:3 The Maruts or Storm Gods.\n413:4 Rohin\u00ed is an asterism personified as the daughter of Daksha and the favourite wife of the Moon. The chief star in the constellation is Aldebaran.\n413:5 Arundhat\u00ed was the wife of the great sage Vas'ishtha, and regarded as the pattern of conjugal excellence. She was raised to the heavens as one of the Pleiades.\n413:6 The Gods do not shed tears; nor do they touch the ground when they walk or stand. Similarly Milton's angels marched above the ground and \"the passive air upbore their nimble tread.\"\nVirgil's 'vera incessu patuit dea' may refer to the same belief.","title":"BOOK V: Canto XXXIII.: The Colloquy.","type":"page"}