



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