not Ungad followed him, and (a common mode of attack in those days) pulled him down by the heels.

To cut short this momentous affair, I must now bring forward the immortal Rama, who, after a contest in perfect keeping with the foregoing, which lasted seven days, and which would take seven long summer days to relate, terminated it and the life of Ravan together, on learning that the navel of the giant contained a portion of the amrita, or water of immortality, by letting fly a fiery arrow, which entered that part, and instantly dried up the immortal liquor, on which the charmed existence of the giant depended. At the moment of his fate the earth shook violently, and other portentous omens disclosed the joyful event which had taken place.

No sooner was the battle terminated than Indra descended, and sprinkled over the field the water of life; when every monkey and bear among the slain became immediately resuscitated; but the Rakshasas remained rotting on the ground.

Rama, impatient of beholding his beloved Sita, lost no time in despatching Hanuman to bring her to the camp; but before their reunion, it was necessary that she should undergo the fiery ordeal,* to prove that her virtue had remained unsullied during the time she was in the possession of the giant.

After this the victorious army dispersed, and Rama, accompanied by Sugrivu, Jumont, Nul, Neel, and Ungad, who then assumed human forms, returned with Sita to Ayodhya, where he was received by his subjects with those demonstrations of joy usually attendant upon eastern conquerors. He reigned over them ten thousand years, and was at length received into the heaven of Vishnu, leaving his kingdom to his two sons.

If, in the perusal of the foregoing pages, any of my readers should have allowed their imaginations to be alarmingly worked upon respecting the fate of Sita, I am now at liberty to assure them, that, as respects that

* The fiery ordeal is thus performed :-An excavation, nine hands long, two spans broad, and one span deep, is made in the ground, and filled up with fire of pepal wood; into this the person accused must walk barefooted; and if his feet remain unhurt, they hold him blameless; if burned,

guilty.

beautiful daughter of Junuka, the whole was nothing but maya, or illusion. It appears, in a very lively epitome of the Ramayana, by the late Colonel Delamain, that Rama, knowing it was destined that the abduction of Sita should lead to the destruction of Ravan, unfolded to her the true nature of his expedition. She, accordingly, consented to pass into fire during the war. Having entered it, she disappeared; and a fictitious Sita sat by Rama in her stead. Thus, after the termination of the war, when it was supposed Sita entered the flame of the fiery ordeal, the illusive body perished, and the real wife of Rama came forth, transcendent in purity and beauty. This secret was preserved even from Lakshman, and was known only to Rama and Sita.

The monkey, throughout Hindustan, is considered the emblem of policy and stratagem, and the worshippers of Rama believe that he transformed himself into that animal. Holwell states, that numerous colleges of Brahmans are supported by the people for the maintenance of these animals, near the groves where they resort. They are said "to live in tribes of three or four hundred, to be extremely gentle, and to appear to possess some kind of order and subordination in their sylvan polity." Mr. Ward assures us that, some years ago, the rajah of Nudeeya expended 100,000 rupees in celebrating a marriage ceremony between two of these descendants of Hanuman.

In respect to the chain of rocks which joins the island of Ceylon to the main land of Madura, the story of an army having passed across it is not wholly a fable. The rajah of Marava being severely pressed in a retreat by the king of Madura, passed over, by means of beams extended from one rock to another, with his whole army, accompanied by their treasures, elephants, and various munitions of war.

The incarnate deity, whose exploits I have just represented as they are recorded by the poet Valmic, is considered by Sir William Jones to be the same as the Dionysos or Bacchus of the Greeks. This Dionysos, or Bacchus, whom he imagined to be Rama, the son of Cush, is said to have invaded India and other countries with an army of satyrs, commanded by the Sylvan deity Pan; and Sir William Jones concludes that this army, or probably

part of it (which he thinks may have been composed of hardy mountaineers), gave rise to the poetical tale of the feats of Rama, aided by the heroic Hanuman and his host of monkeys.

We shall, however, obtain a more consistent, as well as a better understood comprehension of Rama, in considering him to have been the son of Desaratha, of the solar race, king of Ayodhya, now termed Oude, a potent sovereign of Hindustan, who having been banished by his father in consequence of the machinations of his queens, retired to the banks of the Godavery, accompanied by his brother Lakshman and his wife Sita, and lived in the neighbouring forests the austere and secluded life of an ascetic: but Sita having been forcibly taken from him by Ravana, the king of Lanka (Ceylon), Rama, with the aid of Sugriva, the sovereign of Karnata, invaded the kingdom of Ravana, and having conquered him, placed his brother on the throne of Lanka in his stead.

The Godavery is a sacred stream, and its banks appear to be classic ground, where the visitor is almost at every step reminded of the heroes of the Ramayana. Here are the temples of Rama and Hanuman, the caves of Nasuk (nose), which commemorate the ungallant action of Lakshman in cutting off the nose of Surpanukha; and the cave of Sita, round which Lakshman drew the circle with his bow, which in his absence she was not to overstep. Like the misguided bride of Blue-beard, however, she did so; and the war of Lanka and the Ramayana were the consequences. The bones of Brahmans, according to Colonel Delamain, are brought from a considerable distance to be cast into the holy stream of the Godavery, of which they are said to become immediately component parts.

Rama is extensively worshipped, and numerous temples are erected to him; among which is the splendid one at Ramnaghur (see plate 27), from which many of the plates in this volume are taken. A farther description is given under the head of Hindu Temples.

SITA

Is likewise extensively worshipped in company with her husband Rama.

F