Page:Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists.djvu/48

 assembled together they approached Brahmā with a petition. "A certain wicked rākshasa named Rāvana greatly oppresses us," they said, "whom we suffer patiently because thou hast granted him a boon—not to be slain by gandharvas, or yakshas, or rākshasas, or gods. But now his tyranny becometh past endurance, and, O Lord, thou shouldst devise some method to destroy him." To them Brahmā replied: "That evil rākshasa disdained to ask from me immunity from the attack of men: by man only he may and shall be slain." Thereat the deities rejoiced. At that moment there arrived the great God Vishnu, clad in yellow robes, bearing mace and discus and conch, and riding upon Garuda. Him the deities reverenced, and prayed him to take birth as the four sons of Dasharatha for the destruction of the wily and irrepressible Rāvana. Then that one of lotus-eyes, making of himself four beings, chose Dasharatha for his father and disappeared. In a strange form, like a flaming tiger, he reappeared in Dasharatha's sacrificial fire and, greeting him, named himself as the messenger of God. "Do thou, O tiger amongst men," said he, "accept this divine rice and milk, and share it amongst thy wives." Then Dasharatha, overjoyed, carried the divine food and gave a portion of it to Kaushalyā, and another portion to Sumitrā, and another to Kaikeyī, and then the fourth portion to Sumitrā again. In due time four sons were born of them, sharing the self of Vishnu—from Kaushalyā, Rāma; from Kaikeyī, Bharata; and from Sumitrā, Lakshmana and Satrughna; and these names were given them by Vāshishtha.

Meanwhile the gods created mighty monkey-hosts, brave and wise and swift, shape-shifters, hardly to be slain, to be the helpers of the heroic Vishnu in the battle with the rākshasas.

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