Page:The Mégha Dúta or Cloud Messenger (Second Edition).djvu/11



Verse 1. Rámagiri] Is a compound term signifying The mountain of Ráma, and may be applied to any of those hills in which the hero resided during his exile or peregrinations. His first and most celebrated residence was the mountain Chitrakuta in Bundelcund, now known by the name of Comptah, and still a place of sanctity and pilgrimage. We find that tradition has assigned to another mountain, a part of the Kimoor range, the honour of affording him, and his companions, Sitá and Lakshmana, a temporary asylum, upon his progress to the south ; and it is consequently held in veneration by the neighbouring villagers : see Capt. Blunts journey from Chunarghur to Yertnagoodum, Asiatic Researches, vii. 60. An account of a journey from Mirzaporc to Nagpore, however, in the Asiatic Annual Register for 1806, has determined the situation of the scene of the present poem to be in the vicinity of the latter city. The modern name of the mountain is there stated to be Ramtée : it is marked in the maps, Ramtege ; but I understand the proper word is Rámtinki, which, in the Marhatta language, has probably the same import as Rámagiri, The hill of Ráma. It is situated but a short distance to the north of Nagpore ; and is covered with buildings consecrated to Rama and his associates, which receive the periodical visits of numerous and devout pilgrims.

Verse 2. Where Sita bathed.] In his exile, Ráma was accompanied by his younger brother, Lakshmana, and his faithful consort Sitá or, as she is called in the original, the daughter of Janaka, Digitized by google