Page:Valmiki - Ramayana, Griffith, 1895.djvu/17



The subject of the Ramayan, the great national epic of the Hindus, their one common and everlasting possesssion. is, as the name implies, the life and adventures of Rama. These adventures are briefly summarized in the introductory cantos of the poem and do not require to be dwelt upon here. The great exploit and main subject of the epic is the war which Rama waged with the giant Ravan. the fierce and mighty King of Lanka or Ceylon and the dread oppressor of Gods and nymphs and saints and men. 'The army,' to borrow the words of Gorresio, 'which Rama led on this expedition was, as appears from the poern, gathered in great part from the region of the Vindhyan hills, but the races which he assembled are represented in the poem as monkeys, either out of contempt for their barbarism or because at that time they were little known to the Sanskrit-speaking Hindus, The people against whom Rama waged war are, as the poem indicates in many places, different in origin, in civilizaion, and in worship, from the Sanskrit Indians ; but the poet of the Ramayan, in this respect like Homer who assigns to Troy customs, creeds, and worship similar to those of Greece, places in Ceylon, the seat of this alien and hostile people, names, habits, and worship similar to those of Sanskrit. India. The poet calls the people whom Rama attacked Rakshasas. Rakshasas, according to the popular Indian belief, are malignant beings, demons of many shapes, terrible and cruel, who disturb the sacrifices and the religious rites of the Brahmans. It appears indubitable that the poet of the Ramayan applied the hated name of Rakshasas to an abhorred and hostile people, and that this denomination is here rather an expression of hatred and horror than a real historical name.

Such, reduced to its bare simplicity, is the fundamental idea of the Ramayan, a war of two hostile races differing in origin, civilization, and worship. But. as is the case in all primitive epopeas, around this idea as a nucleus have gathered elements of every kind drawn from the very vitals of Indian tradition, and worked up by the ancient poet to embody his lofty epic conception. The epopea received and incorporated the traditions, the ideas, the beliefs, the myths, the symbols of that civilization in the midst of which it arose, and by the weaving in and arranging of all these vast elements it became the complete and faithful expression of a whole ancient period ; and in fact the epopea is nothing but a system which represents poetically those ideas of a people which the philosophical systems expound theoretically.'

Other scholars will not concede even this historical basis to the exploits celebrated in the poem. 'Professor Weber is of opinion (Hist, of Ind. Lit. p. 181.) that the principal characters who figure in the Ramayan are not historical personages at all,