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Read Ebook: National Epics by Rabb Kate Milner
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Ebook has 1864 lines and 145178 words, and 38 pages
THE HINDU EPIC: THE RAM?Y?NA
THE HINDU EPIC: THE MAH?-BH?RATA
THE GREEK EPIC: THE ILIAD
THE GREEK EPIC: THE ODYSSEY
THE FINNISH EPIC: THE KALEVALA
THE ROMAN EPIC: THE AENEID
THE SAXON EPIC: BEOWULF
THE GERMAN EPIC: THE NIBELUNGEN LIED
THE FRENCH EPIC: THE SONG OF ROLAND
THE PERSIAN EPIC: THE SHAH-NAMEH
THE SPANISH EPIC: THE POEM OF THE CID
THE ITALIAN EPIC: THE DIVINE COMEDY
THE ITALIAN EPIC: THE ORLANDO FURIOSO
THE PORTUGUESE EPIC: THE LUSIAD
THE ITALIAN EPIC: THE JERUSALEM DELIVERED
THE ENGLISH EPIC: PARADISE LOST
THE ENGLISH EPIC: PARADISE REGAINED
SELECTIONS.
FROM PARADISE LOST: Satan Apostrophe to Light
FROM PARADISE REGAINED: The Temptation of the Vision of the Kingdoms of the Earth
NATIONAL EPICS.
THE R?M?YANA.
"He who sings and hears this poem continually has attained to the highest state of enjoyment, and will finally be equal to the gods."
The R?m?yana, the Hindu Iliad, is variously ascribed to the fifth, third, and first centuries B.C., its many interpolations making it almost impossible to determine its age by internal evidence. Its authorship is unknown, but according to legend it was sung by Ku?a and Lava, the sons of Rama, to whom it was taught by Valmiki. Of the three versions now extant, one is attributed to Valmiki, another to Tuli Das, and a third to Vyasa.
Its historical basis, almost lost in the innumerable episodes and grotesque imaginings of the Hindu, is probably the conquest of southern India and Ceylon by the Aryans.
The R?m?yana is written in the Sanskrit language, is divided into seven books, or sections, and contains fifty thousand lines, the English translation of which, by Griffith, occupies five volumes.
The hero, Rama, is still an object of worship in India, the route of his wanderings being, each year, trodden by devout pilgrims. The poem is not a mere literary monument,--it is a part of the actual religion of the Hindu, and is held in such reverence that the mere reading or hearing of it, or certain passages of it, is believed to free from sin and grant his every desire to the reader or hearer.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM, THE R?M?YANA.
G. W. Cox's Mythology and Folklore, 1881, p. 313;
Sir William Jones on the Literature of the Hindus ;
Maj.-Gen. Vans Kennedy's Researches into Hindu Mythology, 1831;
James Mill's History of British India, 1840, vol. ii., pp. 47-123;
F. Max M?ller's Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 1859;
E. A. Reed's Hindu Literature, 1891, pp. 153-271;
Albrecht Weber's History of Indian Literature, 1878, pp. 191-195;
J. T. Wheeler's History of India, 4 vols., 1876, vol. ii.;
Sir Monier Williams's Indian Wisdom, 1863, Indian Epic Poetry, 1863;
Article on Sanskrit Literature in Encyclopaedia Britannica;
R. M. Gust's The R?m?yana: a Sanskrit Epic ;
T. Goldstuecker's R?m?yana ;
C. J. Stone's Cradleland of Arts and Creeds, 1880, pp. 11-21;
Albrecht Weber's On the R?m?yana, 1870; Westminster Review, 1849, vol. 1., p. 34;
J. C. Oman's Great Indian Epics, 1874, pp. 13-81.
STANDARD ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS, THE R?M?YANA.
The R?m?yana, Tr. by R. T. H. Griffith, 5 vols., 1870-1874 ;
Extracts from the R?m?yana, Tr. by Sir William Jones ;
Iliad of the East, F. Richardson, 1873 ;
The R?m?yana translated into English Prose, edited and published by Naumatha Nath Dutt, 7 vols., Calcutta, 1890-1894.
THE STORY OF THE R?M?YANA.
Brahma, creator of the universe, though all powerful, could not revoke a promise once made. For this reason, Ravana, the demon god of Ceylon, stood on his head in the midst of five fires for ten thousand years, and at the end of that time boldly demanded of Brahma as a reward that he should not be slain by gods, demons, or genii. He also requested the gift of nine other heads and eighteen additional arms and hands.
These having been granted, he began by the aid of his evil spirits, the Rakshasas, to lay waste the earth and to do violence to the good, especially to the priests.
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