The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse

Fire for sacred purposes is produced by the attrition of two pieces of wood. In marriage and other solemn covenants fire is regarded as the holy witness in whose presence the agreement is made. Spenser in a description of a marriage, has borrowed from the Roman rite what he calls the housling, or “matrimonial rite.”

“His owne two hands the holy knots did knit

That none but death forever can divide.

His owne two hands, for such a turn most fit,

The housling fire did kindle and provide.”

Faery Queen, Book I. XII. 37.

The Vedas stolen by the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha.

“The text has [Sanskrit text] which signifies literally ‘the lost vedic tradition.’ It seems that allusion is here made to the Vedas submerged in the depth of the sea, but promptly recovered by Vishṇu in one of his incarnations, as the brahmanic legend relates, with which the orthodoxy of the Bráhmans intended perhaps to allude to the prompt restoration and uninterrupted continuity of the ancient vedic tradition.”

Gorresio.

The wood in which Skanda or Kártikeva was brought up:

“The Warrior-God

Whose infant steps amid the thickets strayed

Where the reeds wave over the holy sod.”

See also Book I, Canto XXIX.

Righteous because he never transgresses his bounds, and

“over his great tides

Fidelity presides.”

Budha, not to be confounded with the great reformer Buddha, is the son of Soma or the Moon, and regent of the planet Mercury. Angára is the regent of Mars who is called the red or the fiery planet. The encounter between Michael and Satan is similarly said to have been as if

“Two planets rushing from aspect malign

Of fiercest opposition in midsky

Should combat, and their jarring spheres compound.”

Paradise Lost. Book VI.

It is believed that every creature killed by Ráma obtained in consequence immediate beatitude.

“And blessed the hand that gave so dear a death.”

“He can not buckle his distempered cause

Within the belt of rule.”

Macbeth.

Thus Milton makes the hills of heaven self-moving at command:

“At his command the uprooted hills retired

Each to his place, they heard his voice and went

Obsequious”

Rávaṇ in his magic car carrying off the most beautiful women reminds us of the magician in Orlando Furioso, possesor of the flying horse.

“Volando talor s'alza ne le stelle,

E poi quasi talor la terra rade;

E ne porta con lui tutte le belle

Donne che trova per quelle contrade.”

The śloka which follows is probably an interpolation, as it is inconsistent with the questioning in Canto L.:

He looked on Rávaṇ in his pride,

And boldly to the monarch cried:

“I came an envoy to this place