the Defeat of Ravan, and the happy recovery of Sita, may, perhaps, follow. The " Birth of Rama," I should observe, is not from the Ramayan, but from the Raghuvansa of the later poet Kalidasa.

The chief characteristic of the Ramayan being simplicity, I have not attempted to give my lines a polish which would lessen their resemblance to the original, and I have endeavoured rather to be faithful to the spirit of my author and, if possible, to be readable, than to translate as closely as I might have done.

The Messenger Cloud is the work of Kalidasa, the poet of sweet Sakontala. If Professor H. H. Wilson's graceful version of this little poem had been easily accessible to the general reader I should not have attempted my paraphrase.

Most of the pieces now published in a collective form have appeared in the Pandit, the Benares Col

lege Journal of Sanskrit literature: the "Hermit's Son" is reprinted, with a few alterations, from "Specimens of Old Indian Poetry."

BENARES:

July 17th 186S.

A few slight alterations have been made in this edition, and the following pieces have been added, SITA IN PRISON, RAMA IN THE SPRING, TIDINGS OF SITA, RAVAN'S PALACE, THE OMENS, RAVAN DEAD, SITA DIS

GRACED, HOME, THE DESCENT OF GANGA, TARA'S LAMENT, AND INGRATITUDE.

BENARES COLLEGE:

January 1870.

AYODHYA.'

"Nons sommes dans Ayodhya, le séjour des princes de la dynastie solaire. Dasaratha règne. Nous sommes en plein âge d'or, et en lisant les curieuses descriptions de la royale cité, on se fait une haute idée de la civilisation de l'Inde, dans un siècle antérieur à celui de Salomon."-MLLE. CLARISSE BADER, La Femme dans l'Inde Antique.

ON pleasant Sarju's' fertile side

There lies a rich domain,

With countless herds of cattle thronged,

And gay with golden grain.

There, built by Manu,3 Prince of men,

That saint by all revered,

The ruins of the ancient capital of Rama and the Children of the Sun may still be traced in the present Ajudhya, near Fyzabad. Ajudhya is the Jerusalem or Mecca of the Hindus.

2 The Sarju or Ghagra, anciently called Sarayu, rises in the Himalayas, and after flowing through the province of Oudh falls into the Ganges. 3 This Manu was the first prince of the Solar dynasty:

"First Manu reigned, revered by every sage."-Raghuvansa I. 16.

Ayodhya, famed through every land,

Her stately towers upreared.

Her vast extent, her structures high,

With every beauty deckt,

Like Indra's city,' showed the skill
Of godlike architect.

Or like a bright creation sprung

From limner's magic art,

She seemed too beautiful for stone:

So fair was every part.

Twelve leagues the queenly city lay

Down the broad river's side,

And, guarded well with moat and wall,
The foeman's power defied.

Her ample streets were nobly planned,
And streams of water flowed

To keep the fragrant blossoms fresh,

That strewed her royal road.

There many a princely palace stood

In line on level ground;

Indra is the Hindu Jove. The name of his celestial city is Amaravati.