HM 



6 F. S. Growse — The Prologue to the Ramayana of Tulsi Das. [No. 1 



or virtue, by any work, at any time or place, has triumphed through associa- 

 tion with the good ; neither the world nor the Veda knows of any other 

 expedient. Intercourse with the good is attainable only by the blessing of 

 Rama, and without it wisdom is impossible : it is the root of all joy and 

 felicity, its flowers are good works and its fruit perfection. By it the wick- 

 ed are reformed, as by the touch of the philosopher's stone a vile metal be- 

 comes gold. If by mischance a good man falls into evil company, like the 

 jewel in a serpent's head, he still retains his character. Brahma, Vishnu, Ma- 

 hadeva ; the wisest of the poets ; all have failed to describe the supremacy 

 of virtue ; for me to tell it is as it were for a costermonger to expatiate 

 on the excellence of a set of jewels. 



Doha 3-4. 



I reverence the saints of equable temperament, who regard neither 

 friend nor foe ; like a gracious flower which sheds its fragrance alike on both 

 infolding hands.* Ye Saints, whose upright intention, whose catholic 

 charity and whose ready sympathy I acknowledge, hear my child-like prayer, 

 be gracious to me and inspire me with devotion to the feet of Rama. 



Chcwpai. 

 Again, I would propitiate those saintly wretchesf who without a cause 

 swerve right or left ; with whom a neighbour's loss is gain ; who rejoice 

 in desolation and weep over prosperity ; who are as an eclipse to the full-moon 

 glory of Hari and Hara ; who become as a giant with a thousand arms to 

 work another's woe ; who have a thousand eyes to detect a neighbour's 

 faults, but, like flies on ghi, settle on his good points only to spoil them ; 

 quick as fire, relentless as hell ; rich in crime and sin as Kuver is in gold ; 

 like an eclipse for the clouding of friendship, and as dead asleep as Kumbha- 

 karanj to everything good ; if they can do any injury, as ready to sacrifice 

 themselves as hailstones, that melt after destroying a crop ; spiteful as the 

 great serpent, with a thousand tongues ; and like Prithuraj,§ with a thou- 

 sand ears, to tell and hear of others' faults ; like the thousand-eyed Indra, 

 too, ever delighting in much strong drink and in a voice of thunder. 



* Though the right hand is the one by which it has been plucked, and the left that 

 in which it is held and preserved. 



f In the following lines the poet defends himself by anticipation against possible 

 objections, and roundly abuses the whole army of critics. 



% Ravan's gigantic brother, Kumbha-karan, obtained as a boon from Brahma, that 

 whenever he had satisfied his voracious appetite, the slumber of repletion might be 

 of the longest and deepest, and that he might only wake to eat again. 



§ It is not related that Prithuraj had really ten thousand ears, but only that he 

 prayed that he might be as quick to hear whatever redounded to the glory of God as 

 if his ears were so many. 



