THE RAGHUVANÇA 95 none please her, one is a dicer, therefore bad as a man; in vain Sunandā presses on her Añga's lord; he has all merits, but tastes vary. In revenge she bids Indumati pass on, when she notes that her heart is won by Aja, but the maiden lays shame aside, and accords to him the coronal which marks him as her spouse. The marriage ceremony is performed, the young pair set out home, but the shamed princes have planned revenge, and re- solved to take away by force the princess. Aja wages fierce battle with them, in the end the Gandharva's gift prevails, and he takes from his foes their honour, though he spares their lives (vii). His reign is fortunate; while Raghu as a hermit tames the senses, Aja destroys the foes of his realm, and, when Raghu dies, he pays him all the honours of a Yogin's funeral. But a fatal misfortune awaits him; a garland from the sky blown by the wind falls on Indumatī's breast and slays her, though in truth for her death means release from her mortal bondage imposed on her, in reality an Apsaras, through a curse. No consolation is this thought to Aja; in vain is he reminded of the folly of mourning. for the dead who are burnt by the tears of the living; in vain every consolation regarding the shortness of life and the duty of kings is urged on him; broken-hearted, he dies and Dasharatha reigns in his place. Of him Canto ix has no concrete facts to tell us, until after a brilliant description of spring we are told of the fatal hunt, when, after displaying equal prowess and pity, Dasharatha in pursuit of an elephant mortally wounds a Brahmin boy; he bears the dying youth to his aged parents, and hears the curse of a like doom. In Canto x we leave the realities of life to learn of the magic incarnation of Visņu in the sons born to Dasharatha; in xi Rāma's youth, his visit to Viçvāmitra's hermitage where he slays the demon Tāḍakā, his journey to Janaka's court, where he wins at the Svayamvara the hand of Sita, and his overthrow of Paraçurāma, who recognizes in him the godhead, are rapidly re- counted. The banishment of Rāma by Kaikeyi's device, the life of Rāma and Sītā in the forest, her capture by Rāvana, the search for Lankā,¹ the crossing of the ocean with the monkey horde, and the great battle between Rāma and Rāvaṇa, described in vivid colours, bring us to Canto xii in which Kālidāsa's descriptive 1 Cf. for its situation M. V. Kibe, Rawana's Lanka Discovered (1920). Hopkins (Great Epic, p. 80) appears to accept Ceylon as Lankā.
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