palace not only earthly princesses
but the daughters of Gods and Gandharvas.

836 The wife of Indra.

837 These four lines have occurred before. Book III, Canto LVI.

838 Prajapatis are the ten lords of created beings first created by
Brahma; somewhat like the Demiurgi of the Gnostics.

839 "This is the number of the Vedic divinities mentioned in the
Rig-veda. In Ashtaka I. Sukta XXXIV, the Rishi Hiranyastupa invoking
the Asvins says: A Nasatya tribhirekadasairiha devebniryatam: 'O
Nasatyas (Asvins) come hither with the thrice eleven Gods.' And in
Sukta XLV, the Rishi Praskanva addressing his hymn to Agni (ignis,
fire), thus invokes him: 'Lord of the red steeds, propitiated by our
prayers lead hither the thirty-three Gods.' This number must
certainly have been the actual number in the early days of the Vedic
religion: although it appears probable enough that the thirty-three
Vedic divinities could not then be found co-ordinated in so
systematic a way as they were arranged more recently by the authors
of the Upanishads. In the later ages of Bramanism the number went on
increasing without measure by successive mythical and religious
creations which peopled the Indian Olympus with abstract beings of
every kind. But through lasting veneration of the word of the Veda
the custom regained of giving the name of 'the thirty-three Gods' to
the immense phalanx of the multiplied deities." GORRESIO.

840 Serpent-Gods who dwell in the regions under the earth.

841 In the mythology of the epics the Gandharvas are the heavenly
singers or musicians who form the orchestra at the banquets of the
Gods, and they belong to the heaven of India in whose battles they
share.

842 The mother of Rama.

843 The mother of Lakshman.

844 In the south is the region of Yama the God of Death, the place of
departed spirits.

845 Kumbhakarna was one of Ravan's brothers.

846 The guards are still in the grove, but they are asleep; and Sita has
crept to a tree at some distance from them.

847 "As the reason assigned in these passages for not addressing Sita in
Sanskrit such as a Brahman would use is not that she would not
understand it, but that it would alarm her and be unsuitable to the
speaker, we must take them as indicating that Sanskrit, if not
spoken by