India.

Recite ye this heroic song
In tranquil shades where sages throng;
Recite it where the good resort,
In lowly home and royal court.

We are told besides that--

As long as mountain ranges stand
And rivers flow upon the earth,
So long will this Ramayana
Survive upon the lips of men.

Rama is finally visited by the God of Time, who offers him the choice
of remaining on earth or returning to heaven. When he wisely choses
the latter alternative, Rama is bidden bathe in sacred waters, and
thence is translated to the better world.

From this poem Tulsi Das has composed a play known as the "Ram Charit
Manas," which serves as Bible to a hundred million worshippers in
northern India, and is always played at the yearly festivals in the
presence of countless admirers.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 41: The quotations in this chapter are taken from Griffeth's
translation and from Romesh Dutt's.]

THE MAHABHARATA

The longest poem in existence is composed in Sanscrit, and, although
begun before the Ramayana, it was completed only about one hundred
years after. It consists of some two hundred and twenty thousand
lines, divided into eighteen sections (parvans), each of which forms a
large volume. Although the whole work has never been translated into
English verse, many portions of it have been reproduced both in verse
and prose.

The Hindus consider this one of their most sacred books, attribute its
authorship to Vyasa, and claim that the reading of a small portion of
it will obliterate sin, while the perusal of the whole will insure
heavenly bliss. Its name signifies "the great war," and its historical
kernel,--including one-fifth of the whole work,--consists of an
account of an eighteen days' battle (in the thirteenth or fourteenth
century B.C.) between rival tribes. The poem is, besides, a general
repository of the mythological, legendary, and philosophical lore of
the Hindus, and reached its present state of development only by
degrees and at the end of several centuries.

Bharata, the real founder of the principal Indian dynasty, is so
famous a character, that the Hindus often designate their whole
country as "the land of Bharata." We are told that Rajah Dushyanta, a
descendant of the Moon, while hunting one day beheld the beautiful
Sakuntala, daughter of a sage, whom he persuaded to consent to a
clandestine marriage. But, after a short time, the bridegroom
departed, leaving his bride a