ABSTRACT
The R£tma.yal).a, as is well known to students of Indian literature, relates the adventures of Rama, son of the king of Ayodhya (Oude), who,in consequence of a domestic intrigue,becarnean exilefrom his count ry, and wandered about th esouthern regions of India, in company with his brother Lakshmana and his wife Sita. Sita was carried off by Raval).a, king of the IUikshasas (demons or goblins), to his capital , Lank a, in the island of Ceylon. Ultimately, Raval).a was slain in bat tle by Rama, who (according, at least, to the poem in its existing, and perhaps int erpolated, form) was an incarnation of the supreme god Vishnu, and Sita was rescued. Riima return ed to Ayodhya after his father's death, and succeeded him on the throne. The legend now freely translated is taken from the supplementary book of the Ramayal).a, th e Uttara K al). ~l a, chapter 17, and relates a passage in the earlier life of I{avaI).a. Vedavati, the heroine of the story, agreeably to the Indian theory of the transmigration of souls, was subsequently re-born in the form of Sitii.
