8 CHILDHOOD, Chaupái. The gracious name of Raghupati ; all-purifying essence of the Puránas and the Veda, abode of all that is auspicious, destroyer of all that is inauspicious, ever murmured in prayer by Umá and the great Tripurári. The most elegant composition of the most talented poet has no real beauty if the name of Ráma is not in it: in the same way as a lovely woman adorned with the richest jewels is vile if unclothed. But the most worthless production of the feeblest versi- fier, if adorned with the name of Ráma, is heard and repeated with reverence by the wise, like bees gathering honey; though the poetry has not a single merit, the glory of Ráma is manifested in it. This is the confidence which has possessed my soul; is there anything which good company fails to exalt ? Thus smoke forgets its natural pungeney and with incense vields a sweet scent. My language is that in vulgar use, but my subject is the highest, the story of Ráma, enrapturing the world. Chhand 1. Though rapturous lays befit his praise, who cleansed a world accurst, Yet Tulsi's rivulet of rhyme may slake a traveller's thirst. How pure and blest on Siva's breast show the vile stains of earth! So my poor song flows bright and strong illumed by Ráma's worth. Dohú 14-15. From its connection with the glory of Ráma, my verse will be most grate- ful to every one. Any wood that comes from the Malaya sandal-groves is valued ; who considers what kind of wood it is ? milk is pure and wholesome, and all men drink it; and so, though my speech is rough, it tells the glory of Sita and Ráma, and will therefore be heard and repeated with pleasure by sensible people. Though a cow be black, its Chaupái. So long as the diamond remains in the serpent's head, the ruby on the mountain top, or the pearl in its elephant's brow, they are all without beauty; but in a king's diadem or on a lovely woman they become beautiful exceed- ingly. Similarly, as wise men tell, poetry is born of one faculty, but beauti- fied by another; for it is in answer to pious prayer that the Muse leaves her heavenly abode and speeds to earth; without immersion in the fountain of 1 The chhands are generally somewhat enthusiastic outbursts, in which the oft-repeated rhyme is a little apt to run away with the sense. The better to indicate their special character, one-half of the 62 that occur in this book will be rendered metrically. The first line always repeats some emphatic word from the last line of the preceding stanza.
