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leagues through the air to find Sita. Hence in his figure perhaps survives a reminiscence of Indra's alliance with the Maruts in his conflict with Vritra and the dog Sarama who as Indra's messenger crosses the waters of the Rasa and tracks the cows occurs as the name of the demoness who consoles Sita in heir captivity."
The body of the work is divided into seven Kandas, the Bala, the Ayodhya, the Aranya, the Kishkindha, the Sundaray the Yuddha and the Uttara. But the plot admits of four broad landmarks, corresponding to the chief epochs in Rama's life:—
1. His youth ; his education and residence at the royal court; his marriage ; his installation as crown prince.
2. The circumstances leading to his banishment and his exile in the forest,
3. His war with the giants and the recovery of Sita.
4. His return to Ayodhya ; his coronation ; and his re^ banishment of Sita.
Whatever may have been the fanciful interpretations of modern theorists-, the Epic has maintained its unity of plot and action for centuries more than twenty and it has withstood both as regards construction and proportion the intellectual onsets of keen criticism. In Baconian language, it can be said that the Ramayana has corne home to the business and bosoms of all men. Influence on life is the true test of real art and that our poem has had in abundance. Cosmogony and theogony, folklore and tradition, mythology and historf*ation is confirmed by the name of Ravana's son being Ipdrajit or Indra-Satru, the latter being actually an epithet of /Vritra in the Rig Veda, Ravana's most notable feat, the rape of Sita, has its prototype in the stealing of the cows recovered by Indra* Hanumat, the chief of the monkeys and Rama's ally in the recovery of Sita, is the son of the wind-god wit& the patronymic Maruti and is described as flying hundreds o£ ? The later Puranas tell us he was an incarnation, of Vlshnu-^bmt Vishnu himself had not risen to prominence;