Glossary

Sanskrit and cultural terms kept in the text, in alphabetical order. Each entry gives only what the book itself supports; where the story leaves a term unexplained, so does this glossary.

Abhisheka: a formal royal installation and consecration rite.

Adharma: conduct or rule that runs contrary to dharma, the order of duty and right conduct.

Adhyatma Ramayana: a Sanskrit retelling of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, standing behind Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas, that reads the whole story through non-dual philosophy, so that Rama is the Absolute wearing a life.

Agneya: a named weapon (astra) Rama uses against Subahu; the text says its name connects it to Agni, the fire deity.

Agni: the deity of fire, who receives what is offered into the flames and stands witness to what is sworn before them.

Agnishtoma: one of the formal sacrifices Ushanasa names among Meghanada's seven great rites, alongside the ashvamedha and the rājasūya.

Akharas: the wrestling schools of North Indian akhara tradition, where wrestlers tie a vow of celibacy to their reverence for Hanuman.

Anga: Romapada's kingdom, struck by drought, from which the story of Rishyasringa's summoning begins.

Angadiya: the city Rama establishes for Angada in the north.

Apsara: a celestial woman of the divine courts, associated with dance; compare gandharva, the courts' musician.

Arghya: a ritual offering of welcome that recognizes

Ashoka: the tree, and by extension the grove of such trees, for which the walled prison Ashoka Vatika is named. The lowercase word names the tree species itself; Ashoka Vatika (already glossed) is the proper name of the specific place planted with it. The two entries describe one relationship: place named after species, not two unrelated words.

Ashoka Vatika: the guarded ashoka grove in Lanka where Ravana holds Sita captive.

Ashram: a hermitage or community of disciplined

Ashvamedha: the horse sacrifice.

Astra: a weapon-form empowered and invoked through

Asura: one of the elder beings who contend with the gods for rule of the worlds.

Atibala: one of two sacred disciplines (vidyas), given to Rama together with Bala, that the text says protect him from weariness, illness, hunger, thirst, and danger.

Avatar: a deity's taking of embodied birth in the

Ayodhya: the capital of the Kosala kingdom, the walled and carefully planned royal city from which Ikshvaku's dynasty rules.

Bahlika: the kingdom ruled first by Ila, then by Shashabindu after Ila divides the two royal lines.

Balakanda: the first book of the critical edition of Valmiki's Ramayana, cited in the sources notes on Rama's parentage and his kinship with Yudhajit.

Bhagirathi: another name the text itself gives to the Ganga, used once, when Rama's party reaches the river on the way to Ayodhya: "toward the Ganga, also called the Bhagirathi." This is a naming of the same river already glossed under Ganga, not a second waterway.

Bhargava: the lineage name of the sage Bhrigu's descendants; applied in the text to Parashurama (Chapter 10), to the rishi Chyavana (Chapter 81), and to the hermit Ushanasa (Chapter 96).

Bhogavati: the city of the nagas ruled by Vasuki.

Bisrakh: a place in Uttar Pradesh held locally to be Ravana's birthplace, where Dussehra is marked with mourning rather than an effigy.

Boon: an exceptional power or condition granted by a deity or other exalted being.

Brahmahatya: the personified stain of killing a brahmin, which the source depicts as a "she" who settles on Indra after Vritra's death and is later divided among four vessels.

Brahmarshi: a title Shatananda records Vashishta giving Vishvamitra, "one whose spiritual authority had been won through the hardest self-command."

Brahmin: a member of the hereditary priestly order, the first of the four groups in the inherited social hierarchy.

Brihaspati: named once, as the brother of Samvarta, the sage who

Chaitra: the spring month in which two episodes of the text take place (Chapters 96 and 99).

Chandrabati: "the first named woman poet in the language [Bengali]," who "wrote a Ramayan that stays with Sita's lament and gives the war almost no room at all, in village Bengali, meant to be sung, largely to women." The essay places her in sixteenth-century Bengal.

Chandrahasa: a sword; the essay names it as the favor Shiva grants Ravana "in many tellings," alongside the Shiva Tandava Stotra.

Chandrakanta: the city Chandraketu receives, in the land of the Mallas.

Chitragupta: in later Hindu traditions, Yama's recorder of

Chitrakoot: the modern town on the Uttar Pradesh/Madhya Pradesh border that tradition identifies with Chitrakuta, the story's hill and hermitage country; local features there are mapped onto incidents in the narrative.

Chitrakuta: the place beside the Mandakini river where Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana build their first forest shelter, and where Bharata later comes to plead for Rama's return.

Crest Jewel: Sita's personal jewel, given to Hanuman as proof that he has found her.

Daitya: one of an elder race of beings, born of the same fathers as the gods and set against them from the beginning; the danavas are their kin.

Danava: one of an elder race of beings, kin to the daityas, named among the powers Ravana's boon excludes from being able to kill him.

Danda: the authority to punish and enforce order, which Manu tells Ikshvaku must be used only where an offense warrants it.

Dandaka: the forest region to which Rama is ordered for exile.

Dantavakra: named, with Shishupala, as the third of the "three

Dashagriva: Ravana's birth name, "the ten-necked one," used at Chapters 52,

Dashanan: an epithet of Ravana ("ten-headed") that names a temple dedicated to him: "a Dashanan temple in Kanpur."

Dharma: the order of duty and right conduct by which

Diwali: a festival widely held to mark Rama's return to Ayodhya, with lamps set out to bring him home, though that connection is the tradition's own account of itself rather than anything history can date. Diwali means other things in Jain and Sikh observance.

Dohada: a pregnancy-craving sign; the endnote states that the verse it is glossing "names no dohada."

Draupadi: identified only as the one who, in the Mahabharata's

Dussehra / Vijayadashami: one festival under two names, "the tenth day, the victory," usually explained as the removal of the ten, meaning Ravana's heads. Section D records that in places that honor Ravana, such as Bisrakh in Uttar Pradesh, it is marked with mourning instead of an effigy.

Dvapara: one of the four cosmic ages named in the text; the text sets a later episode (a Shudra's death-causing austerity) in this age.

Gandharva: a musician of the courts of the gods.

Ganga: the great river that Rama, Lakshmana, and Vishvamitra cross on their journey, later named in Chapter 79 as the Bhagirathi.

Godana: a formal ritual gift of cows, made by a father as part of the observances marking a change in his sons' lives.

Godavari: the broad river near Panchavati, beside which Rama and Lakshmana build the exiles' dwelling for the middle years of the exile.

Gokarna: the hermitage site where Vibhishana undertakes tapas.

Gomati: a river the story's travelers stop beside more than once: Rama and Sita's party rests near an ashram on it on the way to the Ganga (Chapter 79), Lakshmana's escort reaches it at sunset on his final journey (Chapter 81), and it later runs beside Naimisha, the forest where the horse sacrifice is held (Chapter 103).

Hampi: a site in northern Karnataka, from the Vijayanagara period, with Hanuman images (section F); tradition also identifies it with Kishkindha, the story's vanara kingdom, and its name is said to descend from Pampa (section H).

Hanuman Chalisa: forty verses in praise of Hanuman, "the most widely recited Hanuman text there is."

Hanuman Dhoka: the palace in Kathmandu that takes its name from a stone Hanuman set at its gate in 1672 under King Pratap Malla, and that Hanuman is said to guard, a civic office rather than a role in the story.

Hanuman Jayanti: a day of observance for Hanuman, described as "widely kept across the Indo-Caribbean diaspora and in Canada," in communities formed by indentured migration (Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Mauritius).

Hikayat Seri Rama: Malay tellings of the Ramayana story in which, as in Laos's Phra Lak Phra Ram, Lakshmana becomes the stronger brother.

Hiranyakashipu: named, with Hiranyaksha, as the first of the "three

Hiranyaksha: named, with Hiranyakashipu, as the first of the

Iramavataram: the twelfth-century Tamil retelling made by the poet Kamban, described as not a translation but a work inside a centuries-old Tamil poetic inheritance and the bhakti movement.

Jambavan: an elder bear-hero who joins the southern

Jambū: a fruit tree, sometimes called the rose apple in English, listed here among the sandalwood, mango, and cedar of the palace garden.

Janaki: another name of Sita, used once, at Chapter 110. The chapter

Janakpur: a site in the Nepalese Terai proposed as Mithila, Janaka's capital in the story; other sites in Bihar have also been proposed.

Janasthana: the nearby rakshasa stronghold ruled by Khara.

Jataka: in the essay's own wording, "a Jataka, a story of the Buddha's former lives," named here in connection with Laos's Phra Lak Phra Ram, in which Lakshmana is "the central and more capable figure."

Jaya and Vijaya: the two gatekeepers of Vaikuntha, Vishnu's own realm,

Kadali-vana: the episode, in the Mahabharata's Vana Parva, in which Bhima meets an old monkey, Hanuman, lying across a narrow path.

Kailasa: the mountain where Kubera withdraws after Ravana takes Lanka from him, and which Ravana once shook, drawing Nandi's curse.

Kakawin Ramayana: "the Old Javanese Kakawin Ramayana," Java's telling of the story.

Kāla: Time personified, who arrives at Rama's gate as an ascetic and names himself "the gatherer of all things" and Brahma's messenger.

Kalakeya: a named group of danavas; Shurpanakha's husband Vidyujjihva is described as a leader among them (Chapter 54), and Chapter 65 names him as killed "among the Kalakeyas."

Kamban: a Tamil poet who, "around the twelfth century," made the Iramavataram, "not a translation," writing "inside a Tamil poetic inheritance centuries old, and inside the bhakti movement."

Kapidhvaja: the name given to Arjuna's banner in the Mahabharata, glossed by the essay itself as "monkey-bannered," after Hanuman's promise to cry out unseen from Arjuna's flagstaff.

Karapatha: the region Bharata proposes, where Angada's city Angadiya is later established.

Kathakali: a performance form that "took shape in seventeenth-century Kerala," whose most direct forerunner the essay names as a Ramayana dance-drama.

Kekaya: Kaikeyi's home kingdom, from which her brother Yudhajit and her family come.

Khon: "the Thai masked drama khon, whose only source is the Ramakien"; inscribed on UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2018.

Kimpurusha: a race of the mountain country; the name Budha

Kishkindha: the vanara kingdom near Pampa, from which the

Kosala: the kingdom whose capital is Ayodhya, ruled by the Ikshvaku dynasty.

Krauncha: the bird species Valmiki sees killed at the Tamasa in the prologue; the endnote says older English translations render the word as curlew, that Julia Leslie's study compared thirty-two candidate species and identified it as the Indian sarus crane, and that "this retelling says crane."

Krita: one of the four cosmic ages named in the text, described here as the earliest.

Krittibas Ojha: a fifteenth-century Bengal poet who "put it [the Ramayana] into payar metre as a panchali, a sung narrative, made to be performed for a village rather than read at a court."

Kshatriya: the warrior and ruling order among the four hereditary groups the narrative names, the order a brahmin is born to counsel rather than to fight.

Kumaras: four sages who, in the same later devotional

Kusa: a sacred grass used to prepare a ritual observance, on which Rama and Sita lie the night before the planned installation.

Kushika: Vishvamitra's lineage name, given as "the line of Kushika" when he first arrives at Ayodhya's gate.

Lakshman Rekha: "the narrow protective line Lakshmana had drawn around the dwelling," in the chapter's own words, which Sita and later Ravana each stand on opposite sides of.

Lanka: the island city Ravana rules after taking it by force from his half-brother Kubera.

Lava: a fragment used by Valmiki, alongside kusa grass, to perform the protective rite for Sita's newborn twins.

Lok Ta Kamhaeng: a local deity at Wat Svay Andet in Cambodia,

Madhumanta: the city Danda founds after Ikshvaku grants him a kingdom between the Vindhya and Shaivala mountains.

Madhura: the Yamuna-side city Shatrughna establishes after Lavana's death.

Madhusudana: an epithet for Vishnu, "slayer of Madhu," used once, at Chapter

Mahabharata: the other great Sanskrit epic, in which Hanuman appears in the Vana Parva, unrecognized by his own half-brother Bhima.

Maharadia Lawana: a Maranao epic of the Philippines whose Ravana-figure "has eight heads and is a hero."

Mahendra: the mountain that becomes Parashurama's home after he gives the earth to Kashyapa, and which Hanuman later climbs to launch his leap to Lanka.

Maheshvara: another name of Shiva, used once, at Chapter 66, where the text

Mahishmati: the city ruled by Kartavirya Arjuna, where Ravana is carried as a captive after their fight.

Mainaka: a mountain of the sea that rises from the water to offer Hanuman a resting place during his leap to Lanka, and that speaks to him directly.

Mallas: a named people; Chandraketu's city Chandrakanta stands "in the land of the Mallas."

Manava: a named weapon (astra) Rama uses against Maricha; the text says it is "named for Manu," the ancestral human lawgiver.

Mandakini: the river at Chitrakuta, beside which Lakshmana builds the exiles' leaf-thatched shelter (Chapter 17) and where Rama and Lakshmana later make a water offering for their dead father (Chapter 20). The name recurs at Chapters 53 and 67 for a river the text places beside "the mountain," in a passage set at Kailasa; the manuscript never states whether this is the same watercourse as the one at Chitrakuta or a second river sharing the name.

Mandsaur: a place in Madhya Pradesh where Ravana's wife Mandodari is held to have come from, and where he is honored as a son-in-law of the town.

Manimaya: the jeweled city Ravana reaches on his underwater march, home to boon-protected adversaries.

Mannar: the site on the Sri Lankan side where the Adam's Bridge/Rama Setu formation ends, opposite Rameswaram on the Indian side.

Maranao: a Philippine community among whom "there is the Maharadia Lawana, whose Ravana-figure has eight heads and is a hero."

Matali: Indra's charioteer, who brings Rama a celestial chariot for the final duel with Ravana.

Meghanada: Indrajit's earlier name, "thunder-cry," given at his birth and

Meru: a mountain where the hermitage of the royal sage Trinabindu stands, and where his descendants undertake austerities.

Mithila: Janaka's capital city, where the sacrifice and the bow contest for Sita take place.

Molla: "a potter's daughter and one of the earliest named women poets in the [Telugu] language," who "wrote a Ramayana praised for plain speech at a time when court poetry ran to heavy Sanskrit."

Naga: a serpent-associated being in the epic world.

Naimisha: the sacred forest beside the Gomati River where Rama holds the horse sacrifice and where Valmiki later arrives with Lava and Kusha.

Nalakubara: Vaishravana's son, to whom Rambha is pledged.

Nandana: a celestial grove, described in the Spanish chapter as "the garden of the gods."

Nandigrama: the place outside Ayodhya where Bharata governs as regent during Rama's exile, living in ascetic dress with the sandals Rama gave him as the visible sign of the trust he holds.

Narmada: the river where Kartavirya Arjuna's companions were gathered when Ravana disturbed its current with his flowers during his campaign against them.

Nashik: a site in Maharashtra, on the Godavari, that tradition identifies with Panchavati, the story's forest dwelling place.

Nikumbhila: a ritual grove in Lanka where Meghanada

Nimsar: a site in Sitapur district, on the Gomati, that tradition identifies with Naimisha, the forest where the story's horse sacrifice is held.

Nivatakavachas: a named, boon-protected people with whom

Omkara: one of the "exalted figures" who arrive at Kardama's hermitage alongside the sages Pulastya, Kratu, and Vashatkara.

Paduka: a pair of ornamented sandals that stand for royal authority when their owner cannot be present in person.

Pampa: the waters and forested landscape toward which

Panchali: a Bengali sung narrative verse form; the essay names it as the form Krittibas Ojha put the fifteenth-century Bengali Ramayana into, "made to be performed for a village rather than read at a court."

Panchavati: the wooded settlement near the Godavari where the exiles make a leaf dwelling.

Parashara Samhita: "a later text" reported to give Hanuman a wife, Suvarchala, offered as a counter-tradition to his celibacy.

Pashupata: a divine weapon Ravana uses against Yama's

Paulastya: the patronymic for descendants of Pulastya, applied by Agastya to a group of rakshasas (Malyavan, Sumali, and Mali) in his account of Lanka's early history.

Payar: the metre in which Krittibas Ojha composed his fifteenth-century Bengali panchali.

Payasa: a divine milk-based preparation.

Phra Lak Phra Ram: Laos's telling of the story, which "has moved out of a Hindu frame entirely and is understood as a Jataka," with Lakshmana as "the central and more capable figure."

Pratishthana: the city Ila founds "in the central land" after leaving Bahlika to Shashabindu, where her son Pururavas later rules.

Pushkaravata: the city Bharata founds for Pushkala, alongside Takshashila for Taksha, in the Gandharva country.

Pushpaka: the flying palace that Brahma granted to Kubera and that Ravana later took from him by force.

Pushya: a lunar constellation considered favorable for the planned installation.

Raghavas: the dynastic name for Rama's line, used when Valmiki tells Shatrughna that his hermitage "belongs to the house of the Raghavas."

Rājasūya: a royal sovereignty sacrifice whose source-given cost is the destruction of other royal houses.

Rakshasa: a kind of powerful nonhuman being in the

Rakshasi: the feminine form of rakshasa: a powerful nonhuman being able to change form.

Rama Setu: the name, alongside "Adam's Bridge," for a chain of limestone shoals running about fifty kilometres between Rameswaram on the Indian side and Mannar on the Sri Lankan side.

Ramakien: Thailand's national telling, completed in 1797 under King Rama I, rebuilding what had been lost when Ayutthaya was destroyed thirty years earlier; its Hanuman has a romantic love story, involving a mermaid, "that no Indian telling contains."

Ramanandi: "The Ramanandi ascetic order," named by the essay as one of several regional developments Lutgendorf offers to account for the rise of Hanuman's independent worship, "developments that do not line up into a sequence."

Ramayan: the sixteenth-century Bengali retelling by Chandrabati, "the first named woman poet in the language," which "stays with Sita's lament and gives the war almost no room at all," in village Bengali, meant to be sung largely to women.

Ramayana: the book's own name for the epic poem it tells; also the title Valmiki gives the poem sung by Lava and Kusha within the story itself (Chapters 105, 106, 114).

Rambha: an apsara, a celestial woman of the epic's

Ramboda: a site in Sri Lanka with a Hanuman temple dedicated in 1999, tied partly to Ramayana tourism.

Ramcharitmanas: Tulsidas's retelling of Rama's story in Awadhi, begun in 1574 "by the date the poem gives itself," which for a vast number of people in northern India "is simply the Ramayana."

Rameswaram / Rameshwaram: the pilgrimage site on the Indian shore, at one end of the Adam's Bridge/Rama Setu formation, and the setting of a story, treated as later legend, in which Hanuman meets Arjuna.

Ramlila: "the cycle of open-air performances staged across northern India through the autumn and ending with Ravana's effigy going up in flames," inscribed on UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2008.

Rasatala: the subterranean realm below the earth into which Sumali, Malyavan, and the surviving rakshasas flee after Vishnu defeats them (Chapter 51), later described as a refuge for defeated rakshasas (Chapter 64).

Ravanahatha: "a bowed folk instrument" that "carries his [Ravana's] name and is played today by performer communities in Rajasthan," per one story in which Ravana cut off his own head to build an instrument from it.

Ravita: the word the essay states is the source of Ravana's name: "ravita means made to cry out, and Shiva gives Ravana the name from that cry."

Reamker: Cambodia's telling of the story; heritage documentation describes several of its characters as having become local deities in their own right, among them the figure venerated at Wat Svay Andet.

Rishi: a sage whose disciplined practice and learning carry religious and public authority.

Rishimukha: a hill near the traditional Hampi/Kishkindha site, said to take its name from the story's Rishyamukha.

Rishyamukha: the mountain refuge near Pampa where Sugriva

Royal Consecration: the ritual installation that publicly makes

Rudra: another name of Shiva, used at Chapters 7, 82, 83, 87, 88 and

Sahadharmacārī: a companion in shared dharma.

Samartha Ramdas: "The Maharashtrian saint Samartha Ramdas, who lived from 1608 to 1681 and whose tradition regards him as Hanuman's incarnation."

Sampati: Jatayu's older brother, an aged vulture king

Sandhya: the ritual observance made at the meeting of day and night, performed here by Vali at each of the four oceans.

Sanjeevani: one of the life-restoring herbs Sushena sends Hanuman to seek for Lakshmana.

Sankashya: the kingdom Kushadhvaja rules, given to him by his elder brother Janaka after Janaka defeated the invading king Sudhanvan.

Sankat Mochan: a temple in Varanasi where the queues on Tuesdays and Saturdays, the days most widely observed for Hanuman worship, are long.

Santanika: the celestial realm, called "the Santanika worlds," that Brahma assigns as a destination to those who followed Rama out of love and gave their lives for him.

Sarayu: the river of the kingdom of Kosala, running past Ayodhya. The horse-sacrifice rites of Chapter 2 are held on its bank, Vishvamitra leads Rama and Lakshmana along it out of the city in Chapter 5, and at the end of the story both Rama and Lakshmana leave the human world by entering it, in Chapters 113 and 114.

Sarga: the chapter/canto unit of the critical edition of the Ramayana. Section F uses it to say the brahmachari epithet for Hanuman "does not appear to be traceable to a sarga"; section J uses the plural, "sargas," for the units the Baroda and Princeton commentaries cover, and the singular again to say a detail "is not in the critical sarga."

Saudasa: another name of Mitrasaha, a king in Shatrughna's line, used

Shaivala: a mountain paired with the Vindhya; Danda's kingdom lies between the two (Chapters 95 to 96), and Chapter 92 places it near the lake where an ascetic hangs in penance.

Shishupala: named, with Dantavakra, as the third of the "three

Shiva Tandava Stotra: a freestanding Sanskrit hymn traditionally said to be what Ravana sang to Shiva, in the enlarged, later telling of the Kailasa episode, in return for release and favor.

Shringaverapura: the city on the Ganga where Guha, the Nishada ruler, receives Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana at the start of the exile, and later welcomes Hanuman with news of Rama's return.

Shudra: the lowest of the four hereditary groups in the social order Narada describes.

Shurasena: the people, and by extension the region, in whose country the gods say the new city will stand.

Siddhashrama: Vishvamitra's hermitage, named in the chapter itself as "the Hermitage of Fulfillment" and linked by Vishvamitra to an older story about Vishnu.

Simsapa: the species of tree beneath which Hanuman first finds Sita in Ashoka Vatika; the manuscript names the tree but does not describe it further.

Sindhu: the river on both of whose banks lies a country held by Gandharvas, which the Kekaya king's envoy urges Bharata's sons to conquer.

Sitapur: the district, on the Gomati, that contains Nimsar, the site tradition identifies with Naimisha.

Sumeru: the mountain where Kesari ruled among the vanaras, and where Anjana, his wife, and their son Hanuman had their beginnings.

Suvarchala: reported, in a text the essay calls the Parashara

Swayamprabha: an ascetic guardian who helps the southern

Takshashila: the city Bharata founds for Taksha, alongside Pushkaravata for Pushkala.

Tamasa: a small river where the citizens following Rama into exile stop for the night, and where Rama has Sumantra turn the chariot before dawn to throw off their tracks.

Tapas: disciplined religious practice of restraint, study, and ritual, sustained over years and sometimes involving severe bodily hardship; it gathers power that the gods themselves must answer.

Treta: one of the four cosmic ages named in the text, the age in which the text says kshatriyas began performing severe religious discipline alongside brahmins.

Trikuta: the mountain on which Lanka stands.

Tripura: named only within the epithet applied to Shiva, "the destroyer of Tripura," in Parashurama's account of the two divine bows.

Tulsidas: the poet who, "by the date the poem gives itself," began the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi in 1574, "and for a vast number of people in northern India it is simply the Ramayana." Section F adds that the Hanuman Chalisa "is almost universally attributed to Tulsidas," but that "attribution is traditional rather than documented," with "some sources describ[ing] the authorship as contested on stylistic grounds."

Uma: Shiva's consort in Chapters 99 to 101, called "daughter of the

Uttarakanda: the seventh book of the critical edition of Valmiki's Ramayana, the source cited repeatedly in the notes for Ravana-and-Shiva material, Indrajit's boon, and other passages the narrative does not itself carry.

Vaikuntha: Vishnu's own realm, whose gate Jaya and Vijaya guard before the curse that sends them to be born in the world below.

Vaishravana / Kubera / Dhanada: one figure under three names. Ravana's half-brother, the lord of

Vaishya: one of the four hereditary birth groups Rama names when he asks an ascetic, "Are you a brahmin, a kshatriya, a vaishya, or a Shudra?"

Vaitarani: a terrible river crossed by some of the dead

Vajapeya: a royal sacrificial rite; the shining ceremonial umbrella associated with it is carried as an emblem of kingship in Rama's final procession.

Vajra: Indra's thunderbolt weapon.

Vamana: Vishnu's small-bodied avatar-form, used once, at Chapter 5,

Vana Parva: the book of the Mahabharata containing the Kadali-vana episode, where Hanuman, unrecognized, blocks Bhima's path and later promises to cry out unseen from Arjuna's flagstaff, the origin the essay gives for the epithet Kapidhvaja, "monkey-bannered."

Vanara: a powerful forest being, often represented

Varanasi: the city, called in the same sentence "the well-kept city of Kashi," to which Rama sends his friend Pratardana.

Vashat: a ritual cry spoken when an offering is made, personified here as one of the sacred powers that accompany Rama.

Vashatkara: one of the "exalted figures" who arrive at Kardama's hermitage alongside the sages Pulastya, Kratu, and Omkara; the personification of the ritual cry vashat.

Vasuki: the naga king who rules Bhogavati; Ravana subdues

Vasus: a group of gods belonging to the celestial assemblies; Savitra, one of their number, meets Sumali's forces in this passage.

Vayavya: a named weapon (astra) Rama sends against the attackers remaining after Agneya and Manava; the text says it is "associated with wind."

Vedas: the ancient sacred texts at the heart of

Vidarbha: the kingdom of King Sudeva, whose elder son Shveta is consecrated king after Sudeva's death.

Videha: Chapter 9 names "the lineage of the Videhas," the dynasty of Janaka and his brother Kushadhvaja; Chapter 10 names "Devarata of the Videha line," the figure to whom Shiva gives his bow after being angered.

Vidisha: the eastern country given to Shatrughati, one of Shatrughna's two sons, when Shatrughna divides his territory (his other son, Subahu, receives Madhura).

Vidya: a sacred discipline or form of knowledge held

Vidyujjihva: Shurpanakha's husband, killed by Ravana

Vimalasuri: author of "a Jain telling" in Prakrit "in which the story changes shape entirely": Ravana is "a handsome and just ruler, a protector of Jain shrines," and Lakshmana, not Rama, kills him.

Vindhya: a mountain range; Chapter 1 places some of Ayodhya's war elephants among those bred there, and Chapters 95 to 96 locate Danda's kingdom between the Vindhya and Shaivala mountains before its destruction.

Vishala: the kingdom of King Sumati, where Rama, Lakshmana, and Vishvamitra stay one night on the road to Mithila.

Volga: "the Telugu writer Volga," who "wrote The Liberation of Sita, five linked stories in which Sita, after the abandonment, meets the other women of the epic: Shurpanakha, Ahalya, Urmila." The essay places her writing "in our own time."

Wat Svay Andet: a shrine in Cambodia to a local deity called Lok Ta Kamhaeng, represented by a Hanuman mask, venerated apart from the masked theatre.

Wayang Kulit: "Javanese shadow puppetry, wayang kulit," recognised by UNESCO in 2003.

Yaksha: a powerful being of the forest world, keeper of wild places and of wealth hidden under the earth.

Yakshi: a female yaksha being associated here with

Yama Zatdaw: Myanmar's telling of the story, cited as evidence that "the story is Buddhist too."

Yamuna: one of the two rivers, alongside the Ganga, that Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana crossed at the start of their exile, named together retrospectively when Pushpaka retraces the route home. Later in the story, Shatrughna's city Madhura stands beside it, and he crosses it to face Lavana.

Yojana: a measure of distance in the old reckoning, used to make a size felt rather than to fix it upon a map.

Yuvarāja: the formally designated heir who shares the burden of rule while the king still reigns.