RAMA, among the avatara of Vishnu, in the mythology of the Ilindus, are recorded three favoured personages in whom the deity became incarnate, all named Rama. They are distinguished by the names of Bala Rama, usually called Balararn, Parasu Rama or Parasram, meaning Rama of the club, and Rama Chandra or Dasrat Rama, and are all famed as great warriors, and as youths of perfect beauty.
Bala Rama was elder brother to Krishna, and greatly assisted him in his wars; so that, in this instance, Vishnu seems to have duplicated him self, as indeed may be also said of the others, for Parasu Rama and Rama Chandra, otherwise called patronymically Dasrat Rama, were contempo raries. But it has been made a question whether they be not three representations of one person, or three different ways of relating the sante history ; and whether any or all of them mean Rama, the son of Kush, Sir W. JOI1CS says (As. Res. p. 132) he leaves others to determine. Ile deems Rama, son of Dasaratla, to be the same as the Grecian Dionysos, who is said to have conquered India with an army of Satyrs, com manded by Pan ; and Dasrat Rama was also a conqueror, and had an army of large monkeys or Satyrs, the general or prince of whom was Hanuman, a name said by this author to mean, with high eheek-bones; others translate it, with bloated cheeks, alluding to his fabled origin from Pavan, regent of the wind. Dasrat Rama 39 alto found to resemble the Indian Bacchus ; he is. a descendant of the sun, and the husband of Salt ; and it is worthy of remark, that the Peruvians, whose Inca boasted of the same descent, styled their greatest festival Ilarnasitoa. Krishna, de Bcnbing himself to Arjun as the first of all things, says, ' Among those who carry arum, 1 Ell RAM.' Of Parasu Rama it is related that he waa txml near Agra, in the Tirtya yug, or accuns! are. Ilia parents were Jantadaol, whooe name appears ass ono of the rigid, and !tundra. Ile scents to have been a warrior prince, who about si.c. 1176 oter ran the Malabar coast, introduced VI Aryan race twin the north, and gave his mune to an era used still on the Malabar coast from Mangalore to Cape Contorin. Parasu means a club, and was
probably applied to him from biacarrying a mace.
In the Rama Chandra avatar, Vishnu appears in the person of a courageous and virtuous prince, the son of Dasaratlia, the powerful sovereign of India (whose capital, Ayodliya, is mid to have extended over a space of forty miles), and em ployed to punish a monstrous, giant, 'lava:), oho then reigned over Lanka, or the island of Ceylon. The Rarnayana contains the heroic description of the battles and lives of all the three llamas, although it more particularly details the exploits of Rtuna Chandra, or Dattrat Rama, so duitin gu felled from his royal father,Dasaratita. The mune of this monarch means, whose car had borne him to ten regions, that is, to the eight cardinal and intermediate points, the zenith, and nadir. He was a descendant from Surya, or lieli, which is a name of the sun in Greek and Sanskrit; and one of his ancestors, the great Raghu, had con quered the seven Dwipas, or the whole earth. But it is not known why a Suryavansa, or descendant of the sun, should be styled Rama Chandra, the latter patronymic referring contradistiuguishingly to the descendants of the moon, Chrindravansa. In Hindu mythology, however, everything seems, directly or indirectly, to merge in, radiate front, or ainalgatnate with, the sun, or Surya, in one or other of its names or prototypes. All of the Vaishnava sects agree in statiug that, with the exception of Krishna, the potentiality of the preserving power of the deity wa.s never exhibited in such plenitude as in this avatara of Mica. In popularity., and in dramatic, historic, ancl poetic shapes, it rivals the avatara of Krishna. And as the Gocalastha sect adore Krishna as the deity himself, and draw rules for their religious and moral conduct from the Sri Bhagavata, so the Rantanuj sect similarly clothe Rama in almighty attributes, and deem the Ramayana a complete body of ethics and morality.