RHAMA or Rama, an incarnate deity of the first rank, in Indian mythology. Sir William Jones believes he was the Dionysos of the Greeks, whom they named Bromius, without knowing why; and Bugenes when they represented him honied, as well as Lyaois and Eleutherios the deliverer, and Tryarnbos or Dithyrambos the triumphant. “Most of those titles,” says Sir William, “were adopted by the Romans, by whom he was called Bruma, Tauriformis, Liber, and Triumphus; and both nations had records or traditionary accounts of his giving laws to men and deciding their contests, of his improving navigation and commerce, and, what may appear yet more observable, of his conquering India and other countries with an army of satyrs, commanded by no less a personage than Pan; whom Lil-Hus Gyraldus, on what authority I know not, asserts to have resided in Iberia, ‘ when he had returned,’ says the learned mythologist, ‘ from the Indian war, in which he accompanied Bacchus.’ It were superfluous in a mere essay to run any length in the parallel between this European god and the sovereign of Ayodhya, whom the Hindus believe to have been an appearance on earth of the preserving power; to have been a conqueror of the highest renown, and the deliverer of nations from tyrants, as well as of his consort Sita from the giant Ravan king of Lanca; and to have commanded in chief a numerous and intrepid race of those large monkeys, which our naturalists, or some of them, have denominated Indian satyrs. This general, the prince of satyrs, was named Hanurnat, or ‘ with high cheek-bones ;’ and with workmen of such agility, he soon raised a bridge of rocks over the sea, part of which, say the Hindus, yet remains; and it is probably the series of rocks to which the Mussulmans or Portuguese have given the foolish name of Adam’s, or, as it should be called, Rama’s Bridge. Might not this army of satyrs have been only a race of mountaineers, whom Rama, if such a monarch ever existed, had civilized? However that may be, the large breed of Indian apes is at this moment held in high veneration by the Hindus, and fed with devotion by the Brahmins, who seem in two or three places on the banks of the Ganges to have a regular endowment for the support of them; they live in [7:19:198]tribes of three or four hundred, are wonderfully gentle (I speak as an eye-witness), and appear to have some kind of order and subordination in their little sylvan polity.” The festival of Rhama is held on the 9th day of the new moon of Chaitra, on which the war of Lanca is dramatically represented, concluding with an exhibition of the fire-ordeal, by which the victor’s wife Sita gave proof of her connubial fidelity. Amongst the Hindus there is a variety of very fine dramas of great antiquity on the story of Rhama.

There are three Rhamas mentioned in the Indian mythology, who, together with Krishna, the darling god of the Indian women, are described as youths of perfect beauty. The third Rhama is Krishna’s elder brother, and is considered as the eighth Avatar, invested with an emanation of his divine radiance. Like all the Avatars, Rhama is painted with gemmed Ethiopian or Parthian coronets; with rays encircling his head, jewels in his ears, two necklaces, one straight and one pendant on his bosom, with dropping gems; garlands of well-disposed many-coloured flowers, or collars of pearls, hanging down below his waist; loose mantles of golden tissue or dyed silk, embroidered on the hems with flowers, elegantly thrown over one shoulder, and folded like ribbands across the breast; with bracelets, two on one arm and on each wrist. All the Avatars are naked to the waist, and uniformly with dark azure flesh, in allusion probably to the tint of that primordial fluid on which Narayan moved in the beginning of time; but their skirts are bright yellow, the colour of the curious pericarpium in the centre of the water-lily.