The Ramayana Part 180

When Bali's warrior son(979) beheld Their flight, his heart with fury swelled.

He rushed, with his terrific shout, To meet the foe and stay the rout.

He came, he hurled a mountain peak, And smote the giant on the cheek.

His ponderous spear the giant threw: Fierce was the cast, the aim was true; But Angad, trained in war and tried, Saw ere it came, and leapt aside.

Then with his open hand he smote The giant on the chest and throat.

That blow the giant scarce sustained; But sense and strength were soon regained.

With force which nothing might resist He caught the Vanar by the wrist, Whirled him, as if in pastime, round, And dashed him senseless on the ground.

There low on earth his foe lay crushed: At King Sugriva next he rushed, Who, waiting for the charge, stood still, And heaved on high a shattered hill, He looked on k.u.mbhakar?a dyed With streams of blood, and fiercely cried: "Great glory has thine arm achieved, And thousands of their lives bereaved.

Now leave a while thy meaner foes, And brook the hill Sugriva throws."

He spoke, and hurled the ma.s.s he held: The giant's chest the stroke repelled, Then on the Vanars fell despair, And Rakshas clamour filled the air.

The giant raised his arm, and fast Came the tremendous(980) spear he cast.

Hanuman caught it as it flew, And knapped it on his knee in two.

The giant saw the broken spear: His clouded eye confessed his fear; Yet at Sugriva's head he sent A peak from Lanka's mountain rent.

The rus.h.i.+ng ma.s.s no might could stay: Sugriva fell and senseless lay.

The giant stooped his foe to seize, And bore him thence, as bears the breeze A cloud in autumn through the sky.

He heard the sad Immortals sigh, And shouts of triumph long and loud Went up from all the Rakshas crowd.

Through Lanka's gate the giant pa.s.sed Holding his struggling captive fast, While from each terrace, house, and tower Fell on his haughty head a shower Of fragrant scent and flowery rain, Blossoms and leaves and scattered grain.(981)

By slow degrees the Vanars' lord Felt life and sense and strength restored.

He heard the giants' joyful boast: He thought upon his Vanar host.

His teeth and feet he fiercely plied, And bit and rent the giant's side, Who, mad with pain and smeared with gore, Hurled to the ground the load he bore.

Regardless of a storm of blows Swift to the sky the Vanar rose, Then lightly like a flying ball High overleapt the city wall, And joyous for deliverance won Regained the side of Raghu's son.

And k.u.mbhakar?a, mad with hate And fury, sallied from the gate, The carnage of the foe renewed And filled his maw with gory food.

Slaying, with headlong frenzy blind, Both Vanar foes and giant kind.

Nor would Sumitra's valiant son(982) The might of k.u.mbhakar?a shun, Who through his harness felt the sting Of keen shafts loosened from the string.

His heart confessed the warrior's power, And, bleeding from the ceaseless shower That smote him on the chest and side, With words like these the giant cried: "Well fought, well fought, Sumitra's son; Eternal glory hast thou won, For thou in desperate fight hast met The victor never conquered yet, Whom, borne on huge Airavat's back, E'en Indra trembles to attack.

Go, son of Queen Sumitra, go: Thy valour and thy strength I know.

Now all my hope and earnest will Is Rama in the fight to kill.

Let him beneath my weapons fall, And I will meet and conquer all."

The chieftain, of Sumitra born, Made answer as he laughed in scorn: "Yea, thou hast won a victor's fame From trembling G.o.ds and Indra's shame.

There waits thee now a mightier foe Whose prowess thou hast yet to know.

There, famous in a hundred lands, Rama the son of Raghu stands."

Straight at the king the giant sped, And earth was shaken at his tread.

His bow the hero grasped and strained, And deadly shafts in torrents rained.

As k.u.mbhakar?a felt each stroke From his huge mouth burst fire and smoke; His hands were loosed in mortal pain And dropped his weapons on the plain.

Though reft of spear and sword and mace No terror changed his haughty face.

With heavy hands he rained his blows And smote to death a thousand foes.

Where'er the furious monster strode While down his limbs the red blood flowed Like torrents down a mountain's side, Vanars and bears and giants died.

High o'er his head a rock he swung, And the huge ma.s.s at Rama flung.

But Rama's arrows bright as flame Shattered the mountain as it came.

Then Raghu's son, his eyes aglow With burning anger, charged the foe, And as his bow he strained and tried With fearful clang the cord replied.

Wroth at the bowstring's threatening clang To meet his foe the giant sprang.

High towering with enormous frame Huge as a wood-crowned hill he came.

But Rama firm and self-possessed In words like these the foe addressed: "Draw near, O Rakshas lord, draw near, Nor turn thee from the fight in fear.

Thou meetest Rama face to face, Destroyer of the giant race.

Come, fight, and thou shalt feel this hour, Laid low in death, thy conqueror's power."

He ceased: and mad with wrath and pride The giant champion thus replied: "Come thou to me and thou shalt find A foeman of a different kind.

No Khara, no Viradha,-thou Hast met a mightier warrior now.

The strength of k.u.mbhakar?a fear, And dread the iron mace I rear This mace in days of yore subdued The G.o.ds and Danav mult.i.tude.

Prove, lion of Ikshvaku's line, Thy power upon these limbs of mine.

Then, after trial, shalt thou bleed, And with thy flesh my hunger feed."

He ceased: and Rama, undismayed, Upon his cord those arrows laid Which pierced the stately Sal trees through, And Bali king of Vanars slew.

They flew, they smote, but smote in vain Those mighty limbs that felt no pain.

Then Rama sent with surest aim The dart that bore the Wind-G.o.d's name.

The missile from the giant tore His huge arm and the mace it bore, Which crushed the Vanars where it fell: And dire was k.u.mbhakar?a's yell.

The giant seized a tree, and then Rushed madly at the lord of men.

Another dart, Lord Indra's own, To meet his furious onset thrown, His left arm from the shoulder lopped, And like a mountain peak it dropped.

Then from the bow of Rama sped Two arrows, each with crescent head; And, winged with might which naught could stay, They cut the giant's legs away.

They fell, and awful was the sound As those vast columns shook the ground; And sky and sea and hill and cave In echoing roars their answer gave.

Then from his side the hero drew A dart that like the tempest flew- No deadlier shaft has ever flown Than that which Indra called his own- Nor could the giant's mail-armed neck The fury of the missile check.

Through skin and flesh and bone it smote And rent asunder head and throat.

Down with the sound of thunder rolled The head adorned with rings of gold, And crushed to pieces in its fall A gate, a tower, a ma.s.sive wall.

Hurled to the sea the body fell: Terrific was the ocean's swell, Nor could swift fin and nimble leap Save the crushed creatures of the deep.

Thus he who plagued in impious pride The G.o.ds and Brahmans fought and died.

Glad were the hosts of heaven, and long The air re-echoed with their song.(983)

Canto LXVIII. Ravan's Lament.

They ran to Rava? in his hall And told him of his brother's fall: "Fierce as the G.o.d who rules the dead, Upon the routed foe he fed; And, victor for a while, at length Fell slain by Rama's matchless strength.

Now like a mighty hill in size His mangled trunk extended lies, And where he fell, a bleeding ma.s.s, Blocks Lanka's gate that none may pa.s.s."

The monarch heard: his strength gave way; And fainting on the ground he lay.

Grieved at the giants' mournful tale, Long, shrill was Atikaya's wail; And Trisiras in sorrow bowed His triple head, and wept aloud.

Mahodar, Mahaparsva shed Hot tears and mourned their brother dead.

At length, his wandering sense restored, In loud lament cried Lanka's lord: "Ah chief, for might and valour famed, Whose arm the haughty foeman tamed, Forsaking me, thy friends and all, Why hast thou fled to Yama's hall?

Why hast thou fled to taste no more The slaughtered foeman's flesh and gore?

Ah me, my life is done to-day: My better arm is lopped away.

Whereon in danger I relied, And, fearless, G.o.ds and fiends defied.

How could a shaft from Rama's bow The matchless giant overthrow, Whose iron frame so strong of yore The crus.h.i.+ng bolt of Indra bore?

This day the G.o.ds and sages meet And triumph at their foe's defeat.

This day the Vanar chiefs will boast And, with new ardour fired, their host In fiercer onset will a.s.sail Our city, and the ramparts scale.

What care I for a monarch's name, For empire, or the Maithil dame?

What joy can power and riches give, Or life that I should care to live, Unless this arm in mortal fray The slayer of my brother slay?

For me, of k.u.mbhakar?a reft, Death is the only solace left; And I will seek, o'erwhelmed with woes, The realm to which my brother goes.

Ah me ill-minded, not to take His counsel when Vibhisha? spake When he this evil day foretold My foolish heart was overbold: I drove my sage adviser hence, And reap the fruits of mine offence."

Canto LXIX. Narantak's Death.