{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry218.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry218.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry218.htm","text":"Fierce S'\u00farpanakh\u00e1 with her train\n To R\u00e1ma's dwelling came again,\n And to the eager giants showed\n Where S\u00edt\u00e1 and the youths abode.\n Within the leafy cot they spied\n The hero by his consort's side,\n And faithful Lakshman ready still\n To wait upon his brother's will.\n \n \n Then noble R\u00e1ma raised his eye\n And saw the giants standing nigh,\n And then, as nearer still they pressed.\n His glorious brother thus addressed,\n 'Be thine a while, my brother dear,\n To watch o'er S\u00edt\u00e1's safety here,\n And I will slay these creatures who\n The footsteps of my spouse pursue.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 He spoke, and reverent Lakshman heard\n Submissive to his brother's word.\n The son of Raghu, virtuous-souled,\n Strung his great bow adorned with gold,\n And, with the weapon in his hand,\n Addressed him to the giant band:\n 'R\u00e1ma and Lakshman we, who spring\n From Das'aratha, mighty King;\n We dwell a while with S\u00edt\u00e1 here\n In Dandak forest wild and drear.\n On woodland roots and fruit we feed,\n Aud lives of strictest rule we lead.\n Say why would ye our lives oppress\n Who sojourn in the wilderness.\n Sent hither by the hermits' prayer\n With bow and darts unused to spare,\n For vengeance am I come to slay\n Your sinful band in battle fray.\n Rest as ye are: remain content,\n Nor try the battle's dire event.\n Unless your offered lives ye spurn,\n O rovers of the night, return.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 They listened while the hero spoke,\n Aud fury in each breast awoke.\n The Br\u00e1hman-slayers raised on high\n Their mighty spears and made reply:\n They spoke with eyes aglow with ire,\n While R\u00e1ma's burnt with vengeful tire,\n Aud answered thus, in fury wild,\n That peerless chief whose tones were mild:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'Nay thou hast angered, overbold,\n Khara our lord, the mighty-souled,\n And for thy sin, in battle strife\n Shalt yield to us thy forfeit life.\n No power hast thou alone to stand\n Against the numbers of our band.\n 'Twere vain to match thy single might\n Against us in the front of fight.\n When we equipped for fight advance\n With brandished pike and mace and lance,\n Thou, vanquished in the desperate field,\n Thy bow, thy strength, thy life shalt yield.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 With bitter words and threatening mien\n Thus furious spoke the fierce fourteen,\n And raising scymitar and spear\n On R\u00e1ma rushed in wild career.\n Their levelled spears the giant crew\n Against the matchless hero threw.\n His bow the son of Raghu bent,\n And twice seven shafts to meet them sent,\n And every javelin sundered fell\n By the bright darts he aimed so well.\n \u00a0\u00a0 The hero saw: his anger grew\n To fury: from his side he drew\n Fresh sunbright arrows pointed keen,\n In number, like his foes, fourteen.\n His bow he grasped, the string he drew,\n And gazing on the giant crew,\n As Indra casts the levin, so\n Shot forth his arrrows at the foe.\n The hurtling arrows, stained with gore,\n Through the fiends' breasts a passage tore,\n And in the earth lay buried deep\n As serpents through an ant-hill creep\n Like trees uptorn by stormy blast\n The shattered fiends to earth were cast,\n And there with mangled bodies they,\n Bathed in their blood and breathless, lay.\n \u00a0\u00a0 With fainting heart and furious eye\n The demon saw her champions die.\n With drying wounds that scarcely bled\n Back to her brother's home she fled.\n Oppressed with pain, with loud lament\n At Khara's feet the monster bent.\n There like a plant whence slowly come\n The trickling drops of oozy gum,\n With her grim features pale with pain\n She poured her tears in ceaseless rain,\n There routed S'\u00farpanakh\u00e1 lay,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And told her brother all,\n The issue of the bloody fray,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Her giant champions' fall.\n \n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 * * * * *\n \n \n \n \n \n252:1b Chitraratha, King of the Gandharvas.\n252:2b Titanic.","title":"BOOK III: Canto XX.: The Giants' Death.","type":"page"}