{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry225.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry225.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry225.htm","text":"But Tris'iras,\u00a02 a chieftain dread,\n Marked Khara as he onward sped.\n And met his car and cried, to stay\n The giant from the purposed fray:\n 'Mine be the charge: let me attack,\n And turn thee from the contest back.\n Let me go forth, and thou shalt see\n The strong-armed R\u00e1ma slain by me.\n True are the words I speak, my lord:\n I swear it as I touch my sword:\n That I this R\u00e1ma's blood will spill,\n Whom every giant's hand should kill.\n This R\u00e1ma will I slay, or he\n In battle fray shall conquer me.\n Restrain thy spirit: check thy car,\n And view tne combat from afar.\n Thou, joying o'er the prostrate foe,\n To Janasth\u00e1n again shalt go,\n Or, if I fall in battle's chance,\n Against my conqueror advance.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus Tris'iras for death who yearned:\n And Khara from the conflict turned,\n 'Go forth to battle,' Khara cried;\n And toward his foe the giant hied.\n Borne on a car of glittering hue\n Which harnessed coursers fleetly drew,\n Like some huge hill with triple peak\n He onward rushed the prince to seek,\n \n \n Still, like a big cloud, sending out\n His arrowy rain with many a shout\n Like the deep sullen roars that come\n Discordant from a moistened drum.\n But Raghu's son, whose watchful eye\n Beheld the demon rushing nigh,\n From the great bow he raised and bent\n A shower of shafts to meet him sent.\n Wild grew the fight and wilder yet\n As fiend and man in combat met,\n As when in some dark wood's retreat\n An elephant and a lion meet.\n \u00a0\u00a0 The giant bent his bow, and true\n To R\u00e1ma's brow three arrows flew.\n Then, raging as he felt the stroke,\n These words in anger R\u00e1ma spoke:\n 'Heroic chief! is such the power\n Of fiends who rove at midnight hour?\n Soft as the touch of flowers I feel\n The gentle blows thine arrows deal.\n Receive in turn my shafts, and know\n What arrows fly from R\u00e1ma's bow.'\n Thus as he spoke his wrath grew hot.\n And twice seven deadly shafts he shot,\n Which, dire as serpent's deadly fang,\n Straight to the giant's bosom sprang.\n Four arrows more,--each shaped to deal\n A mortal wound with barb\u00e8d steel,--\n The glorious hero shot, and slew\n The four good steeds the car that drew.\n Eight other shafts flew straight and fleet,\n And hurled the driver from his seat,\n And in the dust the banner laid\n That proudly o'er the chariot played.\n Then as the fiend prepared to bound\n Forth from his useless car to ground,\n The hero smote him to the heart,\n And numbed his arm with deadly smart.\n Again the chieftain, peerless-souled,\n Seat forth three rapid darts, and rolled\n With each keen arrow, deftly sped,\n Low in the dust a monstrous head.\n Then yielding to each deadly stroke,\n Forth spouting streams of blood and smoke,\n The headless trunk bedrenched with gore\n Fell to the ground and moved no more.\n The fiends who yet were left with life,\n Routed and crushed in battle strife,\n To Khara's side, like trembling deer\n Scared by the hunter, fled in fear.\n King Khara saw with furious eye\n His scattered giants turn and fly;\n Then rallying his broken train\n At Raghu's son he drove amain,\n Like R\u00e1hu \u00a01 when his deadly might\n Comes rushing on the Lord of Night.\n \n \n260:1 Tris'iras.\n260:2 The Three-headed.\n261:1 The demon who causes eclipses.","title":"BOOK III: Canto XXVII.: The Death of Tris'iras.","type":"page"}