{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry228.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry228.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry228.htm","text":"When R\u00e1ma, pride of Raghu's race,\n Virtue's dear son, had cleft the mace,\n Thus with superior smile the best\n Of chiefs the furious fiend addressed:\n \n \n 'Thou, worst of giant blood, at length\n Hast shown the utmost of thy strength,\n And forced by greater might to bow,\n Thy vaunting threats are idle now.\n My shafts have cut thy club in twain:\n Useless it lies upon the plain,\n And all thy pride and haughty trust\n Lie with it levelled in the dust.\n The words that thou hast said to-day,\n That thou wouldst wipe the tears away\n Of all the giants I have slain,\n My deeds shall render void and vain.\n Thou meanest of the giants' breed,\n Evil in thought and word and deed.\n My hand shall take that life of thine\n As Garud\u00a01 seized the juice divine.\n \n \n Thou, rent by shafts, this day shalt die:\n Low on the ground thy corse shall lie,\n And bubbles from the cloven neck\n With froth and blood thy skin shall deck,\n With dust and mire all rudely dyed,\n Thy torn arms lying by thy side,\n While streams of blood each limb shall steep,\n Thou on earth's breast shalt take thy sleep\n Like a fond lover when he strains\n The beauty whom at length he gains.\n Now when thy heavy eyelids close\n For ever in thy deep repose,\n Again shall Dandak forest be\n Safe refuge for the devotee.\n Thou slain, and all thy race who held\n The realm of Janasth\u00e1n expelled,\n Again shall happy hermits rove,\n Fearing no danger, through the grove.\n Within those bounds, their brethren slain,\n No giant shall this day remain,\n But all shall fly with many a tear\n And fearing, rid the saints of fear,\n This bitter day shall misery bring\n On all the race that calls thee king.\n Fierce as their lord, thy dames shall know,\n Bereft of joys, the taste of woe.\n Base, cruel wretch, of evil mind,\n Plaguer of Br\u00e1hmans and mankind,\n With trembling hands each devotee\n Feeds holy tires in dread of thee.'\n \n \n Thus with wild fury unrepressed\n Raghu's brave son the fiend addressed;\n And Khara, as his wrath grew high,\n Thus thundered forth his fierce reply:\n \n \n 'By senseless pride to madness wrought,\n By danger girt thou fearest naught,\n Nor heedest, numbered with the dead,\n What thou shouldst say and leave unsaid.\n When Fate's tremendous coils enfold\n The captive in resistless hold,\n He knows not right from wrong, each sense\n Numbed by that deadly influence.'\n \n \n He spoke, and when his speech was done\n Bent his fierce brows on Raghu's son.\n With eager eyes he looked around\n If lethal arms might yet be found.\n Not far away and full in view\n A S\u00e1l-tree towering upward grew.\n His lips in mighty strain compressed,\n He tore it up with root and crest,\n With huge arms waved it o'er his head\n And hurled it shouting, Thou art dead.\n But R\u00e1ma, unsurpassed in might.\n Stayed with his shafts its onward flight,\n And furious longing seized his soul\n The giant in the dust to roll.\n Great drops of sweat each limb bedewed,\n His red eyes showed his wrathful mood.\n A thousand arrows, swiftly sent,\n The giant's bosom tore and rent\n From every gash his body showed\n The blood in foamy torrents flowed,\n As springing from their caverns leap\n Swift rivers down the mountain steep.\n When Khara felt each deadened power\n Yielding beneath that murderous shower,\n He charged, infuriate with the scent\n Of blood, in dire bewilderment.\n But R\u00e1ma watched, with ready bow,\n The onset of his bleeding foe,\n And ere the monster reached him, drew\n Backward in haste a yard or two.\n Then from his side a shaft be took\n Whose mortal stroke no life might brook:\n Of peerless might, it bore the name\n Of Brahm\u00e1's staff, and glowed with flame:\n Lord Indra, ruler of the skies,\n Himself had given the glorious prize,\n His bow the virtuous hero drew,\n And at the fiend the arrow flew.\n Hissing and roaring like the blast\n Of tempest through the air it passed,\n And fixed, by R\u00e1ma's vigour sped,\n In the foe's breast its pointed head.\n Then fell the fiend: the quenchless flame\n Burnt furious in his wounded frame.\n So burnt by Rudra Andhak\u00a01 fell\n In S'vet\u00e1ranya's silvery dell:\n So Namuchi and Vritra\u00a02 died\n By steaming bolts that tamed their pride:\n So Bala\u00a03 fell by lightning sent\n By Him who rules the firmament.\n \n \n Then all the Gods in close array\n With the bright hosts who sing and play,\n Filled full of rapture and amaze,\n Sang hymns of joy in R\u00e1ma's praise,\n Beat their celestial drums and shed\n Rain of sweet flowers upon his head.\n For three short hours had scarcely flown,\n And by his pointed shafts o'erthrown\n The twice seven thousand fiends, whose will\n Could change their shapes, in death were still,\n With Tris'iras and D\u00fashan slain,\n And Khara, leader of the train.\n 'O wondrous deed,' the bards began,\n 'The noblest deed of virtuous man!\n Heroic strength that stood alone,\n And firmness e'en as Vishnu's own!'\n \n \n Thus having sung, the shining train\n Turned to their heavenly homes again.\n \n \n Then the high saints of royal race\n And loftiest station sought the place,\n And by the great Agastya led,\n With reverence to R\u00e1ma said:\n \n \n 'For this, Lord Indra, glorious sire,\n Majestic as the burning fire,\n Who crushes cities in his rage,\n Sought S'arabhanga's hermitage.\n Thou wast, this great design to aid,\n Led by the saints to seek this shade,\n And with thy mighty arm to kill\n The giants who delight in ill.\n Thou Das'aratha's noble son,\n The battle for our sake hast won,\n And saints in Dandak's wild who live\n Their days to holy tasks can give.'\n \n \n Forth from the mountain cavern came\n The hero Lakshman with the dame.\n And rapture beaming from his face.\n Besought the hermit dwelling-place.\n Then when the mighty saints had paid\n Due honour for the victor's aid,\n The glorious R\u00e1ma honoured too\n By Lakshman to his cot withdrew.\n When Sit\u00e1 looked upon her lord,\n His foemen slain, the saints restored,\n In pride and rapture uncontrolled\n She clasped him in her loving hold.\n On the dead fiends her glances fell:\n She saw her lord alive and well,\n Victorious after toil and pain,\n And Janak's child was blest again.\n Once more, once more with new delight\n Her tender arms she threw\n Round R\u00e1ma whose victorious might\n Had crushed the demon crew.\n Then as his grateful reverence paid\n Each saint of lofty soul,\n O'er her sweet face, all fears allayed,\n The flush of transport stole.\n \n \n \n \n263:1 Garud the King of Birds, carried off the *Amrit* or drink of Paradise from Indra's custody.\n264:1 A demon, son of Kas'yap and Diti, slain by Rudra or S'iva when he attempted to carry off the tree of Paradise.\n264:2 Namuchi and Vritra were two demons slain by Indra. Vritra personifies drought, the enemy of Indra, who imprisons the rain in the cloud.\n264:3 Another demon slain by Indra.","title":"BOOK III: Canto XXX.: Khara's Death.","type":"page"}