{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry244.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry244.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry244.htm","text":"The angry Lakshman scarce could brook\n Her bitter words, her furious look.\n With dark forebodings in his breast\n To R\u00e1ma's side he quickly pressed.\n \u00a0\u00a0 Then ten necked R\u00e1van saw the time\n Propitious for his purposed crime.\n A mendicant in guise he came\n And stood before the Maithil dame.\n His garb was red, with tufted hair\n And sandalled feet a shade he bare,\n And from the fiend's left shoulder slung\n A staff and water-vessel hung.\n Near to the lovely dame he drew,\n While both the chiefs were far from view,\n As darkness takes the evening air\n When neither sun nor moon is there.\n He bent his eye upon the dame,\n A princess fair, of spotless fame:\n So might some baleful planet be\n Near Moon-forsaken Rohini. \u00a01\n As the fierce tyrant nearer drew,\n The trees in Janasth\u00e1n that grew\n Waved not a leaf for fear and woe,\n And the hushed wind forbore to blow.\n God\u00e1var\u00ed's waters as they fled,\n Saw his fierce eye-balls flashing red,\n And from each swiftly-gliding wave\n A melancholy murmur gave.\n Then R\u00e1van, when his eager eye\n Beheld the longed-for moment nigh,\n In mendicant's apparel dressed\n Near to the Maithil lady pressed.\n \n \n In holy guise, a fiend abhorred,\n He found her mourning for her lord.\n Thus threatening draws S'anis'char \u00a01 nigh\n To Chitr\u00e1 \u00a02 in the evening sky:\n Thus the deep well by grass concealed\n Yawns treacherous in the verdant field.\n He stood and looked upon the dame\n Of R\u00e1ma, queen of spotless fame\n With her bright teeth and each fair limb\n Like the full moon she seemed to him,\n Sitting within her leafy cot.\n Weeping for woe that left her not.\n Thus, while with joy his pulses beat,\n He saw her in her lone retreat,\n Eyed like the lotus, fair to view\n In bilken robes of amber hue.\n Pierced to the core by K\u00e1ma's dart\n He murmured texts with lying art,\n And questioned with a soft address\n The lady in her loneliness.\n The fiend essayed with gentle speech\n The heart of that fair dame to reach,\n Pride of the worlds, like Beauty's Queen\n Without her darling lotus seen:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'O thou whose silken robes enfold\n A form more rare than finest gold,\n With lotus garland on thy head,\n Like a sweet spring with bloom o'erspread,\n Who art thou, fair one, what thy name,\n Beauty, or Honour, Fortune, Fame,\n Spirit, or nymph, or Queen of love\n Descended from thy home above?\n Bright as the dazzling jasmine shine\n Thy small square teeth in level line.\n Like two black stars aglow with light\n Thine eyes are large and pure and bright.\n Thy charms of smile and teeth and hair\n And winning eyes, O thou most fair,\n Steal all my spirit, as the flow\n Of rivers mines the bank below.\n How bright, how fine each flowing trees!\n How firm those orbs beneath thy dress!\n That dainty waist with ease were spanned,\n Sweet lady, by a lover's hand.\n Mine eyes, O beauty, ne'er have seen\n Goddess or nymph so fair of mien,\n Or bright Gandharva's heavenly dame,\n Or woman of so perfect frame.\n In youth's soft prime thy years are few,\n And earth has naught so fair to view.\n I marvel one like thee in face\n Should make the woods her dwelling-place.\n Leave, lady, leave this lone retreat\n In forest wilds for thee unmeet,\n Where giants fierce and strong assume\n All shapes and wander in the gloom.\n These dainty feet were formed to tread\n \n \n Some palace floor with carpets spread,\n Or wander in trim gardens where\n Each opening bud perfumes the air\n The richest robe thy form should deck,\n The rarest gems adorn thy neck.\n The sweetest wreath should bind thy hair,\n The noblest lord thy bed should share.\n Art thou akin, O fair of form,\n To Rudras,\u00a01b or the Gods of storm,\u00a02b\n Or to the glorious Vasus \u00a03b? How\n Can less than these be bright as thou?\n But never nymph or heavenly maid\n Or Goddess haunts this gloomy shade.\n Here giants roam, a savage race;\n What led thee to so dire a place?\n Here monkeys leap from tree to tree,\n And bears and tigers wander free;\n Here ravening lions prowl, and fell\n Hyenas in the thickets yell,\n And elephants infuriate roam,\n Mighty and fierce, their woodland home.\n Dost thou not dread, so soft and fair,\n Tiger and lion, wolf and bear?\n Hast thou, O beauteous dame, no fear\n In the wild wood so lone and drear?\n Whose and who art thou? whence and why\n Sweet lady, with no guardian nigh,\n Dost thou this awful forest tread\n By giant bands inhabited?'\n \u00a0\u00a0 The praise the high-souled R\u00e1van spoke\n No doubt within her bosom woke. '\n His saintly look and Br\u00e1hman guise\n Deceived the lady's trusting eyes.\n With due attention on the guest\n Her hospitable rites she pressed.\n She bade the stranger to a seat,\n And gave him water for his feet.\n The bowl and water-pot he bare,\n And garb which wandering Br\u00e1hmans wear\n \u00a0\u00a0 Forbade a doubt to rise.\n Won by his holy look she deemed\n The stranger even as he seemed\n \u00a0\u00a0 To her deluded eyes.\n Intent on hospitable care,\n She brought her best of woodland fare.\n \u00a0\u00a0 And showed her guest a seat.\n She bade the saintly stranger lave\n His feet in water which she gave,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And sit and rest and eat.\n He kept his eager glances bent\n On her so kindly eloquent,\n Wife of the noblest king;\n And longed in heart to steal her thence,\n Preparing by the dire offence,\n Death on his head to bring.\n \n \n The lady watched with anxious face\n For R\u00e1ma coming from the chase\n \u00a0\u00a0 With Lakshman by his side:\n But nothing met her wandering glance\n Save the wild forest's green expanse\n \u00a0\u00a0 Extending far aud wide.\n \n \n \n \n282:1 The favourite wife of the Moon.\n283:1 The planet Saturn.\n283:2 Another favourite of the Moon; one of the lunar mansions.\n283:1b The Rudras, agents in creation, are eight in number; they sprang from the forehead of Brahm\u00e1.\n283:2b Maruts, the attendants of Indra.\n283:3b Radiant demi-gods.","title":"BOOK III: Canto XLVI.: The Guest.","type":"page"}