{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry267.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry267.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry267.htm","text":"As R\u00e1ma viewed with heart-felt yain\n The vulture whom the fiend had slain,\n In words with tender love impressed\n His brother chief he thus addressed:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'This royal bird with faithful thought\n For my advantage strove and fought.\n Slain by the fiend in mortal strife\n For me he yields his noble life.\n See, Lakshman, how his wounds have bled;\n His struggling breath will soon have fled.\n Faint is his voice, and near to die,\n He scarce can lift his trembling eye.\n Jat\u00e1yus, if thou still can speak,\n Give, give the answer that I seek.\n The fate of ravished S\u00edt\u00e1 tell,\n And how thy mournful chance befell.\n Say why the giant stole my dame:\n What have I done that he could blame?\n What fault in me has R\u00e1van seen\n That he should rob me of my queen?\n How looked the lady's moon-bright cheek?\n What were the words she found to speak?\n His strength, his might, his deeds declare:\n And tell the form he loves to wear.\n To all my questions make reply:\n Where does the giant's dwelling lie?'\n \u00a0\u00a0 The noble bird his glances bent\n On R\u00e1ma as he made lament,\n And in low accents faint and weak\n With anguish thus began to speak.\n 'Fierce R\u00e1van, king of giant race,\n Stole S\u00edt\u00e1 from thy dwelling-place.\n He calls his magic art to aid\n With wind and cloud and gloomy shade.\n When in the fight my power was spent\n My wearied wings he cleft and rent.\n Then round the dame his arms he threw,\n And to the southern region flew.\n O Raghu's son. I gasp for breath,\n My swimming sight is dim in death.\n Even now before my vision pass\n Bright trees of * with hair of grass,\n *\n Brings on the thief a flood of woe\n The giant in his haste *\n \n \n 'Twas Vinda's hour, \u00a01 or heeded not.\n Those robbed at such a time obtain\n Their plundered store and wealth again.\n He, like a fish that takes the bait,\n In briefest time shall meet his fate.\n Now be thy troubled heart controlled\n And for thy lady's loss consoled.\n For thou wilt slay the fiend in fight\n And with thy dame have new delight.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 With senses clear, though sorely tried,\n The royal vulture thus replied,\n While as he sank beneath his pain\n Forth rushed the tide of blood again.\n 'Him, \u00a02 brother of the Lord of Gold,\n Vis'ravas' self begot of old.'\n Thus spoke the bird, and stained with gore\n Resigned the breath that came no more.\n \u00a0\u00a0 'Speak, speak again!' thus R\u00e1ma cried,\n With reverent palm to palm applied,\n But from the frame the spirit fled\n And to the skiey regions sped.\n The breath of life had passed away.\n Stretched on the ground the body lay.\n \u00a0\u00a0 When Rama saw the vulture lie,\n Hupe as a hill, with darksome eye,\n With many a poignant woe distressed\n His brother chief he thus addressed:\n 'Amid these haunted shades content\n Full many a year this bird has spent.\n His life in home of giants passed,\n In Dandak wood he dies at last.\n The years in lengthened course have fled\n Untroubled o'er the vulture's head,\n And now he lies in death, for none\n The stern decrees of Fate may shun.\n See, Lakshman, how the vulture fell\n While for my sake he battled well.\n And strove to free with onset bold\n My S\u00edt\u00e1 from the giant's hold.\n Supreme amid the vulture kind\n His ancient rule the bird resigned.\n And conquered in tho fruitless strife\n Gave for my sake his noble life.\n O Lakshman, many a time we see\n Great souls who keep the law's decree,\n With whom the weak sure refuge find,\n In creatures of inferior kind.\n The kiss of her, my darling queen,\n Strikes with a pang less fiercely keen\n Than now this slaughtered bird to see\n Who nobly fought and died for me.\n As Das'aratha, good and great,\n Was glorious in his high estate,\n Honoured by all to all endeared,\n So was this royal bird revered.\n Bring fuel for the funeral site:\n These hands the solemn fire shall light\n \n \n And on the burning pyre shall lay\n The bird who died for me to-day.\n Now on the gathered wood shall lie\n The lord of all the birds that fly,\n And I will burn with honours due\n My champion whom the giant slew.\n O royal bird of noblest heart,\n Graced with all funeral rites depart\n To bright celestial seats above,\n Rewarded for thy faithful love.\n Dwell in thy happy home with those\n Whose constant fires of worship rose.\n Live blest amid the unyielding brave,\n And those who land in largess gave.\n \u00a0\u00a0 Sore grief upon his bosom weighed\n As on the pyre the bird he laid,\n And bade the kindled flame ascend\n To burn the body of his friend.\n Then with his brother by his side\n The hero to the forest hied.\n There many a stately deer he slew.\n The flesh around the bird to strew.\n The venison into balls he made.\n And on fair grass before him laid.\n Then that the parted soul might rise\n And find free passage to the skies,\n Each solemn word and text he said\n Which Brahmans utter o'er the dead.\n Then hastening went the princely pair\n To bright Godayan\u00ed, and there\n Libations of the stream they poured\n In honour of the vulture lord,\n With solemn ritual to the slain,\n As scripture's holy texts ordain.\n Thus offerings to the bird they gave\n And bathed their bodies in the wave,\n \u00a0\u00a0 The vulture monarch having wrought\n \u00a0\u00a0 A hard and glorious feat,\n Honoured by R\u00e1ma sage in thought,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Soared to his blissful seat.\n The brothers, when each rite was paid\n \u00a0\u00a0 To him of birds supreme,\n Their hearts with new-found comfort stayed,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And turned them from the stream.\n Like soveriegns of celestial race\n \u00a0\u00a0 Within the wood they came,\n Each pondering the means to trace,\n \u00a0\u00a0 The captor of the dame.\n \n \n \n \n309:1 From the *\n309:2 R\u00e1van","title":"BOOK III: Canto LXIX.: The Death of Jat\u00e1yus.","type":"page"}