{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry277.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry277.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry277.htm","text":"Sugr\u00edva moved by wondering awe\n The high-souled sons of Raghu saw,\n In all their glorious arms arrayed;\n And grief upon his spirit weighed.\n To every quarter of the sky\n He turned in fear his anxious eye,\n And roving still from spot to spot\n With troubled steps he rested not.\n He durst not, as he viewed the pair,\n Resolve to stand and meet them there:\n \n \n And drooping cheer and quailing breast\n The terror of the chief confessed.\n While the great fear his bosom shook,\n Brief counsel with his lords he took;\n Each gain and danger closely scanned,\n What hope in flight, what power to stand,\n While doubt and fear his bosom rent,\n On Raghu's sons his eyes he bent,\n And with a spirit ill at ease\n Addressed his lords in words like these:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'Those chiefs with wandering steps invade\n The shelter of our pathless shade,\n And hither come in fair disguise\n Of hermit garb as B\u00e1li's spies.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Each lord beheld with troubled heart\n Those masters of the bowman's art,\n And left the mountain side to seek\n Sure refuge on a loftier peak.\n The V\u00e1nar chief in rapid flight\n Found shelter on a towering height,\n And all the band with one accord\n Were closely gathered round their lord.\n Their course the same, with desperate leap\n Each made his way from steep to steep,\n And speeding on in wild career\n Filled every height with sudden fear.\n Each heart was struck with mortal dread,\n As on their course the V\u00e1nars sped,\n While trees that crowned the steep were bent\n And crushed beneath them as they went.\n As in their eager flight they pressed\n For safety to each mountain crest,\n The wild confusion struck with fear\n Tiger and cat and wandering deer.\n The lords who watched Sugr\u00edva's will\n Were gathered on the royal hill,\n And all with reverent hands upraised\n Upon their king and leader gazed.\n Sugr\u00edva feared some evil planned,\n Some train prepared by B\u00e1li's hand.\n But skilled in words that charm and teach,\n Thus Hanum\u00e1n \u00a01b began his speech:\n \u00a0\u00a0 Dismiss, dismiss thine idle fear,\n Nor dread the power of B\u00e1li here.\n For this is Malaya's glorious hill \u00a02b\n Where B\u00e1l\u00ed's might can work no ill.\n I look around but nowhere see\n The hated foe who made thee flee,\n Fell B\u00e1li, fierce in form and face:\n Then fear not, lord of V\u00e1nar race.\n Alas, in thee I clearly find\n The weakness of the V\u00e1nar kind,\n \n \n That loves from thought to thought to range,\n Fix no belief and welcome change.\n Mark well each hint and sign and scan,\n Discreet aud wise, thine every plan.\n How may a king, with sense denied,\n The subjects of his sceptre guide?'\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Han\u00fam\u00e1n, \u00a01 wise in hour of need,\n Urged on the chief his prudent rede.\n His listening ear Sugr\u00edva bent,\n And spake in words more excellent:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 'Where is the dauntless heart that free\n From terror's chilling touch can see\n Two stranger warriors, strong as those,\n Equipped with swords and shafts and bows,\n With mighty arms and large full eyes,\n Like glorious children of the skies\n B\u00e1li my foe, I ween, has sent\n These chiefs to aid his dark intent.\n Hence doubt and fear disturb me still,\n For thousands serve a monarch's will,\n In borrowed garb they come, and those\n Who walk disguised are counted foes.\n With secret thoughts they watch their time,\n And wound fond hearts that fear no crime\n My foe in state affairs is wise,\n And prudent kings have searching eyes.\n By other hands they strike the foe:\n By meaner tools the truth they know.\n Now to those stranger warriors turn,\n And, less than king, their purpose learn.\n Mark well the trick and look of each;\n Observe his form and note his speech.\n With care their mood and temper sound,\n And, if their minds be friendly found,\n With courteous looks and words begin\n Their confidence and love to win.\n Then as my friend and envoy speak,\n And question where the strangers seek.\n Ask why equipped with shaft and bow\n Through this wild maze of wood they go.\n If does, O chief, as first appear\n Pure of all guile, in heart sincere,\n Detect in speech and look the sin\n And treachery that lurk within.'\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He spoke: the Wind-God's son obeyed.\n With ready zeal he sought the shade,\n And reached with hasty steps the wood\n Where Ragbu's son and Lakshman stood.\u00a02\n \n \n The envoy in his faithful breast\n Pondered Sugriv\u00e1's high behest.\n From Rishyam\u00faka's peak he hied\n And placed him by the princes' side.\n The Wind-God's son with cautious art\n Had laid his V\u00e1nar form apart,\n And wore, to cheat the strangers eyes,\n A wandering mendicant's disguise. \u00a01b\n Before the heroes' feet he bent\n And did obeisance reverent,\n And spoke, the gloirious pair to praise,\n His words of truth in courteous phrase,\n High honour duly paid, the best\n Of all the V\u00e1nar kind addressed,\n With free accord and gentle grace,\n Those glories of their warrior race:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'O hermits, blest in vows, who shine\n Like royal saints or Gods divine,\n O best of young ascetics, say\n How to this spot you found your way,\n Scaring the troops of wandering deer\n And silvan things that harbour here\n Searching amid the trees that grow\n Where Pamp\u00e1's gentle waters flow.\n And lending from your brows a gleam\n Of glory to the lovely stream.\n Who are you, say, so brave and fair.\n Clad in the bark which hermits wear?\n I see you have the frequent sigh,\n I see the deer before you fly.\n While you, for strength and valour dread,\n The earth, like lordly lions, tread,\n Each bearing in his hand a bow,\n Like Indra's own, to slay the foe,\n With the grand paces of bull,\n So bright and young and beautiful\n The mighty arms you raise appear\n Like trunks which elephants uprear,\n And as you move this mountain-king \u00a02b\n Is glorious with the light you bring.\n How have you reached, like Gods in face,\n Best lords of earth, this lonely place,\n \n \n With tresses coiled in hermit guise,\u00a01\n And splendours of those lotus eyes?\n As God's who leave their heavenly sphere,\n Alike your beauteous forms appear.\n Tne Lords of Day and Night\u00a02 might thus\n Stray from the skies to visit us.\n Heroic youth, so broad of chest,\n Fair with the beauty of the Blest,\n With lion shoulders, tall and strong,\n Like bulls who lead the lowing throng.\n Your arms, unmatched for grace and length,\n With massive clubs may vie in strength.\n Why do no gauds those limbs adorn\n Where priceless gems were meetly worn?\n Each noble youth is fit, I deem,\n To guard this earth, as lord supreme,\n With all her woods and seas, to reign\n From Meru's peak to Vindhya's chain.\n Your smooth bows decked with dyes and gold\n Are glorious in their masters' hold,\n And with the arms of Indra \u00a03 vie\n Which diamond splendours beautify.\n Your quivers glow with golden sheen,\n Well stored with arrows fleet and keen,\n Each gleaming like a flery snake\n That joys the foeman's life to take.\n As serpents cast their sloughs away\n And all their new born sheen display,\n So flash your mighty swords inlaid\n With burning gold on hilt and blade.\n Why are you silent, heroes? Why\n My questions hear nor deign reply?\n Sugr\u00edva, lord of virtuous mind.\n The foremost of the V\u00e1nar kind.\n An exile from his royal state,\n Roams through the land disconsolate.\n I Hanum\u00e1n, of V\u00e1nar race,\n Sent by the king have sought this place,\n For he, the pious, just, and true.\n In friendly league would join with you.\n Know, godlike youths, that I am one\n Of his chief lords, the Wind-God's son.\n With course unchecked I roam will,\n And now from Rishyam\u00faka's hill.\n To please his heart, his hope to speed,\n I came disguised in beggar's weed.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus Hanum\u00e1n, well trained in lore\n Of language spoke, and said no more.\n The son of Raghu joyed to hear\n The envoy's speech, and bright of cheer\n He turned to Lakshman by his side,\n And thus in words of transport cried:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'The counselor we now behold\n Of King Sugr\u00edva righteous souled.\n \n \n His face I long have yearned to see,\n And now his envoy comes to me\n With sweetest words in courteous phrase\n Answer this mighty lord who slays\n His foemen, by Sugr\u00edva sent.\n This V\u00e1nar chief most eloquent.\n For one whose words so sweetly flow\n The whole Rig-veda \u00a01b needs must know,\n And in his well-trained memory store\n The Yajush and the S\u00e1man's lore.\n He must have bent his faithful ear\n All grammar's varied rules to hear.\n For his long speech how well he spoke!\n In all its length no rule he broke.\n In eye, on brow, in all his face\n The keenest look no guile could trace.\n No change of hue, no pose of limb\n Gave sign that aught was false in him.\n Concise, unfaltering, sweet and clear,\n Without a word to pain the ear.\n From chest to throat, nor high nor low,\n His accents came in measured flow.\n How well he spoke with perfect art\n That wondrous speech that charmed the heart,\n With finest skill and order graced\n In words that knew nor pause nor haste!\n That speech, with consonants that spring\n From the three seats of uttering,\u00a02b\n Would charm the spirit of a foe\n Whose sword is raised for mortal blow.\n How may a ruler's plan succeed\n Who lacks such envoy good at need?\n How fail, if one whose mind is stored\n With gifts so rare assist his lord?\n What plans can fail, with wisest speech\n Of envoy's lips to further each?'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus R\u00e1ma spoke: and Lakshman, taught\n In all the art that utters thought,\n To King S\u00fagr\u00edva's learned spy\n Thus made his eloquent reply:\n 'Full well we know the gifts that grace\n Sugr\u00edva, lord of V\u00e1nar race,\n And hither turn our wandering feet\n That we that high-souled king may meet\n So now our pleasant task shall be\n To do the words he speaks by thee.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 His prudent speech the V\u00e1nar heard,\n And all his heart with joy was stirred.\n And hope that league with them would bring\n Redress and triumph to his king.\n \n \n324:1 Sugr\u00edva, the ex-king of the V\u00e1nars, foresters, or monkeys, an exile from his home, wandering about the mountain Rishyam\u00faka with his four faithful ex-ministers.\n324:2 The hermitage of the Saint Matauga which his curse prevented B\u00e1li, the present king of the V\u00e1nars, from entering. The story is told at length in Canto XI. of this Book.\n324:1b Hanum\u00e1n, Sugr\u00edva's chief general, was the son of the God of Wind. See Book I, Canto XVI.\n324:2b A range of hills in Malabar; the Western Ghats in the Deccan.\n325:1 V\u00e1lm\u00edki makes the second vowel in this name long or short to suit the exigencies of the verse. Other Indian poets have followed his example, and the same licence will be used in this translation.\n325:2 I omit a recapitulatory and interpolated verse in a different metre, which is as follows:--Reverencing with the words, So be it, the speech of the greatly terrified and unequalled monkey king, the magnanimous Han\u00fam\u00e1n then went where (stood) the very mighty R\u00e1ma with Lakshman.\n325:1b The semi divine Hanuma'n posseses. like the Gods and demons, the power of wearing all shapes at will, He is one of the K\u00e1mar\u00fap\u00eds.\nLike Milton's good and bad angels\n325:2b Him\u00e1laya is of course par excellence the Monarch of mountains, but the complimentary title is frequently given to other hills as here to Malaya.\n326:1 Twisted up in a matted coil as was the custom of ascetics.\n326:2 The sun and the moon.\n326:3 The rainbow.\n326:1b The Vedas are four in number, the Rich or Rig-veda, the Yajush or Yajur-veda; the S\u00e1man or S\u00e1ma-veda*, and the Atharvan or Atharva-veda. See p. 3. Note.\n326:2b The chest, the throat, and the head.","title":"BOOK IV: Canto II.: Sugr\u00edva's Alarm.","type":"page"}