{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry305.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry305.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry305.htm","text":"Thus R\u00e1ma spoke, and Lakshman then\n Made answer to the prince of men:\n 'Yea, if the V\u00e1nar, undeterred\n By fear of vengeance, break his word,\n Loss of his royal power ere long\n Shall pay the traitor for the wrong,\n Nor deem I him so void of sense\n To brave the bitter consequence.\n But if enslaved to joy he lie,\n And scorn thy grace with blinded eye,\n Then let him join his brother slain:\n Unmeet were such a wretch to reign.\n Quick rises, kindling in my breast,\n The wrath that will not be repressed,\n And bids me in my fury slay\n The breaker of his faith to-day.\n Let B\u00e1li's son thy consort trace\n With bravest chiefs of V\u00e1nar race.'\n \n \n Thus spoke the hero, and aglow\n With rage of battle seized his bow.\n But R\u00e1ma thus in gentler mood\n With fitting words his speech renewed:\n 'No hero with a soul like thine\n To paths of sin will e'er incline.\n He who his angry heart can tame\n Is worthiest of a hero's name.\n Not thine, my brother, be the part\n So alien from the tender heart,\n Nor let thy feet by wrath misled\n Forsake the path they loved to tread.\n From harsh and angry words abstain:\n With gentle speech a hearing gain,\n And tax Sugr\u00edva with the crime\n Of failing faith and wasted time.'\n \n \n Then Lakshman, bravest of the brave,\n Obeyed the best that R\u00e1ma gave,\n To whom devoting every thought\n The V\u00e1nar's royal town he sought.\n As Mandar's mountain heaves on high\n His curved peak soaring to the sky,\n So Lakshman showed, his dread bow bent\n Like Indra's \u00a01 in the firmament.\n His brother's wrath, his brother's woe\n Inflamed his soul to fiercest glow.\n The tallest trees to earth were cast\n As furious on his way he passed,\n And where he stepped, so fiercely fleet,\n The stones were shivered by his feet.\n He reached Kishkindh\u00e1's city deep\n Embosomed where the hills were steep,\n Where street and open square were lined\n With legions of the V\u00e1nar kind.\n Then, as his lips with fury swelled,\n The lord of Raghu's line beheld\n A stream of V\u00e1nar chiefs outpoured\n To do obeisance to their lord.\n But when the mighty prince in view\n Of the thick coming V\u00e1nars drew,\n They turned them in amaze to seize\n Crags of the rock and giant trees.\n He saw, and fiercer waxed his ire,\n As oil lends fury to the fire.\n Scarce bad the V\u00e1nar chieftains seen\n That wrathful eye, that troubled mien\n Fierce as the God's who rules the dead,\n When, turned in wild affright, they fled,\n Speeding in breathless terror all\n Sought King Sugr\u00edva's council hall,\n And there made known their tale of fear,\n That Lakshman wild with rage, was near.\n The king, untroubled by alarms,\n Held T\u00e1ra in his amorous arms,\n And in the distant bower with her\n Heard not each clamorous messenger.\n Then, summoned at the lords' behest\n Forth from the city portals pressed.\n Each like some elephant or cloud,\n The V\u00e1nars in a trembling cloud:\n Fierce warriors all with massive jaws\n And terrors of their tiger claws.\n Some matched ten elephants, and some\n A hundred's strength could overcome.\n Some chieftains, mightier than the rest,\n Ten times a hundred's force possessed.\n With eyes of fury Lakshman viewed\n The V\u00e1nars' tree-armed multitude.\n Thus garrisoned from side to side\n The city walls assault defied.\n Beyond the moat that girt the wall\n Advanced the V\u00e1nar chiefs; and all\n Upon the plain in *numbers *made,(?)\n Impetuous warriors, stood arrayed.\n \n \n Red at the sight flashed Lakshman's eyes,\n His bosom heaved tumultuous sighs,\n And forth the fire of fury broke\n Like flame that flashes through the smoke.\n Like some fierce snake the hero stood:\n His bow recalled the expanded hood,\n And in his shaft-head bright and keen\n The flickering of its tongue was seen:\n And in his own all-conquering might\n The venom of its deadly bite.\n Prince Angad marked his angry look,\n And every hope his heart forsook.\n Then, his large eyes with fury red,\n To Angad Lakshman turned and said:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'Go tell the king that Lakshman waits\n For audience at the city gates,\n Whose heart, O tamer of thy foes,\n Is heavy with his brother's woes.\n Bid him to R\u00e1ma's word attend,\n And ask if he will aid his friend.\n Go, let the king my message learn:\n Then hither with all speed return.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Prince Angad heard and wild with grief\n Cried as he looked upon the chief:\n ''Tis Lakshman's self: impelled by ire\n He seeks the city of my sire.'\n At the fierce words and furious look\n Of Raghu'a son he quailed and shook,\n Back through the city gates he sped,\n And, laden with the tale of dread,\n Sought King Sugr\u00edva, filled his ears\n And Rum\u00e1's with his doubts and fears.\n To Rum\u00e1 and the king he bent,\n And clasped their feet most reverent,\n Clasped the dear feet of T\u00e1r\u00e1, too,\n And told the startling tale anew.\n \u00a0\u00a0 But King Sugr\u00edva's ear was dulled,\n By love and wine and languor lulled,\n Nor did the words that Angad spake\n The slumberer from his trance awake.\n But soon as Raghu's son came nigh\n The startled V\u00e1nars raised a cry,\n And strove to win his grace, while dread\n Each anxious heart disquieted.\n They saw, and, as they gathered round,\n Rose from the mighty throng a sound\n Like torrents when they downward dash,\n Or thunder with the lightning's flash.\n The shouting of the V\u00e1nars broke\n Sugriva's slumber, and he woke:\n Still with the wine his eyes were red,\n His neck with flowers was garlanded.\n Roused at the voice of Angad came\n Two V\u00e1nar lords of rank and fame;\n One Yaksha, one Prabhava hight,-\n Wise counsellors of gain and right.\n They came and raised their voices high,\n And told that Raghu's son was nigh:\n 'Two brothers steadfast in their truth,\n Each glorious in the bloom of youth,\n Worthy of rule, have left the skies,\n \n \n And clothed their forms in men's disguise.\n One at thy gates, in warlike hands\n Holding his mighty weapon, stands.\n His message is the charioteer\n That brings the eager envoy near,\n Urged onward by his bold intent,\n And by the hest of R\u00e1ma sent.\u00a01\n The gathered V\u00e1nars saw and fled,\n And raised aloud their cry of dread.\n Son of Queen T\u00e1r\u00e1, Angad ran\n To parley with the godlike man.\n Still fiery-eyed with rage and hate\n Stands Lakshman at the city gate,\n And trembling Vanars scarce can fly\n Scathed by the lightning of his eye.\n Go with thy son, thy kith and kin,\n The favour of the prince to win,\n And bow thy reverent head that so\n His fiery wrath may cease to glow.\n What righteous R\u00e1ma bids thee, do,\n And to thy plighted word be true.'\n \n \n \n \n362:1 The rainbow.","title":"BOOK IV: Canto XXXI.: The Envoy.","type":"page"}