{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry311.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry311.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry311.htm","text":"He ceased: and King Sugriva cried\n To sage Han\u00fam\u00e1n \u00a01 by his side:\n 'Summon the V\u00e1nar legions, those\n Who dwell about the Lord of Snows:\n Those who in Vindhyan groves delight,\n Kail\u00e1sa's, or Mahendra's height,\n Dwell on the Five bright Peaks, or where\n Mandar's white summit cleaves the air:\n \n \n Wherever they are wandring free\n In highlands by the western sea,\n On that east hill whence springs the sun,\n Or where he sinks when day is done.\n Call the great chiefs whose legions till\n The forests of the Lotus Hill, \u00a01b\n Where every one in strength and size\n With the stupendous Anjan \u00a02b vies.\n Call those, with tints ot burnished gold\n Whom Mah\u00e1s'aila's caverns hold:\n Those who on Dh\u00fanira roam, or hide\n In the wild woods on Meru's side.\n Call those who, brilliant as the sun,\n On high Mah\u00e1run leap and run,\n Quaffing sweet juices that distil\n From odorous trees upon the hill,\n Call those whom tranquil haunts delight\n Where dwell the sage and anchorite\n In groves that through their wide extent\n Exhale a thousand blossoms' scent.\n Send out, send out: from coast to coast\n Assemble all the V\u00e1nar host:\n With force, with words, with gifts of price\n Compel, admonish and entice.\n Already envoys have been sent\n To warn them of their lord's intent.\n Let others urged by thee repeat\n My mandate that their steps be fleet.\n Those lords who yielding to the sway\n Of love's delight would fain delay,\n Urge hither with the utmost speed,\n Or with thee to my presence lead:\n And those who linger to the last\n Until ten days be come and passed,\n And dare their sovereign to defy.\n For their offence shall surely die.\n Thousands, yea millions, shall there be,\n Obedient to their king's decree,\n The lions of the V\u00e1nar race,\n Assembled from each distant place.\n Forth shall they haste like hills in size,\n Or mighty clouds that veil the skies,\n And swiftly speeding on their way\n Bring all our legions in array.'\n \n \n He ceased: the son of V\u00e1yu \u00a01 heard,\n Submissive to his sovereign's word;\n And sent his rapid envoys forth\n To east and west and south and north.\n They bent their airy course afar\n Along the paths of bird and star,\n And sped through ether farther yet\n Where Vishnu's splendid sphere is set.\u00a02\n By sea, on hill, by wood and lake\n They called to arms for R\u00e1ma's sake,\n As each with terror in his breast\n Obeyed his awful king's behest.\n Three million V\u00e1nars, fierce and strong\n As Anjan's self, a wondrous throng.\n Sped from the spot where R\u00e1ma still\n Gazed restless from the woody hill.\n Ten million others, brave and bold,\n With coats that shone like burning gold,\n Came flying from the mountain crest\n Where sinks the weary sun to rest.\n Impetuous from the northern skies,\n Wnere Mount Kail\u00e1sa's summits rise,\n Ten hundred millions hasted, hued\n Like manes of lions, ne'er subdued:\n The dwellers on Him\u00e1laya's side,\n Whose food his roots and fruit supplied,\n With rangers of the Vindhyan chain\n And neighbours of the Milky Main. \u00a03\n Some from the palm groves where they fed,\n Some from the woods of betel sped:\n In countless numbers, fierce and brave,\n They came from mountain, lake, and cave.\n \u00a0\u00a0 As on their way the V\u00e1nars went\n To rouse each distant armament,\n They chanced that wondrous tree to view\n That on Him\u00e1laya's summit grew.\n Of old upon that sacred height\n Was wrought Mahes'var's \u00a04 glorious rite,\n Which every God in heaven beheld,\n And his glad heart with triumph swelled.\n There from pure seed at random sown\n Bright plants with luscious fruit had grown,\n And, sweet as Amrit to the taste,\n The summit of the mountain graced.\n Who once should eat the virtuous fruit\n That sprang from so divine a root,\n One whole revolving moon should be\n From every pang of hunger free.\n \n \n The V\u00e1nars culled the fruit they found\n Ripe on the sacrificial ground\n With rare celestial odours sweet,\n To lay them at Sugr\u00edva's feet.\n Those noble envoys scoured the land\n To summon every V\u00e1nar band\n Then swiftly homeward at the head\n Of countless armaments they sped.\n They gathered by Kishkindh\u00e1's wall.\n They thronged Sugr\u00edva's palace hall,\n And, richly laden, bare within\n That fruit of heavenly origin.\n Their gifts before their king they spread,\n And thus in tones of triumph said:\n 'Through every land our way we took\n To visit hill and wood and brook,\n And all thy hosts from east to west\n Flock hither at their lord's behest.'\n Sugr\u00edva with delighted look\n The present of his envoys took.\n Then bade them go, with gracious speech\n Rewarding and dismissing each.\n \n \n \n \n \n368:1 V\u00e1lm\u00edki and succeeding poets make the second vowel in this name long or Short at their pleasure.\n368:1b Some of the mountains here mentioned are fabulous and others it is impossible to identify. Sugr\u00edva means to include all the mountains of India from Kail\u00e1s the residence of the God Kuvera, regarded as one of the loftiest peaks of the Him\u00e1layas, to Mabendra in the extreme south, from the mountain in the east where the sun is said to rise to Ast\u00e1chal or the western mountain where he sets. The commentators give little assistance: that Mah\u00e1s'aila, &c. are certain mountains is about all the information they give.\n368:2b One of the celestial elephants of the Gods who protect the four quarters and intermediate points of the compass.\n369:1 Va'yu or the Wind was the father of Hanum\u00e1n.\n369:2 The path or station of Vishnu is the space between the seven Risbis or Ursa Major, and Dhruva or the polar star.\n369:3 One of the seven seas which surround the earth in concentric circles.\n369:4 The title of Mahes'var * or Mighty Lord is sometimes given to Indra, but more generally to S'iva whom it here denotes.","title":"BOOK IV: Canto XXXVII.: The Gathering.","type":"page"}