{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry332.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry332.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry332.htm","text":"Though grief and woe his utterance broke\n They trusted not the words he spoke;\n But, looking still for secret guile,\n Reflected in their hearts a while:\n 'If on our mangled limbs he feed,\n We gain the death ourselves decreed.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Then rose the V\u00e1nar chiefs, and lent\n Their arms to aid the bird's descent;\n And Angad spake: There lived of yore\n A noble V\u00e1nar king who bore\n The name of Riksharajas, great\n And brave and strong and fortunate.\n His sons were like their father: fame\n Knows B\u00e1li and Sugr\u00edva's name.\n Praised in all lands, a glorious king\n Was B\u00e1li, and from him I spring.\n Brave R\u00e1ma, Das'aratha's heir,\n A glorious prince beyond compare,\n His sire and duty's law obeyed,\n And sought the depths of Dandaks' shade\n S\u00edt\u00e1 his well-beloved dame,\n And Lakshman, with the wanderer came.\n A giant watched his hour, and stole\n The sweet delight of R\u00e1ma's soul.\n Jat\u00e1yus, Das'aratha's friend,\n Swift succour to the dame would lend.\n Fierce R\u00e1van from his car he felled,\n And for a time the prize withheld.\n But bleeding, weak with years, and tired,\n Beneath the demon's blows expired,\n Due rites at R\u00e1ma's hands obtained,\n And bliss that ne'er shall minish, gained.\n Then R\u00e1ma with Sugr\u00edva made\n A covenant for mutual aid,\n And B\u00e1li, to the field defied,\n By conquering R\u00e1ma's arrow died.\n Sugr\u00edva then, by R\u00e1ma's grace,\n Was monarch of the V\u00e1nar race.\n By his command a mighty host\n Seeks R\u00e1ma's queen from coast to coast.\n Sent forth by him, in every spot\n We looked for her, but find her not.\n Vain is the toil, as though by night\n We sought to find the Day-God's light.\n In lands unknown at length we found\n A spacious cavern under ground,\n Whose vaults that stretch beneath the hill\n Were formed by Maya's magic skill.\n Through the dark maze our steps were bent,\n And wandering there a month we spent,\n \n \n And lost, in fruitless error, thus\n The days our king allotted us.\n Thus we though faithful have transgressed,\n And failed to keep our lord's behest.\n No chance of safety can we see,\n No lingering hope of life have we.\n Sugriva's wrath and R\u00e1ma's hate\n Press on our souls with grievous weight;\n And we, because 'tis vain to fly,\n Resolve at length to fast and die.'","title":"BOOK IV: Canto LVII.: Angad's Speech.","type":"page"}