{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry341.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry341.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry341.htm","text":"The chieftain turned his glances where\n The legions sat in mute despair;\n And then to Hanum\u00e1n, the best\n Of V\u00e1nar lords, these words addressed:\n 'Why still, and silent, and apart,\n O hero of the dauntless heart?\n Thou keepest measured in thy mind\n The laws that rule the V\u00e1nar kind,\n Strong as our king Sugriva, brave\n As R\u00e1ma's self to slay or save,\n Through every land thy praise is heard,\n Famous as that illustrious bird,\n Arishtanemi's son, \u00a01 the king\n Of every fowl that plies the wing.\n Oft have I seen the monarch sweep\n With sounding pinions o'er the deep,\n And in his mighty talons bear\n Huge serpents struggling through the air.\n Thy arms, O hero, match in might\n The ample wings he spreads for flight;\n And thou with him mayest well compare\n In power to do, in heart to dare.\n Why, rich in wisdom, power, and skill,\n O hero, mt thou lingering still?\n An Apsaras \u00a02 the fairest found\n Of nymphs for heavenly charms renowned,\n Sweet Punjikasthal\u00e1, became\n A noble V\u00e1nar's wedded dame.\n Her heavenly title heard no more,\n Anjan\u00e1 was the name she bore,\n When, cursed by Gods, from heaven she fell\n In V\u00e1nar form on earth to dwell,\n New-born in mortal shape the ch*ild\n Of Kunjar monarch of the wild.\n In youthful beauty wondrous fair,\n A crown of jewels about her hair,\n In silken robes of richest dye\n She roamed the hills that kiss the sky.\n Once in her tinted garments dressed\n She stood upon the mountain crest,\n The God of Wind beside her came,\n And breathed upon the lovely dame.\n And as he fanned her robe aside\n The wondrous beauty that he eyed\n In rounded lines of breast and limb\n And neck and shoulder ravished him;\n And captured by her peerless charms\n \n \n He strained her in his amorous arms,\n Then to the eager God she cried\n In trembling accents, terrified:\n 'Whose impious love has wronged a spouse\n So constant in her nuptial vows?'\n He heard, and thus his answer made:\n 'O, be not troubled, nor afraid.\n But trust, and thou shalt know ere long\n My love has done thee, sweet, no wrong.\n So strong and brave and wise shall be\n The glorious child I give to thee.\n Might shall be his that naught can tire,\n And limbs to spring as springs his sire,'\n Thus spoke the God; the conquered dame\n Rejoiced in heart nor feared me shame.\n Down in a cave beneath the earth\n The happy mother gave thee birth.\n Once o'er the summit of the wood\n Before thine eyes the new sun stood.\n Thou sprangest up in haste to seize\n What seemed the fruitage of the trees.\n Up leapt the child, a wondrous bound,\n Three hundred leagues above the ground,\n And, though the angered Day-God shot\n His fierce beams on him, feared him not.\n Then from the hand of Indra came\n A red bolt winged with wrath and flame.\n The child fell smitten on a rock.\n His cheek was shattered by the shock,\n Named Hanum\u00e1n \u00a01b thenceforth by all\n In memory of the fearful fall,\n The wandering Wind-God saw thee lie\n With bleeding cheek and drooping eye,\n And stirred to anger by thy woe\n Forbade each scented breeze to blow.\n The breath of all the worlds was stilled,\n And the sad Gods with terror filled\n Prayed to the Wind, to calm the ire\n And soothe the sorrow of the sire.\n His fiery wrath no longer glowed,\n And Brahm\u00e1's self the boon bestowed\n That in the brunt of battle none\n Should slay with steel the Wind-God's son.\n Lord Indra, sovereign of the skies,\n Bent on thee all his thousand eyes,\n And swore that ne'er the bolt which he\n Hurls from the heaven should injure thee,\n 'Tis thine, O mighty chief, to share\n The Wind-God's power, his son and heir.\n Sprung from that glorious father thou.\n And thou alone, canst aid us now.\n This earth of yore, through all her climes,\n I circled one-and-twenty times,\n And gathered, as the Gods decreed,\n Great store of herbs from hill and mead,\n Which, scattered o'er the troubled wave.\n The Amrit to the toilers gave,\n \n \n But now my days are wellnigh told,\n My strength is gone, my limbs are old,\n And thou, the bravest and the best,\n Art the sure hope of all the rest.\n Now, mighty chief, the task assay:\n Thy matchless power and strength display\n Rise up, O prince, our second king,\n And o'er the flood of ocean spring.\n So shall the glorious exploit vie\n With his who stepped through earth and sky.' \u00a01\n \n \n He spoke: the younger chieftain heard,\n His soul to vigorous effort stirred,\n And stood before their joyous eyes\n Dilated in gigantic size.\n \n \n \n \n392:1 The Bengal recension calls him Arishtaneimi's brother \"The commentator says \"Arishtanemi is Aruna.\" Aruna the charioteer of the sun is the son of Kas'yapa and Vinat\u00e1 and by consequence brother of Garuda called Vainat*eya from Vinat\u00e1 his mother,\" GORRESIO.\n392:2 A nymph of Paradise.\n392:1b Hanu or Han\u00fa means jaw. Haunm\u00e1n or Han\u00fam\u00e1n means properly one with a large jaw.","title":"BOOK IV: Canto LXVI.: Hanum\u00e1n.","type":"page"}