{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry344.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry344.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry344.htm","text":"Thus R\u00e1van's foe resolved to trace\n The captive to her hiding-place\n Through airy pathways overhead\n Which heavenly minstrels visited.\n With straining nerve aud eager brows,\n Like some strong husband of the cows,\n In ready might he stood prepared\n For the bold task his soul has dared.\n O'er gem-like grass that flashed and glowed\n The V\u00e1nar like a lion strode.\n Roused by the thunder of his tread,\n The beasts to shady coverts fled.\n Tall trees he crushed or hurled aside,\n And every bird was terrified.\n Around him loveliest lilies grew,\n Pale pink, and red, and white, and blue,\n And tints of many a metal lent\n The light of varied ornament.\n Gandharvas, changing forms at will.\n And Yakshas roamed the lovely hill,\n Aud countless Serpent-Gods were seen\n Where flowers and grass were fresh and green.\n As some resplendent serpent takes\n His pastime in the best of lakes,\n So on the mountain's woody height\n The V\u00e1nar wandered with delight.\n Then, standing on tne flowery sod,\n He paid his vows to saint and God.\n Swayambhu \u00a02 and the Sun he prayed,\n And the swift Wind to lend him aid,\n And Indra, sovereign of the skies,\n To bless his hardy enterprise.\n Then once again the chief addressed\n The V\u00e1nars from tke mountain crest:\n 'Swift as a shaft from R\u00e1ma's bow\n \n \n To R\u00e1van's city will I go,\n And if she be not there will fly\n And seek the lady in the sky;\n Or, if in heaven she be not found,\n Will hither bring the giant bound.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 He ceased; and mustering his might\n Sprang downward from the mountain height,\n While, shattered by each mighty limb,\n The trees unrooted followed him.\n The shadow on the ocean cast\n By his vast form, as on he passed,\n Flew like a ship before the gale\n When the strong breeze has tilled the sail,\n And where his course the V\u00e1nar held\n The sea beneath him raged and swelled.\n Then Gods and all the heavenly train\n Poured flowerets down in gentle rain;\n Their voices glad Gandharvas raised,\n And saints in heaven the V\u00e1nar praised.\n Fain would the Sea his succour lend\n And Raghu's noble son befriend.\n He, moved by zeal for R\u00e1ma's sake,\n The hill Main\u00e1ka \u00a01b thus bespake:\n 'O strong Main\u00e1ka, heavens decree\n In days of old appointed thee\n To be the Asurs bar, and keep\n The rebels in the lowest deep.\n Thou guardest those whom heaven has cursed\n Lest from their prison-house they burst,\n And standest by the gates of hell\n Their limitary* sentinel.\n To thee is given the power to spread\n Or spring above thy watery bed.\n Now, best of noble mountains, rise\n And do the thing that I advise,\n E'en now above thy buried crest\n Flies mighty Hanum\u00e1n, the best\n Of Van*sis, moved for R\u00e1ma's sake\n A wonderous deed to undertake.\n Lift up thy head that he may stay\n And rest him on his weary way.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 He heard, and from his watery abroud,\n As bursts the sun from ***** cloud,\n Rose swifty. Crowned with plant and tree,\n And stood above the foamy* sea. \u00a02b\n There with his lofty peaks apraised\n Bright as a hundred suns he blazed,\n And crest and crag of burnished gold\n Flashed on the flood that round him rolled,*\n \n \n The V\u00e1nar thought the mountain rose\n A hostile bar to interpose,\n And, like a wind-swept cloud, o'erthrew\n The glittering mountain as he flew.\n Then from the falling hill rang out\n A warning voice and joyful shout.\n Again he raised him high in air\n To meet the flying V\u00e1nar there,\n And standing on his topmost peak\n In human form began to speak:\u00a01\n 'Best of the V\u00e1nars' noblest line,\n A mighty task, O chief, is thine.\n Here for a while, I pray thee, light\n And rest upon the breezy height.\n A prince of Raghu's line was he\n Who gave his glory to the Sea,\u00a02\n Who now to Rama's envoy shows\n High honour for the debt he owes.\n He bade me lift my buried head\n Uprising from my watery bed,\n And woo the Vanar chief to rest\n A moment on my glittering crest,\n Refresh thy weary limbs, and eat\n My mountain fruits for they are sweet.\n I too, O chieftain, know thee well;-\n Three worlds thy famous virtues tell;\n And none, I ween, with thee may vie\n Who spring impetuous through the sky.\n To every guest, though mean and low.\n The wise respect and honour show;\n And how shall I neglect thee, how\n Slight the great guest so near me now?\n Son of the Wind,'tis thine to share\n The might of him who shakes the air;\n And,--for he loves his offspring,--he\n Is honoured when I honour thee.\n Of yore, when Krita's age \u00a03 was new,\n The little hills and mountains flew\n Where'er they listed, borne on wings\n More rapid the feathered king's.\u00a04\n But mighty terror came on all\n The Gods and saints who feared their fall.\n \n \n And Indra in his anger rent\n Their pinions with the bolts he sent.\n When in his ruthless fury he\n Levelled his flashing bolt at me,\n The great-souled Wind inclined to save,\n And laid me neath the ocean's wave.\n Thus by the favour of the sire\n I kept my cherished wings entire;\n And for this deed of kindness done\n I honour thee his noble son.\n O come, thy weary limbs relieve,\n And honour due from me receive.'\n 'I may not rest,' the Vanar cried;\n 'I must not stay or turn aside.\n Yet pleased am I, thou noblest hill,\n And as the deed accept thy will.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus as he spoke he lightly pressed\n With his broad hand the mountain's crest.\n Then bounded upward to the height\n Of heaven, rejoicing in his might,\n And through the fields of boundless blue,\n The pathway of his father, flew.\n Gods, saints, and heavenly bards beheld\n That flight that none had paralleled,\n Then to the Nagas' mother \u00a01b came\n And thus addressed the sun-bright dame:\n 'See, Hauum'an with venturous leap\n Would spring across the mighty deep,-\n A Viinar prince, the Wind-God's seed:\n Come, Suras'a, his course impede.\n In Rakshas form thy shape disguise,\n Terrific, like a hill in size:\n Let thy red eyes with fury glow,\n And high as heaven thy body grow.\n With fearful tusks the chief defy.\n That we his power and strength may try.\n He will with guile thy hold elude,\n Or own thy might, by thee subdued.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Pleased with the grateful honours paid,\n The godlike dame their words obeyed,\n Clad in a shape of terror she\n Sprang from the middle of the sea,\n And, with fierce accents that appalled\n All creatures, to the Vanar called:\n 'Come, prince of Vanars, doomed to be\n My food this day by heaven's decree.\n Such boon from ages long ago\n To Brahma's favouring will I owe.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 She ceased, and Hanuman replied,\n By shape and threat unterrified:\n 'Brave Rama with his Maithil spouse\n Lodged in the shade of Dandak's boughs.\n Thence Ravan king of giants stole\n Sita the joy of Rama's soul.\n \n \n By R\u00e1ma's high behest to her\n I go a willing messenger;\n And never shouldst them hinder one\n Who toils for Das'aratha's son.\n First captive S\u00edt\u00e1 will I see,\n And him who sent and waits for me,\n Then come and to thy will submit,\n Yea, by my truth I promise it.'\n 'Nay, hope not thus thy life to save;\n Not such the boon that Brahma gave.\n Enter my mouth,' was her reply,\n 'Then forward on thy journey hie!' \u00a01\n \n \n 'Stretch, wider stretch thy jaws,' exclaimed\n The V\u00e1nar chief, to ire inflamed;\n And, as the R\u00e1kshas near him drew,\n Ten leagues in height his stature grew.\n Then straight, her threatening jaws between,\n A gulf of twenty leagues was seen.\n To fifty leagues he waxed, and still\n Her mouth grew wider at her will.\n Then smaller than a thumb became,\n Shrunk by his power, the V\u00e1nar's frame. \u00a02\n He leaped within, and turning round\n Sprang through the portal at a bound.\n Then hung in air a moment, while\n He thus addressed her with a smile:\n 'O Daksha's child, \u00a03 farewell at last!\n For I within thy mouth have passed.\n Thou hast the gift of Brahm\u00e1's grace:\n I go, the Maithil queen to trace.'\n Then, to her former shape restored,\n She thus addressed the V\u00e1nar lord:\n 'Then forward to the task, and may\n Success and joy attend thy way!\n Go, and the rescued lady bring\n In triumph to her lord and king.'\n \n \n Then hosts of spirits as they gazed\n The daring of the V\u00e1nar praised.\n Through the broad fields of ether, fast\n Garud's royal self, he passed,\n The region of the cloud and rain,\n Loved by the gay Gandharva train,\n Where mid the birds that came and went\n Shone Indra's glorious bow unbent,\n And like a host of wandering stars\n Flashed the high Gods' celestial cars.\n Fierce Sinhik\u00e1 \u00a01b who joyed in ill\n And changed her form to work her will,\n Descried him on his airy way\n And marked the V\u00e1nar for her prey.\n 'This day at length,' the demon cried,\n 'My hunger shall be satisfied,'\n And at his passing shadow caught\n Delighted with the cheering thought.\n The V\u00e1nar felt the power that stayed\n And held him as she grasped his shade,\n Like some tall ship upon the main\n That struggles with the wind in vain.\n Below, above, his eye he bent\n And scanned the sea and firmament.\n High from the briny deep upreared\n The monster's hideous form appeared,\n 'Sugr\u00edva's tale,' he cried,'is true:\n This is the demon dire to view\n Of whom the V\u00e1nar monarch told,\n Whose grasp a passing shade can hold.'\n Then, as a cloud in rain-time grows.\n His form, dilating, swelled and rose.\n Wide as the space from heaven to hell\n Her jaws she opened with a yell,\n And rushed upon her fancied prey\n With cloud-like roar to seize and slay.\n The V\u00e1nar swift as thought compressed\n His borrowed bulk of limb and chest,\n And stood with one quick bound inside\n The monstrous mouth she opened wide.\n Hid like the moon when R\u00e1hu \u00a02b draws\n The orb within his ravening jaws.\n Within that ample cavern pent\n The demon's form he tore and rent,\n And, from the mangled carcass freed,\n Came forth again with thought-like speed. \u00a03b\n \n \n Thus with his skill the fiend he slew,\n Then to his wonted stature grew.\n The spirits saw the demon die.\n And hailed the V\u00e1nar from the sky:\n 'Well hast thou fought a wondrous fight\n Nor spared the fiend's terrific might,\n On, on! perform the blameless deed,\n And in thine every wish succeed.\n Ne're can they fail in whom combine\n Such valour; thought, and skill as thine.'\n \n \n Pleased with their praises as they sang,\n Again through fields of air he sprang,\n And now, his travail wellnigh done,\n The distint shore was almost won,\n Before him on the margent stood\n In long dark line a waving wood,\n And the fair island, bright and green\n With flowers and trees, was clearly seen,\n And every babbling brook that gave\n Her lord the sea a tribute wave.\n He lighted down on Lamba's peak\n Which tinted metals stain and streak,\n And looked where Lank\u00e1's splendid town\n Shone on the mountain like a crown.\n \n \n \n \n394:1 This Book is called Sundar or the Beatiful. To a European taste it is the most intolerably tedious of the whole poem, abounding in repetition, overloaded description, and long aud useless speeches which impede the action of the poem. Manifest interpolations of whole Cantos also occur. I have omitted none of the action of the Book, but have occasionally omitted long passages of common-place description, lamentation, and long stories which have been again and again repeated.\n394:2 Brahm\u00e1 the Self-Existent.\n394:1b Main\u00e1ka was the son of Rim\u00e1laya* and Men\u00e1 or Menaka.\n394:2b Thus Milton makes the hills of heaven self-moving at command:\n'At his comma*d the uprooted hiils retired Each to his place, they heard his voice and went Obsequious'\n395:1 The spirit of the mountain is separable from the mountain. Himalaya has also been represented as standing in human on one of his own peaks.\n395:2 Sagar or the Sea is said to have derived its name from Sagar. The story is fully told in Book I, Cantos XLII, XLIII, and XLlV.\n395:3 Kritu is the first of the four ages of the world, the golden age, also called Satya.\n395:4 Parvata means a mountain and in the Vedas a cloud. Hence in later mythology the mountain have taken the place of the clouds as the objects of the attacks of Indra the Sun-God. The feathered king is Garuda.\n395:1b \"The children of Surasa were a thousand mighty many-headed serpents, traversing the sky.\" WlLSON'S Vishnu Purana, Vol.II. p.73.\n396:1 She means, says the Commentator, pursue thy journey if thou can.\n396:2 If Milton's spirits are allowed the power of infinite self-extension and compression the same must be conceded to V\u00e1lm\u00edki's supernatural beings. Given the power as in Milton the result in V\u00e1lm\u00edki is perfectly consistent.\n396:3 \"Daksha is the son of Brahm\u00e1 and one of the Praj\u00e1patis or divine progenitors. He had sixty daughters, twenty-seven of whom married to Kas'yapa produced, according to one of the Indian cosmogonies, all mundane beings. Does the epithet, Descendant of Daksha, given to Suras\u00e1, mean that she is one of those daughters? I think not. This epithet is perhaps an appellation common to all created beings as having sprung from Daksha.\" GORRESIO.\n396:1b Sinhik\u00e1 is the mother of R\u00e1hu the dragon's head or ascending node, the chief agent in eclipses.\n396:2b R\u00e1hu is the demon who causes eclipses by attempting to swallow the sun and moon.\n396:3b According to De Gubernatis, the author of the very learned, ingenious, and interesting though too fanciful Zoological Mythology. Hanuman here represents the sun entering into and escaping from a cloud. The biblical Jonah, according to him, typifies the same phenomenon. S\u00e1di, p. 395 speaking of sunset, says Y\u00f9nas andar-i-dih\u00e1n-i m\u00e1hi shud: Jonas was within the fish's mouth. See ADDITIONAL NOTES.","title":"BOOK V: Canto I.: Hanum\u00e1n's Leap.","type":"page"}