{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry379.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry379.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry379.htm","text":"Dismissed with every honour due\n The V\u00e1nar from the spot withdrew.\n Then joyous thought the Wind-God's son:\n 'The mighty task is wellnigh done.\n The three expedients I must leave;\n The fourth alone can I achieve. \u00a02\n These dwellers in the giants' isle\n No arts of mine can reconcile.\n I cannot bribe: I cannot sow\n Dissension mid the R\u00e1kshas foe.\n Arts, gifts, address, these fiends despise;\n But force shall yet their king chastise.\n Perchance he may relent when all\n The bravest of his chieftains fall.\n This lovely grove will I destroy,\n The cruel R\u00e1van's pride and joy.\n The garden where he takes his ease\n Mid climbing plants and flowery trees\n That lift their proud tops to the skies,\n Dear to the tyrant as his eyes.\n Then will he rouse in wrath, and lead\n His legions with the car and steed\n And elephants in long array,\n And seek me thirsty for the fray.\n The R\u00e1kshas legions will I meet,\n And all his bravest host defeat;\n Then, glorious from the bloody plain,\n Turn to my lord the king again.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Then every lovely tree that bore\n Fair blossoms, from the soil he tore,\n Till each green bough that lent its shade\n To singing birds on earth was laid.\n The wilderness he left a waste,\n The fountains shattered and defaced:\n O'erthrew and levelled with the ground\n Each shady seat and pleasure-mound.\n Each arbour clad with climbing bloom,\n Each grotto, cell, and picture room,\n Each lawn by beast and bird enjoyed,\n Each walk and terrace was destroyed.\n \n \n And all the place that was so fair\n Was left a ruin wild and bare,\n As if the fury of the blast\n Or raging fire had o'er it passed.\n \n \n \n \n417:1 I omit two Cantos of dialogue. S\u00edt\u00e1 tells Hanum\u00e1n again to convey her message to R\u00e1ma and bid him hasten to rescue her. Hanum\u00e1n replies as before that there is no one on earth equal to R\u00e1ma, who will soon come and destroy R\u00e1van. There is not a new idea in the two Cantos: all is reiteration.\n417:2 The expedients to vanquish an enemy or to make him come to terms are said to be four: conciliation, gifts, disunion, and force or punishment. Hanum\u00e1n considers it useless to employ the first three and resolves to punish R\u00e1van by destroying his pleasure-grounds.","title":"BOOK V: Canto XLI.: The Ruin of The Grove.","type":"page"}