{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry380.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry380.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry380.htm","text":"The cries of startled birds, the sound\n Of tall trees crashing to the ground,\n Struck with amaze each giant's ear.\n And filled the isle with sudden fear.\n Then, wakened by the crash and cries,\n The fierce shefiends unclosed their eyes,\n And saw the V\u00e1nar where he stood\n Amid the devastated wood.\n The more to scare them with the view\n To size immense the V\u00e1nar grew;\n And straight the R\u00e1kshas warders cried\n Janak's daughter terrified\n Whose envoy, whence, and who is he,\n Why has he come to talk with thee?\n Speak, lady of the lovely eyes,\n And let not fear thy joy disguise.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Then thus replied the Maithil dame\n Of noble soul and perfect frame.\n 'Can I discern, with scanty skill,\n These fiends who change their forms at will?\n 'Tis yours to say: your kin you meet;\n A serpent knows a serpent's feet.\n \u00a0\u00a0 I weet not who he is: the sight\n Has filled my spirit with affright.'\n Some pressed round S\u00edt\u00e1 in a ring;\n Some bore the story to their king:\n 'A mighty creature of our race,\n In monkey form, has reached the place.\n He came within the grove,' they cried,\n 'He stood and talked by S\u00edt\u00e1's side,\n He comes from Indra's court to her,\n Or is Kuvera's messenger;\n Or R\u00e1ma sent the spy to seek\n His consort, and her wrongs to wreak.\n His crushing arm, his trampling feet\n Have marred and spoiled that dear retreat,\n And all the pleasant place which thou\n So lovest is a ruin now.\n The tree where S\u00edt\u00e1 sat alone\n Is spared where all are overthrown.\n Perchance he saved the dame from harm:\n Perchance the toil had numbed his arm.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Then flashed the giant's eye with fire\n Like that which lights the funeral pyre.\n He bade his bravest Kinkars \u00a01b speed\n \n \n And to his feet the spoiler lead.\n Forth from the palace, at his hest,\n Twice forty thousand warriors pressed.\n Burning for battle, strong and fierce,\n With clubs to crush and swords to pierce,\n They saw Han\u00fam\u00e1n near a porch,\n And, thick as moths around a torch,\n Rushed on the foe with wild attacks\n Of mace and club and battle-axe.\n As round him pressed the R\u00e1kshas crowd,\n The wondrous monkey roared aloud,\n That birds fell headlong from the sky:\n Then spake he with a mighty cry:\n 'Long life to Das'aratha's heir,\n And Lakshman, ever-glorious pair\n Long life to him who rules our race,\n Preserved by noblest R\u00e1ma's grace\n I am the slave of Kosal's king,\u00a01\n Whose wondrous deeds the minstrels sing.\n Han\u00fam\u00e1n I, the Wind-God's seed:\n Beneath this arm the foemen bleed.\n I fear not, unapproached in might,\n A thousand R\u00e1vans ranged for fight,\n Although in furious hands they rear\n The hill and tree for sword and spear,\n I will, before the giants' eyes,\n Their city and their king chastise;\n And, having communed with the dame,\n Depart in triumph as I came.'\n \u00a0 At that terrific roar and yell\n The heart of every giant fell.\n But still their king's command they feared\n And pressed around with arms upreared.\n Beside the porch a club was laid:\n The V\u00e1nar caught it up, and swayed\n The weapon round his head, and slew\n The foremost of the R\u00e1kshas crew.\n Thus Indra vanquished, thousand-eyed,\n The Daityas who the Gods defied.\n Then on the porch Han\u00fam\u00e1n sprang,\n And loud his shout of triumph rang.\n The giants looked upon the dead,\n And turning to their monarch fled.\n And R\u00e1van with his spirit wrought\n To frenzy by the tale they brought,\n Urged to the fight Prahasta's son,\n Of all his chiefs the mightiest one.\n \n \n417:1b Kinkar means the special servant of a sovereign, who receives his orders immediately p. 418 from his master. The Bengal recension gives these R\u00e1kshases an epithet which the Commentator explains 'as generated in the mind of Brahm\u00e1.'\n418:1 R\u00e1ma de jure King of Kosal of which Ayodhy\u00e1 was the capital.","title":"BOOK V: Canto XLII.: The Giants Roused.","type":"page"}