{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry396.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry396.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry396.htm","text":"They rose in air: the region grew\n Dark with their shadow as they flew.\n Swift to a lovely grove \u00a02 they came\n That rivalled heavenly Nandan's \u00a03 fame\n Where countless bees their honey stored,--\n The pleasance of the V\u00e1nars' lord,\n To every creature fenced and barred,\n Which Dadhimukh was set to guard,\n A noble V\u00e1nar, brave and bold,\n Sugr\u00edva's uncle lofty-souled.\n To Angad came with one accord\n The V\u00e1nars, and besought their lord\n That they those honeyed stores might eat\n That made the grove so passing sweet.\n \u00a0\u00a0 He gave consent: they sought the trees\n Thronged with innumerable bees.\n They rifled all the treasured store,\n And ate the fruit the branches bore,\n And still as they prolonged the feast\n Their merriment and joy increased.\n Drunk with the sweets, they danced and bowed,\n They wildly sang, they laughed aloud.\n Some climbed and sprang from tree to tree,\n Some sat and chattered in their glee.\n Some scaled the trees which creepers crowned,\n And rained the branches to the ground.\n There with loud laugh a V\u00e1nar sprang\n Close to his friend who madly sang,\n In doleful mood another crept\n To mix his tears with one who wept.\n \u00a0\u00a0 Then Dadhimukh with fury viewed\n The intoxicated multitude.\n He looked upon the rifled shade,\n And all the ruin they had made;\n Then called with angry voice, and strove\n To save the remnant of the grove,\n But warning cries and words were spurned,\n And angry taunt and threat returned.\n Then fierce and wild contention rose:\n With furious words he mingled blows.\n They by no shame or fear withheld,\n By drunken mood and ire impelled,\n Used claws, and teeth, and hands, and beat\n The keeper under trampling feet.\n \n \n426:1 Three Cantos of repetition are omitted.\n426:2 Madhuvan the 'honey-wood.'\n426:3 Indra's pleasure-ground or elysium.","title":"BOOK V: Canto LXI.: The Feast of Honey.","type":"page"}