{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry437.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry437.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry437.htm","text":"'Come let us scale,' the hero cried,\n 'This hill with various metals dyed.\n This night upon the breezy crest\n Sugr\u00edva, Lakshman, I, will rest,\n With sage Vibh\u00edshan, faithful friend,\n His counsel and his lore to lend.\n From these tall* peaks each eager eye\n The foeman's city shall espy,\n Who from the wood my darling stole\n And brought long anguish on my soul.'\n \n \n Thus spake the lord of men, and bent\n His footsteps to the steep ascent,\n And Lakshman, true in weal and woe,\n Next followed with his shafts and bow.\n Vibh\u00edshan followed, next in place,\n The sovereign of the V\u00e1nar race,\n And hundreds of the forest kind\n Thronged with impetuous feet, behind.\n The chiefs in woods and mountains bred\n Fast followed to Suvela's head,\n And gazed on Lank\u00e1 bright and fair\n As some gay city in the air.\n On glittering gates, on ramparts raised\n By giant hands, the chieftains gazed.\n They saw the mighty hosts that, skilled\n In arts of war, the city filled,\n And ramparts with new ramparts lined,\n The swarthy hosts that stood behind.\n With spirits burning for the fight\n They saw the giants from the height,\n And from a hundred throats rang out\n Defiance and the battle shout.\n Then sank the sun with dying flame,\n And soft the shades of twilight came,\n And the full moon's delicious light\n Was shed upon the tranquil night.\n \n \n \n \n456:1 The numbers here are comparatively modern: ten thousand elephants, ten thousand chariots, twenty thousand horses and ten million giants.","title":"BOOK VI: Canto XXXVIII.: The Ascent of Suvela.","type":"page"}