{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry451.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry451.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry451.htm","text":"The V\u00e1nars saw the giant foe\n Pour from the gate in gallant show,\n \n \n Rejoiced with warriors' fierce delight\n And shouted, longing for the fight.\n Near came the hosts and nearer yet:\n Dire was the tumult as they met,\n As, serried line to line opposed,\n The V\u00e1nars and the giants closed.\n Fierce on the foe the V\u00e1nars rushed,\n And, wielding trees, the foremost crushed;\n But, feathered from the heron's wing,\n With eager flight from sounding string.\n Against them shot with surest aim\n A ceaseless storm of arrows came:\n And, pierced in head and chest and side,\n Full many a V\u00e1nar fell and died.\n They perished slain in fierce attacks\n With sword and pike and battle-axe;\n But myriads following undismayed\n Their valour in the fight displayed.\n Unnumbered V\u00e1nars rent and torn\n With shaft and spear to earth were borne.\n But crashed by branchy trees and blocks\n Of jagged stone and shivered rocks\n Which the wild V\u00e1nars wielded well\n The bravest of the giants fell.\n Their trampled banners strewed the fields,\n And broken swords and spears and shields;\n And, crushed by blows which none might stay,\n Cars, elephants, and riders lay.\n Dh\u00famr\u00e1ksha turned his furious eye\n And saw his routed legions fly.\n Still dauntless, with terrific blows,\n He struck and slew his foremost foes.\n At every blow, at every thrust,\n He laid a V\u00e1nar in the dust.\n So fell they neath the sword and lance\n In battle's wild Gandharva \u00a01 dance,\n Where clang of bow and clash of sword\n Did duty for the silvery chord,\n And hoofs that rang and steeds that neighed\n Loud concert for the dancer made.\n So fiercely from Dh\u00famr\u00e1ksha's bow\n His arrows rained in ceaseless flow,\n The V\u00e1nar legions turned and fled\n To all the winds discomfited.\n Han\u00fam\u00e1n saw the V\u00e1nars fly:\n He heaved a mighty rock on high.\n His keen eyes flashed with wrathful fire,\n And, rapid as the Wind his sire,\n Strong as the rushing tempests are,\n He hurled it at the advancing car.\n Swift through the air the missile sang:\n The giant from the chariot sprang,\n Ere crushed by that terrific blow\n Lay pole and wheel and flag and bow.\n Han\u00fam\u00e1n's eyes with fury blazed:\n A mountain's rocky peak he raised,\n \n \n Poised it on high in act to throw,\n And rushed upon his giant foe.\n Dh\u00famr\u00e1ksha saw: he raised his mace\n And smote Han\u00fam\u00e1n on the face,\n Who maddened by the wound's keen pang\n Again upon his foeman sprang;\n And on the giant's head the rock\n Descended with resistless shock.\n Crushed was each limb: a shapeless mass\n He lay upon the blood-stained grass.\n \n \n \n \n466:1 The Gandharvas are warriors and Minstrels of Indra's heaven.","title":"BOOK VI: Canto LII.: Dh\u00famr\u00e1ksha's Death.","type":"page"}