{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry454.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry454.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry454.htm","text":"They told him that the chief was killed,\n And R\u00e1van's breast with rage was filled.\n Then, fiercely moved by wrath and pride,\n Thus to his lords the tyrant cried:\n \n \n 'No longer, nobles, may we show\n This lofty scorn for such a foe\n By whom our bravest, with his train\n Of steeds and elephants, is slain.\n Myself this day will take the field,\n And Raghu's sons their lives shall yield.'\n \n \n High on the royal car, that glowed\n With glory from his face, he rode;\n And tambour shell and drum pealed out,\n And joyful was each giant's shout.\n A mighty host, with eyeballs red\n Like flames of kindled fire, he led.\n He passed the city gate, and viewed,\n Arrayed, the V\u00e1nar multitude,\n Those wielding massy rocks, and these\n Armed with the stems of uptorn trees,\n And R\u00e1ma with his eyes aglow\n With warlike ardour viewed the foe,\n And thus the brave Vibh\u00edshan, best\n Of weapon-wielding chiefs, addressed:\n 'What captnin leads this bright array\n Where lances gleam and banners play,\n And thousands armed with spear and sword\n Await the bidding of their lord?'\n \n \n 'Seest, thou,' Vibh\u00edshan answered, 'one\n Whose face is as the morning sun,\n Pre\u00ebminent for hugest frame?\n Akampan \u00a01 is the giant's name\n Behold that chieftain, chariot-borne,\n Whom Brahm\u00e1's chosen gifts adorn.\n He wields a bow like Indra's own;\n A lion on his flag is shown,\n His eyes with baleful fire are lit:\n 'Tis R\u00e1van's son,'tis Indrajit\n There, brandishing in mighty hands\n His huge bow, Atik\u00e1ya stands.\n And that proud warrior o'er whose head\n A moon-bright canopy is spread:\n Whose might, in many a battle tried,\n Has tamed imperial Indra's pride;\n Who wears a crown of burnished gold,\n Is Lank\u00e1's lord the lofty-souled.'\n \n \n He ceased: and R\u00e1ma knew his foe,\n And laid an arrow on his bow:\n 'Woe to the wretch,' he ciied, 'whom fate\n Abandons to my deadly hate.'\n He spoke, and, firm by Lakshman's side,\n The giant to the fray defied.\n \n \n The lord of Lank\u00e1 bade his train\n Of warriors by the gates remain,\n To guard the city from surprise\n By R\u00e1ma's forest born allies.\n Then as some monster of the sea\n Cleaves swift-advancimg billows, he\n Charged with impetuous onset through\n The foe, and cleft the host in two.\n Sugr\u00edva ran, the king to meet:\n A hill uprooted from its seat\n He hurled,with trees that graced the height\n Against the rover of the night:\n But cleft with shafts that checked its way\n Harmless upon the earth it lay.\n Then fiercer R\u00e1van's fury grew,\n An arrow from his side he drew,\n Swift as a thunderbolt, aglow\n With fire, and launched it at the foe.\n Through flesh and bone a way it found,\n And stretched Sugr\u00edva on the ground.\n Sushen and Nala saw him fall,\n Gav\u00e1ksha, Gavaya heard their call,\n And, poising hills, in act * to fling\n They charged amain the giant king.\n They charged, they hurled the hills in vain.\n He checked them with his arrowy rain,\n And every brave assailant felt\n The piercing wounds his missiles dealt,\n Then smitten by the shafts that came\n Keen, fleet, and thick, with certain aim,\n They fled to R\u00e1ma, sure defence\n Against the oppressor's violence,\n Then, reverent palm to palm applied,\n Thus Lakshman to his brother cried:\n 'To me, my lord, the task entrust\n To lay this giant in the dust.'\n 'Go, then,' said R\u00e1ma, 'bravely fight;\n Beat down this rover of the night.\n But he, unmatched in bold emprise.\n Fears not the Lord of earth and skies,\n Keep on thy guard: with keenest eye\n Thy moments of attack espy.\n Let hand and eye in due accord\n Protect thee with the bow and sword.'\n \n \n Then Lakshman round his brother threw\n His mighty arms in honour due,\n Bent lowly down his reverent head,\n And onward to the battle sped.\n Han\u00fam\u00e1n from afar beheld\n How R\u00e1van's shafts the V\u00e1nars quelled:\n To meet the giant's car he ran,\n Raised his right arm and thus began:\n 'If Brahm\u00e1's boon thy life has screened\n From Yaksha, God, Gandharva, fiend.\n With these contending fear no ill,\n But tremble at a V\u00e1nar still.'\n With fury flashing from his eye\n The lord of Lank\u00e1 made reply.\n 'Strike, V\u00e1nar, strike, the fray begin,\n Aml hope eternal fame to win\n This arm shall pr * thee in the * ??\n \n \n And end thy glory and thy life.'\n 'Remember,' cried the Wind-God's son,\n 'Remember all that I have done,\n My prowess, King, thou knowest well,\n Shown in the fight when Aksha \u00a01 fell.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 With heavy hand the giant smote\n Han\u00fam\u00e1n on the chest and throat,\n Who reeled and staggered to and fro,\n Stunned for a moment by the blow.\n Till, mustering strength, his hand he reared\n And struck the foe whom Indra feared.\n His huge limbs bent beneath the shock,\n As mountains, in an earthquake, rock,\n And from the Gods and sages pealed\n Shouts of loud triumph as he reeled.\n But strength returning nerved his frame:\n His eyeballs flashed with fiercer flame.\n No living creature might resist\n That blow of his tremendous fist\n Which fell upon Han\u00fam\u00e1n's flank:\n And to the ground the V\u00e1nar sank,\n No sign of life his body showed:\n And R\u00e1van in his chariot rode\n At N\u00edla; and his arrowy rain\n Eell on the captain and his train.\n Fierce N\u00edla stayed his V\u00e1nar band,\n And, heaving with his single hand\n A mountain peak with vigorous swing\n Hurled the huge missile at the king.\n \u00a0\u00a0 Han\u00fam\u00e1n life and strength regained,\n Burned for the fight and thus complained:\n 'Why, coward giant, didst thou flee\n And leave the doubtful fight with me?'\n Seven mighty arrows keen and fleet\n The giant launched, the hill to meet;\n And, all its force and fury stayed,\n The harmless mass on earth was laid.\n Enraged the V\u00e1nar chief beheld\n The mountain peak by force repelled,\n And rained upon the foe a shower\n Of trees uptorn with branch and flower.\n Still his keen shafts which pierced and rent\n Each flying tree the giant sent:\n Still was the V\u00e1nar doomed to feel\n The tempest of the winged steel.\n Then, smarting from that arrowy storm,\n The V\u00e1nar chief condensed his form, \u00a02\n And lightly leaping from the ground\n On R\u00e1van's standard footing found;\n Then springing unimpeded down\n Stood on his bow and golden crown.\n The V\u00e1nar's nimble leaps amazed\n Ikshv\u00e1ku's son who stood and gazed.\n The giant, raging in his heart,\n \n \n Laid on his bow a fiery dart;\n The V\u00e1nar on his flagstaff eyed,\n And thus in tones of fury cried:\n 'Well skilled in magic lore art thou:\n But will thine art avail thee now?\n See if thy magic will defend\n Thy life against the dart I send.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus R\u00e1van spake, the giant king,\n And loosed the arrow from the string.\n It pierced, with direst fury sped,\n The V\u00e1nar with its flaming head.\n His father's might, his power innate\n Preserved him from the threatened fate.\n Upon his knees he fell, distained\n With streams of blood, but life remained,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Still R\u00e1van for the battle burned:\n At Lakshman next his car he turned,\n And charged amain with furious show,\n Straining in mighty hands his bow.\n 'Come,' Lakshman cried, 'assay the fight:\n Leave foes unworthy of thy might.'\n Thus Lakshman spoke: and Lank\u00e1's lord\n Heard the dread thunder of the cord,\n And mad with burning rage and pride\n In hasty words like these replied:\n 'Joy, joy is mine, O Raghu's son:\n Thy fate to-day thou canst not shun.\n Slain by mine arrows thou shalt tread\n The gloomy pathway of the dead.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus as, he spoke his bow he drew,\n And seven keen shafts at Lakshman flew,\n But Raghu's son with surest aim\n Cleft every arrow as it came.\n Thus with fleet shafts each warrior shot\n Against his foe, and rested not.\n Then one choice weapon from his store,\n By Brahm\u00e1's self bestowed of yore,\n Fierce as the flames that end the world,\n The giant king at Lakshman hurled.\n The hero fell, and racked with pain,\n Scarce could his hand his bow retain.\n But sense and strength resumed their seat\n And, lightly springing to his feet,\n He struck with one Tremendons stroke\n And R\u00e1van's bow in splinters broke.\n From Lakshmans's cord three arrows flew\n And pierced the giant monarch through.\n Sore wounded R\u00e1van closed, and round\n Ikshv\u00e1ku's son his strong arms wound.\n With strength unrivalled, Brahm\u00e1's gift,\n He strove from earth his foe to lift.\n 'Shall I,' he cried, 'who overthrow\n Mount Meru and the Lord of Snow,\n And heaven and all who dwell therein,\n Be foiled by one of R\u00e1ma's kin?'\n But though he heaved, and toiled, and strained,\n Unmoved Ikshv\u00e1ku's son remained.\n His frame by those huge arms compressed\n The giant's God given *****\n But conscious that himself * was part\n \n \n Of Vishnu, he was firm in heart.\n \n \n The Wind-God's son the fight beheld,\n And rushed at R\u00e1van, rage-impelled.\n Down crashed his mighty hand the foe\n Full in the chest received the blow.\n His eyes grew dim, his knees gave way,\n And senseless on the earth he lay.\n \n \n The Wind-God's son to R\u00e1ma bore\n Deep-wounded Lakshman stained with gore.\n He whom no foe might lift or bend\n Was light as air to such a friend.\n The dart that Lakshman's side had cleft,\n Untouched, the hero's body left,\n And flushing through the air afar\n Resumed its place in R\u00e1van's car;\n And, waxing well though wounded sore,\n He felt the deadly pain no more.\n And R\u00e1van, though with deep wounds pained,\n Slowly his sense and strength regained,\n And furious still and undismayed\n On bow and shaft his hand he laid.\n \n \n Then Han\u00fam\u00e1n to R\u00e1ma cried:\n 'Ascend my back, great chief, and ride\n Like Vishnu borne on Garud's wing,\n To battle with the giant king.'\n So, burning for the dire attack,\n Rode R\u00e1ma on the V\u00e1nar's back,\n And with fierce accents loud and slow\n Thus gave defiance to the foe,\n While his strained bowstring made a sound\n Like thunder when it shakes the ground:\n 'Stay, Monarch of the giants, stay,\n The penalty of sin to pay.\n Stay! whither wilt thou fly, and how\n Escape the death that waits thee now?'\n \n \n No word the giant king returned:\n His eyes with flames of fury burned.\n His arm was stretched, his bow was bent,\n And swift his fiery shafts were sent.\n Red torrents from the V\u00e1nar flowed:\n Then R\u00e1ma near to R\u00e1van strode,\n And with keen darts that never failed,\n The chariot of the king assailed.\n With surest aim his arrows flew:\n The driver and the steeds he slew.\n And shattered with the pointed steel\n Car, flag, and pole and yoke and wheel.\n As Indra hurls his bolt to smite\n Mount Meru's heaven-ascending height,\n So R\u00e1ma with a flaming dart\n Struck Lank\u00e1's monarch near the heart,\n Who reeled and fell beneath the blow\n And from loose fingers dropped his bow.\n Bright as the sun, with crescent head,\n From R\u00e1ma's bow an arrow sped,\n And from his forehead, proud no more,\n Cleft the bright coronet he wore.\n \n \n Then R\u00e1ma stood by R\u00e1van's side\n And to the conquered giant cried:\n 'Well hast thou fought: thine arm has slain\n Strong heroes of the V\u00e1nar train.\n I will not strike or slay thee now,\n For weary, faint with fight art thou.\n To Lank\u00e1's town thy footsteps bend,\n And there the night securely spend.\n To-morrow come with car and bow,\n And then my prowess shall thou know.'\n \n \n He ceased: the king in humbled pride\n Rose from the earth and naught replied.\n With wounded limbs and shattered crown\n He sought again his royal town.\n \n \n \n \n468:1 'It is to be understood,' says the commentator, 'that this is not * the Akampan who has already been slain.*\n469:1 Ravan's son, whom Han\u00fam\u00e1n killed when he first visited Lank\u00e1.\n469:2 N\u00edla was the son of Agni the God of Fire and possessed, like Milton's demons, the power of dilating and condensing his form at pleasure.","title":"BOOK VI: Canto LIX.: R\u00e1vans Sally.","type":"page"}