Aranya Kanda, Sarga 25

Meaning

Reaching the hermitage, Khara with his attendants saw the celebrated Śrī Rāma, the slayer of his enemies, with the bow held tightly in anger. (1)

Meaning

Seeing him and lifting his bow, furnished with a string and making a sharp twang, he commanded the charioteer in the following words : “Let the chariot be driven in front of Rāma.” (2)

Meaning

At the command of Khara the said charioteer goaded the horses on to where the mighty-armed Rāma stood alone tweaking his bow. (3)

Meaning

Seeing him arrived near Rāma and uttering a loud roar, his ogre companions, for their part, surrounded him on all sides. (4)

Meaning

Seated in his chariot in the midst of those ogres, the celebrated Khara looked like the Mars risen in the midst of stars. (5)

Meaning

Striking Śrī Rāma of incomparable vigour with a thousand arrows, Khara forthwith made a loud roar on the battlefield. (6)

Meaning

Feeling enraged, all the night-stalkers assaulted with various kinds of weapons the celebrated Śrī Rāma, who was armed with a terrible bow and was hard to conquer. (7)

Meaning

Given up to fury, the ogres violently struck the hero on the battlefield, with clubs, iron pikes, barbed missiles, swords and axes. (8)

Meaning

Riding in their chariots as well as on horseback, as also on elephants resembling mountain-peaks, the ogres, who were endowed with gigantic bodies and possessed of extraordinary might and looked like clouds, rushed on Śrī Rāma with intent to kill him in battle. Like huge clouds assailing Sumeru (the king of mountains) with torrents, those hordes of ogres rained showers of arrows on Śrī Rāma. Surrounded by all the ogres, who wore a cruel aspect, Rāma looked like Lord Mahādeva surrounded by hordes of his attendants on days bearing the name of Pradoṣa (and sacred to Śiva). By means of his arrows the celebrated Śrī Rāma, a scion of Raghu, absorbed those weapons discharged by the ogres even as the ocean does the rushing waters of rivers. The said Śrī Rāma did not feel afflicted even with his limbs pierced by those terrible weapons any more than a huge mountain rent with many blazing thunderbolts. Pierced and besmeared with blood in all limbs the celebrated Śrī Rāma, a scion of Raghu, looked like the sun screened by evening clouds. Gods and Gandharvas, Siddhas and great Ṛṣis felt dejected to behold him standing alone surrounded by many thousands at that time. With his bow bent to the shape of a circle (when drawn at full length), Śrī Rāma, for his part, who felt highly enraged on the battle-field, pulled out from his quiver hundreds and thousands of very sharp arrows, which were difficult to intercept and hard to endure and resembled the noose of Death in their action, and discharged in sport arrows tipped with gold. Sportfully hurled on the enemy’s ranks by Śrī Rāma, the aforesaid shafts took away the lives of the ogres like the nooses of Death. Having reached the air piercing through those bodies of the ogres, those arrows soaked in blood shone bright like kindled fire. Most formidable arrows without number flew from the circular bow of Śrī Rāma, taking away the lives of the ogres. With them Śrī Rāma split their bows, the tops of their ensigns, shields and coats of mail, arms adorned with ornaments for the hands and thighs resembling the trunks of elephants in their hundreds and thousands on the battlefield. (9—22)

Meaning

The arrows of Śrī Rāma, released from his bow-string on that occasion, tore and pierced the horses though protected by golden armour, alongwith the chariots and the charioteers, the elephants with their riders and the horsemen with their horses; nay, killing the foot soldiers in the encounter, he firmly despatched them to the abode of Yama, the god of death. (23-24)

Meaning

Being torn with his Nālīkas (steel-pointed arrows), Nārācas (arrows wholly made of steel) and sharp-pointed Vikarṇis (barbed arrows), the ogres then raised a terrific piteous wail. (25)

Meaning

Tormented by Śrī Rāma with arrows of various kinds piercing their vital parts, the said army was ill at ease like a dry forest oppressed by fire. (26)

Meaning

Extremely enraged, some gallant night-stalkers possessed of terrible might hurled at Śrī Rāma barbed missiles, iron pikes and axes. (27)

Meaning

Intercepting their weapons with his arrows, the valiant and mighty-armed Śrī Rāma severed their necks and took away their lives in the encounter. (28)

Meaning

With their heads lopped off and their shields and bows pierced, they toppled on the ground like trees (in the Nandana garden in heaven) knocked down by the blast raised by the flight of Garuḍa, the king of birds. (29)

Meaning

Wounded with the arrows and feeling dejected, those ogres who were left alive there, flew for protection towards Khara alone. (30)

Meaning

Consoling them all and taking his bow, Dūṣaṇa, who felt extremely enraged, rushed towards the infuriated Rāma like the angry Yama. (31)

Meaning

Rendered fearless by the backing of Dūṣaṇa, all returned once more and rushed towards Rāma alone using sal and palmyra trees and slabs of stone for weapons. (32)

Meaning

Nay, holding iron pikes and clubs as well as nooses in their hands, the ogres, who were possessed of great might, began to rain on the field of battle showers of arrows and weapons, as well as volleys of trees and slabs of stones. That encounter between the celebrated Śrī Rāma and the aforesaid ogres was indeed wonderful, tumultuous and most dreadful and caused one’s hair to stand on end. Waving in wrath, they tormented Śrī Rāma once more on all sides. (33—35)

Meaning

Seeing all the quarters as well as the intermediate points encompassed by the ogres arrived from all sides, and uttering a terrible roar, Śrī Rāma, who was now covered with showers of shafts and who was possessed of extraordinary might, discharged the most resplendent missile presided over by the Gandharvas against the ogres. (36-37)

Meaning

Then from his circular bow sped thousands of arrows. All the ten directions were fully covered by those arrows. (38)

Meaning

Tormented by the arrows, the said ogres did not perceive Śrī Rāma picking up the dreadful and excellent arrows or discharging them. They only saw him pulling his bow-string alone. (39)

Meaning

The darkness spread by the arrows enveloped the sky including the sun. And Śrī Rāma simply stood sending forth those arrows as though mechanically. (40)

Meaning

The earth was strewn in no time with the ogres hit hard by the arrows all at a time, toppling down all and fallen on the ground all at once. (41)

Meaning

The ogres were seen in their thousands killed outright, struck down, exhausted, split into two, hacked to pieces and disembowelled here and there. (42)

Meaning

Thickly strewn with heads wrapped in turbans, as well as with arms adorned with armlets, nay, with severed thighs and arms, ornaments of various designs as also with horses, foremost elephants and chariots broken at many places, whisks, canopies and ensigns of various patterns, all struck down by the arrows of Śrī Rāma, iron pikes, scimitars and swords torn into pieces, barbed missiles shattered, axes scattered all over, slabs of stone reduced to powder and numerous arrows of various kinds torn into splinters, the earth looked ghastly. (43—46)

Meaning

Sore distressed to see them slain, all the surviving ogres were unable to advance towards Śrī Rāma, the conqueror of the enemy’s citadels. (47)