Kishkindha Kanda, Sarga 23

Meaning

While smelling through love the well-known face of Vālī (the king of monkeys), Tārā, who was famed throughout the world, then spoke as follows to her deceased husband : (1)

Meaning

“Not having followed my advice, O hero, you are lying uncomfortably on an uneven and extremely hard and stony ground. (2)

Meaning

“Surely, O lord of monkeys, the earth is dearer to you in comparison with me as is clear from the fact that you lie embracing her and do not even respond to me. (3)

Meaning

“Oh, Fate in the form of Śrī Rāma has become subservient to the will of Sugrīva. Sugrīva alone is, therefore, powerful and will rule over Kiṣkindhā, O hero fond of daring acts ! (4)

Meaning

“The foremost of bears and monkeys sought shelter with you, mighty as you were. As such why don’t you wake up even on hearing their cries of distress, and the utterances of wailing Aṅgada, as also these plaints of mine? This bed in the form of hard, uneven and stony ground, appropriate to a hero, is the same on which enemies killed by you were laid in the past. On that very bed you lie slain in combat today, O lord, fond of war and born in a race reputed for their immaculate strength, O my darling ! (5—7)

Meaning

“Leaving me alone, without a protector, for good, you have departed to the other world, O bestower of honour ! ‘A girl should never be given in marriage to a hero by a wise man.’ (8)

Meaning

“In corroboration of this statement look at me, the wife of a hero, widowed in no time and ruined forever. My pride of being the spouse of a sovereign stands crushed and so my everlasting happiness in this world has been shattered. (9)

Meaning

“Nay, I am completely submerged in a fathomless and vast ocean of grief. Surely this heart of mine, which is so stout, is made of steel as is evident from the fact that on seeing my husband slain it has not been split into a hundred fragments today. He, who was my disinterested friend and supporter too and was beloved of me by his very nature, nay, a hero powerful in dealing blows, has been reduced to the five elements. A woman who is bereft of her husband, no matter if she is blessed with a son and even though she is richly endowed with wealth and foodgrains, is spoken of as a widow by the wise. “You lie stretched, O hero, in a pool of blood flowing from your own limbs even as you did at home in your own bed with a covering of deep red colour resembling that of an insect called Indragopa. Your body being enveloped on all sides in dust and blood, I am unable to clasp you with my arms, O jewel among monkeys ! Sugrīva, whose fear has been dispelled by a single arrow discharged by Śrī Rāma, has accomplished his purpose today through this most formidable antagonisms. I am prevented by the shaft fixed in your heart from embracing your limbs and merely stand gazing on you even though you have been reduced to the five elements.” Nīla, a general of Sugrīva, then extracted the arrow fixed in his body even as one would pull out a fiery snake lying hidden in a mountain cave. The brilliance of that shaft even while it was being drawn out of Vālī’s breast shone forth like that of the sun whose rays stand intercepted by a peak of the western mountain (behind which the sun is supposed to set). Streams of blood actually flowed from his wounds on all sides like rivulets mixed with red ochre flowing from a mountain. Wiping her gallant husband covered with the dust of combat, Tārā bathed him with the tears flowing from her eyes, badly wounded as he was with a missile. Seeing her killed husband bathed all over with blood, Tārā, his wife, spoke as follows to her son, Aṅgada, who had reddish brown eyes : “Behold, my son, the most tragic end of your father. (10—22)

Meaning

“The end has thus been reached by him of the enmity which was forced on him by his sinful deeds of some past life. Greet, my son, your royal father, a bestower of honour on others, whose body shone brightly as the rising sun, and who has now departed to the abode of Death.” Rising up, when exhorted thus, Aṅgada clasped the feet of his father with his stout and rounded arms, saying : “I am your son, Aṅgada.” (Tārā then continued) : “Why don’t you bless Aṅgada, who is greeting you, in the words ‘Live long, my son !’ as you did before? Like a cow standing with its calf by the side of a bull instantly struck down by a lion, I wait with my son upon you, from whom consciousness has departed. (23—26)

Meaning

“Having propitiated the gods through a sacrificial performance in the form of a duel, how did you take part without me, your wife, in these ablutions, so well known, performed at the end of the sacrifice by you with water in the form of blood provided by Śrī Rāma’s arrow? (27)

Meaning

“Why do I not see here on your person your favourite chain of gold, which was gifted to you by Indra (the ruler of gods) when pleased in an encounter? (28)

Meaning

“Even though life has departed from you, O bestower of honour on others, kingly glory does not leave you any more than the light of the setting sun leaves the western mountain (behind which the sun is supposed to set). (29)

Meaning

“Neither was my salutary advice referred to above followed by you nor was I actually able to restrain you. The result is that you having been killed in a combat, I, with my son, have been ruined and alongwith you the goddess of fortune is deserting me as well as my son.” (30)