Sundara Kanda, Sarga 10

Meaning

Looking round, Hanumān observed in that chamber a prominent dais made of crystal and decked with precious stones and appearing like a celestial structure, with a couch placed on it. (1)

Meaning

It was furnished with excellent couches of great value, made of cat’s-eye gems and fitted with component parts made of ivory and gold and with various figures painted on them and covered with precious beds. (2)

Meaning

In a portion of the dais Hanumān further beheld a white canopy decked with heavenly wreaths and shining brightly like the moon, the lord of stars. (3)

Meaning

He also saw exceptionally excellent couch overlaid with gold, refulgent as fire and overhung with wreaths of Aśoka flowers. (4)

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It was being fanned on all sides by women bearing chowries in their hands, was refreshed with perfumes of various kinds and fumigated with excellent incense. (5)

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It was overspread with an excellent bed, upholstered with sheepskin and decked on every side with wreaths of excellent flowers. (6)

Meaning

Hanumān, the great monkey, saw the gallant and mighty-armed Rāvaṇa, the suzerain lord of ogres, of a comely exterior with reddened eyes, and closely resembling a cloud in complexion, who was adorned with bright and flashing earrings and clad in robes of golden texture, was smeared all over with fragrant red sandal-paste presented the appearance of a cloud reddened at sunset and illumined with flashes of lightning in the sky, who was adorned with celestial ornaments and was able to change his form at will and who with his twenty arms etc., looked like Mount Mandāra covered with clusters of trees and rich in shrubs; and lying fast asleep, who had retired after dalliance at night and was decked with excellent jewels, was beloved of Rākṣasa (ogre) maids and the delight of ogres and, having drunk to his fill, was lying fast asleep on that magnificent couch. (7—11)

Meaning

Extremely disgusted at the sight of that sinful monster on approaching Rāvaṇa, who was snoring like an elephant, Hanumān, the foremost of monkeys, shrank back out of repulsion. (12)

Meaning

Then, going down the stairway and stationed on a landing of the stairway at some distance from the dais on which Rāvaṇa lay, the mighty Hanumān began to look intently on the drunken Rāvaṇa, a tiger among the ogres. (13)

Meaning

As Rāvaṇa, the ruler of ogres, lay sleeping, the magnificent couch on which he lay looked like the lofty Praśravana, a mountain with a scent-elephant* (an elephant of the best kind, whose scent alone drives away hostile elephants) lying on it. (14)

Meaning

He also observed the two outstretched arms of the gigantic lord of ogres, which were adorned with armlets of gold and resembled a pair of flags raised in honour of Indra (on the 12 day of the bright half of Bhādrapada); which bore scars of wounds sustained in combat with the ends of the tusks of Airāvata, the carrier of Indra, nay, whose fleshy shoulders had been lacerated by the thunderbolt of Indra and which had been injured by the discus of Lord Viṣṇu; which were fleshy and culminated in uniform and well-formed shoulders, were tough-jointed and powerful, bore auspicious marks on their nails and thumbs and were characterized by shapely fingers and palms; which were compact and rounded, resembled a pair of iron clubs and were shaped like the tapering proboscis of an elephant and which, while outstretched on the white bed, looked like a pair of five-hooded serpents; which had been artistically smeared with exceptionally excellent, very cool and fragrant sandal-paste of the colour of a hare’s blood and profusely adorned; which were strenuously kneaded by belles and had been anointed with excellent perfumes and which made Yakṣas, Nāgas, Gandharvas, gods and demons cry in terror when they dared to oppose him. (15—20)

Meaning

Hanumān gazed on his two arms placed on the couch as though they were two large angry serpents lying asleep in a cave of Mount Mandāra (21)

Meaning

With both those fully developed arms, Rāvaṇa, the lord of ogres, who closely resembled a mountain, looked charming like Mount Mandāra with two* peaks. (22)

Meaning

Pervading, as it were, the whole of that chamber, issued from the huge mouth of the aforesaid ruler of ogres, even as he lay asleep, breaths carrying the fragrance of the mango and the nutmeg and united with the odour of excellent Bakula flowers, nay, scented with the fragrance of excellent dishes and preceded by the odour of drinks. (23-24)

Meaning

In the palace of that gigantic lord of ogres, the lover of his wives, Hanumān saw Rāvaṇa, whose face was lit up with earrings and who was adorned with a diadem of gold, which was rendered picturesque by pearls and was shining brightly though it had receded a bit from its position; who was distinguished by his fleshy, large and broad chest, which was smeared with red sandal-paste and shone brightly with a charming string of pearls: who had blood-red eyes and was covered below the loins with a white silken loin-cloth, which had been dislodged from its position, and was properly covered with a costly yellow upper garment; who resembled a heap of black beans, was hissing like a serpent and looked like an elephant lying fast asleep in a large stream of the holy Gaṅgā; who was being illumined on all the four sides by four lights set on golden pillars and accordingly had all his limbs lit up even as a cloud is irradiated by flashes of lightning—and also looked on his wives lying close by his feet. (25—30)

Meaning

Hanumān, a leader of monkey hordes, found them with their faces resplendent as the moon, nay, adorned with excellent earrings and graced with unwithered celestial garlands. (31)

Meaning

Hanumān saw lying there women who were skilled in dancing and playing on musical instruments, nay, who found a place in the arms and lap of Rāvaṇa, the ruler of ogres, and who wore excellent jewels. (32)

Meaning

He beheld on the lobes of the ears of those women earrings of gold set with diamonds and cat’s-eye gems, as well as armlets about their arms. (33)

Meaning

That chamber, which was shaped like an aerial car, shone brightly with their faces, bright as the moon and graced with lovely earrings, even as the firmament with hosts of stars. (34)

Meaning

Languid with intoxication and amorous dalliance, the aforesaid consorts of Rāvaṇa with slender waists had fallen asleep during the varying spells of respite. (35)

Meaning

Though fast asleep, a certain woman with an excellent complexion, all of whose limbs had been specially endowed with beauty, likewise appeared graceful in a dancing mood (due to habit) with delicate motions of her limbs. (36)

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Fallen fast asleep hugging her vina of six strings, another woman looked exceptionally charming like a lotus plant, thrown about in a large river, having clung to a boat. (37)

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Another dark-eyed lovely woman, who had lain fast asleep with a Madduka (a kind of small drum) placed in one of her arm-pits looked like a loving matron with her infant in her lap. (38)

Meaning

Another woman with lovely breasts and graceful of every limb lay hugging a tambourine as though a passionate woman lay embracing her lover on securing him after a long time. (39)

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Yet another woman with lotus-like eyes lay asleep pressing a vina of six strings to her bosom as though a passionate woman lay clasping her most beloved husband with passion. (40)

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Another self-possessed lovely woman, who looked graceful in a dancing mood, had fallen asleep clasping a vina with seven strings as though she lay with her beloved. (41)

Meaning

Another woman with intoxicated eyes lay fast asleep pressing a wooden tomtom to her bosom with her golden, soft, fleshy and soul-ravishing limbs. (42)

Meaning

Another woman with a slender waist and irreproachable in point of beauty, who had been worn out through drunkenness, was lying asleep with a tabor pressed to her bosom (lit., the space between the two arms) and inserted in one of her arm-pits. (43)

Meaning

Another lovely woman lay fast asleep hugging a drum and with another drum slung likewise on her back as though she lay embracing her young husband as also her child. (44)

Meaning

Another woman with eyes resembling the petals of a lotus and infatuated through inebriety lay fast asleep pressing an Āḍambara (a kind of musical instrument) in the compass of her arms. (45)

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Lying fast asleep having unconsciously upturned a jug of water (and getting wetted thereby), another lovely woman, lay like a wreath of varied flowers sprinkled with water in spring to keep it green. (46)

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Overcome by pressure of sleep, still another woman lay asleep pressing with her hands her breasts resembling two golden pitchers. (47)

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Overpowered by drunkenness, a woman with eyes resembling the petals of a lotus and a face resembling the full moon lay fast asleep embracing another woman of lovely hips. (48)

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Hugging musical instruments of various kinds and pressing them with their breasts as passionate women embrace their lovers, a number of belles could be seen lying there. (49)

Meaning

Hanumān, then saw, lying asleep there on a magnificent couch set apart from those of the aforesaid women, a celebrated fair-complexioned lady, shedding a golden lustre, Mandodarī by name, beloved of Rāvaṇa and the mistress of the women of the gynaeceum, who was rich in comeliness and endowed with a charming exterior, nay, who was profusely adorned with ornaments set with pearls and gems and who was illumining the excellent edifice with her splendour, as it were. Seeing her lying adorned and endowed with wealth of beauty and exuberance of youth, the mighty-armed Hanumān, sprung from the loins of the wind-god, inferred her to be Sītā; filled with great delight, that leader of monkey hordes felt transported with joy. (50—53)

Meaning

Demonstrating his simian nature, he clapped his arms and kissed his tail, rejoiced, frolicked, sang and paced, climbed up the pillars and dropped back on the ground. (54)