Uttara Kanda, Sarga 21

Meaning

Having contemplated thus, Nārada (the foremost of Brāhmaṇas), swift of pace, proceeded towards the domain of Yama in order to relate the story as it came to be. (1)

Meaning

There he saw god Yama, with the (all-witnessing) fire placed before him and dealing out justice to every living being according to the nature of its doing. (2)

Meaning

Offering water to wash his hands with according to the rules of conduct on seeing the eminent Sage Nārada arrived there, Yama for his part said to him when he was seated comfortably: (3)

Meaning

“O celestial sage, waited upon by gods and Gandharvas, I hope all is well (with you). I hope righteousness is not wanting. What may be the object of your visit?” (4)

Meaning

The revered Sage Nārada for his part then replied as follows: “Listen, I shall presently tell you the object of my visit. And let the necessary remedial measures be taken. (5)

Meaning

“O King of the Manes, the ranger of the night, Daśagrīva by name, is presently coming here to subdue you, even though you are hard to vanquish, by his exploits. (6)

Meaning

“For this very reason I have come here with all speed, my lord ! I wonder what is going to happen to you now, who hold the rod of punishment for your weapon.” (7)

Meaning

In the meantime they saw from a distance the aerial car of that ogre, bright like the rising sun, approaching. (8)

Meaning

Dispelling the darkness of that entire region by the brilliance of the aforesaid Puṣpaka, that very mighty ogre (Rāvaṇa) arrived near. (9)

Meaning

That mighty-armed ogre, Daśagrīva, saw everywhere living beings reaping the fruit of their good as well as of their evil deeds. (10)

Meaning

He also saw the soldiers of Yama alongwith his attendants. He also perceived embodied souls being struck and tortured by Yama’s violent and fierce servants of hideous aspect, and screaming with a bellowing sound and emitting shrill cries. (11-12)

Meaning

On the way Rāvaṇa saw in hundreds and thousands people being eaten up by worms and fierce dogs and uttering words painful to the ear and causing fright, others being made to cross many times the Vaitaraṇī, the river which flowed with blood, still others suffering pain while being made to tread again and again on burning sands; many more unrighteous souls being split in a grove with sword-like sharp leaves; others being immersed in streams of brackish waters and made to tread on razor blades; others seized with thirst and hunger and begging for water; others no better than corpses, emaciated, wretched and pale, their hair in disarray, bearing dirt and mud on their bodies, helpless and running hither and thither unanointed. (13—17)

Meaning

Rāvaṇa, also saw some people feeling delighted in the best of houses with the sound of vocal and instrumental music by virtue of their own meritorious deeds. (18)

Meaning

Rāvaṇa, the mighty-armed suzerain lord of the Rākṣasas, saw those, who had gifted cows, drinking milk; others who had gifted food eating food; and still others who had gifted houses residing in houses as the reward of their meritorious doings, and other pious souls decked with gold, gems and pearls and shining in their own lustre in the company of youthful women. By dint of his prowess the mighty Rāvaṇa forcibly liberated those who were being tortured because of their own sinful deeds. The aforesaid living beings liberated by the said ogre, Daśagrīva, enjoyed for a while happiness which was altogether unexpected and unthought of. While the departed were being liberated in this way by the exceptionally mighty Rāvaṇa, the guardians of the dead rushed at the king of the Rākṣasas highly enraged. A great clamour then distinctly arose from all sides among the valiant soldiers of Yama (the king who deals out justice), who ran with all speed (to check the disorder). The said heroes duly assailed the Puṣpaka in hundreds and thousands with spears, iron bars, pikes, pestles, javelins and iron clubs. Like black bees they rapidly demolished the seats, the mansions, the daises and the portals of the Puṣpaka. Though being demolished in combat, that aerial car, the Puṣpaka, which was the seat of gods remained intact by the power of Brahmā, imperishable as it was. The army of that high-souled god was a very huge one; it was past counting; of the heroes who formed the advance guard there were hundreds and thousands. Thereupon the aforesaid ministers of Rāvaṇa, who were all great heroes, as well as the notorious King Rāvaṇa, fought each according to his will and strength with trees and mountains as well as with hundreds of house-tops. (19—30)

Meaning

Though all their limbs were smeared with blood, and lacerated by all kinds of weapons, the ministers of Rāvaṇa put forth a major conflict. (31)

Meaning

Those glorious ministers of Yama as well as those of Rāvaṇa, O mighty-armed one, struck each of the other party violently with weapons. (32)

Meaning

Leaving alone the said ministers, the exceptionally mighty soldiers of Yama for their part attacked the notorious Rāvaṇa himself with a shower of arrows. (33)

Meaning

Shattered by the adversaries’ blows and his limbs smeared with blood, the suzerain lord of the Rākṣasas in the Puṣpaka thereupon looked like an Aśoka tree in flower. (34)

Meaning

That mighty warrior for his part hurled pikes, clubs and spears, javelins, iron clubs and arrows, pestles, rocks and trees by dint of his knowledge of mystic missiles. (35)

Meaning

That most formidable shower of trees and rocks and weapons too fell on the troops of Yama standing on the ground. (36)

Meaning

Having destroyed all those weapons and repelled the mystic missile itself, they (the soldiers of Yama) struck that redoubtable single warrior, Rāvaṇa, in their hundreds of thousands. (37)

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Surrounding him even as masses of clouds would encircle a hill, they assailed him with Bhindipālas and darts so as to suffocate him. (38)

Meaning

His armour having been severed, nay, bathed in streams of blood and, leaving the Puṣpaka, Rāvaṇa, who was provoked to anger, stood on the ground. (39)

Meaning

Regaining his consciousness in a short while, and furnished with his bow and arrows, he thereupon rose in spirit on the battlefield and stood enraged like Death. (40)

Meaning

Then fitting the divine missile presided over by Lord Śiva to his bow, and saying: “Wait, wait!”, he stretched the bow-string. (41)

Meaning

Stretching the bow-string up to his ear, that enemy of Indra forthwith shot the said arrow in rage even as Śaṅkara did at Tripura. (42)

Meaning

With its circle of smoke and flames the said arrow looked like a sylvan fire growing in summer in order to consume a wood. (43)

Meaning

Having reduced bushes as well as trees to ashes, when discharged, that arrow for its part with its crown of flames coursed through the field of battle followed by carnivorous animals. (44)

Meaning

Consumed by the blaze of that shaft, the troops of Yama (son of the sun-god) for their part fell on the battlefield like the standards of the mighty Indra. (45)

Meaning

Thereupon the ogre of terrible prowess for his part with his ministers uttered a great roar convulsing the earth, as it were. (46)