Uttara Kanda, Sarga 24

Meaning

While returning home, highly rejoiced, the said Rāvaṇa of perverse soul bore away on the way the virgin daughters of kings, Ṛṣis (the seers of Vedic Mantras), gods and Dānavas. (1)

Meaning

Killing the kinsfolk of the maiden or woman whom he actually found to be comely, the ogre would forthwith shut her up in his aerial car. (2)

Meaning

In this manner he lifted into his aerial car virgin daughters of Nāgas, nay, those of ogres, demons and human beings as well as those of Yakṣas and Dānavas. (3)

Meaning

Full of agony they all synchronously shed tears, which, springing as they did from the fire of grief and born as they were of fear, compared with the sparks of fire on that occasion. (4)

Meaning

Even as an ocean is filled on all sides with streams, that aerial car was filled by all those irreproachable girls with their inauspicious tears born of fear and grief. (5)

Meaning

Virgin daughters of Nāgas, Gandharvas, as also the daughters of eminent Ṛṣis as well as the Daitya and Dānava maidens who had collected in the aerial car wailed in their hundreds. (6)

Meaning

The women had long tresses and exceptionally graceful limbs; their faces shone like the full moon; having fully developed breasts, they gleamed at their waist like an altar made of diamonds; they captivated the mind by means of their hips resembling the pole of a chariot, looked like celestial ladies, possessed the brilliance of refined gold, had elegant waists, were stricken with grief, sorrow and fear and were distracted. Set ablaze on all sides by their sighs, the Puṣpaka looked like a sacrificial pit in which the sacred fire has been deposited. Fallen under the sway of Rāvaṇa (the ten-headed monster), the aforesaid youthful women for their part, who were stricken with grief and looked dejected from their countenance and eyes, resembled a female deer fallen into the clutches of a lion. One of them thought, “Will this fellow actually devour me?” Sore stricken with sorrow, another thought, “Will this fellow kill me?” Thinking of their mothers, fathers, husbands and even so of their brothers, overpowered as they were by sorrow and grief, the women lamented in a body as follows: “How, I wonder, will my son actually fare without me? (7—13)

Meaning

“How will my mother and brother, completely submerged in an ocean of grief get on? Oh, how shall I do without that husband of mine? (14)

Meaning

“Death, I seek your favour; pray, bear me away whose lot is ‘affliction’. What I wonder, may be the misdeed which was perpetrated by me in some previous existence in another body, due to which we have all sunk into an ocean of grief, stricken with sorrow. Indeed, we see no end to our misery any more. (15-16)

Meaning

“Oh, fie on this human world; surely, there is no other world viler than this, in that our imbecile husbands were destroyed by the mighty Rāvaṇa even as stars are made to disappear by the sun rising in time. Ah, the exceedingly mighty ogre takes delight in contriving the means of destruction. (17-18)

Meaning

“Ah, though holding fast to evil conduct, he does not feel disgusted with himself; the prowess of this evil-minded fellow is for that matter entirely becoming of him. (19)

Meaning

“This act of laying his hands on others’ wives, however, is quite unworthy of him. Since this wretch among the ogres takes delight in the wives of others, hence the evil-minded fellow will undoubtedly meet his death through the sighs of a woman alone.” When such an imprecation was pronounced by those virtuous and noble women, kettledrums sounded in the heavens and a shower of flowers fell on the earth. Cursed by virtuous women devoted to their husband, Rāvaṇa for his part, lost his lustre like one whose vigour had been destroyed and felt disconsolate, as it were. Hearing their lament, Rāvaṇa (a bull among the ogres) penetrated deep into the city of Laṅkā, acclaimed by the rangers of the night. In the meantime the notorious sister of Rāvaṇa, a formidable ogress, who could change her form at will, suddenly came and dropped down on the ground. Consoling his sister in everyway after lifting her up, he said, “O blessed one, what is it you want to say to me so urgently?” With eyes bloodshot and covered with tears she replied as follows: (20—26)

Meaning

“By you, mighty as you are, O king, I have been forcibly made a widow. Daityas known as the Kālakeyas, and numbering fourteen thousand, were exterminated, O king, by you the other day in combat by dint of prowess. My exceptionally mighty husband too, who was dearer to me than life itself, was also killed among others by you, O dear one, my so-called brother, who acted as an enemy. In this way, I myself stand virtually destroyed by you, my kinsman, O king! (27—29)

Meaning

“Nay, I shall actually enjoy the title of widow bestowed by you, O king ! Did my husband (who was your son-in-law, I being your younger sister, and, as such a daughter to you) not deserve to be spared by you even in conflicts? (30)

Meaning

“He was, on the contrary, killed by you in an encounter with yourself. Yet you do not feel remorseful.” Comforting her through appeasement when reproached in these words by his wailing sister, Rāvaṇa (the ten-headed monster) replied to her as follows: “Have done with weeping, my child; you should not be afraid of anyone. (31-32)

Meaning

“I shall particularly gratify you by means of gifts, politeness and favours. Intoxicated in war and distracted, longing as I did for victory, I went on raining arrows and was unable to distinguish between my own people and others in combat while fighting. While striking, fierce as I was in combat, I failed to recognize my own son-in-law. (33-34)

Meaning

“Hence, O sister, your aforesaid husband was killed by me on the field of battle. However, I shall do to you whatever good turn is called for at the present moment. (35)

Meaning

“Live under the protection of your cousin, Khara, who has been endowed with rulership. Your aforesaid exceptionally mighty cousin will have the power to dispatch at will and provide subsistence to fourteen thousand ogres. Your aforesaid cousin (born of your mother’s own sister), Khara, is competent to do this and will ever continue to do your bidding. Let this hero proceed with all speed to guard the Daṇḍaka forest closely. (36—38)

Meaning

“The exceptionally mighty Dūṣaṇa will be the commander of his forces. Living there, the valiant Khara will ever do your bidding. (39)

Meaning

“He will be the ruler of ogres capable of changing their form at will.” Having spoken as aforesaid, Rāvaṇa (the ten-headed monster), ordered fourteen thousand of valiant ogres to form the army of Khara, so the tradition goes. Surrounded by all those fierce-looking ogres, the notorious Khara, who had no fear from any quarter, arrived with all speed in the Daṇḍaka forest. There he established his undisputed rulership. The said Śūrpaṇakhā too lived in the same Daṇḍaka forest. (40—42)