Uttara Kanda, Sarga 5

Meaning

“Seeing Sukeśa, the pious Rākṣasa, having obtained boons, a pious-minded Gandharva, Grāmaṇī by name and equal in lustre to Viśwāvasu, gave in marriage to Sukeśa his daughter, Devavatī by name, looking like a second Lakṣmī, famed in all the three worlds and endowed with beauty and youth, who embodied as it were the glory of the race of Rākṣasas. Having obtained a loving husband who had secured rulership through boons, Devavatī was perfectly pleased even as a pauper is when he obtains riches. Being married to her, the Rākṣasa shone like a mighty elephant, sprung from Añjana (an elephant guarding a cardinal point), united with a she-elephant. “In course of time, O Rāghava, Sukeśa, the lord of the Rākṣasas, begot three sons, the ogres Mālyavān, Sumālī and Mālī, the last of whom was the foremost among the strong and who were equal in lustre to the three fires, and all the three were compeers of Lord Śiva. The three sons remained steady like the three worlds, were bright as the three sacrificial fires, powerful like the three strengths (of rulership, strenuous effort and or the three Vedas) and formidable like the three kinds of diseases (arising from derangement of the three humours of the body, viz., wind, bile and phlegm). The three sons of Sukeśa, who were bright as the three sacrificial fires, grew up like diseases that have been neglected. “Knowing that by dint of his Tapas their father had secured boons as well as rulership, the three brothers repaired to Mount Meru determined to perform Tapas. Having adopted formidable rules of conduct, O jewel among the rulers of men, the aforesaid ogres practised severe austerities which proved to be a source of terror to all created beings. Through austerities combined with truthfulness, straightforwardness and self-control and rare in the world, the Rākṣasas, O best of kings, caused unrest to the three worlds inhabited by gods, Asuras and human beings. Then Lord Brahmā came seated in an excellent aerial car and addressing the sons of Sukeśa said, ‘I have come to grant boons’. Knowing Brahmā, surrounded by hosts of gods, including Indra, to have come to grant boons, all the three, shaking like trees said with folded hands: ‘Propitiated by our Tapas, O Lord, if you deign to grant us boons, let us become invincible, the scourge of our foes and also long-lived; let us also become powerful and full of love for one another.’ (1—15)

Meaning

Having said to the sons of Sukeśa, ‘You shall become all this’, Lord Brahmā, loving to Brāhmaṇas, repaired to Brahmaloka. (16)

Meaning

“Having obtained the boons, and free from fear by reason of them, all the three Rākṣasas went about harassing the gods and demons, O Śrī Rāma! (17)

Meaning

“Tormented by them, the gods, alongwith the seers and the Cāraṇas, did not find a protector any more than those cast in hell. (18)

Meaning

“Highly rejoiced, the Rākṣasas in a body then approached the best of architects, the immortal Viśwakarmā, O jewel among the Raghus, and said: (19)

Meaning

“You alone build abodes, according to their heart’s desire, for the great gods, full of valour, lustre and strength by virtue of their spirituality. (20)

Meaning

“This time, O highly intelligent one, build an abode for us also. On the slopes of Mount Himavān, Meru or Mandara erect for us a spacious house like that of Maheśwara.” Viśwakarmā, the mighty-armed, thereupon told the said Rākṣasas of a residence equal to Amarāvatī, the residence of Indra, as follows: “On the shore of the southern sea there is a hill Trikūṭa by name. (21—23)

Meaning

“ ‘O lords of the Rākṣasas, there is another hill by its side called Suvela. On the middle peak of the former, looking like a cloud, and inaccessible even to birds due to all its four sides being polished by a chisel, I built the city of Laṅkā at the command of Indra. It is thirty Yojanas wide and a hundred Yojanas long. It is surrounded by fortifications made of gold. The portals also are made of gold. (24—26)

Meaning

“ ‘You, the foremost of Rākṣasas, who are unassailable by others, may live there, as do the gods alongwith Indra in Amarāvatī. (27)

Meaning

“ ‘Having duly reached the fortress of Laṅkā with a large following of Rākṣasas you will be unassailable by enemies, O slayers of your foes!’ (28)

Meaning

“Hearing the words of Viśwakarmā, those best of Rākṣasas then went to that city with thousands of followers and lived there. (29)

Meaning

“The Rākṣasas full of delight reached Laṅkā surrounded by strong fortifications and moats and dotted with hundreds of houses made of gold, and stayed there. (30)

Meaning

“At that time, O Śrī Rāma, the delight of the Raghus, there lived a Gandharva woman by name Narmadā. She had three daughters equal in lustre to Hrī, Śrī and Kīrti, the goddesses presiding over modesty, prosperity and fame, respectively. This non-Rākṣasa lady voluntarily gave all the three Gandharva maidens, whose faces were beaming with joy like the full moon, in the order of their seniority in age, in marriage to the three Rākṣasas. (31—33)

Meaning

“The highly fortunate maidens were given by their mother at a time when the asterisk Uttarā-Phālgunī was visible. The sons of Sukeśa being married, revelled with their wives as do the immortals (gods) with Apsarā women (celestial nymphs), O Rāma ! Learn from me about the children that Mālyavān begot of his wife, the beautiful Sundarī. They were Vajramuṣṭi, Virūpākṣa, the Rākṣasa Durmukha, Suptaghna, Yajñakopa, Matta and Unmatta. Of Sundarī, O Rāma, there was also born a beautiful girl by name Analā. (34—37)

Meaning

“Sumālī’s wife, Ketumatī by name, too had a face beaming like the full moon, and who was dearer to him than his life, O Rāma ! (38)

Meaning

“Hear from me, O monarch, about the children that Sumālī the Rākṣasa, begot of Ketumatī in order of their seniority. (39)

Meaning

“Prahasta, and Akampana, Vikaṭa, Kālikāmukha and Dhūmrākṣa and Daṇḍa, Supārśwa of great strength, Saṁhrādi and Praghasa and the ogre Bhāsakarṇa, and the girls Rākā, Puṣpotkaṭā, Kaikasī and Kumbhīnasī of bright smiles were the children of Sumālī. (40—42)

Meaning

“Mālī’s wife was Vasudā, a Gandharva lady. She was lovely and her beautiful eyes resembled the petals of a lotus. She compared with the best of the Yakṣa ladies. (43)

Meaning

“Listen, O King Rāma, to what I say about the children that Sumālī’s brother begot of her. (44)

Meaning

“They were Anala and Anila, Hara and Sampāti. These Rākṣasas, the sons of Mālī, were the ministers of Vibhīṣaṇa. (45)

Meaning

“Surrounded by night-rangers and hundreds of sons, those three bulls among the Rākṣasas, who had grown haughty by reason of their excessive valour, harassed the said gods including Indra, the Ṛṣis, the Nāgas and the Yakṣas. (46)

Meaning

“Roaming about the world like the wind, they were unapproachable. In battle they were as fierce as Yama. They had grown immensely haughty by reason of the boons they had obtained. They always put obstacles in the way of Vedic sacrifices.” (47)