Yuddha Kanda, Sarga 38

Meaning

Having made up his mind to climb up the Suvela mountain, Śrī Rāma for his part, who was followed by Lakṣmaṇa, spoke as follows in soft and excellent tone to Sugrīva, as well as to the devoted night-ranger, Vibhīṣaṇa, who knew what is right, was experienced in counsel and learned in ritual: (1-2)

Meaning

“Let us all duly ascend this ruler of mountains, Suvela, which is covered with hundreds of minerals. We shall spend this night on it. (3)

Meaning

“We shall also be able to survey from its top Laṅkā, the abode of that ogre, Rāvaṇa, by whom, evil-minded as he is, was my consort borne away to his own destruction, the inevitable result of his action. (4)

Meaning

“The moment his name is mentioned, my wrath is aroused towards that vile ogre, Rāvaṇa, by whom neither was virtue rightly understood, nor morality, nor was pedigree taken into consideration, but by whom the aforesaid reproachful act was perpetrated as prompted by his mean ogre-like mentality. I shall perceive with my own eyes the extermination of all the ogres due to the crime of that mean fellow. (5-6)

Meaning

“Fallen in the grip of the noose of Death, a single individual actually perpetrates a sin; while the entire race perishes on account of that vile fellow due to his wrong doing.” (7)

Meaning

Talking as aforesaid, full of wrath as he was towards Rāvaṇa, Śrī Rāma ascended the Suvela mountain, distinguished by its lovely peaks, with a view to halting there. (8)

Meaning

Lifting his bow alongwith an arrow, Lakṣmaṇa, who was fully alert and fond of showing extraordinary prowess, followed him at his back. (9)

Meaning

Following him, Sugrīva with his ministers and Vibhīṣaṇa, nay, Hanumān, Aṅgada, Nīla, Mainda as well as Dwivida, Gaja, Gavākṣa, Gavaya, Śarabha, Gandhamādana, Panasa and Kumuda as well, Hara and the troop-commander, Rambha, as also Jāmbavān and Suṣeṇa as well as the highly intelligent Ṛṣabha, as also Durmukha, who was endowed with extraordinary energy, and the monkey Śatabali—these as well as many other well-known swift-footed monkeys, who moved with the speed of the wind and used to range on hills, scaled the Suvela mountain in hundreds, reaching the spot where Śrī Rāma, a scion of Raghu, was. Climbing up the mountain in a short time on all sides, and taking their stand on the top of that mountain, they, for their part, beheld the city suspended as it were in the air. The leaders of monkey-troops saw the splendid Laṅkā provided with most excellent gates, graced with an excellent defensive wall and packed with ogres. Nay, the aforesaid jewels among the monkeys noticed another wall formed (as it were on the original one) by the dark-hued ogres ranged in compact rows for defence on the excellent defensive walls. (10—17)

Meaning

Beholding the ogres burning to fight, all the aforesaid monkeys raised clamours of various kinds while Śrī Rāma stood looking on. (18)

Meaning

Reddened by the evening twilight, the sun presently sank below the horizon, and, illumined by the full moon, the night duly set in. (19)

Meaning

Honoured by Vibhīṣaṇa after greeting him joyfully, nay, accompanied by Lakṣmaṇa and joined by a company of troop-commanders, the celebrated Śrī Rāma thenceforward sojourned happily on the top of the Suvela mountain. (20)