Yuddha Kanda, Sarga 43

Meaning

An exceedingly terrible fury forthwith burst forth on that occasion in the ranks of the aforesaid monkeys of gigantic proportions and the ogres, even while they were fighting at the sight of the strength of the hostile army. (1)

Meaning

Mounted on the back of steeds and elephants provided with golden trappings as well as on chariots bright as flames, and clad in soul ravishing coats of mail, dazzling like the sun, the said heroic ogres of terrible deeds, accompanied by other ogres, sallied forth seeking the triumph of Rāvaṇa and causing the ten directions resound with their clamour. (2-3)

Meaning

The huge army of the monkeys too, that likewise longed for Śrī Rāma’s victory, rushed towards the army of ogres of terrible deeds. (4)

Meaning

In the meantime there ensued duels between the aforesaid ogres and monkeys, each side rushing towards the other. (5)

Meaning

The ogre Indrajit (the eldest son of Rāvaṇa), who was endowed with extraordinary energy, contended with Aṅgada, son of Vālī, even as the demon, Andhaka, did with Lord Śiva, endowed with three eyes. (6)

Meaning

Nay, Sampāti, who was always hard to overcome in an encounter, fought with Prajaṅgha; while the monkey, Hanumān, proceeded to give battle to Jambumālī. (7)

Meaning

The furious ogre Vibhīṣaṇa, the youngest borther of Rāvaṇa, for this part, closed on the field of battle with Śatrughna of fiery impetuosity. (8)

Meaning

The very mighty Gaja steadily fought with the ogre Tapana; and Nīla too, who was endowed with extraordinary energy, with Nikumbha. (9)

Meaning

Sugrīva, the ruler of monkeys, for his part closed well with Praghasa; while the glorious Lakṣmaṇa grappled in an encounter with Virūpākṣa. (10)

Meaning

Agniketu, who was very hard to overcome as well as the ogres Raśmiketu, Suptaghna and Yajñakopa closed with Śrī Rāma. (11)

Meaning

Vajramuṣṭi grappled with Mainda and Aśaniprabha with Dwivida. The aforesaid two leaders of monkeys thus closed with two most formidable ogres. (12)

Meaning

The valiant and redoubtable ogre Pratapana. who was difficult to restrain on the field of batle, fought steadily with Nala of vehement impetuosity in combat. (13)

Meaning

That great monkey, the mighty son of Dharma (the god of piety), widely known by the name of Suṣena, fought with Vidyunmālī. (14)

Meaning

Nay, having fought with many ogres at a time, other fierce monkeys too entered all of a sudden into a duel with other ogres. (15)

Meaning

There raged on that occasion a fierce and confounding fight, which made one’s hair stand on end, between the heroic ogres and monkeys, who sought victory for their own army. (16)

Meaning

Having issued from the bodies of monkeys and ogres, and strewn with duckweeds in the form of hair, streams of blood flowed rapidly, bearing away logs of wood in the form of dead bodies. (17)

Meaning

Filled with rage, Indrajit, the eldest son of Rāvaṇa, struck with his mace the valiant Aṅgada, the destroyer of hostile forces, even as Indra (who is presupposed to have performed in his previous births a hundred Aśwamedha sacrifices as a condition precedent to his attaining Indrahood) would attack his adversary with his thunderbolt. (18)

Meaning

With the same mace, snatched from the ogre’s hand, the glorious monkey, Aṅgada, who was full of impetuosity, in his turn struck Indrajit’s chariot—the framework of which was bright with gold—horses, charioteer and all. (19)

Meaning

Grievously wounded with three arrows by Prajaṅgha, Sampāti for his part killed Prajaṅgha with an Aśwakarṇa tree in the van of the battle. (20)

Meaning

Taking up his position in a chariot and full of rage, Jambumālī for his part, who was endowed with extraordinary might, pierced Hunumān in the breast with a javelin kept in his chariot on the field of battle. (21)

Meaning

Spiringing to that chariot of Jambumālī. Hanumān, son of the wind-god, destroyed it in no time alongwith that ogre himself with a blow of his palm. (22)

Meaning

The notorious and fierce Pratapana rushed yelling towards Nala. With his limbs lacerated by the swift-handed ogre with his pointed arrows, Nala (in his turn) quickly gouged out his eyes. Nay, Sugrīva, the suzerain lord of monkeys, speedily killed with a Saptaparṇa tree Praghasa, who was consuming as it were the monkey troops. Overwhelming in the first balance with a hail of shaft his adversary, Virūpākṣa of fearful aspect, Lakṣmaṇa eventually struk down the ogre with a single arrow. Agniketu, who was diffcult to overcome, and the ogre Raśmiketu, as also Suptaghna and Yajñakopa, mangled Śrī Rāma with their arrows. (23—26)

Meaning

Filled with rage on the field of battle, Śrī Rāma for his part lopped off the heads of all the four ogres with four dread arrows bright like flames. (27)

Meaning

Struck down with his fist on the battlefield by Mainda, Vajramuṣṭi for his part fell to the ground, chariot, horses and all, like an aerial car of gods. (28)

Meaning

Even as the sun pierces a cloud with its rays, Nikumbha for his part pierced with his pointed arrows on the field of battle Nīla, who looked like a mass of collyrium. (29)

Meaning

The nimble-handed ranger of the night, Nikumbha then pierced Nīla once more on the field of battle with a hundred arrows and heartily laughed. (30)

Meaning

With a wheel of the chariot of Nikumbha himself, Nīla, in his turn, lopped off on the field of battle the former’s head as well as that of his charioteer, even as Lord Viṣṇu, the Protector of the universe, severs the heads of his adversaries (the demons) in the course of His encounter with them. (31)

Meaning

Dwivida too, whose impact was hard as adamant as the thunderbolt, hit Aśaniprabha with the peak of a mountain, while all the ogres stood looking on. (32)

Meaning

The notorious Aśaniprabha for his part pierced with his arrows, flashing like lightning, monkey chief Dwivida, who fought with trees on the field of battle. (33)

Meaning

Infatuated with anger, the aforesaid Dwivida, whose limbs had been lacerated by the shafts, struck down with a sal tree Aśaniprabha with his chariot and horses. (34)

Meaning

Mounted on a chariot, Vidyunmālī for his part hit Suṣeṇa with his arrows encrusted with gold and roared again and again. (35)

Meaning

Seeing him mounted on a chariot, Suṣeṇa, the foremost of monkeys, knocked down his chariot in no time with a huge mountain peak. (36)

Meaning

Hastily jumping down from his chariot, the ranger of the night, Vidyunmālī, for his part, who was fully endowed with agility, stood on the ground, mace in hand. (37)

Meaning

Seizing a huge rock, Suṣeṇa, a bull among the monkeys, agitated as he was with anger, rushed towards the ranger of the night. (38)

Meaning

The prowler of the night, Vidyunmālī, immediately struck Suṣeṇa, that bull among the monkeys, on the breast with a mace even as the latter was darting towards him. (39)

Meaning

Not minding that terrible blow with the mace, Suṣeṇa (the foremost of the monkeys) quietly hurled that rock, which he bore in his hands, upon the ogre’s breast in that mighty fight. (40)

Meaning

Struck by that blow with a rock, the prowler of the night, Vidyunmālī, whose chest had been crushed thereby, fell down dead to the ground; so the tradition goes. (41)

Meaning

In this way were those valiant prowlers of the night crushed in the course of those duels by the aforesaid heroic monkeys even as demons were crushed by gods, the denizens of heaven. (42)

Meaning

The battlefield presented a ghastly appearance, strewn as it was with extraordinary spears and maces as well as with javelins, lances and arrows, shattered chariots, also steeds, elephants in rut as also monkeys and ogres which had been killed and wheels, axles and yokes which had been broken and had fallen to the ground, and frequented as it was by herds of jackals. In that confused fight, which resembled the conflict between gods and demons, the headless trunks of monkeys and ogres bounded here and there.(43—45)

Meaning

Maddened by the smell of blood while being killed by the foremost of monkeys on that occasion and longing for sunset*, the prowlers of the night quickly embraked on a stubborn fight once more. (46)