Yuddha Kanda, Sarga 93

Meaning

Entering in state the assembly hall, the aforesaid monarch, who was feeling miserable and greatly distressed, sank down on a pre-eminent seat, snorting like a furious lion. (1)

Meaning

Afflicted by the death of his eldest son, Indrajit, the said Rāvaṇa, who was endowed with extraordinary might, spoke as follows with joined palms to all those leaders of his army assembled there: (2)

Meaning

“Surrounded by the entire army of elephants and horses, nay, graced with columns of chariots and foot soldiers, march you all. (3)

Meaning

“Nay, encompassing Rāma, the leader of the enemies, you ought to kill him in combat, discharging hails of arrows even as clouds pour showers during the monsoon. (4)

Meaning

“Or, I shall easily dispatch him tomorrow, while the world stands looking on, once his limbs have been torn by you with your sharp arrows in a major conflict.” (5)

Meaning

Accompanied by diverse battalions, the aforesaid ogres sallied forth in their swift-moving chariots on hearing this command of Rāvaṇa, the ruler of ogres. (6)

Meaning

They threw iron clubs as well as sharp-edged pikes, arrows, swords and axes, capable of destroying life, at the monkeys. (7)

Meaning

The monkeys too in their turn hurled trees and rocks on the ogres. Towards sunrise that fierce fight between the ogres and the monkeys became tumultuous. The aforesaid monkeys and ogres then proceeded to strike each his opponent with multi-coloured maces, darts, swords and axes on the battlefield. Curiously enough, when fight was thus in progress, the enormous dust raised by the two contending armies was actually settled down by the streams of blood proceeding from the ogres and monkeys. With elephants and chariots for their banks, arrows for the fish, ensigns for the trees on the banks and carrying dead bodies for logs of wood, rivers of blood flowed on the battlefield. Leaping hither and thither on the battlefield, bathed in streams of blood, all the aforesaid monkeys in general, and the monkey chiefs in particular destroyed the ensigns, armour and chariots, horses and weapons of every kind. (8—13)

Meaning

Nay, the monkeys tore off with their sharp teeth and nails too the hair, ears and brows as well as the noses of the ogres. (14)

Meaning

A hundred leaders of monkeys rushed at each single ogre on the battlefield even as birds would fly towards a tree laden with fruits. (15)

Meaning

Thereupon the ogres too, who resembled mountains in size, struck down the redoubtable monkeys with their heavy maces, darts, swords and axes. (16)

Meaning

The mighty army of the monkeys, who were being struck down by the ogres, sought as its refuge Śrī Rāma, son of Daśaratha, who was fit to protect them. (17)

Meaning

Taking up his bow and penetrating deep into the ogre ranks, the powerful Śrī Rāma, who was endowed with extraordinary energy, thereupon rained a hail of arrows on them. (18)

Meaning

The fierce rangers of the night for their part dared not approach Śrī Rāma—who, having penetrated deep into the lines of the ogres, was consuming them with the fire of his shafts on that occasion—any more than clouds would approach the scorching sun in the sky. (19)

Meaning

Those night-stalkers were able to perceive on the battlefield the most terrific deeds of Śrī Rāma, which were difficult to perform for others, only when they had actually been performed by him and not while they were being performed, his movement being quick as lightning. (20)

Meaning

They could not actually behold Śrī Rāma while he was dispersing the huge army of the ogres and destroying great car-warriors, any more than one could see a blast blowing in a forest. (His presence could be detected only by his deeds). (21)

Meaning

They beheld the army torn and pierced with arrows, consumed and broken down and tormented with weapons by Śrī Rāma, but could not discern Śrī Rāma, who was so quick of action. (22)

Meaning

The ogres did not perceive Śrī Rāma hitting their bodies any more than created beings are able to perceive their soul enjoying the sense-objects. (23)

Meaning

“Here is Rāma exterminating the army of elephants!” “There is Rāma making short work of great car-warriors!” “Here is Rāma killing with his sharp arrows foot-soldiers alongwith horses!” (24)

Meaning

Saying so, all the aforesaid ogres for their part struck one another in rage on the battlefield, who seemed to resemble Śrī Rāma in one respect or the other, because of their supposed similarity with Śrī Rāma, a scion of Raghu. (25)

Meaning

Having been thrown into confusion by the high-souled Śrī Rāma with the excellent mystic missile presided over by the Gandharvas, the ogres could not perceive Śrī Rāma even though he was consuming their army. (26)

Meaning

The aforesaid ogres for their part beheld thousands of Rāmas on the battlefield, while at other times they saw only one Rāma, a scion of Kakutstha, during that major conflict. (27)

Meaning

They perceived the curved golden ends of the bow of the high-souled prince, Śrī Rāma, revolving like a firebrand, but not Śrī Rāma, a scion of Raghu. (28)

Meaning

The created beings beheld the aforesaid Śrī Rāma in the form of a discus, which was exterminating the ogres on the battlefield like the Wheel of Time, nay, which had the middle part of the body of Śrī Rāma for its navel, his strength for its flame, the arrows discharged by Śrī Rāma for its spokes, his bow for its belly, the twanging of the bow-string and the clanging of the gauntlet for the sound produced by its revolution, his energy, intelligence and other virtues for its radiance and the power of his mystic missiles for its edge. (29-30)

Meaning

In the eighth part of a day (one hour and a half) an army of ogres capable of changing their form at will, nay, consisting of a myriad chariots possessing the swiftness of the wind, also eighteen thousand fleet-footed elephants, fourteen thousand horses with their riders, and full two lakhs of ogres fighting on foot, was exterminated by Śrī Rāma single-handed with his arrows resembling tongues of fire. (31—33)

Meaning

Their horses killed, chariots destroyed and standards broken, those rangers of the night who had escaped the carnage quietly ran away to the city of Laṅkā. (34)

Meaning

With the elephants, foot-soldiers and horses that had been killed, that battlefield resembled the ground where the mighty Rudra (the god of destruction) disports himself in fury. (35)

Meaning

Thereupon gods accompanied by Gandharvas (celestial musicians) Siddhas (a class of demigods endowed with mystic power from their very birth) and eminent Ṛṣis (the seers of Vedic Mantras) applauded that achievement of Śrī Rāma, saying “Well done! Bravo!!” (36)

Meaning

On that occasion Śrī Rāma too, whose mind was set on virtue, remarked to Sugrīva, who stood close by, as also to Vibhīṣaṇa and to the monkey, Hanumān, Jāmbavān, the king of bears, Mainda, the foremost of monkeys, and Dwivida too: “Such wonderful power of using the mystic missiles exists either in me, who am no other than Lord Viṣṇu, or in Lord Śiva, (the three-eyed Divinity).” (37-38)

Meaning

Having destroyed that army of Rāvaṇa, the king of ogres, the high-souled Śrī Rāma, a compeer of Indra (the ruler of gods), who had conquered fatigue incidental to the use of missiles and weapons, began to be extolled by the celestial hosts, who were feeling exceedingly jubilant. (39)