Setubandha

SR No.: 001384
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 812
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English & Literature
File Size: 14 MB

Page 201

40
SETUBANDHA
25. Aiming the arrow with a long and steadfast gaze, Rāma began to draw the bow, grasped in the middle with his (left) hand slightly bent, with the string firmly gripped.
26. (As he drew the bow) the rays of the sun, dazzlingly reflected on the tip of the arrow, and glistening on the bending ends of the bow, seemed to be rumbling while being drawn, deep with the sound of the bowstring.18
27. The bow, drawn up to the ear, seemed to yawn, having woke up to destroy the ocean; and appeared to threaten it, roaring with the clear sound of the bowstring, with flames blazing on the tip of the arrow.
28. Rāma's arrow seemed to drop on the ocean even while it was being drawn, because the flames darted and spread from its tip, and its potency was seen 19 in the troubled waters.20
29. In the regions of the sky, the clouds, ablaze with the flames bursting out from the tip of the arrow, and yellow with quivering flashes of lightning, seemed to break asunder as if they were the eyes of malignant planets.
30. Thereafter he released the arrow, shrouded in dense smoke bursting out of the back of the bow, forcefully drawn by his arm. It eclipsed the rays of the sun with the flames issuing from the arrow-head.
31. Blazing up in the sky, the arrow dropped into the ocean, with its point, red with flames, half submerged in the water; even as the livelong day vanishes in the sea, preceded by the sun.21
32. Flying into the sky, Rāma's arrow seemed to be a flash of lightning. Having dropped on the bosom of the ocean, it seemed to be the fire of the epoch of universal ruin. Settled in the nether regions, it had the effect of an earthquake.
18. The bow twanged while being drawn, but it is the rays of the sun glistening thereon that are spoken of as being drawn with a heavy sound,
19. Lit. declared by.....
20. i.e., the flames issuing from the arrow stirred up the ocean even before the arrow hit the waters.
21. The arrow is likened to the day, and the fiery arrow-head to the setting sun.