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SETUBANDHA
43
tain still on their backs, were now seen, stunned by the heavy impact of the arrows.33
47. Visible were the tracks left in the waters by the gaspings of the great serpents;34 (tracks) meandering to the nether regions, and sending up large whirlpools, and grey with the ashes of the half-burnt and discoloured coral-reefs.
48. Transfixed by an arrow, a pair of serpents quivered, clasped in love, and happy in the fast embrace, coiling round and protecting each other with their lives.
49. Rama's arrows, sharpened by friction with the gems, darted through the waters, smashing the coral growths; with large pearls adhering to their points as they pierced their way through the oyster-shells.
50. Each coral-reef, which the dense volume of smoke covered up, permeating like the virulence of poison, was turned black, as if it were the ocean's blood.35
51. As they flew out of the raging sea, the mountains, with one of their broad wings lopped off by the arrows, slanted midway in the air and dropped, their peaks bowed down with the unequal weight.36
52. The serpents, their bodies severed and scattered, flew into a rage, with life lingering in the throat, and died after burning the arrows with the fire of their eyes.37
53. The roaring flames filled up the cavities, which were left by the submarine mountains uprooted by the thrusts of the arrows, and were replete with the massive severed bodies of the serpents.
33. i.e., having tasted nectar as it emerged during the churning of the cean, these primeval animals were stunned, but not killed by Rama's arrows. The Mandara mountain served as the churning rod.
34. i.e., the serpents oppressed by the heated waters.
35. The coral-reefs are fancied as the ocean's blood. The imagery is that of blood turned black by poison.
36. The winged mountains (see verse 37), which had taken refuge in the ocean, now tried to escape; but, with one wing gone, lost their balance and dropped into the sea again.
37. Ref. to the belief that certain serpents kill their victim with the poison in their eyes. Cf. 4.50,
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