Setubandha

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 24

bejewelled embankments were smashed down by the apes, and the waters poured into the neighbouring hollows. v. 75
The army of the demons begins to move after the storming of the city by the. Vānaras (v. 81). The movement of the vast multitude through the gates of the city is described in a few verses.
The army took a devious route, unable to make its exit all at once: it was impeded by the congestion of the chariots, and crammed into the space between the mansions, with the elephant corps crowded into the gateways of the city. v. 89
Thus impeded at the gates, the army of the demons moved out of the city, dispersed along a wide front, like unto a river issuing from a cave with a single entrance, and flowing wide over the plains, v. 93
The Vanaras rush forth, like a forest fire driven by a violent gale', on seeing the demons emerge through the gates.
The army of the demons swelled, the infantry ready to strike, and the cavalry advancing on the flaoks; the elephants urged on by the goad, and the chariots driven at full speed. v. 96
The wrathful warriors assailed the enemy, and were assailed in turn, Full of exalted martial pride, they slew and were slain. Only they yielded not on account of their zeal. v. 98
Canto XIII. The fighting continues. The demons who are well provided with horses, elephants and chariots are worsted · in their encounter with the mountain-hurling Vanaras. . The chariots were dashed on the ground as the apes swooped down on them. The elephaats, throws up by the apes as they sprang into the air, had their limbs broken. The captured horses ran away, and the demon warriors were slain by the pursuing apes. v. 22
The troops scattered, with the tangled mass of chariots broken by the elephants, and the horses trapped in the chariots, and the foot-soldiers stumbling over the horses, and the elephants tumbling over the former. v. 71
The horses stood motionless, pursued and seized by the tail by the impetuous apes; and the chariots, with the fighters killed and the drivers fallen, were whirled away by the horses, frightened by the apes. v. 76
In spite of their reverses, the demons return to the fray.