Setubandha

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

Page 26

So lose not heart. Depart quickly by that very causeway, and see thy kinsfolk. Hard it is to know the working of fate. v. 48
Choking back his tears, and without answering Rāma, Sugrīva asks the Vanaras to carry him and Lakṣmaṇa in comfort to the city of the apes. Then in an emotional outburst he declares his resolve to chastise and kill Ravana that very day.
I will break his Candrahasa sword with my hands even as it is plunged into my shoulder; while his weapons will tumble out of his chariot, grabbed, kicked and smashed by me. v. 52
With my hands I will part, pull and sever each of his groaning heads from the body, and dash it down; and with my nails tear out his heart, attached to Sita in vain, v. 54
Learning from Vibhiṣaṇa that the arrows are live serpents, Rama meditates on the mystic formula sacred to Garuda, the serpent-destroying bird that carries Visņu on its back. instant the mighty bird rushes in, raising a violent gale and stirring up the sea with its speed; and the serpents disappear as soon as Rama embraces Garuḍa (vv. 56-61).
In an
Hearing of the deliverance of Rama by Garuda, Rāvana entrusts Dhumrakṣa with the conduct of the war. In the fatal encounter of the demons with the Vanaras he attacks Hanumat with arrows and other weapons that prove ineffectual. The latter wrecks Dhumrakṣa's chariot at one fell swoop, and after snatching his bow from him, mocks at the demon. He then strangles him to death (vv. 62-69).
Hanumat kills also Akampana, Dhumrākṣa's successor, 'tearing asunder his limbs one by one, and scattering them about,' after which Prahasta takes the field (vv. 70, 71).
The remaining verses describe the combat between Prahasta and the Vanara leader Nila, who hurls at him mountains, trees and boulders that are swiftly riven by the arrows of the demon. Ultimately Nila springs high into the air, and hurls a massive rock, shattering Prahasta with the blow.