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SETUBANDHA
18. The serpent arrows, piercing through the upper part of one arm, penetrated the other arm, revealing their mouths, and remained embedded in the bodies of the scions of Raghu, fastening their arms to their hips.
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19. Dark blue like tempered10 iron, the serpents, released after fixing them to the bow, and looking like miraculous arrows, issued forth, with their mouths aflame with the sparks of their fiery venom.
20. Resembling iron rods brightened by heating, and rumbling like thunder, the arrows dropped from the sky enveloped in darkness by the magic of the demon, and seemed to issue from the murky clouds.
21. Looking at first like the solar orb, and resembling meteors as they passed half-way through the sky, they appeared to be arrows as they pierced their limbs, and became serpents on their arms, coiling round the lightly bitten parts of the body.
22. The sons of Dasaratha remained fast bound. The gods were dispirited, being somewhat frustrated in their hopes; while the apes who did not see Meghanāda moved about aimlessly, holding up their mountains.
23. The demon yelled in the sky. Disconsolate, the host of apes went in different directions (in quest of the foe). Rāma, though pierced by the arrows, was not downhearted, and looked about to have a glimpse of the enemy.
24. The serpents permeated through his limbs; only they avoided his heart, aglow with the fire of wrath, and like unto the blazing submarine fire.
25. The arms of Rama and Lakṣmaṇa, ringed about with serpents, but not easily encompassed by their massive coils, became stiff and motionless, like the sandal trees11 growing on the Malaya slopes.
10. niddhoa, washed, i.e., dipped into water after heating, as explained by Ramadāsa, a reference to 'the process of tempering iron by dipping it red-hot into cold water, when the sudden contraction hardens the metal.' It is mentioned in Odyssey IX. 391 ff. (see Stanford's comm., 1959) and the Ajax of Sophocles (651) where it is called baphe (dipping).
11. Frequently associated with serpents in Kavya poetry. Cf. 1.60; 6.43.
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