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CANTO XV
1. When Prahasta was killed, Rāvana, shedding tears in a rage at the killing of his kinsmen, sallied forth as he filled the ten directions with a roar that seemed to be preceded by a burst of flame.
2. Indignant he broke into a loud laugh, filling, as it were, the ten directions with his terrible cavernous mouths, in such a manner that his attendants, speechless with fear, hid behind the pillars of the palace.
3. He mounted a chariot surrounded by the demons, weighing the rear down with his feet: 1 it was held fast by the charioteer as the horses chafed and the banners fluttered.
4. The apes knew from Rāvana's roar that he was in the court; from the loud voices of the excited courtiers (following him) that he was at the centre of Lanka; and from the noise of the troops in the city that he had left for the battlefield.
5. Thereafter having gone out of the city, with his white parasol hardly sufficing to shelter the cluster of his heads, he put the host of apes to flight, with their will to fight broken.
6. The apes just turned the face round, with the hair at the back touching the top of their shoulders, and saw Ravana chasing them as they fled.
7. Thereupon the Son of the Fire god2 said unto them as they scattered and took to their heels, being attacked by Rāvana, forgetting their plighted word, and afraid to fight:
8. 'Do not abandon the burden of war. Yonder lord of the apes that hath lifted up a section of a Malaya peak will rob ye of the very life for whose sake ye are taking to flight.'
9. With his heart bewitched by Sītā, Rāvana long looked at Rāma with high esteem, when pointed out by his charioteer, not so much because he was Rama as because he was her beloved.
1. i.e., he entered the chariot by the rear entrance.
2. Nila, one of the leaders of the apes.
3. Sugrīva.
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