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162
SETUBANDHA
20. His lofty head was then struck off in the course of the fight by Rāma's arrow, drawn up to the ear, and encircled by flames, even as Rāhu's head was severed by (Vişņu's Sudarśana) wheel.6
21. And the head, high as the sky, even though severed and fallen, and rumbling as the wind filled the cavernous mouth, seemed to provide the three-peaked Suvela with a fourth lofty summit.
22. When Kumbhakarņa fell, the sea as his body filled its expanse flowed over the submarine fire,7 with the sea monsters fleeing far afield, overcome by fear.
23. Hearing of the death of Kumbhakarna, more grievous than that of Prahasta, Rāvana once more broke into a laugh, and shook his faces as they flamed with wrath.
24. As he went out at that hour the gaps between the pillars of the palace were not wide enough for his chest swelling with wrath.
25. When he had almost gone out, his son Meghanāda went down on his knees, and said with a smile as he rose, filling, as it were, the interior of the palace with his high and wide bosom.
26. “When a father accomplishes a deed, esteemed for its boldness, by his own effort, the son cannot afford him the joy of embracing a worthy son.10
27. While I am alive, why art thou thus sallying out thyself, lowering the prestige of our Rākşasa race, because of a mere mortal, a son of Daśaratha?
28. 'Or perhaps thou dost not know thyself to be capable of withstanding all the three worlds together, thou that hadst forced
6. Cf. Naişadhacarita 4.64-66.
7. The rise in the sea level is fancied as flooding the submarine fire which is usually described as consuming the waters. Cf. 8.98.
8. Cf. verse 2. 9. Krsna's reading is followed. See Extracts.
10. i.e., when a father does a heroic deed instead of allowing his son to do it the latter is deprived of the opportunity to prove his worth by achieving something of which the father can be proud.
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