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Book Iii. Canto Lxxi. Kabandha's Speech

Canto Lxxi.: Kabandha'S Speech.


Kabandha saw each chieftain stand

Imprisoned by his mighty hand,

Which like a snare around him pressed

And thus the royal pair addressed:

'Why, warriors, are your glances bent

On me whom hungry pangs torment?

Why stand with wildered senses? Fate

Has brought you now my maw to sate.'

When Lakshman heard, a while appalled,

His ancient courage he recalled,

And to his brother by his side

With seasonable counsel cried :

'This vilest of the giant race

Will draw us to his side apace.

Come, rouse thee; let the vengeful sword

Smite off his arms, my honoured lord.

This awful giant, vast of size,

On his huge strength of arm relies,

And o'er the world victorious, thus

With mighty force would slaughter us,

But in cold blood to slay, O King.

Discredit on the brave would bring,

As when some victim in the rite

Shuns not the hand up raised to smite.'

The monstrous fiend, to anger stirred,

The converse of the brothers heard.

His horrid mouth he opened wide

And drew the princes to his side.

They, skilled due time and place to note

Unsheathed their glittering sword and smote,

Till fiom the giant's shoulders they

Had hewn the mighty arms away.

His trenchant falchion Rma plied

And smote him on the better side,

While valiant Lakshman on the left

The arm that held him prisoned cleft,

Then to the earth dismembered fell

The monster with a hideous yell,

And like a cloud's his deep roar went

Through earth and air and firmament.

Then as the giant's blood flowed fast,

On his cleft limbs his eye he cast,

And called upon the princely pair

Their names and lineage to declare.

Him then the noble Lakshman, blest

With fortune's favouring marks, addressed,

And told the fiend his brother's name

And the high blood of which he came:

'Ikshvku's heir here Rma stands,

Illustrious through a hundred lands.

I, younger brother of the heir,

O fiend, the name of Lakshman bear.

His mother stole his realm away

And drove him forth in woods to stray.

Thus through the mighty forest he

Roamed with his royal wife and me.

While glorious as a God he made

His dwelling in the greenwood shade,

Some giant stole away his dame,

And seeking her we hither came.

But tell me who thou art, and why

With headless trunk that towered so high.

With flaming face beneath thy chest,

Thou liest crushed in wild unrest.'

He heard the words that Lakshman spoke,

And memory in his breast awoke,

Recalling Indra's words to mind

He spoke in gentle tones and kind:

'O welcome best of men, are ye

Whom, blest by fate, this day I see.

A blessing on each trenchant blade

That low on earth these arms has laid!

Thou, lord of men, incline thine ear

The story of my woe to hear,

While I the rebel pride declare

Which doomed me to the form I wear.'
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