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Book Iii. Canto Xxv. The Battle

Canto Xxv.: The Battle.


When Khara with the hosts he led

Drew near to Rma's leafy shed,

He saw that queller of the foe

Stand ready with his ordered bow.

He saw, and burning at the view

His clanging bow he raised and drew,

And bade his driver urge apace

His car to meet him face to face.

Obedient to his master's hest

His eager steeds the driver pressed

On to the spot where, none to aid,

The strong-armed chief his weapon swayed.

Soon as the children of the night

Saw Khara rushing to the fight,

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His lords with loud unearthly cry

Followed their chief and gathered nigh.

As in his car the leader rode

With all his lords around, he showed

Like the red planet fiery Mars

Surrounded by the lesser stars.

Then with a horrid yell that rent

The air, the giant chieftain sent

A thousand darts in rapid shower

On Rma matchless in his power.

The rovers of the night, impelled

By fiery rage which naught withheld,

Upon the unconquered prince, who strained

His fearful bow, their arrows rained.

With sword and club, with mace and pike,

With spear and axe to pierce and strike,

Those furious fiends on every side

The unconquerable hero plied.

The giant legions huge and strong,

Like clouds the tempest drives along,

Rushed upon Rma with the speed

Of whirling car, and mounted steed,

And hill-like elephant, to slay

The matchless prince in battle fray.

Then upon Rma thick and fast

The rain of mortal steel they cast,

As labouring clouds their torrents shed

Upon the mountain-monarch's 1 head.

As near and nearer round him drew

The warriors of the giant crew,

He showed like S'iva girt by all

His spirits when night's shadows fall.

As the great deep receives each rill

And river rushing from the hill,

He bore that flood of darts, and broke

With well-aimed shaft each murderous stroke.

By stress of arrowy storm assailed,

And wounded sore, he never failed,

Like some high mountain which defies

The red bolts flashing from the skies.

With ruddy streams each limb was dyed

From gaping wounds in breast and side,

Showing the hero like the sun

'Mid crimson clouds ere day is done.

Then, at that sight of terror, faint

Grew God, Gandharva, sage, and saint,

Trembling to see the prince oppose

His single might to myriad foes.

But waxing wroth, with force unspent,

He strained his bow to utmost bent,

And forth his arrows keen and true

In hundreds, yea in thousands flew,--

Shafts none could ward, and none endure:

Death's fatal noose was scarce so sure.

As 'twere in playful ease he shot

His gilded shafts, and rested not.

With swiftest flight and truest aim

Upon the giant hosts they came.

Each smote, each stayed a foeman's breath

As fatal as the coil of Death,

Each arrow through a giant tore

A passage, and besmeared with gore,

Pursued its onward way and through

The air with flamy brilliance flew.

Unnumbered were the arrows sent

From the great bow which Rma bent,

And every shaft with iron head

The lifeblood of a giant shed.

Their pennoned bows were cleft, nor mail

Nor shield of hide could aught avail.

For Rma's myriad arrows tore

Through arms, and bracelets which they wore,

And severed mighty warriors' thighs

Like trunks of elephants in size,

And cut resistless passage sheer

Through gold-decked horse and charioteer,

Slew elephant and rider, slew

The horseman and the charger too,

And infantry unnumbered sent

To dwell 'neath Yama's government.

Then rose on high a fearful yell

Of rovers of the night, who fell

Beneath that iron torrent, sore

Wounded by shafts that rent and tore.

So mangled by the ceaseless storm

Of shafts of every kind and form,

Such joy they found, as forests feel

When scorched by flame, from Rma's steel.

The mightiest still the fight maintained,

And furious upon Rma rained

Dart, arrow, spear, with wild attacks

Of mace, and club, and battle-axe.

But the great chief, unconquered yet,

Their weapons with his arrows met,

Which severed many a giant's head,

And all the plain with corpses spread.

With sundered bow and shattered shield

Headless they sank upon the field,

As the tall trees, that felt the blast

Of Garud's wing, to earth were cast.

The giants left unslaughtered there

Where filled with terror and despair,

And to their leader Khara fled

Faint, wounded, and discomfited.

These fiery Dshan strove to cheer,

And poised his bow to calm their fear;

Then fierce as He who rules the dead,

When wroth, on angered Rma sped.

By Dshan cheered, the demons cast

Their dread aside and rallied fast

With Sls, rocks, palm-trees in their hands

With nooses, maces, pikes, and brands,

Again upon the godlike man

The mighty fiends infuriate ran,

These casting rocks like hail, and these

A whelming shower of leafy trees.

Wild, wondrous fight, the eye to scare,

And raise on end each shuddering hair,

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As with the fiends who loved to rove

By night heroic Rma strove!

The giants in their fury plied

Rma with darts on every side.

Then, by the gathering demons pressed

From north and south and east and west,

By showers of deadly darts assailed

From every quarter fiercely hailed,

Girt by the foes who swarmed around,

He raised a mighty shout whose sound

Struck terror. On the giant crew

His great Gndharva 1 arrow flew.

A thousand mortal shafts were rained

From the orbed bow the hero strained,

Till east and west and south and north

Were filled with arrows volleyed forth.

They heard the fearful shout: they saw

His mighty hand the bowstring draw,

Yet could no wounded giant's eye

See the swift storm of arrows fly.

Still firm the warrior stood and cast

His deadly missiles thick and fast.

Dark grew the air with arrowy hail

Which hid the sun as with a veil.

Fiends wounded, falling, fallen, slain,

All in a moment, spread the plain,

And thousands scarce alive were left

Mangled, and gashed, and torn, and cleft.

Dire was the sight, the plain o'erspread

With trophies of the mangled dead.

There lay, by Rma's missiles rent,

Full many a priceless ornament,

With severed limb and broken gem,

Hauberk and helm and diadem.

There lay the shattered car, the steed,

The elephant of noblest breed,

The splintered spear, the shivered mace,

Chouris and screens to shade the face.

The giants saw with bitterest pain

Their warriors weltering on the plain,

Nor dared again his might oppose

Who scourged the cities of his foes.

Footnotes

257:
1b See "Additional Notes"--DAKSHA'S Sacrifice.

258:1 Himlaya.

1 kings 14 25 26 bible| 1 kings 14 25 26 bible
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