Hari Om.
Let us begin the forty fourth sarga of the sundara kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
Suddenly the demons were on the defensive! They tried to go on the offensive and eighty thousand came to fight one vAnara. They were summarily destroyed. Few surviving ones ran to rAvaNa to report the destruction of the army. In the meanwhile hanumAn sighted the palatial shrine that was housed in the grove and to send a clear message, he scaled the palace, plucked a pillar of gold, swirled it so vigorously that it generated fire and that caught the palace and engulfing it burnt it to ashes. With the same pillar he bludgeoned the guarding demons and sent the message of offensive loud and clear. The demons had been brought into the combat and they were forced to respond now and were toeing the line of thinking of hanumAn. The next warriorwas about to come to fight hanumAn. Onwards…
The fierce son of the commander-in-chief prahasta, jambumAli, upon the command of rAvaNa, wielding his bow, clothed in blood red robes, decked with fine earrings, sporting his terrifying canines with round and big eyes, an invincible tormentor of the enemies in the battle now made it to fight hanumAn. With his majestic bow that resembled indra’s he produced a twang that produced a thunderous sound like the thunderbolt and reverberated in all the directions.
Beholding the oncoming jambumAli who was in a chariot yoked to donkeys, the very swift hanumAn was delighted and let out a loud roar. Aiming at the great vAnara hanumAn who was perched on the arch, the mighty jambumAli hit him hard with a crescent arrow on his face, barbed arrow on the head and with ten arrows on his arms.
तस्य तच्छुशुभे ताम्रं शरेणाभिहतं मुखम्।
शरदीवाम्बुजं फुल्लं विद्धं भास्कररश्मिना।।5.44.8।।
The copper coloured face of hanumAn hit by the arrows shone like a fully bloomed lotus in the autumn lit up by the rays of the sun! Floating in the sky, he looked like a giant lotus with sprinkles of red sandal on it. Enraged by the arrows shot at him, hanumAn, found a huge boulder around. The powerful hanumAn pulled the boulder out of the ground and hurled it at jambumAli. The demon jambumAli neutralized the oncoming boulder with ten arrows! The raging warrior hanumAn saw his effort with boulder negated and immediately uprooted and sAl tree and swirled it with great intensity. The demon continued his assault, shredded the sAl tree with four arrows, hit hanumAn’s shoulder with five arrows, one in the heart and ten more on the chest.
This attack on him angered hanumAn immensely, he now grabbled the iron beam lying around, swirled it with great vigour and hurled it on the chest of jambumAli with a great speed. With the impact of that, neither the head, nor arms, nor limbs, nor bow, nor chariot, nor horses could be figured out! Hit thus with immense power, at once jambumAli dropped dead on the ground with his ornaments also reduced to powder.
तस्य चैव शिरो नास्ति न बाहू न च जानुनी।
न धनुर्न रथो नाश्वास्तत्रादृश्यन्त नेषवः।।5.44.17।।
The surviving demons went and reported the matter of jambumAli’s routing to rAvaNa who was angry with bloodshot eyes. He then ordered the mighty sons of the ministers who were great warriors to go and attack hanumAn.
Here we conclude the forty fourth sarga of the sundara kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
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Next: 5.45. He destroys seven of them at once
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