Hari Om.
Let us begin the forty sixth sarga of the sundara kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
Operating from the arch, where he lay waiting for the tormentors to come so that he can torment them, hanumAn sounded out a loud warning to all the demons in the lanka and clearly identified himself and his mission. This was no under-cover affair any longer. It was out in the open as rAvaNa first sent eighty thousand servitors followed by jambumAli and then further followed by the seven sons of the ministers. They all met with the same fate in the hands of hanumAn. The happy looking pleasure grove had been destroyed and the rampaging demons faced the heat for the first time. The great servitor of rAma was in such a flow that, the arrows and the weapons that hit him hard were shrugged off as he toyed with the rAkshasa army at will and he unleashed devastation. Now he waited for further combat on the arch. Onwards…
Learning about the devastation of the sons of the ministers at the hands of the great hanumAn, rAvaNa not letting his emotions be known decided on the next course of action and called upon the five generals virUpAksha, yUpAksha, durdhara, praghasa and bhAsakarNa, all of them well versed in statecraft and war to at once go and capture hanumAn. The mighty generals got ready with a great army of infantry, chariots and elephants to rein in hanumAn. They were ordered by rAvaNa –
“Get to that forest dweller and in keeping with the offence he has committed, punish him appropriately. Looking at his exploits and accomplishments Arguably, I do not think of him as an ordinary vAnara. He holds supreme strength. It is possible that he was created by indra by his penance to settle his course with us. Or, as you are aware, we all together have subdued the nAgas, yakShas, RShis, gandharvas, devas and asuras. I believe that they must have had a hand in sending him here to avenge their defeat. Hence, under my command, you must all capture him and bring him here at once. Do not underestimate his might.”
दृष्टा हि हरयः पूर्वं मया विपुलविक्रमाः।
वाली च सहसुग्रीवो जाम्बवांश्च महाबलः।।5.46.10।।
नीलस्सेनापतिश्चैव ये चान्ये द्विविदादयः।
नैवं तेषां गतिर्भीमा न तेजो न पराक्रमः।।5.46.11।।
न मतिर्न बलोत्साहौ न रूपपरिकल्पनम्।
I have earlier seen vAnaras of great valour such as vAlI, sugrIva, jAmbavAn, nIla the commander-in-chief, and the others including dvivida. However, none of them were a match to the form or force of this vAnara. He surpasses them all in acumen, ability, splendour and combative spirit.
This vAnara should be recognised as a substantial being. All possible efforts must be made to rein him in.
You may well be invincible on the battlefield against all beings of the three worlds. However, the learned advocate that he who seeks glory must protect himself by all means as victory in war is always uncertain.”
Grasping the command of their master, those illustrious and fiery generals leapt up and gathered a great army of elephant, infantry and cavalry contingents, chariots and weapons. They arrived at the arch and beheld the giant vAnara of unmatched intellect, valour and might, who was itching for combat. They charged at him from all directions with their weapons.
durdhara struck him with five sharp arrows on his head and, with this, hanumAn sprung up with a great roar that reverberated in every direction. With his chariot and bow in place, durdhara attacked hanumAn with a torrent of arrows. hanumAn shrugged off this attack just like the wind disperses the light clouds at the end of the monsoon. Thus provoked by durdhara into a fierce battle, hanumAn leapt up and landed on durdhara’s chariot like a thunderbolt strikes a mountain. With that impact the eight horses of his chariot were smashed, his chariot was destroyed and durdhara himself died.
Seeing durdhara fallen thus, the duo virUpAksha and yUpAksha were livid with rage, lunged at and attacked hanumAn with iron hammers. Responding to their attack, hanumAn landed on the earth with the felicity and force of the garuDa, looked around and plucked a sAl tree, with which he assaulted and killed them.
Watching the three commanders dead, praghasa with an iron crowbar and bhAsakarNa with iron spear injured hanumAn. Wounded and enraged, hanumAn, shining like the rising sun, uprooted a mountain peak along with its flora and fauna, hurled it at them and killed them. With the five generals vanquished, hanumAn went after the remaining army, smashed horses against horses, elephants against elephants and chariots against chariots and destroyed all of them like indra destroyed demons. The destruction was such that, the corpses and the debris blockaded all the ways. Having annihilated the army, hanumAn went back to the arch and waited impatiently for further combat.
Here we conclude the forty sixth 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: 5.47. Fear reaches rAvaNa’s doorstep
Previous: 5.45. He destroys seven of them at once
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 