Hari Om.
Let us begin the seventy sixth sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
Promising to annihilate the enemy, indrajit came duly invoking the fire god and receiving the blessings. Although he came accompanied by a huge army, he hardly needed them. He rose into the skies, became invisible and began to strike the enemy from the vantage point, almost accomplishing his goal. rAma and lakshamaNa also realized it was futile to fight him in that manner and were contemplating a way out. Presently they also decided to lay down on the battlefield honouring the boon conferred on indrajit by lord brahma. As the two survivors of the attack, hanumAn and vibhIshaNa began to look for the warriors and save them, they met jAmbavAn upon whose advise, hanumAn did the impossible task of fetching the medicinal herbs from the humavAn mountains in a short time. Not only rAma, lakshmaNa and other vAnara warriors, every single vAnara irrespective of his rank who fought for rAma rose as if from deep slumber and became fighting fit. The vAnaras were grateful to hanumAn and now fought with renewed zeal setting fire to lanka. The demons began to respond. Onwards…
As a fierce battle broke out that led to severe loss of life, angada approached the warrior kampana, eager to battle him. Then the demon kampana got angry and hit angada with his mace which made him fall unconscious. The luminous angada, soon got back his senses and hurled a mountain peak at kampana, hit by which the demon fell down dead. The demon SONitAksha watched the fall of kampana and attacked the fearless angada approaching him on his chariot and shot sharp arrows which had a variety of shapes that resembled the fire of dissolution targeting angada. Taking the blows of the arrows all over his body, the valiant angada approached the chariot of the enemy and destroyed his chariot, bow and arrows! Then SONitAksha jumped out and leapt into the sky pulling out his sword. Outdoing his pace, angada reacted even more swiftly, usurped the sword and slayed the demon from his left shoulder diagonally in the manner that the sacred thread is worn (but the demon didn’t die yet!). And then taking that mighty sword, he chased the enemy forces who ran helter-skelter.
Watching the mighty angada in action, the demons yUpAksha and prajangha accosted him on their chariots. Surrounded by the two demons, angada shone like the full moon between the two viSAkhA stars. With angada being attacked by more than one warrior, the two warriors, mainda and dvivida, maternal uncles to angada, joined the fight and hurled trees at the demons yUpAksha and prajangha. By now the demon SONitAksha came back to the attack and a terrible battle ensued between the three demon and the vAnara warriors. The trees that were hurled were being struck down by the sword of prajangha. Those trees being hurled at the chariot and the horses were being shot down by the arrows of yUpAksha. Then some of those were being hammered away by the mace of SONitAksha.
Then taking out a sword of broad blade prajangha attacked angada swiftly. Seeing the demon approaching him menacingly, angada hit him hard with an aSwakarNa tree. As the demon came close, angada landed a mighty blow on his shoulder with his fist. Due to that blow, the blazing sword fell down on the ground. Seeing his weapon fall, the demon clenched his fist and landed a blow on the forehead of angada. Momentarily angada felt tremors and soon recovered. He then picked up the sword that had fallen on the ground and in one swish severed the head of prajangha and it fell on the ground.
The demonm yUpAksha watched his (paternal) uncle fall to angada and with teary eyes jumped out of his chariot and ran towards angada. Dvivida who was protecting angada along with mainda saw the advancing yUpAksha and landing a blow on his chest, he seized him. yUpAksha’s brother SONitAksha saw his brother seized by dvivida and landed a mighty blow with his mace on the chest of the vAnara. The vAnara momentarily swooned and then recovering smartly usurped the upheld mace from his hands. In the meantime, mainda came up and slapped yUpAksha on his chest. The vAnaras mainda and dvivida engaged in hand combat with SONitAksha and yUpAksha respectively and tore them off with their nails and vanquished them. The ranks of the rAkshasa army lost their morale and ran towards the place where the son of kumbhakarNa was present seeking refuge.
The warrior kumbha, a great warrior wielding a majestic bow offered them solace and rained a barrage of arrows on the vAnara army causing severe damage. The arrows, hissing like serpents and spewing venom hit the vitals of the vAnaras and felled them. Twanging his bow that was like the lightning, a second weapon of indra, kumbha drew the string full and released arrow which hit dvivida and he fell down at once losing his stride. Seeing his brother fall thus, mainda hurled a huge boulder at kumbha which the demon shot down with five arrows. Then he hit mainda with an arrow aimed at his chest, with which the vAnara warrior mainda fell down unconscious.
Watching both his uncles fall, angada came forth and kumbha attacked him with a shower of arrows. Although hit all over his body, angada still didn’t demur and rained boulders on kumbha which were being struck down with sharp and unerring arrows by the demon. Livid, angada accosted kumbha and the demon hit him on the eye brows with two arrows like an elephant his hit with fire torches. The vAnara warrior bled profusely and that covered his eyes affecting his vision. Still clearing the blood in his eyes with one hand, angada uprooted a huge sAl tree with one hand and hurled it at kumbha. The demon mitigated the fast approaching with seven arrows. As the demons watched, kumbha shot seven arrows on the body of angada and the vAnara warrior fell down unconscious. Soon the vAnaras reported the fall of angada to rAma who was much pained to learn about the state of the son of vAlI in the war. He immediately ordered jAmbavAn and others to go and rescue angada.
Upon rAma’s command, jAmbavAn, sushENa and vEgadarSI ran towards kumbha angrily and with trees and boulders in their hand. They hurled those at the demon who mitigated all those with the rain of his arrows and shot such a barrage that the vAnaras could hardly approach him like the ocean couldn’t breach the banks.
Watching the vAnaras held thus, the lord of the vAnaras, sugrIva left angada behind him and approached the demon kumbha fast like a lion attacking a grazing elephant! The vAnara king rained aswakarNa, dhawa and other huge trees covering the skies at the demon kumbha as also huge mountains which were swiftly shot down by the expert archer. The trees and the mountains that were struck down by the unerring arrows were sheared and splintered resembling sparks. The vAnara king however was not perturbed even a bit that his projectiles didn’t hit the target. He copped the blows of the arrows and approaching kumbha, grabbed his mighty bow and broke it in to pieces! The vAnara king sugrIva then addressed kumbha and offering some left- and right-handed compliments to the broken warrior said –
“O elder brother of nikumbha, the swift archery that you have displayed in this battle resembles that of rAvaNa. In your might and ability, you resemble your father and prahlAda, bali, indra, kubEra and varuNa. With you alone wielding the bow, the gods will find it difficult to overcome you like worries can’t overcome one who has overcome his senses. The gods and the demons put up with your father kumbhakarNa, your uncle rAvaNa and indrajit due to the boons that have been conferred on them. However you are best and most mighty among the demons today on account of your valour. Let everyone watch your combat with me in this battle like the duel between indra and the demon Sambara. You have been peerless In your fight, having displayed great dexterity and skill and felled many a great warrior. You must be very tired now having fought so much. Hence not to incur a bad name of slaying a tired warrior, you have been spared by me. Come on take some rest and then after recuperating see my might”.
Insulted with copious praise by sugrIva, the demon kumbha rose like the flame in which ghee was poured! He engaged with sugrIva in hand combat. They sighed like intoxicated elephants as they took each other on and each one seizing the body of other in knots. They were exerting and spitting fire and the earth was depressed by the impact of their feet and shock waves rose up in the ocean. Then grabbing kumbha, holding him up, sugrIva threw him down into the ocean and by that impact, the waters splashed as high as the mountains vindhyA and mandara. Then getting up again, kumbha landed a blow on the chest of sugrIva, splitting up his skin. The vAnara king bled profusely but his ribs stopped the impact of the blow. However, he was triggered by that blow just like the thunderbolt hit triggered a volcano in the mountain mEru. The vAnara king clenched his fist that was hard like the diamond. He then landed an almighty blow that was spitting sparks like the dazzling rays of the sun on the chest of the demon. The demon was in much pain with that blow, he reeled and fell down like a fire that was put down. Struck down by the mighty fist of sugrIva, the demon resembled the planet mars that had fallen from the sky. His broken ribs resembled the solar orb that was forsaken by rudra.
As the extremely mighty and vaorous kumbha was felled by the greatest of the vAnaras, the earth with its forests and mountains felt tremors and fear gripped the demons ever more.
Here we conclude the seventy sixth sarga of the yuddha kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
Click on the above link for word by word meaning from IITK website
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Next: 6.077. nikumbha nixed by hanumAn
Previous: 6.075. lanka gutted again and the battle resumes
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 