Hari Om.
Let us begin the seventy seventh sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
Following the revival of the vAnara army by the matchless hanumAn, sugrIva ordered the seize of lanka and setting fire to the city. The rampaging vAnaras gutted the city and the flames consumed many a demon inflicting heavy loss of lives. The sight of vAnara warriors laying seize to the city wielding flaming torches triggered the demon king and he sent a fresh batch of his warriors to accomplish what others including the giant kumbhakarNa couldn’t do so far. This time the son of kumbhakarNa by name kumbha, yUpAksha, SONitAksha, prajangha and others swung into action. The heroic angada assisted by his maternal uncles mainda and dvivida engaged with them and managed to vanquish them. But he was unable to surmount the heroic kumbha and fell unconscious. That brought the vAnara lord sugrIva to the fore. Taunting kumbha with his words, sugrIva launched an offensive on the valorous demon warrior. As he was unstoppable with his bow, sugrIva chose to head to him and snatch and break his bow! He then engaged with kumbha in hands fight and finally broke his ribs with his diamond like fists. Now very few other demons were remaining and their turn was coming fast. Onwards…
The other son of kumbhakarNa, by name nikumbha beheld his brother kumbha felled by the vAnara king sugrIva and cast a death glare at him. He grabbed his weapon parigha (iron beam) that was decked with a nice garland and had depressions to be easily held by the five fingers of the hand. The weapon resembled a huge mountain peak. Reminiscent of the danDa of lord yama, the weapon was gold plated and decked with diamonds. The mighty nikumbha grabbed the parigha and entered the fray letting out a loud roar. The demon himself was adorned with a chest guard (armour, may be), anklets, ear pendants and a glittering garland. With his parigha in hand he resembled a huge dark cloud accompanied by lightning. The tip of the weapon shone brightly like a smokeless flame and it caused the winds to be turbulent. As he swirled his weapon parigha, the skies along with the stars, planets, sun and the moon, the city of amarAvati (lord indra’s palace) along with all its palaces, the city of viTapAvati with its mansions of the gandharvas shook. He seemed like the fire of dissolution to the vAnaras and neither they nor the demons could respond due to the sheer fear.
However, the mighty hanumAn squared up with him and stood facing him with his expansive chest opened up. The mighty nikumbha unleashed his great weapon parigha on the chest of hanumAn with an almighty hurl. As soon as the parogha hit the chest of hanumAn it broke into a hundred pieces and fell on the ground like a meteor in the sky! However, the great vAnara was shaken on impact of that weapon like the mountain would shake in an earthquake. The best of the vAnaras, mustered his strength and clenched his fist and threw a hard blow on the chest of the demon nikumbha. The blow was so hard that the armour of nikumbha broke into pieces and his skin split and he began to bleed. The mighty demon was shaken upon that blow. He managed to balance himself and standing firmly on the ground grabbed hanumAn and lifted him up! Although seized the son of kumbhakarNa, hanumAn nevertheless clenched his diamond like hard fist and landed another blow on nikumbha and freed himself from his clutches.
He then pummelled nikumbha onto the ground and leaping up into the sky jumped and landed on the chest of the demon. He grabbed nikumbha’s head with his mighty arms, twisted it and pulled it off and screamed in a terrifying manner. As nikumbha was vanquished thus by the son of the wind god in the battle, the vAnara army as well as rAma, lakshmaNa, vibhIshaNam sugrIva and others celebrated boisterously. With nikumbha finished off, the vAnaras celebrated and screamed loudly and that made the earth shake and the sky break as the demon forces ran away.
Here we conclude the seventy seventh sarga of the yuddha kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
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Next: 6.078. makarAksha hurtles to the battle
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rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 