Chapter 6(17)
Not scared, Sarana spoke these words, which were like medication. King Ravana heard them and replied to Sarana. ‘Even if the gods, the gandharvas and the danavas attack me, even if there is fear from all the worlds, I will not give Sita away. O amiable one! You have been severely oppressed by the apes and are terrified. That is the reason you now think that returning Sita will be a virtuous deed. What is the name of the enemy who is capable of defeating me in a battle?’ Ravana, the lord of the rakshasas, spoke these harsh words. Having spoken them, he ascended to the top of his palace, as white as snow in complexion. It was as tall as many palm trees put together. Ravana wished to see for himself. Ravana was senseless with rage and he was with the two spies. He looked at the ocean, the mountains and the forests. He saw that the entire ground was filled with apes. He saw that the end of that large army of innumerable apes could not be seen.
Beholding this, King Ravana asked Sarana, ‘Among the foremost of apes, who are the brave and extremely strong ones? In every direction, which ones, great in enterprise, will advance in front? Whom will Sugriva listen to? Who are leaders among the leaders? O Sarana! Tell me everything. Who are the chiefs among the apes?’
Using these words, the Indra among the rakshasas asked Sarana. Among the residents of the forest, he56 told him about the ones who were foremost among the foremost. ‘There is an ape standing there, facing Lanka. He seems to be dancing. He is surrounded by hundreds and thousands of leaders. Everything in Lanka, the walls and the ramparts, the mountains, the forests and the groves, are trembling because of his loud roar. He is stationed in front of all the Indras among the apes in Sugriva’s army. This brave and great-souled leader is named Nila. There is another valiant one whose arms are raised upwards. He is stamping on the ground with his feet. He is yawning and is looking towards Lanka with rage. He is like the summit of a mountain and his complexion is like the filament of a lotus. In great anger, he is repeatedly lashing his tail. The ten directions are resounding with the sound of his tail. Sugriva has instated him as the heir apparent in the kingdom of the apes. His name is Angada and he is challenging you in the encounter. There are some apes who are tightening their bodies and slapping them. They are roaring. These bulls among apes have got up and are yawning in anger. They are terrible and impossible to withstand. They are fierce and awesome in valour. There are ten billion and one million of these brave ones, camped in that sandalwood grove. They are following one who wishes to attack Lanka and crush it with his own army. He possesses the complexion of silver and he is Shveta. He has his army and he is terrible in valour. This intelligent and brave ape is famous in the three worlds. He is the one who swiftly approached Sugriva and has gone back again, dividing his army into many separate battalions and delighting them. In front of the banks of the Gomatee, there is Mount Ramya. It is also named Samkochana and that mountain is full of many kinds of trees. A leader named Kumuda used to rule over that kingdom. He is the one who is followed by one lakh of apes. He possesses a long tail and his extensive body hair is extremely long, coppery brown, yellow, black and white. He is the performer of terrible deeds. He is spirited, angry and terrible and desires to fight. He hopes that he will crush Lanka with his own army alone. There is one who is like a lion, with a long and tawny mane. Standing alone, he is looking at Lanka, as if he will burn it down with his eyes. O king! This handsome one always dwells on Vindhya, the dark mountain, and Mount Sahya. This is the leader named Rambha. There is one whom four hundred thousand leaders among apes have surrounded and are following, as the energetic one advances to crush Lanka. He is shaking his ears and repeatedly yawning. He does not abandon his herd and death cannot defeat him. He is immensely strong and without fear. O king! He always dwells on the beautiful Salvyeya mountain. He is the leader named Sharabha. O king! All these powerful leaders are known as viharas.57 There are one lakh and forty thousand of them. They are stationed there, like giant clouds that have covered the sky. The great sound of drums can be heard in the midst of those brave apes. Those foremost and terrible apes desire to fight. In their midst, like Indra among the gods, there is the leader named Panasa, who is impossible to withstand in a battle. He always resides on the supreme mountain of Pariyatra. He is foremost among all leaders and in different formations, there are one lakh and fifty thousand who serve him. He is in the midst of that terrible and radiant army that is marching along, looking like a second ocean along the shores of the ocean. This is the leader named Vinata, who is like Dardara.58 He roams around, drinking the waters of the river Parnasha, supreme among rivers.59 The leader named Krathana is summoning six lakh ape soldiers to come and do battle. That ape nourishes a body that is ochre in complexion. This is the energetic Gavaya and he is angrily advancing against you. There are seven lakh and seventy thousand who serve him. He is saying that he will crush Lanka with his army alone. These are the foremost leaders among leaders. They are terrible and impossible to withstand. They are strong and can assume any form at will. They cannot be numbered.’
Chapter 6(18)
‘I60 will tell you about the brave leaders you are looking at. For Raghava’s sake, they are ready to give up their lives. There is one who has a lot of thick and soft hair on his tail—coppery, yellow, black and white. He is terrible in his deeds. This is a leader named Hara, who seems to be dragging the earth and seizing the radiant rays of the sun. There are one hundred thousand following him at the rear, holding up trees and eager to climb into Lanka. O destroyer of enemy cities! There are thousands of crores of greatly energetic apes. They wish to fight against you and be victorious. You can see the ones who are stationed there, like dark and large clouds. They are like masses of black collyrium. They possess the valour of truth in an encounter. Those brave ones use nails and teeth as weapons. They are fierce in their anger and lead to fear. They are innumerable and cannot be discerned, like another shore to the distant shore of the ocean. O king! There is one who is in the midst of extremely terrible bears who reside in mountains, uneven regions and rivers. O king! He is like Parjanya, surrounded in every direction by clouds. He is the one who resides in the supreme mountain known as Rikshavanta, drinking the waters of the Narmada. He is the lord of all the bears and he is the leader named Dhumra. Behold his younger brother, who is like a mountain. He is like his brother in beauty and superior to him in valour. He is the great leader of the forces, named Jambavat. He may be truculent towards his seniors, but he is intolerant in striking. When the gods and the asuras fought, Jambavat helped and performed an extremely great deed for the intelligent Shakra. Consequently, he obtained many boons. Having ascended the summits of mountains, they61 hurl down gigantic boulders that are huge in size, resembling large clouds. They are not scared of dying. They possess hair and are like rakshasas and pishachas. A large number of his soldiers are wandering around, as energetic as the fire. That wrathful one is stationed amidst the apes. Stationed there, all the apes are looking towards this leader among leaders. O king! This lord of apes worships the one with the one thousand eyes. With an army of strong soldiers, he is the leader named Rambha. There is the one who has advanced for one yojana along that mountain and has hauled his body up the mountain for one yojana. He is supreme in his beauty and his four feet can be seen. He is known by the name of Samnadana and he is the grandfather of the apes. In a battle, he fought against the intelligent Shakra, but was not defeated in that encounter. He is a leader among leaders. His valour is like Shakra’s prowess. In former times, to help the residents of heaven in the battle between the gods and the asuras, this one, with a black tail, was born from a gandharva maiden. O lord of the rakshasas! King Vaishravana,62 your brother, always sports happily on an Indra among mountains, frequented by kinnaras.63 This handsome and bull among apes resides there, seated under a jambu tree. He never indulges in boasting in an encounter and he is the leader named Krathana. He is stationed there, surrounded by one thousand crore apes. He hopes that he will crush Lanka with his own army. There is the one who
wanders around the Ganga, terrifying the leaders of elephants and remembering the old enmity between elephants and apes. This leader and commander of a herd is advancing, uprooting trees. He is the one who resides in caves in mountains. This foremost leader in the army of the apes resides on Mount Ushirabija, along the river Haimavati, and is like Mandara. This best among apes finds pleasure, like Shakra himself in heaven. O king! There is the extremely intolerant leader named Pramathi and one hundred thousand follow him. You can see him, like a cloud that has been raised by the wind. As he circles around, a large quantity of dust is raised. There are extremely strong and terrible golangulas64 with black faces. You can see that one crore of them have crossed the bridge. The extremely swift Gavaksha is the leader of the golangulas. Surrounding him, those energetic ones are advancing towards Lanka, to crush it. There is a place where trees yield all the fruits that one desires and are worshipped by the bees. He resides on that mountain, which has a complexion like the hue of the sun. Its65 radiance always dazzles and thus lends its hue to the birds and the animals. The great-souled maharshis never forsake its slopes. O king! He finds pleasure on that beautiful Mount Kanchana. He is foremost among the foremost apes and he is the leader named Kesari. There are sixty thousand peaks in the beautiful Mount Kanchana. O unblemished one! Like you among the rakshasas, there is an excellent peak among them. Tawny brown, white and copper-coloured, with honey-brown faces, they reside on that excellent peak, with teeth and nails as weapons. They possess four teeth, like lions. They are as invincible as tigers. All of them blaze like the fire and are like virulent poison. Like crazy elephants, they raise their extremely long tails. They are like giant mountains and their roar is like that of large clouds. There is a valiant leader who is stationed amidst them. O king! He is famous on earth by the name of Shatabali. He hopes to crush Lanka with his army alone. Gaja, Gavaksha, Gavaya, Nala and the ape Nila—each one of these leaders is surrounded by ten crores. That apart, there are other foremost apes who reside on Mount Vindhya. They are dexterous in their valour and it is impossible to enumerate their large numbers. O great king! All of them are extremely powerful. All of them have bodies that are like large mountains. In an instant, all of them are capable of hurling down boulders and shattering the earth.’
Chapter 6(19)
Hearing Sarana’s words, Ravana, the lord of the rakshasas, looked at the entire army. Shuka then addressed him in these words. ‘You can see them stationed there, like large and crazy elephants. O king! They are like nyagrodha trees66 along the Ganga or sala trees in the Himalayas. They are extremely difficult to counter. They are strong and can assume any form at will. They are like daityas and danavas. In a battle, their valour is like that of the gods. There are twenty one thousand crores, one thousand shankus and one hundred vrindas of them.67 These are Sugriva’s advisers and they always make their homes in Kishkindha. These apes have been born from gods and gandharvas and they can assume any form at will. You can see two young ones stationed there and they are like the gods in their forms. These two are Mainda and Dvivida and no one can equal them in battle. With Brahma’s permission, these two have partaken of amrita. In the battle, they hope to crush Lanka with their energy alone. You can see an angry ape stationed there, like an elephant with a shattered temple.68 He can agitate the ocean with his strength. O lord! He is the one who came to Lanka and met Vaidehi and you. This is the ape you saw earlier and he has come again. He is the eldest son of Kesari and is known to be the son of the wind god. He is famous as Hanumat and he is the one who leapt across the ocean. This best among apes can assume any form at will and he is full of strength and beauty. Everywhere, his progress is always unimpeded, like that of the lord.69 When he was a child, he saw the rising sun and wished to drink it up. He leapt up three thousand yojanas and descended again. “I will seize the sun and thus satisfy my hunger.” Intoxicated by his strength, this was his thought in earlier times. The sun god, rising above Mount Udaya, cannot be touched by the gods, the rishis and the danavas. Unable to reach it, he fell down. When the ape fell down, his jaw was broken on a slope of the mountain. Since his jaw was firm, it was broken only a little. That is the reason he is Hanumat. I know the truth about the ape through yoga and agama.70 I am incapable of describing his strength, beauty and power. Using his energy, he hopes to single-handedly crush Lanka. After him, there is the brave and dark one, with eyes like the petals of lotuses. He is an atiratha71 of the Ikshvaku lineage, famous in the world because of his manliness. He never deviates from dharma and never crosses dharma. He knows about brahmastra72 and he is supreme among those who possess knowledge about the Vedas. He shatters the sky with his arrows and even shatters mountains. His anger is like that of Death and his valour is like that of Shakra. From Janasthana, you abducted his wife, Sita. O king! He is Rama and he has come to fight against you in the encounter. There is one on his right, with a complexion like that of pure molten gold. His chest is broad and his eyes are coppery red. His hair is black and curled. This is his brother Lakshmana and he loves him more than his own life. He is accomplished in good policy and fighting and he is learned in all the sacred texts. He is intolerant, impossible to defeat, victorious, valiant, intelligent and strong. He has always been like Rama’s right arm, as if his73 breath of life is coursing outside his body. For Raghava’s sake, he does not bother about preserving his own life. He hopes that in the battle, he will slay all the rakshasas. There is one who is standing on Rama’s left flank. He is protected by rakshasas and he is King Vibhishana. This prosperous one was consecrated as a king of kings in Lanka.74 He is angry with you and is advancing in the battle. You can see someone stationed in the middle, like an immobile mountain. He is the unvanquished master of all the foremost apes, possessing energy, fame, intelligence, learning and noble birth. This ape is as radiant as the Himalaya mountains. He resides in Kishkindha, with its impenetrable caves and trees. He dwells there, with the foremost apes, in a fortification in the mountains that is impossible to penetrate. He wears a golden and radiant garland, with one hundred lotuses. Lakshmi, loved by gods and humans, is established in him. After slaying Vali, Rama gave this Sugriva this garland, Tara and the eternal kingdom of the apes. One hundred thousand crores is said to be a shanku and such numbers are advancing to fight in the cause of Sugriva, Indra among the apes.75 O great king! Look at this army, which has presented itself, like a flaming planet. Therefore, great efforts are recommended, so that we are victorious and the enemy is defeated.’
Chapter 6(20)
Ravana saw the leaders of the apes who were indicated by Shuka, his own brother Vibhishana, stationed near Rama, the immensely valorous Lakshmana who was like Rama’s right arm and Sugriva, the king of the apes, terrible in his valour. Somewhat anxious in his mind, he became angry. After the end of the conversation, he reprimanded the two brave ones, Shuka and Sarana. In an angry voice that was full of intolerance, he addressed them in these harsh words. ‘Those like you should not earn a living as advisers. You have spoken disagreeable words to the king, the lord who can reward and punish you. The enemy is acting against us and has invaded, seeking a battle. Both of you have uttered words of praise about those who should not be applauded. Your service to your preceptors, seniors and the aged has been futile. Though you earn a living from the sacred texts on royal policy, you have not grasped the essence. Even if you have grasped, you have not understood. Or the burden of knowledge has confused you. With such foolish advisers, it is fortunate that I am still here. Are you not scared of death that you have addressed me in these harsh words? This is the tongue that commands you and confers good and bad on you. Even if they are touched by a fire, trees may remain in a forest. However, if one is touched by a crime committed against the king, the criminal no longer remains. These two wicked ones have praised the side of the enemy and I should kill them. However, the former good deeds done by them have made my anger mild. Go far away from here and do not be seen near me. Remembering the good deeds you have done to me, I do not wish to kill yo
u. Though you are ungrateful and have turned your faces away from me, because of my affection, I am going to treat you as if you are already dead.’ Thus addressed, Shuka and Sarana were ashamed. Saying, ‘May you be victorious,’ they withdrew from Ravana’s presence.
Mahodara was near him and Dashagriva spoke to him. ‘Quickly bring spies, who are accomplished in good policy, here.’ Following the command of the king, spies were swiftly summoned. They joined their hands in salutation and presented themselves, pronouncing benedictions of prosperity and victory. Those spies were faithful, brave, devoted and bereft of fear. Ravana, the lord of the rakshasas, addressed them in these words. ‘Leave this place. Go and test Rama’s behaviour towards his close ministers and among those who have assembled, the ones who are pleased with him. When does he sleep? When is he awake? What else does he do? Use your skills to ascertain everything completely and then return. If kings get to know about the enemy through learned spies, in the course of the encounter, the enemy can be restrained with only a little bit of effort.’ The spies were delighted and agreed. Placing Shardula at the forefront, they circumambulated the lord of the rakshasas. They then left for the spot where Rama and Lakshmana were.
Disguising themselves, they approached Mount Suvela and saw Rama, Lakshmana, Sugriva and Vibhishana. However, those rakshasas were detected by Vibhishana, the Indra among rakshasas, with dharma in his soul. He had them easily captured. They were afflicted by the brave ones who were dexterous in their valour and lost their senses.76 Sighing, they reached Lanka again. These spies roamed around in the night and always wandered around outside.77 They presented themselves before Dashagriva and told him that an extremely large body of soldiers were camped near Mount Suvela.
The Valmiki Ramayana Page 94