There bowing down in reverence speak

  And ask him of the dame you seek.

  Thus far the splendid Lord of Day

  Pursues through heaven his ceaseless way,

  Shedding on every spot his light;

  Then sinks behind Mount Asta’s height,

  Thus far advance: the sunless sea

  Beyond is all unknown to me.

  Susheṇ of mighty arm, long tried

  In peril, shall your legions guide.

  Receive his words with high respect,

  And ne’er his lightest wish neglect.

  He is my consort’s sire, and hence

  Deserves the utmost reverence.”

  Canto XLIII. The Army Of The North.

  FORTH WENT THE legions of the west:

  And wise Sugríva addressed

  Śatabal, summoned from the crowd.

  To whom the sovereign cried aloud:

  “Go forth, O Vánar chief, go forth,

  Explore the regions of the north.

  Thy host a hundred thousand be,

  And Yáma’s sons733 attend on thee.

  With dauntless courage, strength, and skill

  Search every river, wood, and hill.

  Through every land in order go

  Right onward to the Hills of Snow.

  Search mid the peaks that shine afar,

  In woods of Lodh and Deodár.734

  Search if with Janak’s daughter, screened

  By sheltering rocks, there lie the fiend.

  The holy grounds of Soma tread

  By Gods and minstrels visited.

  Reach Kála’s mount, and flats that lie

  Among the peaks that tower on high.

  Then leave that hill that gleams with ore,

  And fair Sudarśan’s heights explore.

  Then on to Devasakhá735 hie,

  Loved by the children of the sky.

  A dreary land you then will see

  Without a hill or brook or tree,

  A hundred leagues, bare, wild, and dread

  In lifeless desolation, spread.

  Pursue your onward way, and haste

  Through the dire horrors of the waste

  Until triumphant with delight

  You reach Kailása’s glittering height.

  There stands a palace decked with gold,

  For King Kuvera736 wrought of old,

  A home the heavenly artist planned

  And fashioned with his cunning hand.

  There lotuses adorn the flood

  With full-blown flower and opening bud

  Where swans and mallards float, and gay

  Apsarases737 come down to play.

  There King Vaiśravaṇ’s738 self, the lord

  By all the universe adored,

  Who golden gifts to mortals sends,

  Lives with the Guhyakas739 his friends.

  Search every cavern in the steep,

  And green glens where the moonbeams sleep,

  If haply in that distant ground

  The robber and the dame be found.

  Then on to Krauncha’s hill,740 and through

  His fearful pass your way pursue:

  Though dark and terrible the vale

  Your wonted courage must not fail.

  There through abyss and cavern seek,

  On lofty ridge, and mountain peak,

  On, on! pursue your journey still

  By valley, lake, and towering hill.

  Reach the North Kurus’ land, where rest

  The holy spirits of the blest:

  Where golden buds of lilies gleam

  Resplendent on the silver stream,

  And leaves of azure turkis throw

  Soft splendour on the waves below.

  Bright as the sun at early morn

  Fair pools that happy clime adorn,

  Where shine the loveliest flowers on stems

  Of crystal and all valued gems.

  Blue lotuses through all the land

  The glories of their blooms expand,

  And the resplendent earth is strown

  With peerless pearl and precious stone.

  There stately trees can scarce uphold

  The burthen of their fruits of gold,

  And ever flaunt their gay attire

  Of flower and leaf like flames of fire.

  All there sweet lives untroubled spend

  In bliss and joy that know not end,

  While pearl-decked maidens laugh, or sing

  To music of the silvery string.741

  Still on your forward journey keep,

  And rest you by the northern deep,

  Where springing from the billows high

  Mount Somagiri742 seeks the sky,

  And lightens with perpetual glow

  The sunless realm that lies below.

  There, present through all life’s extent,

  Dwells Brahmá Lord preëminent,

  And round the great God, manifest

  In Rudra743 forms high sages rest.

  Then turn, O Vánars: search no more,

  Nor tempt the sunless, boundless shore.”

  Canto XLIV. The Ring.

  BUT SPECIAL COUNSELLING he gave

  To Hanumán the wise and brave:

  To him on whom his soul relied,

  With friendly words the monarch cried:

  “O best of Vánars, naught can stay

  By land or sea thy rapid way,

  Who through the air thy flight canst bend,

  And to the Immortals’ home ascend.

  All realms, I ween, are known to thee

  With every mountain, lake, and sea.

  In strength and speed which naught can tire

  Thou, worthy rival of thy sire

  The mighty monarch of the wind,

  Where’er thou wilt a way canst find.

  Exert thy power, O swift and strong,

  Bring back the lady lost so long,

  For time and place, O thou most wise,

  Lie open to thy searching eyes.”

  When Ráma heard that special hest

  To Hanumán above the rest,

  He from the monarch’s favour drew

  Hope of success and trust anew

  That he on whom his lord relied,

  In toil and peril trained and tried,

  Would to a happy issue bring

  The task commanded by the king.

  He gave the ring that bore his name,

  A token for the captive dame,

  That the sad lady in her woe

  The missive of her lord might know.

  “This ring,” he said, “my wife will see,

  Nor fear an envoy sent by me.

  Thy valour and thy skill combined,

  Thy resolute and vigorous mind,

  And King Sugríva’s high behest,

  With joyful hopes inspire my breast.”

  Canto XLV. The Departure.

  AWAY, AWAY THE Vánars sped

  Like locusts o’er the land outspread.

  To northern realms where rising high

  The King of Mountains cleaves the sky,

  Fierce Śatabal with vast array

  Of Vánar warriors led the way.

  Far southward, as his lord decreed,

  Wise Hanumán, the Wind-God’s seed,

  With Angad his swift way pursued,

  And Tára’s warlike multitude,

  Strong Vinata with all his band

  Betook him to the eastern land,

  And brave Susheṇ in eager quest

  Sped swiftly to the gloomy west.

  Each Vánar chieftain sought with speed

  The quarter by his king decreed,

  While from his legions rose on high

  The shout and boast and battle cry:

  “We will restore the dame and beat

  The robber down beneath our feet.

  My arm alone shall win the day

  From Rávaṇ met in single fray,

  Shall rob the robber of his life,

  And rescue Ráma’s captive wife

  All trembling in her fear and woe.

  Here, comrades, rest: no farther go:

  For I will vanquish hell, and she

  Shall by this arm again be free.

  The rooted mountains will I rend,

  The mightiest trees will break and bend,

  Earth to her deep foundations cleave,

  And make the calm sea throb and heave.

  A hundred leagues from steep to steep

  In desperate bound my feet shall leap.

  My steps shall tread unchecked and free,

  Through woods, o’er land and hill and sea,

  Range as they list from flood to fell,

  And wander through the depths of hell.”

  Canto XLVI. Sugríva’s Tale.

  “HOW, KING,” CRIED Ráma, “didst thou gain

  Thy lore of sea and hill and plain?”

  “I told thee how,” Sugríva said,

  “From Báli’s arm Máyáví fled744

  To Malaya’s hill, and strove to save

  His life by hiding in the cave.

  I told how Báli sought, to kill

  His foe, the hollow of the hill;

  Nor need I, King, again unfold

  The wondrous tale already told.

  Then, wandering forth, my way I took

  By many a town and wood and brook.

  I roamed the earth from place to place,

  Till, like a mirror’s polished face,

  The whole broad disk, that lies between

  Its farthest bounds, mine eyes had seen.

  I wandered first to eastern skies

  Where fairest trees rejoiced mine eyes,

  And many a cave and wooded hill

  Where lilies robed the lake and rill.

  There metal dyes that hill745 adorn

  Whence springs the sun to light the morn.

  There, too, I viewed the Milky sea,

  Where nymphs of heaven delight to be.

  Then to the south I made my way

  From regions of the rising day,

  And roamed o’er Vindhya, where the breeze

  Is odorous of sandal trees.

  Still in my fear I found no rest:

  I sought the regions of the west,

  And gazed on Asta,746 where the sun

  Sinks when his daily course is run.

  Then from that noblest hill I fled

  And to the northern country sped,

  Saw Himaván,747 and Meru’s steep,

  And stood beside the northern deep.

  But when, by Báli’s might oppressed,

  E’en in those wilds I could not rest,

  Came Hanumán the wise and brave,

  And thus his prudent counsel gave:

  “‘I told thee how Matanga748 cursed

  Thy tyrant, that his head should burst

  In pieces, should he dare invade

  The precincts of that tranquil shade.

  There may we dwell in peace and be

  From thy oppressor’s malice free.”

  We went to Rishyamúka’s hill,

  And spent our days secure from ill

  Where, with that curse upon his head,

  The cruel Báli durst not tread.”

  Canto XLVII. The Return.

  THUS FORTH IN quest of Sítá went

  The legions King Sugríva sent.

  To many a distant town they hied

  By many a lake and river’s side.

  As their great sovereign’s order taught,

  Through valleys, plains, and groves they sought.

  They toiled unresting through the day:

  At night upon the ground they lay

  Where the tall trees, whose branches swayed

  Beneath their fruit, gave pleasant shade.

  Then, when a weary month was spent,

  Back to Praśravaṇ’s hill they went,

  And stood with faces of despair

  Before their king Sugríva there.

  Thus, having wandered through the east,

  Great Vinata his labours ceased,

  And weary of the fruitless pain

  Returned to meet the king again,

  Brave Śatabali to the north

  Had led his Vánar legions forth.

  Now to Sugríva he sped

  With all his host dispirited.

  Susheṇ the western realms had sought,

  And homeward now his legions brought.

  All to Sugríva came, where still

  He sat with Ráma on the hill.

  Before their sovereign humbly bent

  And thus addressed him reverent:

  “On every hill our steps have been,

  By wood and cave and deep ravine;

  And all the wandering brooks we know

  Throughout the land that seaward flow,

  Our feet by thy command have traced

  The tangled thicket and the waste,

  And dens and dingles hard to pass

  for creeping plants and matted grass.

  Well have we searched with toil and pain,

  And monstrous creatures have we slain

  But Hanumán of noblest mind

  The Maithil lady yet will find;

  For to his quarter of the sky749

  The robber fiend was seen to fly.”

  Canto XLVIII. The Asur’s Death.

  BUT HANUMÁN STILL onward pressed

  With Tára, Angad, and the rest,

  Through Vindhya’s pathless glens he sped

  And left no spot unvisited.

  He gazed from every mountain height,

  He sought each cavern dark as night,

  And wandered through the bloomy shade

  By pool and river and cascade,

  But, though they sought in every place,

  Of Sítá yet they found no trace.

  On fruit and woodland berries fed

  Through many a lonely wild they sped,

  And reached at last, untouched by fear,

  A desert terrible and drear:

  A fruitless waste, a land of gloom

  Where trees were bare of leaf and bloom,

  Where every scanty stream was dried,

  And niggard earth her roots denied.

  No elephants through all the ground,

  No buffaloes or deer are found.

  There roams no tiger, pard, or bear,

  No creature of the wood is there.

  No bird displays his glittering wings,

  No tree, no shrub, no creeper springs.

  There rise no lilies from the flood,

  Resplendent with their flower and bud,

  Where the delighted bees may throng

  About the fragrance with their song.

  There lived a hermit Kaṇdu named,

  For truth and wealth of penance famed.

  Whom fervent zeal and holy rite

  Had dowered with all-surpassing might.

  His little son, a ten year child —

  So chanced it — perished in the wild.

  His death with fury stirred the sage,

  Who cursed the forest in his rage,

  Doomed from that hour to shelter none,

  A waste for bird and beast to shun.

  They searched by every forest edge,

  They searched each cave and mountain ledge,

  And thickets whence the water fell

  Wandering through the tangled dell.

  Striving to do Sugríva’s will

  They roamed along each leafy rill.

  But vain were all endeavours, vain

  The careful search, the toil and pain.

  Through one dark grove they scarce could wind,

  So thick were creepers intertwined.

  There as they struggled through the wood

  Before their eyes an Asur750 stood.

  High as a towering hill, his pride

  The very Gods in heaven defied.

  When on the fiend their glances fell

  Each braced him for the combat well.

  The demon raised his arm on high,

  And rushed upon them with a cry.

  Him Angad smote, — for, sure, he thought

  This was the fiend they long had sought.

  From his huge mouth by Angad felled,

  The blood in rushing torrents welled,

  As, like a mountain from his base

  Uptorn, he dropped upon his face.

  Thus fell the mighty fiend: and they

  Through the thick wood pursued their way;

  Then, weary with the toil, reclined

  Where leafy boughs to shade them twined.

  Canto XLIX. Angad’s Speech.

  THEN ANGAD SPAKE: “We Vánars well

  Have searched each valley, cave, and dell,

  And hill, and brook, and dark recess,

  And tangled wood, and wilderness.

  But all in vain: no eye has seen

  The robber or the Maithil queen.

  A dreary time has passed away,

  And stern is he we all obey.

  Come, cast your grief and sloth aside:

  Again be every effort tried;

  So haply may our toil attain

  The sweet success that follows pain.

  Laborious effort, toil, and skill,

  The firm resolve, the constant will

  Secure at last the ends we seek:

  Hence, O my friends, I boldly speak.

  Once more then, noble hearts, once more

  Let us to-day this wood explore,

  And, languor and despair subdued,

  Purchase success with toil renewed.

  Sugríva is a king austere,

  And Ráma’s wrath we needs must fear.

  Come, Vánars, ye think it wise,

  And do the thing that I advise.”

  Then Gandhamádan thus replied

  With lips that toil and thirst had dried;

  “Obey his words, for wise and true

  Is all that he has counselled you.

  Come, let your hosts their toil renew

  And search each grove and desert through,

  Each towering hill and forest glade.

  By lake and brook and white cascade,

  Till every spot, as our great lord

  Commanded, be again explored.”

  Uprose the Vánars one and all,

  Obedient to the chieftain’s call,

  And over the southern region sped

  Where Vindhya’s tangled forests spread.

  They clomb that hill that towers on high

  Like a huge cloud in autumn’s sky,

  Where many a cavern yawns, and streaks

 

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