Ramayana, Book IV, Canto 6: The Tokensकिष्किन्धाकाण्डम्

Ralph T. H. Griffith’s English verse (1870–74), beside the Sanskrit of sarga 4.6.

6Sanskrit sarga 4.6 · Sanskrit source · English source

Sanskrit

पुनरेवाब्रवीत् प्रीतो राघवं रघुनन्दनम्।
अयमाख्याति ते राम सचिवो मन्त्रिसत्तमः॥ १॥
हनुमान् यन्निमित्तं त्वं निर्जनं वनमागतः।
लक्ष्मणेन सह भ्रात्रा वसतश्च वने तव॥ २॥
रक्षसापहृता भार्या मैथिली जनकात्मजा।
त्वया वियुक्ता रुदती लक्ष्मणेन च धीमता॥ ३॥
अन्तरं प्रेप्सुना तेन हत्वा गृध्रं जटायुषम्।
भार्यावियोगजं दुःखं प्रापितस्तेन रक्षसा॥ ४॥
भार्यावियोगजं दुःखं नचिरात् त्वं विमोक्ष्यसे।
अहं तामानयिष्यामि नष्टां वेदश्रुतीमिव॥ ५॥
रसातले वा वर्तन्तीं वर्तन्तीं वा नभस्तले।
अहमानीय दास्यामि तव भार्यामरिंदम॥ ६॥
इदं तथ्यं मम वचस्त्वमवेहि च राघव।
न शक्या सा जरयितुमपि सेन्द्रैः सुरासुरैः॥ ७॥
तव भार्या महाबाहो भक्ष्यं विषकृतं यथा।
त्यज शोकं महाबाहो तां कान्तामानयामि ते॥ ८॥
अनुमानात् तु जानामि मैथिली सा न संशयः।
ह्रियमाणा मया दृष्टा रक्षसा रौद्रकर्मणा॥ ९॥
क्रोशन्ती रामरामेति लक्ष्मणेति च विस्वरम्।
स्फुरन्ती रावणस्याङ्के पन्नगेन्द्रवधूर्यथा॥ १०॥
आत्मना पञ्चमं मां हि दृष्ट्वा शैलतले स्थितम्।
उत्तरीयं तया त्यक्तं शुभान्याभरणानि च॥ ११॥
तान्यस्माभिर्गृहीतानि निहितानि च राघव।
आनयिष्याम्यहं तानि प्रत्यभिज्ञातुमर्हसि॥ १२॥
तमब्रवीत् ततो रामः सुग्रीवं प्रियवादिनम्।
आनयस्व सखे शीघ्रं किमर्थं प्रविलम्बसे॥ १३॥
एवमुक्तस्तु सुग्रीवः शैलस्य गहनां गुहाम्।
प्रविवेश ततः शीघ्रं राघवप्रियकाम्यया॥ १४॥
उत्तरीयं गृहीत्वा तु स तान्याभरणानि च।
इदं पश्येति रामाय दर्शयामास वानरः॥ १५॥
ततो गृहीत्वा वासस्तु शुभान्याभरणानि च।
अभवद् बाष्पसंरुद्धो नीहारेणेव चन्द्रमाः॥ १६॥
सीतास्नेहप्रवृत्तेन स तु बाष्पेण दूषितः।
हा प्रियेति रुदन् धैर्यमुत्सृज्य न्यपतत् क्षितौ॥ १७॥
हृदि कृत्वा स बहुशस्तमलंकारमुत्तमम्।
निशश्वास भृशं सर्पो बिलस्थ इव रोषितः॥ १८॥
अविच्छिन्नाश्रुवेगस्तु सौमित्रिं प्रेक्ष्य पार्श्वतः।
परिदेवयितुं दीनं रामः समुपचक्रमे॥ १९॥
पश्य लक्ष्मण वैदेह्या संत्यक्तं ह्रियमाणया।
उत्तरीयमिदं भूमौ शरीराद् भूषणानि च॥ २०॥
शाद्वलिन्यां ध्रुवं भूम्यां सीतया ह्रियमाणया।
उत्सृष्टं भूषणमिदं तथा रूपं हि दृश्यते॥ २१॥
एवमुक्तस्तु रामेण लक्ष्मणो वाक्यमब्रवीत्।
नाहं जानामि केयूरे नाहं जानामि कुण्डले॥ २२॥
नूपुरे त्वभिजानामि नित्यं पादाभिवन्दनात्।
ततस्तु राघवो वाक्यं सुग्रीवमिदमब्रवीत्॥ २३॥
ब्रूहि सुग्रीव कं देशं ह्रियन्ती लक्षिता त्वया।
रक्षसा रौद्ररूपेण मम प्राणप्रिया हृता॥ २४॥
क्व वा वसति तद् रक्षो महद् व्यसनदं मम।
यन्निमित्तमहं सर्वान् नाशयिष्यामि राक्षसान्॥ २५॥
हरता मैथिलीं येन मां च रोषयता ध्रुवम्।
आत्मनो जीवितान्ताय मृत्युद्वारमपावृतम्॥ २६॥
मम दयिततमा हृता वनाद्
रजनिचरेण विमथ्य येन सा।
कथय मम रिपुं तमद्य वै
प्लवगपते यमसंनिधिं नयामि॥ २७॥

English Griffith

With joy that sprang from hope restored
To Ráma spake the Vánar lord:
“I know, by wise Hanúmán taught,
Why thou the lonely wood hast sought.
Where with thy brother Lakshmaṇ thou
Hast sojourned, bound by hermit vow;
Have heard how Sítá, Janak’s child,
Was stolen in the pathless wild,
How by a roving Rákshas she
Weeping was reft from him and thee;
How, bent on death, the giant slew
The vulture king, her guardian true,
And gave thy widowed breast to know
A solitary mourner’s woe.
But soon, dear Prince, thy heart shall be
From every trace of sorrow free;
For I thy darling will restore,
Lost like the prize of holy lore.⁵⁵⁸
Yea, though in heaven the lady dwell,
Or prisoned in the depths of hell,
My friendly care her way shall track
And bring thy ransomed darling back.
Let this my promise soothe thy care,
Nor doubt the words I truly swear.
Saints, fiends, and dwellers of the skies
Shall find thy wife a bitter prize,
Like the rash child who rues too late
The treacherous lure of poisoned cate.
No longer, Prince, thy loss deplore:
Thy darling wife will I restore.
’Twas she I saw: my heart infers
That shrinking form was doubtless hers,
Which gaint Rávaṇ, fierce and dread,
Bore swiftly through the clouds o’erhead
Still writhing in his strict embrace
Like helpless queen of serpent race,⁵⁵⁹
And from her lips that sad voice came
Shrieking thine own and Lakshmaṇ’s name.
High on a hill she saw me stand
With comrades twain on either hand.
Her outer robe to earth she threw,
And with it sent her anklets too.
We saw the glittering tokens fall,
We found them there and kept them all.
These will I bring: perchance thine eyes
The treasured spoils will recognize.”

He ceased: then Raghu’s son replied
To the glad tale, and eager cried:
“Bring them with all thy speed: delay
No more, dear friend, but haste away.”

Thus Ráma spoke. Sugríva hied
Within the mountain’s caverned side,
Impelled by love that stirred each thought
The precious tokens quickly brought,
And said to Raghu’s son: Behold
This garment and these rings of gold.
In Ráma’s hand with friendly haste
The jewels and the robe he placed.
Then, like the moon by mist assailed,
The tear-dimmed eyes of Ráma failed;
That burst of woe unmanned his frame,
Woe sprung from passion for his dame,
And with his manly strength o’erthrown,
He fell and cried, Ah me! mine own!
Again, again close to his breast
The ornaments and robe he pressed,
While the quick pants that shook his frame
As from a furious serpent came.
On his dear brother standing nigh
He turned at length his piteous eye;
And, while his tears increasing ran,
In bitter wail he thus began:
“Look, brother, and behold once more
The ornaments and robe she wore,
Dropped while the giant bore away
In cruel arras his struggling prey,
Dropped in some quiet spot, I ween,
Where the young grass was soft and green;
For still untouched by spot or stain
Their former beauty all retain.”

He spoke with many a tear and sigh,
And thus his brother made reply:
“The bracelets thou hast fondly shown,
And earrings, are to me unknown,
But by long service taught I greet
The anklets of her honoured feet.”⁵⁶⁰

Then to Sugríva Ráma, best
Of Raghu’s sons, these words addressed:

“Say to what quarter of the sky
The cruel fiend was seen to fly,
Bearing afar my captured wife,
My darling dearer than my life.
Speak, Vánar King, that I may know
Where dwells the cause of all my woe;
The fiend for whose transgression all
The giants by this hand shall fall.
He who the Maithil lady stole
And kindled fury in my soul,
Has sought his fate in senseless pride
And opened Death’s dark portal wide.
Then tell me, Vánar lord, I pray,
The dwelling of my foe,
And he, beneath this hand, to-day
To Yáma’s halls shall go.”

Griffith’s notes (3)

The Vedas stolen by the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha. “The text has [Sanskrit text] which signifies literally ‘the lost vedic tradition.’ It seems that allusion is here made to the Vedas submerged in the depth of the sea, but promptly recovered by Vishṇu in one of his incarnations, as the brahmanic legend relates, with which the orthodoxy of the Bráhmans intended perhaps to allude to the prompt restoration and uninterrupted continuity of the ancient vedic tradition.” GORRESIO.
Like the wife of a Nága or Serpent-God carried off by an eagle. The enmity between the King of birds and the serpent is of very frequent occurrence. It seems to be a modification of the strife between the Vedic Indra and the Ahi, the serpent or drought-fiend; between Apollôn and the Python, Adam and the Serpent.
He means that he has never ventured to raise his eyes to her arms and face, though he has ever been her devoted servant.