The giant leader fiercely rained
His arrows and thee fight maintained.
Etime the clanging cord he drew
His certain shaft a Vánar slew.
Then, as the creatures he has made
Fly to the Lord of Life for aid,
To Angad for protection fled
The Vánar hosts dispirited.
Then raged the battle fiercer yet
Then Angad and the giant met.
A hundred thousand arrows, hot
With flames of fire the giant shot;
And every shaft he deftly sent
His foeman's body pierced and rent.
From Angad's limbs ran floods of gore:
A stately tree from earth he tore,
Which, maddened as his gashes bled,
He hurled at his opponent's head.
His bow the dauntless giant drew;
To meet the tree swift arrows flew,
Checked the huge missile's onward way,
And harmless on the earth it lay.
A while the Vánar chieftain gazed,
Then from the earth a rock he raised
Rent from a thunder-splitten height,
And cast it with resistless might.
The giant marked, and, mace in hand,
Leapt from his chariot to the sand,
Ere the rough mass descending broke
The seat, the wheel, the pole and yoke.
Then Angad seized a shattered hill,
Whereon the trees were flowering still,
And with full force the jagged peak
Fell crashing on the giant's cheek.
He staggered, reeled, and fell: the blood
Gushed from the giant in a flood.
Reft of his might, each sense astray,
A while upon the sand he lay.
But strength and wandering sense returned
Again his eyes with fury burned,
And with his mace upraised on high
He wounded Angad on the thigh.
Then from his hand his mace he threw,
And closer to his foeman drew.
Then with their fists they fought, and smote
On brow and cheek and chest and throat.
Worn out with toil, their limbs bedewed,
With blood, the strife they still renewed,
Like Mercury and fiery Mars
Met in fierce battle mid the stars.
A while the deadly fight was stayed:
Each armed him with his trusty blade
Whose sheath with tinkling bells supplied,
And golden net, adorned his side;
And grasped his ponderous leather shield
To fight till one should fall or yield.
Uunumbered wounds they gave and took:
Their wearied bodies reeled and shook.
At length upon the sand that drank
Streams of their blood the warriors sank,
But as a serpent rears his head
Sore wounded by a peasant's tread,
So Angad, fallen on his knees,
Yet gathered strength his sword to seize;
And, severed by the glittering blade,
The giant's head on earth was laid. 1
467:1 I omit Cantos LV., LVI., LVII., and
LVIII. which relate how Akampan and
Prahasta sally out and fall. There is little
novelty of incident in these Cantos and
the result are exactly the same as before.
In Canto LV. Akampan, at the command
of Rávan, leads forth his troops. Evil
omens are seen and heard. The enemies
meet, and many fall on each side, the
Vánars transfixed with arrows, the
Rákshases crushed with rooks and trees.
In Canto LVI. Akampan sees that the
Rákshases are worsted, and fights with
redoubled rage and vigour. The Vánars
fall fast under his "nets of arrows."
Hanumán comes to the rescue. He throws
mountain peaks at the giant which are
dexterously stopped with flights of arrows;
and at last beats him down and kills him
with a tree.
In Canto LVII. Rávan is seriously
alarmed. He declares that he himself,
Kumbhakarna or Prahasta, must go forth.
Prahasta sallies out vaunting that the
fowls of the air shall eat their fill of
Vánar flesh.
In Canto LVIII. the two armies meet.
Dire is the conflict; ceaseless is the rain
of stones and arrows. At last Níla meets
Prahasta and breaks his bow. Prahasta
leaps from his car, and the giant and the
Vánar fight on foot. Níla with a huge
tree crushes his opponent who falls like a
tree when its roots are cut.
