Summary
Shuurpanakha narrates her woeful story to her brother Khara criminating [blaming] Seetha in particular. She wants Khara to wage a war so that she could drink Seetha's blood. Khara in order to appease his sister sends fourteen demons to eliminate Rama.
Chapter [Sarga] 19 in Detail
taam tathaa patitaam dristvaa viruupaam shonita uksitaam |
bhaginiim krodha sa.mtaptah kharah papraccha raaksasah || 3-19-1
On seeing her who fell before him in a misshapen and blood-soaked condition, demon Khara is all stewed up and asked her. [3-19-1]
uttistha taavat aakhyaahi pramoham jahi sa.mbhramam |
vyaktam aakhyaahi kena tvam evam ruupaa viruupitaa || 3-19-2
"Rise up, first tell me clearly putting away your flurry and fluster, who disfigured your form in this way. [3-19-2]
kah krisna sarpam asiinam aashii visama naagasam |
tudati abhisamaapannam a.nguli agrena liilayaa || 3-19-3
"Who for sport is poking his fingertip at a venomously fanged black-cobra that has chanced in his close proximity but slouching down inoffensively. [3-19-3]
kaala paasham samaasajya kanthe mohaat na jaanate |
yah tvaam adya samaasaadya piitavaan visam uttamam || 3-19-4
"Who on harrowing [plundering] you is now heedless [thoughtless] about his gulping a deadly poison, or about his foolish bracing the noose of time around his own neck. [3-19-4]
bala vikrama sa.mpannaa kaamagaa kaama ruupinii |
imaam avasthaam niitaa tvam kena a.ntaka samaa gataa || 3-19-5
"You are gifted with boldness and braveness, a whimsical rover, a guise changer by your wish, a coequal of Terminator, but to whom you have gone and by whom you are led into this kind of plight. [3-19-5]
deva gandharva bhuutaanaam risiinaam ca mahaatmanaam |
ko ayam evam mahaaviiryah tvaam viruupaam cakaara ha || 3-19-6
"Who is that kind of highly intrepid [characterized by resolute fearlessness] warper [act wrongly or abnormally], either from gods, or from celestials or from high-souled sages who indeed rendered you shapeless. [3-19-6]
na hi pashyaami aham loke yah kuryaat mama vipriyam |
amaresu sahasraaksam mahaendram paakashaasanam || 3-19-7
"Indeed, I do not find anyone who causes displeasure to me in this world, even among divinities including the thousand eyed Indra, the controller of demon Paaka. [3-19-7]
adya aham maarganaih praanaan aadaasye jiivitaa.ntagaih |
salile ksiiram aasaktam nispiban iva saarasah || 3-19-8
"Now, I will take away the lives of that miscreant with my arrows that are terminators of lives, as a swan would drink milk to dregs even if it is mingled in water, duly separating milk from water. [3-19-8]
nihatasya mayaa sa.nkhye shara sa.mkritta marmanah |
saphenam rudhiram kasya medinii paatum icchasi || 3-19-9
"Whose frothy blood is it that the earth wishes to quaff when I cut off his crucial organs by my arrows and drop him dead in a combat. [3-19-9]
kasya patrarathaah kaayaat maa.msam utkritya sa.mgataah |
prahristaa bhaksayisyanti nihatasya mayaa rane || 3-19-10
"Whose body is it from which birds pressing round gladly wish to wring flesh to pieces for eating when I slay him in war. [3-19-10]
tam na devaa na ga.ndharvaa na pishaacaa na raaksasaah |
mayaa apakristam kripanam shaktaah traatum iha aahave || 3-19-11
"Now, when I haul him easily on the ground in a battle that villain will be unredeemable either by gods, celestials, evil spirits, or by demons. [3-19-11]
upalabhya shanaih sa.mjnaam tam me sha.msitum arhasi |
yena tvam dur.hviniitena vane vikramya nirjitaa || 3-19-12
"It will be apt of you to gather your sensitivity slowly and tell me as to which miscreant attacked and worsted you in the forest." Thus Khara spoke to Shuurpanakha. [3-19-12]
iti bhraatur vacah shrutvaa kruddhasya ca vishesatah |
tatah shuurpanakhaa vaakyam sabaaspam idam abraviit || 3-19-13
On hearing this kind of words of her brother, especially who is rancorous, then Shuurpanakha spoke these words, tearfully. [3-19-13]
tarunau ruupa sa.mpannau sukuumaarau mahaabalau |
pundariika vishaalaaksau ciira krisna ajina a.mbarau || 3-19-14
phala muula ashinau daantau taapasau brahmacaarinau |
putrau dasharathasya aastaam bhraatarau raama lakshmanau || 3-19-15
"Those two are in adulthood, good-looking, gentle yet greatly mighty, eyes broad like lotuses, dressed in jute-cloths and deerskin, subsistent on fruits and tubers, composed, sagacious and celibate, and they are the sons of Dasharatha, namely Rama and Lakshmana. [3-19-14,15]
gandharva raaja pratimau paarthiva vyanjana anvitau |
devau vaa daanavau - maanusau - vaa tau na tarkayitum utsahe || 3-19-16
"Having all the aspects of kings they equal the kings of Gandharva celestials, and I am ill-disposed to differentiate whether they two are gods or demons. [3-19-16]
tarunii ruupasa.mpannaa sarvaaabharana bhuusitaa |
dristaa tatra mayaa naarii tayor madhye sumadhyamaa || 3-19-17
"I have seen a curvaceous lady between those two, a ripely beauty, rich in comeliness, adorned with lots of ornaments. [3-19-17]
taabhyaam ubhaabhyaam sa.mbhuuya pramadaam adhikritya taam |
imaam avasthaam niitaa aham yathaa anaathaa satii tathaa || 3-19-18
"Owing to that woman I am led into this sort of situation, together by those two, as with an insecure female. [3-19-18]
tasyaah ca anriju vrittaayaah tayoh ca hatayor aham |
saphenam paatum icchaami rudhiram rana muurdhani || 3-19-19
"Staying in the van of war I wish to drink the frothy blood of that guileful Seetha along with that of those two, Rama and Lakshmana, when they are killed in war. [3-19-19]
esa me prathamah kaamah kritah tatra tvayaa bhavet |
tasyaah tayoh ca rudhiram pibeyam aham aahave || 3-19-20
"I shall drink her blood and also that of those two in war, this being my prime longing let it be fulfilled by you." Thus wailed Shuurpanakha before her brother Khara. [3-19-20]
iti tasyaam bruvaanaayaam catur dasha mahaabalaan |
vyaadidesha kharah kruddho raaksasaan a.ntakopamaan || 3-19-21
While she is saying like that Khara vengefully summoned fourteen great mighty demons that are similar to the Terminator. [3-19-21]
maanusau shastra sampannau ciira krisna ajina a.mbarau |
pravistau dandakaaranyam ghoram pramadayaa saha || 3-19-22
"Wielding weapons and wearing jute-cloths and deerskin two humans have got into ghastly forest of Dandaka along with a woman of age." Thus Khara is ordering the fourteen demons. [3-19-22]
tau hatvaa taam ca durvrittaam upaavartitum arhatha |
iyam ca rudhiram tesaam bhaginii mama paasyati || 3-19-23
"You shall return to me only on killing those two and also that treacherous woman, and their blood this sister of mine will drink. [3-19-23]
manoratho ayam isto asyaa bhaginyaa mama raaksasaah |
shiighram sa.mpadyataam gatvaa tau pramathya sva tejasaa || 3-19-24
"Oh, demons, on going there swiftly stamp them out by you own vigor, thus let the fanciful hearty desire of my sister be achieved. [3-19-24]
yusmaabih nirhato dristvaa tau ubhau bhraatau rane |
iyam prahristaa muditaa rudhiram yudhi paasyati || 3-19-25
"On seeing your finishing those two brothers flatly in a war she this sister of mine will be gladdened, and then she drinks their blood in war, amusingly. [3-19-25]
iti pratisamaadistaa raaksasaah te catur dasha |
tatra jagmuh tayaa saardham ghanaa vaateritaah yathaa || 3-19-26
In this way when Khara ordered those fourteen demons, they have gone to Panchavati along with Shuurpanakha like black-clouds glided by gales. [3-19-26]
tatastu te tam samudarga tejasam
tathaapi tiikshna pradaraa nishaacaraa |
na shekur enam sahasaa pramarditum
vanadvipaa diiptvam iva agnim uthitam || 3-19-27
But then, though the nightwalker wielding sharp arrows have become ineffectual to trounce Rama like the wild elephants which will become ineffectual to overcome the blazingly uprising wildfire. [3-19-27]
iti vaalmiiki raamaayane aadi kaavye aranya kaande ekonavi.mhah sargah
Thus, this is the 19th chapter in Aranya Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana, the First Epic poem of India.
Sriman Moola Rama Vijayate