SECTION XXXIX.
Having passed the night in Suvela, the heroic monkey-leaders surveyed woods and forests in Lankā. And seeing those extensive (woods and forests), mild, and charming, and beautiful to behold, they were seized with wonderment. Abounding in champakas, açokas, vakulas, çālas, and palms; covered with tamālas and panaças,—and environed all around with trees,—and surrounded with Hintālas, Aryunas, blossoming Saptaparnas, Tilakas, Karnikāras, and Pātalas,—trees with flowering tops, en tert wined with creepers,—Lankā looked exceedingly lovely, with various sights,—resembling the Amarāvati herself of Indra. And trees there, furnished with variegated flowers having tender rosy leaves,—and blue lawns, and rows of woods; and bearing odourous and charming blossoms and fruits,—looked like men adorned with ornaments. And there a delightful and pleasant wood resembling Chaitraratha, and like unto Nandana itself—having all the seasons present,—appeared beauteous to the view, with black bees all around. And it had Dātyuhas, and Koyasthivas, and peacocks dancing; and the strains of the coels were heard at the woodland rills. And the heroic and exhilarated monkeys, capable of wearing forms at pleasure, entered those woods and groves frequented by maddened birds and ranged by Bhramaras,—tracts overflowing with the lays of coels, and ringing with the voices of songsters,—resonant with the notes of Bhramaras—sovereigns of their species—and eloquent with the cries of ospreys. And as the exceedingly energetic monkeys entered, there blew upon them the breeze—like unto life—redolent of perfume obtained from contact with the blossoms. And others of the leaders among the heroic monkeys, coming out from the bands, ordered by Sugriva, made in the direction of Lankā crowned with ensigns. And, terrifying the fowls and dispiriting beasts and birds and shaking Lankā with their roars, those foremost monkeys set up shouts. And they, endowed with great impetuosity, went on, oppressing the earth with their battle-array; and clouds of dust suddenly arose from the the march of the soldiery. And bears, and lions, and buffaloes, and elephants, and deer, and birds, overwhelmed with affright, made for the ten cardinal points. The graceful and lovely summit of Trikuta was entire, elevated, sky-piercing, of golden splendour, measuring an hundred yojanas, clear-shining, level, inaccessible even to fowls, and incapable of being ascended even in thought—not to say of actual ascension by people. Lankā, ruled by Rāvana, was situated on its¹⁰⁰ top,—ten yojanas in width and twenty in length. And that city was graced with lofty ornamented gateways resembling pale clouds, and golden and silvern walls; and Lankā was adorned with palaces and piles; like the sky¹⁰¹ graced with clouds on the approach of the rainy season. And that palace, which was adorned with thousands of pillars, and which, as if piercing the heavens, looked like a peak of Kailāça—was the residence of the Sovereign of the Rākshasas—the ornament of the city, (ever guarded by full hundreds of Rākshasas). And Lakshmana’s auspicious and puissant elder brother, beholding that flourishing and wealthy city resembling the celestial regions,—charming to the mind, made of gold, graced with mountains, and decked out with mountains containing various metals,—resonant with the notes of various birds; abounding in various beasts,—furnished with various kinds of flowers,—and inhabited by various orders of Rākshasas,—was struck with astonishment. And Rāma, surrounded by his mighty forces, saw that palace, filled with diverse kinds of gems, adorned with rows of edifices, and having huge engines and gateways.
¹⁰⁰ Trikuta’s.—T.
¹⁰¹ Madhyamam Vaishnavam padam—the middle foot of Vishnu. When Vishnu in his Dwarf-form took the conceit out of Vāli, the renowned Asura king,—he covered the earth with one pace, the sky with another and heaven with the last.—T.