THE RÁMÁYAN OF VÁLMÍKI, VOL. III - Gujarat Knowledge Centre

Canto XXX. THE RAM^YAN. 137
Whose mortal stroke no life-miglit brook :
Of peerless might, it bore the name
Of Brahm5,'s staff, and glowed with flame
Lord Indra, ruler of the skies.
Himself had given the glorious prize.
His bow the virtuous hero drew,
And at the fiend the arrow flew.
Hissing and roaring like the blast
Of tempest through the air it passed,
And fixed, by RSma's vigour sped.
In the foe's breast its pointed head.
Then fell the fiend : the quenchless flame
Burnt furious in his wounded frame.
So burnt by Rudra Andhak ' fell
In Svet^ranya's silvery dell
So Namuchi and Vritra' died
By steaming bolts that tamed their pride:
So Bala ''
fell by lightning sent
By Him who rules the firmament.
Then all the Gods in close array
With the bright hosts who sing and play,
Filled full of rapture and amaze,
Sang liymns of joy in llama's praise.
Beat their celestial drums and shed
Rain of sweet flowers upon his head.
For three short hours had scarcely flown,
And by his pointed shafts o'erthown
The twice seven thousand fiends, whose will
Could chaffge their shapes, in death were still,
' A demon, son of Kasyap and Diti, slain by Rudra or Siva when he
attempted to carry off the tree of Paradise.
' Namuchi and Viitra were two demons slain by India. Vritia per-
sonifies drought, the enemy of Indra, who imprisons the raiu iu the
cloud.
^ Another demon slain by Indra.
J