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Sundara Kānda: Hanuman's Odyssey

Whereas Mahabharata's Bhagvad-Gita is taken as a philosophical guide, Ramayana's Sundara Kãnda is sought for spiritual solace; many believe that reading it or hearing it recited would remove all hurdles and usher in good tidings! Miracles apart, it's in the nature of this great epic to inculcate fortitude and generate hope in man for it’s a depiction of how Hanuman goes about his errand against all odds. Besides, it portrays how Seetha, on the verge of self-immolation, overcomes despair to see life in a new light? With rhythm of its verse and the flow of the narrative this sloka to sloka transcreation of the canto beautiful of Valmiki's adi kavya - the foremost poetical composition in the world, Hanuman's Odyssey that paves the way for Rama to rescue his kidnapped wife is bound to charm the readers and listeners alike. Interestingly, as the following verse illustrates, this epic was the forerunner of the magic realism of our times – “Gripped she then him by shadow / Cast which Hanuman coast to coast, Recalled he in dismay then / What Sugreev said at outset / That one fiend had aptitude / To grip its prey by mere shadow.” On a personal note, my paternal grandfather, Bulusu Thimmaiah-garu, like many in his time, was a life-long practitioner of Sundara Kãnda parayana (the epic’s daily recital in part or full), whose spirituality could have providentially guided me in this, rather an effortless, trans-creative endeavour.

BS_Murthy · Fantasy
Not enough ratings
70 Chs

Deadline to Death

Hurt as he by Seetha's taunts

Spoke thus Ravan in harsh tone.

Wonder the way women all tend

Tends as enamoured man of them,

As though his stock fell so low

Tend they all to belittle him.

If not for my love for thee

Rein in how could my anger!

It's but fondness for thee mine

Makes me spare the day for thee.

But for the fact thou won me

Head thine would have rolled by now.

Know the way thee rubbished me

Should've earned thee third degree.

Afflicted though by his lust

Couldn't take Ravan Seetha's snub.

Months two more is all I give

For thee to choose death or me.

Fail if thou to bed with me

Make thy flesh then my breakfast.

Feared all angels having heard

Threat that Ravan's to Seetha.

Concern theirs for Seetha then

Made them signal her welfare.

Assured thus of angelic grace

Spoketh Seetha thus assured:

To put the right into thy head

Sad O Ravan thee have none.

Knowing that I'm Rama's wife

Thinks fit none to day-dream me.

For the sin of snaring me

Escape there none thee from death.

Bid in thine to kidnap me

If not for thy fear of Ram

Why thee contrived his absence?

What to make of thy valour

Boast thou as from safe distance

From my Lord thou fear to face?

Ogle as thee Rama's wife

Wonder how thou turned not blind?

Abused as thou my Lord Ram

How come thou not turned yet dumb!

Given if Rama me the nod

Power I have to burn thee now.

It's no joke to dupe my man

Ruse it's but of thine own fate

Helped thee thus to hijack me

So that my Lord sees thy end.

For that cowardly act of thine

Boasts of thine all sound hollow.

Enraged by her words Ravan

Stared at her in seething rage.

Shook he as in burning wrath

Stilted sideways his gold crown.

Turned as his, eyes blood red

Peeled off sandal paste on him.

Turned to lumps of coal at once

Diamonds of his waist-band then.

On his arms with gold epaulets

Hair his stood all in straight lines.

Ear-rings his of bright corals

Matched they both the rising sun.

In his rage did Ravan seem

Like the funeral pyre on fire.

Hissed then Ravan in anger

Spoke to her thus in despair.

But for lack of common sense

How can someone fall for Ram!

Looks like I have lost patience

Time I end thy rein on life.

Having spoken to Ram's wife

Addressed Ravan his own folk.

Know I lost my heart to her

Kept I whom as thy captive.

For the possession of this lass

Passion mine is ever on raise.

Until she takes me in arms

I can't have the peace of mind.

If she were to turn my queen

Make her see the life in store.

Pander her to my embrace

Pamper would I her in bed.

Fails if she to fall in line

Torture all the way to hell.

Came at that an ardent dame

Spoke she then in passion thus:

Make me thine in heat Ravan

What thou get from this cold fish?

Brahma seems to have deprived

Her the chance to bed with thee.

Requites not if lass his love

Won't she turn a pain in neck?

Mounts if man a dame in want

Takes she would him to his cum,

Having said that lass on heat

Forced then Ravan fence across.

Turned as ground their makeshift bed

Seemed as though the earth had quaked.

Came as he back from that jaunt

Led Ravan his women all home.

Went as he thus to Pushpak

Left was Seetha in panic.