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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

Itching for Fight

None there left to give battle

Prahastha's son as not yet reached

Thought of future course Hanuman.

Thought he fit to despoil

Hill like palace found therein

Used for funeral pyres to lay.

Up the golden roof of it

Hop step and jump he went.

Perched on top of that terrace

Seemed he rivalled sun in skies.

Saw all those him stand up there

Wondered how he reached those heights.

Grew he so tall that he touched

Skyscape that was filled with clouds.

Slapped afresh he arms his strong

Sound that made the guards all there

Lose their consciousness en masse.

Prayed he Ram 'n Lakshman too

Invoked he Lord Sugreev's grace.

Gaped as all those guards at him

Addressed Hanuman them all thus:

Come may Ravans in thousands

Won't I mincemeat make them all.

Over thy dead bodies now

Go and I see Rama's spouse.

So to unnerve them further

Roared he like thunderbolt.

Provoked by the daring of

Intruder who challenged them,

Rose to one man guards all there

So to subdue who snubbed them.

Arrayed Ravan's guards well built

Aimed they allied weapons at him.

Around the vanar thus they trapped

Whirlpool like look had those guards.

Enraged by their act Hanuman

Pulled he pillar of huge girth

Of that structure of sky high.

Like a rod he twirled it long

To ward off weapons they threw at him.

Sparks of friction emanated then

Burnt that place all far and wide.

Spoke thus Hanuman to those few

Survived then his great onslaught.

Force ours realize hath thousands

Match who would me bone to bone.

Know they all to smash thy heads

Land would soon on Lankan shores.

Know a weakling of vanar

Equals elephants ten no less.

Prowess elite force ours hath

Such is that thou can't figure out.

Witness how all vanars would

Come to kill thee with their nails.

It's thy ill fate that thy Lord

Snaring Seetha to thy land

Invited Ram's wrath on thee

Hapless subjects of his State.

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