सारणेन वानरयूथपानां परिचयः

When he heard the true and fearless words Sāraṇa had spoken, King Rāvaṇa answered him: "Even if gods, gandharvas and dānavas were to attack me, I would not give up Sītā, not for fear of all the worlds. But you, gentle one, badly frightened and roughly handled by the monkeys, think it good to hand Sītā back this very day. What enemy is there who could conquer me in battle?" Having spoken these harsh words, the glorious lord of the rākṣasas climbed a palace white as snow and as tall as many palm trees, wanting to see for himself. Beside himself with anger, and with the two spies at his side, he looked out over the sea, the mountains and the forests and saw the land completely filled with monkeys, a boundless, overwhelming and mighty army. Rāvaṇa reacts as before: he takes a truthful envoy for a coward and scorns him. By arguing "you were beaten, so you are afraid" he dismisses the value of the advice, the usual fault of the proud. Yet he wants to see for himself, for doubt lies within him after all. From the palace, as tall as many palm trees, everything can be seen, and its snowy whiteness shows its splendour. "Beside himself with anger" shows how unsteady his mind is. The poet himself vouches that Sāraṇa's words were "true and fearless", so the reader knows Rāvaṇa's scorn is unjust. He calls Sāraṇa "gentle one" and yet reproaches him for cowardice, a mixed tone that shows both the king's anger and his restraint. "What enemy could conquer me?" proclaims his confidence, but climbing the palace betrays his inner doubt: what he dismisses in words he wants to test with his own eyes. The sight only increases his fear, for "boundless, overwhelming" is how the army looks to him. He takes the two spies with him because they have seen it with their own eyes and he means to question them.

Looking at it, King Rāvaṇa questioned Sāraṇa: "Which of these monkeys are the chiefs, which are the heroes, which the mightiest? Which of them, full of great energy, lead the advance on every side? To whom does Sugrīva listen? Who are the commanders of commanders? Tell me everything, Sāraṇa: what powers do these monkeys have?" At the questioning of the lord of the rākṣasas, Sāraṇa, who knew the leaders, began to describe the chief forest-dwellers there. Rāvaṇa's questions echo those he put to Śārdūla and Śuka, but now he asks while looking with his own eyes. "To whom does Sugrīva listen?" is a shrewd question: knowing who advises a king helps in finding the enemy's weak points. Sāraṇa "knew the leaders": in a short time he had recognised them all, which shows his skill as a spy. Standing now beside Rāvaṇa, he describes the distant monkeys as if pointing them out with his finger, "this one", "he who", showing that he sees them before him. Rāvaṇa's repeated "which?" shows his eagerness and haste; he wants to know each leader one by one, so that opponents can be chosen to face them.

Sāraṇa said: "That monkey who stands roaring, facing Laṅkā, surrounded by a hundred thousand troop-leaders, whose great roar makes all Laṅkā resound, its ramparts and gateways, its hills, woods and groves, is the hero who stands at the head of the army of great-souled Sugrīva, lord of all the monkeys, the troop-leader named Nīla. The mighty one who stretches out his arms and paces the earth on his feet, who faces Laṅkā and yawns again and again in anger, who is like a mountain peak and the colour of lotus filaments, who lashes his tail again and again in great fury so that the ten quarters resound with the sound of it, he is the crown prince Aṅgada, consecrated by Sugrīva, king of the monkeys, and he challenges you to battle. He is a son like Vālin, always dear to Sugrīva, and he exerts himself for Rāghava as Varuṇa does for Śakra. It was entirely his plan by which swift Hanumān, who seeks Rāghava's good, found Janaka's daughter. This mighty one has taken many troops of monkey chiefs and advances with his own division to crush you. Behind Vālin's son, with a great army around him, stands the hero Nala, the maker of the bridge, ready for battle." In Sāraṇa's account each leader's body, bearing, strength and past deeds are told. Nīla the commander stands in front, and his roar alone makes Laṅkā tremble; tradition makes him the son of Agni, and the echo of Laṅkā at his roar shows his fiery energy. Aṅgada is drawn at length: his yawning and the lashing of his tail reveal his eagerness for battle, and stretching out his arms as he paces is the posture of one ready to fight. "It was his plan by which Hanumān found Sītā" shows that Aṅgada had led the search, and in crediting him Sāraṇa shows how the monkeys share their glory. As Varuṇa helped Indra in the war of the gods and asuras, so Aṅgada helps Rāma, suggesting that the monkeys are like gods. "Ever dear to Sugrīva" implies that the old enmity between Aṅgada and his uncle is at rest. "He challenges you to battle": through Sāraṇa's mouth Aṅgada's challenge reaches Rāvaṇa, the monkeys calling him to fight even from afar. Sāraṇa introduces Nala briefly, for "maker of the bridge" says all that is needed; his fame has already spread everywhere.

"Those bulls among monkeys who stiffen their limbs, snarl and roar, rise and stretch themselves in anger, terrible, fierce, of fierce valour and hard to withstand, eight hundred thousand and ten thousand crores of heroes who live in the sandal forests, they follow him, and he too hopes to crush Laṅkā with his own division. Śveta, silver in colour, restless and terrible in valour, intelligent, heroic and famed in the three worlds, comes quickly to Sugrīva and goes back again, dividing the monkey army and putting heart into its divisions. He who used to roam the lovely mountain Saṃrocana on the bank of the Gomatī, covered with many trees, and ruled there, is the troop-leader named Kumuda. He who joyfully draws hundreds of thousands after him, whose tail is covered with very long hairs, red, yellow, pale and white, bristling and terrible to see, undaunted and fierce, is a monkey who longs for battle, and he too hopes to crush Laṅkā with his own division." The phrase "he too hopes to crush Laṅkā with his own division" returns again and again through the sarga: every leader thinks he alone could take Laṅkā, and the repetition piles fear into Rāvaṇa's mind. The monkeys' movements before battle are vividly drawn: stiffening their bodies, snarling, roaring and stretching. The dwellers of the sandal forests are the monkeys of Mount Malaya in the south, and their number, ten thousand crores, is exaggerated to strike terror into Rāvaṇa. Śveta's task is to keep the army in order: intelligent and skilled as a messenger, he carries Sugrīva's orders everywhere, links the divisions and encourages them, and his silver colour matches his name, "white". Kumuda's mountain is on the Gomatī in the north, so the monkey army has gathered from south and north alike. The many-coloured hairs of his tail show his fearsome look and make him known even from afar, and "undaunted" is a quality shared by all the monkeys.

"He who stands there like a lion, tawny, with a long mane, silent, gazing at Laṅkā as if to burn it with his eyes, who always dwells, O king, on the Vindhya, on Kṛṣṇagiri, on Sahya and on Mount Sudarśana, is the troop-leader named Rambha. A hundred hundred-thousands and thirty more bulls among monkeys, terrible, fierce and of fierce valour, surround him as he goes and follow him to crush Laṅkā with their might. He who pricks up his ears and yawns again and again, who does not shrink from death and does not run back to the army, who trembles with rage and keeps looking askance, see how he lashes his tail, this mighty one is snarling, very swift and fearless, O king, who always lives on the lovely Sālveya mountain, is the troop-leader named Śarabha. All the strong troop-leaders under him, called the Vihāras, number four million, O king." Rambha's stillness is the more frightening: he does not roar but silently seems to burn the city with his gaze. Śarabha, by contrast, is restless, pricking his ears, yawning, trembling, glancing sideways, lashing his tail, like a lion before it springs; and the contrast between the two shows Sāraṇa's skill as a describer. Even their gaze reveals their nature, Rambha's fixed and silent, Śarabha's darting sideways. Rambha's tawny colour and long mane complete his likeness to a lion, and his four mountains, the Vindhya, Kṛṣṇagiri, Sahya and Sudarśana, are ranges of central and southern India; his followers are past counting. Śarabha's fearlessness is stressed, "he does not shrink from death", and not running back to the army shows his independence: he needs no army's shelter. His name fits him, for the śarabha is a fabled beast stronger even than a lion, and his followers form a band of their own called the Vihāras. Sāraṇa's repeated "O king" shows both respect and fear.

"He who stands covering the sky like a great cloud, in the midst of the monkey heroes like Vāsava among the gods, whose great roar, the roar of monkey chiefs longing for battle, is heard like the din of kettledrums, who dwells on the peerless mountain Pāriyātra, is the troop-leader named Panasa, always unconquerable in battle. Fifty hundred-thousands of troop-leaders wait on him, the best of troop-leaders, each with his own troop. He who stands there like Mount Dardura, adorning that terrible, leaping army drawn up on the shore as if it were a second ocean, is the troop-leader named Vinata, who roams drinking the waters of the Veṇā, best of rivers; his army is six million monkeys. The monkey named Krodhana challenges you to battle; his troops are valiant and strong, each in its own division. The mighty one whose body is the colour of red ochre, who, proud of his strength, always looks down on all the other monkeys, is Gavaya, and he advances on you in anger. Seven million wait on him, and he too hopes to crush Laṅkā with his own division. These are heroes hard to withstand, and their number cannot be told; they are troop-leaders and the best of troop-leaders, each with his own troops." In Sāraṇa's account each leader is known by his mountain or his river, Pāriyātra, the Veṇā, Saṃrocana, Sālveya, the Vindhya, so that the monkey army seems to represent the whole land of India, and the list of places makes the account more convincing. The numbers are exaggerated, hundreds of thousands and crores, because Sāraṇa's aim is to frighten Rāvaṇa, and at the end, "their number cannot be told", he admits that even his own count is incomplete. Panasa's roar is likened to kettledrums: in the previous sarga the drums of Laṅkā were described, and now the monkeys' roar rivals them. Vinata's army "like a second ocean" echoes Śārdūla's earlier words. Gavaya is proud and scorns all the other monkeys, for the poet shows that the monkey army too has its differences of temper; they are not all alike, and each has his own character. Krodhana's very name, "the wrathful", tells his nature. The repeated "each with his own troops" shows how well ordered the army is. At the end Sāraṇa praises no single hero but their combined strength, and that is his last message for Rāvaṇa.