सारणेन पुनर्वानरयूथपवर्णनम्

Sāraṇa went on: "O king, as you look on, I will tell you of the troop-leaders who exert themselves for Rāghava and do not care for their lives. He whose long tail is covered with glossy hairs many fathoms long, red, yellow, pale and white, bristling and terrible, which shine when raised like the rays of the sun and drag along the ground behind him, is the monkey named Hara. Behind him come hundreds and thousands of monkeys, holding up trees, eager to storm Laṅkā at once." The opening words, "they do not care for their lives", set the tone of the whole sarga: these troop-leaders are ready to give themselves up. The hairs of Hara's tail, shining like sunbeams when raised and trailing on the ground, are a vivid picture that proves Sāraṇa sees what he describes. His followers are "eager to storm Laṅkā", their aim plain: to scale the rampart and enter the city. This sarga continues the last; Sāraṇa still stands beside Rāvaṇa on the palace pointing out the monkeys. In the previous sarga the monkey commanders were described; in this one the bears and the monkeys of divine birth are given special place. "As you look on" makes Rāvaṇa see for himself and not merely listen. Hara's followers carry trees, for the monkeys' weapons are trees and rocks, not iron.

"These troop-leaders stand ready as servants of the monkey king. Those you see standing like great dark clouds, black as collyrium, true in valour in battle, countless and beyond description, like the far shore of the ocean, who live in the mountains, the countryside and by the rivers, are fearsome bears, O king, and they are advancing on you. In their midst stands one fierce-eyed and terrible to see, surrounded on every side like Parjanya by the rain-clouds, who lives on Ṛkṣavān, best of mountains, and drinks from the Narmadā: he is the lord of all the bears, the troop-leader named Dhūmra. See his younger brother, huge as a mountain, like his brother in looks but greater in valour." The bears are described apart from the monkeys: black in colour and shaped like clouds. "Countless" and "like the far shore of the ocean" mean they are beyond counting. Dhūmra lives on Mount Ṛkṣavān by the Narmadā in central India, near the river's source, and drinking the Narmadā marks his home. Surrounded by bears as the rain-god is by clouds, he is plainly their leader, and "fierce-eyed and terrible to see" stresses his fearsome form. The comparison of the brothers, alike in looks but the younger greater in valour, points ahead to Jāmbavān's importance; he is named in the next verse.

"He is Jāmbavān, chief over the great troop-leaders, calm, obedient to his elders and implacable in battle. In the war of the gods and asuras this wise Jāmbavān gave Śakra great help and won many boons. His many soldiers, of boundless might, climb to the mountain tops and hurl down rocks as big as great clouds; huge themselves, they do not flinch from death. Like rākṣasas, shaggy like piśācas, they roam about. He whom all the monkeys stand and watch, the commander of commanders, furious, leaping and then standing still, is a lord of monkeys who waits upon thousand-eyed Indra, O king; strong with his strength, he is the troop-leader named Dambha." Jāmbavān's character is especially honoured: old, calm and obedient to his elders, yet fierce in battle, the ideal of a hero, gentle in peace and terrible in war. He helped Indra in the war of the gods and asuras and won boons for it, so even the gods revere him. Throughout the Rāmāyaṇa he is the old, wise counsellor; in the Kiṣkindhā Kāṇḍa it was he who urged Hanumān to leap the sea. His soldiers fight by hurling rocks, the bears' way of war, and again their fearlessness is stressed. They are shaggy and terrible, like rākṣasas and piśācas; by comparing them with Rāvaṇa's own kind, Sāraṇa makes him grasp their dreadfulness in a form he knows. Dambha is a worshipper of Indra, so he too is on the side of the gods; his description is brief, but "all the monkeys watch him" shows his influence: he is everyone's example.

"He who touches with his flank, as he walks, a mountain standing a yojana away, and who reaches a yojana high when he rises upright, than whom no four-footed creature has a finer form, is famed as Saṃnādana, grandfather of the monkeys. This wise one once fought Śakra in battle and was not defeated; he is this commander of commanders. He whose valour as he strides forward is like Śakra's was born to the Fire-god of a gandharva maiden in the war of the gods and asuras, to help the dwellers in heaven. Where King Vaiśravaṇa, your brother, lord of the rākṣasas, enjoys the jambū tree, on the king of lordly mountains that many kinnaras frequent and that always gives your brother delight, there this glorious, mighty, excellent monkey takes his pleasure; never boastful in battle, he is the troop-leader named Krathana. Surrounded by a thousand crores of monkeys he stands ready, and he too hopes to crush Laṅkā with his own division." Saṃnādana's size is exaggerated, reaching a yojana high, and his body alone proves his strength. That he fought Indra and was not defeated earns him the honoured title of "grandfather", his age and dignity together, and it reminds Rāvaṇa that one whom even Indra could not defeat stands against him. Krathana's birth is divine, from the Fire-god and a gandharva maiden, which speaks of his fiery energy. He lives on Kailāsa in the realm of Kubera, Rāvaṇa's brother, and Sāraṇa reminds Rāvaṇa that his enemies live in his own brother's land. There is irony here: in the very region where Rāvaṇa once fought, his enemies now live at their ease. "Never boastful" is especially telling: Krathana does not praise himself, the opposite of Rāvaṇa. His thousand crores of followers outnumber those described before, and the refrain "he too hopes to crush Laṅkā" returns, in the manner of the previous sarga.

"He who roams along the Gaṅgā terrifying the leaders of elephant herds, remembering the old enmity between elephants and monkeys, this troop-leader and commander who lives in mountain caves, roars, blocks the way of wild elephants and breaks down trees. Chief of the monkey army, he dwells by the Himālayan river, at Uśīrabīja and on Mandara, best of mountains, and takes his pleasure there like Śakra himself in heaven. A thousand hundred-thousands wait on him, proud of their strength and valour, roaring, strong of arm, and he is the leader of these great-souled monkeys: he is the irresistible troop-leader named Pramāthin, O king. The one you see like a cloud tossed up by the wind, and that furious division of swift monkeys where thick reddish dust is swept up on every side by the wind and whirls round and round, those are the black-faced Golāṅgūlas, terrible and mighty, a hundred hundred-thousands of them. They have seen the bridge built, great king, and now, gathered round the Golāṅgūla troop-leader named Gavākṣa, they roar, eager to crush Laṅkā by their might." Pramāthin's feud with the elephants is an old one: the folk tale tells of ancient enmity between monkeys and elephants, for in the forests elephants break the monkeys' trees. Remembering that feud, he blocks the elephants' way and also tears down trees, a double display of his strength. He lives near the Himālaya, by the Gaṅgā, at Uśīrabīja and on Mandara, so the monkey army has gathered from every land from the Himālaya to the southern sea; "like Śakra in heaven" shows his lordship. His followers are proud of their strength, roaring and strong-armed, and the image of a wind-tossed cloud suggests his speed and restlessness. The Golāṅgūlas are a kind of black-faced monkey, and Gavākṣa is their leader. Dust dominates the picture of their army: as they run, they cover the sky with red dust, proof of their numbers and speed. "Having seen the bridge built" suggests that the mere sight of the bridge has doubled their eagerness, and their hundred hundred-thousands is again a huge number.

"Where the bees swarm and the trees bear fruit in every season, there is a mountain of like colour and radiance round which the sun travels, by whose light the beasts and birds always shine with its own hue, whose slopes the great-souled sages never leave, where the trees grant every wish and are always laden with fruit, and where there are costly honeys. On that lovely golden mountain, O king, best of mountains, takes his pleasure the chief among chief monkeys, the troop-leader named Kesarin. There are sixty thousand lovely golden mountains, and in their midst is that best of mountains, as you, sinless one, are among the rākṣasas. On the farthest mountain live monkeys, some tawny, some white, red-faced and honey-yellow, with sharp teeth and claws for weapons, four-fanged like lions, unapproachable as tigers, all like fire and like blazing venomous serpents, with very long curling tails, like rutting elephants, like great mountains, roaring like great thunderclouds, with round yellow eyes, terrible in gait and in cry. They all stood gazing at Laṅkā as if they were about to crush it. And in their midst stands their mighty lord, who always worships the sun in his longing for victory; he is famed on earth, O king, by the name Śatabali. He too hopes to crush Laṅkā with his own division, bold, strong and heroic, firm in his own manhood." Kesarin is traditionally Hanumān's father, and his home is a golden mountain like Meru, round which the sun travels. That golden mountain is like heaven: trees fruiting in every season, bees, honeys, great sages, and the sun circling it; by its light even the beasts and birds turn golden, the mark of Meru. So Kesarin's home is divine, and he too is divine. The sixty thousand mountains also belong to the description of a heavenly realm. Sāraṇa's "as you are among the rākṣasas" sounds like flattery to please Rāvaṇa, but it means that Kesarin is as supreme among the monkeys as Rāvaṇa is among his kind; by calling Rāvaṇa "sinless" and likening him so, Sāraṇa shows his fear of the king's anger, sweetening the truth with pleasing words. The long string of epithets for Śatabali's troops, their fangs, claws, tails, eyes and cries, makes every part of them terrifying; the poet heaps up the words to heighten the horror. They are still standing, yet their very gaze seems to crush Laṅkā. Śatabali's worship of the sun for victory is the source of his radiance, and "firm in his own manhood" means he relies on his own strength, not on anyone else's.

"To please Rāma, a monkey does not spare his life. Gaja, Gavākṣa, Gavaya, Nala and the monkey Nīla, each of these warriors has ten crores around him. And there are other excellent monkeys from the Vindhya mountains, swift in valour, who cannot be counted, so many are they. All of them, great king, are of great power; all have bodies like great mountains; all are able in an instant to make the earth a waste of shattered and scattered mountains." Sāraṇa's conclusion is short but powerful: all are ready to give their lives for Rāma, and that devotion is their greatest strength. "All" is repeated three times: all alike, all mighty, all able. The five named, Gaja and the rest, were mentioned before and are here briefly recalled, each with ten crores around him. The Vindhya monkeys are beyond number, and in the end Sāraṇa admits that he cannot count them all; that is the essence of his whole report. So in two sargas Sāraṇa sets the whole monkey army before Rāvaṇa, and Rāvaṇa's response comes in the next.