Ravana Boasts before His Sister and Lies Sleepless through the Night
Aranya Kanda, Doha 22ख
Doha 22ख · Movement 2 of 2
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Ravana consoles Shurpanakha before the court. His many assurances rise from the old language of his power. He speaks of strength in one form after another, giving his sister and his watching counselors the image of a king for whom no wound can remain unanswered.
Then he leaves the assembly and returns to his palace. The noise of counsel, lamentation, and royal boasting closes behind him. In the private chambers, the certainty of his public words no longer protects him. Thought takes hold of the ten headed lord and will not loosen its grasp.
Night deepens over Lanka, but sleep does not come. The conqueror lies awake beneath the splendor of his own palace, circling the impossible report that Khara and Dushana have fallen. His sister has been disfigured. A solitary prince has erased an army. The proud answers spoken in daylight leave Ravana alone with a question that keeps every eye within his ten heads awake.
Lanka sleeps beneath its golden roofs, but worry keeps the ten headed king awake.
Read the passage from the Manas
सुपनखहि समुझाइ करि बल बोलेसि बहु भाँति। गयउ भवन अति सोचबस नीद परइ नहिं राति।।22।।
After consoling Shurpanakha, Ravana boasted of his might in many ways. But consumed with worry, he returned to his palace, and all through the night no sleep would come.