Ravana Raises Kailasa and His Severed Heads Before the Court
Lanka Kanda, Chaupai 25
Doha 25 · Movement 1 of 2
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Ravana answers humiliation by summoning the largest memories of his strength. Kailasa itself knew the weight of his arms when he shook the mountain. Shiva knew the severity of his worship when the king severed his own heads and offered them like flowers before the sacred fire.
The guardians of the directions knew those arms, and the mighty elephants supporting the quarters struck his chest until their tusks snapped like radishes. Beneath the step of the enraged conqueror, Ravana says, the earth reeled like a small boat caught under the movement of a maddened elephant.
Mountain, fire, elephants, and trembling world crowd into the royal hall. Ravana builds a second throne from remembered ordeals, as though former power can answer Angada's present message. The images are immense, but every one points backward. Before him stands an envoy asking whether he will turn toward Rama now, and the king replies only with monuments to himself.
Ravana lifts the whole past above his heads because he cannot bear the single path of surrender before him.
Read the passage from the Manas
सुनु सठ सोइ रावन बलसीला। हरगिरि जान जासु भुज लीला।। जान उमापति जासु सुराई। पूजेउँ जेहि सिर सुमन चढ़ाई।। सिर सरोज निज करन्हि उतारी। पूजेउँ अमित बार त्रिपुरारी।। भुज बिक्रम जानहिं दिगपाला। सठ अजहूँ जिन्ह कें उर साला।। जानहिं दिग्गज उर कठिनाई। जब जब भिरउँ जाइ बरिआई।। जिन्ह के दसन कराल न फूटे। उर लागत मूलक इव टूटे।। जासु चलत डोलति इमि धरनी। चढ़त मत्त गज जिमि लघु तरनी।। सोइ रावन जग बिदित प्रतापी। सुनेहि न श्रवन अलीक प्रलापी।।
'Listen, fool. That same Ravana is mighty in strength, whose arms' play Kailasa, the mountain of Shiva, well knows.' 'The Lord of Uma knows whose valor this is. With flowers I worshipped Him, offering them upon His head.' 'With my own hands I plucked off my lotus-like heads and worshipped the Destroyer of Tripura countless times.' 'The guardians of the directions know my arms' might. They are fools whose hearts still ache from it today.' 'The elephants of the quarters know the hardness of my chest, each time I went and fought with them by force.' 'Their terrible tusks did not break of themselves. Striking my chest, they snapped like radishes.' 'At whose tread the earth shakes, as a small boat rocks when a maddened elephant climbs aboard.' 'That same Ravana, whose prowess is famed throughout the world. Do not listen to false babbling, O prattler.'