The Sunlike Arrows Pierce a Sky of Blood Streaming Rahus
Lanka Kanda, Chhand 17
Doha 92 · Movement 2 of 3
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Ravana's severed heads race across the sky like numberless Rahus and Ketus. Blood streams behind them through the celestial path, turning the heavens above the duel into a moving field of eclipse.
Raghuvira's fierce arrows strike so relentlessly that the heads cannot descend to earth. One shaft after another pierces whole clusters and keeps them aloft within the force of the battle.
The vision becomes cosmic. Rama's arrows appear like rays sent out by a wrathful sun to pierce moonlike orbs wherever they gather. Darkness attempts to multiply across the sky, but light multiplies with it and passes through every form. The heads may renew below and crowd the heavens above, yet none escapes the sun force moving from Rama's bow. Even the false eclipsers are themselves held inside his radiance.
Across a sky crowded by eclipses, Rama's arrows travel as rays no darkness can swallow.
Read the passage from the Manas
जनु राहु केतु अनेक नभ पथ स्त्रवत सोनित धावहीं। रघुबीर तीर प्रचंड लागहिं भूमि गिरन न पावहीं।। एक एक सर सिर निकर छेदे नभ उड़त इमि सोहहीं। जनु कोपि दिनकर कर निकर जहँ तहँ बिधुंतुद पोहहीं।।
Like countless Rahu and Ketu demons streaming blood across the sky's pathway, Raghuvira's fierce arrows strike so powerfully that the severed heads cannot fall to earth. Each arrow cuts through clusters of heads flying through the heavens in such splendor, as if the wrathful sun had sent forth its rays to pierce the bright orbs of the moon.