Kumbhakarna Loses Himself in Rama Before Ravana Calls for Wine and Buffaloes
Lanka Kanda, Doha 63
Doha 63 · Movement 2 of 2
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Kumbhakarna remembers Rama's form and virtues. For one moment the immense body, terrible appetite, family allegiance, and approaching battlefield recede, and the demon becomes absorbed in remembrance.
The pause is brief but complete. Within Ravana's palace, where warning after warning has been rejected, Rama enters through the inward vision of the brother summoned as a weapon.
Then the world of appetite returns. Ravana orders millions of jars of wine and countless buffaloes for Kumbhakarna. Contemplation gives way to preparation for his demonic hunger and the strength expected in war. Yet the order cannot erase the moment before it. Rama's beauty has already occupied the warrior's mind, and the body Ravana feeds for battle will move toward the form the heart has just desired to see.
Ravana fills the hall with wine and flesh, but Rama's remembered form has already entered the hunger he hopes to command.
Read the passage from the Manas
राम रूप गुन सुमिरत मगन भयउ छन एक। रावन मागेउ कोटि घट मद अरु महिष अनेक।।63।।
Remembering Rama's form and virtues, Kumbhakarna became absorbed for a moment. Then Ravana called for millions of jars of wine and countless buffaloes.