Seeing the distress of his troops, Lakshman slung his quiver by his side, took his bow in his hand and sallied forth in a fury, after bowing his head at Râma’s feet.
Chaupâi
“Ah! vile wretch, you kill bears and monkeys; but now look at me, I am your death.” “I have been searching for you, you murderer of my son, and today I will gladden my soul by your destruction.” Thus he cried and let fly a storm of arrows; but Lakshman shivered them all into a hundred pieces. Then Râvan hurled upon him myriads of missiles, but he warded them off as though they had been tiny sesamum seeds, and in turn assailed him with his own shafts, smashing his chariot and killing his charioteer. Each of his ten heads he transfixed with a hundred arrows, which seemed like serpents boring their way into the peaks of a mountain. With a hundred arrows more he struck him full in the breast: he fell senseless to the ground. When the swoon had passed off, he rose again in his strength and let fly the bolt given him by Brahma.
Chhand 8
The mighty bolt, the gift of Brahma, smote the incarnate Seshnâg full in the breast; the hero fell fainting; the Ten-headed essayed to lift his body, but his immeasurable bulk stirred not. In his folly Râvan thought to carry him off, not knowing him to be the lord of the three spheres, who supports on one of his heads the whole created universe, as though it were a mere grain of sand.
Chaupâi
“Ah! vile wretch, you kill bears and monkeys; but now look at me, I am your death.” “I have been searching for you, you murderer of my son, and today I will gladden my soul by your destruction.” Thus he cried and let fly a storm of arrows; but Lakshman shivered them all into a hundred pieces. Then Râvan hurled upon him myriads of missiles, but he warded them off as though they had been tiny sesamum seeds, and in turn assailed him with his own shafts, smashing his chariot and killing his charioteer. Each of his ten heads he transfixed with a hundred arrows, which seemed like serpents boring their way into the peaks of a mountain. With a hundred arrows more he struck him full in the breast: he fell senseless to the ground. When the swoon had passed off, he rose again in his strength and let fly the bolt given him by Brahma.
Chhand 8
The mighty bolt, the gift of Brahma, smote the incarnate Seshnâg full in the breast; the hero fell fainting; the Ten-headed essayed to lift his body, but his immeasurable bulk stirred not. In his folly Râvan thought to carry him off, not knowing him to be the lord of the three spheres, who supports on one of his heads the whole created universe, as though it were a mere grain of sand.