Chapter 21 — Uttara Kanda, Sarga 21

Valmiki Ramayana — Uttara Kanda

Verse 21.20

तमेव चाभ्यधावन्त शूलवर्दशाननम्। ततः शोणितदिग्धाङ्गः प्रहारैर्जर्जरीकृतः। फुल्लाशोक इवाभाति पुष्पके राक्षसाधिपः॥

tameva cābhyadhāvanta śūlavardaśānanam| tataḥ śoṇitadigdhāṅgaḥ prahārairjarjarīkṛtaḥ| phullāśoka ivābhāti puṣpake rākṣasādhipaḥ||

English Meaning

And then pierced through and through by those weapons, with his person covered with blood, the Rākṣasa king appeared like a flowering Kinśuka in Pușpaka. * *This simile is peculiarly appropriate and beautiful. Puspaka, the name of Ravana's car, means composed of flowers; and this signification shining one arms. a askance, as it were, over the direct sense of the sentence, heightens the delight the reader feels on imagining the principal figure. "Rāvana seated in Puspaka, covered with blood, looked likeblossoming Kinsuka.'

M.N. Dutt (1891–94, public domain)