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)