Lanka Kaanda
169 - Angada's departure for Lanka and dialogue between Angada and Ravana in the latter's court
Chaupais
Description
"Fool, with the help of monkeys your master has bridged the ocean; is this what you call valour? There are many birds which fly across the ocean; yet listen, O monkey, they are no heroes all. Now each of my arms is a veritable ocean, brimming over with a flood of strength, beneath which many a valiant god and man has been drowned. What hero is there, who will cross these twenty unfathomable and boundless oceans? I made the guardians of the eight quarters do menial service to me; while you, O wretch, glorify an earthly prince before me ! If your lord, whose virtues you recount again and again, is valiant in battle, why does he send an ambassador to me? Is he not ashamed to make terms with his enemy? Look at my arms, which lifted and violently shook Mount Kailasa, and then, foolish monkey, extol your master, if you like