Chapter 44 - The Death of Jambumalin

Under the order of the King of the Titans, the valiant son of Prahasta, Jambumalin of large teeth, went out bearing his bow. Wearing garlands and red attire with a crown and brilliant ear-rings, that invincible warrior of immense stature, rolling his eyes ferociously drew his great bow, furnished with shining arrows, equal to Indra’s, with a noise like thunder. Then the entire sky and the four quarters at once re-echoed to the sound of the stretching of that bow.

Beholding him advance in a chariot yoked to asses, Hanuman, endowed with great vigour, emitted cries of exultation. Thereat the highly powerful Jambumalin riddled him with whetted shafts, piercing the face of that leader of monkeys with a crescent-shaped arrow, his head with one furnished with plumes and his arms with ten having iron tips. Struck by those arrows, his coppery countenance shone like an autumn cloud lit by the rays of the sun and his ruddy face, stained with vermilion, resembled a red lotus in the sky, sprinkled with drops of gold.

Wounded by those shafts, that mighty monkey was enraged and seeing a great rock of vast size lying near, he raised it up and hurled it against his adversary with violence, who countered it with ten of his shafts. Perceiving this feat brought to nought, Hanuman, in fury, tore up a mighty Sala tree and began to whirl it in the air, whereupon the highly powerful Jambumalin, seeing that great monkey spinning the Sala tree, let loose innumerable shafts, severing it with four arrows and piercing the arms of that monkey with five others, his belly with a further dart, thereafter piercing him between the breasts with ten more.

His body, covered with darts, a prey to violent anger, Hanuman, seizing a club, spun it with extreme velocity, allowing it to fall on the huge chest of his adversary, whereupon neither his head, arms, thighs, bow, his chariot, his steeds nor arrows could be distinguished, and that mighty car warrior, Jambumalin, dropped to the earth, like an oak that has been felled, his limbs and ornaments crushed.

Then Ravana, hearing that Jambumalin had been slain, as also the powerful Kinkaras, was overcome with wrath. Rolling his eyes inflamed with fury, that Lord of the Titans instantly issued a command that the sons of his ministers, who were endowed with exceeding valour and strength, should go forth to the attack.