The Cry of the Broken Bow Fills Creation
Bala Kanda, Chhand 24
Doha 261 · Movement 2 of 3
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The fracture releases a roar so hard and vast that every world is filled. The sun's horses abandon their course. Elephants guarding the directions trumpet in terror, and the earth rolls beneath the assembly.
Far below, serpent, boar, and cosmic tortoise convulse beneath the shock. Gods, demons, and sages cover their ears, bewildered by a sound too immense for any single realm to contain.
At the centre stand Ram and the two severed reaches of Shiva's bow. The noise that disordered creation becomes a proclamation within Tulsidas: the Kodanda has been broken by Ram. Above panic, thunder, and trembling earth rises the poet's cry of victory. What the kings could not move, the Lord has divided in an unseen instant.
Creation reels beneath the thunder, while one cry rises clear: victory to Shri Ram.
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AI-created devotional illustration · Chhand 24
Full four-line chhand retained; selected present Guru as one muni covering own ears, cosmic agents and other reaction participants offcrop not denied.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 255 · printed pages 253. Reader passage: bala-kanda-chhand-024. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- 1 Terrible hard roar fills worlds; sun horses leave course.
- 2 Directional elephants trumpet; earth trembles; serpent boar tortoise agitated.
- 3 Gods demons munis cover ears with own hands, all bewildered/thinking.
- 4 Rama broke the bow, Shiva bow context, not entity whose bow is bow of Kodanda; Tulsi jayati narration. Printed Hindi local reading all cry victory upon knowing, no unsupported sole celebrant/Tulsi physically onsite.
- No source most-momentous ranking or heaven consent replacing full content.
Artistic choices
- PASS one foreground Guru head two connected ownarms TWO natural ownhands covering OWN TWOEARS fingersup thumbsnearjaw; OPENeyes RIGHT worriedfurrow PARTED lips. Current highasymmetric blackgrey topknot/angularface brown-greybeard burgundycream woodbeads unmarkedforehead retained. Several stylized unnamed background sages also visible with ear-covering gestures, bodies/arms partly occluded/cropped; no exact whole head/limb/identity census or historical naming certificate. Source other gods/demons/cosmic bearers outcrop notdenied.
- Exact faces numerical ages pose/gaze clothes capwearingtime materials ornament/flower counts architecture/source participant census are artist choices. Other participants and cosmic agents outcrop not denied; soft assembly silhouettes no exact identity/head/limb/seat/movement census. Full source retained; historical original hashes/styles guarded, no live corpus correction, no attribution/reuse certificate.
- Guru Vishvamitra already present in assembly and approved identity used to instantiate one of general munis covering ears; he is not separately named in this chhand. Exact individual reaction/gesture artist choice, not exclusive witness or celebrant. No literal Tulsi onsite or source claim naming only Guru as reactor; gods/demons/sunhorses/bearers retained in full source facts.
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
भरे भुवन घोर कठोर रव रबि बाजि तजि मारगु चले। चिक्करहिं दिग्गज डोल महि अहि कोल कूरुम कलमले।। सुर असुर मुनि कर कान दीन्हें सकल बिकल बिचारहीं। कोदंड खंडेउ राम तुलसी जयति बचन उचारही।।
A terrible, thunderous roar filled every world. The horses of the sun bolted from their course. The elephants of the quarters trumpeted in panic. The earth reeled. Serpent, boar, and tortoise convulsed in anguish. Gods, demons, and sages pressed their hands over their ears, all bewildered and shaken to the core. The bow of Kodanda was shattered by Rama. Tulsidas proclaims: "Victory! Victory to Shri Rama!"