Monkey Army Assembles and Marches to the Ocean

Rama was seated with Sugriva, and on Sugriva's instructions, the foremost among the monkeys began to assemble. They came from every direction. Sushena, Vali's father-in-law, arrived surrounded by one thousand crores of swift monkeys. Gaja and Gavaya, the immensely valorous Indras among monkeys, each appeared separately with one crore of their own. Gavaksha was terrible to look at and had the tail of a cow; he brought sixty thousand crore. Gandhamadana, who lived in the mountain of the same name, brought one thousand crore of awesome monkeys. Panasa, intelligent and immensely strong, brought ten, twelve, and thirty-five crore. Dadhimukha, the brave and aged monkey, brought a great army of monkeys awesome in energy. Jambavan brought a hundred thousand crore of bears — dark, terrible in their deeds, their foreheads lined. There were many other leaders of herds of monkeys. Innumerable numbers assembled for the sake of Rama. They roared like lions. Their complexion was that of shirisha blossoms. As they ran around, a tumultuous sound was heard. Some were like the peaks of mountains. Others were like buffaloes. Some were like clouds in autumn. Others had faces that were like vermilion. The monkeys jumped up and fell down. They leapt up and raised dust. Monkeys arrived from all the directions. The large army of monkeys was like the ocean when it is full. On Sugriva's instructions, they set up their residences there. When all the Indras among monkeys had assembled from all the directions, when the lunar day was auspicious and so was the nakshatra (constellation), the illustrious Raghava marched out with Sugriva at the appointed hour. As if to shatter the world, the army was arranged in battle formations. Hanuman, the son of the wind-god, was in the front of the army. Soumitri, who was without any fear, protected the rear. The two Raghavas, with guards for the arms and the fingers, and surrounded by those foremost among monkeys, looked like the sun and the moon amidst the planets. That army of monkeys was armed with shala and tala trees and rocks as weapons. It looked like an extensive field of rice at the time of sunrise. Protected by Nala, Nila, Angada, Kratha, Mainda, and Dvivida, the extremely large army marched for the sake of accomplishing Raghava's objective. Without any obstructions, it duly passed through extensive areas with a lot of roots and fruit, with an abundance of honey and meat and full of pure water, and camped on the ridges of mountains. Then that army of monkeys arrived at the salty ocean. That force, with its many pennants, looked like a second ocean. It went to the forest along the shore and began to reside there.