181. Undaunted Southward Party was disheartened.

           Let us now go and see what the party sent to south is doing.
            The entire task force headed by the valiant Angada assisted by equally powerful and valiant vanaras like Hanuman started, with all earnestness and enthusiasm to search the places indicated by their king. They did not spare even a remote place. They systematically searched the caves and forests of the Vindhya Mountains, mountaintops, all hard to penetrate places, rivers and lakes, and in stands of trees with beamy trees. They also tried at diverse mountains, forests and trees. Unfortunately they were not in luck. They did not go to any hotel, motel or lodge for a sojourn  for rest at nights nor did they go to any restaurant, café, bistro, cafeteria, trattoria, tearoom or eatery for grub. The hapless vanaras conducted their search by feeding themselves upon unalike fruits and tubers and sojourning here and there. 
    They did not spare even inscrutable, incomprehensible, mysterious and enigmatic places, deeply caved, deeply forested and dry places with little amount of water and still less of people, a void and an impenetrable ones with a ghastly look. They felt highly tormented when their careful, conscientious, painstaking, efficient, meticulous, exhaustive, scrupulous and assiduous search was not fruitful. Nevertheless they continued their search with determination. 

          In the manner stated about the undaunted vanaras continued their search. During the course of their search, they entered a certain province where the trees were infertile for fruiting, destitute of leaves and flowers, the brooks were dry. And they could not locate even tubers. There were no buffalos, no elephants, no other animals, no  birds. They did not even see any creature crawling on the ground.
         There they could not find any useful trees or herbal plants or climbing plants on trees or creeping plants on earth. Lotus-lakes which will normally be pleasing for sight have no soft leaves, nor bloomed lotuses on their creepers, and even honeybees were discarding them as they were devoid of any fragrance. 

         This was due to the curse of the maharishi named Kandu. He lost his son, a ten-year-old boy in that forest. The maharishi became angry with that forest and cursed that great forest in it entirety to become an uninhabitable and impermeable one to be abandoned by birds, animals etc.

       But our heroic vanaras, despite such heavy handicaps and hardships, conscientiously searched that forest, too, up to its fringes, including its mountains, caves, fountains, and rivers. But the result was nix.

        On entering the next area, a deep forest overly encompassed with climbers and shrubberies they saw a rakshash of fiendish deeds who looked fearless. All of those vanaras were amazed to see that fiendish figure standing like a mountainous boulder, and apprehending an imminent danger from him, those vanaras tightened their wrestler's girdle-cloth.
             Seeing the vanaras that mighty rakshash rushed towards them shoving up his clenched fist and shouting 'You wretched creatures, I am going to kill you all.'  Angada, the son of Vali, presumed him to be Ravana, thwacked him with his palm.  That rakshash spewed forth blood from his throat and fell onto the ground alike an inverted mountain. When that rakshash breathed his last, all the vanaras, with triumphal shimmer searched everywhere including that cave of that mountain where that rakshash appeared, presuming that cave belonged to Ravana.

            So far all their efforts were futile. Completely disheartened all of them coming together sat down at the base of a lonely tree completely exhausted.

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