All 38 Uses of
sustain
in
The Ramayana
- As two tall standards side by side, With each sustaining rope untied, Fall levelled by the howling blast, So earth's majestic lords at last Beneath the arrowy tempest reeled, And prostrate pressed the battle field.†
Book 6 *sustaining = providing support or necessities
- In glorious deeds each nerve they strained, And well their Warrior part sustained.†
Book 1
- The sweet-voiced nymph rejoiced to see The favour of the devotee, And to that eloquent old man, Most eloquent she thus began: "Thou hast, by heavenly grace sustained, Close union with the Godhead gained.†
Book 1
- Deep as they dug and deeper yet The immortal elephant they met, Famed Vírúpáksha(188) vast of size, Upon whose head the broad earth lies: The mighty beast who earth sustains With shaggy hills and wooded plains.†
Book 1
- He sought the heavens, and I sustained The burden as by law ordained, And noble Kusadhwaj, the peer Of Gods, I ever held most dear.†
Book 1
- How shall my son, to please whose taste, The deftest cooks, with earrings graced, With rivalry and jealous care The dainty meal and cates prepare— How shall he now his life sustain With acid fruit and woodland grain?†
Book 2
- A litter, men to bear their lord; A white umbrella bright and fair That with the moon may well compare; Two chouries of the whitest hair; A golden beaker rich and rare; A bull high-humped and fair to view, Girt with gold bands and white of hue; A four-toothed steed with flowing mane, A throne which lions carved sustain; A tiger's skin, the sacred fire, Fresh kindled, which the rites require; The best musicians skilled to play, And dancing-girls in raiment gay; Kine, Bráhmans, teachers fill the court, And bird and beast of purest sort.†
Book 2
- How, after, can my soul sustain The bitter life of endless pain, When thy dear face, my lord, I miss?†
Book 2
- With scorn, as though its lightning stroke Would blast her body, thus he spoke: "Thou, who, of no dread sin afraid, Hast Dasaratha's self betrayed, Lord of the world, whose might sustains Each thing that moves or fixed remains, What direr crime is left thee now?†
Book 2
- The lord who all the world sustains, Bright as the God o'er Gods who reigns.†
Book 2
- Yet Bharat's duteous love will show Sweet comfort in their hours of woe, And with kind words their hearts sustain, Suggesting duty, bliss, and gain.†
Book 2
- My men are all to labour trained, But hardship thou hast ne'er sustained.†
Book 2
- How will thy sons, good lord, sustain With Sítá, all their care and pain?†
Book 2
- The large-eyed lady, wont to eat The best of finely seasoned meat— How will she now her life sustain With woodland fare of self-sown grain?†
Book 2
- The wretched votaress how sustain, Who mourns her child in ceaseless pain?†
Book 2
- How can I bear, a steer untrained, The load his mightier strength sustained?†
Book 2
- Upheld by truth the monarch reigns, And truth the very world sustains.†
Book 2
- Still in the wood will I remain, With food prescribed my life sustain, And please with fruit and roots and flowers Ancestral shades and heavenly powers.†
Book 2
- Then Bharat bowed his reverent head And thus again to Ráma said: "Through fourteen seasons will I wear The hermit's dress and matted hair: With fruit and roots my life sustain, And still beyond the realm remain, Longing for thee to come again.†
Book 2
- When he his heavenly home had found, The holy men who dwelt around To Ráma flocked, whose martial fame Shone glorious as the kindled flame: Vaikhánasas(415) who love the wild, Pure hermits Bálakhilyas(416) styled, Good Samprakshálas,(417) saints who live On rays which moon and daystar give: Those who with leaves their lives sustain And those who pound with stones their grain: And they who lie in pools, and those Whose corn, save teeth, no winnow knows: Those who for beds the cold earth use, And those who every couch refuse: And those condemned to ceaseless pains, Whose single foot their weight sustains: And those who sleep neath open skies, Whose food the wave or ai†
Book 3
- which moon and daystar give: Those who with leaves their lives sustain And those who pound with stones their grain: And they who lie in pools, and those Whose corn, save teeth, no winnow knows: Those who for beds the cold earth use, And those who every couch refuse: And those condemned to ceaseless pains, Whose single foot their weight sustains: And those who sleep neath open skies, Whose food the wave or air supplies, And hermits pure who spend their nights On ground prepared for sacred rites; Those who on hills their vigil hold, Or dripping clothes around them fold: The devotees who live for prayer, Or the five fires(418) unflinching bear.†
Book 3
- In doleful twitter long sustained The restless Sárikás(462) complained, And from the heavens with flash and flame Terrific meteors roaring came.†
Book 3
- The bough unable to sustain The crushing weight and sudden strain, Loaded with sprays and leaves of spring Gave way beneath the feathered king.†
Book 3
- But still that noblest bird sustained The cloud of shafts which Ráva?†
Book 3
- Ne'er can thy puny strength sustain The tempest of their arrowy rain: Have e'er the trembling birds withstood The wild flames raging in the wood?†
Book 3
- Ne'er, brother, ne'er have I complained; Though long by toil and trouble pained, Without a murmur I sustained The woes of woodland life.†
Book 3
- How could my black eyed love sustain, Without her lord, so dire a pain?†
Book 4
- Through their kind aid, a faithful band Who guard their lord from hostile hand, Rest when their chieftain rests and bend Their steps where'er he lists to wend,— Through them alone, in toil and pain, My wretched life I still sustain.†
Book 4
- And well and wisely may he reign If thy dear grace his power sustain: If, following thee his friend and guide, He turn not from thy hest aside: Thus may he reign with glory, nay Thus to the skies will win his way.†
Book 4
- The brothers' might full well she knows, And bravely bears the storm of woes, As swelling Gangá in the rains The rush of every flood sustains.†
Book 5
- One little month shall I sustain This life oppressed with woe and pain: And when the month is ended, I The giants' prey must surely die.'†
Book 5
- Still on his limbs their missiles rained: Unmoved, their blows he still sustained, And seemed unconscious of the stroke When rocks against his body broke.†
Book 6
- That blow the giant scarce sustained; But sense and strength were soon regained.†
Book 6
- The giant's arrows, gold-bedecked, The storm of hurtling missiles checked; And ever on his foemen poured Fierce tempest from his clanging cord; Nor could the Vánar chiefs sustain His shafts' intolerable rain.†
Book 6
- Hot from his mouth came fire and smoke, As thus the king in fury spoke: "Through many a thousand years of yore The penance and the pain I bore, And by fierce torment well sustained The highest grace of Brahmá gained, His plighted word my life assured, From Gods of heaven and fiends secured.†
Book 6
- Unmoved the heavenly steeds sustained The furious shower the warrior rained, As though soft lotus tendrils smote Each haughty crest and glossy coat.†
Book 6
- Thy hand, O Lord, the hills and plains, And earth with all her life sustains; Thou wilt appear in serpent form When sinks the earth in fire and storm.†
Book 6
- This feeble arm with toil and pain, The weighty charge could scarce sustain.†
Book 6
Definitions:
-
(1)
(sustain as in: sustained by her faith) provide support or necessities
-
(2)
(sustain as in: sustained through the ages) to continue through time
-
(3)
(sustain as in: sustained wounds) to suffer (as of injury, damage, or loss)
- (4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)