रामानुजीये विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

The Rākshasas sing, dance and praise Rama

“Our king was not compassionate and did evil things. Now the result of those evil deeds gives us pain, but what is the use of our saying this now. Ravaṇan, our king, was killed. What can we tell about him to others? O chiefs of the monkeys, O young prince! O lord Rama, with your strong beautiful bow, we are Rākshasas but you have conquered us. Our Rākshasas worry about joining the group of dancers and dancing. We are afraid of you. Thaḍam pongaththam pongo!”
“Ravaṇan our king with ten heads and twenty mighty arms lost his life and kingdom because he was attracted to Sita. We are his slaves and do not know what to do. You have two arms and wear one crown. We didn’t know whom we should serve. O, lord, you are our god. Do not kill us. We are afraid of you. Thaḍam pongaththam pongo!”
“Our king Ravaṇan with evil intentions entered the forest of Daṇḍakāraṇyam, kidnapped Sita and destroyed himself. We haven’t done anything wrong. O Rama, you are the best of your dynasty! Do not kill us. What can we say about this kingdom that has been destroyed because of a woman? O son of Dasaratha, you did everything to make the gods in the sky happy. We are afraid of you. Thaḍam pongaththam pongo!”
“The faultless Vibhisaṇan, Rāvaṇaṇ’s brother, bowed to our king of Lanka and told him, ‘You are our brother. If you keep Sita, she will be poison for the Rakshasa tribe. We will be destroyed because of the boon that the gods in the sky received from Rama. Let him go back with the lovely-haired Sita, beautiful as a peacock in a grove dripping with honey.’ We are afraid of you. Taḍam pongaththam pongo!”
“Our king Ravaṇan adorned with golden crowns kidnapped the goddess Sita and imprisoned her in a fragrant garden swarming with bees. See, this was wrong. Kumbakarṇan and Nikumban have been killed in battle. Yama came in the form of a man and killed us with arrows. We are afraid. Taḍam pongaththam pongo!”
“The monkey Hanuman, your messenger, crossed the roaring ocean and destroyed beautiful Lanka and our dear families and relatives. He burned our Lanka guarded with forts. Our king did not give back the divine Sita to his messenger the heroic monkey Hanuman and now we suffer because of that. Alas! We are afraid. Taḍam pongaththam pongo!”
“You have the color of a precious jewel! Our poor Rāvaṇa, king of Lanka, could not forget the beautiful thin-waisted Sita with a glance soft as a doe’s. He thought he could not even live without her. Rāvaṇa, our chief of Lanka, is pitiful! Kill only the king of Lanka and leave us. O sapphire-colored lord, we come here all together and bow to you. We have told you what we want. Taḍam pongaththam pongo!”
“Rāvaṇa had many fish-eyed soft-breasted wives in Lanka. Among them was Mandodari who loved him but he was not attracted to any of them— he thought Rama and his people were only sages wandering in the forest. He kidnapped Sita, as beautiful as a forest peacock, and kept her in Lanka, and Rama, handsome as Kāma, shot arrows with his strong arms into the chest of terrible Ravaṇa. We are afraid. Taḍam pongaththam pongo!”
“Shiva shot his arrows and burned the three forts in the blink of an eye. Like Shiva, Sambhavan shot cruel arrows and killed the Rākshasas. We bow to you. Have pity on us. You are our father, our lord. O, Sugriva, you are the son of the hot, shining sun. You are the king of the monkeys. Do not kill us. We bow to you. Taḍam pongaththam pongo!”
Kaliyan the strong one, composed pāsurams on Rama who destroyed beautiful Lanka to relieve the affliction of the gods in the sky. O devotees, if you sing “Taḍam pongaththam pongo!” and dance, there will be no troubles for you in this birth, and if you go away from this world, you will go only to heaven. Let us sing, “Thadam pongaththam pongo!”