Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.426

c8.426

Śrī Rāma and party reached the place of the seven trees. Suddenly Rāma took his bow and arrows and pressing his foot on a stone beneath sent an arrow and to the wonder of all, the seven trees standing in a circle fell all together and the arrow returned to his quiver. When Rāma pressed the stone on the ground with his foot he was pressing on a vital point on the head of the cobra lying coiled in a circle under the ground bearing the seven trees. The cobra got a shock and instantly straightened itself for a second and the trees thus came in a row straight on the path of the arrow of Śrī Rāma. They were all cut at once and before they had time to fall down the serpent coiled itself again and regained its original position and so the trees fell down in the circle in which they stood. All these happened so quickly that nobody was able to see what happened and so every body was surprised to see all the seven trees in a circle falling down by a single arrow. The princes were thus relieved from the curse.