Saturday 24 October 2015

308. Ravana made Seetha to see the bodies of Rama and Lakshmana.

               In the battle field the leading vanaras surrounded Rama to ensure that no rakshash would harm them. Hanuman, Angada, Nila, Sushena, Kumuda, Nala, Gaja, Gavaksha, Panasa, Sanuprastha and the mighty Jambavan with Sunda, Rambha, Shatabali and Prithu, armed with trees, reorganized their ranks, stood alert, surveyed the quarters of the sky up and down and on every side and, even if a grass stirred, they exclaimed "Look, it could be a rakshash!". And they were nervous, too.
          Ravana, after  dismissing his dear son Indrajit, started brooding and after a few moments he nodded all his heads in satisfaction and summoned the rakshashis guarding Seetha. Trijata (do you remember Trijata, the dream girl, I mean rakshashi? No? Then refresh your memory by reading again the "223. Trijata's dream.") accompanied by a few other rakshashis appeared before him. Seeing them, the happy Ravana with smiles on all his ten faces, told them "Hi! girls! Have you heard that just now my son Indrajit killed both that troublesome guys Rama and his bro Lakshmana. Tell Seetha that. And also take her in the Pushpaka viman  and show her the inert bodies of Rama and Lakshmana killed in the battle. She refused to be united with me on the ground that she, as the beloved wife of the mighty mighty Rama (Haa! Haa! - deriding laughter of that ten headed Rakshash) would not even think of anyone else. That mighty mighty Rama and his mighty mighty brother Lakshmana are no more. Tell her that now that I am the mighty mighty chap whom she now can marry merrily. Seeing the dead bodies of Rama and Lakshmana lying in the battle-field, finding no other haven and hoping for nothing else, the large-eyed Seetha will voluntarily seek refuge with me!"
         All the rakshashis nodded and went back to the Ashoka vana in the Pushpaka. They conveyed the sad news to Seetha. She was made to ascend the Pushpaka-plane.
         Ravana, thrilled with rapture, caused Lanka to be garlanded with flags and banners and arranged a proclamation to be made in Lanka announcing that Rama and Lakshmana had been slain by Indrajit in battle.
        Seetha saw all the vanara-troops who had been slain. Seetha saw the rakshashas who were delighted with happy faces and vanaras disturbed with grief, standing round the bodies of Rama and Lakshmana. Seetha beheld those two warriors Rama and Lakshmana lying unconscious on the ground on a bed of arrows, their limbs pierced with arrows, riddled with weapons, their armour shattered, their bows cast aside at a distance and their entire body transfixed by darts.
       On seeing those two brothers  lying stretched on a bed of arrows there in that wretched plight on a bed of reeds, Seetha wailed piteously, stricken as she was with a great agony. The dark-eyed Seetha the daughter of Janaka with her faultless limbs, beholding her lord and Lakshmana lying in the dust, burst into sobs. 
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