358. Sugreeva's next victim was Mahodara.

         In the battle on that day, casualties were very high for both sides. The strength of both the armies was reduced very much like the water in a lake would diminish by evaporation in a severe summer.

           Ravana very much hoped that luck would turn in his favor from that day and onward. The fact that the casualty in the opposite side was also very heavy did not give him any consolation. The fall of Virupaksha made him more angry.  He was very much raring to revenge the killing of Virupaksha. He looked around and saw yonder Mahodara, the annihilator of enemies. He shouted at him "O My dear brave rakshash! Demonstrate your valor to the enemies, now. For starters kill that monkey king, Sugreeva."
              Mahodara, a very valiant rakshash, nodding his assent to the command of his king, started thrashing the vanaras and scoring many a life of vanaras. 
            The vanaras, evading the valiant Mahodara, penetrated the army of the rakshashas with huge rocks and started killing as many rakshashas as they could.

       Mahodara, however, created untold damage to the vanaras with his arrows. Some vanaras ran away to different directions in terror. Some rationally thinking vanaras went to Sugreeva seeking refuge.

       Hearing of the great damage caused by Mahodara to the vanaras, Sugreeva rushed towards Mahodara with a large and terrific rock, which looked like a mountain. Sugreeva, who was endowed with a great energy, hurled it on that rakshash.

       Fortunately for him, Mahodara noticed the rock. He broke it with his arrows to a thousand pieces.

       Then uprooting a Sala tree, Sugreeva hurled it at Mahodara, who chopped it off into many pieces. Mahodara followed it up by lacerating Sugreeva with his arrows which caused a great deal of pain for Sugreeva. The excruciating pain made Sugreeva enraged. He wanted to punish that rakshash for causing the pain and was looking for a suitable weapon. As luck would have it, his eyes fell upon an iron rod on the ground, which seemed to be crying to be used.

       For starters he used that iron rod for killing the horses of the chariot of Mahodara. Mahodara  seizing hold of a mace jumped out of his chariot..

     Then started the great duel between the holders of the mace and the rod. After a short time, both the weapons broke and fell on the floor.
        Both the  undaunted warriors looking like a couple of blazing fires continued their duel with their fists and other parts of their bodies.

            As both the adversaries were equal in their strength, prowess, capabilities etc., they became tired after some long time. It occurred to both of them at the same time that a weapon would be advantageous.
           As luck would have it, their eyes fell upon two swords with shields lying on the ground not far away. Both rushed and took hold of one sword and a shield each.

         Thereupon, they continued their duel with swords. Mahodara, thinking that he would be better than Sugreeva with swords, hit his sword on the heavy shield of Sugreeva, thinking that would make Sugreeva drop his sword. Unfortunately for that rakshash, Mahodara,  his sword  got struck in the shield of Sugreeva. While he was trying to extricate his sword from the shield of Sugreeva, Sugreeva severed  Mahodara's head with his own sword.

         Seeing Mahodara and his head in different locations on the ground, his army vanished.

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357. Sugreeva killed Virupaksha.

            The action of Ravana to cool his intolerable rage by killing at the rate of four score and seven vanaras per minute, resulted in filling the battle-field with bundles of vanaras like moths would be in a blazing fire.

          The vanaras were absolutely terrorized by the action of Ravana, fled away roaring, as elephants run away, when enveloped in flames of fire and getting scorched by them. Marching forward in this manner, Ravana reached the vicinity of Rama on the battle-field.
       In the meanwhile, seeing the hordes of vanaras running away in terror, Sugreeva kept Sushena in charge of his army and rushed to the help of those terrorized vanaras. On the way, Sugreeva armed himself with a large tree as his weapon. Taking huge rocks and various kinds of trees, many vanaras followed Sugreeva.
       Sugreeva, accompanied by his followers started to counterattack the rakshasha army of Ravana. They rained a hail of rocks on the rakshas, as a dark cloud rains a shower of hail-stones on a host of birds in a forest. The rakshasha army could not withstand the attack of Sugreeva and his followers and their strength started to diminish. Seeing the appalling  devastation caused to the army of rakshashas, the  indomitable Virupaksha, taking his bow, jumped out of his chariot and mounted the back of an elephant. Then roaring something like the mixture of lion, tiger and the like, he rushed towards the vanaras, crying out in-between his roars, who he was. (He was under the impression that hearing his name, all the vanaras would run away with their tails between their legs.) Seeing that his name did not have any reaction on the vanaras, the very disappointed Virupaksha started hurling dreadful arrows on Sugreeva who was at the focal point of his army. Simultaneously he shouted some cheering words for his rakshasha army.

          Sugreeva, the king of vanaras, when he was struck severely with sharp arrows yelled loudly out of pain. The acute pain made him to resolve to kill that rakshash who was instrumental for the pain. Sugreeva,  uplifting a tree and marching deliberately and vigilantly towards that huge elephant on which that rakshash was perching, struck it on its face with a good deal of force.

         That huge elephant  staggered and receding about four yards, sank down and roared with pain. Quickly jumping out of his wounded elephant, that rakshash, seizing hold of his sword advanced rapidly towards Sugreeva.

       Anticipating such or something similar to that move by that rakshash, Sugreeva was ready with a huge rock, which looked like a cloud. He hurled it on Virupaksha when he was absolutely sure that it would not miss. Unfortunately for Sugreeva, that rakshash was very much alert. Seeing that rock coming, that highly valiant rakshash dodging it admirably, struck Sugreeva with his sword. Sugreeva feeling giddy by that hit fell on the ground. But he stayed in the terra firma  only for a moment. Then, bouncing up suddenly, Sugreeva, tightening his fist, brought it down  violently on the chest of that rakshash. It hurt  him very much. Feeling enraged by the pain caused by the hit of Sugreeva, Virupaksha brought down the armour of Sugreeva by his sword. Thus struck by him, Sugreeva fell down but got up immediately. Sugreeva then gave him a slap, which produced a terrific sound similar to a thunder. Virupaksha, as a requital, struck Sugreeva on the chest with his fist.

         Sugreeva then brought down another violent slap, which was like the thunderbolt to the ground, on the temple-bone of Virupaksha, causing him to ooze  blood profusely from all the nine apertures of his body, as water flows from a spring. And that was the end of Virupaksha.

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356. Ravana himself goes to fight.

                The mournful and plaintive cry of the women reached Ravana's twenty ears and started troubling him very much. Whatever may be his faults, he was a good king and very much concerned about the happiness of his citizens. He, therefore, decided to do something to alleviate the distress of them.

           Sighing for a long time and remaining engrossed in reflection for a further long time, employing all his ten heads, Ravana became more enraged and assumed a frightfully frightful appearance. The sight of Ravana nipping his lips with his teeth, his eyes becoming blood-red with anger, was so appalling that his ministers and others around him dared not look at him.

          At last Ravana came to a conclusion as to what was to be done next. Looking at the coterie standing submissively before him for his orders, Ravana nodded as if to confirm that he had reached a conclusion. He told Mahodara, Mahaparshva and Virupaksha, who were standing near him "Get all the armies ready for immediate action."

       When the army was gathered and set ready for action, Ravana told his still living close sycophants Mahodara, Mahaparshva and Virupaksha  "Today will be the retribution day for Rama and Lakshmana for their killing Khara, Kumbhakarna, Prahasta and Indrajit. The sky overcast by my arrows, like clouds, will not be distinctly seen. Neither the quarters, nor the heaven, nor the seas will come to view. With a multitude of plumed arrows joined with my bow, I will kill, by turns, the troops of monkey-chiefs, too.

         "By mounting on a chariot, having a speed equal to that of wind, I will destroy today the armies of monkeys, with waves of arrows arising out of the ocean of my bow . Like an elephant, today I will destroy ponds in the form of troops of monkeys shining like the filaments of lotus, with their faces resembling full-blown lotuses. With their faces transfixed with arrows, the monkey-leaders, lying on the battle-field today will adorn the earth as lotuses together with the stalks.

      "With each arrow released in battle today, I shall tear the more furious monkeys fighting with trees. By annihilating the enemy without any trace today, I shall wipe off the tears of those rakshashas and rakshashies, who lost their husbands, brothers and sons. I shall ensure that the bodies of the monkeys pierced with my arrows lying dead in the battle field would cover the ground entirely without any space.

       "Today, I shall satiate the crows, vultures and all those other creatures which eat the flesh, with the flesh of my enemies, struck by my arrows. Arrange my chariot quickly. Bring my bow. Let all the remaining rakshashas here  follow me to the battle field."
              You will agree that there is no need to mention that the orders of Ravana was complied with implicitly. Sorry! What they did was much more than implicit! Seeing that there was not enough trained soldiers left, they went to each and every house and conscripted every grown up rakshash they found. And all of them were equipped with various weapons viz. swords, sharp-edged darts, pikes, maces, clubs, plough like weapons, sharp-edged javelins, staffs, discuses of every kind, sharpened axes, slings for throwing stones, stones or cylindrical wooden pieces with iron pikes and many other excellent and varied weapons that could be found without any delay.

          Ravana mounted that awesome  chariot brought to him and surrounded by several rakshashas, sallied forth with the determination to vanquish Rama and his army.

        The sight of Ravana coming in his imposing chariot accompanied by a large army, which was making all sorts of noise with their tabors, drums, Kettle-drums, conchs and with their mouths, filled the vanaras with some inexplicable apprehension.

       Yes! You guessed correctly! As usual some awful portends appeared. The cloud rained blood. The horses stumbled. A vulture descended on the top of the ensign. Jackals emitted sinister howls. All his (i.e. Ravana's) left eyes throbbed. All his left arms trembled. He became pale-faced. 

         A meteor with a sound similar to a thunder, fell down from the sky. Ill-omened vultures together with crows cried out aloud.

       As usual the villain of this epic, Ravana waved away these dreadful bad omens, like others.

       A tumultuous battle ensued between those vanaras and rakshashas. With a vengeance, Ravana started killing the vanaras in hundreds with his arrows.

          And very many vanaras lost one or more organs of their body. Some had their heads chopped. Some had their hearts pierced. Some were made deprived of their ears. Some were struck down breathless. Some were torn in their ribs. Some had their skulls smashed. Some were deprived of their eyes. Whichever side Ravana with all his twenty eyes, which had became red due to his excruciating anger, rolling, goes in his chariot in the battle-field, the vanaras, on that side, were not able to withstand the unimaginable surge  of his arrows.

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355. The agonised wailing of the rakshashis.

         The few rakshashas who escaped from the arrows of Rama ran away with full speed. And they promptly broadcasted the devastation of the entire army by that guy Rama. Hearing that all the female relatives of the rakshashas who were killed by Rama gathered at the very same place where they used to assemble for gossiping.  Instead of gossiping, they started wailing with deep grief for the loss of husband. son, brother etc. One of them wailed loudly "It is all because of that cantankerous, ugly, contemptible,  worthless, shameful, shabby, vile, degenerate, abject, measly, scurvy, detestable and odious   Surpanakha of sunken belly. When even a very old rakshash with the characteristics matching hers would abhor even to look at her, she had the audacity to approach sensually Rama, who is charming like the god of love.

            "It is utterly incomprehensible that such an ugly and terribly nauseating old hag could imagine that the young Rama would agree to marry her.

          "Because of that grey-haired and disgusting woman, who had developed lot of wrinkles on her whole body, the destruction of thousands of rakshashas including Dushana and Khara occurred. She is the root cause for all our present miseries.

        "Ravana should have realized the strength of Rama when he came to know of the killing the rakshash Virada by Rama single handedly.

       "In Janasthana, Rama killed fourteen thousand rakshasas including Khara, Dushana and Trishira. This should have convinced Ravana that Rama was not someone to be meddled with.

          "The killing, by that charming prince Rama, of  Kabandha having arms with a length of eight miles each, with blood as his food and roaring with anger should have been sufficient warning for Ravana to refrain annoying Rama. Rama killed the mighty Vali, the son of Indra, looking like the black cloud. That instance should have been sufficient warning for Ravana to refrain from making Rama angry with him.

        "It is abundantly proved that it was catastrophic to ignore the appropriate and a very sensible advice of Vibhishana.

           "Ravana should have realized his mistake when the mighty Kumbhakarna was killed by Rama and his beloved son Indrajit killed by Lakshmana.
         "Now the valiant Rama killed thousands of horses and elephants in the battle. He killed almost all the foot soldiers. It is evident that our foolish king is absolutely incorrigible, too.

        "It is said that very bad omens appeared whenever anyone accompanied by  warriors set out to fight with Rama. We are hearing rumours that Ravana and his clan will be totally annihilated by Rama. Brahma, at the request of Ravana, gave him protection from devas, danavas and rakshashas. But the arrogant  Ravana did not seek protection from human beings.

         "I have heard that devas not able to bear the torments of Ravana prayed Shiva for protection. Shiva consoled them by saying

'Wait till the female baby who will be found by the king Janaka. That baby after growing into a beautiful woman, will lead to the destruction of Ravana and all other rakshashas.' This Seetha must be that woman."

          Then, all the females in Lanka, embracing each other in their arms, afflicted as they were with grief and tormented with excessive fear, lamented thus and wept loudly and severely.

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354. Ravana set the balance of his army force on Rama.

          Sitting in his chair in the assembly hall, the very first thing he did was to snort like a lion.  Then after surveying all who were present in the assembly hall, looking at the chief army personnel he told "Collecting all the elephants and horses and also all the infantry blokes, go immediately and kill that guy Rama. I don't care the means by which you kill him, but kill him by any means. In case you fail to do it then I shall go tomorrow and kill that guy."

        As per the command of Ravana, an army consisting of (almost) all the infantry rakshashas started towards the battle field. In the battle that ensued the rakshashas hurled iron clubs, sharp-edged spikes, arrows, swords, axes, etc. towards the vanaras. The vanaras hurled trees and mountains towards the rakshashas. shortly, that very terrific battle became tumultuous between the rakshashas and the vanaras.

         One of the consequences of the battle was a surprisingly enormous streams of blood proceeding from the wounds of the rakshashas, vanaras. elephants and horses. Despite the very uncomfortable feeling caused by the sticky blood all over their bodies, the vanaras, especially their leaders,  bouncing on the battle-field, broke off flag-staffs, armours, chariots, horses and various kinds of weapons. With their sharp teeth and nails, they tore off the hair, ears, eye-brows and noses of the rakshashas.

         A large group of vanaras jointly tackled each single rakshash, like birds would rush towards a tree laden with fruits. Unfortunately for them, every one in the rakshasha force was highly devoted to his king Ravana and as such was fighting so fiercely with scant regard for his life. Finding they were no match for the rakshasha   force, all the vanaras rushed to Rama for refuge.
  Thereupon, Rama, taking up his famous bow Kodandam, marched towards the army of the rakshashas, wearing a pleasant smile. All the rakshashas were aghast to see one and only human marching like a lion towards them with a fantastic bow and a terribly fascinating smile on his face. They did not expect one and only one human to fight against them. They woke up to the reality when Rama started hitting them with his powerful arrows. The rakshashas then realized that the divine figure was that Rama whom his lord, the great king Ravana ordered them to kill. Before they could take their weapons Rama started scorching them with the flame of his arrows.

        They were totally amazed to see the way Rama was fighting them. They had not seen before anyone who was fighting the way Rama was fighting them. They could not see him and at the same time it seemed to them that Rama was everywhere. They did not see the performance of Rama when they their chariots were being blown away and a good lot of his comrades were hit by terrible arrows killing them absolutely. He was shattering their huge army and blowing away their great chariots, like a hurricane.

         Those who were still living were seeing their companions hit and killed by one or more arrows but they did not see where from those arrows were coming nor their sender Rama. Rama seemed to be everywhere and nowhere. They saw the army torn and pierced with arrows, as also scorched, broken down and tormented with missiles. They saw Rama and immediately found him vanished. Sometimes they were seeing Rama everywhere. The rakshashas were not seeing the movements of Rama, but were found hit by the arrows of Rama.
            When a rakshash saw Rama, he immediately hurled an arrow toward him, but unfortunately that arrow hit one of his comrades, who occupied the space vacated by Rama. In this manner many rakshashas were killed by other rakshashas,

          The rakshashas were shouting excitedly    "Here is Rama, killing the elephant. Here is Rama destroying that great chariot-warrior. Here is Rama, killing foot-soldiers.....". 

          The rakshashas were seeing thousands of Rama in the battle-field at one instance and  only one Rama at the next. 

         Within about three hours, Rama killed eighteen thousand strong elephants, fourteen thousand horses with their riders and a full two hundred thousand infantry rakshashas. As a bonus he smashed ten thousand chariots, 

         A handful of the surviving rakshashas, with their horses killed, chariots destroyed, charioteers killed  and with broken spirits, rushed back towards the City of Lanka.

          The devas along with Gandharvas, sidhas and great sages witnessing the display of Rama from the firmament acclaimed that feat of Rama, shouting "Bravo! Bravo! .....".

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353. The Rage of Ravana.

                      The news of the killing of his dearer than the dearest son Indrajit was absolutely devastating for Ravana. He was supremely confident that Indrajit, who had defeated Indra many a time would annihilate Rama and his army without any difficulty or doubt. It was beyond his comprehension how a human could kill Indrajit in a battle. To think of it something inside all his ten heads started burning; and he could not stop thinking about that.

             He could have tolerated if something happening in one or two of his heads; but when all his ten heads started to run amok ... well! it was beyond the tolerance limit for even the great rakshash Ravana and he promptly swooned and lay swoon for a long while.

           Unfortunately there was no doctor as capable as Sushena. Therefore, it took quite some time for the doctors available there to make him come out of his swoon. Regaining his consciousness after a long time, the king Ravana found that something was going in all his heads which made him to blabber "Alas! My child, the chief of the army of rakshasas, having extraordinary might! Having conquered Indra, how have you been vanquished and killed by Lakshmana now? Many times you have demonstrated that there was no one in all the worlds is capable of defeating you. How have you been defeated and killed by Lakshmana, now? ................"

           Suddenly Ravana, the king of rakshasas, became very, very and very angry. The anguish occasioned by the death of his most dear son, flared up further for him, who by his very nature, was wrathful. With his ten sets of eye brows joined together on his foreheads, he looked very frightening.

           It suddenly dawned on him that his most dear son Indrajit and many of his very valiant sons, relatives and subordinated died because of that wench Seetha. He, therefore, in retribution kill Seetha. The dreadful eyes of Ravana, which were red in colour by their very nature became more red by the fire of his wrath, looked glittering.
              That naturally intimidating and daunting stature of Ravana, when filled with the fire of his wrath and rage, looked somewhat like the form of enraged Rudra. Drops of tears falling down from his enraged eyes, looked as drops of burning oil.

           The sound of his grinding teeth from all his ten mouths  was heard like the noise of a large machine being dragged by the rakshashas. Trembling with fear, ministers, all the employees, all the warriors and others in the palace hid themselves, not daring to be seen by their highly enraged king, Ravana.   

           Ravana, afflicted as he was with grief at the killing of his most dear son, was thinking hard as to what he should do now. Whatever way he was thinking the conclusion he arrived was to kill Seetha as she was the root cause for all his present trouble.
         Calling and collecting all his ministers, all the army and other rakshashas in his palace, he informed them "O! My dear rakshash chaps! My dear son Indrajit made all those monkeys believe that he killed Seetha, by some conjuring trick. I shall now going to make that hoax into a hard reality to satisfy my anger. I'm gonna destroy Seetha, who is devoted to Rama, a very lousy guy".
         He, that angry Ravana, then taking his sword started walking towards the Ashoka vana, followed by the assemblage of his ministers and others.

       Seeing the highly angry Ravana, those who were following him were thinking, commenting and agreeing in toto  "It is their (meaning Rama and Lakshmana) good luck they are not seeing him (i.e. Ravana) now. If they see him now, they surely will drop dead out of fear......  ."

        With his unabated fury, Ravana reached the Ashoka grove. Seeing Ravana mantling a great fury and carrying an awesome sword marching towards her along with those rakshashas who were trying to keep him back, Seetha was somewhat disconcerted.
          She was meditating "It looks that this rakshash has determined to kill me. He tried numerous times to make me agree to be his consort. It looks that he is now totally despaired by my consistent refusal and decided to kill me. 

         "A little while ago I heard a terrific great noise of a multitude of rakshashas, who seemed to have been jubilant and roaring about some pleasant happening. Alas! Oh, my God! Hope it is not because of the destruction of the two princes. Is it because that awful rakshash has not been able to kill Rama and Lakshmana, is going to kill, me, because of the grief over his sons' death.

         "I should, perhaps, have heeded to the suggestion of Hanuman. Had I left on that day on his back, I would not have grieved like this today. The heart of maa Kausalya will get burst when she hears that her one and only son was killed in battle.

        "While lamenting, Kausalya will vividly recall about the birth, childhood, youth, the righteous acts and the handsome form of the Rama. Kausalya will surely kill herself by entering the flame or drowned in water. Woe be to the unfaithful hunch-back Manthara, of sinful resolve, because of whom, Kausalya will get this grief.”

         One minister of Ravana, called Suparshva, a good-natured, upright and highly intelligent rakshash, despite being restrained by his colleagues, could not resist his impulsive craving to prevent his master, lord and king, the mighty Ravana committing a most sinful action of killing a lady. He approached his king and told him mildly with all respect "Your majesty! It is highly incomprehensible that you, who knows very well all the righteousness  wish to kill Seetha, a mild and shriveling lady, in a bout of anger. O valiant king of rakshashas! You, the highly knowledgeable king  who is well versed about the duties of a king! If you kill Seetha, a defenseless lady, all the worlds will laugh at you. Show your anger, in battle, on Rama and his cronies.

        "Making yourself ready today itself, the fourteenth day of krishnapaksha (dimishing phase of the Moon), you, along with your mighty army, sally forth tomorrow, the new moon day, to victory. Seetha will become yours when Rama, the son of Dasaratha is killed by you tomorrow."

       Ravan, who by no means a fool, pondered and accepted that sane and sensible advice, endowed with justice, tendered by a friend. Ravana then coolly returned to his palace. After taking some refreshment and rest, that valiant Ravana, along with his friends, went to his assembly hall for discussing and deciding the further course of action.

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352. Immediate medical treatment. was given to Lakshmana and others.

           Lakshmana, after killing that malicious but a mighty and competent adversary, felt very much relieved and happy. He thanked Jambavan, Hanuman and others for giving him immense support in the battle between himself and Inderjit. He then started to go to his dear brother Rama to inform him the good news. But he found that he was absolutely drained and ipso facto was hardly able to move. His entire body was lacerated by the vicious arrows of that rakshash Inderjit. He saw that his entire body became red by the blood oozing out of those lacerations.

              Supported by his well wishers like Vibhishana, he reached Rama. He wanted to shout happily the news that he had killed that rakshash Inderjit. But he could not raise his voice beyond a murmur. He, therefore, murmured that he killed Indrajit. Seeing that Lakshmana was severely debilitated and as such was not able to raise his voice beyond a murmur, Vibhishana informed Rama in a clear and loud voice that Indrajit's head had been chopped off by Lakshmana. Hearing that news the handsome face of Rama became dashingly attractive by his happy smile. With immeasurable joy he congratulated Lakshamana "O Lakshmana! Well done! I feel abundantly  gratified. The destruction of Indrajit is the beginning of the  destruction of all malicious and pernicious rakshashas including Ravana.”

        Rama then made Lakshmana to sit down near him. Then fondly smelling the head of his dear brother Lakshmana, who had augmented his fame and yet who was feeling abashed to hear himself being praised, he forcibly but very affectionately tenderly drawing his body and placed his head gently on his lap with affection. Then he affectionately fondled his handsome face. Rama then noticing his dear brother breathing hard, looked at his body. Rama then saw his dear brother was terribly wounded and required immediate medical treatment.

      Sushena, was therefore sent for and was ordered "Please attend the wounded Lakshmana, immediately. I want him to become quite hale and healthy within a few moments.
      Note: I tried my best to find out who this Sushena was. It is presumed that he was a vanara who was an expert in curing ailments of humans, animals, rakshashas and whoever he was asked to cure.
End Note.
     "Also examine Vibhishana and make him free from the pain caused by the arrows. You also attend bears and vanaras who were wounded, and make their wound healed."

       Sushena nodded his agreement and held some herbal medicine near the nose of Lakshmana. Inhaling the odor of that herb, Lakshmana got rid of all his arrow-wounds and the pain caused by them. Vibhishana and others,too were treated in the same fashion and all of them became free from their wounds and pain.

       Rama and others were happy to see Lakshmana restored to his original disposition. 

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351. Lakshmana sent Inderjit to meet his Maker.

                Indrajit, who was endowed with extraordinary energy, willpower and a lot of grit, continued his battle, blazed with spirit, standing on the ground. However, he was terribly irritated and awfully enraged. He noticed that his army of rakshashas were holding their end of the fight quite well. He passed on this message to them “These quarters are wrapped on all sides with abundant darkness. O my dear brave fellows! It is totally impossible to identify at this time who is who. You continue your courageous fight and keep all the monkeys engaged. In the meanwhicle, I, on my part, will coolly  slip out of the battle-field, and return in another chariot. Wish you all the best.”

        Seeing and satisfied that his message was well received and getting executed, Indrajit, happily smiling that the monkeys were getting fooled, entered the City of Lanka without any of his enemies getting wise. He selected and ascended the best available chariot, which was beautiful, decked with gold, furnished with darts, swords and arrows, yoked with excellent horses, directed by a charioteer who could understand those horses properly and could give credible instructions to them, and was well aware that Indrajit was a conqueror with extraordinary energy.

            Surrounded by a troop of important and valiant rakshashas Inderjit sallied forth from the city wearing a winning smile. As there was no action from Inderjit, Lakshmana and all the vanaras were under the happy impression that being unable to get any better of them, he sneaked away from the battle field and hiding somewhere like a coward. All of them were mightily surprised when that rakshash Inderjit started attacking Lakshmana and Vibhishana, that too from a lovely chariot.

         Guessing the confused and erroneous reaction of the enemy, Indrajit started annihilating a bunch of vanaras at a time. Seeing scores and scores of their comrades were being killed systematically by the arrows of the rakshash Indrajit, the terrified vanaras who somehow escaped the arrows of that rakshash, rushed to Lakshmana for refuge.
         While admiring the way Indrajit fooled his enemies, Lakshmana totally disagreed his action, to wit, killing the hapless vanaras who were not a match to his prowess and valour. He became very angry with that rakshash for that improper, unsuitable, unacceptable, tasteless, unwarranted, incongruous and unbecoming action. He decided to punish him without any delay. His anger made him more agile than he usually was. Lakshmana broke the bow of Indrajit who was wondering how it was done by Lakshmana as he (Inderjit) did not see Lakshmana taking the arrow, fixing it in his bow etc. Hurriedly, he took another bow and before he could make it ready, Lakshmana broke that bow, too.

        Lakshmana followed up his punitive action on Indrajit with five arrows which penetrating through Indrajit’s body, fell to the ground like huge red serpents.

      Spewing blood from his month, Indrajit, took hold of another bow with the bow-string firmly fastened and which was stronger than the earlier bow. With utmost agility, Indrajit, aiming at Lakshmana, streamed forth a shower of arrows, like rainfall.

     Lakshmana coolly warded off those arrows of Indrajit, who was absolutely confident that Lakshmana would be hit by those arrows. 

Lakshmana then pierced all the rakshashas who were in the near vicinity of Indrajit, with three arrows each, demonstrating his speed in discharging missiles. He followed it up with an array of arrows on Inderjit, which made their marks.

            Seeing that Inderjit was very capable adversary, Lakshmana decided to adopt somewhat unethical means by eliminating the head of the charioteer of Indrajit.

      Those horses, bereft of a charioteer, without getting perturbed, ran up the chariot as a matter of course in a circular fashion and continued to draw the chariot. Everyone looking at it was absolutely wonderstruck and awed. Lakshmana did not have the heart to kill those wonderful horses. As they were protecting their master, Inderjit, in some oblique manner, Lakshmana  perforce had to hit them with arrows in such a manner that those horses are physically hurt only and not repeat not killed, so as to make them move erratically due to the pain.

          Getting irritated with that unorthodox act of Lakshmana, Indrajit struck Lakshmana with ten arrows, which were  destroyed when they hit the armour of Lakshmana. That made Inderjit realize that Lakshmana was protected by an impenetrable armour. Indrajit, therefore, hit Lakshmana in the forehead with three arrows. With those three arrows planted in his forehead, Lakshmana was shining like a mountain with three peaks.

         Those two indomitable warriors, Lakshmana and Indrajit, with their bodies stained in blood, were shining  like Kimshuka trees in blossom. Those two archers, with determination pierced their opponent in all limbs with dreadful arrows.

        It suddenly flashed in the mind of Indrajit that his this unenviable position in the battle field was due to the fact that his own uncle, Vibhishana who correctly guessed his move to Nikumbhila. This made him very angry and he hit Vibhishana in his face, with three arrows. Then he vent his anger by hitting all the vanara chiefs he could see with a single arrow each.

         Vibhishana highly  enraged with him told him silently "You lousy fellow! Being my own nephew I did not have the heart to hurt you myself. I thought that you will reciprocate   that sentiment, too. Now that you have demonstrated that you do not have any such tenderness in you, I will now show you what I can do to discomfort you." and killed the horses of his won nephew, Indrajit with his mace. Seeing that his chariot was now  made deprived of horses, too, by his uncle, Indrajit getting highly angry with his uncle hurled his javelin towards his uncle with all the force he could muster.

          Seeing that Javelin rushing towards Vibhishana, Lakshmana broke it into ten pieces with his arrows and felled it on the floor. Vibhishana, whose anger did not subside, dug five arrows into the bosom of Indrajit. Those arrows made their mark.  Enraged with his once dear uncle,  Indrajit decided a severe punishment on him by killing him with a deadly arrow he got from Yama.

        Seeing that great arrow seized by him, Lakshmana took out another equally or perhaps more powerful arrow, he got from Kubera in his dream. 

           Those arrows, released from the bows of the two  collided each other powerfully. The collision of those arrows of terrible form broke out a fierce fire comprising of smoke and sparkles. Hitting each other like two major planets, those two arrows burst into a hundreds of pieces and fell on the ground.
           In the like manner each opponent tried different Astras which were annulled by some other more powerful Astra . 
        The firmament was filled with Indra with his devas and other deities to witness that wonderfully wonderful battle between the two of the very, very and very capable and competent warriors of all times.

       As Indra and the all the other deities very much wanted the defeat and death of that awful rakshash Inderjit, all of them protected Lakshmana in the battle-field.
    Then, Lakshmana fitted another excellent Astra, which he believed will tear down Indrajit. This is the astra by which Indra was able to conquer the danavas in a combat which raged between them. Fitting that astra to his bow and drawing it, the Lakshmana prayed “O my dear arrow! If Rama the son of Dasaratha has set his mind on virtue, keeps up his promise and is second to none in his prowess, destroy Indrajit.”

         Then drawing up to the ear the bow string he hurled the arrow towards Indrajit. That arrow did not fail. That large head of Indrajit, separated from his trunk and moistened with blood, was seen on the ground, shining like a huge gold ball.

        The headless body of Indrajit then forthwith fell to the ground, with his bow shattered. Seeing Indrajit killed, all vanaras and Vibhishana roared in rejoice, as did the devas, when Vritra was killed.

        The killing of Inderjit was  hailed as a victory for devas (including Indra), distinguished and eminent sages, Gandharvas and the Apsaras, and as such all of them shouted so. 

         Completely stunned and stupefied, the entire army of Inderjit ran  away to various directions.

        Sound of the playing of large drums was heard from the firmament, The melody produced by dancing Apsaras  and the songs of Gandharvas were also heard.  Beautiful flowers rained along with showers of praises. 

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350. Vibhishana jumped into the fray.

                 After pondering for a little while, Vibhishana decided to help Lakshmana by joining the  fight against the rakshashas, himself. Accordingly, wielding his bow, he started hurling powerful arrows on the rakshashas. Those arrows, hitting like fire, tore many a rakshasha into pieces, as thunderbolts would cleave large mountains. Seeing Vibhishana fighting against the rakshashas of Indrajit, his four pals joined him.
          Surrounded by those pally rakshashas, Vibhishana was shining like an elephant in the midst of proud young tuskers. Vibhishana, who by no means a novice to warfare, shouted at the commanders of the vanara army "O chiefs of vanaras! Here stands before you, one who is the last support of Ravana. He is all who is left in his force. When he is killed then we can conclude that the war is almost over. 
    "Dear chaps, You know that Prahasta was killed. The valiant Nikumbha, the mighty Kumbhakarna, Kumbha,  Dhumraksha, Jambumali, Mahamali, the highly swift Ashaniprabha, Suptaghna, Yajnakopa, Vajradamshtra, Samhadri, Vikata, Tapana, Manda, Praghaasa, Praghasa, PrajaN^gha, Janga, Agniketu, Agniketu, Rashmiketu, vidyujjihva, Dvijihva, Suryashatru, Akampana, Suparshva, Chakramali, Kampana and the mighty Devantaka were all killed. After Indrajit, Ravana does not have any mighty warrior to send. He has to fight himself. When he comes Rama will take care of him.
       "O vanaras! Only this much of army here remains to be conquered. For the sake of Rama, do not show any mercy. I, myself can kill this Indrajit, my own brother's son. As his uncle, who is as good as a father, it is not appropriate for me to kill him. I could not even think of killing him, myself. That task is being taken care of by Lakshmana. O vanaras! Now let us join together and finish all the army of Indrajit."
        Thus encouraged, impelled and prompted by Vibhishana, all the vanaras set themselves for the attack. All of them started their attack with stones, nails and teeth.
     The mighty rakshashas, with their various kinds of weapons, surrounded Jambavan, who was creating havoc on them. They struck Jambavan, who was killing many a raksha, with sharp axes, spears with sharp edges, sticks and javelins.
    Hanuman started his action by tearing up a Sala tree, approached the rakshashas and began to kill them with that.
        Indrajit, after a tumultuous fight with his uncle,  rushed towards Lakshmana for obvious reasons. The action of both the warriors were so fast that the movements of their hands to hold their bows, taking off the arrows, fitting them on their bow-strings, adjusting their fists and drawing the bow-string etc. were not visible.
         The sky  looked dark like when covered by dark clouds, by the multitude of arrows discharged by both of them. There were arrows discharged by them in front of them; there were arrows discharged by them to the right of them; there were arrows discharged by them to the left of them and there were arrows behind them, too. In short wherever one looked he was seeing arrows only.
         When the sun  set down, the prevailing darkness became more dark causing a sense of apprehension for all the onlookers. Cruel and carnivorous animals relishing that environment diffused awful sounds with their roaring noise declaring their happiness.
        At last Lakshmana started getting some advantage over his adversary. As a starter he struck the four black gold-adorned horses of Indrajit. Then, he followed it up with that arrow called Bhalla, which was yellowish in colour, with charming plumes, having a good splendour and similar to Indra's thunderbolt and echoing a clapping sound, severed the head of Indrajit's charioteer from his trunk, even as he was circling around.
       Undaunted by the loss of his chauffeur, Indrajit did the chauffeuring  himself. All the onlookers could not suppress their admiration for that hero Indrajit who was minding both his chariot and his bow and arrows, wonderfully dexterously.
        Lakshmana took advantage of the handicap of Indrajit. When he was driving his horses, Lakshmana struck him with arrows. When he was attending to his bow, Lakshamana tormented his horses.
         Unfortunately for Indrajit, he was not able to mind both his chariot and his weapons as efficiently as he liked to. He started becoming tired which pulled his enthusiasm down. 
         Seeing Indrajit looking despondent, the vanara-chiefs became delighted and acclaimed Lakshmana. Then, the four vanara-leaders Pramathi, Rabhasa, Sharabha and Gandhamadana getting impatient, decided to do something drastic which will push that rakshash Indrajit to a more disadvantageous position in the battle. Those four vanaras, having a great might and terrible prowess, quickly bounced and descended on the horses of Indrajit. Blood started flowing from the mouths of those horses pressed under the weight of those rakshashas, as huge as mountains. Those crushed horses, with their limbs broken  fell down dead on the ground. After killing his horses, those vanaras also crushed and crumbled   that great chariot and jumped back by the side of Lakshmana. Indrajit, undaunted by the loss of his charioteer and horses, leaped down from his chariot and continued his battle with Lakshmana from the ground.

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