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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