Then ensued a fierce and a prolonged epical duel between Rama and Ravana. The clatter created during that duel was frightful to all the worlds. Both the armies of the rakshashas and vanaras were absolutely spellbound watching that duel. They stood motionless with utter fascination forgetting the fact that they had to fight their enemies.
Looking at their respective hero i.e. Rama for the vanaras and Ravana for the rakshashas, in amazement they were standing absolutely motionless. The deities watching the duel from the firmament were wondering whether all of them were turned into statues.
The favorable portents indicating his winning the battle made Rama a more competent and fearless fighter. The portents indicating the end of Ravana made him angry and determine to fight with all the resources at his disposal and employing his best nay better than than his best prowess and ability.
Whatever arrows and missiles hurled by Ravana towards Rama were warded off by counter arrows and missiles by Rama.
Ravana then tried to disable the horses of the chariot of Rama with blazing arrows. Being divine horses, they were neither shaken nor stumbled when hit by the arrows. They simply snorted.
Ravana tried maces, iron bludgeons, discs, iron clubs, mountain-tops, trees, spikes and axes without any effect on Rama, his chariot etc. Ravana then tried streams of missiles as a creation of magic and also thousands of arrows. There is no need for me to mention that all of them were made noneffective by Rama.
Realizing he could not make any dent on Rama or his chariot, including the charioteer and the horses, Ravana diverted his attack on the army of vanaras on all sides, for a change.
The way in which Ravana was fighting clearly indicated that he lost all hope of victory. However, he was fighting with all his prowess, expertise, effectiveness, mastery etc. He completely covered the sky with his arrows. Due to that dazzling shower of arrows employed by both the warriors, the shining sky looked like a second sky built with arrows.
Sometime later, the further influx of arrows from both the duelists made the sky bereft of even a breathing space.
The top two warriors of that time, Ravana and Rama carried out the fight well with sharp arrows. Rama succeeded in downing the flag-staff of Ravana.
Rama and Ravana did not relent even for an iota of a second even when severely wounded. On the other hand they strolled in the battle-field like two clouds pouring showers.
Rama hit the four splendid horses of Ravana in such a way that they were not severely wounded, but were made to feel very uncomfortable ipso facto retreat. This made Ravana very angry which was what Rama wanted. Rama also expected that the anger would make Ravana fight erratically, but that did not happen. The angry Ravana fought more ferociously wounding Rama severely. Rama bore the brunt of the arrows of Ravana with a smile. He did not get upset or totter.
Ravana then tried to irritate and anger Rama by attacking Matali, Indra's charioteer, by arrows with a sound similar to that of a thunder-bolt. As Matali had faced and would be facing very many ferocious and powerful enemies as the charioteer to Indra, he was well protected by the weapons hurled toward him. As such the arrows of great speed from the bow of Ravana falling on Matali's body, did not cause even a little of bewilderment or hurt on him in that battle.
Rama became very angry for the attack on Matali. Rama then hurled thousands of arrows on the chariot of that rakshash, Ravana. Ravana then retaliated by showering innumerable maces and mallets on Rama. The battle thus turned highly tumultuous, causing one's hair to stand erect. With the sounds of maces, mallets and iron rods and with the gusts raised by the plumes adorning the flying arrows, the seven agitated oceans were disquieted. Thousands of all danavas and pannagas (some kind of serpents), inhabiting the Patala, felt disturbed. The entire earth, including mountains, groves and forests trembled. The sun too became gloomy and the wind did not blow.
That battle between Rama and Ravana created such apprehension to all the worlds similar to the one that would be felt by the people of this our Earth when a nuclear war starts between some mighty nations.
Deciding to take drastic action, Rama hurled a very powerful serpent-like arrow on Ravana. It duly chopped off a head of Ravana, which was graced with blazing ear-rings. Everyone, including the zealous deities and others like danavas and asuras watching the battle avidly from the firmament saw that head falling on the ground. They also saw another head, exactly similar to that fallen head, popping up from the shoulders of Ravana. That second head was again chopped off by Rama with his arrow with the same result. Rama was highly irritated to see that whenever he cut a head of that rakshash, another one grew up. Rama chopped off a few scores of the heads of Ravana. Every fallen head was immediately replaced by another.
Vexed Rama became thoughtful. He was thinking very hard as to how that rakshash could be killed. Don't think that Rama became susceptible to the attacks of Ravana because he was thinking hard over something else. He was not like you and me. He was an ashtavadhani (i.e. One who does eight things at a time). May be more.
In view of the above, though Rama was deeply absorbed in thought, he remained vigilant in the battle-field. He showered streams of arrows on Ravana's chest. Ravana retaliated by showering maces and mallets on Rama.
This battle continued for seven days. Wonder whether there was any lunch break, break for drinks etc.? The answer is an emphatic NO. It is categorically stated by Maharish Valmiki that 'There was no respite in that battle between Rama and Ravana, either in the night or in the day or for an hour or even for a instant."
नैव रात्रिं न दिवसं न मुहूर्तं न च क्षणम् |
रामरावणयोर्युद्धं विराममुपगच्छति ||
This battle continued for seven days. Wonder whether there was any lunch break, break for drinks etc.? The answer is an emphatic NO. It is categorically stated by Maharish Valmiki that 'There was no respite in that battle between Rama and Ravana, either in the night or in the day or for an hour or even for a instant."
नैव रात्रिं न दिवसं न मुहूर्तं न च क्षणम् |
रामरावणयोर्युद्धं विराममुपगच्छति ||
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