Adhyaya 28

Chapter PP.5.28, set within the Rāma-Aśvamedha account, presents a battlefield-and-ritual crisis. A king grieves intensely for his fallen son, while other sons and warriors urge him to set aside sorrow and return to the kṣatriya duty. The narrative turns to combat: Subāhu confronts Hanūmān; arrows are shattered, chariots are seized and crushed, and the king is struck down by Hanūmān’s blow and faints. In that swoon he receives a revelatory dream-vision of Rāma in Ayodhyā, praised by gods, sages, apsarās, and the embodied Vedas, recasting the struggle as an encounter with the Divine. Awakening, the king recalls a former curse and the instruction of the sage Asitāṅga: Rāma is the Supreme Brahman and Sītā is cinmayī; mere reasoning cannot grasp this truth. The chapter thus moves toward restraint, restitution, and renewed recognition of Rāma’s transcendent status.