युद्धकाण्ड
Yuddhakāṇḍa constitutes the martial and theological climax of Vālmīki’s Ādikāvya, narrating the campaign in Laṅkā that culminates in Sītā’s recovery and Rāvaṇa’s fall. The book opens with Hanumān’s successful report and the strategic consolidation of the vānaras under Rāma and Sugrīva. It then shifts to the oceanic threshold—Rāma’s ritualized appeal to Sāgara, the ensuing cosmic turbulence, and the engineering of the setu—before the narrative enters the fortified, opulent, and ominous cityscape of Laṅkā. A distinctive feature of this kāṇḍa is its sustained alternation between counsel (mantra) and combat (yuddha): Rāvaṇa’s court debates, Vibhīṣaṇa’s dharmic admonitions and defection, and the catalogues of heroes and formations are juxtaposed with escalating battle set-pieces. Major antagonists appear in successive “waves” (Dhumrākṣa, Vajradaṃṣṭra, Prahasta, Kumbhakarṇa, and Indrajit), each defeat deepening the moral logic that adharma generates strategic blindness and isolation. The poetry repeatedly expands to cosmic scale—portents, tempest imagery, rivers of blood, and end-of-age similes—while preserving intimate registers of śoka, especially in Sītā’s laments and Rāma’s vulnerability. Within the 24,000-verse architecture of the epic, Yuddhakāṇḍa functions as the decisive proving-ground of rājadharma: disciplined force is framed as legitimate only when governed by truth, restraint, alliance-ethics, and protection of the innocent. This overview follows the IIT Kanpur Southern Recension tradition, which preserves additional conventional verses and amplifies certain battle descriptions and courtly deliberations beyond some critical reconstructions.
After Hanumān confirms Sītā’s survival, Rāma advances with the vānaras to the seashore, compels Sāgara to yield a passage, and crosses to Laṅkā. Vibhīṣaṇa defects from Rāvaṇa and becomes Rāma’s strategic ally. The siege intensifies through successive battles in which leading rākṣasas fall. Indrajit’s māyā and ritual power temporarily disable Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa and demoralize the vānaras, but counsel and renewed resolve restore the campaign. The conflict escalates with Kumbhakarṇa’s awakening and death and culminates in the decisive confrontation that leads to the collapse of Rāvaṇa’s regime and the recovery of Sītā.
प्रथमः सर्गः — Rama Praises Hanuman; Anxiety over Crossing the Ocean
This sarga opens with Rāma listening to Hanumān’s report and responding with visible affection and formal praise. Rāma elevates Hanumān’s achievement as nearly unparalleled—crossing the great ocean and entering the heavily guarded city of Laṅkā—framing it as an exemplar of ideal service (bhṛtya-dharma). A graded ethical typology of servants is articulated: the best performs difficult tasks with devotion; the mediocre fails to anticipate what is dear to the king; the base fails even at the entrusted duty. Rāma then acknowledges that Hanumān’s success safeguards the Raghu line by confirming Vaidehī’s whereabouts, yet he expresses a poignant inability to repay such pleasing speech and service adequately, offering an embrace as “all he can give” at that moment. The discourse pivots from celebration to strategy: despite successful intelligence, Rāma’s mind becomes agitated by the logistical and existential challenge of crossing the vast, difficult-to-ford ocean with the assembled vānaras. The chapter closes with Rāma, sorrow-stirred yet resolute, turning toward reflection and consultation centered on Hanumān and the impending ocean-crossing problem.
युद्धकाण्डे द्वितीयः सर्गः — Sugriva’s Counsel: From Grief to Strategy (Bridge to Lanka)
This sarga is structured as Sugrīva’s sustained upadeśa to a sorrow-stricken Rāma. He rebukes Rāma’s grief as unworthy of a kṣatriya leader and frames sorrow as a force that erodes śaurya and destroys outcomes. The counsel pivots from psychological restoration (abandon despondency; adopt resolute energy and even controlled wrath) to operational reasoning: with Sītā’s location known and Laṅkā identified atop Trikūṭa, there is no rational basis for paralysis. Sugrīva emphasizes coalition strength—Vānara leaders are capable, motivated, and even willing to enter fire for Rāma’s cause—then advances the central logistical thesis: Laṅkā cannot be subdued without first constructing a setu across the dreadful ocean (Varuṇa’s abode). He repeatedly offers a victory-criterion: once the bridge is built and the army crosses, victory should be considered effectively secured. The chapter closes with confidence-signs (nimitta) and reassurance that no foe in the three worlds can face Rāma when he takes up the bow.
लङ्कादुर्गवर्णनम् (Description of Lanka’s Fortifications and Forces)
Sarga 3 is a structured intelligence-briefing framed as dialogue. After hearing Sugriva’s well-reasoned counsel, Rama turns to Hanuman and requests a precise report: the size of the enemy forces, the number and nature of hard-to-enter gateways, protective measures, and rakshasa dwellings. Hanuman, praised as foremost among skilled speakers, agrees to relate the fortification system methodically. He depicts Lanka as prosperous and militarily alert: chariots, rutting elephants, and innumerable rakshasas; lofty wide gateways with metal-fixed doors and iron bars; defensive engines that discharge darts and stones; and guards prepared with spiked missiles (śataghnī). The city is ringed by a lofty, gem-studded golden wall and deep moats with cold water, fish, and crocodiles. Movable bridges are raised by engines to deny entry. Hanuman further outlines Ravana’s constant vigilance and provides a gate-wise garrison distribution, culminating in the strategic inference that if the ocean crossing is achieved, Lanka’s fall is assured. The chapter closes with Hanuman urging swift mobilization at an auspicious time.
समुद्रतट-प्रयाणम् तथा वेलावन-निवेशः (March to the Seacoast and Encampment at the Shore)
Sarga 4 opens with Rāma responding to Hanumān’s report about Laṅkā, declaring an immediate resolve to destroy the rākṣasa stronghold and recover Sītā. He frames the departure as auspicious—citing stellar configurations and favorable omens—and issues operational orders that reveal disciplined coalition warfare: Nīla is appointed to lead the vanguard, secure a route rich in water, fruits, and roots, and prevent rākṣasa sabotage of provisions; vānaras are instructed to reconnoiter difficult terrain, including lowlands, forest-forts, and concealed positions. The chapter then expands into a detailed march-narrative: the vānaras move in immense, organized formations with named commanders guarding flanks and rear, while Lakṣmaṇa interprets celestial signs as portents of success. The army traverses the Sahya and Malaya ranges, reaches Mahendra, and finally arrives at the varuṇālaya (the ocean). Confronted with the vast, dangerous sea—poetically described as indistinguishable from the sky, inhabited by makaras, serpents, and timingila fish—Rāma commands a coastal encampment and calls for counsel on how to cross, marking the strategic pause before the engineering and diplomatic solutions to the ocean barrier.
सेनानिवेशः रामविलापश्च (Encampment on the Northern Shore; Rama’s Lament and Sandhyā)
Sarga 5 opens with disciplined military organization: Nīla establishes the Vānara host on the sea’s northern shore according to customary procedure, while Mainda and Dvivida patrol in all directions to secure the camp. Once the army is settled, Rāma turns to Lakṣmaṇa and articulates a sustained lament of separation (vipralambha), noting that ordinary grief may fade with time, yet his sorrow intensifies because Sītā remains unseen. His speech moves through ethical anxiety (her youth passing, her vulnerability among rākṣasas) and vivid poetic similes—surviving by news of her life as a dry field moistened by a neighboring irrigated field; Sītā emerging from rākṣasas like the crescent moon from autumn clouds. The lament oscillates between longing, protective duty, and resolve to defeat the rākṣasa king and retrieve her. As the day ends, Lakṣmaṇa consoles him; Rāma, still grief-stricken yet disciplined, performs evening worship (sandhyā-upāsanā) while remembering Sītā.
रावणस्य मन्त्रविचारः — Ravana’s Council on Strategy
This sarga opens with Rāvaṇa assessing the भयावह (terrifying) consequences of Hanumān’s actions in Laṅkā—an intrusion that included destruction, the killing of leading rākṣasas, and the successful sighting of Sītā. Marked by a rare note of शर्म/ह्री (shame) and a lowered head, the rākṣasa king turns to collective deliberation, explicitly treating victory as मन्त्र-मूल (rooted in counsel). He then classifies human agency and advisory quality into a threefold typology—uttama, madhyama, adhama—linking competence to the discipline of consultation and to reliance on daiva (trust in a higher moral order). The “best” actor deliberates with capable ministers and allies and proceeds with faith; the “mediocre” acts alone; the “lowly” ignores merit and demerit and asserts egoic independence (“I will do it”) without daiva. Extending this into political theory, he ranks counsel itself: unanimous, śāstra-informed agreement is optimal; consensus reached after divergent views is middling; stubborn factional speech without unity is condemned. The chapter concludes with an immediate strategic urgency: Rāma, surrounded by thousands of valorous Vānaras, is approaching to besiege Laṅkā, and Rāvaṇa requests a plan benefiting both city and army.
राक्षसपरिषद्वाक्यम् — Counsel of the Rakshasa Court to Ravana
In this chapter, the rākṣasa elders and warriors address Rāvaṇa with folded hands, attempting to stabilize his resolve through courtly reassurance and martial boasting. They argue that the threat arises from ‘ordinary’ opponents and should not trouble the king’s mind, while also revealing a lack of nuanced political intelligence in their assessment of the enemy. The speech functions as a catalog of Rāvaṇa’s prior conquests: subjugation of nāgas in Rasātala (including Vāsuki and Takṣaka), humiliation of Kubera and seizure of the Puṣpaka vimāna from Kailāsa, and the alliance-by-fear that brought Mandodarī (daughter of the dānava Maya) as wife. The court further praises victories over dānavas (including Madhu) and mythic warfare imagery describing a plunge into a ‘Yama-loka ocean’ of death-like perils, emphasizing Rāvaṇa’s reputation for overcoming existential threats. The counsel culminates in strategic recommendation: dispatch Indrajit, credited with obtaining rare boons from Maheśvara through sacrifice and with having once captured Indra and entered Laṅkā with him, to annihilate the vānar forces and even Rāma.
युद्धकाण्डे अष्टमः सर्गः — राक्षससभा-युद्धपरामर्शः (War-Council Boasts and Stratagems)
Sarga 8 stages a Laṅkā court war-council in which multiple Rākṣasa leaders compete to frame the threat and propose responses after Hanumān’s earlier disruptions. Prahasta, described as cloud-dark and speaking with folded palms, advances a rhetoric of contempt for Hanumān and proposes victory through upāya (cunning stratagem) and vigilance rather than raw bravado: thousands of kāmarūpa Rākṣasas should approach Rāma in human guise and deliver deceptive speech to destabilize Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa. The discourse then shifts to escalating vows of single-handed slaughter: Durmukha condemns the humiliation as unforgivable; Vajradaṃṣṭra grasps a gore-stained iron bludgeon; Vajrahanu and others boast of consuming or killing the Vānara leaders (Sugrīva, Aṅgada, Hanumān) and even Rāma with Lakṣmaṇa. A further ruse is voiced—claiming Bharata is coming with an army—to sow confusion. The sarga thus documents the court’s psychology: strategic deception is articulated, but it is repeatedly overshadowed by performative martial arrogance, offering a literary study in counsel, propaganda, and the ethical contrast between dharmic resolve and adharmic manipulation.
विभीषणोपदेशः — Vibhishana’s Counsel to Ravana
This sarga opens with a catalogue-like mobilization: prominent rākṣasa leaders (including Indrajit and other named commanders) rise in fury, armed with heavy weapons—parigha (iron club), paṭṭiśa, prāsa, śakti, śūla, paraśu, bows, arrows, and sharp swords—declaring intent to kill Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Sugrīva, and Hanumān. Vibhīṣaṇa intervenes, halts the armed assembly, and delivers a structured nīti discourse: acts unattainable through the three diplomatic means (sāma, dāna, bheda) must be pursued only after due consideration and by valor; success depends on methodical assessment rather than rash contempt. He then reframes the conflict ethically and strategically—warning against underestimating the enemy, citing Hanumān’s ocean-crossing as evidence of extraordinary capability, and questioning the justice of Rāvaṇa’s original offence (the abduction of Sītā). Vibhīṣaṇa urges de-escalation: relinquish anger, avoid purposeless enmity with a dharma-aligned, steadfast Rāma, and restore Maithilī/Sītā before Laṅkā and its rākṣasas face ruin. Rāvaṇa hears the counsel, dismisses the assembly, and withdraws into his palace, leaving the warning unheeded in spirit though formally concluded.
विभीषणोपदेशः — Vibhishana’s Counsel to Ravana and the Catalogue of Omens
At dawn, Vibhīṣaṇa proceeds to Rāvaṇa’s fortified residence, described in elevated architectural and courtly detail (gold-adorned seats, Vedic recitations, and ritual preparations). Entering with proper decorum, he greets Rāvaṇa seated in royal splendor and addresses him privately in the presence of ministers. Vibhīṣaṇa frames his speech as हित (welfare-oriented counsel), grounded in timing, place, and pragmatic statecraft. He reports a sequence of अशुभ-निमित्त (inauspicious omens) observed since Vaidehī’s arrival in Laṅkā: sacrificial fires burning poorly with smoke and sparks; serpents and ants appearing in ritual spaces and offerings; livestock and war-animals showing distress and abnormality; harsh cries of crows, gatherings of eagles over the city, and thunder-like sounds of carnivorous animals at the gates. From this omenology he derives a political-ethical remedy: the appropriate “atonement” is to return Vaidehī to Rāghava. He also clarifies his motive as neither delusion nor greed, noting that ministers have remained silent out of fear. Rāvaṇa, seized by anger, rejects the counsel with boasts of invulnerability and dismisses Vibhīṣaṇa, marking a critical narrative hinge where reasoned advice is refused and war becomes inevitable.
रावणस्य सभाप्रवेशः (Ravana Enters the Royal Assembly and Summons Counsel)
Sarga 11 frames a courtly-military transition: Rāvaṇa, weakened by passion for Maithilī and the social consequences of sinful action, recognizes the urgency of elapsed time and deems consultation on war imminent (6.11.1–2). He ascends a magnificently ornamented chariot and proceeds toward the sabhā amid tumultuous instruments and conch sounds, escorted by armed rākṣasas in varied attire and weaponry (6.11.3–9). The chapter then shifts to ceremonial spectacle—royal road, canopy, cāmara fans, salutations, and praise—culminating in Rāvaṇa entering Viśvakarmā’s ever-shining assembly hall with gold-silver pillars, crystal-like interior, golden silk coverings, and heavy guard (6.11.10–16). Seated upon a gem-inlaid throne, he commands swift messengers to muster rākṣasas across Laṅkā for a major task against the enemies (6.11.17–20). The mustering fills the capital; leaders arrive by chariot, horse, elephant, and on foot, park vehicles, and enter like lions into a mountain cave, observing protocol in seating and silence (6.11.21–25, 6.11.31). Ministers, warriors, and finally Vibhīṣaṇa arrive; fragrances of sandal and incense pervade the hall, and Rāvaṇa shines among armed heroes like Indra among the Vasus—an image that contrasts political radiance with moral fragility (6.11.26–32).
युद्धकाण्डे द्वादशः सर्गः — रावणस्य परिषद्-सम्बोधनं कुम्भकर्णस्य नीत्युपदेशश्च (Ravana’s Council Address and Kumbhakarna’s Counsel)
Sarga 12 presents a courtly strategy session in Laṅkā. Rāvaṇa surveys the full rākṣasa assembly and orders Prahasta, the army chief, to intensify city defense by deploying the fourfold divisions inside and outside the fortifications. After Prahasta reports readiness, Rāvaṇa addresses his intimates, asserting that his undertakings are counsel-led and unfailing, and explains that Kumbhakarṇa had been uninformed due to prolonged sleep. Rāvaṇa then rationalizes his seizure of Sītā from Daṇḍakāraṇya and describes his desire and frustration at her refusal, revealing a governance crisis where kāma distorts judgment. He raises strategic anxieties about the ocean crossing, yet simultaneously claims invulnerability to humans, noting Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa have reached the shore with Sugrīva and the Vānara forces to reclaim Sītā. Kumbhakarṇa, hearing this passion-laden lament, rebukes the lack of prior deliberation, articulates nīti: actions without proper means and sequencing fail, and hasty decisions ignore enemy strength. He nevertheless offers to rectify the situation through force, vowing to kill Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa and crush the Vānara leaders, urging Rāvaṇa to resume confidence and pleasures while he prosecutes the war.
महापार्श्वस्य परामर्शः — Mahāpārśva’s Counsel and Rāvaṇa’s Confession of Brahmā’s Curse
This sarga presents a courtly counsel sequence followed by a disclosure that reframes Rāvaṇa’s coercive intent through the constraint of a divine curse. Mahāpārśva, recognizing Rāvaṇa’s anger, approaches with folded palms and offers hardline advice: dismiss conciliatory and diplomatic expedients and rely on daṇḍa (force), asserting that Kumbhakarṇa and Indrajit can repel even Indra, and urging Rāvaṇa to dominate enemies and forcibly enjoy Sītā. Rāvaṇa, pleased by the counsel, replies by revealing a private history: while traveling toward Brahmā’s abode he saw the celestial woman Puñjikāsthā (glowing like a flame), violated her, and incurred Brahmā’s wrath. Brahmā’s śāpa declares that if Rāvaṇa ever forces another woman, his head will shatter into a hundred pieces; hence he cannot compel Sītā to his bed despite desire. The chapter then pivots to martial boasting: Rāvaṇa claims ocean-like speed and wind-like movement, likens awakening him to rousing a cave-lion or death itself, and threatens to blaze Rāma with thunderbolt-like arrows and to disperse Rāma’s army like the rising sun outshines stars—culminating in the assertion that even Indra or Varuṇa cannot withstand him and that he once seized Laṅkā from Kubera by strength.
विभीषणोपदेशः (Vibhīṣaṇa’s Counsel to Rāvaṇa and the Rākṣasa Court)
Sarga 14 is structured as a courtly debate on feasibility, ethics, and statecraft at the threshold of Laṅkā’s military catastrophe. After hearing Rāvaṇa’s stance and Kumbhakarṇa’s roars, Vibhīṣaṇa delivers nīti-driven counsel: the anti-Rāma objective is impossible, and unrighteous intent cannot yield ‘svarga-like’ success. He argues by analogy (the non-swimmer cannot cross the ocean) and by comparative force assessment, emphasizing Rāma’s dharma-centered prowess and battlefield supremacy. Vibhīṣaṇa repeatedly urges the immediate restitution of Sītā to Rāma before Laṅkā’s leaders are decapitated by thunderbolt-like arrows. Prahasta counters with bravado, denying fear of gods or other beings; Vibhīṣaṇa responds with sharper warnings, listing rākṣasa champions who cannot withstand Rāghava. The discourse then shifts to political pathology: Rāvaṇa is portrayed as vice-driven, impulsive, and effectively ‘entwined by a thousand-hooded serpent’—a metaphor for self-made bondage. The chapter closes with a ministerial maxim: prudent advice must weigh enemy strength, one’s own capacity, and the state’s prospects for growth or decline, aiming solely at the king’s welfare.
विभीषण–इन्द्रजित् संवादः (Vibhishana and Indrajit: Counsel, Boast, and Rebuttal)
Sarga 15 stages a sharp rhetorical contest between Indrajit (Meghanāda), leader of the Rakṣasa host, and Vibhīṣaṇa, whose counsel is characterized as Brihaspati-like in intelligence. Indrajit first dismisses Vibhīṣaṇa’s warnings as fearful and unbecoming, disparaging him as lacking valor within the clan and claiming that even an ordinary Rakṣasa could slay the human princes in battle. He amplifies his authority through martial boasting—asserting he once cast down Indra and subdued Airāvata—thereby framing Rama and Lakshmana as merely “ordinary humans.” Vibhīṣaṇa replies with nīti-oriented correction: Indrajit is immature in judgment, self-destructive in speech, and deluded in accepting Ravana’s course despite hearing of impending ruin. The exchange escalates into moral indictment (false friendship, harmful counsel) and culminates in a pragmatic proposal: surrender Sītā to Rama with wealth and ornaments to end sorrow and avert annihilation. The chapter thus juxtaposes prideful militarism with ethical statecraft and realistic risk assessment.
विभीषणोपदेशे रावणस्य परुषवाक्यम् (Ravana’s Harsh Reply to Vibhishana’s Counsel)
Sarga 16 presents a courtly rupture framed as an ethics-of-counsel episode. Vibhīṣaṇa offers हित (wholesome, well-intended advice) aimed at Rāvaṇa’s welfare, but Rāvaṇa—explicitly described as kāla-codita (impelled by fate/death)—responds with parūṣa-vākya (harsh speech). Rāvaṇa’s retort is structured through a chain of didactic similes about the futility of friendship with an anārya (unworthy/unethical person): water on lotus leaves that will not adhere, bees that lack gratitude after tasting sweetness, an elephant that soils itself after bathing, and autumn clouds that thunder yet fail to moisten—each image reinforcing moral sterility where virtue is absent. He further threatens Vibhīṣaṇa, implying immediate punishment if such words came from another. Vibhīṣaṇa, characterized as nyāya-vādī (speaker of just reasoning), rises with a mace and four rākṣasas, ascends into the sky, and rebukes Rāvaṇa: elder-brother status deserves honor, yet Rāvaṇa has strayed from dharma. Vibhīṣaṇa articulates a core political-ethical maxim: pleasant speakers are common; speakers and listeners of unpleasant but beneficial truth are rare. He warns Rāvaṇa is bound by death’s noose and will be struck by Rāma’s fiery arrows; even mighty warriors fall when seized by kāla. Concluding with formal leave-taking, he asks pardon for speaking as an elder’s well-wisher, urges Rāvaṇa to protect himself and Laṅkā, and departs—while the narrator generalizes that those nearing death do not accept friends’ good counsel.
विभीषणागमनम् (Vibhīṣaṇa’s Arrival and the Debate on Refuge)
Sarga 17 stages a counsel-centered episode that frames the ethics of asylum and the risks of deception. After rebuking Rāvaṇa and urging the return of Sītā, Vibhīṣaṇa departs Laṅkā with four companions and reaches Rāma’s vicinity, remaining airborne near the northern shore. He introduces himself as Rāvaṇa’s younger brother, recounts Sītā’s abduction and confinement, and requests that his presence be reported to Rāghava as a seeker of protection. Sugrīva interprets the arrival through the lens of statecraft: he warns that shape-shifting Rākṣasas may be spies, advocates severe measures (even execution), and urges vigilance in counsel, formations, and intelligence. Rāma acknowledges the reasoned warning and solicits opinions from leading Vānara ministers. Aṅgada, Śarabha, Jāmbavān, and Mainda propose suspicion, surveillance, and careful interrogation. Hanumān counters with a behavioral-psychology argument: intent is difficult to ascertain instantly; Vibhīṣaṇa’s speech, demeanor, and composure do not indicate malice; form and tone typically betray hidden motives. The chapter thus functions as a practical manual of political prudence integrated with an ethical inquiry into when and how refuge should be granted.
शरणागति-धर्मनिर्णयः (Decision on Refuge and Dharma) / Rama’s Vow of Protection and the Acceptance of Vibhishana
Sarga 18 is a policy-and-ethics colloquy situated at a decisive moment: Vibhīṣaṇa’s approach and the allied camp’s uncertainty. Rāma, pleased after hearing Hanumān, announces his intention to speak on Vibhīṣaṇa and invites his well-wishers to listen. Sugrīva responds with suspicion, interpreting Vibhīṣaṇa as a possible agent sent by Rāvaṇa and recommending restraint or capture. Rāma counters by asserting his invulnerability and then pivots to normative reasoning: he cites traditional exempla (the dove offering hospitality even to an enemy; remembered dharma-verses attributed to the sage Kandu) to establish that a suppliant with folded hands must not be harmed. The discourse crystallizes into a formal vow: whoever seeks refuge even once—whether Vibhīṣaṇa, Sugrīva, or even Rāvaṇa—will be granted fearlessness (abhaya) by Rāma. Sugrīva, moved by this dharmic articulation and his own inner assessment of Vibhīṣaṇa’s purity, endorses acceptance and urges immediate friendship. The chapter closes with Rāma proceeding to meet Vibhīṣaṇa, framing the episode as a doctrinal anchor for śaraṇāgati within royal conduct.
विभीषणाभिषेकः — The Consecration of Vibhishana and Counsel on Crossing the Ocean
This sarga frames a key alliance event as a public, ritualized act of political legitimacy. After Rāma grants abhaya (assured protection), Vibhīṣaṇa descends, prostrates, and formally seeks refuge, surrendering his former ties to Laṅkā and placing life and sovereignty at Rāma’s disposal. Rāma responds with measured reassurance and requests an intelligence briefing on rākṣasa strengths and vulnerabilities. Vibhīṣaṇa enumerates principal threats—Rāvaṇa’s boon-based near-invulnerability, Kumbhakarṇa’s warlike power, Prahasta’s prior victory over Maṇibhadra, Indrajit’s invisibility through fire-rites, and other commanders—alongside the scale and ferocity of Laṅkā’s forces. Rāma then makes a binding political promise: upon Rāvaṇa’s defeat, Vibhīṣaṇa will be installed as king. The promise is immediately enacted through consecration: Lakṣmaṇa brings ocean-water and, amid the Vānara chiefs, anoints Vibhīṣaṇa as rākṣasa-rāja, prompting celebratory acclaim. The chapter closes with operational planning: Hanūmān and Sugrīva ask how to cross the imperturbable ocean; Vibhīṣaṇa advises seeking Sāgara’s refuge, citing dynastic ties to Sagara. Sugrīva relays this counsel; Rāma approves and sits on kuśa grass on the shore, poised for the next ritual-strategic step toward Laṅkā.
दूत-नीति, शुक-प्रसङ्गः (Envoy-Ethics and the Episode of Śuka)
Sarga 20 stages a compact sequence of reconnaissance, diplomatic messaging, and a public test of wartime ethics. The rākṣasa spy Śārdūla enters Sugrīva’s encampment, observes the bannered army, and reports to Rāvaṇa that the vānaras and bears approach Laṅkā like a second, immeasurable ocean; he also notes Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa stationed by the seashore and the vast spread of forces. Rāvaṇa then commissions Śuka to deliver a calculated message to Sugrīva: praising his lineage and strength while minimizing Rāvaṇa’s wrongdoing and asserting Laṅkā’s invincibility—an attempt at psychological deterrence and alliance-fracture. Śuka transforms into a bird, speaks from the sky, and is assaulted by enraged vānaras; he invokes the rule that envoys should not be killed and distinguishes between a faithful messenger and one who adds unauthorized speech. Rāma intervenes to uphold dūta-dharma and orders Śuka released. When Śuka resumes speech from safety, Sugrīva replies with a firm counter-message to be conveyed to Rāvaṇa: a declaration of inevitable defeat, the impossibility of escape even through concealment or divine refuge, and a moral indictment tied to Sītā’s abduction and Jatāyu’s killing. Angada suspects Śuka is a spy who has assessed the army, urging capture; the scene thus balances security concerns with normative restraint, making envoy-protection a didactic centerpiece within the war setting.
सागरप्रतीक्षा-क्रोधप्रादुर्भावः (Rama’s Vigil at the Ocean and the Rise of Wrath)
At the seashore, Rāma performs a disciplined act of approach: he spreads kuśa grass, faces east, offers añjali to the ocean, and lies down in a vow-bound vigil. Three nights pass as he waits upon Sāgara, ‘lord of rivers,’ yet the ocean does not manifest a responsive ‘form’ despite being duly honored. This non-response triggers a shift from self-restraint to righteous anger: Rāma articulates a political-ethical critique that virtues such as calmness, forbearance, straightforwardness, and courteous speech can be misconstrued as weakness when confronted by the ‘attribute-less’ (nirguṇa) or prideful. He warns Lakṣmaṇa that fame and victory are not secured by mere conciliation, then resolves to dry up or torment the ocean with serpent-like arrows so the Vānara host may cross on foot. As he bends the terrible bow, the narrative amplifies cosmic consequence—arrows blaze into the waters, waves surge like mountains, conchs and shells churn, smoke rises, and underworld nāgas and dānavas are distressed—until Saumitrī restrains him, seizing the bow and urging “enough.”
सागरप्रशमनम् / The Pacification of the Ocean and the Building of Nala’s Bridge
Sarga 22 stages a transition from impasse to engineered passage. Rāma, angered by the ocean’s obstruction, vows to dry the sea to the underworld with Brahmā-astra-charged force, and cosmic disturbances follow—winds, clouds, lightning, darkness, and terrified visible and invisible beings. The Ocean-lord (Sāgara/Varuṇālaya) rises in regal theophany, explains the inviolability of the five elements’ svabhāva, and offers a lawful alternative: a stable crossing via a bridge, while requesting Rāma’s unfailing arrow be redirected to punish sinful marauders at Drumakūlya. Rāma releases the missile accordingly, producing the famed desert tract (Marukāntāra), a ‘Vrana’ well with brackish upwelling, and a new auspicious route by boon. The Ocean then identifies Nala, son of Viśvakarmā, as the divinely competent architect; Nala accepts the commission. Vānara forces gather trees, boulders, and mountains, and the bridge is constructed rapidly across successive days, admired by gods and sages who bless Rāma. The chapter integrates ethical anger-management, cosmological doctrine (svabhāva), and infrastructural statecraft as instruments of dharma.
निमित्तदर्शनम् (Portents Before the March to Laṅkā)
Sarga 23 is structured as a command-and-omen discourse. Rāma, described as perceiving portents, embraces Saumitri (Lakṣmaṇa) and issues operational instructions: arrange a secure forest halt with cool water and fruit, divide the battalions, and stand in formation (vyūha) with vigilance. He then interprets a cascade of apocalyptic signs—dust-laden winds, trembling earth and mountains, falling trees, flesh-colored clouds raining blood-like drops, a terrifying twilight, fiery masses seeming to fall from the sun, distressed animals crying against the sun, and the moon and sun displaying abnormal hues and halos. These nimittas are framed not as paralysis but as forewarning of heavy casualties among bears, monkeys, and rākṣasas, and as the imminence of decisive violence. The chapter closes with immediate mobilization: the Vānara host turns toward Rāvaṇa’s city, Rāma advances at the front with bow in hand, and Sugrīva and Vibhīṣaṇa proceed roaring, while the Vānara warriors perform exuberant actions to hearten Rāma—linking morale-building to dharmic resolve in war.
लङ्कानिरीक्षणं व्यूहविन्यासश्च (Survey of Lanka and Deployment of the Battle Formation)
Sarga 24 stages the threshold moment before open battle. The Vanara host, settled by Rāma’s command, is likened to an autumnal full moon amid auspicious stars, then surges forward with oceanic force, shaking the earth. From Laṅkā come terrifying drum-resonances; the Vanaras answer with louder roars, matched by Rākṣasa alarm. Rāma, sorrowing for Sītā, points out Laṅkā’s elevated, sky-clasping architecture and its garden splendor—white-cloud-like vimānas, Chaitraratha-like groves, and trees alive with birds, cuckoos, and bees. He then directs a śāstra-aligned military division (vyūha): Angada with Nīla at the center, Ṛṣabha on the southern flank, Gandhamādana on the right flank, while Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa hold the head; Jāmbavān and Suṣeṇa with bear chiefs guard the ‘belly,’ and Sugrīva protects the rear. The organized army shines like cloud-masses in heaven, and Vanaras arm themselves with mountain-peaks and trees to pulverize Laṅkā. With the formation complete, the envoy Śuka is released and returns terrified to Rāvaṇa. Śuka reports the Vanaras’ fury, Rāma’s arrival after bridge-building, and urges immediate choice: return Sītā or prepare for war. Rāvaṇa responds with red-eyed wrath and boasts—refusing to yield Sītā even against gods, and proclaiming the irresistible ‘fire’ of his arrows—thereby sealing the inevitability of conflict.
शुकसारण-चारप्रवेशः (Suka and Sāraṇa’s Espionage and Release)
After learning that Rāma, Daśaratha’s son, has crossed the ocean with the vānar host and that a sea-bridge has been achieved, an energized Rāvaṇa commissions his ministers-spies, Śuka and Sāraṇa, to infiltrate the enemy camp unnoticed. Their intelligence brief includes: estimating troop strength, identifying leading vānar chiefs and the effective commanders, assessing the bridge construction, locating encampments across mountains, caves, shores, forests, and gardens, and evaluating Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa’s resolve, valor, and weaponry. Disguised as vānaras, they enter the host but are overwhelmed by the army’s seemingly uncountable magnitude and deafening martial roar. Vibhīṣaṇa detects the hidden spies, seizes them, and presents them to Rāma. Though the spies fear execution, Rāma responds with composed humor and principled restraint: having completed their reconnaissance, they may return freely; if anything remains unseen, Vibhīṣaṇa can show them the forces in full. Rāma explicitly articulates a rule of war—envoys and the unarmed should not be slain—and orders their release. He instructs them to report his message to Rāvaṇa: display the strength that enabled Sītā’s abduction, and witness at dawn how Laṅkā’s defenses and rākṣasa power will be shattered. Returning to Laṅkā, Śuka and Sāraṇa testify to Rāma’s righteousness and the terrifying capability of the four leaders—Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Vibhīṣaṇa, and Sugrīva—advising conciliation and the return of Maithilī as the prudent course.
वानरमुख्य-परिचयः (Catalogue of Principal Vānara Leaders)
Sarga 26 frames a reconnaissance-to-intelligence exchange inside Laṅkā. After Sāraṇa offers frank, beneficial counsel, Rāvaṇa replies with defiant refusal to surrender Sītā even against cosmic opposition. Seeking direct assessment, Rāvaṇa ascends a lofty, snow-white palace with the spies (Suka and Sāraṇa) to view the vast Vānara host spread across the coastal terrain. Confronted by an innumerable army, he interrogates Sāraṇa: who among the Vānaras are foremost, who are the chief advisers to Sugrīva, and which leaders should be feared. Sāraṇa then identifies prominent commanders and their martial characteristics in a structured catalogue: Nīla at the forefront of Sugrīva’s forces; Aṅgada, Vāli’s son and crowned heir, issuing a direct challenge; Nala, associated with the setu enterprise; and further troop-leaders (Śveta, Kumuda, Rambha, Śarabha, Panasa, Vinata, Krodhana, Gavaya), each described through physiognomy, habitat/mountain associations, troop counts, and aggressive intent toward Laṅkā. The chapter functions as a strategic “enemy order of battle,” combining epic poetics with statecraft-oriented threat assessment.
वानर-ऋक्ष-सेना-प्रशंसा (Cataloguing the Vanara and Bear Forces)
This sarga functions as a martial catalogue and visual briefing: a speaker (addressing the rākṣasa king as “rājan”) describes the allied vanara and ṛkṣa forces assembled for Rāghava’s cause, emphasizing their willingness to risk life (rāghavārthe parākrāntāḥ). The passage identifies prominent leaders and troop-types with vivid similes and genealogical notes: Hara distinguished by a multicolored, radiant tail; the ferocious bears likened to dark storm-clouds; their lord Dhūmra dwelling at Ṛkṣavān and drinking the Narmadā; Jāmbavān, mountain-like and superior among leaders, famed for aiding Indra in the deva–asura war and receiving boons; Dhamba, a fearsome harīśvara surrounded like Indra; Sannadana, described as the vanara ‘grandfather’ with colossal measurements who once fought Indra without defeat; Krōdhana/Krathana residing on Kailāsa near Kubera’s Jambū tree; Pramathi leading a dust-whirling, swift army; Gavākṣa surrounded by Golāṅgūla troops after seeing the bridge; Kesarin reveling on a golden mountain amid perpetual fruits and honey; and Śatabalī, sun-worshipping and intent on crushing Laṅkā. The chapter closes by stressing the incalculable scale of allied forces and their capacity to reshape the earth’s mountains—an epic rhetoric of deterrence and morale.
शुकवाक्यं (Śuka’s Report on the Vānara Host) / Śuka Describes the Allied Forces to Rāvaṇa
After Sāraṇa’s briefing, Śuka continues a structured intelligence report to Rāvaṇa, framing the approaching Vānara coalition as both tactically formidable and morally anchored. He first characterizes the Vānaras as hard to resist—shape-shifters with divine-like prowess—then identifies key leaders: Mainda and Dvivida as near-immortal combatants; Hanumān as wind-born, ocean-leaping, form-changing, and historically verified by his earlier mission to Laṅkā (including the tail-burning episode). Śuka then pivots to the human principals: Rāma as an Ikṣvāku atiratha whose dharma is unwavering and whose Brahmā-astras and archery are portrayed as world-piercing; Lakṣmaṇa as Rāma’s indispensable “right hand,” skilled in polity and warfare. Vibhīṣaṇa is noted on Rāma’s left as the consecrated king aligned against Rāvaṇa. The sarga further employs a numerical lexicon (śaṅkhu, mahāśaṅkhu, bṛnda, padma, kharva, samudra, ogha, mahaugha) to dramatize the army’s scale, culminating in an admonition: seeing this “blazing-planet-like” host, Rāvaṇa must exert supreme effort to avoid defeat.
शुकसारणनिग्रहः / Ravana Rebukes Suka and Sārana; Spies Reconnoiter Rama’s Camp
Sarga 29 stages a court-to-camp intelligence cycle central to cāra-nīti. After hearing Śuka’s report describing the assembled vānaras and Rāma’s principal allies—Lakṣmaṇa as Rāma’s ‘right arm’, Sugrīva, Aṅgada, Hanūmān, Jāmbavān, and other commanders—Rāvaṇa becomes inwardly shaken yet outwardly furious. He rebukes Śuka and Sārana for praising the enemy before war, framing the impropriety as a ministerial failure of rājanīti and loyalty. He threatens punishment, then restrains himself by recalling their prior services, dismissing them rather than executing them. Turning to operational policy, Rāvaṇa orders Mahodara to summon expert spies and commands them to examine Rāma’s intentions, routines, and inner circle. The spies depart under Śārdūla’s lead, reach the Suvela region in disguise, and are recognized by the righteous Vibhīṣaṇa; Śārdūla is seized. As vānaras move to kill the intruders, Rāma’s compassion intervenes, releasing Śārdūla and the others. Harassed and terrified, they return to Laṅkā and report the formidable force stationed near Suvela, closing the sarga with a strategic assessment delivered to Daśagrīva.
शार्दूलचरवृत्तान्तः (Saardula’s Spy-Report on Rama’s Camp and the Vanara Host)
This sarga is structured as a reconnaissance-to-counsel pipeline. Laṅkā’s spies report that Rāghava has encamped with an “unshakable” army on Suvela. Rāvaṇa, momentarily unsettled, interrogates his agent Śārdūla, whose fear-marked demeanor becomes evidence of the vānaras’ tight security. Śārdūla narrates his capture: immediate detection, beating, public parading, and eventual release—framing Rāma’s camp as disciplined and guarded. He then reports Rāma’s operational posture at Laṅkā’s gateway after filling the ocean with rocks and stones (the bridgework already accomplished) and describes the vānaras’ battle formation (garuḍa-vyūha imagery). Śārdūla urges a binary strategic choice—return Sītā or offer war—before Rāma reaches the walls. Rāvaṇa refuses categorically, asserting he will not yield Sītā even against divine coalitions, and asks for an intelligence catalogue of vānaras’ strengths, lineages, and numbers. Śārdūla enumerates prominent leaders (Sugrīva, Jāmbavān, Hanumān, Nīla, Aṅgada, Mainda, Dvivida, and others), links many to divine ancestry, and emphasizes the host’s vast scale (ten crores), concluding that the remaining details exceed reportable scope. The chapter thus functions as a tactical inventory and a moral-psychological portrait: disciplined alliance versus obstinate kingship.
मायाशिरोप्रदर्शनम् (The Display of the Illusory Head of Rāma)
Sarga 31 opens with Laṅkā’s spies reporting to Rāvaṇa that Rāma’s “unshakeable” host is positioned on Suvela, poised to strike. Perturbed, Rāvaṇa convenes counsel, then chooses a psychological operation rather than open engagement: he summons the māyā-adept rākṣasa Vidyujjihva and orders the fabrication of an illusory head of Rāghava along with his bow. Rāvaṇa proceeds to Aśokavanikā, driven by the intent to break Sītā’s resolve, and finds her seated on the ground, head bowed, absorbed in contemplation of her husband amid rākṣasī guards. He addresses her with coercive rhetoric—claiming Rāma and leading vānaras have been slain in a night attack led by Prahasta—then escalates the deception by having the counterfeit head placed before her, followed by the famed bow. The chapter’s technical focus is propaganda as warfare: intimidation, misinformation, and staged “evidence” designed to induce surrender, contrasted with Sītā’s steadfastness implied by her prior posture and singular devotion.
सीताविलापः (Sītā’s Lament over the Illusory Head and Bow)
This sarga interleaves two narrative registers: (1) Sītā’s acute grief-response to a staged spectacle and (2) Rāvaṇa’s administrative turn toward war-counsel. In Aśoka-vatikā, Sītā is shown what appears to be Rāma’s severed head and his famed bow; she recognizes identifying marks (eyes, complexion, hair-curls) and the auspicious cūḍāmaṇi association, collapses, and then laments in sustained address. Her speech cycles through blame (especially toward Kaikeyī), self-reproach, and metaphysical reflection on kāla (time) as a dissolver of wisdom and protectorates. She frames a dharmic paradox: Rāma, a knower of polity and calamity-avoidance, has nonetheless been overtaken by death; she imagines Kausalyā’s devastation at Lakṣmaṇa’s lone return; and she articulates the social-religious rupture of a hero’s body being left to scavengers, deprived of proper saṃskāra. The lament culminates in appeals to Rāvaṇa to unite her with her husband in death. Immediately after Rāvaṇa departs to meet ministers, the head and bow vanish—revealing the episode’s illusory, coercive design. The scene then pivots to governance: a guard reports Prahasta’s arrival; Rāvaṇa convenes ministers, orders drum-signals to assemble troops without disclosing reasons, and begins formal deliberation on action against Rāma.
सरमा-सीता संवादः (Saramā Consoles Sītā; Preparations in Laṅkā)
Sarga 33 stages a consolatory and intelligence-bearing dialogue in Aśoka-like captivity space: the rākṣasī Saramā, described as compassionate and friendly to Vaidehī, approaches Sītā when she is distraught and even fainting from grief. Saramā reports that she overheard Sītā’s exchange with Rāvaṇa and explains why Rāvaṇa is agitated—Rāma cannot be killed by a stealth attack in sleep, and his death is deemed implausible. She further asserts the tactical reality that the tree-wielding Vānara fighters are difficult to slay because they are “protected by Rāma,” analogized to the devas protected by Indra. The chapter repeatedly amplifies Rāma’s profile—righteous, famed, bow-bearing, broad-chested, and unconquerable—alongside Lakṣmaṇa as co-protector. Saramā then provides situational updates: Rāma has crossed the ocean and is stationed on the southern shore with forces; scouts have informed Laṅkā; Rāvaṇa consults ministers. The scene culminates in an auditory panorama of Laṅkā’s mobilization—drums, bells, chariots, horses, elephants, weapons, armor—presented as a sensory index of impending battle. The sarga closes with a ritual-ethical counsel: Sītā is urged to seek refuge in the Sun (Divasakara), framed as a cosmic regulator of beings’ fortunes.
सरमायाḥ सीतासान्त्वनम् तथा रावणनिश्चयश्रवणम् (Saarana Consoles Sita and Reports Ravana’s Resolve)
This sarga is structured as a pastoral-ethical interlude within the war book, using intimate dialogue to clarify political intention and stabilize Sita’s inner resolve. Saarana, timing her speech with tact (kālajñā, smitapūrvābhibhāṣiṇī), consoles Sita so that her grief recedes like parched earth refreshed by rain. Sita articulates her anxiety and requests verified intelligence: she fears Ravana’s māyā, his repeated threats, and the coercive surveillance of the rākṣasīs in Aśoka-vāṭikā, and asks Saarana to ascertain Ravana’s settled decision. Saarana accepts the mission, approaches Ravana, and listens to his consultation with ministers. Returning quickly, she is embraced by Sita, offered a seat, and urged to disclose the truth of Ravana’s intention. Saarana reports that Ravana’s mother (Kaikasi) and an aged minister (Aviddha) advise releasing Maithili with honor and cite proofs of Rama’s capacity—Janasthāna’s destruction and Hanuman’s ocean-crossing and killings—yet Ravana, likened to a miser clinging to treasure, refuses liberation unless forced by death in battle. The chapter closes with the ominous soundscape of drums, conches, and Vanara clamour shaking the earth, depressing the rākṣasa retainers and signaling the approaching strategic collapse caused by their king’s faults.
माल्यवानुपदेशः — Malyavan’s Counsel, Portents in Laṅkā, and the Proposal of Alliance
Sarga 35 opens with Rāma’s martial advance, marked by conches and drums, and shifts immediately to Laṅkā’s court where Rāvaṇa, hearing the ominous din, consults his ministers. Rāvaṇa rebukes them for their silence despite their reputed valor, and a catalogue of adverse nimittas (portents) is introduced—unnatural minglings, disordered domestic rites, frightening dreams, hostile cries of birds and beasts, and blood-rain—signaling systemic collapse. Against this atmosphere, the elder counsellor Mālyavān (Rāvaṇa’s maternal grandsire) delivers a structured nīti discourse: a ruler grounded in learning and justice maintains sovereignty; when strength wanes, prudent kings seek sandhi (alliance) rather than contemptuous vigraha (hostility). Mālyavān urges the restoration of Sītā—the casus belli—and argues that cosmic forces favor Rāma, identifying him as Viṣṇu in human form, evidenced by the extraordinary ocean-bridge. The chapter concludes with Mālyavān observing Rāvaṇa’s unwillingness and falling silent, underscoring the tragic motif of rejected counsel.
माल्यवानुपदेशः—रावणक्रोधः तथा लङ्काद्वाररक्षा-व्यवस्था (Malyavan’s Counsel, Ravana’s Anger, and the Fortification of Lanka)
Sarga 36 stages a compact political-ethical drama. Ravana, described as having come under the sway of death (kāla), refuses to tolerate Mālyavān’s salutary advice (6.36.1). He responds with visible signs of anger—knitted brows and rolling eyes—and accuses the counselor of speaking harshly from enemy-partisanship or instigation (6.36.2–6.36.7). Ravana then asserts his inviolable pride: he would rather break than bow, presenting stubbornness as an inborn trait difficult to overcome (6.36.11). He dismisses the bridge-building as mere chance and claims Rama will not return alive after crossing with the vānaras (6.36.12–6.36.13). Recognizing Ravana’s rage, Mālyavān withdraws without reply, offering conventional blessings and departing (6.36.14–6.36.15). The chapter then pivots from rhetoric to logistics: Ravana consults ministers and institutes “unequalled” security for Laṅkā—posting Prahasta at the eastern gate, Mahāpārśva and Mahodara at the southern gate, Indrajit (and Mahāmāya) at the western gate, and Śuka-Sāraṇa at the northern gate; Virūpākṣa is stationed in the city’s center as a strong reserve (6.36.16–6.36.21). Having ordered these defenses, Ravana, driven by destiny, feels his task complete and enters the inner palace after dismissing ministers who bless him (6.36.22).
लङ्काद्वारव्यूहवर्णनम् / Disposition at the Gates of Lanka
Sarga 37 constructs a tactical “digital map” of Laṅkā immediately prior to assault. The vānaras and allied leaders (Sugrīva, Hanumān, Jāmbavān, Aṅgada, Nala, and others) reach the enemy city and deliberate on mission-success. Vibhīṣaṇa reports ministerial reconnaissance: his envoys infiltrated Laṅkā in bird-form, observed Rāvaṇa’s fortifications and troop organization, and returned with structured intelligence. The rākṣasa defense is spatially distributed—Prahasta at the eastern gate; Mahāpārśva and Mahodara at the southern gate; Indrajit at the western gate with diverse weapon-bearers; Rāvaṇa himself at the northern gate, agitated yet heavily guarded; Virūpākṣa positioned in the city’s middle. Quantitative force descriptions follow (elephants, chariots, cavalry, and massive infantry), underscoring the scale of conflict. Rāma then issues operational assignments: Nīla to counter Prahasta in the east; Aṅgada to engage the southern commanders; Hanumān to press the west; Rāma with Lakṣmaṇa to force entry at the north where Rāvaṇa stands; Sugrīva, Jāmbavān, and Vibhīṣaṇa to hold the center. Finally, a recognition protocol is declared—vānaras should not assume human guise; only seven (Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, and select allies including Vibhīṣaṇa) fight in human form—after which Rāma resolves to climb Suvela and advance with the army toward Laṅkā.
सुवेलारोहणम् (The Ascent of Suvela and the First Full View of Laṅkā)
Sarga 38 stages a strategic elevation of perspective: Rāma resolves to climb Suvela mountain and proposes a night halt there to observe Laṅkā, the fortified abode of the rākṣasas. Addressing Sugrīva and acknowledging Vibhīṣaṇa as dharma-jña, mantra-jña, and vidhi-jña (righteous, counsel-skilled, and procedure-aware), Rāma frames the campaign as a dharmic response to Sītā’s abduction and to Rāvaṇa’s moral inversion. His anger is presented as principled wrath, catalyzed by the name of the “rākṣasādhama,” and he generalizes a political-ethical warning: a single agent’s wrongdoing can imperil an entire lineage. The ascent is then enacted as coordinated movement—Lakṣmaṇa follows armed with bow and arrows; Sugrīva, ministers, and Vibhīṣaṇa accompany; and the named Vānara leaders (Hanumān, Aṅgada, Nīla, Mainda, Dvivida, Jāmbavān, Suṣeṇa, Ṛṣabha, and others) climb in hundreds with wind-like speed. From Suvela’s peak they behold Laṅkā as if suspended against the sky, marked by splendid gates, walls, and ranks of dark rākṣasas standing like a second living rampart. The Vānara host, eager for war, raises varied cries in Rāma’s presence. As sunset yields to moonlit night, Rāma rests on Suvela’s ridge, ritually honored by Vibhīṣaṇa and accompanied by Lakṣmaṇa and the assembled yūthapas—closing the chapter with a calm before battle grounded in surveillance, alliance, and moral intent.
लङ्कादर्शनम् (Viewing Laṅkā and its Forest-Gardens)
Sarga 39 functions as a topographic and civic-architectural survey that transitions the narrative from encampment to direct visual engagement with Laṅkā. The Vānara leaders, having kept vigil on Suvela, behold Laṅkā’s forests and gardens—spaces rendered acoustically alive with cuckoos, cranes, peacocks, and bees, and sensorially marked by flower-scented breezes. Form-changing Vānaras enter these groves in exhilaration; other troop-leaders, permitted by Sugrīva, surge toward the flag-decked city, their roars startling birds and large animals and raising dust. The chapter then elevates the gaze to Trikūṭa’s peak—flower-covered, radiant, and described as nearly unreachable—upon which Laṅkā is situated with specified breadth and length. The city’s skyline is mapped through tall gopuras, gold-and-silver fortifications, and palaces likened to cloud-masses; a central structure is compared to a Vaiṣṇava abode. A thousand-pillared palace, guarded by a hundred Rākṣasas, is singled out as Laṅkā’s ornament. Finally, Rāma, with Lakṣmaṇa and the Vānara host, views the prosperous, gem-adorned city with engineered gates, registering wonder at its grandeur while the narrative prepares for siege and conflict.
सुवेलारोहणं रावण-सुग्रीव-नियुद्धम् (Ascent of Suvela and the Ravana–Sugriva Duel)
Sarga 40 situates the combat narrative within a strategic vantage point: Rāma, accompanied by Sugrīva and the vānaras, ascends the Suvelā peak and surveys Laṅkā on Trikūṭa, attributed to Viśvakarmā’s craftsmanship. Rāma beholds Rāvaṇa stationed upon a lofty gopura, described with royal insignia—white cāmaras, a victory parasol, red sandal paste, ornaments, and scar-marks linked to Airāvata—casting the rākṣasa king as both sovereign and formidable target. Provoked by the sight, Sugrīva rises in controlled anger, addresses Rāvaṇa with a declaration of loyal service to the “lord of the world” (Rāma), and initiates a direct assault, seizing and casting down Rāvaṇa’s diadem as a symbolic humiliation. A close-quarters wrestling match follows: throws, counters, grappling embraces, circular footwork, feints, and enumerated “war-paths” (yuddha-mārga) display technical combat literacy and vīra-rasa intensity. Rāvaṇa threatens lethal retaliation, and when he attempts to shift advantage through māyā (jugglery/illusion), Sugrīva anticipates the tactic, disengages after exhausting him, and returns through the vānaras to Rāma, amplifying Rāma’s battle-ardor and allied morale. The chapter thus binds geography (Suvelā/Laṅkā) to ethics (service and restraint) and to semiotics of kingship (the fallen crown) as a narrative map of power contested.
युद्धलक्षण-निमित्तदर्शनं तथा लङ्काद्वारव्यूहः (War Omens and the Encirclement of Lanka’s Gates)
Sarga 41 stages the transition from anticipation to open siege. Rāma, observing ominous portents of war, embraces Sugrīva and then instructs Lakṣmaṇa to secure a resource-rich position (cool water, fruit-bearing woods), divide the forces, and stand in ordered formations. A catalogue of apocalyptic signs follows—violent winds, trembling earth and mountains, blood-mixed rain, inauspicious animal cries, darkened celestial bodies—framing war as a cosmic-moral crisis rather than mere politics. The vānaras advance rapidly and Laṅkā is approached; the city’s beauty and fortifications are described, emphasizing its near-impregnability. Rāma blocks the northern gate; Neela holds the east, Aṅgada the south, Hanumān the west, while Sugrīva anchors the center and Lakṣmaṇa with Vibhīṣaṇa posts troops in immense numbers. The text then shifts to diplomacy as strategy: Rāma summons Aṅgada as envoy with a severe, dharma-based message to Daśagrīva—return Vaidehī or face lawful destruction and Vibhīṣaṇa’s rightful rule. Aṅgada delivers the message, is seized to test strength, shatters part of the palace with his foot, and returns—provoking Rāvaṇa’s rage and confirming the siege’s irreversible momentum.
लङ्काप्राकारारोहणम् / Assault on Lanka’s Ramparts and the Opening Clash
This sarga frames the transition from siege posture to open battle. Rakṣasa scouts report to Rāvaṇa that Rāma and the Vānara host have effectively occupied Laṅkā’s approaches, provoking Rāvaṇa’s fury and immediate militarization. Rāma, distressed by thoughts of Sītā’s suffering, orders swift action against enemy forces; the Vānaras respond with lion-like roars and improvised siege weaponry—trees, rocks, and mountain-peaks. Multiple tactical actions follow: scaling walls and gateways, filling water-filled moats with earth, timber, and debris, and breaching golden toranas and lofty gopuras likened to Kailāsa. The narrative then maps a structured encampment at the city gates: Kumuda at the east, Śatabalī at the south, Suṣeṇa at the west, and Rāma with Lakṣmaṇa and Sugrīva at the north; elite allies (Gavākṣa, Dhūmra, and Vibhīṣaṇa with ministers) are positioned for support and protection. Rāvaṇa orders a general sortie; drums and conches erupt, and the soundscape expands to mountains, earth, sky, and ocean. The chapter culminates in a dreadful mêlée—Rakṣasas striking with maces, javelins, tridents, swords, and bhindipālas; Vānaras counter with trees, rocks, nails, and teeth—producing an intense, blood-and-flesh mire described as astonishing in scale.
द्वन्द्वयुद्धप्रवृत्तिः (Dvandva-Yuddha: The Onset of Single Combats)
Sarga 43 intensifies the Lanka battlefield into structured duel-combats (dvandva-yuddha) as vānaras and rākṣasas pair off in rapid succession. The chapter opens with the unbearable fury of the rākṣasas at the vānaras’ advance and the roaring sortie of Rāvaṇa’s victory-seeking forces with chariots, horses, and war-gear resounding in all directions. Named engagements follow: Sugrīva meets Praghasa/Praghana; Lakṣmaṇa confronts Virūpākṣa; Rāma is attacked by Agniketu, Raśmiket(u), Suptaghna/Mitraghna, and Yajñakopa, then retaliates by severing their heads with blazing, sharp arrows. Hanumān is pierced in the chest by Jambumālī’s ratha-śakti yet counters decisively by mounting the chariot and killing him with a palm-strike. Nala duels Pratapana, gouging out his eyes; elsewhere Mainda fells Vajramuṣṭi with a fist, and Dwivida kills Aśaniprabha using a sāla tree after being wounded by lightning-like arrows. Nīla withstands Nikumbha’s arrow-storm, then kills him and the charioteer with a chariot wheel. Suṣeṇa crushes Vidyunmālī with a great rock after enduring a mace blow. The sarga closes with a grim topography of war—broken weapons, shattered chariots, dead elephants and horses, severed trunks, blood-streams, and jackals—framing the conflict as devāsura-like in scale and moral intensity.
चतुश्चत्वारिंशः सर्गः (Sarga 44): निशायुद्धम्, धूलिरुधिरप्रवाहः, इन्द्रजितो मायायुद्धम्
As vānaras and rākṣasas clash, sunset initiates a lethal night phase for the combatants, and the engagement turns into a confused nocturnal melee. Dust churned by horses and chariot wheels obscures sight and hearing; the field is depicted as a mud of blood with terrifying soundscapes—drums, conches, flutes, roars, and echoing caves of Trikūṭa. In darkness, misrecognition intensifies: fighters strike their own, mistaking friend for foe. Rāma’s arrows illuminate directions and destroy rākṣasas who rush him; several named rākṣasas are struck and withdraw with residual life. Angada decisively disrupts Indrajit’s chariot by killing his horses and charioteer, prompting celestial and allied praise. Indrajit, enraged, shifts to covert warfare: becoming invisible, he shoots serpent-like arrows, wounds Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa, and finally binds the brothers with a network of arrows—an escalation from open combat to māyā-driven, psychologically destabilizing tactics.
इन्द्रजितः अन्तर्धानयुद्धं — Indrajit’s Concealed Assault and the Fall of Rama and Lakshmana
This sarga stages a tactical reversal driven by Indrajit’s concealment (antardhāna) and missile-saturation. Rama, seeking Indrajit’s whereabouts, deploys ten Vanara leaders in multiple directions for reconnaissance. The Vanaras surge skyward with uprooted trees as improvised weapons, but are checked by Indrajit’s swift, expertly released arrows; darkness and concealment prevent visual acquisition of the attacker, likened to the sun obscured by clouds. Indrajit then addresses Rama and Lakshmana from concealment, asserting that even Indra cannot discern him in battle, and declares his intent to send the brothers to Yama’s abode. He follows with sustained volleys—varied arrowheads and serpent-like missiles—driving shafts into vital points (marma), binding and exhausting the brothers so rapidly they cannot retaliate. Rama falls first; Lakshmana, seeing Rama down, collapses emotionally. The battlefield response is communal: Vanaras gather around the fallen princes in grief, while the text emphasizes the total bodily saturation of wounds—no fingerbreadth left unpierced—presenting a grim meditation on vulnerability, endurance, and the ethical weight of deceptive warfare.
शरबन्धनम् (The Binding by Arrows) / Indrajit’s Illusory Assault and the Vanaras’ Consolation
Sarga 46 depicts a critical reversal in the Laṅkā war. Vanara leaders search the sky and ground and find Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa lying motionless, bodies riddled by a sustained network of arrows (śara-bandha), producing collective grief and tactical shock. Indrajit, concealed by māyā, is perceived only by Vibhīṣaṇa through a boon-enabled insight; Indrajit then exults, declaring the brothers—slayers of Khara and Dūṣaṇa—struck and, in his rhetoric, beyond liberation even by an assembly of sages and gods. He compounds panic by wounding leading Vanaras (Nīla, Mainda, Dvivida, Jāmbavān, Hanumān, Gavākṣa, Śarabha, and Aṅgada) and publicly invites the Rākṣasas to witness the bound princes, triggering loud celebration under the mistaken belief that Rāma is dead. After Indrajit withdraws to Laṅkā, Sugrīva is overtaken by fear; Vibhīṣaṇa performs a calming, quasi-ritual act with consecrated water, counsels against faint-heartedness, and insists that Rāma is not destined to die, urging the army’s morale management. The chapter closes with Indrajit reporting “victory” to Rāvaṇa, who embraces him and hears the account of the princes’ loss of splendor under the arrow-net.
पुष्पकविमानेन सीताया युद्धभूमिदर्शनम् (Sita Shown the Battlefield in the Pushpaka)
This sarga presents a psychological and informational operation conducted by Rāvaṇa after Indrajit’s apparent success. With Indrajit returning to Laṅkā “having accomplished the task,” Vānara leaders form a vigilant protective ring around Rāghava, treating even minor movement as potential rākṣasa intrusion. Rāvaṇa, rejoicing, orders Sītā’s attendants—rākṣasīs including Trijaṭā—to bring Sītā from Aśokavanikā using the Puṣpaka vimāna, intending to break her resolve by showing Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa as if slain. Laṅkā is decorated and proclamations are made that the brothers have been killed in battle. Sītā, accompanied by Trijaṭā, views the fallen Vānara forces and the rākṣasas’ celebratory demeanor, then sees Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa unconscious on a “bed of arrows,” their armor and bows shattered. Interpreting the scene as death, Sītā collapses into intense lamentation, articulating grief and uncertainty. The chapter’s thematic lesson contrasts deceptive triumphalism with steadfast loyalty and the ethical cost of manipulating a captive’s hope.
सीताविलापः—त्रिजटासान्त्वनं च (Sita’s Lament and Trijata’s Consolation)
Sarga 48 presents an affective-analytic sequence in which Sītā, brought to witness the apparent fall of Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa under Indrajit’s māyā, collapses into lamentation and self-audit. She interprets the scene as widowhood and declares earlier prognostications (by brāhmaṇas, astrologers, and ritual experts) false, since they had predicted prosperity, motherhood, and royal consecration with her husband. In a distinctive catalog of auspicious bodily marks (strī-lakṣaṇa), Sītā enumerates features—lotus signs on the feet, gem-like complexion, proportional limbs, and other indicators—arguing that such marks should not coincide with catastrophe, thereby dramatizing tension between omen-science and lived suffering. Her grief then shifts from self to concern for Kauśalyā (her mother-in-law), whose ascetic life and expectation of reunion intensify Sītā’s moral anguish. Trijaṭā, a rākṣasī sympathetic to Sītā, counters the despair with observational reasoning: the warriors’ faces and bodily splendor do not resemble death, the army’s comportment lacks the collapse typical after a leader’s fall, and the auspicious Puṣpaka-vimāna would not bear Sītā if the brothers were truly dead. Trijaṭā asserts truthfulness and urges Sītā to abandon moha and śoka. The chapter ends with Sītā returning (via Puṣpaka) to Laṅkā and re-entering the Aśoka grove, where renewed contemplation of the ‘king’s sons’ (Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa) reawakens profound sorrow even amid consolation.
शरबन्धनविलापः (The Lament under the Net of Arrows)
This sarga depicts the aftermath of a devastating missile-attack in which Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa lie on the battlefield bound by a terrifying “network of arrows” (śarabandha), bleeding and sighing like serpents. Sugrīva and the vānaras surround them in grief. Rāma, regaining consciousness through fortitude and disciplined resolve, sees Lakṣmaṇa’s condition and breaks into sustained lamentation: he questions the value of life and even Sītā’s recovery without his brother, and anticipates the unbearable task of speaking to Kausalyā, Kaikeyī, and Sumitrā. He condemns himself as ignoble and sinful, praises Lakṣmaṇa’s unwavering gentleness even when provoked, and recalls his martial excellence (including hyperbolic comparisons to Kārtavīrya and even Indra’s weaponry). Rāma instructs Sugrīva to withdraw across the ocean with the army—placing Aṅgada, Nīla, and Nala in the lead—framing the calamity as daiva that humans cannot override, while affirming the allies’ fulfilled duty. The vānaras weep upon hearing the lament. Vibhīṣaṇa arrives mace-in-hand; the vānaras briefly panic, mistaking him for Indrajit, underscoring wartime confusion and the fragility of morale.
सुपर्णागमनम् (Garuda’s Arrival and the Release from the Serpent-Arrow Bond)
Sarga 50 depicts a battlefield crisis and its resolution through counsel, medicine-lore, and divine intervention. Sugrīva observes the vānaras panicking and questions their fear; Aṅgada identifies the cause—Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa lie on a “bed of arrows,” bound by Indrajit’s māyā that manifests as serpents. Vibhīṣaṇa arrives, is initially suspected, then laments upon seeing the princes wounded, blaming the deceitful stratagem of Rāvaṇa’s side and expressing personal despair. Sugrīva consoles Vibhīṣaṇa, predicts Rāvaṇa’s defeat, and consults Suṣeṇa, who recalls divine-asura war healing and proposes obtaining rare herbs (Sañjīvakaraṇī, Viśalyakaraṇī) from the Kṣīroda ocean region (Chandra and Droṇa mountains), recommending Hanumān. Before this plan unfolds, atmospheric turmoil and island trees falling signal Garuḍa’s approach. The serpents flee; Garuḍa touches and cleanses the princes, instantly healing wounds and restoring their brilliance, strength, memory, and morale. Garuḍa identifies himself as Rāma’s friend, warns against trusting rākṣasas in war, foretells victory and Sītā’s recovery, then departs after circumambulation. The vānar host rejoices with lion-roars, drums, conches, and advances again toward Laṅkā’s gates.
धूम्राक्षप्रेषणम् (The Dispatch of Dhūmrākṣa)
Sarga 51 records a strategic and psychological pivot in Laṅkā’s command. Rāvaṇa hears the tumultuous, celebratory roar of the Vanaras and infers an unexpected reversal. He orders reconnaissance; distressed rākṣasas climb the ramparts, observe Sugrīva’s protected forces, and confirm the critical intelligence: Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa—previously bound by Indrajit’s formidable arrow-bondage—are now visibly freed, likened to elephants snapping ropes. The messengers report in controlled speech despite fear, prompting Rāvaṇa’s anxious anger and doubt about the security of his army and the efficacy of his weapons. He then summons Dhūmrākṣa and commands an immediate sortie to strike Rāma and the Vanaras. Mobilization follows: the army assembles with a catalogue of weapons, chariots, horses, and elephants; Dhūmrākṣa mounts a gold-adorned donkey-yoked chariot and moves toward the western gate where Hanumān stands. En route, ominous portents—vultures, blood imagery, adverse winds, darkness, and earth-tremors—signal impending catastrophe, yet the sortie advances until Dhūmrākṣa beholds the vast Vanara host guarded by Rāghava.
धूम्राक्षवधः (The Slaying of Dhumrākṣa)
Sarga 52 depicts a concentrated battlefield episode in which the rākṣasa commander Dhumrākṣa returns to the front, provoking the vānaras’ war-cry and initiating a tumultuous engagement characterized by close-quarters violence and massed projectile fire. The chapter escalates through alternating descriptions of rākṣasa weaponry (arrows, tridents, clubs, iron bars, maces) and vānaras’ improvised martial ecology (trees, rocks, mountain fragments, fists, feet, teeth, nails). The soundscape is explicitly aestheticized: the twang of bowstrings, neighing, and elephant calls are framed as a kind of “battle-gāndharva” (symphonic metaphor), converting chaos into epic poetics. Dhumrākṣa briefly gains advantage by dispersing the vānaras with arrow-showers; Hanumān, seeing the allied army harassed, intervenes decisively. He hurls a massive rock at Dhumrākṣa’s chariot, forcing the rākṣasa to leap down; the chariot is crushed. The duel then sharpens: Dhumrākṣa strikes Hanumān with a spiked mace, but Hanumān, undeterred, drops a mountain peak onto Dhumrākṣa’s head, killing him. The surviving rākṣasas retreat into Laṅkā in fear, while the vānaras honor Hanumān, marking a morale and command shift within the war’s larger arc.
युद्धकाण्डे त्रिपञ्चाशः सर्गः — धूम्राक्षवधश्रवणं, वज्रदंष्ट्रप्रेषणं, अङ्गद-राक्षसयुद्धम् (Ravana Dispatches Vajradamshtra; Portents and Angada’s Assault)
This sarga pivots from intelligence to mobilization: Rāvaṇa, hearing of Dhūmrākṣa’s death, is described in tightly compressed similes of wrath—hissing like a serpent and exhaling “hot, long breaths”—before issuing a direct command to the Rākṣasa warrior Vajradaṃṣṭra to advance and kill Rāma and Sugrīva along with the Vānara forces. The text then shifts to martial logistics and spectacle: Rākṣasa leaders appear in ornate raiment; troops mount elephants and other conveyances, and a fully equipped column exits the southern gate where Aṅgada is stationed. As the host departs, omen-lore intrudes: meteors fall, jackals cry, and fierce animals signal impending Rākṣasa deaths, creating a narrative counterpoint between human confidence and cosmic warning. Despite portents, Vajradaṃṣṭra rallies courage and enters battle. The Vānaras respond with victory-cries that fill the ten directions, and the engagement escalates into close combat—trees, rocks, fists, and knees replace formal weapons. Vajradaṃṣṭra’s arrow-work terrifies the Vānara ranks until Aṅgada, enraged, seizes a tree and devastates the Rākṣasa formations; the battlefield becomes strewn with bodies, ornaments, and weapons, and the shaken Rākṣasa host is likened to a rain cloud buffeted by wind.
वज्रदंष्ट्रवधः — The Slaying of Vajradaṃṣṭra (Angada’s Duel)
Sarga 54 presents a concentrated combat episode within the Laṅkā war: the rākṣasa Vajradaṃṣṭra, enraged by the destruction of his forces and Aṅgada’s successes, intensifies the conflict by showering accurate arrows into the Vānara ranks. The battlefield is depicted with stark forensic imagery—severed limbs, headless trunks, and routed troops—establishing the cost of war and the psychological collapse of morale. As frightened Vānaras seek refuge with Aṅgada, Vāli’s son assumes command presence, directly confronting Vajradaṃṣṭra. The duel escalates through successive weapon-phases: missile volleys, improvised arboreal and rocky projectiles (tree and hill/peak), chariot destruction, and finally close-quarters combat (mace-strike and fist-fight). The climax arrives when Aṅgada rises rapidly from exhaustion and decapitates Vajradaṃṣṭra with a clean sword-stroke. The rākṣasas, witnessing their champion’s fall, flee toward Laṅkā in fear and shame, while Aṅgada is honored amid the Vānara host—an episode that frames leadership as protective courage and decisive restraint within a brutal theater.
अकम्पन-प्रेषणम् तथा कपि-राक्षस-रणवर्णनम् (Akampana Dispatched; The Vanara–Rakshasa Battle and Omens)
After hearing that Vajradaṃṣṭra has been slain by Vāli’s son (Angada), Rāvaṇa addresses the army chief and orders the immediate deployment of Akampana, praising him as a disciplined commander, protector, and war-loving strategist skilled in all weapons. The rakṣasa forces rush out under command, and Akampana advances on a gold-adorned chariot, described through cloud-and-thunder imagery that amplifies martial atmosphere. As he charges forth, ominous reversals appear: despite fair weather, the day turns cloudy; harsh winds rise; birds and beasts cry in fearsome tones, while Akampana disregards these utpātas and enters the battlefield. The engagement escalates into a deafening clash where dust reddens the sky and obscures banners, weapons, horses, and even combatants’ forms; in this confusion, fighters strike friend and foe alike until blood dampens the dust and the ground becomes strewn with bodies and limbs. The sarga culminates in close-quarters violence using trees, rocks, maces, darts, and bar-like arms, while Akampana rallies the rakṣasas and Vānara leaders—Kumuda, Nala, and Mainda—countercharge and crush enemy ranks.
अकम्पनवधः — The Slaying of Akampana (Hanuman’s rout of the Rakshasa host)
This sarga stages a focused battlefield vignette in which command psychology and heroic agency rapidly shift the tide. Akampana, observing the vānaras’ “great accomplishment,” erupts in violent anger and orders his charioteer to drive toward the front where rākṣasas are being cut down (6.56.1–5). From a swift chariot he assails the vānaras with a dense net of arrows, causing widespread collapse and flight (6.56.6–7). Hanumān, seeing his kin and allies overwhelmed and near death, advances as a stabilizing center; the vānar leaders gather around him and regain strength by taking shelter under his leadership (6.56.8–10). A duel-form develops: Akampana showers arrows; Hanumān endures them, prioritizing the single objective of Akampana’s destruction (6.56.11–12). Weaponless, Hanumān uproots a mountain and then an Aśvakarṇa tree as improvised armaments; Akampana severs the mountain-peak midair with half-moon arrows, intensifying Hanumān’s wrath (6.56.15–21). Hanumān charges, breaks enemy ranks, and strikes Akampana on the head with an uprooted tree, killing him (6.56.22–30). The rākṣasa forces panic, abandon weapons, and flee into Laṅkā; the vānaras celebrate and honor Hanumān, with praise extending up to Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Sugrīva, and Vibhīṣaṇa (6.56.31–39). Thematic lessons include disciplined anger redirected into protective action, the role of a single champion as morale infrastructure, and the epic’s recurring motif of “shelter” (āśraya) as social and spiritual strategy.
प्रहस्तनिर्याणम् — Prahasta’s Departure and the Muster of the Rakshasa Host
Sarga 57 pivots from the shock of Akampana’s death to a formal rākṣasa counteroffensive. Rāvaṇa, described as simultaneously enraged and pallid, confers with ministers and inspects Laṅkā’s defensive posts, then addresses Prahasta as the war-expert capable of relieving a suddenly oppressed city. He frames the crisis as solvable only through decisive battle-leadership and names alternate burden-bearers (himself, Kumbhakarṇa, Indrajit, Nikumbha), yet commissions Prahasta to mobilize immediately. Prahasta replies in a counsel-heavy register: he recalls prior deliberations and asserts that returning Sītā would be the beneficial course, while refusal makes war inevitable; nevertheless, he pledges loyalty, gifts-and-honors acknowledged, and offers his life in battle. He then orders the army chiefs to assemble the great host; Laṅkā rapidly fills with heavily armed, elephantine warriors amid ritual acts (fire offerings, honoring brāhmaṇas, consecrated garlands). Prahasta mounts a richly described chariot (serpent-banner, gold netting, thunderous sound), departs with adjutants, and the march is accompanied by a sonic panorama of drums, conches, and terrifying cries. A dense cluster of ominous signs follows—anticlockwise circling carrion birds, meteors, violent winds, jackals, blood-rain, a vulture on the banner, and the charioteer’s whip slipping—signaling impending ruin despite outward splendor. The vānar army braces with trees and rocks; mutual challenges swell, and Prahasta, likened to a moth entering flame, plunges into the monkey host seeking victory, marking the sarga’s thematic lesson on hubris, ill-omened aggression, and the tragic momentum of war.
प्रहस्तवधः (The Slaying of Prahasta)
Sarga 58 opens with Rama observing the formidable rākṣasa general Prahasta advancing with a large force and, with composed confidence, asking Vibhīṣaṇa to identify him. Vibhīṣaṇa replies that Prahasta is Ravana’s senāpati, famed for prowess and weapon-mastery, commanding a substantial portion of Lanka’s army. A massive mêlée follows: both sides close in with showers of rocks and arrows, and the battlefield becomes a catalogue of weapons (swords, spears, pikes, mallets, iron bars) and casualties. The narration intensifies into a grim extended simile portraying the war-ground as a “river” of blood, bodies, and broken arms, emphasizing the epic’s realism about war’s cost. Prahasta then enters direct combat, causing havoc among the vānaras with arrow-storms. Nīla confronts him; despite being pierced by arrows, Nīla strikes back with uprooted trees, breaks Prahasta’s bow, and forces him into close-quarters fighting with a heavy mallet. In the culminating exchange, Nīla drops a massive rock onto Prahasta’s head, shattering it and killing him. The rākṣasa troops, demoralized by the fall of their commander, withdraw toward Lanka and become speechless with grief, while Nīla is praised by Rama and Lakshmana and the vānaras rejoice at the strategic victory.
युद्धकाण्डे एकोनषष्टितमः सर्गः — Rāvaṇa’s Assault on Nīla and Lakṣmaṇa; Hanumān Bears Rāma
Sarga 59 escalates the war’s center of gravity from general engagement to direct royal confrontation. After the fall of the Rakṣasa commander-in-chief (reported as slain by Nīla), Rāvaṇa emerges from Laṅkā and surveys the Vānara host massed like an ocean of clouds wielding trees and rocks. Tactical exchanges unfold: Sugrīva’s mountain-peak assault is neutralized, and several Vānara leaders are driven to seek refuge with Rāma. Rāvaṇa then concentrates on Nīla, whose agility atop the enemy’s bow momentarily destabilizes the king’s response, prompting Rāvaṇa to employ a fire-charged missile that strikes Nīla down without ending his life. The narrative pivots to a high-stakes duel between Rāvaṇa and Lakṣmaṇa: volleys of arrows are cut down, Rāvaṇa uses a Brahmā-gifted arrow to wound Lakṣmaṇa, and finally hurls a formidable śakti (javelin) that pierces Lakṣmaṇa’s chest. As Lakṣmaṇa falters, Rāvaṇa attempts to seize him, but cannot lift him; Hanumān intervenes with a thunderbolt-like fist, rescues Lakṣmaṇa to Rāma, and offers his back as a mount. Rāma accepts, advances on Hanumān, shatters Rāvaṇa’s chariot and crown, yet—declaring Rāvaṇa exhausted—refrains from killing him, directing him to return rested for a renewed encounter. The sarga thus juxtaposes ferocity with restraint, highlighting war-ethics, ally-protection, and the controlled deployment of power.
कुम्भकर्णविबोधनम् (The Awakening of Kumbhakarna)
Sarga 60 presents a court-and-war interlude in which Rāvaṇa, returning to Laṅkā humiliated by Rāma’s arrows, interprets his crisis through remembered curses and prophecies: the violation of Vedavatī and maledictions associated with figures such as Umā, Nandīśvara, Rambhā, and Varuṇa’s daughter, alongside Brahmā’s warning that danger would arise from humans. He orders intensified defense at the gates and the urgent awakening of Kumbhakarṇa, whose slumber is attributed to Brahmā’s curse and whose martial reputation is invoked as a last strategic counterweight. A large contingent of rākṣasas attempts to rouse him through escalating sensory and physical measures—food offerings, perfumes, conches and drums, blows with clubs and trees, pouring water, binding and striking, even driving elephants over his body—until hunger and impact finally break the trance. Kumbhakarṇa awakens with apocalyptic imagery (mouth like the underworld, eyes like blazing planets), consumes massive quantities of meat, blood, fat, and wine, and questions the emergency. Minister Yūpākṣa reports that the threat is not divine but human—Rāma and the Vānara host—citing prior damage to Laṅkā and Rāvaṇa’s narrow escape. Kumbhakarṇa vows immediate conquest and proceeds, shaking the earth; his emergence alarms the Vānara leaders, many fleeing or seeking refuge in Rāma, thereby marking a psychological turning point before the next phase of combat.
कुम्भकर्णदर्शनम् — The Appearance of Kumbhakarna and the Account of His Might
This sarga opens with Rāma taking up his bow and beholding the crowned, mountain-like Kumbhakarṇa, whose sheer scale causes panic among the vānaras. Rāma questions Vibhīṣaṇa about this unprecedented figure; Vibhīṣaṇa identifies him as Viśravas’s son who once defeated Indra and even Yama’s forces, and whose natural strength surpasses other rākṣasa-lords who rely on boons. The narration then retrospectively explains Kumbhakarṇa’s destructive appetite from birth—devouring beings, terrifying peoples, and provoking Indra’s thunderbolt attack—followed by Kumbhakarṇa striking Indra with Airāvata’s tusk. The devas and beings appeal to Brahmā, reporting Kumbhakarṇa’s violences (devouring, assaulting devas, destroying āśramas, abducting others’ wives). Brahmā curses him to sleep like the dead; Rāvaṇa protests on grounds of lineage and fairness, and Brahmā fixes the compromise: six months of sleep and one day awake—yet that single day is depicted as world-threatening hunger. Returning to the battlefield present, Vibhīṣaṇa urges morale management; Rāma orders Nīla to deploy troops and hold Laṅkā’s gates, roads, and crossings, arming vānaras with trees, rocks, and mountain-peaks as the army forms a dense, cloud-mass-like battle array.
कुम्भकर्णस्य प्रबोधनम् — The Awakening and Commissioning of Kumbhakarna
Sarga 62 stages Kumbhakarṇa’s mobilization as a political-psychological episode inside Laṅkā. Sleepy and intoxicated yet portrayed as a formidable rākṣasa “tiger,” he proceeds along the splendid royal road, escorted by thousands and honored with showers of flowers. He enters the resplendent rākṣasa-king’s residence—gold-latticed and sun-bright—and advances with such strides that the earth seems to shake. Rāvaṇa, seated in the Puṣpaka setting and visibly perturbed, rises with delight on seeing his brother, embraces him, and seats him with honor. Kumbhakarṇa, now enraged and blood-eyed, demands the reason for being awakened and asks whom Rāvaṇa fears. Rāvaṇa confesses fear of Rāma, explains that Rāma and Sugrīva have crossed the ocean with an army, and laments the devastation of Laṅkā’s groves and the rākṣasa losses while the vānaras appear unbroken in battle. He pleads for protection of an exhausted city with only children and elders remaining, praises Kumbhakarṇa’s past victories against devas and asuras, and commissions him to scatter the enemy host like wind dispersing rain-clouds.
कुम्भकर्णोपदेशः — Kumbhakarna’s Counsel and War-Boast to Ravana
Sarga 63 stages a pivotal counsel-scene inside Laṅkā. Hearing Rāvaṇa’s lament, Kumbhakarṇa initially responds with derisive laughter, then pivots into a formalized nīti discourse: a king must discern what is best among policy options and act with ministers, timing, and consequence-awareness. He outlines classical methods—conciliation (sāntva), gifting (dāna), dissension (bheda), and valorous force (vikrama)—to be applied singly or in combination according to kāla (right time), while pursuing dharma, artha, and kāma in ordered balance. He warns against unlearned, impudent advisers, and against ministers who collude with enemies, emphasizing behavioral scrutiny during deliberation. Rāvaṇa, stung by the admonition, rejects retrospection and demands immediate actionable counsel. Kumbhakarṇa then softens his tone, reassures Rāvaṇa of protection, and offers himself as the decisive instrument of war, escalating into hyperbolic martial vows: he will destroy Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Sugrīva, and Hanumān, and even challenge cosmic deities. The chapter thus juxtaposes sober statecraft with performative bravado, mapping how counsel is transformed into mobilization rhetoric on the eve of battle.
महोदर-वाक्यं कुम्भकर्ण-प्रतिषेधः (Mahodara’s Counsel and the Critique of Kumbhakarna’s Solo Assault)
Sarga 64 is structured as a court-council disputation inside Lanka. After hearing Kumbhakarṇa’s position, Mahodara responds with sharp rebuke, arguing that Kumbhakarṇa’s rationale for solitary engagement is ill-conceived. He invokes precedent—Rāma’s earlier destruction of rākṣasas at Janasthāna—to demonstrate Rāma’s proven capacity and the continuing fear it inspires. Through vivid similes (Rāma as an enraged lion; as a sleeping serpent not to be awakened), Mahodara frames direct provocation as strategically irrational. He then pivots from critique to a concrete, morally ambiguous plan: a five-warrior sortie (Mahodara, Dvijihva, Samhrādi, Kumbhakarṇa, Vitardana) is to confront Rāma; regardless of outcome, propaganda should be spread in the city that Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa have been “devoured,” creating psychological shock. Exploiting that rumor, Rāvaṇa is advised to approach Sītā privately, console her, and entice her with wealth, grain, and jewels, aiming to coerce submission through fear, grief, and isolation. The chapter thus juxtaposes nīti-style reasoning about risk, resources, and timing with a manipulative information strategy, highlighting how counsel can be technically sophisticated yet ethically compromised.
कुम्भकर्णप्रस्थानम् — Kumbhakarna’s Departure for Battle
Sarga 65 frames Kumbhakarṇa’s mobilization as a courtly-counsel episode turning into a ritualized arming and sortie. Kumbhakarṇa rebukes Mahodara’s discouraging tone and asserts a warrior’s ethic: deeds, not self-praise, validate valor; he declares he will go to the battlefield to rectify the collective strategic failures. Rāvaṇa replies with persuasion and reassurance—diagnosing Mahodara’s fear of Rāma, praising Kumbhakarṇa’s unmatched strength and goodwill, and urging him to destroy the Vānara host and the two princes. Kumbhakarṇa vows to remove Rāvaṇa’s dread by killing Rāma, proposes advancing alone while the army stays, but Rāvaṇa cautions against solitary overconfidence and orders a guarded advance. A ceremonial investiture follows: garlands, armlets, rings, ornaments, crown, earrings, girdle, and armor are placed upon Kumbhakarṇa, who is described through cosmic similes (fire, moon, Narāyaṇa/Trivikrama). As he sets out amid drums, conches, chariots, elephants, and diverse mounts, ominous portents arise—dark clouds with lightning, jackals, circling birds, a vulture alighting on his weapon, meteors, dimmed sun, and still wind—yet he proceeds under the compulsion of destiny. Crossing the rampart, he terrifies the Vānara ranks; their dispersal and collapse under his roar establishes the sarga’s thematic hinge: rhetorical confidence and royal pageantry against the counterweight of ominous signs and impending mortality.
कुम्भकर्णप्रस्थानम् तथा अङ्गदप्रेरणा (Kumbhakarna’s sortie and Angada’s rallying of the Vanaras)
Sarga 66 stages a morale crisis and its resolution. Kumbhakarṇa, विशालः गिरिकूटोपमः, swiftly crosses Laṅkā’s boundary and roars so that the ocean reverberates, projecting psychological dominance. The Vānara forces, judging him ‘unassailable’ even by major deities, scatter in fear; some leap away without looking back, some fall into the sea, some seek caves, mountains, or trees, and some collapse as if dead. Aṅgada (Vāli’s son) intervenes as a battlefield leader: he commands a return, argues that flight without weapons invites social shame, and reframes death in righteous combat as preferable—either fame through victory or attainment of Brahmaloka if slain. His speech also critiques earlier self-praise now contradicted by panic. The routed troops respond that Kumbhakarṇa has wrought dreadful havoc and that life is dear; nevertheless, Aṅgada (with Hanumān’s supportive persuasion and exempla) restores cohesion. Re-formed commanders—Ṛṣabha, Śarabha, Mainda, Dhūmra, Nīla, Kumuda, Suṣeṇa, Gavākṣa, Rambha, Tārā, Dvivida, Panasa, and Hanumān—advance swiftly back to the रण, while rocks and blossoming trees hurled at Kumbhakarṇa shatter on his limbs, underscoring his terrifying durability as the battle resumes.
कुम्भकर्णवधः — The Slaying of Kumbhakarna
Sarga 67 intensifies the Lanka battlefield by focusing on Kumbhakarna’s overwhelming, almost cosmic-scale violence and the Vanara coalition’s attempts to stabilize morale. Angada’s exhortation restores the Vanaras’ resolve to re-enter combat. Multiple Vanara champions (including Angada, Sugriva, Hanuman, Nīla, Ṛṣabha, Śarabha, Gavākṣa, and Gandhamādana) engage Kumbhakarna with trees, rocks, and mountain-peaks; many attacks prove ineffectual, emphasizing the Rakshasa’s near-invulnerability and the asymmetry of force. Kumbhakarna counters by devouring combatants and scattering formations, while also issuing disdainful, boast-laden challenges that reframe the duel as a contest against death itself. The narrative then pivots to Rāma’s direct intervention: he reassures the Vanaras, advances with bow and quiver, and employs divine missiles (notably Vāyavya and later Indra-charged weaponry). A key turning point occurs when Rāma severs Kumbhakarna’s arm; the severed limb, likened to a mountain peak, falls into the Vanara ranks and causes casualties—an instance of collateral devastation that underscores war’s tragic spillover even on the righteous side. Despite losing limbs, Kumbhakarna continues to attack, forcing a methodical escalation: further severing of arms and feet, disabling his capacity to fight, and culminating in Rāma’s final, radiant arrow that beheads him. The chapter closes with cosmic resonance—earth and mountains tremble, celestial beings rejoice, and the Vanaras regain confidence—marking Kumbhakarna’s death as a strategic and moral inflection in the war.
कुम्भकर्णवधश्रवणेन रावणविलापः (Ravana’s Lament on Hearing of Kumbhakarna’s Slaying)
This sarga pivots from battlefield result to courtly psychological consequence. Rākṣasa messengers report that Kumbhakarṇa has been slain by the glorious Rāghava, despite Kumbhakarṇa’s brief but devastating onslaught in which he scattered and devoured vānaras. The report dwells on the corpse’s horrifying, monumental imagery—Rāma’s arrows reduce the mountain-like body to a mutilated trunk, bleeding profusely and blocking a gate of Laṅkā—thereby translating martial defeat into civic omen. Rāvaṇa, hearing the news, collapses into stupor and then awakens to prolonged vilāpa: he addresses Kumbhakarṇa as his “right arm,” questions how such a devas-and-dānavas-pride-crusher could fall to Rāma, and interprets the event as kāla (fate) overruling prowess. He anticipates cosmic mockery (devas and ṛṣis rejoicing in the sky) and strategic crisis (vānaras now emboldened to scale Laṅkā’s defenses). The lament turns inward as political self-indictment: Rāvaṇa recognizes the calamity as the vipāka (ripening) of earlier adharma, especially the expulsion and ignored counsel of the righteous Vibhīṣaṇa. The sarga closes with Rāvaṇa’s resolve that life is worthless unless he kills Rāghava, followed by his physical collapse in grief, marking a narrative transition from heroic resistance to desperate, fate-shadowed determination.
त्रिशिरा-प्रबोधनम् तथा नरान्तक-वधः (Trisira’s Counsel and the Slaying of Naranthaka)
Sarga 69 pivots from courtly grief to kinetic battle. Trisira rebukes Rāvaṇa’s lamentation over Kumbhakarṇa, reframing kingship as disciplined composure and reminding him of his boons and armaments. Rāvaṇa, reanimated by this counsel, dispatches a cohort of six elite Rākṣasa leaders—Trisira, Atikāya, Devāntaka, Narāntaka, Mahodara, and Mahāpārśva—ritually anointed and magnificently equipped (elephant, chariots, horse, and heavy weapons). The narrative then shifts to battlefield spectacle: the Rākṣasa advance is likened to storm-clouds, while Vānara leaders respond with roars, uprooted trees, and lifted mountains. Amid chaotic mêlée, Narāntaka becomes the focal threat, carving through Vānara ranks with a blazing spear. Sugrīva, seeing panic, commands Aṅgada to neutralize the mounted assailant. Aṅgada confronts Narāntaka unarmed (nails and teeth as natural weapons), challenges him to throw the thunderbolt-like spear, and endures its shattering impact. Striking Narāntaka’s horse down with a palm-blow, Aṅgada then withstands a retaliatory fist-strike and counters with a death-vehement punch that splits Narāntaka’s chest, killing him. The sky resounds with celebratory acclaim from devas and vānaras, and Aṅgada’s feat is recognized as a difficult, morale-restoring victory within the larger war.
त्रिशिरा–देवान्तक–महोदर–मत्त (महापार्श्व) वधः | Slaying of Trisira, Devantaka, Mahodara, and Matta (Mahaparsva)
सप्ततितमे सर्गे रणभूमौ प्रमुखराक्षसवीराणां पतनक्रमः वर्ण्यते। प्रारम्भे नैरृतश्रेष्ठाः नरान्तक–देवान्तक–त्रिमूर्धा (त्रिशिराः)–महोदरादयः हतान् दृष्ट्वा राक्षसाः विलपन्ति। महोदरः मेघसङ्काशे गजे आरूढः अङ्गदं (वालिपुत्रं) अभिद्रवति; देवान्तकः परिघेण आघात्य व्यपचक्राम। अङ्गदः त्रिभिः राक्षसपुङ्गवैः युगपत् आक्रान्तोऽपि न विव्यथे; स महागजं तलेन प्रहरति, तस्य लोचने पततः, ततः विषाणं निष्कृष्य देवान्तकं तेन ताडयति। देवान्तकः पुनः परिघं गृहीत्वा अङ्गदं प्रहरति; त्रिशिराः बाणैः ललाटेऽभिजघान। अङ्गदपरिक्षेपं ज्ञात्वा हनूमान् नीलश्च प्रतस्थतुः। नीलः शैलाग्रं त्रिशिरसे क्षिपति, तत् शरैः भिन्नं पतति; देवान्तकः हनूमन्तं परिघेणाभिदुद्राव, हनूमान् वज्रकल्पेन मुष्टिना मूर्ध्नि प्रहरन् देवान्तकं निहन्ति। ततः क्रुद्धः त्रिशिराः नीलोरसि बाणवर्षं ववर्ष; महोदरः पुनर्गजारूढः नीलं शरवृष्ट्या स्तम्भयति, किन्तु नीलः संज्ञां प्रतिलभ्य सवृक्षशैलं समुत्पाट्य महोदरस्य मूर्ध्नि प्रहरति—महोदरः गजेन सह पतति मृतः। त्रिशिराः पितृव्यं निहतं दृष्ट्वा हनूमन्तं शरैः विव्याध; हनूमान् शिखरं क्षिपति, त्रिशिराः तद्भिनत्ति; द्रुमवर्षं अपि छित्त्वा त्रिशिराः शक्तिं क्षिपति, हनूमान् तां गृहीत्वा भञ्जयति। अन्ते त्रिशिराः खड्गेन प्रहरति; प्रत्याघाते हनूमान् तलेन उरसि प्रहरन् तं मूर्च्छयति, पततः खड्गं गृह्णाति, पुनः त्रिशिरा मुष्टिना ताडयति; हनूमान् किरीटधारिणं राक्षसर्षभं गृहीत्वा असिना तस्य त्रयः शीर्षाणि छिनत्ति—इन्द्रेण विश्वरूपवधोपमानं दत्तम्। सर्गस्य उत्तरार्धे मत्तः/मत्तानीकः (महापार्श्वः) त्रिशिर–महोदर–देवान्तक–नरान्तकवधान् दृष्ट्वा क्रुद्धः, सुवर्णपट्टपरिक्षिप्तां घोरां गदां गृह्णाति, हरीन् विद्रावयति। ऋषभः वानरः तस्याग्रतः स्थित्वा वक्षसि गदाप्रहारं सहते; पुनः संज्ञां प्राप्य तस्यैव गदां गृहीत्वा महापार्श्वं पुनःपुनः अभिहत्य विदीर्णनयनेन भूमौ पातयति। राक्षसबलं त्यक्तायुधं जीवितार्थं पलायते—युद्धस्य मनोबलपरिवर्तनं, नेतृत्ववधस्य रणनीतिसिद्धिः, तथा धर्मयुद्धे ‘प्रमुखवधः’ इति निर्णायकपदं अत्र प्रतिपाद्यते।
अतिकायवधः (The Slaying of Atikāya)
Sarga 71 introduces Atikāya—Rāvaṇa’s son, mountain-like and Brahmā-boon-protected—who enters the battlefield enraged after seeing the rākṣasa host and his kin struck down (6.71.1–3). Rāma observes the immense chariot-borne warrior from afar and queries Vibhīṣaṇa, who identifies Atikāya, recounts his lineage (son of Dhānyamālinī), his astravidyā, and the protective boon and armor that render him effectively invulnerable to ordinary weapons (6.71.10–36). Atikāya terrorizes the Vānara formations and challenges for a worthy duel; Lakṣmaṇa answers, and a formal exchange of boasts and ethical assertions frames valor as action rather than speech (6.71.37–64). The duel escalates through successive astras (Agni, Sūrya, Indra, Vāyu, Yama, Tvaṣṭṛ/Iṣīka), with arrows colliding in the sky and failing against Atikāya’s impenetrable kavaca (6.71.84–97). Lakṣmaṇa is briefly stunned by a serpent-like shaft but regains composure and dismantles Atikāya’s chariot elements (horses, charioteer, pole) (6.71.98–100). Vāyu then reveals the crucial tactical-theological constraint: only the Brāhma (Brahmā’s) weapon can break the boon-protected armor (6.71.102–103). Lakṣmaṇa invokes the Brāhma astra; the cosmos trembles as it is charged, and the missile, overriding Atikāya’s countermeasures, severs his crowned head (6.71.104–111). The surviving rākṣasas panic and flee toward Laṅkā, while the Vānara host celebrates Lakṣmaṇa, who returns swiftly to Rāma’s side (6.71.112–116).
अतिकायवधश्रवणं रावणस्य लङ्कारक्षाविधानम् (Ravana’s Reaction to Atikaya’s Death and the Fortification Orders for Lanka)
This sarga opens with Rāvaṇa hearing that Atikāya has been slain by the highly energetic Lakṣmaṇa, a report that triggers visible agitation and grief-struck anger. In a reflective register, Rāvaṇa assesses the cumulative attrition of Laṅkā’s elite: earlier commanders and renowned fighters have fallen to Rāma and the vānaras, undermining the myth of rākṣasa invincibility. He recalls Indrajit’s prior binding of the brothers with divinely empowered arrows and expresses astonishment that a bond deemed unbreakable even by gods and celestial beings was nevertheless undone—an admission that the opposing side’s efficacy exceeds his comprehension. The discourse then shifts from lament to administrative command: Rāvaṇa orders comprehensive vigilance across the city, explicitly including the Aśoka grove where Sītā is guarded, and mandates repeated checks of exits, entrances, and troop postings. He instructs night-rangers to watch vānaras’ movements at all hours—dusk, midnight, and dawn—emphasizing continuous readiness whether the army is standing still or advancing. The sarga concludes with rākṣasa forces rising to implement these directives, while Rāvaṇa withdraws to his abode bearing the “thorn of wrath,” repeatedly sighing as he broods over the personal disaster of his son’s death.
इन्द्रजितः ब्रह्मास्त्र-यागः तथा वानरसेनाविध्वंसः (Indrajit’s Brahmastra Rite and the Crushing of the Vanara Host)
Sarga 73 opens with surviving rākṣasas reporting to Rāvaṇa the deaths of leading champions (Devanṭaka, Triśiras, Atikāya). Rāvaṇa, overwhelmed by grief and strategic anxiety, is consoled by Indrajit, who asserts a vow to bring down Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa. Indrajit departs with a tumultuous escort—conchs, drums, parasols, and ceremonial fans—projecting royal-military pageantry. Reaching the battlefield, he establishes a protective perimeter and performs a fire-rite (homa) with strikingly martial substitutions (weapons as ritual elements), receiving auspicious victory-signs as the fire blazes smokelessly. The fire deity accepts the oblation; Indrajit invokes the Brahmāstra and charges his chariot and bow, causing cosmic tremors among planets and stars. Concealed by māyā, he rains a net of arrows and weapons, devastating the vānaras and wounding major leaders (Hanūmān, Sugrīva, Aṅgada, Jāmbavān, Nala, and others). Rāma diagnoses the Brahmāstra’s provenance and counsels Lakṣmaṇa to endure its hail with composure. Indrajit, seeing Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa struck down amid the demoralized host, roars in triumph and returns to Laṅkā to report success to his father.
औषधिपर्वताहरणम् / The Retrieval of the Herb-Bearing Mountain
Sarga 74 records a mass-casualty crisis after Indrajit’s Brahmāstra-network renders Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa unconscious and devastates the vānara host. The leadership field collapses into confusion; Vibhīṣaṇa, as the foremost strategist among the wise, reassures the commanders by framing the event as the unavoidable consequence of honoring a creator-conferred weapon. With Hanumān, he surveys the wounded and fallen, locating the aged Jāmbavān pierced by arrows. A brief but pointed dialogue follows: Jāmbavān, unable to see, identifies Vibhīṣaṇa by voice and insists that hope of survival hinges on Hanumān’s continued life and action. Hanumān then approaches with formal reverence, restoring Jāmbavān’s morale. Jāmbavān issues a precise operational directive: fly beyond the sea to Himavat, locate the herb-mountain between Ṛṣabha and Kailāsa, and bring the four medicines—Mṛtasañjīvanī, Viśalyakaraṇī, Suvarṇakaraṇī, and Sandhānakaraṇī. Hanumān’s takeoff is depicted through cosmic-scale kinetic imagery (earth and ocean shaking, mountains pressed and shattered). Reaching the Himalayas, the herbs conceal themselves; Hanumān uproots the entire peak and returns. The fragrance of the herbs revives the princes and restores vānara warriors instantly, reconstituting the coalition’s fighting capacity.
लङ्कादाह-प्रचोदनं तथा वानर-राक्षस-समरारम्भः (The Burning of Lanka and the Outbreak of Battle)
सर्गेऽस्मिन् सुग्रीवः हनूमन्तं तथा वानरवीरान् ‘कार्यस्य’ (उपनिर्हार-निवारणम्) विषये सूचयति—कुम्भकर्ण-वधात् तथा कुमार-नाशात् रावणस्य पुनः प्रतिरक्षा दुर्बला इति तर्कः प्रस्तुतः। सूर्यास्ते वानराः दीप्तोल्काभिः लङ्कामभिमुखाः प्रयान्ति; गोपुर-प्रतोली-प्रासादादिषु हुताशनं सृजन्ति। ततो बहूनि द्रव्याणि—अगुरु-हरिचन्दनम्, क्षौम-कौशेय-वस्त्राणि, मौक्तिक-मणि-वज्र-प्रवालकं, अश्व-गज-रथ-भाण्डानि, चर्म-तनुत्राणि, शस्त्रसमूहाः—अग्निना दह्यन्ते; भवनानि वज्राहत-गिरिशिखरवत् पतन्ति, तोरणानि विद्युदिव शोभन्ते, रात्रौ लङ्का किंशुक-पुष्पितेव दृश्यते। स्त्रीजनस्य आर्तस्वरः धूमेन सह दूरं श्रूयते; मुक्तहस्त्यश्वैः नगरं क्षोभित-सागर-प्रायं भवति। एतस्मिन्नन्तरे रामलक्ष्मणौ विशल्यौ धनुषी गृह्णीतः; रामस्य ज्याशब्दः वानर-राक्षस-नादान् अतिश्रूयते, तथा रामशरैः लङ्काद्वारगोपुरं भिन्नं पतति। राक्षसेन्द्राः सन्नाहं कुर्वन्ति; रावणः क्रुद्धः कुम्भकर्णात्मजौ कुम्भ-निकुम्भौ तथा यूपाक्ष-शोणिताक्ष-प्रजङ्घ-कम्पनादीन् प्रेषयति। उभयसेनयोः भूषण-दीप्ति-चन्द्रताराभा च व्योम प्रकाशयति; ततः घोरः वानर-राक्षस-समरः प्रवर्तते—तरु-शैल-मुष्टिभिः, असि-शूल-गदा-प्रास-तोमरैः, परस्पर-आक्रोशैः च; उभयपक्षे हानिः-लाभः ‘दश-सप्त’ इति अनुपातेन वर्ण्यते।
युद्धे अङ्गद-मैन्द-द्विविद-राक्षसयुद्धम्; कुम्भस्य प्रादुर्भावः तथा सुग्रीवेण पराभवः (Sarga 76: Angada and the Vanara chiefs battle Kampana, Prajaṅgha, Yūpākṣa, Śoṇitākṣa; Kumbha enters and is checked by Sugrīva)
Sarga 76 unfolds as an escalating sequence of duel-logic within mass combat. Angada, eager for battle amid “destruction of heroes,” engages Kampana; after being struck and reeling, he regains composure and kills Kampana with a mountain-peak blow. Śoṇitākṣa, with Prajaṅgha and Yūpākṣa, presses the attack; Angada’s maternal uncles, Mainda and Dvivida, form a protective screen, and a three-on-three engagement erupts, marked by improvised weapons (trees, rocks) and close-quarters disarmaments. Prajaṅgha is felled; Yūpākṣa is seized and ultimately killed by Mainda, while Dvivida mauls Śoṇitākṣa. The narrative then pivots to Kumbha (Kumbhakarṇa’s son), who restores Rākṣasa morale and shifts to archery, wounding Angada and forcing Rāma to order reinforcements (Jāmbavān, Suṣeṇa, Vegadarśī). Kumbha’s arrow-volley halts the Vānara advance until Sugrīva personally engages, breaks Kumbha’s bow, provokes him with strategic praise, and grapples him in an elephant-like clinch; after a dramatic ocean-throw and counterstrike, Sugrīva’s thunderous fist drops Kumbha, shaking the earth and intensifying fear in the Rākṣasa host. The chapter’s thematic lesson is leadership under crisis: protection of allies, morale repair, and the calibrated use of speech and force as battlefield instruments.
निकुम्भवधः — The Slaying of Nikumbha (Hanuman’s Duel)
Sarga 77 stages a focused battlefield episode in which Nikumbha, enraged after seeing his brother felled by Sugrīva, confronts the vanara leadership with a terrifying display of weaponry and ornamented martial splendor. He arms himself with an auspicious parigha (iron club) likened to the peak of Mahendra, roaring and whirling it so violently that the sky is described as revolving—an epic simile intensifying psychological warfare. The armies on both sides momentarily freeze in fear, establishing a tactical pause that highlights morale as a factor in combat. Hanumān alone stands firm, presenting his chest; Nikumbha’s club shatters into splinters upon impact, underscoring Hanumān’s superhuman steadiness and the futility of brute force against disciplined strength. Hanumān retaliates with a decisive fist-blow, then endures being seized and carried, striking again while restrained. Regaining freedom, he hurls Nikumbha down, leaps upon his chest, and breaks his neck with a forceful twist, ending the duel. The vanaras exult; fear spreads through the rākṣasa ranks, and the narrative transitions toward intensified conflict involving Rāma and a rākṣasa champion (Makara), signaling escalation after the commander’s fall.
मकराक्षस्य निर्गमनम् — The Deployment of Makaraksha and Ravana’s Fury
Sarga 78 pivots on escalation after major Rakshasa losses. Ravana, hearing of Nikumbha and Kumbha’s deaths, ignites in rage and grief and summons Makarākṣa, the broad-eyed son of Khara, issuing a direct command to kill Rama, Lakshmana, and the Vanara forces. Makarākṣa accepts with martial confidence, performs formal obeisance and pradakṣiṇa, orders chariot and troops, mounts the chariot, and instructs the Rakshasas to advance and fight ahead of him. The Rakshasa host is described as shape-shifting, terrifying, elephant-like in mass, surrounding their commander and shaking the earth; drums, conches, and arm-clapping create a war-soundscape. As the army departs, ominous portents appear: the charioteer’s whip drops, the standard falls, horses lose vigor and weep, and a harsh dust-laden wind blows—yet the warriors disregard these signs and proceed toward Rama and Lakshmana. The chapter interweaves command hierarchy, ritualized martial departure, and nimitta (omens) to foreshadow impending defeat while documenting the mechanics of mobilization in epic warfare.
मकराक्षवधः (The Slaying of Makarākṣa)
Sarga 79 stages a concentrated duel episode within the wider Laṅkā war. After Makarākṣa (identified as Khara’s son) appears, Vānara leaders rally and prepare for combat as a broader Vanara–Rākṣasa battle erupts with trees, rocks, and weapon volleys. Makarākṣa challenges Rāma to a direct duel, invoking inherited grievance from Daṇḍakāraṇya and escalating with threats of dispatching Rāma to Yama’s realm. Rāma counters the rhetoric by rejecting victory-by-speech and recalls the earlier destruction of Khara’s forces, reframing the encounter as proof through action. A high-intensity exchange of arrow volleys follows, described through atmospheric sound imagery and the attention of celestial beings. Rāma breaks Makarākṣa’s chariot and forces him to fight on foot; the Rākṣasa then seizes a terrifying Rudra-given flaming śūla (pike), likened to a cosmic destruction-weapon, causing even gods to panic. Rāma splits the airborne śūla with three arrows; praised by beings in the sky, he then fixes the Pāvaka-astra and strikes Makarākṣa, who falls with his heart split. Witnessing their commander’s fall, the Rākṣasas retreat toward Laṅkā in fear of Rāma’s arrows.
इन्द्रजितो यज्ञानुष्ठानं अन्तर्धानं च (Indrajit’s Rite and the Invisible Assault)
Sarga 80 opens with Rāvaṇa’s reaction to the death of Makarākṣa: he is described as a seasoned war-victor who, enraged and grinding his teeth, deliberates on immediate counteraction and commands his son Indrajit (Rāvaṇi) to enter battle. Indrajit first performs a rākṣasa-specific fire rite (yajña/homa): ritual implements and substitutions are described (weapons treated as sacrificial adjuncts, red garments, iron ladles), and a dark goat is seized for offering. Omens of victory are noted as the smokeless, golden-flaring fire receives oblations. Having gratified devas, dānavas, and rākṣasas, Indrajit mounts an exquisitely ornamented chariot, becomes invisible (antardhāna), and boasts of delivering victory to his father by killing Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, and the vānaras. In battle he strikes from the sky while remaining out of sight, generating smoke-and-fog darkness that erases directions and conceals sound and form. Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa counter with divine missiles but cannot touch the unseen foe; vānaras fall in hundreds. Lakṣmaṇa proposes deploying the Brahmāstra broadly, but Rāma restrains him with a rule-based ethic: one must not annihilate many for the sake of one, nor kill those who are non-combatant, hidden, surrendering, fleeing, or inattentive. Rāma then resolves to focus weapons precisely against the māyin Indrajit and considers swift means of his defeat as the vānaras stand ready.
इन्द्रजितो मायासीतावधः — Indrajit’s Illusory Sita Episode and Hanuman’s Rebuke
Sarga 81 frames a psychological and ethical crisis engineered by Indrajit. After discerning Rāghava’s intent, Indrajit withdraws into Laṅkā and, recalling the deaths of Rākṣasas, emerges enraged through the western gate. Seeing Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa ready for battle, he manifests māyā: an illusory Sītā is placed on a chariot amid Rākṣasa protection, and he advances toward the Vānara host to bewilder them. The Vānaras surge forward; Hanumān leads, bearing a mountain-peak as a weapon. He sees the chariot-borne woman—described with ascetic austerity, single braid, dust-covered limbs—and recognizes her as Maithilī. Alarmed, Hanumān confronts Indrajit as Indrajit theatrically seizes her hair, strikes her, and argues that harming women is permissible as enemy-affliction. Hanumān condemns the act as ignoble and predicts Indrajit’s imminent death and posthumous disgrace. Indrajit then publicly ‘kills’ the illusory Sītā with a sword, proclaiming the Vānara effort futile; the Vānara ranks momentarily collapse into grief and flight, while Indrajit rejoices and roars—marking māyā as a weapon aimed at morale rather than battlefield necessity.
इन्द्रजित्-हनूमद्-युद्धं तथा निकुम्भिलायां होमः (Indrajit vs Hanuman; Indrajit’s Nikumbhila rite)
Sarga 82 opens with battlefield shock: the Vānara chiefs, hearing a thunder-like roar associated with Indrajit, scatter in fear. Hanumān (Mārutātmaja) arrests the rout, rebukes their loss of yuddhotsāha (martial resolve), and re-forms the line by demanding they return to the front. Re-energized, the Vānaras seize trees and mountain-peaks, surge forward roaring, and Hanumān burns through the enemy host metaphorically “like fire,” causing heavy Rakṣasa casualties. In a focused exchange, Hanumān hurls a massive rock at Rāvaṇi’s chariot; the charioteer evades, and the rock fails to strike Indrajit, instead cleaving the earth and crushing troops where it lands. The battle escalates as Vānaras rain trees and stones, while Indrajit and his followers answer with volleys of arrows and close-combat weapons (tridents, swords, spears, maces). After checking the enemy line, Hanumān instructs the Vānara army to withdraw with a strategic rationale: their overriding duty is Rāma’s purpose, and they must report the critical claim that Sītā has been killed and await Rāma–Sugrīva’s decision. Observing Hanumān moving toward Rāma, Indrajit departs to Nikumbhilā to perform a blood-oblation fire rite; the sacrificial fire blazes sun-like as Rakṣasas versed in ritual witness the offering—closing the sarga on the junction of warfare and ritual power.
त्र्यशीतितमः सर्गः (Sarga 83) — Hanumān Reports Sītā’s ‘Slaying’; Rāma Collapses; Lakṣmaṇa’s Counter-Discourse on Dharma and Artha
This sarga opens with Rāma hearing the intense saṅgrāma-nirghoṣa (war-roar) between Rākṣasas and Vānaras and directing Jāmbavān, the ṛkṣapati (bear-king), to reinforce Hanumān at the western gate. Hanumān arrives with battle-worn Vānaras and reports a devastating claim: Indrajit, son of Rāvaṇa, struck down the weeping Sītā before their eyes. The news precipitates a psychological collapse—Rāma, overcome by śoka, falls like a root-cut tree. Vānara leaders rush in, lift him, and sprinkle fragrant water (lotus-and-lily scented) as if calming a sudden flare of inextinguishable fire. Lakṣmaṇa then embraces the distressed Rāma and delivers a sharply reasoned speech that frames a dharma-sankat: if a virtuous, self-controlled person suffers while the unrighteous prosper, then dharma appears ineffective. He advances skeptical arguments—questioning whether dharma yields visible recompense, whether destiny rather than agency bears moral residue, and whether ‘truth-speaking’ as dharma is consistent with royal conduct. The speech pivots to artha-śāstra-like realism: prosperity enables social bonds, action, and even virtues; renouncing wealth can interrupt undertakings and invite error. Lakṣmaṇa concludes with resolve to neutralize the sorrow caused by Indrajit through decisive action and urges Rāma to recognize his own mahātman stature. The chapter thus juxtaposes battlefield intelligence, grief management, and a philosophically charged debate on dharma, artha, and effective kingship.
निकुम्भिला-यज्ञविघ्नोपदेशः (Counsel to Disrupt the Nikumbhilā Rite)
Sarga 84 stages a crisis of battlefield psychology and its correction through informed counsel. Vibhīṣaṇa arrives after assigning troop formations and finds Rāma overwhelmed—lying on Lakṣmaṇa’s lap—because Hanumān’s report has been interpreted as Sītā’s death by Indrajit. Lakṣmaṇa explains the cause of Rāma’s delusion, and Vibhīṣaṇa restrains further agitation, reframing the report as implausible and warning that Rāvaṇa will not kill Sītā. He identifies the event as māyā (a deceptive stratagem) used to divert the Vānara forces. The tactical core is then disclosed: Indrajit is proceeding to the Nikumbhilā sanctuary to perform a homa; if completed, he becomes extraordinarily difficult to confront—indeed, functionally “invisible” even to devas in battle. Vibhīṣaṇa urges immediate preemptive action: move the army before the rite concludes, abandon “false agony,” and dispatch Lakṣmaṇa as the decisive agent to break the ritual and make Indrajit vulnerable to death. The chapter thus links discernment (viveka) with time-sensitive strategy, presenting counsel as the bridge between grief and dharmic action.
निकुम्भिला-यज्ञविघ्नः — Vibhishana’s Counsel and Lakshmana’s March to Nikumbhila
Sarga 85 frames a command-decision episode shaped by grief, intelligence, and time-critical strategy. Rāma, momentarily unable to grasp Vibhīṣaṇa’s words due to sorrow, regathers composure and requests a clear restatement. Vibhīṣaṇa reports that the Vānara forces have been properly divided and stationed, then urges Rāma to abandon debilitating anxiety because it amplifies enemy morale; he calls for renewed effort to recover Sītā and destroy the rākṣasas. He then delivers urgent operational intelligence: Indrajit (Rāvaṇi) has gone to Nikumbhilā to perform a sacrificial rite whose completion would render the coalition effectively doomed, due to a boon-structured vulnerability—Rāma can be slain if he does not reach and disrupt the rite. The counsel culminates in a directive: dispatch Lakṣmaṇa, supported by the full Vānara host under Hanumān and protected by Jāmbavān, with Vibhīṣaṇa following as māyā-specialist support. Rāma acknowledges Indrajit’s mastery of Brahmāstra and illusion, then orders the mission. Lakṣmaṇa arms himself, reverently salutes Rāma, vows immediate action, and advances swiftly toward the Nikumbhilā sanctuary, entering the formidable rākṣasa battle-array “like a veil of darkness.”
इन्द्रजितः कर्माननुष्ठानात् उत्थाय हनूमन्तं प्रति प्रस्थानम् / Indrajit Abandons the Unfinished Rite and Moves Against Hanuman
Sarga 86 pivots from counsel to kinetic battle. Vibhīṣaṇa (Rāvaṇa’s brother) issues task-oriented advice to Lakṣmaṇa: rapidly break the cloud-dark rākṣasa host so that Rāvaṇa’s son (Indrajit) becomes visible and can be struck before completing his ritual act. A fierce mêlée follows, with the sky metaphorically “covered” by thrown weapons—arrows, trees, and even mountain-peaks—while bears and vanaras press the assault using natural weapons. Hearing the distress of his forces, Indrajit—described as difficult to overpower—rises without finishing the rite, emerges from wooded darkness, mounts his prepared chariot, and appears deathlike with storm-cloud radiance and red eyes. As rākṣasas surround Lakṣmaṇa, Hanūmān escalates the battle by wielding massive trees, burning through enemy ranks like dissolution-fire. Thousands of rākṣasas converge on Hanūmān with an exhaustive arsenal (tridents, swords, javelins, iron bars, axes, hammers, bhindipālas), prompting Indrajit to order his charioteer toward the vanara champion, whereupon missiles are rained down. Hanūmān receives the assault and issues a direct challenge, while Vibhīṣaṇa alerts Lakṣmaṇa to Indrajit’s intent and urges immediate lethal counteraction; Lakṣmaṇa, recognizing Indrajit on the chariot, begins an answering shower of arrows.
न्यग्रोध-प्रवेश-निवारणम् (Preventing Indrajit’s Banyan-Tree Rite) / Indrajit Confronts Vibhishana
This sarga stages a tactical briefing, a moral dispute, and a doctrinal rebuttal within the war narrative. Vibhīṣaṇa, satisfied after instructing Lakṣmaṇa, leads him into a forested area and identifies a भयङ्कर (frightening) nyagrodha (banyan tree) resembling dark clouds. He explains that Indrajit, after making offerings, becomes invisible and gains lethal advantage; therefore Lakṣmaṇa must strike before Indrajit enters the nyagrodha, destroying his chariot, horses, and charioteer with flaming arrows. Lakṣmaṇa accepts and waits, bow twanged, as Indrajit appears in a radiant chariot and is challenged to direct combat. The scene then pivots to a harsh exchange: Indrajit rebukes Vibhīṣaṇa for abandoning kin and seeking refuge with ‘strangers,’ arguing loyalty to one’s own side even if flawed. Vibhīṣaṇa replies with a dharma-centered self-definition: though born among rākṣasas, he renounced cruel deeds and rejects adharmic association (likened to shaking off a venomous serpent or fleeing a burning house). He enumerates destructive faults—stealing, violating others’ spouses, distrust of friends, killing sages, hostility to deities, pride, anger, animosity—asserting these obscured Rāvaṇa’s prospects like rainclouds veiling mountains, and prophesies Laṅkā’s impending ruin. The chapter closes with Vibhīṣaṇa’s warning that Indrajit, bound by death’s noose, will not return alive after facing Lakṣmaṇa’s arrows.
इन्द्रजित्–लक्ष्मण संवादः तथा युद्धप्रवृत्तिः (Indrajit and Lakshmana: War-Boasts, Rebuke, and the Clash)
Sarga 88 stages a rhetorical duel that immediately hardens into archery combat. Hearing Vibhīṣaṇa’s counsel, Indrajit (Rāvaṇi) becomes rage-deluded, mounts a richly adorned chariot drawn by dark horses, and assumes a death-like battlefield presence. He taunts Lakṣmaṇa with prior night-war claims, threatens to send him to Yama’s abode, and foretells scavengers descending upon his corpse—deploying intimidation as a weapon. Lakṣmaṇa, fearless and angered, replies with reasoned kṣātra-ethics: victory is proven by action, not vāg-bala (mere speech), and invisibility in battle is branded as a thief’s path, not a warrior’s. He challenges Indrajit to display the power he boasts of within arrow-range. Indrajit releases serpent-like, hissing shafts that pierce Lakṣmaṇa, who nevertheless shines “like smokeless fire.” Indrajit proclaims lethal intent again; Lakṣmaṇa answers with restrained resolve—promising to strike without boast. The exchange culminates in immediate volleys: Lakṣmaṇa plants five arrows in Indrajit’s chest; Indrajit retaliates with three well-aimed shafts. The chapter closes by depicting a terrifying, evenly matched contest between two nearly unconquerable champions, likened to celestial bodies and mythic rivals, emphasizing parity of tejas and the ethical contrast between boastful threat and disciplined action.
इन्द्रजित्–लक्ष्मणयोर् घोरः शरयुद्धः (Indrajit and Lakshmana’s Fierce Exchange of Arrows)
Sarga 89 intensifies the Lakṣmaṇa–Indrajit duel through alternating phases of taunt (vāk-yuddha) and projectile combat (śara-yuddha). Lakṣmaṇa initiates with anger-controlled precision, his bowstring’s report unsettling the rākṣasa leader, while Vibhīṣaṇa interprets Indrajit’s pallor as a psychological breach. Indrajit responds with provocative recollections of earlier battlefield incapacitation, challenging Lakṣmaṇa’s memory and daring him toward “Yama’s abode.” The encounter escalates into reciprocal barrages: Lakṣmaṇa rains arrows; Indrajit pierces Lakṣmaṇa, Hanumān, and Vibhīṣaṇa; both shields and standards are shattered. The narration emphasizes endurance—neither warrior withdraws nor shows fatigue—while the sky becomes a lattice of arrows, compared to dissolution-time clouds. Graphic yet stylized imagery (blood like waterfalls, bodies shining like blossoming trees) frames a technical lesson in martial steadiness: composure, accuracy, and refusal to concede psychological advantage. The sarga closes with Vibhīṣaṇa stepping in to support the invincible Lakṣmaṇa, signaling allied duty and battlefield care.
इन्द्रजित्-लक्ष्मणयुद्धम् तथा वानरप्रोत्साहनम् (Indrajit–Lakshmana Battle and the Rallying of the Vanaras)
Sarga 90 frames a decisive phase of the Laṅkā war around two interlocking movements: (1) Vibhīṣaṇa’s strategic encouragement of the Vānara leadership and (2) the intensification of the duel between Lakṣmaṇa and Indrajit (Rāvaṇi). The chapter opens by situating Lakṣmaṇa and Indrajit as mutually intent on victory, likened to battling elephants, while Vibhīṣaṇa positions himself at the battle-front to witness and direct. Vibhīṣaṇa then enumerates prominent Rākṣasa commanders already slain, reclassifying the remaining contest as a narrowed objective: Indrajit is portrayed as the principal remaining pillar of Rākṣasa resistance (with Rāvaṇa as the final exception). He articulates a personal dharma-conflict—striking his brother’s son for Rāma’s cause—marking the moral cost of alliance and kin-slaying in wartime. The Vānara chiefs respond with martial exhilaration. Combat imagery escalates: Jāmbavān and troops clash with weapon-bearing Rākṣasas; Hanumān dismounts Lakṣmaṇa and devastates Rākṣasa ranks with an uprooted sāla tree. The Lakṣmaṇa–Indrajit engagement becomes so rapid that bow-hand motions are imperceptible; the sky is netted with arrows, darkness and omens intensify, and battlefield sound resembles mythic Deva–Asura war. Tactical turning points follow: Saumitri pierces Indrajit’s four horses; the charioteer is beheaded by a bhalla shot; Indrajit briefly assumes charioteer duties himself; Vānara leaders leap upon and kill the horses, forcing Indrajit to fight on foot. Lakṣmaṇa checks him with concentrated volleys, while Vānara morale rises at Indrajit’s visible despondency. The sarga closes with Indrajit advancing on foot and Lakṣmaṇa obstructing his renewed arrow-rain, consolidating momentum toward Indrajit’s eventual downfall.
इन्द्रजित्-वधः (The Slaying of Indrajit)
Sarga 91 stages the decisive duel between Lakṣmaṇa (Saumitrī) and Indrajit (Rāvaṇi), embedding battlefield action within a framework of astric escalation and moral resolve. Indrajit re-enters combat after preparing a gold-adorned chariot and assails Lakṣmaṇa and Vibhīṣaṇa, striking Vānara leaders with massive arrow-volley displays of lāghava (martial dexterity). Lakṣmaṇa counters by severing Indrajit’s bows, wounding him repeatedly, and disrupting his chariot’s command structure (including the charioteer), causing the horses to wheel without guidance. Vibhīṣaṇa engages directly, and Indrajit, driven by wrath and fate, deploys increasingly formidable missiles: fire-based, then an Asura missile manifesting as a shower of weapons. Lakṣmaṇa repels these with Saurya and Māheśvara countermeasures, while celestial beings witness and protect him. The climax arrives as Lakṣmaṇa fits the undefeated Aindra missile, verbally consecrating its truth-conditional efficacy, and releases it to sever Indrajit’s head—ending the terror of the worlds and triggering cosmic acclamation, flower-rain, and the rout of the Rākṣasa forces.
युद्धकाण्डे द्विनवतितमः सर्गः — Indrajit’s Fall, Rama’s Embrace, and Sushena’s Battlefield Healing
Sarga 92 records the immediate aftermath of Indrajit’s death and frames it as both a strategic turning point and a moral-ritual validation of Lakṣmaṇa’s service. Blood-smeared and wounded, Lakṣmaṇa reports the terrible slaying of Indrajit; Vibhīṣaṇa corroborates the severing of the rākṣasa prince’s head. Rāma’s response is twofold: public praise (kīrti-vardhana) and intimate fraternal care—drawing Lakṣmaṇa onto his lap, repeatedly examining his arrow-tormented body, and consoling him. Rāma interprets the event as a decisive weakening of Rāvaṇa’s war-capacity, anticipating that the grieving rākṣasa-king will emerge with a large host and declaring readiness to finish him. The chapter then shifts to battlefield medicine and coalition welfare: Rāma summons Suṣeṇa, instructing him to remove arrows and treat not only Lakṣmaṇa and Vibhīṣaṇa but also wounded bear and vānar fighters. Suṣeṇa administers a supreme medicine by nasal inhalation; Lakṣmaṇa immediately becomes viśalya (free of arrows), painless, and restored. The allied leaders rejoice, and the sarga closes by praising the near-impossible deed and its morale effect on the army.
Sarga 93: Rāvaṇa’s Grief and Fury after Indrajit’s Fall; Move to Slay Vaidehī and Ministerial Restraint
This sarga opens with Paulastya (Rāvaṇa’s) ministers reporting the distressing death of Indrajit/Meghanāda, slain by Lakṣmaṇa with Vibhīṣaṇa’s assistance. Rāvaṇa’s response unfolds as a layered psychological portrait: swoon, lamentation, then anger that intensifies through cosmic similes—his brows like an apocalyptic ocean, fire and smoke bursting from his mouth, and tears falling like oil from blazing lamps. He asserts the security of boons and divine armaments (Brahmā’s gift of an unbreakable kavaca and a formidable bow), using rhetoric to re-stiffen the rākṣasa war-spirit and to announce renewed aggression against Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa. Yet grief mutates into retaliatory misdirection: he resolves to destroy Vaidehī (Sītā), drawing a sword and rushing toward Aśoka-vana, while rākṣasas celebrate his perceived invincibility. The chapter then shifts to Sītā’s viewpoint—her fear, self-reproach for refusing Hanumān’s earlier rescue, and anxieties about Rāma and Kausalyā. The moral counterweight arrives through Suparśva, an upright minister, who restrains Rāvaṇa: killing a woman violates dharma; anger should be directed to battle, not to Sītā. Rāvaṇa accepts this counsel, returns, and proceeds again toward assembly, marking a temporary re-alignment from private vengeance to public war conduct.
रावणस्य सभाप्रवेशः — रामस्य शरवृष्ट्या राक्षससेनाविनाशः (Ravana Enters Council; Rama’s Arrow-Storm Destroys the Rakshasa Host)
Sarga 94 opens with Rāvaṇa entering the council in visible grief and anger, then addressing his military chiefs with folded hands, urging a concentrated assault focused on a single target—Rāma. Orders are issued for a combined deployment of elephants, horses, chariots, and infantry. At sunrise a terrifying, tumultuous battle erupts; missiles, maces, swords, axes, trees, and rocks are exchanged. The field becomes a landscape of dust and blood: rivers of gore, bodies as driftwood, and war-engines as banks and trees. As vānaras are struck, they seek refuge in Rāma. Rāma then enters the rākṣasa army and unleashes an overwhelming rain of arrows; his speed and the Gandharva-associated supreme missile create visual confusion—rākṣasas perceive multiple Rāmas, cannot directly perceive him, and in mistaken fury strike one another. The chapter culminates in a quantitative devastation of the rākṣasa host within a brief fraction of the day, survivors retreating to Laṅkā. Celestial beings praise Rāma, and he remarks to Sugrīva, Vibhīṣaṇa, Hanūmān, Jāmbavān, Mainda, and Dvivida that such divine astric power belongs to him and Tryambaka (Śiva) alone.
युद्धकाण्डे पञ्चनवतितमः सर्गः (Sarga 95: Lamentation in Laṅkā and the Causal Chain of Enmity)
This chapter presents a wartime audit of devastation and a reflective diagnosis of its causes. It opens with a hyperbolic catalogue of Rāvaṇa’s dispatched forces—fire-colored horses, chariots with banners and golden ornamentation, iron-bar wielding fighters, and shape-shifting rākṣasas—now felled by Rāma’s sharp, glowing, gold-adorned arrows, emphasizing his tireless efficacy (akliṣṭa-karman). The narrative then pivots to interpretive lament: rākṣasī women and survivors gather, bewailing husbands, sons, and kin, while questioning how the chain began—specifically Surpaṇakhā’s ill-fated desire for Rāma and her condemned assault, which precipitated the destruction of Khara and Dūṣaṇa and ultimately the abduction of Sītā. A sequence of exempla is cited as “sufficient proof” of Rāma’s prowess: the slaying of Virādha, the Janasthāna campaign, the deaths of Khara, Dūṣaṇa, Triśiras, Kabandha, and Vāli, and Sugrīva’s restoration. Vibhīṣaṇa’s dharmic counsel is noted as rejected by Rāvaṇa, and the chapter intensifies into collective fear: Laṅkā is imagined as a cremation ground, omens rise, and Rāma is compared to Rudra, Viṣṇu, Indra, or even Antaka (Death). The theological-political backstory of Rāvaṇa’s boon from Brahmā—protection from devas, dānavas, and rākṣasas but not from humans—is recalled to explain why human-born Rāma becomes the instrument of downfall. The sarga closes with the women embracing one another in despondent cries, framing the war not only as military defeat but as a moral reckoning.
युद्धाय रावणस्य निर्याणं तथा उत्पातदर्शनम् (Ravana’s Mobilization for War and the ظهور of Fatal Portents)
Sarga 96 opens with Rāvaṇa hearing lamentation throughout Laṅkā, indicating civic distress and the war’s domestic toll. He pauses, then assumes a terrifying, wrathful demeanor and issues rapid commands to Mahodara, Mahāpārśva, and Virūpākṣa to mobilize the remaining night-rangers. In a sequence of boastful martial vows, Rāvaṇa declares he will dispatch Rāghava and Lakṣmaṇa to Yama’s abode, avenge fallen champions (Khara, Kumbhakarṇa, Prahasta, Indrajit), and annihilate Vānara battalions with cloudlike volleys of arrows. The Rākṣasa forces arm themselves with a catalogue of weapons and sortie with chariots and roars. As Rāvaṇa advances—glowing, bow raised—cosmic and bodily omens erupt: the sun dims, directions darken, meteors fall, blood rains, animals cry inauspiciously, and his left eye and arm twitch. Despite these death-signs, he proceeds, and a tumultuous engagement begins in which his golden-feathered arrows inflict grievous injuries on the Vānara ranks.
सप्तनवतितमः सर्गः (Yuddha Kāṇḍa 97): Sugrīva’s Onslaught and the Fall of Virūpākṣa
This sarga depicts a sharp shift from Rāvaṇa’s overwhelming arrow-barrage to Sugrīva’s counteroffensive and a named-champion duel. The opening verses frame battlefield attrition: Vanaras, unable to withstand Rāvaṇa’s blazing hail of arrows, are scattered and the ground is strewn with severed bodies (6.97.1–4). Rāvaṇa, after wreaking havoc among the forest-rangers, advances toward Rāghava (Rāma), indicating a strategic pivot in the wider war (6.97.5). Sugrīva responds as commander: seeing the routed Vanaras, he assigns Suṣeṇa to stabilize and protect the formations, then advances personally with a tree as weapon, accompanied by other troop-leaders bearing rocks and trees (6.97.6–9). Sugrīva devastates Rākṣasa ranks with rock-showers likened to hail from clouds (6.97.10–12). As the Rākṣasas falter, the champion Virūpākṣa announces himself, mounts a rutting elephant, and rallies morale by attacking Sugrīva and the Vanara front with arrows (6.97.13–16). The duel intensifies through alternating weapon-forms—tree-blow, rock-hurl, sword-cut, fist and palm strikes—showing embodied vīrya (martial energy) and tactical skill on both sides (6.97.17–30). Sugrīva’s final thunderbolt-like palm-strike fells Virūpākṣa; blood flows like a waterfall, and the psychological tide turns: Vanaras are exhilarated while the Rākṣasa host is stunned and disordered (6.97.31–36).
महोदरवधः (The Slaying of Mahodara)
Sarga 98 depicts a decisive single-combat episode embedded within the larger attritional battle. Ravana, enraged by the collapse of his forces and the fall of Virupaksha, identifies Mahodara as the present locus of his “hope of victory” and commands him to repay royal patronage through exemplary valor. Mahodara enters the Vanara ranks like a moth into fire, inflicting severe casualties and scattering troops. Sugriva responds to the routed Vanaras, initiating a duel characterized by escalating weapon exchanges: rocks, a sala tree used as a bludgeon, an iron bar (parigha), maces, and finally sword-and-shield combat. The narrative uses battlefield similes (armies like dried lakes in midsummer; combatants like thunderclouds with lightning) to mark the exhaustion of forces and the intensification of personal contest. The climax arrives when Sugriva severs Mahodara’s head while the latter is engaged in extracting a lodged sword, triggering Rakshasa panic and flight, while Vanaras exult and Ravana’s fury deepens—an episode that functions as both tactical turning point and moral demonstration of leadership under crisis.
Mahāpārśva-vadhaḥ — The Slaying of Mahāpārśva (Angada’s Counterstrike)
This sarga stages a concentrated battlefield reversal centered on Mahāpārśva, following the death of Mahodara at Sugrīva’s hands. Seeing Mahodara slain, Mahāpārśva’s anger intensifies and he disrupts Aṅgada’s forces with a punishing arrow-storm, severing and wounding vānaras and briefly depressing the front line. Aṅgada, observing the demoralization, surges forward and hurls an iron club/bar (parigha) at Mahāpārśva, knocking him from his chariot; Jāmbavān simultaneously assaults the rākṣasa chariot formation with a massive rock, striking horses and breaking the vehicle. Regaining consciousness, Mahāpārśva renews the attack—shooting Aṅgada and piercing Jāmbavān and Gavākṣa—prompting Aṅgada to seize a dreadful parigha, whirl it, and strike Mahāpārśva, then close in with a palm-strike. Mahāpārśva retaliates by throwing a battle-axe, which Aṅgada evades. Aṅgada then delivers a decisive, anatomically targeted fist-blow into the chest/heart region, shattering Mahāpārśva’s heart; the rākṣasa falls dead. The vānaras roar in triumph, Laṅkā’s structures vibrate, and Rāvaṇa—hearing the tumult—reorients toward renewed battle, marking a tactical and psychological escalation.
रावण–रामयुद्धप्रारम्भः (The Intensification of the Rama–Ravana Duel)
Sarga 100 escalates the central duel by linking battlefield losses to leadership psychology and weapon-ritual. After the deaths of Mahodara, Mahāpārśva, and the mighty Virūpākṣa, Rāvaṇa is depicted as entering a state of heightened wrath and urges his charioteer forward. His advance shakes the environment, and he deploys the Tāmasa weapon—darkness-associated, Brahmā-bestowed—burning and routing the Vānara forces and raising dust across the ground. Rāma, seeing the routed Vānaras and Rāvaṇa’s approach, takes a firm stance with Lakṣmaṇa, described through high epic similes (Vishnu–Indra; bow “scraping” the sky). A sustained exchange of arrow-showers follows: interception in midair, displays of manual dexterity, circular maneuvering, and imagery of cosmic dissolution (Rāhu near sun and moon; sky clouded like lightning-streaked storm). Rāvaṇa targets Rāma’s forehead with nārāca volleys; Rāma bears them without distress and counters by invoking the Raudra astra, yet Rāvaṇa’s armor absorbs the impact. Rāvaṇa then releases a demon-presided illusory arsenal of animal-faced and five-headed serpent-like arrows; Rāma responds with Agni-presided missiles of solar, lunar, cometary, planetary, and lightning-like forms, dissolving Rāvaṇa’s projectiles into thousands of fragments. The Vānara leaders rejoice at the neutralization of the hostile astras, and the sarga closes with Sugrīva’s exultant acclaim of Daśarathi’s unwearied combat efficacy.
शक्तिप्रहारः (Ravana’s Shakti Javelin and Lakshmana’s Wounding)
Sarga 101 escalates the Rama–Ravana duel through an arms-contest logic: Ravana’s missiles are counteracted, provoking doubled wrath and the deployment of increasingly fearsome astras. Rama neutralizes Ravana’s weaponry (including discus-like and radiant projectiles) while Ravana attempts to destabilize Rama with concentrated arrow-strikes. The focus then shifts to coalition defense: Lakshmana shatters Ravana’s chariot insignia, kills the charioteer, breaks Ravana’s bow, and Vibhishana fells Ravana’s horses with a mace. In retaliation, Ravana targets Vibhishana with a flaming shakti (javelin), which Lakshmana intercepts and breaks mid-flight, prompting Vanara acclamation. Ravana then seizes a more formidable, Maya-crafted, eight-belled shakti and—after issuing a direct threat—hurls it at Lakshmana; it pierces Lakshmana’s chest and he collapses. Rama’s grief is briefly acknowledged but transformed into resolve; he extracts and breaks the embedded shakti, instructs Hanuman and Sugriva to protect Lakshmana, and publicly vows that the world will soon be without Ravana or without Rama. The sarga closes with renewed, tumultuous archery exchange, portraying dharma-driven determination amid catastrophic injury.
लक्ष्मण-प्राणरक्षा: (Lakshmana’s Revival by the Herb-Mountain)
This sarga centers on a battlefield medical crisis and its ethical reverberations. Rāma sees Lakṣmaṇa struck by Rāvaṇa’s śakti (javelin) and drenched in blood, and his composure collapses into grief: he questions the value of victory, life, and even the war’s purpose without his brother. Suṣeṇa consoles Rāma with diagnostic reasoning—Lakṣmaṇa’s face retains radiance and his heart and limbs show signs of life—urging Rāma to abandon despair. Suṣeṇa then directs Hanumān to the Auṣadhi-parvata (herb mountain) to fetch four named mahauṣadhis (Savarṇakaraṇī, Sāvarṇyakaraṇī, Sañjīvakaraṇī, Sandhānī). Unable to identify them, Hanumān resolves to carry the entire southern peak, uproots and transports it at speed, and delivers it to the battlefield. Suṣeṇa extracts and crushes the herbs and administers them nasally to Lakṣmaṇa, who rises freed from the embedded weapon and pain. The Vānara leaders rejoice; Rāma embraces Lakṣmaṇa with tears. Lakṣmaṇa, however, admonishes Rāma to uphold his vow and complete Rāvaṇa’s destruction, reframing personal grief within the epic’s dharma of promise-keeping and public justice.
ऐन्द्ररथप्रदानम् — Indra’s Chariot Offered to Rāma; The Duel Intensifies
Sarga 103 frames a fairness-critique of the duel—Rāma stands on earth while Rāvaṇa fights from a chariot—prompting Devas and celestial beings to voice that the contest is not equal. Indra, hearing these ‘nectar-like’ words, orders his charioteer Mātali to take the divine chariot to the battlefield and invite Rāma to mount it. Mātali arrives with a richly described, gold-adorned chariot drawn by green horses, bearing Indra’s martial equipment: a mighty bow, fire-bright armor, sun-like arrows, and an auspicious stainless śakti. He formally salutes Rāma, announces Indra’s gift for victory, and offers himself as sārathi. Rāma performs respectful circumambulation and ascends, radiating splendor. The battle then escalates: Rāvaṇa launches terrifying Rakṣasa missiles whose arrows become venomous serpents filling the quarters; Rāma counters with the Garuḍa-weapon, transforming the serpent-arrows into golden suparṇa forms that destroy the threat. Rāvaṇa retaliates with dense arrow-showers, strikes Mātali, cuts the chariot’s banner, and wounds Indra’s horses, causing anxiety among gods, sages, and Vānara leaders. The sarga closes with omen-poetics—planetary conjunctions, a dimmed sun, and turbulent ocean imagery—mirroring the cosmic stakes of the Rāma–Rāvaṇa confrontation.
रावणशूलप्रक्षेपः — Ravana Hurls the Trident; Rama Counters with Indra’s Javelin
Sarga 104 intensifies the duel through omenology and weapon-poetics. The chapter opens with cosmic fear: on seeing Rama’s enraged countenance, beings tremble, mountains shake, and the ocean churns; portentous clouds circle the sky. Aerial spectators—devas, gandharvas, nāgas, sages, daityas, and khecaras—watch a battle likened to world-dissolution, while opposing chants of victory arise (asuras for Daśagrīva, devas for Rama). Ravana, red-eyed and roaring, seizes a terrifying, thunderbolt-hard trident with mountain-peak spikes, proclaims lethal intent against Rama (and his brother), and hurls it; the weapon blazes with lightning garlands and bell-like clangor. Rama counters by loosing arrow volleys, yet the trident incinerates them like moths in fire, provoking Rama’s controlled fury. Rama then takes up a divine śakti (javelin) brought by Matali and esteemed by Indra; its radiance lights the sky like an end-time meteor. The javelin strikes and breaks Ravana’s trident, which falls bereft of splendor. Rama follows with swift, straight arrows that shatter Ravana’s horses and pierce Ravana’s chest and forehead; Ravana, bleeding profusely, appears like a blossoming aśoka tree—sorrowful yet violently enraged amid his assembly.
रावणक्रोधः—रामस्य परुषवाक्यम् (Ravana’s Fury and Rama’s Harsh Admonition)
Sarga 105 frames a psychological turning point within the duel. Rāvaṇa, famed for battlefield pride, is pained by Kakutstha’s shafts and surges into great anger, responding with a dense rain of arrows that momentarily darkens the field. Rāma remains unshaken—likened to an immovable mountain—intercepting the arrow-net and enduring it as the sun’s rays. As blood marks Rāma’s body, the imagery shifts to a blossoming kiṃśuka tree, emphasizing endurance rather than defeat. Rāma’s anger then crystallizes into a moral indictment: he denies Rāvaṇa the status of “vīryavān” (truly valiant) because Sītā was taken in helplessness, “like a thief,” and because such conduct violates maryādā and accepted cāritra. The speech escalates into prophetic battlefield imagery—severed head, vultures, torn entrails—functioning as both psychological warfare and a dharma-judgment. Rāma’s martial capacity is described as doubling; astras ‘appear’ to him through self-knowledge and auspicious signs, after which he intensifies his assault. Under combined pressure from Rāma’s arrow-showers and Vānara stone volleys, Rāvaṇa becomes mentally confused, fails to respond effectively, and his charioteer withdraws him from the battlefield, signaling a temporary collapse in morale and agency.
रावण-सारथि-संवादः (Ravana and the Charioteer: Counsel, Omens, and Battlefield Conduct)
Sarga 106 stages a high-stakes dialogue between Rāvaṇa and his sārathi (charioteer) at a moment of tactical withdrawal. Rāvaṇa, described as deluded and destiny-driven, with anger-reddened eyes, rebukes the charioteer for turning the chariot back before the enemy, accusing him of cowardice, incompetence, and even collusion with opponents. The charioteer responds with measured, conciliatory speech grounded in nīti: he denies fear or betrayal, frames his action as welfare-oriented service, and argues that a charioteer must assess time, terrain, signs, omens, the warrior’s condition, and the strength/weakness of forces. He cites exhausted horses and inauspicious portents as practical reasons for retreat, emphasizing that tactical repositioning can be dharmically and strategically appropriate. Rāvaṇa is persuaded, praises the charioteer, gifts him an auspicious hand-ornament, and orders an immediate advance toward Rāghava (Rāma). The sarga closes with the chariot swiftly arriving before Rāma’s chariot, re-establishing direct confrontation and underscoring the tension between wrath-driven command and prudent counsel.
आदित्यहृदयम् (Aditya Hridayam Upadeśa — Agastya’s Instruction to Rāma)
Sarga 107 situates Rāma on the battlefield, momentarily burdened by the intensity of the conflict as Rāvaṇa stands prepared before him. The r̥ṣi Agastya arrives with assembled deities to witness the decisive encounter and offers an “eternal secret” (guhyaṃ sanātanam): the Aditya-hṛdaya hymn. The discourse frames Sūrya/Āditya as cosmic regulator and the inner principle sustaining gods, beings, and sacrificial order—creator and destroyer, dispeller of darkness and cold, lord of luminaries, and the source and fruit of Vedic rites. Agastya prescribes concentrated worship and thrice-daily recitation as a means to dissolve grief, remove anxiety, and secure victory. Rāma performs ācamana, contemplates Āditya, chants the hymn, regains clarity and delight, takes up his bow, and advances with renewed determination to slay Rāvaṇa. The sarga closes with the Sun-god’s approving urgency, signaling imminent success in the war.
रावणरथवैभव–निमित्तदर्शन–राममातलिसंवादः (Ravana’s Chariot, Portents, and Rama–Matali Instructions)
This sarga opens with an ornate, kinetic description of Rāvaṇa’s chariot—Gandharva-city-like in form, heavy with flags and standards, yoked to horses adorned with gold chains, and engineered for maximum battlefield intimidation. As the duel intensifies, Rāma observes the enemy chariot’s aggressive approach and warns Mātali (Indra’s charioteer) that Rāvaṇa’s reversed, reckless movement signals self-destruction. Rāma issues precise operational instructions: remain alert, drive straight toward the enemy, keep the mind unconfused, and control the reins with steady vision—an applied ethics of disciplined action in combat. Mātali, pleased, maneuvers expertly, turning to unsettle Rāvaṇa with wheel-raised dust. Rāvaṇa strikes Rāma with arrows; Rāma responds by taking up the powerful Indra-like bow, and the two face each other like lions, each intent on the other’s death. Celestial beings gather to witness the duel. A sequence of ominous portents concentrates around Rāvaṇa—blood-rain, circling winds, vultures and jackals, dust-darkened directions, meteors, thunderbolts without clouds—while auspicious victory-signs arise for Rāma. Reading these nimittas, Rāma becomes confident of victory and advances with heightened prowess to conclude the enemy’s end.
राघव-रावणयोः घोर-द्वैरथ-युद्धम् (The Fierce Chariot-Duel of Rama and Ravana)
Sarga 109 concentrates on the escalation of the direct duel (dvairatha-yuddha) between Rama and Ravana, presented as a conflict whose intensity is described as fearsome to the world. Both armies temporarily suspend their own engagements, standing motionless with weapons raised, absorbed in astonished spectatorship—an epic device that isolates the duel as the decisive ethical and narrative axis. Ravana, enraged, targets Rama’s chariot-flag; his arrows fail to sever the emblem, grazing the chariot and falling. Rama, responding with controlled fury, aims at Ravana’s flagpost (dhvaja/ketu) and cuts it down; the post falls to the ground, provoking Ravana’s burning indignation. Ravana retaliates by raining volleys of arrows and conjuring a vast ‘weapon-rain’ (śastra-varṣa) through māyā, deploying an arsenal that includes maces, iron bars, discs, clubs, mountain-peaks, trees, tridents, and axes. The sky becomes densely netted with arrows from both sides, appearing like a second firmament; none of the missiles are wasted, as they meet targets or collide midair and fall. The exchange proceeds blow-for-blow, including strikes upon each other’s horses, culminating in a brief but hair-raising, tumultuous phase of the duel and Ravana’s heightened anger over the loss of his standard.
रामरावणयोर्युद्धवैषम्यं तथा रावणशिरश्छेदनम् (Rama–Ravana Duel Intensifies; Ravana’s Heads Severed and Reappear)
Sarga 110 depicts the duel of Rāma and Rāvaṇa escalating into a spectacle witnessed by all beings, with celestial communities observing in astonishment and anxiety. The combat is described through rapid chariot maneuvers—circling, advancing, retreating—showcasing charioteer skill and the symmetry of retaliation. Rāvaṇa targets Rāma’s charioteer Mātali with thunder-like arrows, yet Mātali remains unshaken; Rāma’s response is framed as principled wrath directed at the affront to his ally rather than personal pain. A tumultuous exchange of arrows and heavy weapons (maces, mallets, iron bars) produces cosmic disturbance: seas churn, subterranean beings are distressed, the earth trembles, the sun dims, and the wind stills. Devas and ṛṣis chant auspicious blessings for cows and brāhmaṇas and invoke Rāma’s victory, emphasizing the war’s dharmic horizon. Rāma severs a head of Rāvaṇa, but another immediately arises; repeated decapitations fail to end the rākṣasa king, prompting Rāma—expert in all astras—to reflect on why his previously decisive arrows now appear ineffective. The chapter closes with the battle continuing without pause and Mātali preparing to speak, anticipating a strategic revelation about Rāvaṇa’s life-force and the proper means to conclude the conflict.
रावणवधः — The Slaying of Ravana (Brahmāstra Discharge)
Sarga 111 concentrates the epic’s decisive act into a tightly staged sequence: Mātali, acting as a charioteer-counsellor, prompts Rāma to employ the Paitāmaha/Brahma-bestowed missile at the destined moment of Rāvaṇa’s destruction (6.111.1–2). Rāma then takes up the great arrow earlier transmitted through Agastya, and the text dwells on its cosmological construction—wind, fire, sun, mountains, and sky as presiding principles—thereby presenting weaponry as a ritual-ethical technology rather than mere violence (6.111.3–12). With Vedic procedure (veda-prokta vidhi) and deliberate charging of power, Rāma fits the arrow; the earth trembles and beings are terrified, marking the act as world-significant (6.111.13–15). In controlled fury he releases the shaft; it strikes Rāvaṇa’s chest like Indra’s thunderbolt, rends the vital core, steals the life-breath, and returns quietly to the quiver after completing its task (6.111.16–20). The fallen king’s bow drops, rākṣasas scatter, vānaras surge in triumph, and the heavens respond with drums, flowers, fragrant winds, and acclamations of “sādhu” (6.111.21–29). The cosmos regains equilibrium—earth steadies, directions brighten, sun stabilizes—while allies approach and honor Rāma, who shines like Indra among the gods (6.111.30–34).
रावणवधोत्तरं विभीषणशोकः—क्षत्रधर्मोपदेशः (Vibhishana’s Lament after Ravana’s Fall; Instruction on Kshatriya-Dharma)
Sarga 112 stages the immediate aftermath of Rāvaṇa’s death. Vibhīṣaṇa, seeing his brother slain and lying on the battlefield, breaks into lamentation, describing the fallen king through a sequence of high metaphors: a great “rākṣasa-king tree” crushed by the “tempest of Rāghava,” an elephant in rut overthrown by the Ikṣvāku-lion, and a rākṣasa-fire extinguished by the rain-cloud of Rāma. He also mourns the collapse of order and vitality that Rāvaṇa represented for his people, portraying cosmic inversion (sun fallen, moon darkened, fire quenched). Rāma responds with a sober ethical discourse: a warrior who falls in battle according to kṣatriya duty is not to be mourned; victory is never absolute in war; even those feared by the three worlds must submit to time. Having received this framing, Vibhīṣaṇa requests permission to perform funerary rites, emphasizing Rāvaṇa’s ritual credentials and asserting that enmity ends with death. Rāma assents, directing the transition from combat to saṃskāra (last rites) and political-ritual stabilization.
रावणवधदर्शनम् — Lament of the Rākṣasa Women upon Seeing Rāvaṇa Slain
This sarga stages the immediate civic and domestic aftermath of Rāvaṇa’s death. Grief-stricken rākṣasī women rush from the inner apartments (antaḥpura) and enter the blood-mired battlefield, searching for husbands and kin amid severed trunks and fallen bodies. They behold Rāvaṇa’s immense corpse, likened to a dark mountain-heap, and collapse upon his limbs; individual gestures of mourning are cataloged—embracing, clinging to feet and neck, rolling on the ground, fainting, and bathing his face with tears in a lotus-and-dew simile. Their lamentation turns reflective and didactic: they contrast Rāvaṇa’s former terror over Indra, Yama, Gandharvas, Ṛṣis, and Suras with his present helplessness, slain by a mortal warrior. The women explicitly diagnose causality—failure to heed well-wishing counsel (especially Vibhīṣaṇa’s), the abduction and detention of Sītā, and the resulting ‘root-destruction’ (mūlahara) of their community—while also articulating a theology of fate (daiva) as an unstoppable course that no wealth, will, prowess, or royal command can reverse. The chapter concludes with their bird-like wailing (krauncha/kurarī imagery), preserving a formal elegiac cadence within the war-book’s martial frame.
रावणस्य अन्त्येष्टिः — Ravana’s Funeral Rites and the Ethics of Post-War Conduct
Sarga 114 shifts the narrative from combat to aftermath. It opens with the lamentation of rākṣasī women; Mandodarī and the chief queen figure prominently in grief, retrospectively interpreting earlier omens (Hanumān’s entry into “difficult-to-enter” Laṅkā, the Vānara bridge across the ocean) as signs that Rāma exceeds ordinary humanity. The discourse frames Rāvaṇa’s downfall as a consequence of adharma—especially the abduction of Sītā—and as the fruition of moral causality (karma-phala). A crucial ethical pivot follows: Rāma instructs that enmity does not persist after death and orders proper obsequies for the fallen king. Vibhīṣaṇa, obeying, enters Laṅkā, gathers priests, ritual fires, sandalwood and fragrant substances, and organizes the funerary procession with a decorated bier. The rākṣasas perform Vedic-aligned last rites (pitr̥medha sequence, altar placement, offerings, and cremation rites), after which Vibhīṣaṇa consoles the widows and returns to Rāma in a submissive posture. The sarga closes by portraying Rāma’s emotional transition: having subdued the enemy and laid down divine armaments, he relinquishes wrath and returns to gentleness, underscoring maryādā in victory.
विभीषणाभिषेकः (Vibhīṣaṇa’s Consecration) and Hanumān’s Commission to Sītā
After Rāvaṇa’s fall, celestial beings (Devas, Gandharvas, Dānavas) depart in their vimānas, recounting auspicious narratives of the victory and the virtues displayed—Rāma’s prowess, the Vānara campaign, Sugrīva’s counsel, Lakṣmaṇa’s devotion and valor, Sītā’s fidelity, and Hanumān’s heroism. Rāma formally releases Indra’s charioteer Mātali, who returns to heaven with the divine chariot. Rāma embraces Sugrīva and returns to the camp, then directs Lakṣmaṇa to consecrate Vibhīṣaṇa in Laṅkā, citing his devotion, loyalty, and prior service. Lakṣmaṇa procures a golden vessel; swift Vānara leaders fetch ocean-water, and Vibhīṣaṇa is seated on an excellent throne and anointed amid Rakṣasas with mantra-guided ritual according to śāstric procedure, explicitly “by Rāma’s command,” establishing legitimate sovereignty. Rakṣasas and Vānaras rejoice and offer homage to Rāma. Vibhīṣaṇa consoles the populace, receives auspicious offerings (curds, akṣata, sweets, parched grain, flowers), and presents them to Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa; Rāma accepts to honor Vibhīṣaṇa’s affection. Finally, Rāma instructs Hanumān—after obtaining Vibhīṣaṇa’s permission—to enter Laṅkā, convey the good news to Vaidehī (Sītā), and return with her message.
सीतासान्त्वनम् / Hanuman Consoles Sita with the News of Victory
Sarga 116 is a post-conflict communication unit that converts battlefield outcome into ethical reassurance. Having been instructed and welcomed in Laṅkā under the new order, Hanumān enters the city with due courtesies and proceeds to the Aśoka-vāṭikā to meet Sītā, depicted as physically weakened and joylessly surrounded by rākṣasī guards. He delivers Rāma’s message: Rāvaṇa is slain, Laṅkā is secured under Vibhīṣaṇa, and there is no need for fear as the prior captivity-context has dissolved. Sītā’s affective response is immediate—joy overwhelms speech—followed by reflective gratitude: she seeks an appropriate gift for the messenger yet declares that no material wealth equals the value of auspicious news. A key ethical pivot follows: Hanumān proposes retaliatory violence against the rākṣasīs who threatened Sītā; Sītā rejects vengeance, attributing her suffering to fate and prior conditions, and cites a dharma-aligned maxim advocating restraint and compassion even toward wrongdoers acting under command. Hanumān accepts her moral authority, requests a return message for Rāma, and Sītā expresses her wish to see her husband. The sarga concludes with Hanumān’s rapid return and faithful relay of Sītā’s words to Rāghava in exact sequence, establishing a precise chain-of-custody for speech and intent.
सीतासमीपगमनम् / Sītā Brought Near to Rāma (Public Witness and Protocol)
This sarga stages the transition from military victory to moral adjudication through controlled encounter. Hanumān, described as highly learned, meaningfully reports to Rāma and urges him to see the grief-stricken Maithilī for whose sake the entire campaign was undertaken (6.117.1–5). Rāma’s reaction is psychologically layered—tearful, meditative, and then directive—ordering Vibhīṣaṇa to present Sītā anointed, adorned, and bathed (6.117.6–10). Sītā initially expresses a wish to see Rāma without bathing, but Vibhīṣaṇa insists on following Rāma’s instruction; she assents (6.117.11–13). She is then brought in a glowing palanquin guarded by numerous rākṣasas (6.117.14–16). Hearing of her arrival, Rāma experiences a triad of emotions—joy, indignation, and anger—indicating the ethical tension between personal reunion and public legitimacy (6.117.17–18). Rāma requests that Sītā be brought near; Vibhīṣaṇa disperses crowds, but Rāma stops the dispersal, asserting these are ‘his own people’ and articulating a normative principle: a woman’s public appearance is not inherently blameworthy in crises, conflicts, or ritual contexts, and Sītā’s appearance near him bears no fault (6.117.24–29). He then orders the palanquin set aside so she may approach on foot, visible to the vānaras, intensifying communal witnessing (6.117.30–31). Allies (Lakṣmaṇa, Sugrīva, Hanumān) are distressed by Rāma’s harsh demeanor, suspecting displeasure toward Sītā (6.117.32–33). Sītā approaches modestly, gazes at Rāma’s face, and her long-held sorrow is dispelled, closing the chapter on a note of emotional release while foreshadowing subsequent ethical scrutiny (6.117.34–36).
सीताप्रत्याख्यानम् / Rama’s Post-Victory Address to Sītā (Public Opinion and Royal Duty)
Sarga 118 stages a post-war, public-facing dialogue in which Rāma, after observing Sītā standing near him, chooses to voice the anger and anxiety held within his heart (6.118.1). He first frames the campaign as the completion of a human duty: the insult has been wiped away by killing Rāvaṇa, vows are fulfilled, and allies’ efforts—Hanumān’s ocean-leap and Laṅkā devastation, Sugrīva’s counsel and military labor, and Vibhīṣaṇa’s defection—have become successful (6.118.2–9, 13). The discourse then pivots to rājanīti and reputation: Rāma declares that the war-labor was not undertaken ‘for Sītā’s sake’ but to protect conduct and the fame of his lineage from scandal and obloquy (6.118.15–16). He articulates a conflict between private affection and fear of public speech (janavāda), describing his heart as divided (6.118.11). In a harsh rationale, he cites the perceived impropriety of accepting a wife who lived in another’s house and who was seen with lustful eyes, concluding that she may go wherever she wishes—even suggesting alternative protectors (Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata, Śatrughna, Sugrīva, Vibhīṣaṇa) (6.118.18–23). Sītā’s response is primarily affective in this excerpt: she becomes tear-filled, trembling, likened to a creeper struck by an elephant, indicating the psychological violence of public repudiation after physical rescue (6.118.10, 25).
सीताया अग्निप्रवेशः (Sita’s Ordeal by Fire / Agni-Pariksha)
This sarga presents a tightly structured public-ethical crisis following Rama’s harsh, socially inflected speech that wounds Vaidehi (Sita) before an assembled audience. Sita replies in a reasoned, self-justifying sequence: she rejects being judged by the conduct of “vulgar women,” distinguishes inner intention (mind/heart) from bodily coercion under captivity, and appeals to the long intimacy and trust of marriage. She argues that if suspicion were decisive, the rescue itself and the exertions of allies would become purposeless. Turning from discourse to ritual proof, she requests Lakshmana to prepare a pyre, framing self-immolation as the only remaining dignified path when repudiated in public assembly. Lakshmana, indignant yet obedient to Rama’s nonverbal indication, prepares the fire; no one can remonstrate with Rama, described as death-like in resolve. Sita performs pradakṣiṇa, salutes gods and brahmanas, and pronounces invocations calling cosmic deities and Agni as witnesses to her unwavering fidelity in action, speech, and thought. She then enters the blazing fire fearlessly; the gathered beings—humans, Vanaras, Rakshasas, and celestial orders—react with astonishment, lamentation, and acclamation, emphasizing communal witnessing as the chapter’s adjudicative mechanism.
रामस्तवः — ब्रह्मणा रामस्य नारायणत्वप्रकाशनम् (Rama-Stava: Brahma Reveals Rama’s Nārāyaṇa Identity)
Sarga 120 shifts from post-war human grief to a theological disclosure. Rāma, hearing the lamentation of the people, pauses with tear-dimmed eyes, signaling the narrative’s concern for public emotion and royal responsibility. Major deities arrive at Laṅkā in sun-like vimānas—Kubera (Vaiśravaṇa), Yama with the Pitṛs, Indra, Varuṇa, Maheśvara (six-eyed, bull-bannered), and Brahmā—forming a cosmic assembly that reframes recent events. The gods question how Rāma, described as creator and lord, could appear to overlook Sītā’s ordeal in fire, presenting the tension between divine omniscience and human-role conduct. Rāma responds by affirming his self-understanding as Daśaratha’s human son and asks Brahmā to clarify his origin. Brahmā then delivers an extended stava identifying Rāma with Nārāyaṇa/Vişṇu and multiple cosmic functions: sacrifice and Oṃkāra, beginning and end, the sustaining principle seen across beings and directions, and the Trivikrama/Vāmana episode binding Bali. The chapter concludes with the declaration that Rāvaṇa’s death fulfills the purpose of the incarnation, and that recitation of this ancient hymn grants success and protection from dishonor—positioning the sarga as both narrative resolution and liturgical-textual warrant.
अग्निपरीक्षासाक्ष्यं (Agni’s Testimony and Sītā’s Revalidation)
This sarga presents a juridical-theological closure to the war narrative through witnessed testimony. After Brahmā’s address, Agni (Vibhāvasu/Havyavāhana/Pāvaka), as “loka-sākṣī” (world-witness), rises from the fire bearing Vaidehī and returns her to Rāma in radiant, unaltered form. Agni formally declares her sinlessness and fidelity in speech, mind, intellect, and even glance, describing her captivity under rākṣasī surveillance, temptations, and threats without deviation from devotion to Rāma. Rāma then articulates the ethical logic of public credibility: though Sītā is known to be pure across the three worlds, her long residence in Rāvaṇa’s inner apartments could trigger social suspicion; therefore, for the conviction of the three worlds (loka-pratyaya) he allowed the fire-entry, not from personal doubt. He affirms Sītā’s inviolability—likened to a flame inaccessible even in thought to the wicked—and asserts he cannot renounce her any more than one can abandon one’s own fame or self. The chapter closes with Rāma accepting counsel, being praised, and enjoying rightful happiness reunited with his wife.
दशरथदर्शनम् — Dasharatha’s Epiphany and Benedictions (Sarga 122)
This sarga is structured as a theophanic-didactic sequence following the war’s resolution. First, Maheśvara responds to Rāghava’s auspicious speech with an auspicious directive: Rāma should return to Ayodhyā, console Bharata and the queens (Kauśalyā, Kaikeyī, Sumitrā), stabilize the Ikṣvāku polity, perform royal rites (including aśvamedha), and practice dāna to brāhmaṇas—thereby completing the arc from battlefield dharma to civic dharma. Next, Maheśvara reveals Daśaratha in a vimāna, prompting Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa to offer salutations. Daśaratha, radiant and seated in the aerial car, embraces Rāma, seats him on his lap, and speaks with paternal assurance: heaven’s honors are joyless without Rāma; today he is fulfilled seeing the exile completed and enemies slain. He acknowledges lingering pain from Kaikeyī’s exile-demand yet urges grace toward Bharata and Kaikeyī, and Rāma prays that the dreadful curse not touch them. Daśaratha then blesses Lakṣmaṇa for devoted service and instructs Sītā with gentle counsel on endurance and marital dharma, framing Rāma as her supreme refuge. Concluding the encounter, Daśaratha departs in the vimāna to Indra’s world, marking a ritual closure to the father-son rupture and transitioning the narrative toward Ayodhyā’s restoration.
इन्द्रवरदानम् / Indra Grants Boons: Restoration of the Vanara Host
Sarga 123 presents a post-conflict consolidation scene framed as a divine dialogue. Indra (Mahendra/Pākaśāsana/Sahasrākṣa) addresses Rāma, who stands with joined palms, and invites him to state his wish. Rāma’s request is explicitly communal and restitutional: those vānaras and ṛkṣas who fought for his cause and reached Yama’s abode should regain life, become free of wounds, and be reunited with kin; additionally, the places where the vānaras live should flourish with unseasonal blossoms and fruits, and rivers should run pure and full. Indra assents, emphasizing the greatness of the boon and its certainty. The narrative then depicts the immediate effect: the fallen and wounded rise as if waking from sleep, restored in strength and astonished. The suras praise Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa and counsel the return to Ayodhyā—releasing the vānaras, consoling Maithilī, meeting Bharata and Śatrughna, seeing the mothers, and receiving consecration. Indra departs with the gods in sun-bright vimānas; Rāma formally dismisses the vānaras to rest, and the army is described as radiant in its renewed splendor.
पुष्पकविमान-प्रस्थानम् (The Pushpaka Vimāna Offered and the Return Prepared)
After a night of rest, Vibhīṣaṇa approaches Rama with salutations and inquires about the state of victory. He offers ceremonial hospitality—bathing, unguents, garments, ornaments, sandal, and garlands—arranged through attendants skilled in adornment, and invites Rama and the Vānara leaders to accept rites of refreshment. Rama replies with a restrained ethic of urgency: his heart hastens to see Bharata, whose earlier pleas at Citrakūṭa Rama had not accepted, along with the requests of the queens and citizens. Vibhīṣaṇa then presents the Pushpaka Vimāna, described as sun-like, cloud-like, will-directed (kāmaga), inviolable, and swift as thought; he notes its provenance as Kubera’s vehicle taken by Ravana in battle and preserved now for Rama’s purpose. Rama respectfully declines prolonged stay, asks permission to depart, and requests the vimāna be readied. Vibhīṣaṇa orders it brought; the text provides an ornate material description—golden imagery, gem altars, flags, bells, pearl-set apertures, and a Meru-like scale attributed to Viśvakarmā—culminating in Rama and Lakshmana seating themselves, astonished at its magnitude, thereby marking the narrative pivot from war’s end to the homeward journey.
पुष्पकारोहणम् (Boarding the Puṣpaka; Honoring the Allies and Departure for Ayodhyā)
This sarga stages the ceremonial transition from conquest to reconciliation and departure. Vibhīṣaṇa presents the flower-adorned Puṣpaka to Rāma, standing at a respectful distance, and asks for instructions. Rāma, after reflection and with Lakṣmaṇa listening, issues a policy-like directive: the forest-ranging allies (Vānaras and others) who bore the war’s burden must be honored with wealth and gems, for gratitude sustains political legitimacy and prevents the moral decay by which armies abandon a virtue-less ruler. Vibhīṣaṇa distributes valuables accordingly, and Rāma, seeing the troops honored, ascends the excellent aerial car. Sītā, modest before the assembled hosts, is taken into Rāma’s embrace as they board. Rāma then grants leave to the Vānaras—especially Sugrīva—to return to Kiṣkindhā with their forces, while blessing Vibhīṣaṇa’s secure rule in Laṅkā. The allies request to accompany Rāma to Ayodhyā to witness his consecration and greet Kauśalyā; Rāma assents, and all board. With Rāma’s permission the Kubera-owned Puṣpaka rises skyward, and Rāma shines like Kubera—an image of rightful, radiant sovereignty after war.
पुष्पकविमानयात्रा—सेतुबन्धादि-दर्शनम् (Pushpaka Aerial Journey and Survey of Sacred Landmarks)
Sarga 126 presents a post-war aerial itinerary in the Puṣpaka vimāna, framed as Rāma’s guided recollection for Sītā. With Rāma’s permission, the swan-like, sonorous Puṣpaka rises and becomes a moving vantage-point from which sites of conflict and memory are identified. Rāma indicates the blood-soaked battlefield and enumerates prominent rākṣasa casualties and their slayers, functioning as a formal register of the war’s closure and accountability. The narrative then pivots to a sacred-geographical map: the seashore of the crossing, Nala’s bridge (Nalasetu), the roaring ocean as Varuṇa’s abode, the resting mountain associated with Hanumān’s passage, and the Sethubandha tīrtha praised as tri-loka-venerated and sin-destroying. The flight continues across Kiṣkindhā and Ṛṣyamūka, Pampa and Śabarī’s locale, Janasthāna and Jatāyu’s fall, the hermitage region (Khara–Dūṣaṇa–Triśiras episode), Godāvarī and Agastya’s āśrama, Sutikṣṇa and Śarabhanga’s hermitages, Atri’s abode, Virādha’s region, Citrakūṭa, Yamunā and Bharadvāja’s āśrama, Gaṅgā, Śṛṅgibera (Guha), Sarayū, and finally Ayodhyā—seen like Amarāvatī—prompting Sītā’s reverent salutation. Parallel action shows Sītā requesting that Tara and other vānarī women accompany them to Ayodhyā; Rāma approves, Sugrīva mobilizes the households, and the women ascend the vimāna eager to see Sītā.
भरद्वाजाश्रम-समागमः / Meeting Bharadvaja at the Hermitage (Homeward Blessings)
After the completion of the exile term (noted with a precise lunar date), Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa arrive at Bharadvāja’s āśrama and offer reverential salutations. Rāma inquires about conditions in Ayodhyā—public prosperity, Bharata’s governance, and the welfare of the queens—establishing the epic’s shift from wartime objectives to civic reintegration. Bharadvāja replies with warmth: Bharata, ascetic in appearance, awaits Rāma with the pādukā (wooden sandals) placed before him, signaling delegated sovereignty and unwavering loyalty. The sage also states that Rāma’s entire trajectory—Sītā’s abduction during protection of ascetics and brāhmaṇas, encounters and alliances (Mārīca, Kabandha, Pampā, Sugrīva), Vāli’s death, Hanumān’s discovery of Sītā and burning of Laṅkā, Nala’s bridge, the fall of Rāvaṇa, and divine bestowals—is known through tapas and reports from disciples. Bharadvāja offers arghya and a boon; Rāma requests that the route to Ayodhyā become abundant with unseasonal, nectar-scented fruits and blossoms. Upon the sage’s assent, the landscape transforms for several yojanas: barren trees fruit, leafless trees regain foliage, and honeyed abundance appears—an auspicious, ecological “map-sign” of restored order accompanying the return.
अयोध्याप्रत्यागमन-सन्देशः (Hanuman Sent Ahead to Ayodhya)
Observing Ayodhyā from the Puṣpaka, Rāma reflects on the return-journey’s milestones—approach to the ocean, the Ocean deity’s appearance, bridge-building, Rāvaṇa’s death, and divine boons—then commissions Hanumān as a rapid envoy. Hanumān is instructed to assess Bharata’s inner intention through external signs (facial color, gaze, speech), since the inherited kingdom’s abundance could tempt even the virtuous; this frames a technical protocol for political verification before a sensitive succession. Hanumān travels swiftly in human form, crosses the Gaṅgā–Yamunā confluence, reaches Śṛṅgaberapura, and greets Guha with Rāma’s welfare-message and itinerary. Proceeding toward Nandigrāma, he witnesses Bharata’s austere regency: emaciated, ascetic attire, ruling symbolically through Rāma’s pādukā while ministers, priests, and army chiefs stand by. Hanumān announces Rāma’s victory, Sītā’s recovery, and the imminent reunion; Bharata collapses in joy, embraces Hanumān, and offers lavish gifts for the auspicious news, reaffirming loyalty and dharmic governance during transition.