Lavana and Ankusha Meet Rama and Lakshmana

Gautama tells King Shrenika that Anangalavana's charioteer is King Vajrajangha and Madanankusha's is King Prithu, while Viradhita drives for Lakshmana and Kritantavaktra for Rama. Rama strings his Vajravarta bow and orders Kritantavaktra to drive straight at the enemy, but the general answers that the horses, riddled by the young hero's arrows, have lost all vigour and are staining the earth with streams of blood, and that his own arms are pierced and his armour broken.

Rama replies that his own bow hangs idle like a bow in a painting, and that his pestle, plough and other god-given weapons, each guarded by a thousand gods, have grown slack and powerless. Gautama explains that Lakshmana's weapons are just as useless against Madanankusha, because the twins know they are facing their father and uncle and aim to spare their bodies, while Rama and Lakshmana fight them as enemies.

When his divine weapons fail, Lakshmana hurls spears, discs and swords, but Ankusha wards them off with a vajradanda (adamantine staff), and Lavana stops the weapons Rama sends. The twins strike back so skilfully that their spears touch no vital spot, yet Lakshmana's eyes roll and Viradhita turns the chariot towards Ayodhya. Coming to, Lakshmana rebukes him: a hero should die facing the enemy, for showing one's back is as bad as death, and how could he, son of Dasharatha, brother of Rama and the Vasudeva (Narayana) famed across the earth, turn his back in battle?

Viradhita brings the chariot round, and in the great duel Lakshmana furiously hurls his dreadful chakra (discus), blazing like sparks of fire, at Ankusha; it loses its power near him and comes back to Lakshmana's hand, and returns again each time he throws it. Seeing Ankusha take up his bow in great splendour, Lakshmana's warriors wonder whether a new Ardhachakri (half-emperor) has arisen, though Lakshmana lifted the Kotishila and the words of the sages and the Jina teaching cannot be false. Lakshmana himself begins to think that these must be the Baladeva and Narayana, and, deeply ashamed, slackens in the fight.

Seeing Lakshmana falter, Siddhartha comes to him at Narada's urging and declares that Lakshmana alone is the Vasudeva, for the words of the Jina teaching are firmer than Mount Sumeru and the speech of the Arihanta is never false. The two princes, he says, are Queen Janaki's sons, who were in her womb when she was left in the forest; being sons of his own house, the chakra and the other weapons cannot work against them.

Overjoyed, Lakshmana throws down his weapons, flings off his armour and weeps at the thought of Sita's sufferings. Rama too lays down his arms and, while taking off his armour, swoons from love for his sons until he is revived with cool sandal water. The princes step down from their chariots and fall at his feet with folded hands, and Rama, full of remorse, clasps them to his heart with tears streaming like rain from a cloud.

Rama laments that, dull of mind, he left their mother alone in the terrible forest while they were in her womb, though he knew she was blameless, only to silence public slander and protect his clan, dynasty and kingdom. He blesses the great merit that gave him such strong, virtuous and handsome sons, says that without King Vajrajangha he would never have seen their moon-like faces and that the gods must have shielded them from his never-failing weapons, and grieves that had they fallen to his arrows, Janaki would surely not have survived her sorrow.

The princes then bow to their uncle Lakshmana, who embraces them with tears for Sita, and Shatrughna and the others come forward on hearing they are Sita's sons, so that the people of both armies mingle in affection. Sita, delighted at her sons' glory and might, returns by vimana (aerial car) to Pundarikapura. Bhamandala comes down from his vimana and embraces his nephews with tears of joy, Hanuman keeps telling the twins how well things have turned out, and Vibhishana, Sugriva, Viradhita and the other kings greet them warmly while gods too arrive.

Rama values his sons above the kingdom of the whole earth; Vidyadhara women and apsaras (celestial nymphs) dance in the sky and the women of the land-dwellers dance on the ground, and Lakshmana feels as fulfilled as if he had conquered the three worlds. Rama thinks of himself as Sagara Chakravarti and of the twins as Bhima and Bhagiratha, and he shows great warmth to King Vajrajangha, telling him that he is to Rama what Bhamandala is.

Ayodhya, already like a city of heaven, is decorated anew for the princes, and Rama, Lakshmana and the twins ride in the sun-bright Pushpaka vimana to worship at the Jina temple in the garden outside the city: the vimana is like a peak of Sumeru, Lakshmana like a great dark cloud and Rama and his sons like lightning. Kings follow on elephants, horses, chariots and foot, and women crowd the windows and streets, asking each other to lower their heads or hold up a child; when someone asks which twin is which, they are told that Lavana wears red and Ankusha green.

The townspeople praise Sita for bearing such sons and for having such a Baladeva as her husband, a woman's broken necklace scatters pearls over the princes like a shower of flowers, and flowers, gems and gold rain on them all along the way. After worshipping at the chaityalayas (temples) in the garden, Rama returns with his sons to the palace in great festivity, and the chapter closes by teaching that it is by merit alone that fathers, sons and families are reunited.