The Defeat of the Vidyadhara Indra

Unsure of victory over Indra, Ravana decides first to celebrate the marriage of his daughter Kritachitra. King Harivahana presents his son Madhu, handsome, modest and skilled in statecraft, and the ministers add that Chamarendra, Indra of the Asuras, gave Madhu a blazing trident-jewel that never fails against an enemy, so Ravana gives Kritachitra to Prince Madhu with great splendour.

Asked by Shrenika why the Asura lord gave Madhu the trident, Gautama tells of two devoted friends in Shatadvara city in the Airavata region of the Dhatakikhanda continent: Sumitra, who became a king by the merit of past deeds, and Prabhava, born to a poor family, whom Sumitra lovingly raised to wealth equal to his own.

A runaway horse carries Sumitra into the forest, where a Bhil chief takes him home and marries him to his daughter Vanamala; returning a month later with her and a Bhil escort, he meets Prabhava, who is smitten by her, stops eating and sleeping, and finally confesses. Sumitra, loving his friend as his own life, sends Vanamala to Prabhava's house and hides at a window, resolved to kill her if she disobeys his friend and to give her a thousand villages if she obeys.

When Vanamala tells Prabhava who she is, he is overcome with shame at desiring his friend's wife, who is like a mother, and draws his sword to cut off his own head; Sumitra leaps down, seizes his hand, warns that suicide leads to hell, many short lives and nigoda (the lowest form of life), and comforts him, saying that in this futile samsara even their friendship may not last into another birth.

Sumitra becomes a great muni, is reborn as the Ishana Indra in the second heaven, and then as Madhu, son of King Harivahana and Queen Madhavi of Mathura, rising like the moon in the sky of the Harivamsha. Prabhava, lacking right faith, wanders through many births, is born as Shikhi, son of Vishvasu and Jyotishmati, becomes a dravyalingi muni (a monk in outward form only), and through the nidana (a wish for reward) attached to his austerities is reborn as Chamarendra, lord of the Asuras.

Through avadhi jnana (clairvoyant knowledge) Chamarendra recalls his friend's kindness, his own disgrace and the sufferings he earned by reviling the munis, comes to the middle world, honours Madhu, also called Madhuvahana, with great jewels and gives him the trident-jewel named Sahasranta. Madhu, a lion-riding master of weapons, ornament of the Harivamsha and son-in-law of Ravana, lives happily in Mathura.

Having campaigned for eighteen years, Ravana reaches Kailash and worships at its shrines, remembering Bali muni. Nalakubara, the lokapala (guardian of a quarter) whom Indra had placed in Durlanghyapura, learns from spies that Ravana is near and writes to Indra, who is on his way to worship at the shrines of the Pandukavana; Indra replies that he should guard the Amogha weapons and the armoury and not fear, for he will return soon.

Nalakubara raises by vidya a rampart called Vajrashala, a hundred yojanas high and three times the city's circuit. Ravana's general Prahasta reports that the illusory wall bristles with serpent-like peaks, flames and showers of sparks, and that machines shaped like vetalas (goblins), with terrible fangs, devour anyone who comes within a yojana, and Ravana's ministers search for a remedy.

Nalakubara's wife Uparambha, beautiful as an apsara of Indra and infatuated since childhood with tales of Ravana, confesses to her friend Vichitramala that she cannot bear to live without him, though she knows such love is sinful. Vichitramala, dressed in fine dark cloth, flies to Ravana and whispers the message, but Ravana covers his ears: by the Jina's command every other man's woman, widow, maiden, wife or courtesan, is to be shunned, and a woman enjoyed by another is like vomited food.

Vibhishana and the senior ministers take Ravana aside, advising that kings must sometimes use a little untruth, since Uparambha could reveal how to break the rampart; so Ravana pretends that saving her life is his duty, receives her with honour and says he wishes to enjoy her inside the city rather than in a garden. Unaware of his guile, she gives him the vidya named Asala, which destroys magic walls, along with divine weapons guarded by gods, and the illusory rampart vanishes, leaving only the city's ordinary wall.

Nalakubara, dismayed to see his magic wall gone, comes out to fight; in a battle so thick that the sun's rays are hidden, Vibhishana smashes his chariot with kicks, leaps on him and captures him, as Ravana had captured Sahasrarashmi. At this time the Sudarshana chakra-ratna (the discus jewel) appears in Ravana's armoury.

Ravana tells Uparambha privately that by giving him a vidya she has become his guru, that as the daughter of King Akashadhvaja and Queen Mridukanta, born of a noble line, she must not desire another man, and that if he did such a wrong, others would follow and injustice would spread; ashamed, she returns content to her husband, who never learns of it, and Nalakubara is honoured by Ravana. Such was Ravana's way: honour for those who obey, war for those who resist, and freedom for those he captures.

As Ravana camps near Mount Vaitadhya (Vijayardha), Indra rouses his Vidyadharas, who are called devas, and tells his father Sahasrara he regrets not destroying Ravana at birth, as one plucks a thorn while it is soft. Sahasrara counsels that effort alone does not bring success, as a farmer also needs rain, and urges peace with Ravana and the marriage of Indra's beautiful daughter Rupavati to him, but Indra angrily refuses: an ashtapada (a fabled beast stronger than a lion) kills even the lion that kills many deer, and Ravana is no more his equal than a jackal is a lion's.

Indra's ‘devas’ march out from Rathanupura and at first push back the Rakshasas; then Ravana's Rakshasa-vamsha champions Vajravega, Hasta, Prahasta, Maricha, Udbhava, Vajrachakra, Shukra, Ghora, Sarana, Gaganojjvala and Mahajathara drive them back. When Indra's warriors Meghamali, Taditpinga, Jvalitaksha, Sanjvara and others press the Rakshasas hard, Prasannakirti, son of the Vanara king Mahendrasena, scatters them with his arrows.

Shrimali, son of Malyavan and Ravana's renowned uncle, churns Indra's army like a crocodile in the sea and covers the sky with crescent-headed arrows; Indra, knowing that Shrimali has slain great devas and his own nephew, moves to fight him, but his son Jayanta begs to go instead. Shrimali breaks Jayanta's chariot with a kanaka weapon and Jayanta breaks Shrimali's with a bhindimala, each making the other swoon, until Jayanta kills Shrimali with a mace blow to the chest and blows his conch.

Ravana's son Indrajit rallies the Rakshasas, shatters Jayanta's armour and riddles him with arrows, and Indra comes against him on Airavata with the lokapalas, discus in hand. Warned by his charioteer Sumati, and remembering Mali's death and Shrimali's, Ravana mounts a wind-swift chariot; in the fierce battle some warriors die renouncing all and chanting the Namokara mantra and go to heaven, while noble kshatriyas fan fainting foes back to consciousness.

Scorning the man of flesh and blood who calls himself Indra, appoints lokapalas and names men devas, like a crow fancying itself Garuda, Ravana drives straight at him; Indra's soldiers flee and Indra alone faces him on his Kailash-like elephant, raining arrows while Narada dances in the sky. Indra's fire weapon is quenched by Ravana's water weapon, his weapon of darkness dispelled by Ravana's weapon of light, and Ravana's serpent weapon loosed by Indra's golden Garuda weapon.

Ravana drives Trailokyamandana against Airavata, leaps onto Airavata's head, kicks down its driver, binds Indra with cloth and, consoling him, takes him onto his own elephant, while Indrajit captures Jayanta; Ravana restrains Indrajit, since the lord of all Vijayardha has been taken. To drums and conches Ravana enters a festively decorated Lanka on the Pushpaka vimana, and Gautama reflects that Indra ruled both rows of Vidyadhara cities for many years by past merit and lost all his glory when it was spent.