Rama and Lakshmana Defeat the Mleccha King

Asked by King Shrenika what greatness Janaka had seen in Rama to choose him for Sita, Gautama told of the Ardhabarbara country, a land of cruel, unrestrained Mlecchas (barbarians) among the regions lying south of Mount Vaitadhya (Vijayardha) and north of Mount Kailasha, whose dreadful city Mayuramala was ruled by the Mleccha Atarangatama. Leading a vast horde, he laid waste many lands and fell upon Janaka's country like a swarm of locusts.

Janaka sent swift envoys to Ayodhya with word for Dasharatha: a horde of Bhils and Mlecchas was destroying the Arya lands, eating cows and other creatures and seeking to reduce the people to a single caste, and he asked whether to fight, shelter the people in a fort, or withdraw toward the Kalindibhaga river, Mount Vipulachala or Kunjagiri. The land was Dasharatha's to protect, he said, for only while the people are safe can monks and householders keep up worship, vows, giving and meditation, and a king who protects them receives a sixth part of their merit.

Dasharatha resolved to march himself and prepared to consecrate Rama as king, but Rama, seeing the preparations, asked why his father should trouble himself over such wretches, for an elephant is not angered by mice nor does fire labour to burn cotton, and asked to be sent instead. When Dasharatha embraced him and doubted that a tender boy could defeat them, Rama replied that a newly kindled flame burns a whole forest and the rising sun dispels deep darkness, and the king, thrilled yet tearful, reflected that Kshatriyas must risk their lives for the people and that no one dies before his lifespan ends.

Rama and Lakshmana bowed at their father's feet and set out in chariots with the fourfold army, but before they arrived Janaka and his brother Kanaka marched against the enemy, then two yojanas away; Kanaka was overwhelmed, and Janaka, rushing to his aid, was pressed so hard by the Barbara archers that his armour was shattered. Then Rama arrived, armoured, bow strung, beneath a white umbrella and a lion-emblem banner; the enemy trembled as darkness flees the full moon, and he heartened Janaka and plunged into their ranks like a rutting elephant into a grove of plantains, saving both brothers.

Lakshmana rained arrows like a cloud, and sharp chakras, shaktis (spears), axes and saws cut down many Mlecchas, red-clad warriors in dark or blue armour, with cowrie-like teeth and banners bearing boars, buffaloes and tigers, until thousands of heads lay on the ground. Their chief Atarangatama rallied his army and attacked Lakshmana himself, leaving him without a chariot, but Rama drove up swift as the wind, set Lakshmana on another chariot and burned the enemy host with the fire of his arrows, tomaras (lances) and discus.

In a moment the Mleccha army fled in all ten directions, abandoning umbrellas, chowries, banners and bows; Atarangatama, who had come with a countless host, escaped with only ten horsemen, and the rest hid in the forests of the Sahya and Vindhya mountains, where, after Rama forbade killing the fleeing cowards, they gave up hunting out of fear of him and lived on forest fruit. The brothers took leave of a grateful Janaka and returned to Ayodhya, and having seen Rama's greatness, Janaka resolved to give him Sita, for Rama, a shalaka purusha (one of the sixty-three illustrious beings), had earned in past lives such merit that enemies yielded to him without effort.