Rama's Grief at Separation from Sita

During Lakshmana's battle, Viradhita, a Vidyadhara enemy of Kharadushana, arrived armed with his ministers and warriors and, seeing Lakshmana fighting alone, recognised a great man through whom his own cause might succeed; he dismounted, bowed with his head to the ground and offered his service, and Lakshmana, understanding much from his few words, laid a hand on his head and told him not to fear but to stand behind him. Viradhita asked Lakshmana to fight Kharadushana himself while he took on the army, and charged, proclaiming, ‘I am Viradhita, son of King Chandrodaya, come to avenge my father's long-standing feud,’ and a fierce battle followed, elephant against elephant, horse against horse and chariot against chariot, until the ten directions were filled with arrows.

Red-eyed, Kharadushana taunted Lakshmana: ‘My son was not your enemy, yet you killed him, and you mauled my wife, you lecher; today my arrows will end your life’; Lakshmana retorted that he would send him where his son had gone, and shattered the chariot, bow and banner of Kharadushana, who stood in the sky, so that he fell to earth like a god whose merit is exhausted. Kharadushana then rushed at him with a sword, Lakshmana met him with the Suryahasa, and as the gods rained flowers and cried ‘Well done!’, Lakshmana cut off Kharadushana's head and he fell lifeless like a god fallen from heaven; when Kharadushana's general Dushana came to unseat Viradhita, Lakshmana struck his vitals with arrows and he fell spinning to the ground, and Lakshmana gave Kharadushana's kingdom, army and city of Patala Lanka to Viradhita.

Returning joyfully to Rama, Lakshmana found him lying on the ground with Sita gone; Rama, relieved to see his brother unwounded, embraced him and said he did not know whether someone had carried Janaki off or a lion had devoured her, and Lakshmana, grieved and angry, said some wicked demon must have taken her and that they would bring her back wherever she was, washed Rama's face with clear water and comforted him. When Viradhita came with his army and ministers, offering service, Lakshmana told him that if Rama died of grief for Sita he too would enter the fire, for his life rested on Rama's, and Viradhita, lamenting that every creeper he grasped seemed to give way, ordered his Vidyadharas to search land, water, sky, cities, forests, mountains, caves and villages, and they rushed off eager for glory.

Meanwhile Ratnajati, son of Arkajati, flying through the sky, heard Sita crying ‘Ah Rama, ah Lakshmana’ in Ravana's vimana and challenged him: ‘Wicked Ravana, where will you go after such a crime? She is Bhamandala's sister and Rama's queen, and I am Bhamandala's servant; release her if you wish to live.’ Ravana prepared to fight, but fearing that Sita might die of distress in the struggle, he spared the wretched Vidyadhara's life and instead stripped him of his vidyas, so that Ratnajati fell from the sky, sinking slowly by the power of a mantra onto Kambu island in the middle of the ocean, where, like a shipwrecked merchant, he survived, climbed Mount Kambu, gazed in all directions and lived on forest fruits.

Viradhita's Vidyadharas, having searched every direction, returned with downcast faces, and Rama, sighing, thanked them and sent them home, saying that this was the fruit of his own inauspicious karma, which no effort could undo, like a gem dropped into the submarine fire, and that losing Sita was the greatest of all his sorrows, and he wept. Viradhita, skilled in consolation, urged him to bear it with courage, the ornament of great men, for he would soon see Janaka's daughter again, but warned that the killing of Kharadushana, great king of the Vidyadharas, would bring bitter consequences: Sugriva, lord of Kishkindhapura, Indrajit, Kumbhakarna, Trishira, Bhima, Krurakarma, Mahodara and many other mighty Vidyadharas, including many of the Vaitadhya mountain, were his friends, and Hanuman, son of Pavananjaya, before whom even gods dare not come, was Kharadushana's son-in-law and would be enraged by his death.

So Viradhita urged Rama not to stay in the forest but to dwell in the impregnable city of Alankarodaya, Patala Lanka, from where they could plan and send word of Sita to Bhamandala; the brothers set out in a four-horse chariot with a fourfold army, Viradhita going ahead, and when Chandranakha's son Sunda came out of the city to fight, he was defeated, and they entered the jewelled city, splendid as a city of gods, and stayed in Kharadushana's palace, where without Sita Rama found no rest, the fairest city seeming a wilderness just as the wild forest had seemed a city in her company. Finding a Jina temple in the palace, Rama worshipped the Arhat images with jewelled flowers and for a moment forgot his grief, visiting every shrine there, while Sunda, grieving for his father and brother, went with his mother Chandranakha to Lanka, and the text reflects that possessions are perishable and a source of great sorrow, and craving for them fades through the teaching of sadhus as darkness fades at sunrise.