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Padma Puranaपद्मपुराण · Jain Ramayana
हिन्दी

Parva 54

Rama and Lakshmana March on Lanka

Hearing Hanuman's report and receiving Sita's crest-jewel, Rama and Lakshmana march with the Vidyadhara armies toward Lanka and camp at Hamsadvipa.

Part of The War of Lanka

Summary

Hanuman returns to Kishkindhapura and gives Rama Sita's crest-jewel and secret messages, and Rama, told how Sita lives on in silent grief, is roused by Lakshmana to action. Overruling the faint-hearted Simhanada, Jambavanta lists the army's great heroes, and on the fifth day of the dark half of Margashirsha, amid auspicious omens, the host sets out through the sky. On the way they subdue King Samudra of Velandhara, whose four daughters are married to Lakshmana, conquer King Suvela and King Hamsaratha of Hamsapura, and wait in Hamsadvipa for Bhamandala.

What happens

6 points

  1. Having wrecked Lanka's banners, parasols and beauty, Hanuman returns with his army to Kishkindhapura amid cheering crowds; after reporting to Sugriva he finds Rama wasted and burning with the fire of separation, recounts all of Sita's secret messages and hands over her crest-jewel, and both weep as Rama rises and embraces him. Asked whether his queen truly lives, Hanuman says she lives only in great sorrow, weeping ceaselessly as if keeping a monsoon of tears, hair unbound, her slender body grown weaker, silent before Ravana's women, careless of her person and wholly given to meditating on Rama.

  2. As Rama's face withers and he curses his life, Lakshmana rouses him to action and asks Sugriva to summon Sita's brother Bhamandala at once, since they must reach Ravana's city by ships or by their own arms. When the Vidyadhara Simhanada warns that Hanuman's raid has doomed them all, Jambavanta scorns him as a lion turned deer and names the army's heroes: Dhanapati, Bhutananda, Nala, Nila, Mandara, Arnava, Chandrajyoti, Divakara, Hanuman, Bhamandala lord of the Vidyadharas, fierce Mahendraketu, Prasannakirti, Sugriva and many great kings.

  3. The Vidyadharas look to Lakshmana and Rama, whose faces have turned terrible, brows arched like the bows of Death, red eyes fixed in anger on Lanka and then on their bows, and seeing the brothers' wrath all make ready to march, Sugriva and Hanuman gathering weapons and wealth. On the fifth day of the dark half of Margashirsha, at sunrise, the army sets out to the roar of war drums amid auspicious omens: a smokeless flame curling to the right, calling peacocks, a married woman, a fragrant breeze, a nirgrantha monk, a parasol, neighing horses, bells, a pot of curd, a crow calling sweetly, conches and cries of ‘victory’.

  4. Sugriva, Hanuman, Shalya, Nala, Nila, Sushena, Kumuda and many kings march with Rama under banners bearing jewelled monkeys, while Viradhita's flags carry a lion, Jambu's a tree, Simharava's a tiger and Meghakanta's an elephant; Bhutanada leads the vanguard like a Lokapala (guardian of a quarter) with Hanuman behind him. Viradhita sits before Rama, Jambavanta after him, Sushena on his left and Sugriva on his right.

  5. In a moment they reach Velandhara, where King Samudra is captured and then brought into alliance with Rama, who mercifully restores his kingdom; delighted, Samudra gives his daughters Satyashri, Kamala, Gunamala and Ratnachuda, lovely as goddesses, in marriage to Lakshmana. After one night they move on to Suvela city on Mount Suvela, defeat King Suvela and spend a joyful night in the Akshaya forest.

  6. Marching on, the Vidyadharas marvel at distant Lanka, with its high walls, golden temples like the peaks of Kailasa, lotus groves, stepwells and lofty jewelled chaityalayas (Jina temples), like the city of Indra. They camp in Hamsadvipa, defeat King Hamsaratha of Hamsapura in battle and enjoy his city, send another envoy to Bhamandala and wait there for him, and the chapter teaches that men of merit conquer every foe wherever they go, so whoever would conquer the world should hold to the Jina dharma.