Ravana Marches to War with All His Forces

As the warriors leave their homes like lions, their wives embrace them: one says their clan never retreats, that she will die on hearing he fled since the world curses cowards' wives, and that she will have the Jina worshipped with golden lotuses if he returns wounded in the chest and praised by warriors; another says a husband who flees is no husband of hers; another that his old wounds have healed and new ones will adorn him. A new bride rejoices to see her husband go, a sulking wife forgets her pique and embraces him with counsel fit for battle, and a Kshatriya woman marks her husband's chest with her nail as a sign of the blows he will deal.

The warriors reply that the best of men win praise in battle and even their foes sing the fame of those who die bearing wounds, and that a Kshatriya's dharma is never to strike, or let others strike, a coward or one seeking refuge, never to fight the fleeing or the unarmed, and to spare children, the old and the poor. One wife clings to her armoured husband and grieves that she cannot feel his body, another grows jealous of the ‘other woman’ at his breast until he laughs that it is only his half-armour; the wives hold back their tears as inauspicious, and some warriors in their haste forget their armour while old wounds burst open with joy.

First of all Hasta and Prahasta ride out on elephant-drawn chariots without asking Ravana, for though acting without the lord's command is a fault, doing his work unbidden is a great virtue. Marichi, Svayambhu, Shambhu, Shuka, Charana, Makara, Vajraghosha, Kumbha, Malyavan, Jambumali, Mahabala and others follow on lion-drawn chariots, and Vajrodara, Shakradhanu, Chandra, Mahamali, Kanaka and many other kings on tiger-drawn chariots, while others race on chariots with wind-swift horses or drawn by elephants.

Leading the host come two and a half crore (twenty-five million) princes of the pure Rakshasa line, valiant as Indra, then mighty Meghavahana and Indrajit, and Kumbhakarna in the vimana Jyotiprabha bearing his trident. Ravana himself sets out in the Pushpaka vimana with divine weapons and many vassals, his army darkening the sky, while countless warriors ride chariots, horses, elephants, lions, bulls, buffaloes, camels, wolves, deer, ashtapadas (eight-legged beasts), crocodiles and birds, divine mounts shaped by vidya.

Enraged above all at Bhamandala and Sugriva, the Rakshasas march to fight them, and Ravana's departure is met with ill omens: on his right a porcupine circles crying terribly as if to forbid the war, vultures shriek overhead as if announcing his death, and there are sounds of weeping. Learned in every scripture yet driven by pride in their valour, Ravana and his warriors ignore the omens and advance fearlessly on Rama's army, for when one's time comes through karma even Indra cannot avert it, and as sin grows, merit wanes.