Ravana's Battle with Rama and Lakshmana

Ravana tells Mandodari he does not know whether he will see her again, and she blesses him, saying he will surely conquer and return soon. Gazing back again and again at his thousands of queens, he mounts the chariot named Indra, fashioned by Vidyadharas and drawn by a thousand elephants like Airavata, and with ten thousand Vidyadharas as mighty as himself enters the battle like Indra himself, ignoring the vultures that wheel and cry overhead as omens of death.

Seeing a mountain-like shape near the city, Rama asks what it is; Sushena and others cannot answer at once, but Jambunada and others explain that it is a chariot made by the Bahurupini vidya, the cause of many deaths, and that the vidya was accomplished after Angada entered the city and angered Ravana. Lakshmana orders his charioteer to make ready, warriors gather round him, and Rama's soldiers comfort their wives, promising to return after conquering Lanka's lord.

Bhutasvana, a lord of Vidyadharas, mounts an elephant chariot; Rama, armoured, rides out on his lion chariot, shining like the sun, and Lakshmana, crowned, with earrings, armour and bow, rides the Garuda chariot under the Garuda banner, splendid as Mount Anjana. Good omens attend Rama, gandharva gods and apsaras shower flowers on both armies, and the battle rages with fists, maces, arrows and rocks until tender princes who once sported in jewelled palaces lie dead, devoured by vultures and jackals.

Gautama teaches that in war the fruit of good and bad karma is seen: a small army may win by past merit and a great one lose through sin, and those who kept their vows prevail while those who broke them are defeated. Maricha, Chandranikara, Vajraksha and other Rakshasas press Rama's army, Hanuman, Chandrarashmi, Nila, Kumuda and others drive them back, Vanara warriors such as Achala, Sammeda, Angada and Sushena meet Ravana's great kings, and Hanuman, son of Anjana, sports on his elephant among the Rakshasa ranks like a great elephant in a lotus pond.

Mandodari's father, King Maya, charges Hanuman with reddened eyes; Hanuman shatters his chariot twice, but Ravana sends Maya a chariot made by the Bahurupini vidya, and from it Maya breaks Hanuman's chariot, then Bhamandala's when he comes to help, disarms Sugriva and throws him to the ground, and pierces Vibhishana's armour so that his blood flows. As the Vanara army wavers, Rama himself comes on his vidya-made lion chariot crying, ‘Fear not!’, enters Ravana's ranks like the sun and soon overwhelms Maya with his arrows.

When Ravana angrily turns on Rama, Lakshmana blocks his way: ‘Vidyadhara, where are you going? Stand! Wretch, thief, moth to the lamp of another's wife, Raghava, lord of the whole earth, has ordered me to punish this thief.’ Ravana sneers that he is lord of the three khandas (regions) of the earth and owner of every excellent thing, that a bell suits an elephant's neck and not a dog's, and that a pauper like Lakshmana must be weary of life; Lakshmana replies that he knows well what kind of earth-lord Ravana is and will end his roaring today.

Arrows pour like rain on a mountain; Lakshmana splinters Ravana's shafts in mid-air with vajradanda arrows and harasses him even with ordinary weapons, so Ravana turns to divine ones: his Megha (cloud) arrow is scattered by Lakshmana's Pavana (wind) arrow and his Agni (fire) arrow quenched by the Varuna (water) arrow, Lakshmana's Papa arrow is countered by Ravana's Dharma arrow, his Indhana (fuel) arrow burnt by an Agni arrow and his Timira (darkness) arrow dispelled by a Surya arrow, Ravana's Naga arrow is foiled by a Garuda arrow and Lakshmana's Sarpa (serpent) arrow by a Mayura (peacock) arrow. Then Ravana looses the dreaded Vighna (obstacle) arrow, whose antidote, the Siddha arrow, Lakshmana cannot recall, and the two fight on evenly with other weapons, like Triprishtha and Ashvagriva of old.