Ravana Hurls the Chakra at Lakshmana, and It Circles Him and Comes to His Hand

Gautama tells Shrenika that in this war both sides give the thirsty cool sweet water and the hungry nectar-like food, sprinkle the fainting with cool sandal and ice water and fan them with palm leaves, tending friend and foe alike, for such is the custom of battle. For ten days the fight between Ravana and Lakshmana goes on evenly, and Yakshas, gandharvas, kinnaras and apsaras in the sky marvel, sing the fame of both and rain flowers on them.

Eight daughters of the Vidyadhara king Chandravardhana watch from a vimana, and when the apsaras ask why they seem so devoted to Lakshmana, they shyly explain that their father brought them to Sita's svayamvara, where their marriage to Lakshmana was settled and their hearts were won by him, so whatever befalls their lord will befall them too. Hearing their sweet voices Lakshmana looks up, and the delighted maidens cry, ‘Lord, may your purpose succeed!’

At that moment Lakshmana recalls the Siddha arrow, the antidote to the Vighna arrow, and with a cheerful face looses it, destroying the Vighna arrow and every weapon Ravana sends after it. Ravana then fights with the Bahurupini vidya: each head Lakshmana cuts becomes two, two become four, severed arms double, until thousands of heads and arms, each shaded by a parasol, fill the battlefield as though Ravana alone were a vast army.

From his thousands of arms Ravana showers arrows, shaktis, swords and ordinary discuses on Lakshmana, who cuts them all down midway and, blazing like the sun, severs one, two, four, ten, twenty, a hundred, a thousand of the illusory heads and arms until the ground looks like a forest of serpent hoods and streams of blood flow. With only two arms, Sumitra's son renders Ravana's countless arms useless, and Ravana, drenched in sweat and panting, grows weary and distressed, for the Bahurupini vidya avails nothing against Lakshmana.

Dropping illusion, Ravana fights in his own form with divine and ordinary weapons but cannot defeat the Vasudeva, so he calls to mind the chakra-ratna (jewelled discus), blazing like the doomsday sun, fringed with pearls, adamantine and studded with gems, with a thousand vaidurya spokes and guarded at every moment by a thousand Yaksha gods. It comes to his hand at a thought, dimming the sun and the stars, and the apsaras, Vishvavasu, Narada and others watching from the sky flee in fear.

Lakshmana mocks Ravana for clutching it like a miser clutching a cowrie and dares him to strike, and Ravana, grinding his teeth with reddened eyes, whirls the thundering chakra and hurls it. Lakshmana readies his adamantine-tipped arrows, Rama draws the Vajravarta bow with unfailing arrows and whirls his plough and pestle, Sugriva swings his mace, Bhamandala raises his sword, Vibhishana his trident, Hanuman his mudgara (war club) and other weapons, Angada a weapon called Parana and Angada's brother Anga a mighty axe, with Viradhita, Jambunada and hundreds of others ready to die to stop it.

Yet no one, Vidyadhara, Vanara or mighty land-dwelling king, can stop it: the chakra comes to Lakshmana, circles him three times and, its form turned gentle and submissive, rests peacefully in his hand. Gautama tells Shrenika that thus Rama and Lakshmana became possessors of great riddhi (powers), for fortune is the handmaid of merit, deserting a man when his merit fails and coming with little effort to the meritorious, just as the moon rises when the sun sets.