Shatrughna Conquers Mathura and King Madhu Renounces

Rama and Lakshmana lovingly offer Shatrughna any land he wishes: half of Ayodhya, Rajagriha, Podanapura, Paundrasundara or any of hundreds of capitals. He asks for Mathura. Rama warns him that its king Madhu, Ravana's son-in-law and the lamp of the Harivamsha, has conquered many kings, holds a trident jewel given him by Chamarendra that even gods find hard to face, and has a son Lavanarnava whom not even Vidyadharas can defeat.

Shatrughna swears that if he does not break Madhu in battle like a beehive and crush him with his army as the eight-legged ashtapada crushes a pride of lions, he is not Dasharatha's son, not Rama's brother, not Suprabha's son. The Vidyadhara lords marvel at him. Rama asks one gift of him, and Shatrughna promises anything except giving up the fight; Rama asks only that he attack when the trident is not in Madhu's hand, and Shatrughna agrees.

After worshipping the Jina and reciting the Namokara mantra, Shatrughna seeks his mother's leave. Placing her hand on his head, Suprabha tells him he has never come home defeated and will not now, and promises a worship with gold, jewels and lotuses when he returns. She blesses him in the name of the five Supreme Beings: the Arhats who conquered delusion, the Siddhas at the summit of the universe, the Acharyas, deep as the ocean and steady as Sumeru, the Upadhyayas who master the scriptures, and the Sadhus who conquer karma by twelve kinds of austerity.

Rama and Lakshmana, loving their brother, ride with him a long way until he begs them to return. Lakshmana gives him the bow Samudravarta, with a blazing tip, and arrows swift as the wind, and Rama sends the general Kritantavaktra with him. Camped on the bank of the Yamuna, the ministers fear that Shatrughna's pride has led him to attack the unconquerable Madhu, who had once defeated King Mandhata, but Kritantavaktra rebukes their cowardice: a lion defeats even an elephant that uproots trees, and Shatrughna has Rama and Lakshmana and many great kings behind him.

Spies report that Madhu has gone with his queens to a lovely garden east of Mathura and, infatuated with his chief queen Jayanti like an elephant trapped by touch, has neglected the kingdom for six days, deaf to his ministers and unaware that Shatrughna has come. Seizing the moment, Shatrughna races to Mathura with picked warriors at midnight while the city sleeps, breaks the gate and enters as a sage enters the city of the Siddhas. The bards cry victory to Dasharatha's son, the frightened citizens wake, and Shatrughna takes the palace and the armoury, reassuring the people that this is Rama's kingdom and no one will be harmed.

Madhu hurries back in fury but cannot enter the city, guarded by Shatrughna's warriors as delusion cannot enter a sage's heart, and his trident lies in the captured armoury. Too proud to make peace, he gives battle. Kritantavaktra plunges into Madhu's army, and Prince Lavanarnava attacks him; the two fight from elephants with arrows, tomaras, maces, swords and discuses until Kritantavaktra pierces Lavanarnava's chest and the prince falls dead, his merit exhausted.

Seeing his son dead, Madhu charges in grief and rage, his glance like a venomous serpent's, and Shatrughna's army scatters like leaves before a gale until Shatrughna himself blocks his path like a mountain stopping a river. Madhu breaks Shatrughna's banner; Shatrughna kills his chariot horses, cuts down every arrow Madhu shoots from a fresh elephant and shatters his armour, welcoming him with weapons as a host welcomes a guest.

Knowing Shatrughna unconquerable, his trident gone, his son dead and his own life short, Madhu remembers a sage's words and reflects that every worldly undertaking is violence and pain; one does not dig a pond when the house is already on fire. Wounded and bleeding on his elephant's back, he becomes a muni at heart: he bows to the five Supreme Beings and the twenty Tirthankaras living in the two and a half continents, renounces all sinful acts, all four kinds of food and every possession for life, plucks out his hair and accepts sallekhana, forgiving all beings and asking forgiveness of all.

The chapter explains the three grades of sallekhana, from twelve years to a single muhurta, and the five kinds of death, from the death of a Kevali down to the death of the deluded, and the three kinds of a sage's death. Seeing Madhu's serene face, Shatrughna bows and begs forgiveness as the offender, and celestial women who had come to watch the battle rain flowers of the wish-fulfilling trees upon him. Madhu dies in samadhi within a moment and becomes a high god of the third heaven, Sanatkumara, and Shatrughna enters Mathura praising him, as Jayakumara once entered Hastinapura.