Chapter 100 - Rama and Ravana fight with magic Weapons

Beholding Mahodara and Mahaparshva slain and, despite his great strength, the valiant Virupaksha also struck down, a great rage seized Ravana, who urged on his charioteer with these words:—

“By slaying Rama and Lakshmana I shall remove that double scourge, the cause of the slaughter of my faithful adherents and the siege of the city. In the fight I shall cut down Rama, that tree of which Sita is the flower and the fruit, whose branches are Sugriva, Jambavan, Kumuda, Nala, also Dvivida, Mainda, Angada, Gandhamadana, Hanuman, Sushena and all the leading monkeys.”

Thereupon that mighty car-warrior, who caused the ten regions to resound, drove rapidly on Raghava with his chariot, and the earth, with its rivers, mountains and woods, trembled with the uproar, and the lions, gazelles and birds that inhabited it were seized with terror.

Then Ravana employed a dark and magic weapon that was formidable and terrifying and with it he consumed the monkeys, who fled hither and thither. Amidst the dust raised by their battalions, for they were unable to endure that weapon created by Brahma himself, Raghava, seeing those countless divisions taking refuge in innumerable places, pursued by Ravana’s powerful shafts, stood ready waiting.

Meanwhile that Tiger among the Titans, having routed the army of monkeys, beheld Rama standing there unconquered with his brother Lakshmana, like unto Vasava with Vishnu, and Rama seemed to touch the sky as it were as he stretched his great bow and those heroes with eyes as large as lotus petals were long-armed and the conquerors of their foes.

From his side the extremely illustrious and valiant Rama, who was accompanied by Saumitri, seeing Ravana overwhelming the monkeys in the fight, joyfully took hold of the centre of his bow and immediately began to bend that excellent weapon that was stout and sonorous, riving the earth as it were.

At the sound of Ravana’s loosing a myriad arrows and Rama stretching his bow, the titans fell to the ground in their hundreds! Thereafter Ravana, coming within a bow’s length of the two princes, resembled Rahu in the presence of the sun and moon. Desiring to be the first to enter into combat, Lakshmana with his sharp arrows, having placed them on his bow, loosed his shafts resembling flames of fire. Hardly had that archer let fly his darts into the air than the extremely energetic Ravana stayed them in their course, severing one with one, three with three and ten with ten, thus demonstrating his lightness of hand. Leaping over Saumitri, that triumphant warrior, Ravana approached Rama in the conflict, who stood ready like unto an unscalable mountain. Bearing down on Raghava, his eyes red with anger, the Lord of the Titans loosed a rain of shafts upon him but, with the aid of his sharp arrows, Raghava severed those innumerable darts that flamed in formidable wise and resembled venomous snakes.

Thereafter Raghava struck Ravana with redoubled blows and Ravana struck Raghava and they riddled each other with a hail of varied and penetrating missiles and, for a long time, described marvellous circles round each other from left to right, overwhelming each other with swift arrows, each remaining undefeated. And all beings were seized with terror witnessing that desperate duel between those two redoubtable bowmen, the equals of Yama and Antaka. The sky was covered with clouds rival by lightning flashes and the firmament became, as it were, pierced with holes by a rain of whirling arrows of extreme velocity, possessing sharp points, adorned with heron’s plumes. With their darts, they first obscured the sky as when the sun withdraws behind the Astachala Mountains and two great clouds suddenly appear.

Thereafter, between those two warriors, each seeking to slay the other, an incomparable and unimaginable struggle ensued like unto the duel between Vritra and Vasava. Both were furnished with excellent bows, both were skilled warriors, both brought exceptional knowledge in the science of arms to the fight. In all their manoeuvrings they were followed by a stream of shafts as the waves in two oceans that are whipped up by a tempest.

Then, with a skilful hand, Ravana, the Destroyer of the Worlds, aiming at Rama’s forehead, loosed a formidable succession of iron shafts from his bow, which Rama received unmoved on his head like a garland of lotus leaves. Thereupon, reciting a sacred formula, arming himself with Rudra’s weapon and choosing a large number of spears, full of wrath, the illustrious Raghava bent his bow and with force let fly those weapons in rapid succession against that Indra of Titans but those darts fell without breaking through the armour of Ravana, who, like an immense cloud, remained unmoved.

Then Rama, skilled in the use of arms, struck Ravana afresh on the forehead, as he stood in his chariot, with arrows to which he had joined a miraculous weapon, and it appeared as if fiveheaded serpents in the form of darts were penetrating hissing into the earth repelled by Ravana whom they sought to devour. Thereupon, having rendered Raghava’s weapon void, Ravana, in a transport of rage, armed himself in his turn with the dreadful Asura weapon which he loosed joined to sharp and terrible arrows with huge points, having the heads of lions, tigers, herons, geese, vultures, falcons, jackals and wolves or resembling serpents with five heads. Others had the heads of donkeys, boars, dogs, cocks, aquatic monsters and venomous reptiles and those sharp arrows were the creation of his magic power. Struck by the Asuric shafts, that lion among the Raghus, he who resembled the God of Fire himself, responded with the Agneya Dart that was full of power and to it he joined arrows of every kind with points that burnt like fire and which resembled suns, planets and stars in hue or great meteors like unto flaming tongues. Those formidable missiles belonging to Ravana striking against those loosed by Rama, disintegrated in space and were annihilated in their thousands.

Thereupon all the valiant monkeys with Sugriva at their head, able to change their form at will, beholding the titan’s weapon destroyed by Rama of imperishable karma, let forth joyous acclamations and made a circle round him.

Then the magnanimous son of Dasaratha, the descendant of Raghu, having destroyed that weapon discharged by Ravana’s own arm, was filled with felicity, whilst the leaders of the monkeys joyfully paid homage to him.