Chapter 25 - The Combat between Rama and the Titans continues

Approaching the hermitage, Khara, in company with those who preceded him, beheld Rama, the Destroyer of his Foes, full of wrath, armed with his bow and seeing that mighty warrior, bow in hand, Khara ordered his charioteer to drive upon him with his car.

Thus commanded, Suta drove his horses to where the illustrious Rama, wielding his bow, stood unmoved.

Beholding Khara advancing on Rama, the titans, uttering loud shouts, surrounded him on all sides, and he, stationed in his chariot amidst those Yatudhanas, resembled the planet Mars encircled by stars.

Loosing a thousand shafts, Khara emitted a tremendous war-cry and all the demons in fury showered various missiles on that invincible archer Rama, striking him in their frenzy with iron clubs, swords, spears and axes.

With their colossal stature and extraordinary power, they resembled mountains as they bore down on Kakutstha with their chariots and horses.

In their desire to overcome Rama, those demon hordes, mounted on elephants as high as the peaks of mountains, covered him with a hail of weapons, like great clouds letting loose their rain on the King of Mountains, and Raghava was hemmed in on all sides by those ferocious looking demons.

As at evening time Mahadeva is surrounded by his satellites, so was Rama beset by the lances of the titans, but that prince received the missiles hurled against him as the sea receives the rivers that empty themselves therein. As the Himalayas remain unmoved, when struck by lightning, so did he, when those dreadful weapons tore his flesh. Pierced in every limb, the blood gushing forth on all sides, he resembled the evening sun enveloped in cloud.

Beholding Rama encircled by thousands of titans, the Gods and sages were profoundly moved, but he, growing enraged, bending his bow like a sickle, let loose hundreds and thousands of pointed shafts, that could not be intercepted and carried death to those they pierced. As if in sport, on the battlefield Rama let fly countless arrows furnished with herons plumes, tipped with gold, destroying innumerable titans like the noose of death itself.

Unconcernedly loosed by Rama, those arrows passed through the demons’ bodies and, stained with blood, flew through the air like blazing torches. Countless shafts drawn from Rama’s quiver fell in hundreds and thousands, robbing the demons of their life’s breath, their bows, their banners, their shields and their armour, their arms embellished with ornaments and their thighs resembling the trunks of elephants.

The arrows of Rama, discharged from the bowstring, cut down horses yoked to the chariots with their golden trappings together with the charioteers; elephants with their riders, horsemen with their steeds, were all transfixed by his shafts and despatched to the region of Yama.

Pierced by those pointed shafts, the Rangers of the Night, emitted terrible shrieks, and decimated by those death-dealing arrows, the demon host was unable to defend itself, as dried wood is ignited by the proximity of fire.

Then certain demon warriors, full of energy and zeal, in a paroxysm of rage, let fly lances, tridents and other weapons at Rama, but he, intercepting them, cut off the heads of those demons with his shafts, thus depriving them of their lives. They, having had their heads, their shields and their bowstrings severed, fell to the earth, like trees thrown down by the blast of Garuda’s wings.

Then the remaining titans fled, seeking refuge from those death-dealing arrows with Khara, but Dushana, taking up his bow, rallied them and rushed on Rama as if he were Antaka himself; thereafter the titans, growing bolder, hurled themselves on Rama anew, armed with the trunks of Sala and Tala trees and huge rocks.

With lances, maces and snares, bearing darts, clubs and nooses in their hands, those great warriors covered the whole field with a hail of missiles, discharging volleys of trees and rocks. Thereafter the combat waxed furious, causing the hair to stand on end, and now it seemed as if Rama were the victor and again the demons appeared to triumph. Then, seeing himself beseiged on all sides, that mighty warrior Rama, covered by a hail of darts, sent up a terrific shout, placing the mantra-propelled Gandharva weapon on his bow, whereupon a thousand arrows sped from his bent bow, covering the ten regions.

With such skill did Rama discharge his arrows, that the demons were unable to distinguish when he drew them from their quiver and when he loosed them and his shafts caused darkness to spread over the sky and obscure the sun.

Slain in their thousands, the demons fell in heaps and the battlefield was strewn with corpses. Struck down, disembowelled, transfixed, torn and hacked asunder, they could be seen in their hundreds, and the ground was scattered with heads wrapped in turbans, arms encircled with bangles, thighs and torsos with their ornaments, horses, mighty elephants, shattered chariots, chowries, fans, umbrellas and standards of every kind, and beholding the slain, the remaining demons were afflicted and unable to withstand Rama, that captor of hostile citadels, further.