Chapter 27 - Rama and Trishiras meet in Combat: Trishiras is slain

As Khara was advancing on Rama, the leader of the army, Trishiras approached him and said:—•“O Lord, refrain from engaging Rama in combat and having recourse to me, who am possessed of prowess, witness his defeat. I swear to you by my sword that I will slay Rama and avenge the death of the entire demon host. In this fight I shall be as Mrityu to him or he to me, but you, O Excellent One, should restrain your martial ardour awhile and be a spectator only. Should Rama be slain, you canst return home triumphant, but should I die, do you enter the field against him.”

Yielding to the persuasions of Trishiras, Khara said to him, who was already doomed:—“Go, engage Rama in combat!”

Thereupon Trishiras, like a triple crested mountain, advanced on Raghava in a glittering chariot yoked to excellent steeds and, as a great cloud pours down rain, so he discharged a volley of arrows, roaring the while like a kettledrum.

Seeing that demon drawing near, Rama loosed some pointed shafts and a terrible struggle ensued, so that it seemed as if a great lion and a mighty elephant were fighting together.

Trishiras, having pierced Rama’s forehead with three darts, that hero, enraged, addressed him in biting accents, saying:—

“O Valiant Titan, the arrows you have loosed I bear on my brow as a wreath, do you now receive the shafts from my bow.”

Thereupon Rama let fly fourteen serpentine arrows striking Trishiras on the breast and with four further shafts brought down his four steeds, killing his charioteer with eight other darts and with a single arrow severing the up-raised standard in the front of his car. Then, as that Ranger of the Night was alighting from his shattered chariot, Rama pierced his breast with further arrows, depriving him of his senses, and that one of immeasurable prowess with his swift arrows cut off the three heads of Trishiras, causing the blood to flow from the stricken trunk, and the heads of that Ranger of the Night fell while he yet stood upright after the destruction of his forces.

Then the remaining titans, losing heart, sped away like deer stampeding on the approach of a hunter, and Khara, beholding them fleeing, waxing wrath, rallied them and rushed on Rama as Rahu on the moon.