Chapter 94 - Rama’s Exploits

Having entered the council chamber, the unhappy king, the mighty Ravana, overwhelmed by the death of his son, seated on his throne, in the depth of affliction, breathing like an enraged lion, saluted the leaders of his army and addressed them saying:—

“Do you set out at the head of cavalry with a column of chariots, elephants and horses, with which you are abundantly supplied, and, in the fight, hurl yourselves upon Rama only, overwhelming him with a rain of missiles, like clouds in the rainy season. Thereafter when your sharp darts have pierced his limbs in that great battle, to-morrow, I myself will put an end to Rama’s life in the presence of all beings.”

On this command from their king, the titans set out in their swift-moving chariots followed by innumerable battalions. Armed with maces, harpoons, swords, arrows and life-destroying axes, all those titans struck the monkeys, who countered them with blows from rocks and trees. Then, as the sun rose, a great and terrible struggle ensued between titans and monkeys, fearful to behold and they struck each other with countless shining weapons, javelins, swords and axes in the fray and a prodigious dust storm, arising on account of the battle, was laid again by the rivers of blood from titans and monkeys. With elephants and chariots as the banks, javelins as the fish, standards as the trees, corpses as the floating logs, rivers of blood flowed.

Though soaked in gore, the valiant monkeys, leaping hither and thither in the fight, hacked the banners, armour, chariots, horses and weapons of every kind to pieces. With their sharp teeth and nails the Plavamgamas tore the hair, ears, foreheads and noses of their opponents. A hundred of the foremost of the monkeys leapt on every titan like birds on a felled tree and the titans, like unto hills, struck the redoubtable monkeys with heavy maces, javelins, scimitars and axes. Cut to pieces by their foes, the great army of monkeys sought shelter with Rama, the son of Dasaratha, the only true refuge.

Then that exceedingly energetic hero, taking up his bow, penetrating into the ranks of the titans, overwhelmed them with a hail of darts, and when he entered their lines, like unto the sun entering the clouds, those formidable warriors, whom he was consuming with the fire of his shafts, were unable to discern him. And the titans, beholding the terrible exploits of that hero so disastrous to them, recognized their author to be Rama, and as the passing of a hurricane through a forest becomes patent, so, when innumerable battalions were overthrown and great cars overturned, they perceived it to be his work. And they beheld their army decimated by arrows, battered and crushed by his shafts but, so rapid were his movements, that they could not see Rama and they were no more able to discern Raghava than beings distinguish the soul that governs the senses.

“There is the one who is exterminating our cohorts of elephants!” “There is he, who with his sharp arrows is destroying cavalry and infantry!”

Speaking thus, the titans, taking each other to be Rama in the fight, under this delusion, slew each other in anger, and they were not able to see the real Rama, who, nevertheless, was destroying their army, for they had all been thrown into bewilderment by the exceedingly mighty, marvellous and powerful Gandharva Weapon! And sometimes on that vast battlefield, thousands of Ramas appeared to the titans and sometimes they could only see one; and the bow of that hero seemed to them to be a myriad golden bows, whirling like a circling torch, while Raghava himself remained invisible I

With his body the pivot, his strength the lustre, his arrows the spokes, his bow the felly, the twanging of the cord and the gauntlet the sound, the force of his intelligence its radiance, its splendour the impetus of his weapon, its circumference the circle traced by Rama, while he was massacring the titans, he resembled the Wheel of Time in the eyes of all beings. And in the eighth part of a day, Rama with his flaming arrows, single-handed, exterminated the army of the titans who were able to change their form at will, which comprised eighteen thousand great elephants, fourteen thousand cavalry and two hundred thousand infantry.

Exhausted, their horses slain, their chariots shattered, their standards broken, those rangers of the night, who had escaped the carnage, took refuge in the City of Lanka.

With the corpses of elephants, infantry and horses, the battlefield resembled the ground where the mighty Rudra, enraged, disports himself.

Then Devas, Gandharvas, Siddhas and Paramarishis cried out:—

“Well done! Well done 1” lauding Rama’s achievement.

And the magnanimous Raghava said to Sugriva who stood near with Jambavan and the foremost of monkeys, Mainda and Dvivida:—

“The power to wield this terrible weapon belongs to me and Tryambaka alone!”

Having destroyed the army of the King of the Titans, Rama, the equal of the magnanimous Shakra, who amidst darts and arrows transcended all fatigue, received the delighted homage of the Celestial Host.