Chapter 110 - The Duel continues

Witnessing the combat between Rama and Ravana, all beings were struck with amazement and those two warriors, assuming a dreadful aspect in the struggle, highly enraged, determined on mutual slaughter and, in their excellent cars, bore down on each other. Thereupon their drivers, parading their skill as charioteers, advanced, circled and manoeuvred in various ways. In their rapid course and swift evolutions, those two marvellous chariots ranged the battlefield, whilst the two warriors discharged countless shafts on each other, like unto clouds letting loose their showers.

Having displayed their immeasurable resource in the use of weapons, those two champions halted face to face, chariot shaft to chariot shaft, their horses’ heads touching, their standards intertwined. Then Rama loosed four sharp arrows, driving back Ravana’s four spirited steeds and he, furious on beholding them retreat, let fly his penetrating shafts on Raghava.

That hero, however, grievously wounded by the mighty Dashagriva, manifested neither agitation nor emotion and again the Ten-necked One discharged his shafts, that resounded like thunder, aiming at the charioteer of that God who bears the Thunderbolt; and he struck Matali with his arrows with great force without being able to disturb him in any way or cause him to falter. Nevertheless Raghava, indignant at the affront offered to Matali more than if it had been directed at himself, with the aid of a succession of darts, decided to humble his adversary, and the valiant Raghava discharged twenty, thirty, sixty and thereafter hundreds and thousands of shafts on his rival’s chariot.

On his side, Ravana, the Lord of the Titans, standing in his car, enraged, overwhelmed Rama with an avalanche of maces and clubs and the struggle became more desperate causing the hair to stand on end.

At the sound of the maces, clubs and axes and the loosing of plumed arrows, the seven seas were agitated and the tumult of the oceans sowed terror in the Danavas and Pannagas in their thousands, in the depths of hell. The earth shook with its mountains, forests and jungles; the orb of day lost its brilliance and the wind ceased to blow. Devas, Gandharvas, Siddhas and Paramarishis were wrought up with anxiety as also the Kinneras and Great Serpents.

“May good fortune attend the cows and brahmins! May all the worlds endure forever! May Raghava emerge triumphant in his combat with Ravana, the King of the Titans!”

Offering up these prayers, the Devas accompanied by hosts of Rishis witnessed that duel between Rama and Ravana, a spectacle that caused the hair to stand on end, and the hosts of the Gandharvas and Apsaras, watching that indescribable struggle, cried out“The sky resembles the sea and the sea the sky, but the fight between Rama and Ravana resembles nought but itself!”

Thus did they speak on beholding the combat between Rama and Ravana. In his rage, the Long-armed Warrior, the increaser of the glory of the Raghus, Rama, placed an arrow, like unto a venomous reptile, on his bow and cut off one of Ravana’s heads, whereupon that glorious head, adorned with sparkling earrings, rolled on the earth in the presence of the Three Worlds. Nevertheless another, equal to the former, grew immediately and Rama, with a steady hand, dexterously sundered the second head with his shafts. Hardly was it eliminated when another head appeared which was severed once more by Rama’s darts like unto thunderbolts.

Thereafter he struck off a hundred more, being unable to bring Ravana low, and that hero, conversant with every weapon, he the increaser of Kaushalya’s delight, who had made use of innumerable missiles, reflected:—

‘These were the shafts by the help of which I slew Marica, Khara, and Dushana as also Viradha in the Krauncha Wood and Kabandha in the Dandaka Forest; these were the shafts wherewith I transfixed the Sala Trees and the mountains and Bali and with which I agitated the ocean! All these weapons found their target, how is it that they have so little power over Ravana?’

Absorbed though he was in his reflections, Raghava, without ceasing from action, let loose a shower of arrows on the breast of his adversary. On his side, Ravana, the Lord of the Titans, standing in his chariot, enraged, overwhelmed Rama with an avalanche of maces and clubs. Thus the fearful and desperate conflict, causing the hair to stand on end, continued in the air and on the ground and thereafter on the summit of the mountain.

Devas, Danavas, Yakshas, Pisacas, Uragas and Rakshasas watched the dreadful combat that lasted seven days and neither by night nor day for a single hour did Rama and Ravana cease from fighting and the son of Dasaratha and the Indra of the Titans continued to struggle thus. Then the magnanimous charioteer of the King of the Gods, beholding no sign of Raghava gaining the victory, addressed him rapidly in the following words.