Chapter 104 - Rama and Ravana renew their Combat (Continued)

On seeing the furious countenance of the virtuous Rama, all beings were seized with terror, the earth shook, the mountains, frequented by lions and tigers, trembled, the trees swayed to and fro, the Ocean, that Lord of Rivers was agitated and flocks of crows, braying like donkeys, described circles in the sky on all sides.

Beholding Rama wrought up with extreme ire and those fearful portents, all beings were filled with fear and Ravana too felt dismayed. The Gods in their chariots, the Gandharvas, the great Serpents, the Rishis, the Danavas, Daityas and winged creatures of the air gazed down on that conflict between those two warriors, who fought with every kind of dreadful weapon, so that it appeared like the dissolution of the worlds. Suras and Asuras who had come to witness the struggle, with their eyes followed that formidable duel, uttering words of sympathy and encouragement and the assembled Asuras cried out to Dasha-griva ‘Victory to You!’ and the Suras addressing Rama reiterated ‘Triumph! Triumph!’

At that instant the wicked Ravana, in his fury against Rama whom he wished to slay, took hold of an immense weapon that was as hard as diamond, deafening, the destroyer of its foe, furnished with spikes like unto mountain peaks, dreadful to conceive or behold, and Ravana lifted up that lance with its smoke-wreathed flaming point, like unto the fires at the time of the final dissolution of the worlds, that was greatly to be feared, irresistible and which death itself could not endure, the terror of all beings, whom it was able to crush to fragments. At the height of anger, he raised his strong arm and, surrounded by his brave troops, brandishing his weapon, that colossus, his eyes red with fury, emitted a piercing cry in order to encourage his forces, and earth, sky and the four quarters trembled at that fearful shout of the King of the Titans. With his stout arm, taking hold of that weapon he emitted a great cry and addressed his opponent insolently in these words:—

“This spear, as strong as a diamond, O Rama, that I wield in my wrath, through my prowess will shortly rob you and your brother of your lives! You shalt share the fate of my brave soldiers whom you didst massacre in the forefront of the battle. Stay therefore that I may strike you down with this lance, O Raghava.”

At these words, the King of the Titans hurled his weapon at Rama, and loosed by Ravana’s hand, that lance wreathed in lightning, deafening with its eight bells, passed through the air with a blinding flash.

Seeing that flaming spear, formidable to behold, Rama stretched his bow and discharged an arrow with force, but as the spear fell, Raghava loosed a mass of arrows to intercept it, so that he appeared like Vasava with his floods seeking to stay the encroachment of the fires at the end of the world period. As butterflies are consumed by flames, so were those shafts consumed by Ravana’s huge spear; then Raghava, seeing his aerial shafts reduced to ashes, pulverized by contact with that lance, was transported with anger and furious in the extreme. Thereafter Rama, Joy of the House of Raghu, took up his spear favoured by Vasava, that Matali had brought to him; wielding it with his powerful arm, that lance, the destroyer of the worlds, with its sonorous bells lit up the sky like unto a brilliant meteor. In its flight, colliding with the spear belonging to that Indra of the Titans, it was shattered by the impact and that enormous lance fell bereft of its splendour. Thereafter Rama pierced Ravana’s swiftly-moving steeds with shafts loosed with great force that were thunderous and flew straight to their target. Displaying all his strength, he wounded his rival in the breast with penetrating javelins and his brow with three arrows, whereupon Ravana, his whole body pierced with arrows and covered with blood, which flowed from wounds in all his limbs, resembled an Ashoka Tree in full flower. His body riddled with darts loosed by Rama, bathed in blood, feeling himself utterly exhausted, that Lord of the Rangers of the Night, in the midst of his army, was filled with extreme wrath.