Setubandha

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 25

The demons resumed the burden of war abandoned by them, and summoned their fading courage; retrieved their lost renown, and became unconquerable by the martial hosts of apes. v. 79
The concluding verses describe a series of single combats between the chosen leaders of the demons and the Vānaras: Prajangha and Sugrīva, Asaniprabha and Dvivida, Vajramuști and Mainda, Vidyunmālin and Sușeņa, Tapana and Nala, Jambūmalin and Hanūmat, and Indrajit and Angada (vv. 80-99). The leaders of the demons are slain with the exception of Indrajit, who has a trial of strength with Angada, marked by vicissitudes that alternately give hopes and fears to their followers. Therearter when Indrajit's spirit was broken by Angada by dint of
zeal, the apes made merry thinking that he was slain; but the demons rejoiced, because they knew that he had vanished by magic. v.99 Canto XIV. Rāma actively participates in the fighting, and his arrows play havoc among the demons. At nightfall Indrajit, flying aloft from his chariot broken by Angada, moves about invisible in the sky, and discharges the miraculous serpent arrows at Rāma and Lakşmaņa, which penetrate through their limbs, paralysing and binding them fast. Rāma, followed by Lakşmaņa, sinks to the ground.
When Rāma fell, the world was stupefied as when the mental faculties fail. It was suddenly plunged into gloom as at the setting of the sun. It appeared to be bereft of life as when the (severed) head falls to the ground. v. 34
The Vānaras, anxious and bewildered, ‘keep still as in a picture, their eyes fixed on Rāma, and hearts smitten with grief.' Sugiīva, whose eyes are sprinkled with consecrated water by Vibhīşaņa, sees the hitherto invisible Indrajit and chases * him to the gates of Lankā.
Forgetting at the moment his grief for Sita, Rāma bewails the fate of Lakşmaņa and bids farewell to Sugrīva.