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The Rāmāyaṇa Version of Puşpadanta
165
disturbed in his meditation. He asked for his Candrahāsa sword. Indrajit told him that the Upasargas were nothing but the “Māya" of the Vidyadharas on Rama's side. Ravana then thought of the Vic!ya-devatas who destroy calamities. They appeared before him and explained to him that they were afraid of Lakşmaņa and Rama, the Nárāyaṇa and the Baladeva. Ravana then asked them to go away and boasted that he would overpower the enemy on the strength of his arms. Indrajit in the meanwhile fought with the Vanaras but was defeated; the Vānaras flew up in the sky. Rāvana was full of courage even in the face of calamities. He went to Lankā while the Vánara princes returned to where Rāma was. Hanūmat and Sugriva bestowed their supernatural lores Kesari-vāhini and Garuda-váhini on Rāma and Laksmana. Then Rāma, Laksmana and their army crossed the ocean in a huge Vimāna built by the Prajñapti lore and then besieged the capital of Rāvaņa. They beat the war-drums.42 Hearing that sound Rāvana asked Kumbhakarna whether it was the noise of falling of worlds standing one upon the other. Kumbhakarna toid him that the army of his enemy had arrived. Rävaņa then mobilised his forces and marched out of Lankā to meet the enemy. The two armies of Māyā-vånaras and Raksasas came face to face. 43
When the Māyā-vānaras destroyed the fort, Ravi-ksrti with his soldiers came out to fight the enemies. Later on Raksasa Generals such as Kumba, Nikumbha, Indrajit, Kharadūsana, Maya, Hasta, Prahasta and so on got ready for fight. A fierce battle raged. And warriors on both the sides hurled at one another different weapons and missiles.
The Preparation for war of the Armies of Rama and Rávana SANDHI LXXVIII
Rāma and Laksmana rode the elephants called Anjana-giri, and Vijaya-parvata. Sugriva then bestowed on them the lores called Bala-vistirņā and Praharanăvarani. The
43.
Here we have an instance of 'Atišayokti : The seven underground worlds quaked ..... the snakes on account of fear, vomitted poison, the blazing stars swerved from their positions and assembled in one place. The three worlds were agitated at the terrible sound of the wardrums. The fight between the two hostile armies is described at great length in Kadavakas 9 onwards. In Kadavakas 9,5-17 we have a very vivid, graphic and realistic yet poetic description of a column of dust raised by horses: A cloud of dust, dug up by the shovels in the form of the hoofs of horses, as if afraid of death, clung to the hoofs and rose. It obscured the burning Sun; while it was falling it was saved by the banner that came of a noble varsa (family, bamboo); then it rested on lotus-like umbrella and there it appeared like honey (makaranda): then it sank into the temples of elephants oozing rut; who is not attached to 'dána'silas"? ('Dāna' - rut, charity); then it rested on the water of swords (asi-salila i.e. very sharp shining swords) but would not turn into mud; swept off by the breeze of the camaras it dashed against the crown. From there it rusled towards the ear-rings like a cloud towards the orb of the sun, and finally it sank inthe blood-river flowing from the wound-springs of elephant-mountains."
