Continuing from Ramayana: Wars and Weapons - Part I, this post will cover with much greater detail the Yuddha Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana. But before this, a little prelude to the war at Lanka will be recounted: the abduction of Seetha.
Abduction of Seetha
After the bloody massacre of 14,000 demonaics by Rama in the Dandaka forest, the entire occult got rattled and word began to spread quite fast. However, a new hope also began to rise among the sages, who were oppressed by these demonaics, to a guy they could rely on to rid the forest of the demonaics, who were causing them too much trouble.
Shurpanakha, unyielding to what just went down, rushed backed to Lanka to get her brother, the mighty Ravana to deal with Rama instead, for there was nothing she believed that could stand against him in battle. When she arrived at Lanka at the palace of Ravana, he and his ministers and subjects were partying around, getting drunk, and celebrating their prowess over the people in Bharat, Shurpanakha all of sudden tormented everyone there about what just went down in the Dandaka forest and that there was absolutely nothing to celebrate. Ravana, looking at his sister face all covered in blood , stopped whatever he was rejoicing about and asked her what exactly happened to her and the occult in the Dandaka forest. Shurpanakha then recounted to him what happened at Panchavati, saying that seeing Seetha's beauty, she tried to woo Rama into marrying her so that she could make her [Seetha] wedable to Ravana and bring him great luck and prosperity owing to her delicate physique [LIES!!! LIES!!! A whole bunch-a-lies !!! yeeee ha haaa !!!]. And then she recounted the battle at the Dandaka forest which was a cause of great concern to their prowess and pride, and that something had to be done to fix it. Saying so, she ordered Ravana to abduct Seetha and marry her, and even if Rama came to Lanka to take her back, he would have to the opportunity to kill him.
Ravana, on hearing this got very excited, and then made his way to Mareecha, who was by their lab as discussed in Ramayana: Cities, Technologies and Power Struggles, with a plan. Mareecha, having heard about what happened at the Dandaka forest, was pretty rattled on hearing Ravana's plan to abduct Seetha. He began literally begging Ravana not go with abduction, because it would only bring destruction to Lanka if Rama by chance came to Lanka to take her back, which most likely he would. Ravana got angry with Mareecha for his feebleness, and admonished him asking if he would betray him even though being his best companion. Mareecha was then assuring Ravana (still in begging mode), that as his companion he would do anything for him, but not this... all because he could not see any favorable outcome [you can imagine that he was literally on his knees begging Ravana "please, please, please !!!"]. Ravana looking at him got extremely infuriated because he was literally showing him that he himself didn't believe that Ravana could withstand Rama in battle after what he pulled off in the Dandaka forest (which was pretty insulting to him), and so Ravana in response assured Mareecha that he would be all the more happy to kill him himself and find someone else to work his plan out. Mareecha was then like "fine!!!" he'd help, but then at the back of his mind he felt that this would only invite unwanted trouble.
In other past developments, Mareecha's companionship with Ravana got him infused with his DNA for shape-shifting, which Ravana attained from his yaga (explained in Ramayana: Cities, Technologies and Power Struggles). Not sure about the teeth though. But anyways, so according to Ravana's plan, Mareecha was to shape-shift into a deer so adorable that any girl as delicate as Seetha would melt at the first sight of. That would take Rama out of the scene if Mareecha ran away from Seetha's sight like a cute little deer, if she wanted to have it to play with it (and also feed it like what girls like to do). And if that happened, then get Rama to kill the deer instead. When this happened Mareecha was to shout Lakshmana's name out loudly in Rama's voice so as to bring Lakshmana to Rama (for this he had to find away to listen to Rama's voice). That will take Lakshmana out of the scene leaving Seetha alone to be abducted.
Then, everything goes as per the plan. Seetha sees this rare but too adorable deer, melts at the first sight off and calls Rama to get it for her. Rama too gets mesmerized by its cuteness and thinks of getting it for Seetha. Lakshmana however finds the deer too cute to be true and realizes that it's Mareecha and warns Rama about it. Rama, however, doesn't pay heed to Lakshmana's restraint, and tells him that it would definitely be nice to have something so adorably rare with them. Mareecha having heard Rama's voice now begins running way, and Rama prepares to capture it. Lakshmana tries stopping him, but Rama instead draws a line on the ground telling Lakshmana to not cross it (the popular Lakshmanrekha) and to stay with Seetha to protect her while he was out. Lakshmana was not too happy about it, but just listened to his brother, and when Mareecha called out Lakshmana's name out loudly in Rama's voice, Lakshmana listened to it very carefully and found it was a fake because he was able to identify it to be little off Rama's voice. Seetha, on hearing Rama shout out loudly told Lakshmana to go get Rama, but Lakshmana told her that everything was fine with Rama because that shout was a fake. Seetha, who actually didn't identify the subtle fakeness, then scolded Lakshmana about how he could abandon his brother especially when he was calling out for him, that too so loudly. It could only mean that he was in deep trouble. Lakshmana then reassured her again that it was a fake and reminded her that as per Rama's word he was supposed to stay with her to protect her and not to leave her alone in the forest where anything could happen. Seetha got frustrated and literally played a card saying that Lakshmana was just saying this because he wanted to have her. Lakshmana then got a bit taken off thinking how could she even utter such a thing about him to him. Not knowing how to respond, Lakshmana agreed to find Rama but told her that wasn't a correct thing to say about him. He then took off.
Seetha being alone now, Ravana then shifted into an austere Brahmin and approached Seetha. Seetha, seeing an austere Brahmin approaching her turned her attention to him. Ravana, then, looking at her, asked her what a girl like her was doing in a forest, adding that by her looks she looked like she was someone who most likely dwelled in a city. Seetha, seeing an austere Brahmin asking her something, made a place for him to sit in the hut, and then told him briefly what happened at Ayodhya after her wedding with Rama when she was about 18 years old, when Rama was 25 [Read Ramayana: Wars and Weapons - Part I for this if you haven't already]. Seetha then asked who he was. For this Ravana revealed himself [still staying as the austere Brahmin] and then responded to Seetha saying what an idiot Rama was to have taken such a decision, and even worse leaving her alone in a forest like this with no protection. Seetha, then assured Ravana saying that Rama was on his way to bring a lot of wild plants, fruits and roots enough for themselves and other animals they are petting, like the boar and cow. Ravana, hearing this, then proposed Seetha to marry him instead for he would instead give her a better life in Lanka. Seetha rejected his proposal. Then Ravana reassured his prowess over Rama only to tell her how he would make a much better husband, but Seetha still rejected it. Ravana got angry at this and then revealed his monstrosity of a form with twenty arms and then grabbed Seetha. Seetha then began screaming when she was grabbed, and all the while when Ravana was having her around one of his arms and embarking on his aircraft.
The rest of what happened on the way is covered in Ramayana: Cities, Technologies and Power Struggles.
Yuddha Kanda
Deadly drum roll: "Dha-Dha-Dham Thaaaam (or Pooooowww)!!!!" and repeat that in your head multiple times until it echoes in your head.... and then until your bored of it. Rama is on his way to Lanka to take Seetha back. He just crossed the shallow waters between what is known as Rameshwaram today, and Dhanushkodi that submerged into the ocean quite recently. Dhanushkodi is the place where Rama triangulates the landing point of the bridge to be constructed to Lanka [detailed in Ramayana: Cities, Technologies and Power Struggles]. Word is spreading in Lanka that Rama is coming, upon which Ravana calls his ministers to his palace hall for a quick meeting. Vibhishana too is among the attendees.
Meeting with Ministers
Ravana set the discussion asking his ministers what they thought about the news of Rama coming to Lanka. All his ministers one after the other then began extolling their prowess and reassured Ravana that they were ready for anything, be it Rama, Lakshmana and all those monkeys, including that god-forsaken monkey, Hanuman, who first ransacked Lanka and then burned it down when they lit his tail on fire. Vibhishana, seeing them making a show of their valour, responded to them saying that instead of extolling their strengths and blowing their own horns, asked them if they had any solid strategy to counter Rama who killed the associate at Panchavati no matter how hard he even tried.
Vibishana then turned to his brother Ravana, and told him that nothing good could come out of this abduction, especially with a guy as adept as Rama and his army of deadly monkeys. Lanka would only be destroyed and it would be because of something completely stupid. Ravana then responded telling him that, should he just return Seetha to Rama grinning like an idiot and say something like "oh... he's sorry... he took her by mistake... because he's so scared of him". Not happening. He scoffed at Vibhishana and then shifted the meeting to a more open location calling all demonaics to prepare a strategy to defend Lanka despite him not believing that Rama and the monkeys were able to cross the ocean. Over here, Mahaparsva suggested Ravana to marry Seetha by force instead and to do what he wished to do with her. Problem solved. Ravana was then like "ye... whatever" to Mahaparsva saying that he was practically suggesting rape. He then told Mahaparsva that after mastering scriptures like the Vedas, those ideas pretty much get shattered, and that he would probably wed Seetha appropriately by showing his prowess over Rama by killing him. Vibhishana then told Ravana that's unlikely to happen because there is no one in Lanka who could stand up against Rama in battle especially after what he did in the Dandaka forest. Hence its better he returned Seetha back to him. Indrajit then, who was also there, got pissed with his uncle Vibhishana for that comment and reprimanded him for undermining the strength of the Lankan army of demonaics. Vibhishana then told Indrajit that he is just a child and didn't understand what was at stake. Ravana then angrily intervened and scolded Vibhishana for being such a wimp who just talks of being a best friend or brother all the while, but just when a problem arises he backs off and cowers like a fool doing nothing. Even worse being very discouraging. Vibhishana got pissed at his brother's remarks and then flew up the sky, and so did his own four other ministers, and warned Ravana again that none of what he was about to do would gain any success and that he was not going to be part of this stupidity. He would rather side with Rama and uproot him from his throne and retake Lanka. Saying so, he and his ministers flew away to where Rama was.
Ravana sends Spies
Word from a spy called Shardula reached Ravana about the size of the monkey army trying to make their way into Lanka. Ravana then ordered Shuka to taunt them to abandon their plans of trying to reach Lanka because it was impossible to cross the ocean, and to return to Kishkinda right away. Shuka then shifted into a bird and flew to Dhanushkodi to relay the message. The monkeys there seeing Shuka, formed themselves into a heap with one later jumping up the sky from it to grab Shuka. When grabbed, they all pounced on him and began beating him up. Rama saw the ruckus going on and told the monkeys to stop. It was over here then that Rama began triangulating. Then after the bridge was constructed, Rama ordered the monkeys to release Shuka. When Shuka flew back to Lanka he told Ravana that Rama and his army of monkeys had successfully crossed the ocean by building a bridge. Ravana got taken aback a bit on hearing this, wondering how it was even possible. He then ordered Shuka along with Sharana to go in disguise and learn about the monkey army in detail, what their capabilities were, whose who and so on and report to him. Shuka and Sharana then shifted into monkeys and joined the other monkeys on the shore, who had already crossed the bridge. Unfortunately Vibhishana identified them and brought them to Rama. Rama asked them why they were here and they responded saying that they were hear to learn about the army. Rama then smirked and told them to take a real good look at the army, and that they were free to look around as many times possible to see and tell Ravana what was coming. When they went back to Ravana to report to him the strength and capabilities of the army, they were pretty much discouraging Ravana shakingly to not go ahead with the battle, while giving the details whose who and what they were capable of. Ravana got angry with them for the discouragement and vowed to kill them. But keeping in mind the other things they did for Ravana, he sought to spare their lives. He then ordered Mahodara to bring him new spies to learn what Rama was planning on doing, when he sleeps, and who were his most close associates. Mahodara then brought Shardula to do that task and Shardula went ahead. However upon reaching where Rama and all the monkeys were, he found that they had all gone stealth (the Suvela mountain), meaning he was not able to discern any of what they were communicating with each other. They were speaking in some kind of weird coded language. Vibhishana then caught Shardula and brought him to Rama. Rama didn't say anything much this time and monkeys began beating him up. Rama then told them to stop and release him. Shardula after gaining conscious then ran back to Lanka. There, he reported to Ravana that they all had gone stealth and it was very difficult for him to discern all that he needed to know. Ravana, got a bit frustrated, and then went to the Ashoka garden where he kept Seetha.
Ravana tricks Seetha
Learning that Rama had gone all stealth, Ravana went to Ashoka garden where he kept Seetha and told her that Prahasta had successfully killed Rama, who crossed the ocean to Lanka to take her back, while he was in his sleep. He then turned back, went towards one of his subordinates, conjured up Rama's head and bow and showed them to Seetha and then told her to give up Rama and marry him. To further assure her of its veracity he added some stuff about Lakshmana, the monkeys and the bear, Jambavan, from the information he got from his spies Shuka and Sharana. He did this knowing that Hanuman would have told her about who he was and his companions, when he came to Lanka in search for her. Seetha got extremely down-hearted when she saw the severed head of Rama and his bow and asked Ravana to kill her instead. At this moment Ravana got called upon by Prahasta and his ministers to detail him on the current situation with Rama. And just when Ravana left to attend that, the conjured head of Rama and his bow disappeared. This then showed Seetha that it was all a fake, and everything Ravana told her were just pure lies. She then recuperated herself from her down-heartedness by consoling herself, and by reminding herself about Rama's prowess, especially with what he did in the Dandaka forest (Sarama consoling her - We'll get to the details of this interpretation later in another post because it has some Vedic references).
The Suvela Mountain
Vibhishana sent his ministers to fly over Lanka as birds to see what defenses Ravana was putting in place. When they returned, they informed Vibhishana, who all were positioning where and by which gates of Lanka, as per Ravana's strategy. Vibhishana then informed Rama about Ravana's move. Rama then decided to execute his plan and directed the monkeys to the positions they need to take. Then as night fell, Rama, Lakshmana, Vibhishana, his ministers, and all monkeys began moving stealthily inside the city of Lanka through a part of the rampart that was much less guarded and in the blindspots of the guarding demonaics [This is what we were able to interpret about the Suvela Mountain, because Suvela in Sanskrit means Silence]. Trees inside Lanka were dancing as the monkeys were making their way through the gardens and into their positions, while keeping themselves unnoticeable.
Sugreeva wrestles Ravana
At day-break, Sugreeva in his stealth position in Lanka suddenly happened to have seen Ravana strolling in the vicinity. Unable to to control his anger seeing Ravana [remember Sugreeva is the son of Surya or enhanced with Surya which is an unstable entity], pounced on him and began beating him up. Ravana countered his punches and the two of them began wrestling each other, together with a lot of punches and blows. The fight went on for quite a while. Then Ravana unable to bear the wrath of Sugreeva decided to conjure up something to finish him off once in for all. Seeing this, Sugreeva landed one more blow on Ravana throwing him off a bit far and then jumped back up to his stealth position. Ravana regained his consciousness and rushed back into his palace.
Rama sends Angada
When Sugreeva reached back into his stealth position, Rama who was close by reprimanded him saying something like "What on earth was that?.... and what a way to blow his own stealth?". Sugreeva then grinned saying he was unable to control his anger seeing Ravana, especially with what he was doing with Seetha. Rama got pissed and pretty much scolded him saying something like "This is what he calls being the king of the monkeys or what?". However, now that the stealth was almost blown by Sugreeva's reckless behaviour, Rama decided that it would be best to come out of it. He sent Angada to tell Ravana that Rama and his army of monkeys have gained strategic positions in the city of Lanka stealthily ready to attack if Seetha was not returned to him. Angada then went to Ravana's palace to relay that message. Ravana got infuriatied listening to what Angada told him and ordered his demonaics to kill him. However, just about when Angada was being attacked, a few demonaics entered the palace and apprised Ravana about the city being infested with monkeys all around. Ravana then quickly looked out from the palace, his city being infested by Rama and all the monkeys, on trees and other hiding places. Meanwhile, Angada broke a part of the palace to escape the attack and went through it to reach his position back in formation.
Battle Begins
Ravana, seeing his city infested with monkeys, immediately ordered the demonaics to begin the attack, and at this point all monkeys with Rama, Lakshmana, Vibhishana and his ministers all surfaced to counter attack. The city of Lanka was now in battle and being ransacked by monkeys and demonaics. The battle went on even after night fell, and Rama helped kill many demonaics by his skill of archery. In the midst of all this, Angada attacked Indrajit, his charioteer and horses. Then, having killed the charioteer and horses, Indrajit ran away immediately from sight. Seeing this, all monkeys in the vicinity began cheering Angada. But this was not for too long, as Indrajit who was already enraged for losing against Angada retaliated by shooting rope like projectiles (like Scorpion in Mortal Kombat when he says "Get over here!!!") at Rama and Lakshmana while remaining out of sight. These rope projectiles were thorny and confusing to counter even for Rama and Lakshmana as it seemed to have a mind of its own, and eventually they found their way to wrap both of them pricking them all over their bodies with poison as they were wrapping them. Rama even ordered the monkeys to go find Indrajit to stop him, but it was already too late and both Rama and Lakshmana fell onto the ground being wrapped in poison.
Ravana Celebrates
Indrajit, after downing both Rama and Lakshmana reported it to his father, Ravana, and Ravana got all very happy. He immediately ordered the Lankan women guarding Seetha at the Ashoka garden to take Seetha on an aircraft and show her, her dead beloved husband Rama and his brother Lakshmana. They do so as per his command. Seetha, seeing both Rama and Lakshmana fallen on the ground unconscious being wrapped in thorny poisonous ropes, fell down down-hearted once again while on the aircraft still hovering up in the air. This time it was for real and not some illusionary trick. Unable to bear the sight and the circumstance she had fallen into, Trijata, one of those women guards, consoled her saying that life was still breathing in Rama and showed her all the signs to prove it. She then maneuvered the aircraft back to the Ashoka garden after this just to take her out of the place.
Rama and Lakshmana get Treated
Rama, meanwhile, regained his consciousness and saw Lakshmana too in the same state as he was. Only that Lakshmana was still unconscious. He got all heart-broken seeing Lakshmana in that state, and even lost hope himself wondering if it were even possible to defeat Ravana and take back Seetha. In the meantime, Vibhishana too came to see the state of Rama and Lakshmana and felt quite broken. Sugreeva then reassured Vibhishana that their health could be restored without any problems and asked his father-in-law, Sushena, to take Rama and Lakshmana to back Kishkinda where they could be treated to resume the battle later, while he took care of it in Lanka. Sushena, who was quite well-versed with medicinal herbs, suggested that it would be best to use herbs in Lanka instead, rather than going all the way to Kishkinda and wasting precious time. He then told Hanuman to go quickly find certain herbs (details not given by Valmiki) for treating the poison in the blood of Rama and Lakshmana. Hanuman then jumped all around the in city of Lanka and its surrounding areas looking for those herbs and then successfully brought them to Sushena. Sushena, then with his sleight of hand, removed all the thorny ropes wrapped around both Rama and Lakshmana carefully and systematically (which is Garuda) and then treated their wounds with the herbs. After some time Rama and Lakshmana recuperated and became ready for battle again.
Battle Resumes - Ravana sends warriors one after the other
After Rama and Lakshmana recuperated, the monkeys began making loud noises of victory all over the city of Lanka (no "Jai Shri Ram!", but only monkey noises). Ravana, on hearing these noises after a long silence, asked a few demonaics to investigate what those noises were about. They then went up the balcony to see what was up and they witnessed Rama and Lakshmana back alive and ready to fight again. They reported it to Ravana immediately, after which Ravana got angry and pissed. He then ordered Dhumraksha and his army to deal with them. Dhumraksha did so, and the bloody battle resumed. As the battle went, Hanuman killed Dhumraksha with one fat blow on his head with his fist. Ravana, not liking this outcome, then sent Vajradamshtra and his army. Vajradamshtra instead got killed by Angada. This happened by Angada taking his sword and chopping his head off with it. Ravana, already infuriated, then sent Akampana and his army. But Hanuman killed him by whacking his head with a tree. Unable to bear these developments, Ravana then sent Prahasta, his army general. A deadly battle took place with Prahasta and the monkeys, among whom Nila, the monkey army general, killed Prahasta by smashing a heavy rock on his head.
Ravana enters the Battle
Thoroughly pissed and extremely infuriated, Ravana decided to enter the battle himself, but along with some of his highly ranked subordinates. They began splitting in different directions in the city to counter the monkeys. And while they were doing that, Sugreeva approached Ravana and hurled a rock at him. Ravana quickly shattered that rock with his arrows and then shot a lightning (an electrically charged) spear on Sugreeva. The spear hit Sugreeva and he fell down unconscious. Seeing this, six other monkeys pounced on Ravana, and Ravana with his bow and arrows stopped them from approaching him. All six monkeys got wounded badly, and this led the other monkeys to retreat. Rama, seeing this, then prepared to attack Ravana, but Lakshmana intervened saying he would first have a go with him. Rama agreed, and Lakshmana began proceeding towards Ravana. In the meantime, Ravana continued shooting more arrows on the monkeys to either kill them or shoo them away. And in order to stop him, Hanuman cleverly surpassed all arrow shots made by Ravana and then pounced on him (pretty much like a mad monkey assaulting him) and began wrestling him. Ravana being attacked by a mad monkey somehow managed to get him off and then landed a massive blow on him with his fists, throwing him off away. After that he began shooting arrows on Nila who was already engaging a fight with other demonaics. Nila got angry at Ravana for overwhelming him in battle and then in response hurled a rock on him. Ravana shattered that rock with his arrows, and Nila continued hurling more things at him. As this was going on, Ravana kept on shattering all those that were being hurled at him, and this effectively turned Nila into a raging rabid monkey (way more than mad) that it looked like he was going to mutilate him. This rabidity took every other monkey for a surprise. Even Rama got surprised at it. However, Ravana seeing that monkey turning rabid, took his fire enhanced arrow and shot it on him. It hit him and it pretty much burned him all over his body, while throwing him off. Nila, then put out all the flames and fell down unconscious. At this very moment Lakshmana arrived and began his duel with Ravana. This duel went all deadly with both of them countering each others arrows and other weapons being hurled. And Lakshmana, despite the swarm of arrows and weapons being shot and hurled at him, managed to somehow break Ravana's bow. Now Ravana, not having a bow to shoot anything, then used his hands to shoot a flaming stream of fire (pretty much like Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat) on Lakshmana's chest. Lakshmana was unable to counter this and got hit by it. Upon contact he began breathing fire. At that very moment Hanuman regained consciousness, saw Lakshmana in trouble, and pounced on Ravana to stop him. He landed one fat blow on him by his fist, which made Ravana to fall on the ground. Hanuman then picked Lakshmana up, who was pretty much lifeless but breathing fire, and took him away from the spot to bring him to Rama. Just as he left the spot, the fire power in Lakshmana left his body, and it went back to Ravana. Lakshmana after that slowly regained his consciousness, and so did Ravana. Seeing this, Rama then proceeded towards Ravana. Hanuman too went along. At the conference, Hanuman pounced on Ravana, which Ravana quickly countered him with fire enhanced arrows. When Hanuman got burned by them, Rama then began his duel with Ravana. Rama, when duelling with Ravana, played a quick and deadly encounter on him, too fast for him to handle. And while Ravana was trying his level best to counter Rama's arrows, Rama in the meantime quickly took a crescent shaped blade and hurled it at his crown. Ravana, being extremely overwhelmed was just not able to counter that and his crown fell down broken. This startled him. However, as the day was about to end, Rama on his part spared him telling him something like "He just got spared because he had already done enough damage to his army in the day. However, keeping this in mind, he could either return Seetha to him and be done with everything or come back the next day to face his wrath again".
Ravana gets Agitated
As the day ended, Ravana being almost struck by Rama, ran back to his palace and was pretty much agitated. He then began recollecting how he had forgotten to include indestructibility by a mere human in his yaga when attaining supernatural powers. He now believed that his destruction was imminent and that Seetha was going to be the cause of it. Holding that thought in mind, he was reminded of how he learned the Vedas from Sage Kushadvaja (King Janaka's younger brother) only to misuse it for power despite knowing that the Vedas were only meant for restoring balance, because of which the fact that Seetha was actually the Vedas incarnate, had taken birth only to see his destruction. Also, adding to this, if Rama was this balance incarnate, then there would be absolutely zero chance for him to get Seetha to marry him, all because the Vedas would only couple with balance.
Ravana wakes up Kumbhakarna
Trying not to let his guard down and seeing to it that he fought till the end, even despite knowing imminent death by Rama, Ravana decided to wake up Kumbhakarna for there was a guaranteed victory with him in battle. He then summoned a few demonaics to go wake him up. The demonaics then went to his cave, where he was sleeping and began make extremely loud noises to emulate his alarm clock. They began moving his body, blowing a horn in his ears and beating drums out loudly. When nothing bore any fruit, they began trying to press his body against the cave walls so that at least by trying to gasp for air he would wake up. That worked, and Kumbhakarna trying to gasp for air woke up. Then suddenly waking up, he yawned terribly and went all aggressive with the demonaics. They however slowly pointed him to the bowls full of meat for him to eat. Then, slowly trying hard to come to his senses, he asked the demonaics what was the reason he was woken up so early and whether Ravana was in grave danger for why he was needed so urgently. The demonaics explained to him the issue with Rama and Seetha and how Rama was ransacking Lanka with an army of deadly monkeys. Kumbhakarna, quite half woken up, then told the demonaics to tell his brother that he was coming to see him. In the meantime he asked a few other demonaics to fetch him something to drink to revitalize him while he ate from the bowls. The demonaics offered all that he asked for and then prepared him to go meet his brother.
Rama and the Monkeys get Startled seeing Kumbhakarna
As Kumbhakarna made way to his brother seated on his chariot, Rama and the monkeys saw his colossal body and got startled [I could say that he was roughly about 20 feet tall, though such details weren't mentioned by Valmiki]. Rama seeing that colossal giant seated like an idol on his chariot asked Vibhishana who that was. Vibhishana responded to him saying was his brother Kumbhakarna who was known to have never lost any battle. He further added that, though not much educated in the Vedas, he knew all forms of battle tactics and tricks. Plus, owing to his colossal height and strength, he was even capable of tossing elephants away. Implying there was literally no way of defeating him in battle if he entered it. Adding on, Ravana then, to increase his prowess, anointed him with a yaga to perform so that he could uproot Indra's position and make Lanka all the more powerful. But due to his lack of education in the Vedas, he recited the word indrastānaṃ इन्द्रस्तानं as indrasrānaṃ इन्द्रस्रानं (meaning sleep) instead, which probably was because of Ravana's bad handwriting, and he had literally no idea of the blunder he was doing. Hence, instead of uprooting Indra's position, he attained permanent sleep. Ravana realizing the blunder he made, then made a fix yaga wound around the concept of giving him some purpose to his birth which otherwise would be a complete waste. But the only best fix he could make was to make him available awake for only one day after which he would sleep for six long months.
Kumbhakarna's meeting with Ravana
Kumbhakarna then entered the palace of Ravana, still half asleep as if woken up in the middle of the night, and made his way to his special seat arranged by Ravana in the palatial court. Ravana, seeing his brother making his way to his seat, hovered his throne up in the air and then welcomed him with open arms. Kumbhakarna, received his brother's warm welcome then asked him bluntly what was the urgency of waking him so early, and whether he or Lanka was in any kind of danger. Ravana then answered him by explaining all that had happened while he was asleep. After explaining everything he then asked Kumbhakarna to get rid of the monkeys, Rama and Lakshmana as he was the only one who could do it effortlessly. Kumbhakarna, after hearing what his brother just told him had a good hearty laugh instead 🤣😂😆.
I mean just imagine if your brother woke you up in the middle of the night only to ask you for help in resolving a situation that sprang up all because your beloved sister did something completely stupid. What would you feel like? Won't you put your hands on your head 🤦 convincing yourself you just didn't hear what you just heard, have one good laugh instead and then back-off because you would rather go back to your sleep [and because you probably had an awesome dream they just disturbed]? That's exactly what Kumbhakarna did.
After having a good laugh, Kumbhakarna instead adviced his brother to let it go, because he just could not get himself involved with any more stupid endeavours, especially after the blunder he already commited with him, all thanks to his hastiness which made him to not even consult with advisors before giving him the yaga mantra to chant for power. He also further added that he did't see anything good coming out of this and that he'd rather fight for something more worthy, you know like a real challenge, like against a massive army involving a large number of heavy animals, such as elephants. That would be something he'd definitely drool [or salivate] over on. An army of stupid monkeys and two worthless humans just didn't seem to be good enough.
Hearing what Kumbhakarna had responded, Mahodara, Ravana's minister who was also on the throne's hovercraft, then told him that he was behaving like a child and that he really didn't see what was at stake. He reminded Kumbhakarna of Rama's prowess again and what all damage he had already done so far to the demonaics and Lanka, especially with those monkeys. And it being his duty of safe-guarding Lanka no matter what the circumcumstances were, he had ought to fight as per Ravana's command, which then in return, as always, he would have a share of enjoying the spoils of war if he was victorious [he literally planted the idea of him being able to have Seetha in whatever way he wanted if he was victorious]. Then, having said all of this, Mahodara questioned Kumbhakarna's might as to whether he was actually up to it or in fact scared of dealing with Rama, as being the reason for his excuse for not fighting.
Kumbhakarna, on hearing what Mahodara just said, then got enraged and assured Ravana that he would fight the monkeys, Rama and Lakshmana, and even pratically devour them with his jaws and have them all killed. Saying this, Kumbhakarna set out for battle.
Kumbhakarna enters the Battle
Kumbhakarna walked aout of the palace, grabbed his hammer and made his way to where the monkeys were. The monkeys on seeing him got scared and began fleeing away. Angada then brought them back to composure and made them uproot whatever they could find, like trees and rocks, to hurl on him. The monkeys followed Angada words, and did so with full rage. However, Kumbhakarna was able to break everything they hurled at him. He also smashed all those monkeys closer to him with his hammer. Seeing this, the monkeys started fleeing again. Angada again brought them back, ordering them not to give up. Several such attempts were made again and again to counter Kumbhakarna, but all failed. Then Hanuman, being the son of Vayu, increased his height like he did when he made his jump to Lanka to find Seetha, and attacked Kumbhakarna. But Kumbhakarna, as being well-versed in all sorts of battle tactics, was able to defeat Hanuman and wound him terribly. It was here then that Sugreeva came up with another idea altogether of attacking Kumbhakarna.
[You can now play the drum roll, Dha-Dha-Dham Thaaam repeated multiple times, again in your head to accompany this, because this going to get pretty deadly].
In his strategy, taking into account some of the damage already done to him by Hanuman, he ordered the monkeys climb on him and bite him. The monkeys followed his words and then formed themselves into an army ants and crawled up on Kumbhakarna to bite him everywhere. They successfully did so, and Kumbhakarna to counter this began pulling the monkeys out of his body. He also started biting those he pulled out. The monkeys retreated and then went again. More and more monkeys were pulled out and then bitten by Kumbhakarna. At some point, Kumbhakarna's condition became terrible especially after the monkeys bit him near his eyes. Seeing this Sugreeva told Rama that Kumbhakarna now had troubles seeing things and that it would be the perfect time for him to unleash his attack. Rama agreed to Sugreeva and then pulled out the Vāyavyān (वायव्य), an air pressure arrow [This is what we interpreted from what it did. In fact, it was also one of the weapons gifted to him by Viswamitra]. Rama took the vāyavyān and aimed it at Kumbhakarna's right hand on which he was holding his hammer at that time. The arrow pierced his right hand and then injected a gush of air into the hand. The hand, unable to withstand the air pressure, then bursted out. Upon the burst, the hammer fell on the ground, with his braceleted palm still holding it. Then Rama picked the Indra-chakra and hurled it towards his left hand. The Indra-chakra chopped off his left hand. Now unable to pull the monkeys out of him, the monkeys then devoured him to death.
Kumbhakarna's son Atikaya enters the Battle
TBD
The Narantaka, Mahodara and the Tri-Headed Demonaic enter the Battle
TBD
... and more later, up until Ravana's death ...
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