6.053. vajradanshTra on his way…

Hari Om.

Let us begin the fifty third sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.

The vAnara ranks were buoyed by the rise of rAma and lakshmaNa and with renewed vigour attacked lanka. Shocked by this turn of events, rAvaNa responded by despatching the fierce warrior dhUmrAksha to the battleground. The vAnaras were also eager to fight and met the onslaught of the demons with determination. The sophisticated and various weapons of the demons met with the improvised efforts of the vANaras who weaponized trees and boulders as also their sharp teeth and nails. As the vAnaras caused heavy destruction of the demon forces, dhUmrAksha stepped up and then began to wreak havoc on the vAnara ranks. Watching the vANara ranks at the receiving end, hanumAn took the matter into his hands and with a boulder destroyed the chariot of dhUmrAksha. He evaded death by jumping off the chariot and attacked hanumAn. Bearing the hit of the thorny mace of dhUmrAksha and ignoring it totally, hanumAn threw a mountain peak on the head of dhUmrAksha and finished him off. The ball was back in rAvaNa’s court. Onwards…

The news of the death of dhUmrAksha reached rAvaNa and on hearing this he was infuriated, hissed like a snake, breathed heavily in anger. He then ordered the mighty demon vajradanshTra and said –

“O warrior, go accompanied by other demons and vanquish rAma, the son of daSaratha along with sugrIva and other vAnara warriors”.

The demon who was capable of several illusory tricks set out accompanied by a vast army, elephants, horses, donkeys, camels and several chariots well decorated with flags and festoons. vajradanshTra put on a crown that was adorned with elegant and exquisite gems and he collected his bow, other gear for the battle, wore those and got into his chariot having circumambulated it. Along with him went several columns of the demons who had weapons such as sticks, spears, clubs, darts, nooses, swords, discusses, maces and wore a variety of different clothes. The wild and furious elephants moved like mountains. Experts of the battle rode these elephants which were controlled by hooks. Yet others rode horses and the army came to the battle field exiting the southern gate where the leader of the army, angada was present. As the demons exited from the threshold of lanka, bad omens appeared. From the cloudless sky, fiercely burning meteors fell. The jackals howled terribly and so did other animals signalling the end of the demons. These omens hampered the spirit of the advancing army and they scrambled for a while. The powerful vajradanshTra noticed the bad omens, headed for the combat mustering courage, keen for the fight. Beholding the approaching army, vAnaras who were eager to win roared loudly which reverberated in all the quarters. A fierce combat ensued between the vAnaras and the rAkshasas as both were determined to finish each other. Soon some of the eager fighters had their heads separated from the bodies, were wounded all over and fell down dead on the earth. Yet others, who never fled from the battle field, hurled iron beams and the noise produced by the clash of the weapons and the trees and boulders was heart wrenching. The sound of the wheels and axles of the chariots, the twangs of the bows, blast of the conches, beating of war drums, blow of trumpets resulted in a great commotion. Some of the fighters threw away their weapons and were engaged in a fist fight. The contemptuous vAnaras slapped, kicked, punched along with using trees and boulders as their weapons to slay the demons.

On the other hand, vajradanshTra unleashed barrages of arrows and made the vAnaras run in fright while he chased them like the noose wielding god of death. Taking the help of vajradanshTra, the army of the demons went after the vAnara army and slayed them seething with anger. Seeing the rampaging demons, the son of vAli, angada was enraged and seethed like fire. With indra-like valour, he wielded a huge tree and went after the demons and devoured them like lion would devour insignificant animals and fought very well. With the onslaught of angada, many a demon had his head separated from the body, many chariots were broken and the debris was strewn all over. They fell off like trees that were cut off and the whole battle ground wore a scary look soaked in blood. The necklaces, armlets, fine dresses, glittering weapons that the demons wore were scattered all over the earth as they fell and the battleground looked like the autumnal sky full of twinkling stars! Facing the might of angada, the rAkshasa army was scattered all over like clouds are scattered by the wind.