Hari Om.
Let us begin the sixtieth sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
The calculations of rAvaNa about the invincibility of his brother kumbhakarNa and his being able to smoulder the enemy ranks by sheer brute force finally were proved wrong. Although the giant unleashed terror and ransacked the vAnara army spreading quite a scare, they withstood his assault and not caring for their lives fought valiantly. The heroism demonstrated by sugrIva, angada and hanuman in countering kumbhakarNa was commendable. Finally, the giant came face to face with rAma. The ultimate hero, possessing every divine weapon that was ever made and also aware of the timely use of the same, disassembled kumbhakarNa bit by bit, first disarming him, then cutting off his arms followed by feet and finally severing his head with his brahmAstra. The unimaginable fall of kumbhakarNa plunged rAvaNa in utter grief and for the first time he regretted for rejecting the good counsel that was given to him. He was forlorn and grieving. Onwards…
As the mean rAvaNa wept at the loss of his brother, the demon triSirA heard his lamentations and said –
“By providence, our middle uncle has been slain. However, real men don’t wail like you are doing. You are adequate to take on the three worlds, then how are you grieving in this manner like very ordinary men? You are endowed with the weapon Sakthi, the armour, bow, arrows and a grand chariot yoked to a thousand donkeys which is conferred on you by lord brahma. More than once you have disarmed and defeated gods and demons. You ought to rein in rAghava who is endowed with all the divine weapons. You may well be able to do so, but O great king, stay here. I shall go to the battle and pick your enemies like the garuDa grabs serpents. Just like Sambara was taken down by indra and the demon naraka by vishNu, I shall lay rAma down in the battlefield in the same manner”.
Hearing to the words of triSirA, rAvaNa, smitten by his end, felt as if he had a fresh lease of life! Hearing the words of triSirA, other sons of rAvaNa, dEvAntaka, narAntaka and atikAya, all mighty as indra, cheered loudly and keen to go to the battlefield, vied with each other. All of them could rise into the skies, experts in tricking the enemy and casting spells, all of them had humbled the gods, difficult to defeat in the battle and none of them had ever tasted defeat in the hands of the gods, gandharvas, kinnaras or uragas. All of them were expert warriors, learned and were blessed with boons. Surrounded by the great warriors who were his sons, the king rAvaNa appeared like lord indra surrounded by the gods. He embraced his sons and decked them with jewels. He conferred choicest blessings and commissioned them to the battlefield. He also sent yudhhOnmatta and matta to assist his sons. They all bowed to rAvaNa, who could make the enemy cry, circumambulated him and left. Then the six of them – dEvantaka, narAntaka, atikAya, triSIrA, mahOdara, mahApArSwa – eager to fight set out, lured by their end.
mahOdara mounted on a black elephant of the airAvata breed which resembled a huge black cloud wielding his bow and arrows. The demon triSirA mounted on a chariot yoked to the best of the horses. The three-headed triSirA with his bow, shone like a meteor hitting a mountain peak, like the rainbow coming out of the cloud, His three crowns resembled the three peaks on the himAlaya mountains.
The splendorous demon atikAya, son of the demon king, mounted another chariot decked with gold and the best of the archers was endowed with the bows, arrows, prAsa, beams and with his glowing crown and sparkling jewels, he resembled the mEru mountain shining in sunlight.
The demon narAntaka, son of the king, wielding his spear menacing like the meteor, mounted on a white horse that was of the uchhaiSrava breed that was decked with golden jewellery. dEvantaka stood in the battlefield with an iron beam and his big personality resembled vishNu holding the mandara mountain aloft. The giant mahApArSwa stood armed with mace like kubEra.
All these warriors set out accompanied by great forces mounted on elephants, horses and chariots causing a great din. Thus those valorous sons of rAvaNa, wearing glittering crowns that resembled glowing plantes in the skies started determined either to lay down their lives or to humble the enemy. The weapons wielded by them appeared like a big colony of swans flying across the skies resembling the autumnal clouds. They roared, yelled, shot arrows and advanced eager to fight in the battle. The earth shook as their war cries reverberated through the skies. The very excited demons then beheld the huge vAnarA army wielding boulders and mountain peaks. The vAnaras were restless as they beheld the advancing army of the demons with their elephants, chariots making plenty of noise and gathering their weapons of boulders and peaks roared back lustily.
The demons and the vAnaras raised war cries and clashed with each other. Some of the vAnaras leapt into the enemy from the skies and yet others from the earth holding huge trees, boulders and mountain peaks. A terrible war broke out between them. Eager to outdo and fell each other, the two armies attacked with their weapons. The demons for most part used their weapons to mitigate the projectiles being hurled at them. They attacked and felled each other as they bled all over and soon the earth was covered in blood. Huge mountainous demons lay all over the earth, their bodies beaten into pulp. Their spears were broken by the vAnaras and yet they fought with bare limbs. Broken mountain peaks and other weapons were scattered all over. The demons began to dash vAnaras against vAnaras while the vAnaras also returned the treatment. They also dashed elephants against elephants, horses against horses, chariots against chariots and wreaked great havoc. Blood flowed as river and trees floated in them.
The oncoming boulders and mountain peaks were negated by sharp arrows of the demons and they attacked the vAnaras with a barrage of arrows. The proud vAnaras, enterprising, entered the battle leaving their fear aside and engaged without any sort of pessimism. The mahaRshis and the gods who were witnessing the battle from the skies rejoiced at the valour of the vAnaras.
Then, wielding his weapon Sakthi, riding the horse swift like the wind, narAntaka entered the vAnara ranks like a fish enters a mighty ocean. In one fell swoop of his prAsa, he vanquished seven hundred vAnaras. The mahaRshis and vidyAdharas saw the rampaging narAntaka who with his prAsa was slaying the vAnara army like the fire destroys the forest. Before the vAnaras could grab a tree to hurl, they were being hit by the prAsa like the thunderbolt and were falling. Thus narAntaka ransacked the vAnara army with prAsa in his hand like the monsoon clouds raining everywhere and caused quite a loss to them all by himself. The vAnaras could not stand him and were falling like the mountain peaks at the impact of the thunder. In the meanwhile, some of the vAnaras who were felled earlier by kumbhakarNa and had recovered saw this and approached sugrIva and apprised him of the destruction being caused by narAntaka.
sugrIva noticed the rampaging narAntaka wreaking havoc riding the horse and the scattered and scared vAnara army. He ordered angada, who is valorous like indra – “O warrior, go at once and make this horse-riding demon who is tormenting the vAnara army bereft of life”.
Obeying the command of his lord, angada waded into the army that was dense as the cloud as if sun emerged from the clouds. Wielding no weapons other than his nails and canines, angada, the best among the vAnaras shone like a mountain with minerals. He accosted narAntaka and challenged –
“Wait, why are you going after these ordinary vAnaras. Come on, hit my chest with your prAsa (barbed missile)”.
Livid at this challenge, narAnataka hissed like a serpent and approaching the son of vAlI menacingly, he hurled his missile at the chest of angada. The weapon hit the diamond like hard chest of angada and fell down on the earth broken into pieces. Watching that weapon gone down thus, the heroic son of vAli then slapped the horse of narAntaka and it fell down dead, its head broken! The demon was infuriated to see his horse fallen thus and got down to fist fight with angada. He landed a mighty blow on angada, under the impact of which, the son of vAlI briefly lost his senses and fell down bleeding profusely. Then recovering his senses briefly, angada smiled and getting his fist tight, landed a thunder like huge blow on the chest of the demon narAntaka. Hit hard thus, the demon vomited blood as his chest broke and he bled all over. The demon fell down dead just like a mountain peak falls upon the impact of the thunderbolt!
In the skies, the gods rejoiced as did the vAnaras celebrated the fall of narAntaka in the battle boisterously. Having performed the impossible task of felling narAntaka with his valour, angada won the heart of rAma and was delighted at his own heroism. Feeling ecstatic, he became ready for the battle again.
Here we conclude the sixtieth sarga of the yuddha kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
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rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 
