The Ramayana (88 page)

“Again, Yama's dark legions swarmed at the invading Demon, now from every corner of the kingdom of death. In their millions, like hives of angry bees, they attacked the pushpaka vimana with all sorts of weapons. It would have fallen out of the sky; but Brahma's power and the power of the Devas, who were embodied in amsa in the mystic craft, kept it aloft. The wounds it received from naracha and astra, shakti and every missile cast at it, cleared miraculously, as if great healing hands were laid on it, constantly.

“Ravana and his demons flowed blood from all their limbs. Yet they fought on as if they were unhurt, their roars fiercer than ever, the stream of arrows from their bows thicker and more livid with each moment. For their part, Yama's soldiers fought as fiercely as the enemy. As storm clouds will a mountain, they encircled him. They cut Ravana's armor from his dark, lean body and his blood sprayed out of it in geysers. For a moment he fell unconscious on the floor of his vimana.

“But Ravana's boon protected him and he was soon on his feet again, truly roused now, and fighting more powerfully than ever. He leaped out of his flying ship and shot an infernal mahesvarastra at Yama's legions. It swept at them like a flash fire in a dry forest in summer. Strange beasts of the astra came bounding after the flames at Yama's soldiers. The legions of the Lord Death were consumed like a field of straw. Ravana threw back his ten heads and emitted a roar that convulsed the three worlds.

“Yama heard that roar, and his eyes turned the color of a setting sun. He knew his legions had been razed, and, in a low and terrible voice, he said, ‘Fetch my chariot.'

“His sarathy brought his golden ratha to his palace steps. With a lance that was alive with a hundred secret fires and a hammer of flames in his hands, the Master of death, into whom all the worlds and their creatures are absorbed when their time comes, climbed into his mysterious chariot. Beside him the staff of time, the kaaladanda, stood embodied: a great and terrible spirit, bright as sun flares. On his other side was a burning noose, a flawless and primeval paasa. When the three worlds saw him like that, silent and furious, he who is Time personified, they trembled.

“Blazing horses took to the sky, swift and smooth as wishes, and Yama flew at Ravana. When Ravana's ministers saw Death flying at them, quicker than time, when they saw how entirely dreadful he was, they either fainted or fled. But Ravana himself was imperturbable. He did not flinch at the sight of Yama; indeed, ten savage smiles lit his dark faces.

“Yama loosed a burning fusillade of every sort of weapon at the Demon. Ravana replied with a storm of arrows that covered the son of Surya's chariot in light and fire. A mythic battle ensued, a tumultuary battle, and it seemed the end of creation had come betimes. Brahma arrived there with the Devas and gandharvas to watch that battle of battles.

“Ravana's bow gleamed in his hands like Indra's vajra. He shot Yama with four smoking shafts through his vital organs, and his sarathy with seven. There issued from Yama's chasmic mouth a roar as of the ages ending; from his jaws gaping as wide as the firmament there erupted a roar more reverberant than any of Ravana's. From the jaws of Death sprang fires of wrath, with white flames for their peaks. They spumed out as if to consume the universe, and dark smoke with them.

“Those flames licked themselves into a sky-straddling black form, an embodiment of terror. In a voice of the storm clouds of the pralaya, that form, the Kaalatman, spoke to the refulgent Yama: ‘No creature that I mark shall live. Why, Hiranyakashyapu, Namuchi, Sambara, Nishandi, Dhumaketu, Virochana's son Bali, Sambhu the titan, Vritrasura, Vaana, all the rishis, gandharvas, and great nagas, yakshas, all the hosts of Devaloka, this Bhumi with all its oceans, mountains, rivers, trees, and creatures: all these I devour, when their time comes. Yama, now leave me alone with this Rakshasa. He shall not live another hour; that is nature's law.'

“Yama, who is the Lord of dharma, said, ‘Stand apart, Great Spirit, for I will kill the Rakshasa today.'

“And Yama Deva stood forth with the kaaladanda, with its circle of flames like a crown, and with the embodied hammer and a thunderbolt quivering with cosmic ire. When Yama took the staff of death in his hands and raised it to strike Ravana of Lanka down, it glowed with a horrible sheen and all the rakshasas fled that battlefield in panic. Even the Devas, watching unseen, felt a tremor of fear.

“Suddenly, Brahma materialized before the Lord Death and said to him, ‘Yama, you must not kill the Rakshasa with the kaaladanda. If you do, I will become a liar, because I have given him a boon that no immortal, no Deva, gandharva, rakshasa, Asura, or Daitya shall cause his death. If I am proved a liar, O Yama, the three worlds shall perish.

“‘I fashioned the danda you hold in your hand, O Lord of dharma. If you strike Ravana with it and he does not die, the three worlds shall fry to a crisp in the flames of your staff. I beg you, though your cause is just: desist. If you use the kaaladanda against the Rakshasa, my creation will be destroyed, regardless of whether Ravana dies or not.'

“And the pious Yama set aside his weapon. He said, ‘If I cannot kill this Rakshasa because of your boon to him, why should I fight him any more?'

“And Yama Deva vanished like a great cloud from the field of battle, with his chariot, his horses, and his legions. Ravana's roar of triumph, that he had quelled Death, rocked the world. Like a sun from a tower of thunderheads, Ravana flew up from Yamaloka in his gleaming vimana. Yama, meanwhile, rose into Swarga with Brahma, Narada, who had watched all this avidly, and the other Devas.”

 

12. The Nivatakavachas and others

“When Yama left the field, Ravana's ministers and commanders, who had fled in fear of the Lord Death, flocked back to their ten-headed king. They saw their master covered in his own blood. They saw the great gashes with which Yama had marked his body. They saw some broken bones protruding, ghastly, on his arms. Yet Ravana smiled at them, and they roared his name to the sky: that he was invincible and that he had conquered Death himself.

“Maricha, Prahastha, and the others fetched their king back into the pushpaka vimana and tended his wounds with rare and potent specifics. They sang his praises, and that was sweet music to his ears. Now Ravana said they would enter Rasatala, the deepest of the Patalas, and subdue the netherworlds, as well: so he would truly be sovereign of the three realms.

“The only way down into Rasatala was through the ocean's bed, and Ravana set the pushpaka vimana on a course to plunge down into the blue waves, which are the domain of the marine titans and the nagas, who have both human and serpentine forms. Varuna is their Lord, and he protects them.

“Ravana erupted on Bhogavati, Vasuki's city. Battle-hardened by now, it did not take the Rakshasa long to subdue the city of serpents. He plowed on through the deepest ocean and arrived in Manimayi, city of jewels and of giants. The mysterious changeling titans, the Nivatakavachas, lived in Manimayi. These strange and powerful sons of Diti had impenetrable armor for skins and Brahma's boon that protected them.

“Undaunted, Ravana stormed their marvelous city. The Daityas were overjoyed: they are always ready for a battle. They fought back with every kind of weapon and with indomitable courage. The battle between the rakshasas and the Danavas churned the belly of the ocean. They fought for a year and neither prevailed, and the water around the jewel city was scarlet with blood.

“Finally, Brahma, who had blessed both Ravana and the Nivatakavachas, appeared in their midst, lighting up the ocean waves like a sun risen in the womb of the deeps. In an echoing voice he said, ‘Not if you fight until time finds its end will either of you conquer the other. Let there be friendship between you, instead.'

“And so Ravana and the Nivatakavachas made peace with each other. They swore friendship by a sacred fire, and the marine demons welcomed the ten-headed Rakshasa into their city like a brother. He remained with them for a year, enjoying pleasures that were hardly to be tasted upon the surface of the earth. And from his new friends he learned a hundred mayic sorceries each day.

“Finally, almost reluctantly, Ravana left the city of the gigantic ocean Danavas. He ranged Rasatala, the deepest Patala, hidden away in the navel of the earth. Now he sought the secret city of Varuna, Lord of the sea.

“On his quest he saw the glimmering city of Asmanagara, where the Kaalakeyas, sons of the golden witch Puloma, dwelt. He invaded them like a curse. The Kaalakeyas were arrogant of their strength and streamed out of their fastness to give the Rakshasa battle. He killed more than four hundred of the quicksilver demons in an hour, his sword that Siva gave him flashing like some sleek and silvery predator from another time.

“He smashed his way through the Kaalakeyas' city, leaving a trail of blood that rose slowly to the surface of the smoky sea. Fourteen thousand Kaalakeyas perished; among them was the husband of Ravana's sister Surpanaka. Past the city of the Kaalakeyas, Ravana saw another city that looked like a white cloud under the waves. It shone like an immense pearl, like another Kailasa. He saw Surabhi there, the mother of Siva's bull Nandisvara, and milk flowed from her teats into the mystic white sea that is called Kshiroda, the ocean of milk. The moon rises from that sea, and the greatest munis of the universe live on the froth of the milk of Surabhi, the cow of wishes. The amrita, which is the food of the Devas, arises in that sea, as does the swadha, the food of the pitrs, the manes.

“Slowly, dazzled by her dappled beauty, Ravana alighted from his vimana and walked slowly round Surabhi, in pradakshina. Then he entered Varuna's ineffable city. Varuna's guardsmen challenged him. He struck many of them down, and roared at the others, ‘Go and tell your master that Ravana has arrived in his city. Tell him he must either kneel before me with folded hands and acknowledge my sovereignty, or come and fight me.'

“The guards flew to their king, the Deva. Some of Varuna's sons and grandsons, powerful princes of the deep, issued from their gates and attacked Ravana. An intense battle broke out, but it hardly lasted some moments before Ravana and his rakshasas had razed the submarine legion, and the water turned softly crimson. Only Varuna's sons escaped the demons' virile onslaught.

“Those sons of the sea gathered themselves and fought back with stunning speed, strength, and occult siddhis. They rose above the pushpaka vimana and attacked Ravana all together, so fiercely that even he was forced to turn away from the encounter. The ocean princes' roars of triumph rocked Rasatala to its depths.

“In fury, Mahodara flew at the celebrant young immortals. He took them by surprise and briefly beat them back, smashing the chariots they had come to fight in. Still, they trod water and air; they swam like great fish; and now they turned on Mahodara with such cohesion and force that he fell in a swoon, blood pouring down all his limbs. With a roar that raised tidal waves around him, Ravana covered Varuna's sons with a tempest of astras. They could not stand the invincible Demon. They fell to his storm, and their merman warriors rushed to the watery field of battle and carried their unconscious princes back into their father's city.

“Ravana cried again, ‘Announce me to Varuna, Lord of the ocean.'

“One of Varuna's ministers, Prahasa, came to the gates of the wondrous marine city and said, ‘You have defeated Varuna's sons. Our Lord himself is away in Brahmaloka. It is in vain that you call for him here.'

“Ravana shouted in ten voices, ‘The coward Varuna has fled before me! I am master of the Patalas, too.'

“And he rose again through six netherworlds and flew back to his Lanka. Now he had no doubt that he had subdued the three realms: Swarga, Bhumi, and Patala. He was master of all creation, or so he believed.”

 

13. Women

Agastya Muni said in the sabha of Rama of Ayodhya, “The pushpaka vimana was full of the spoils of war the Rakshasa took from those he conquered in battle and those who yielded to him in fear. He took gold and jewels past compare, the rarest treasures wrought in the three worlds. And then there was another kind of spoil of war that he filled his ship of the sky with, generously: women. The most beautiful women of every race he subdued, any woman who caught his eye—he tore them away from their people and their families, their fathers and mothers, their husbands and children.

“Serpentine, seductive naga wives he took; young virgins and mothers, too. He filled his ship with exquisite gandharvis and Deva women, with dark and incomparable Asuris and rakshasis. The daughters and wives of human kings and the holiest rishis he wrenched, screaming, from their natural lives. And they crouched in the capacious vimana, which the Rakshasa turned into an aerial antapura, his harem in the sky.

“Their faces shone like the moon, their bodies were voluptuous and fragrant, and their tears fell onto the jewels that studded the floor of the magic craft, which Siva once gave Vaisravana, the Lord of treasures.

“One slender gandharvi shook like a leaf, wondering, ‘Will the Rakshasa devour me?'

“Some sobbed more desperately than others did; they were mothers who had been torn from their small children, for the Demon's pleasure. But already there were some women who cursed their husbands for being conquered so easily, and who, despite their shock, let themselves admire Ravana: his lean, battle-hardened face and body, his dark and reverberant presence. Despite themselves, despite their predicament, they thought, ‘Ah, he eclipsed a million great warriors, as the sun does the little stars at dawn.'

“And these would be the first to submit to the Demon, and they would taste a truly overwhelming and terrible love. But there were virtuous women among the thousands the Rakshasa abducted from across the three worlds, and these cursed him in their hearts, from the depths of fear and sorrow. They said, ‘Evil One, this is the sin that breeds every other; this is the mother of sins. And as a thousand women shed tears of despair at what you have done to them, a woman shall bring your death to you, Ravana, in your very Lanka.'