Rāvaṇa Vadha (Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa)
The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa tells the last battle between Rāma and Rāvaṇa in Sarga 11, with several features of its own. Rāma’s own Vishṇu-ratha (divine chariot) appears. The secret of Rāvaṇa’s nābhi-amṛta is told: this is the amṛta (nectar of deathlessness) gathered in his navel, which made him almost impossible to kill. Rāvaṇa is shown as a mahāyogī whose practice of kuṇḍalinī-yoga had made his body very hard to destroy. The narrative also gives Maṇḍodarī’s last plea, Rāvaṇa’s own knowledge of his fate, and the entry of his jyoti (divine light) into Rāma at the moment of his death.
The secret of Rāvaṇa’s deathlessness
Kumbhakarṇa, Indrajit and countless rākshasa warriors had fallen. Yet Rāvaṇa was very hard to kill. Rāma’s arrows cut off his heads one after another, but each time a head was cut off, a new one grew. Vibhīshaṇa told Rāma: “The heads will grow again and again. The secret is in his navel. There is a store of amṛta in the shape of a coil (kuṇḍalākāra) in his nābhi (navel). You must use the Pāvakāstra, the fire weapon, to dry up and destroy this amṛta. Only then can he be killed.”
Rāvaṇa as a mahāyogī
The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa explains the nābhi-amṛta by a full account of kuṇḍalinī-yoga. Rāvaṇa was not only a king and a warrior. He was a mahāyogī of very high attainment. By the practice of kuṇḍalinī-yoga he had many times drawn the awakened prāṇa (breath of life, here called agni or tejas) up through the six cakras from the mūlādhāra to the sahasrāra. In this way he had drawn down the celestial amṛta that flows from the sahasrāra-cakra when it is properly awakened.
The text describes the practice. The practitioner sits in padmāsana and draws the prāṇa upward through each cakra, honouring and worshipping each one in turn. At the sahasrāra the amṛta flows down and fills the 72,000 nāḍīs (channels) of the body. When more amṛta flows than the nāḍīs can hold, the rest gathers at the nābhi, the centre of the body where energy is stored.
Rāvaṇa had practised this so hard and for so long that a very large store of amṛta had gathered in his nābhi. Whenever his heads or limbs were cut off, this amṛta grew them again. As long as the nābhi-amṛta remained, he could not truly die.
Drying the nābhi-amṛta
Rāma followed the advice of Vibhīshaṇa, which Dāraka the charioteer confirmed. He called on the Pāvakāstra and aimed it at Rāvaṇa’s nābhi. The fire weapon burned away the amṛta. With the nābhi-amṛta used up, Rāvaṇa could be harmed. Rāma then cut off his heads and arms for good. Rāvaṇa stood with only his main head and two arms for the last battle.
The Vishṇu-ratha
At a hard moment in the battle, Rāma’s chariot was struck and broken. Hanumān, who served as the banner on Rāma’s chariot, was knocked unconscious for a time. Rāma stood on the field with no chariot. He called for his own divine Vishṇu-ratha, the personal chariot that belongs to Him in His form as Bhagavān Vishṇu. The chariot appeared at once. Dāraka was its charioteer. It carried the Śārṅga bow, Rāma’s chief divine bow, a gadā (mace), a padma (lotus), the Garuḍa-dhvaja (the banner of Garuḍa), divine weapons, and four celestial horses named Śaibya, Sugrīva, Balāhaka and Meghapushpa. Rāma climbed into the chariot with great joy. He walked round it in pradakshiṇā, bowed to it with namaskāra, and took up the Śārṅga bow.
Indra’s chariot
The text also tells of the chariot of Indra, with its Aśani-dhvaja (thunderbolt banner). Indra sent it to help Rāma, with Mātali, Indra’s charioteer.
Maṇḍodarī’s last plea
Before the final battle Maṇḍodarī made one last plea to Rāvaṇa. She said: “My husband, listen to me. Give Sītā back to Rāma, make Vibhīshaṇa king of Laṅkā, and let us go to the forest for tapas. That would be happiness.”
Rāvaṇa answered Maṇḍodarī calmly and clearly: “Beloved Maṇḍodarī, I know that Rāma is Vishṇu and Sītā is Lakshmī. I carried off Sītā so that Rāma might kill me. I mean to die at His hands and reach the highest abode (paramapada). After my death you should do the needed rites and then enter the fire. You will reach paramapada with me.”
Rāvaṇa then mounted his chariot and went to battle. As he left the palace he saw a digambara (a naked muni) and a bald-headed man. Both are held to be bad omens. His crown fell from his head for no reason. These signs showed that his end had come.
The last arrow and Rāvaṇa’s moksha
All the weapons had been used and every other means had been tried. Dāraka, the charioteer of the Vishṇu-ratha, spoke to Rāma and guided him to strike Rāvaṇa’s vital spot (marma-sthāna) with the Brahmāstra. Rāma let go the Brahmāstra, aimed at Rāvaṇa’s heart. The arrow struck, passed through Rāvaṇa’s chest, and went back into Rāma’s quiver, having done its work (kṛtakṛtyā).
At the moment Rāvaṇa died, a bright jyoti (light) came out of his body, with the brightness of ten thousand suns. This divine light was the tejas that Rāvaṇa had gathered through tapas in many lives. It rose up while all the devas watched, and then it entered Rāma. The devas saw the freed jyoti enter Bhagavān Rāma. This showed that Rāvaṇa had reached moksha: his ātmā had joined the very Paramātmā who had killed him.
After the battle
When Rāvaṇa was dead:
- The devas showered flowers and beat the divine dundubhis (drums).
- The apsarās danced for joy.
- Maṇḍodarī heard of Rāvaṇa’s death and entered the fire (agni-praveśa) in joy. She reached paramapada with her husband.
- Rāma told Vibhīshaṇa to perform the proper last rites (uttara-kriyā) for Rāvaṇa.
- Lakshmaṇa crowned Vibhīshaṇa as king of Laṅkā.
Sources
- Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Sāra Khaṇḍa, Sarga 11