Rāvaṇa Antima Saṃskāra

When Rāvaṇa fell to the Brahmāstra of Śrī Rāma, his wives came out of Laṅkā and wept over his body. Their lament is one of the most moving passages in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Maṇḍodarī, his chief queen, spoke at great length of his greatness and of his mistakes. She said that Śrī Rāma is Śrī Mahāvishṇu Himself. Rāma then told Vibhīshaṇa to perform the antyeshṭi (last rites). He said that enmity ends with death and that Rāvaṇa deserved full royal honours. The rites were then carried out.

The women of Laṅkā mourn

The news reached the antaḥpura (the inner palace) that Śrī Rāma had killed Rāvaṇa. His wives, hundreds of rākshasa women, ran out of the palace in grief. Their hair was loose. They had no veils and no ornaments. They threw themselves down in the dust of the battlefield and cried, “Āryaputra! Nātha!” They fell across his limbs. One held his feet. Another hid her face against his chest. Another lifted his crowned head into her lap and wiped his face with her own tears. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 113.

The women could not understand how it had happened. He had defeated Indra. He had bound Kubera. Even Yama trembled before him. How could such a warrior fall to a man who lived in the forest? Their grief was real, and so was their praise of his greatness. They said: “Even the sun feared to warm Laṅkā until your permission was given. Today, for the first time, sunlight falls on our city freely.”

Maṇḍodarī’s lament

Maṇḍodarī was the daughter of Maya, the builder of the dānavas, and the chief queen of Rāvaṇa. Her lament (vilāpa) is one of the best known passages in the Rāmāyaṇa. She spoke through many verses. She moved from grief to blame, and from blame to a clear vision of who Śrī Rāma is. Her speeches have three threads.

Blame. She said again and again that Rāvaṇa had brought ruin on himself by carrying off Sītā. He had refused the advice of Vibhīshaṇa, Mālyavān, Kumbhakarṇa, Mārīca and her own father Maya. All of them had warned him. She said: “You listened to no one. The grief of the pativratā women (faithful wives) whose husbands you killed became a śāpa (curse) upon you.”

Praise. She praised his learning. She called him vedāntavettā, one who knows the Vedānta. She praised his yajñas, his tapas (austerity), his kindness to those who depended on him and to those who asked of him, and his glory in war. She said: “You were not just a rākshasa king. You were a mahātāpasvin (a great performer of tapas). How then did this happen?”

Seeing who Rāma is. Maṇḍodarī came to one clear conclusion: that Śrī Rāma is Śrī Mahāvishṇu Himself. She said: “He is mahāyogī, paramātmā, sanātana, without beginning, middle or end. He is the great one beyond the mahat, beyond darkness (tamaḥ-para). He is the giver and the sustainer (dātā). He bears the Śaṅkha, the Cakra and the Gadā. He has the Śrīvatsa mark on his chest. Lakshmī is always present in his heart. He is imperishable and unchanging. He is indeed Śrī Mahānārāyaṇa Himself, come down in human form for the welfare of all creation. All the vānaras who come with him are aṃśas (parts) of the devas.” This is in Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 114.

She ended with the working of karma. She said: “This is the ripening of your own deeds. The tears of the pativratā women, whose husbands you preyed upon, did not fall in vain. The good reap good fruit, and the evil reap evil fruit. This is why Vibhīshaṇa prospers and you have fallen.”

Śrī Rāma’s command to Vibhīshaṇa

Vibhīshaṇa was overcome with grief for his brother and wept openly over Rāvaṇa’s body. He blamed his own helplessness: “I told him. He did not listen. Now this.” Śrī Rāma spoke to him with great tenderness and clear thought. The words are from Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 112:

“Vibhīshaṇa! This warrior did not die cowering. He fought with all his strength to the end. That is the kshatriya dharma. One who falls on the field with honour has won vīra-svarga (the heaven of heroes). Grief is not right for such a death. Moreover: ‘Maraṇāntāni vairāṇi’ — enmity ends at death. He is now as worthy of reverence to me as to you. Perform the antyeshṭi. He deserves full royal honours.”

At first Vibhīshaṇa hesitated. He spoke of Rāvaṇa’s adharma and of his own dislike of performing rites for one who had done so much evil. Rāma patiently said the same thing again: death ends hostility, and the duty of antyeshṭi is owed to every being.

The antyeshṭi

Vibhīshaṇa obeyed Śrī Rāma. He performed the dāha-saṃskāra (the rite of cremation) for Rāvaṇa with full Vedic honours. The rākshasa women, with Maṇḍodarī first among them, were led back into Laṅkā. Vibhīshaṇa performed the antyeshṭi for his elder brother with the honours due to a mahārāja (great king) and a śruta-śīla, a learned and accomplished brahmin king. This is in Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 114.

After the rites, Vibhīshaṇa went back to Śrī Rāma and told him that the last rites of Rāvaṇa were done.

The Govindarājīya commentary

The Govindarājīya commentary adds that Rāvaṇa’s death at the hand of Rāma was itself a kind of moksha (liberation). It was the great mercy of the Avatāra to an enemy whose every thought had been fixed on Rāma, even though it was the thought of hatred.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapters 112–115
• Govindarājīya commentary on the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa