Introduction to Yuddhakāṇḍa (युद्धकाण्ड)

 

श्री रामायणम् – Śrī Rāmāyaṇam

Introduction to Yuddhakāṇḍa (युद्धकाण्ड)

Yuddhakāṇḍa covers the following incidents.

·       Shri Rama decides to wage war against Ravana and the Vanara army began to move towards Southern direction, on Uttara Phalguni Nakshtra, on the advice of Shri Rama

·       The vanaras camp at the Northern tip of Ocean and Shri Rama ponders over as to how to cross the ocean to reach Lanka

·       In Lanka, Vibhishana advices Ravana in the Royal assembly to restore Seeta back to Shri Rama, so that the demons can escape devastation at the hands of Shri Rama and Vanaras.

·       Angered by Vibhishana’s counsel, Ravana banishes Vibhishana from Lanka and the latter joins hands with Shri Rama

·       Vibhishana suggests to Shri Rama to pray to ocean god, so that a way can be found out to cross the ocean by the vanara army

·       When the ocean god did not appear even after Shri Rama’s fast unto death resolve for 3 days, Shri Rama aims Brahmastra on ocean, to dry up the entire ocean.

·       Ocean god appears and says that he cannot control the movement of the waters, as are other Natural forces like FIRE, WIND, etc, as it was decided by the BRAHMA.

·       He then suggests to Shri Rama to use the services of Nala, the son of Vishwakarma and a Vanara in the Sugreeva’s army, who has the capacity to build a bridge on ocean and that he would see that that bridge does not collapse

·       The bridge was constructed and Shri Rama and the vanaras army reach the Lanka.

·       The war begins and after severe loss to Ravana’s army, Indrajit, the son of Ravana, employs Serpentine arrows and causes Shri Rama and Lakshmana to lose their consciousness and caught in the web of serpents.

·   Due to appearance of Garuda, the Eagle god, serpents run away and Shri Rama and Lakshman become active again.

·       Due to elimination of important generals of army in the army, Ravana himself appears but gets defeated by Shri Rama

·       Indrajit uses Brahmastra by remaining invisible and eliminates 67 crores of Vanaras and causes Lakshmana to lose his consciousness

·       On the advice of Sushena in the Sugreeva’s army, Shri Hanuman flew towards Himalayas and bring a mountain consisting of DIVINE herbs and Lakshmana gains consciousness.

·       Kumbhakarna, the brother of Ravana, appears in the battle field but killed by Shri Rama

·       Indrajit was killed by Lakshmana

·       Finally, Ravana was killed by Shri Rama

·       Shri Rama, Seeta and Lakshmana and Vibhishna, Sugriva and other important vanaras reach Ayodhya , in the Pushpaka vimana, an aerial car

·       Shri Rama was coronated as the King of Kosala Kingdom

 

 

 

Sundarakāṇḍa Part-24

Yuddhakāṇḍa Part-1