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. 

·       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-22

Yuddhakāṇḍa Part-1