- mounted on vehicles of various kinds and armed with every kind of weapon, formidable and innumerable. At the head went Shurpanakha, a hideous, ill-starred form, shorn of her ears an nose.

Countless fearful omens of evil occurred to them, but the host heeded them not, being all death-doomed. They roared, they challenged, they flew through the air; on seeing their army, the champions were transported with joy.

Cried one, ‘Capture the two brothers alive, and having seized them, slay them and carry off the woman!’ the vault of heaven was overstrewn with dust. Rama summoned his brother (Lakshaman) and said to him,

‘Go, take Janaki away to some mountain cave, for a formidable army of demons has come; remain on your guard.’ Obedient to his Lord’s command, he withdrew (to a safe retreat) with Sita, bow and arrows in hand.

When Rama saw that the hostile forces had drawn near, he smiled as he strung his dreadful bow.

As he strung his formidable bow and bound up his matted locks in a knot on his head, it looked as though a pair of snakes were contending with a myriad lightning flashes on a mountain of emerald. Having slung his quiver by his side and clasped the bow with his long arms and put his arrows in order, he fixed his gaze upon the foe as a lion glares at a herd of noble elephants.

On came the champions with a rush, shouting, ‘Seize him, seize him!’ and closed in upon Rama as the demons called Mandeha close in upon the rising sun when they see it all alone.