When Khara and Dushana heard my cry, they came to avenge the wrong done to me, but Rama slew the whole of their army in an instant!’ When he heard of the destruction of Khara, Dushana and Trishira, the news burnt its way into Ravana’s heart.

Having consoled Shurpanakha, he bragged and boasted of his might in whatever manner he could, but he retired to is place in a state of great anxiety and could not sleep all night.

‘Among gods and men and demons, serpents and birds,’ he thought, ‘there is none who can face my servants. As for Khara and Dushana, they were as mighty as myself; who else could have killed them, had it not been the Lord himself?

If the Lord himself as become incarnate to gladden the gods and relieve, the earth of its burdens, then must I go and stubbornly fight with him across the ocean of mundane existence by falling to his arrows.

Worshipping the Lord is out of question in this fallen form made up of darkness and ignorance; this therefore is my firm resolve, which I shall carry through in thought and word and deed; and if they be some mortal princelings, I shall overpower them both in battle and carry off the bride.’

Having thus made up his mind, he mounted his chariot and drove off alone to where Maricha lived on the seashore. Now listen, Uma, to the delectable account of the scheme that Rama devised.

When Lakshmana had gone into the woods to gather roots and fruit and bulbs, Rama, the very incarnation of compassion and joy, spoke with a smile to Janaka’s daughter: