Angada's Embassy: Peace Offered One Last Time

Ravana heard that a bridge had been built across the sea, and could not believe it. He sent two of his ministers, Shuka and Sarana, in the form of vanaras to count the army. Vibhishana recognised them and seized them. They were brought trembling before Ram.

Ram laughed. "If you have seen the army, go. If anything remains to be seen, Vibhishana himself will show you. A captured envoy is not killed. Tell Ravana from me: the strength you relied on when you stole Sita, show it to me at sunrise tomorrow."

The two went back and said to Ravana, "King, Ram, Lakshmana, Vibhishana and Sugriva, these four alone are enough to uproot Lanka. Give Sita back." Ravana abused them and drove them from the court.

The false head

Then a base idea came to Ravana. He had a sorcerer named Vidyujjihva make a severed head of Ram and a bow, exact in every detail. Then he went to the Ashoka grove.

"Sita, the one you trusted when you refused me was killed last night in his sleep. Lakshmana has fled. Look." He had the head placed before her.

Sita saw the same face, the same eyes, the same jewel. She fell like a creeper cut at the root. When she came to herself she sat beside the head and wept. "You said we would go home together. Take me there too, Ravana. Kill me with your sword and lay my body beside his."

Just then a servant came and called Ravana away on urgent business. He went, and as soon as he had gone the head and the bow vanished.

Sarama, the wife of Vibhishana, was among those set to guard Sita, and she loved her. She raised Sita up. "Lady, that was sorcery. Ram is safe. He has crossed the sea with his army. Listen: that is the war drum. The rakshasas are arming." Life came back to Sita.

Angada goes

Ram climbed Mount Suvela and from there looked at Lanka: four gates, and hundreds of thousands of rakshasas at each. He too made four divisions. At the eastern gate, Nila; at the southern, Angada; at the western, Hanuman; and at the northern gate, where Ravana himself stood, Ram and Lakshmana.

Everything was ready. But Ram did not give the order to attack. He said, "It is a king's duty to offer peace once more before war. Angada, you go. Say to Ravana: the measure of your cruelties to sages, gods and women is full. Even so, if you return Sita with honour and come to me for refuge, I will forgive you. Otherwise I will empty the earth of rakshasas, and Lanka will be Vibhishana's."

With one leap Angada landed in Ravana's court. He announced himself, "I am Angada, son of Vali, envoy of Ram," and delivered the message word for word.

Ravana shouted in fury, "Seize this fool! Kill him!" Four rakshasas laid hold of Angada. He let them, and then, with all four clamped under his arms, sprang to the roof of the palace. There he shook them off so that they fell, kicked the pinnacle of the palace to pieces, shouted his own name and returned to Ram.

In the Ramcharitmanas the episode is even more striking. There Angada plants his foot in the court and says: "If anyone can move my foot, Ram will go back and I will have lost Sita." One by one every warrior tries, and none can shift it. At last Ravana himself rises. Angada withdraws his foot. "Why clasp my feet? Clasp Ram's."

The siege

The door to peace was shut. Ram gave the signal. The vanara army, carrying trees and boulders, fell on the walls of Lanka. The moats were filled. Gateways of gold began to fall. "Victory to Ram! Victory to Lakshmana! Victory to Sugriva!"

From inside the drums sounded, and the four gates opened.

Even the one who had caused the war was given, to the very end, a chance to turn back. The Ramayana wants us to remember that.