Indrajit and the Sanjeevani Mountain

After Kumbhakarna, Ravana's sons Devantaka, Narantaka, Trishira and Atikaya were also killed. Ravana sat on his throne with his head in his hands. Then Indrajit said, "Father, why grieve while Indrajit lives? Today I will finish both brothers."

The weapon of Brahma

On the battlefield he lit a fire and made his offerings; then, chariot and all, he became invisible and released the weapon of Brahma. Arrows fell from the sky so thickly that nothing could be seen. Sugriva fell, Angada fell, Nila fell. Six hundred and seventy million vanaras lay on the ground within a fifth of the day. Ram said to Lakshmana, "This is Brahma's weapon. It must not be dishonoured. Bear it." And the two brothers also fell senseless.

Night came. The battlefield was silent. Only two were on their feet: Vibhishana and Hanuman. They took torches and went among the wounded. In one place lay old Jambavan, pierced with arrows, unable to open his eyes.

Vibhishana asked, "Sir, are you alive?"

Jambavan said faintly, "I know you by your voice. Tell me this: is Hanuman alive?"

Vibhishana was astonished. "You did not ask about Ram and Lakshmana. Why Hanuman?"

"Because if Hanuman lives, then all of us live even though we are dead. And if he is gone, we are dead even though we live."

Hanuman bent and touched his feet. "I am here." Jambavan said, "Son, go over the sea to the Himalayas. There, between the peaks Rishabha and Kailasa, is a mountain on which the herbs shine at night like lamps. Bring four: the herb that restores life, the herb that draws out arrows, the herb that restores colour and the herb that joins wounds."

The mountain

Hanuman climbed Trikuta, pressed the mountain down with his feet and flew north. Crossing sea, rivers, cities and forests, he reached the Himalayas and saw the shining mountain.

But the herbs knew that someone had come for them, and hid. Hanuman searched the whole mountain. There was no telling which herb was which, and time was running out. He roared at the mountain, "If you have no pity even for Ram, I will take you yourself."

He tore up the peak, with its trees, its elephants and its veins of gold, set it on his palm and flew. Before dawn he was in Lanka. The scent of the herbs spread on the air, and everyone sat up where he lay, as if waking from sleep. Ram and Lakshmana rose. Jambavan rose. Hanuman carried the mountain back to the Himalayas.

The false Sita

Indrajit saw that force would not serve. The next day he brought on his chariot a Sita made by sorcery, and in front of Hanuman he seized her by the hair and cut her down with his sword. "The one you are fighting for is no more."

Weeping, Hanuman told Ram. Ram fell like a felled tree. Then Vibhishana said, "Ram, this is illusion. Ravana could never have Sita killed. Indrajit did this so that we would be sunk in grief while he completed his sacrifice at the place called Nikumbhila. If that sacrifice is completed, no one will be able to kill him. Send Lakshmana with me now."

Lakshmana and Indrajit

Lakshmana touched his brother's feet and went with Vibhishana. The vanaras attacked the troops guarding the sacrifice. Indrajit had to rise, leaving the rite unfinished. He saw his uncle and spoke bitterly. "You were born here and grew up here, and you betray the secrets of your own family to the enemy? A stranger, however virtuous, is still a stranger." Vibhishana answered, "I was born among rakshasas, but my nature is not theirs. I have left unrighteousness, not my family."

The battle between Lakshmana and Indrajit lasted three days and three nights. Both were covered in arrows. Neither tired and neither gave ground. At last Lakshmana set the weapon of Indra to his bow, and before releasing it he said:

Dharmatma satya-sandhash cha Ramo Dasharathir yadi,
paurushe chapratidvandvah, sharainam jahi Ravanim.

"If Ram, son of Dasharatha, is righteous, true to his word, and without equal in valour, then, arrow, slay this son of Ravana."

The arrow flew, and Indrajit's head fell to the earth. Lakshmana had not sworn by his own strength. He had sworn by his brother's righteousness.

The spear, and a brother's lament

The death of his son drove Ravana almost mad. The next day he hurled at Lakshmana a spear forged by the demon Maya. It sank into Lakshmana's chest, and he fell like a mountain.

Ram took his brother in his lap, and what he said is remembered by every brother to this day:

Deshe deshe kalatrani, deshe deshe cha bandhavah,
tam tu desham na pashyami yatra bhrata sahodarah.

"A wife may be found in any land, and friends and kin in any land. But I see no land where a brother born of the same mother can be found again."

The physician Sushena looked at Lakshmana's face. "There is life in him. Hanuman, bring the arrow-drawing herb from that same mountain." Hanuman went again, again could not tell the herb, and again brought the whole peak. Sushena crushed the herb and held it to Lakshmana's nostrils. Lakshmana sat up. Ram held him to his chest and could not keep back his tears.

In popular tradition this episode is better known in another form: that it was Indrajit's spear that struck Lakshmana, and that Hanuman brought the mountain once. In Valmiki's Ramayana the mountain comes twice. The point is the same in both: when every other remedy was exhausted, there was Hanuman.