The Sword of Agastya

Fourteen thousand demons march on Panchavati. One archer stands in their way.

Why this issue matters The war that will decide the Ramayana begins here. Rama's promise to protect the forest sages brings him into battle with Khara, and that defeat sends Shurpanakha to Ravana, who now sets his mind on Sita. The lesson

Who's who

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The lesson of issue 8

Whose words we listen to

Two people are given advice in this issue. Sita gently warns Rama that a weapon carried everywhere can change the one who carries it. Rama listens, thanks her, and explains that he cannot break a promise once given. Far away in Lanka, Shurpanakha stings Ravana with taunts and fills his mind with Sita's beauty, and he acts at once, on desire and wounded pride. The same story asks how we take counsel: with patience and our word in mind, or in a rush of feeling.

To think about

Who do you turn to for honest counsel, and do you listen best when you agree, or when you don't?

Notes on the tellings

Where this issue follows Valmiki, and where other tellings differ. Each note also appears on its page.

Page 3 Viradha follows the critical edition closely: he cannot be killed by weapons because of Brahma's boon, and asks to be buried in a pit, freeing him as the gandharva Tumburu.
Page 5 Indra visits Sharabhanga in his flying chariot, but the sage waits to see Rama before entering the sacred fire and rising to Brahma's realm. The murdered hermits are shown only through scattered bark cloth and shadows.
Page 8 Sita's counsel, with the tale of the hermit corrupted by a sword left in his keeping, and Rama's reply that he is bound by his promise to the sages, both follow Valmiki.
Page 12 This is a second bow of Vishnu, given by Agastya along with Brahma's arrow, Indra's two quivers and a gold-hilted sword. It is not the bow Parashurama gave Rama, which Rama placed in Varuna's keeping in Issue 3.
Page 13 Jatayu introduces himself as Aruna's son and Sampati's brother, and promises to watch over Sita. Lakshmana builds the hut at Panchavati and praises Bharata's hard life at Nandigrama, as in Valmiki.
Page 15 Shurpanakha's huge clawed shadow, hinting at her true form behind the disguise, is our addition.
Page 16 Shurpanakha's lovely disguise follows Kamban's Tamil Ramayana. In Valmiki she comes to Rama in her true rakshasi form.
Page 19 Rama sends Lakshmana and Sita to a mountain cave and faces Khara's fourteen thousand alone. The vulgate says the battle lasted an hour and a half; the critical edition drops that verse as a later addition.
Page 26 Rama holding Agastya's bow in reserve until Khara breaks his wooden one is our staging.
Page 29 In the vulgate, a survivor named Akampana reaches Ravana first and suggests taking Sita through Maricha. The critical edition drops that episode as a repeat; we follow it, with Shurpanakha bringing the news to Lanka.
Page 34 Ravana's closing oath to fly to Maricha at dawn compresses his departure at the start of the next part of Valmiki into a cliffhanger.