August 7 - Sargas 22 and 23 of Aranya Kanda.
Khara promises Shurpanakha that he will quickly get rid of Rama and Lakshmana and she can happily avenge her injury by drinking their blood.
He orders Dushana, his war chief, to assemble his entire army of fourteen thousand rakshasas. Valmiki describes how the army gets ready and marches from Janasthana to Panchavati. Khara leads them from the front in his chariot resplendent with fantastic decorations.
There are elaborate descriptions of all their weapons and how their march terrorised the denizens of the forest.
प्रवृद्धमन्युस्तु खरः खरस्वरो
रिपोर्वधार्थं त्वरितो यथान्तकः ।
अचूचुदत् सारथिमुन्नदन् पुन-
र्महाबलो मेघ इवाश्मवर्षवान् ॥
"Thus did Khara, with a voice that bayed like a donkey (hence his name), who was swollen with extreme rage, show his great impatience to kill his enemy. He looked like Yama himself. He was like a large dark cloud about to rain hailstones. He roared at his charioteer to make haste. "
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As Khara with his impressive and deadly army marched noisily, a number of evil omens occured. Valmiki describes them in some detail.
Dark clouds started pouring blood-like red rain. The sun aopeared eclipsed, with a bloody ring around his orb. Wild animals shrieked. A large vulture descended and settled on Khara's chariot. There was an unbearable screeching of birds. It appeared that all animals of prey were on to an impending feast of dead bodies.
The strange sights in the sky, the rain, the animals and birds, the most ugly noises, made no impact on Khara. His left shoulder shook violently. His eyes were horripilating and started s) hedding tears. But he was so hell-bent on attack that nothing would stop him now. He called out to his army:
महोत्पातानिमान् सर्वानुत्थितान् घोरदर्शनान् ।
न चिन्याम्यहं वीर्याद् बलवान् दुर्बलानिव ॥
"Bah to all these highly evil omens that have suddenly arisen and look terrible to you all. Believe me, I give absolutely no thought to them, because I know how strong I am. My feelings are the same as those of a strong man who doesn't care for a weak enemy.
"Remember, my men! I have never faced defeat. I can even take on Indra on his Airavata and vanquish him. I do not know any retreat. We shall march on and soon kill those two brothers. My dear sister is thirsting for their blood."
Hearing his words, his army was galvanised into great fervour and made huge war noises. Valmiki lists twelve of Khara's ablest commanders and how each was deadlier than the others. They all surrounded Khara and marched forward in full anticipation of an easy victory.
Valmiki says that those man-eating warriors rode forward as if an unseemly dark cloud had engulfed the day.
Meanwhile, celestials and sages had assembled in the heavens to witness the impending extermination of these rakshasas, something which was overdue. They were speaking among themselves that Sri Rama should annihilate this rakshasa army like Vishnu would his enemies in the war against demons.
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॥ श्रीरामजयम् ॥
