Ramayana – Laxman vs Indrajit – {Ep.252}

In today’s episode we’ll continue the Ramayana, with another battle between Laxman and Indrajit, after Indrajit’s dirty trick – of bringing Sita onto the battlefield!

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

Rama Navami is coming up in a few days. It’s a special occasion marking the birth of Rama. While today’s episode doesn’t feature Rama prominently, you could easily see that the entire saga is about Rama, so it’s definitely not off-topic for us to be covering a Ramayana episode ahead of Rama Navami.

But before we jump in, a bit of background in case you haven’t heard previous Ramayana episodes.

The Ramayana together with the Mahabharata is one of two major epics in Indian mythology. 

The saga began in the Kingdom of Ayodhya with Ram as the Crown Prince. Ram was an avatar of Vishnu – who is the preserver of the Universe. He’s part of the holy trinity together with Shiva the destroyer and Brahma the creator.

But right when Ram was on the cusp of becoming King, his stepmother threw a spanner in the works and forced him into exile for 14 years. Ram went into the forest, accompanied by his wife Sita, and brother Laxman.

Ram, Laxman and Sita overcame several challenges in the wild. Demons and demonesses were constantly trying to eat, enslave or kill them, or perhaps all of the above.

Ram and Laxman dispatched all those dangers easily enough, until Sita was abducted by Ravana, the 10-headed demon King of Lanka. Ravana was absolutely the mega villain in this epic. This ultimate boss-level character was full of so many superpowers that defeating him was virtually impossible. The pop-culture analogy is a mashup of Lord Voldemort, Darth Vader, Scar, Jafar, Maleficent, and any other villain you can think of. Add up their villainy and superpowers, subtract any weaknesses, and multiply it with 10 because Ravana had 10 heads.

In the absence of any police force, CBI, or the Gumshuda Talash Kendra, Ram and Laxman got help from the next best option – the Vanars. These Vanars were a kingdom of monkeys led by their King Sugriva. Hanuman, who was Sugriva’s adviser and right hand Vanar, provided most of that help. He found Sita across the ocean in Lanka. He delivered Ram’s words of support to his wife, and delivered her message back to Rama. And because he was so powerful, he also burnt down most of Lanka in the process. Ravana’s brother Vibhishana switched sides and teamed up with Ram. And not just because his home had burned down. He genuinely felt Ravana was wrong not to give up Sita.

Ram, Laxman, and all the Vanars crossed the ocean to get to Lanka. To do this, they first built a bridge, which any civil engineer will tell you is an incredibly hard job in the 21st century, never mind all those millenia ago. 

And then, the war began. The Vanars and the Lankans fought tooth and nail. 

Ravana’s son, Indrajit, had achieved what he thought was victory when he very badly hurt both Ram and Laxman. Luckily for the Ayodhya brothers – Garuda, the King of birds, saved them.

The tide turned against the Lankans after that. Ravana entered battle himself and tried to make a splash, but ended up having his nose rubbed into the ground – actually all 10 noses. 

One Lankan general after another fell, and that included Ravana’s mountain sized brother Kumbhakarna.

Only Indrajit and Ravana remained. But Indrajit seemed to have capped a major win by killing Laxman. Or so he thought. Laxman was hurt very badly, and only managed to survive thanks to Hanuman’s speedy run to the Himalayas for some medicine.

We’re continuing our story early in the morning in Ravana’s palace, in Indrajit’s wing. Indrajit did not wake up in a cold sweat the way he had done for so many nights now. His wife was amazed. She was the daughter of a Naga or Snake. So there were many serpentine aspects to her.

“Killing Laxman was exactly the relief I needed. This was the best sleep I had, and I don’t know when I got drowsy and dropped off. I didn’t even have to count sheep!” Indrajit exclaimed.

“Can you please not mention sheep?” his wife retorted. “I’m still trying to digest the three I had for dinner last week. I think one of them even had horns. Now go, and don’t bother me for 3 weeks at least”

Indrajit grumbled and stepped out. So, his wife wasn’t appreciating him for killing Laxman and overcoming his sleep demons? He would teach her. Today he decided he was going to kill Rama. That would be guaranteed to make her sit up and take notice.

But something he saw on the battlefield made him sit up and take notice.

When Indrajit got to the battlefield, he quickly punched in his card by the and got to his preferred spot behind the Lankan starting line. The Lankans and the Vanars were each behind their lines, patiently waiting for the umpire to blow the starting whistle. Indrajit took this time to survey the enemy across no-man’s land. And before you ask – it was no-man’s land because no one dared to go . That’s when he saw Laxman. No. No way. This couldn’t be Laxman now, could it? Whom had Indrajit actually killed yesterday then? Was it a body double?

“Do you have a twin brother?” Indrajit called out across no-man’s land – the gap between the 

“You’re right, I do,” Laxman called back, answering the letter of the question, rather than the spirit. After all, his twin brother Shatrughna was back in Ayodhya. Remarkably perceptive of Indrajit to have detected that. How had he known, Laxman wondered.

Indrajit was flummoxed. Maybe they had an intelligence failure and there had been 3 Ayodhya brothers. Not two. But it didn’t matter. He took care of one yesterday, he would take care of this one today. “In a couple of minutes I’m going to send you to join him,” Indrajit snapped.

Again, Laxman was puzzled. What arrow was Indrajit planning on using that would dispatch Laxman back to Ayodhya? Maybe a “Mark-34 teleportation special”? But those were hard to come by. Even Laxman didn’t have one of those in his arsenal. Well if that’s what Indrajit was going to use, Laxman would use a dark energy arrow that would neutralize any local space-time manipulation.

As soon as the umpire blew his whistle, Indrajit and Laxman let loose their arrows. Indrajit’s hadn’t been a particularly powerful arrow, so he was surprised that his opponent had used a dark energy arrow. When the two arrows clashed there was space there that made it murky to see through, as you might expect with Dark Energy. But that meant Indrajit and Laxman couldn’t see other through this Dark Energy cloud. 

Laxman decided to go left around the cloud, hoping Indrajit would do the same.

“Go around on the right,” Indrajit instructed his chariot driver.

Well, of course they missed each other. But there were plenty of Vanars and Lankans for each warrior to deal with. Laxman dispatched his batch and started making his way back towards where Indrajit might be. Indrajit meanwhile had drifted in the general direction where Rama, Hanuman, Jambavan and a few others were fighting their own literal demons.

Indrajit waited until Hanuman, Sugriva and a few other generals noticed his presence. This worked well for Indrajit. Because for his next act, he needed attention.

“Hey monkeys, look here” he shouted. 

Despite their anger at being addressed rudely, the Vanars looked.

Indrajit smiled to himself. And then at them. Now to pull the ace out of his sleeve. And with that, he pulled Sita, by her hair, out of a corner of his chariot, and held a sword against her neck.

“This is the lady you came to rescue. Look here she is, at my mercy.”

Every Vanar around was stunned into silence.

“Who’s laughing now, Vanars? You monkeys burned down my city, destroyed so much of our army, you killed my uncles. Now let’s see how you react to this?” And with that remark and one swift blow he sliced off Sita’s neck.

Every Vanar around howled in pain as if it was their own neck that had been cut off. Hanuman and a few others ran back to alert Rama. He found Rama, Laxman and Vibhishana. Quickly he pulled them aside and told them what Indrajit had done.

Rama was distraught. Sita, gone, he couldn’t take it! Laxman wasn’t happy either. Only Vibhishana’s reaction was quite unexpected. Vibhishana laughed.

“You, you are a traitor after all. You’re still on Ravana’s side,” Laxman accused.

“Gosh no! I’m, like, totally on your side dude. I was merely laughing because you’ve become bakras”

“What?!” asked three shocked voices all at once.

So Vibhishana explained that it was merely a party trick. One of those that Indrajit was frequently playing. He could create a kind of a hologram of someone. It was a little bit like Maya but not exactly. He began by making a dog or a horse and making it do funny tricks. And later he was creating practice princesses for his father to practice abducting.

“And you monster – you encouraged him!”

“Well it was that, or abducting real princesses, what did you expect? Anyway, there was this one time at our annual puppet theater awards ceremony where he created an illusion of puppets that flew without strings, it was marvelous!”

Ram thanked Vibhishana and said he’d love to hear about their annual puppet theater awards, but maybe another time. Right now, he would like Laxman to go and take care of the Indrajit menace once and for all.

Laxman too wanted to take care of the Indrajit menace once and for all.

Vibhishana spoke up – “Laxman, whatever happens – don’t let him complete his special yagna or rite to summon an invincible chariot. Once he’s on the chariot – no one can harm him. Not even the prophesied Sleepless in Sri Lanka man”

That piqued everyone’s curiosity. So Vibhishana explained that Brahma had granted Indrajit the power to summon the invincibility chariot under one condition. That he could be killed by someone who stops the yagna provided that person hadn’t slept at all in 12 years. They had taken to calling this mysterious chap “Sleepless in Sri Lanka”.

Funny you should say that Laxman said, turning around to face Vibhishana. And then for the first time, Vibhishana realized something that he hadn’t noticed before. Laxman’s eyes were underlined not by war paint as he had previously thought. There were dark circles. So many that he didn’t want to hazard a guess now, but they seemed precisely equivalent to 4383 nights of no sleep. Which was exactly 12 years of no sleep.

It’s awkward that until now there was no reference to Laxman’s lack of sleep. Maybe I should have mentioned it before. Sorry but it’s easy to lose track of little bits of info here and there when you have all knowledge of the Universe in your head. Anyway, let’s just gloss over that part and continue on with the story.

After killing the fake Sita, Indrajit quickly reached the site for his yagna. While the enemy was distracted, he could complete his yagna and get the invincibility chariot. And that seemed to Indrajit to be the best way to defeat Ram and Laxman and Hanuman and Sugriva and all those Vanars. It was a good plan. And it might have worked. If Laxman hadn’t shown up and fired the Extinguisher – a Firefighters special edition arrow. It landed right on the fire in Indrajit’s yagna, and put it out.

Indrajit was annoyed. But he figured it was his own fault for letting this insolent Ayodhya brother live on. He fired the exponential – a single arrow that multiplied into several, which multiplied into several more. But Laxman responded with an exponential of his own. Indrajit fired another arrow called “the bomb”, but he hadn’t read the label correctly. It was actually a flower bomb – an arrow that spread perfume, rather than doing any actual harm.

Laxman used that opportunity to send a thank you arrow. An arrow that dropped a thank you note into Indrajit’s hands. Which only further infuriated Indrajit.

He let fly the juggernaut – a powerful arrow with the strength of a thousand elephants. Laxman merely stepped out of the way. The arrow went on harmlessly and probably fell into the ocean somewhere.

Now Laxman launched an arrow. It was an arrow shaped like a lightning bolt. That alone may tell you that it was a gift from Indra, the ruler of Swarg and the God of Rain, Thunder and Lightning. But Laxman did one more thing right before launching the arrow. He invoked Rama’s name and prayed that the arrow would finish this demon once and for all.

Indrajit quickly sent forth a magnetic arrow. His reasoning was that an arrow shaped like a lightning bolt was governed by electricity. And magnetic fields could distort electricity. Well, he wasn’t wrong. But where he failed was to assume this was a closed system. The magnetic arrow didn’t go very far. In fact, it got attracted to his own metal armor, did a u-turn and softly landed on his own chest plate.

But Laxman’s arrow found its mark. It severed Indrajit’s head cleanly at the neck.

You could tell the immense sense of relief everyone felt on the battlefield. The Vanars expressed it openly. The lankans couldn’t. Everyone thought Indrajit was a horrible boss, but they couldn’t celebrate in front of the enemy, could they? 

From Swarg, or heaven, there were flowers that came raining down. A special treat from Indra to go with Indrajit’s earlier misfired flower bomb.

So that was it. Now that Indrajit had fallen, there wasn’t much left. Ravana and maybe a few lankans here and there. Victory was in sight! Of course, there was still the danger that Ravana could threaten harm to Sita and use that as leverage to bring the enemy to their knees. 

But we’ll have to wait a while to see if Ravana resorts to that.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Previous Ramayana episodes are linked in the show notes and on the site sfipodcast.com. Check them out

https://sfipodcast.com/category/ramayana

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’re dipping into History! Specifically into India’s Independence struggle and the important role of one woman whose thinking was far more ahead of her time. Aruna Asaf Ali.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Thank you Kaira. Your support is so heartwarming. I’m really really glad that you’re enjoying this podcast.

Agree with your comment on the Dhobi, poor chap got the worst of it, after his encounter with Tenali Raman.

Why did Jayant hurt Sita – great question.

I know I do repeat quite often that Brahma is my dad. I just can’t help it. I have to show off a bit. It also combats some skepticism from those who don’t actually believe I really am Narada Muni.

And yes – I do have an email id. I used to do the postal mail thing – written on leaves and barks, going back several millennia, but I got with the digital age.

Madhu – glad you liked Vikram and Betaal – I do have more coming up on that front.

Same goes for you Aniv.

Abeer – a time traveler always finds it tough to answer where they live. I can be anywhere and in multiple places all at once, so I’m not sure how to answer your question really.

Remind me – not sure what you mean by an Avengers story. If you’re looking for references, there are several MCU and other pop culture references in too many episodes including the very first one. Episode 0 – Rock Star.

And I know you asked for a hundred more episodes, I’m working towards it, one episode a week!

Shalu – thank you as always for your thoughtful and sincere comments – I’m glad you’re enjoying these episodes, and it’s support like this which motivates me to continue telling more stories.

Ayra – I’m glad you enjoyed the Chandrakanta story. We’ll get back to the series as soon as I clear some of the backlog on other categories.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook. You can listen to the show on all podcast apps, and that now includes Youtube. If you want to send me an email it’s stories.from.india.podcast@gmail.com.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!