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Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 103
The armies have stopped fighting. On both sides, monkeys and demons stand still, weapons in their hands, not moving. They have forgotten their own battle. They are watching two chariots, wheeling and circling across the field, closer and closer, and the two warriors standing in them. Valmiki says the two armies looked like a painted picture. This is Dharma Katha, Season Two, Navratri. Episode one hundred and three, day ten. Today is Vijayadashami, the tenth day, the day of victory. Last night, in episode ninety-nine, we heard the Bengali story of Rama's untimely worship of the Goddess, and the one hundred and eight lotuses, and the eye he was ready to give her. That story, as I said, is from the Bengali Ramayana of Krittibas, not from Valmiki. Tonight, I am going to tell you the battle that so much of India remembers on this day, the battle of Rama and Ravana. And this time, I am telling it from Valmiki, the oldest Sanskrit Ramayana, from the last cantos of its Yuddha Kanda, the Book of the War.
Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 99 first.
Source note. Label: scripture, with quotations. The battle is from the Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda, read in Sanskrit on the sanskritdocuments.org mirror of the critical edition, sargas ninety-five to ninety-nine: the armies standing like a picture; Indra's chariot and Matali; Rama and Ravana's resolve, quoted from sarga ninety-five, verse seven; the chariots; the hundred heads in sarga ninety-six; Matali's reminder, the arrow of Brahma, Ravana's heart pierced and his fall like Vritra's in sarga ninety-seven; Vibhishana's grief and Rama's words, quoted from sarga ninety-nine, verse thirty-nine. Translations are my own paraphrase. Many popular editions also place the Aditya Hridaya, taught to Rama by the sage Agastya, before this battle; the critical edition does not include it in the main text. The link between Ravana's death and Vijayadashami is tradition, not stated by Valmiki. The reflections are my own. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verses.
Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.
