Lanka Kaanda
184 - Ravana's swoon; destruction of his sacrificial performance; combat between Sri Rama and Ravana
Chaupais
Description
Spirits, ghouls and goblins and even so frightful genii with a long shaggy mass of hair and Pramathas (Siva own attendants) took their plunge in it. Crows and kites flew off with human arms, which they tore from one another and ate themselves. Some said, "What a pity, fools that you should continue to suffer from want even in such plenty?" Wounded warriors fallen on the banks groaned like the moribund lying all round half in and half out of water (on the bank of a sacred river, lake etc., in order to ensure that they may breathe their last while their body is being washed by the sacred water since such a death is accounted as highly beneficial to the spirit of the dying man). Standing on its banks, vultures tore the entrails of the dead like fishermen angling with rapt attention. Many a dead warrior floated down with birds perched on them, as if the latter were enjoying a game of boating on the river. The Yoginis (female attendants of Goddess Durga) took to storing blood in skulls, while female spirits and sprites danced in the air. Even so Camundas (another class of female attendants of Durga) sang songs in various strains, clashing the skulls of dead warriors like so many pairs of cymbals. Herds of Jackals snapped their teeth as they tore the dead, feasted upon them and yelled; and, when surfeited, they snarled. Myriads of headless trunks trotted along the battlefield, while the heads lying on the ground shouted "Victory! Victory!!"