Kids · लङ्काकाण्ड Laṅkā Kāṇḍa · Ages 8–12
The Enemy Who Was Given Honour
The great war for Laṅkā is over. Rāvaṇa, the ten-headed king who carried Mother Sītā away, has fallen in the last duel. The drums of the gods are sounding in the sky, flowers are raining down, and the vānaras and bears are shouting for joy.
But what happens after a war is won? What do you do about the enemy who caused it all? This is the story of that day — and of what Lord Rāma said about a king who had done him a great wrong. Sage Vālmīki tells it slowly and in full. Gosvāmī Tulsīdās tells it in a few gentle lines.
A brother's tears
Vibhīṣaṇa was Rāvaṇa's younger brother. He had begged the king, again and again, to give Mother Sītā back, and when Rāvaṇa would not listen, he had left Laṅkā to stand with what was right. Now his side had won. Yet when he saw his eldest brother lying still upon the field, he did not feel like a winner. He wept. 'The sun has fallen to the earth,' he cried in Sage Vālmīki's telling. 'The moon has gone into darkness.' In the Mānas, Lord Rāma sees his friend's sorrow and sends Lakṣmaṇa to comfort him.
In both Rāmāyaṇas
The queens of Laṅkā
Out from the golden city came the queens of Laṅkā, and Queen Mandodarī was among them. They wept for their king. Mandodarī had warned her husband too, and she said so through her tears: he had not listened to Vibhīṣaṇa's good advice, nor to hers. Lord Rāma did not turn away from their sorrow. In Sage Vālmīki's telling he said to Vibhīṣaṇa, 'Let the last rites be done for your eldest brother, and let the women be comforted.'
In both Rāmāyaṇas
'I cannot do it'
Vibhīṣaṇa thought hard, and then he said something honest. 'I cannot do it. He left the path of what is right. He was cruel and untruthful, and he meant harm to everyone. He was my enemy in the shape of a brother.' You can understand him. This was the brother who had answered his good advice with insults. Vibhīṣaṇa knew people might call him hard-hearted — but when they heard all that Rāvaṇa had done, he said, they would agree.
Sage Vālmīki
'Enmity ends with death'
Lord Rāma was pleased with his friend's honest answer, and he replied gently. He did not pretend Rāvaṇa had been good. 'Yes, he did wrong,' said the Lord. 'But he was also brave, mighty and full of energy, and even the gods with Indra at their head could not defeat him. Enmity ends with death. What we came to do is done. Let his rites be performed. He is as much mine now as he is yours.' Rāvaṇa had carried Mother Sītā away and fought the Lord with all his strength — and still the Lord called him his own.
Sage Vālmīki
A farewell with full honour
So Vibhīṣaṇa hurried into the city. He brought sandalwood and sweet-smelling woods, perfumes, pearls and gems, the priests, and the sacred fires that Rāvaṇa himself had always kept burning. The king was carried out on a bier decked with flags and flowers, with music playing and singers singing his praises, and everything was done just as the scriptures lay down. Gosvāmī Tulsīdās adds that Queen Mandodarī and the other queens made their offering of water and sesame seeds and went home thinking of Lord Rāma's goodness. Then, Sage Vālmīki tells us, the Lord put down his bow, his arrows and his armour. His anger was finished, and his face grew gentle.
In both Rāmāyaṇas
A new king for Laṅkā
One promise was still waiting. Long before, on the far shore of the sea, Lord Rāma had promised Vibhīṣaṇa the kingdom of Laṅkā. Now he kept it. In Sage Vālmīki's telling, Lakṣmaṇa gave golden jars to the swiftest vānara chiefs, and they came racing back with water from all four seas. Lakṣmaṇa seated Vibhīṣaṇa on a fine seat and poured the water over him, and Laṅkā had a new king — a good one. In the Mānas the Lord sends Lakṣmaṇa with Sugrīva, Aṅgada, Nala, Nīla, Jāmbavān and Hanumān Jī to seat Vibhīṣaṇa on the throne and mark his forehead with the royal tilak. Lord Rāma himself stays outside the city gates. To keep his father's word he was living fourteen years away from every city, and he would not step into one even now, even to celebrate.
In both Rāmāyaṇas
✦ Two tellings, one story
Sage Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa (Sanskrit)
Sage Vālmīki gives this episode several chapters of his Yuddha Kāṇḍa. Vibhīṣaṇa laments over his brother with great images — the sun fallen to the earth, the moon gone into darkness — and says that his advice was not heeded. Lord Rāma comforts him: a warrior who falls in battle is not to be mourned. The queens come out from the city and lament, and Queen Mandodarī speaks at length, saying that the counsel of Vibhīṣaṇa and of others was not followed. The Lord asks that the rites be done and the women comforted. Vibhīṣaṇa answers that he cannot perform them for one who abandoned virtue, his enemy in the guise of a brother, though people may call him ruthless. The Lord, pleased with the answer, says that he owes Vibhīṣaṇa a kindness, since the victory was won through his might; that Rāvaṇa, though unrighteous, was energetic, mighty and heroic, never vanquished even by the gods with Indra at their head; that hostilities last only until death; and that Rāvaṇa is as much his as Vibhīṣaṇa's. In this telling the Lord says these words about enmity twice. Vibhīṣaṇa brings sandalwood, fragrant woods, perfumes, gems, priests and Rāvaṇa's own sacred fires; the king is carried on a bier decked with pennons and flowers, to music and songs of praise, and the rites are performed according to scripture. Vibhīṣaṇa consoles the queens, who return to the city. The Lord lays aside the bow, arrows and armour given by Indra and gives up his anger. Then he asks Lakṣmaṇa to consecrate Vibhīṣaṇa: vānara chiefs bring water from the four seas in golden jars, Lakṣmaṇa consecrates him king, and the people of Laṅkā bring curds, rice, sweets and flowers, which Vibhīṣaṇa lays before the Lord.
Gosvāmī Tulsīdās’s Rāmcaritmānas (Awadhi)
Gosvāmī Tulsīdās tells it briefly, in the Laṅkā Kāṇḍa. Queen Mandodarī and the other queens lament, and Mandodarī herself declares that there is no one as gracious as Lord Rāma, who has given her husband a state that even yogīs find hard to reach. Vibhīṣaṇa goes to them with a very heavy heart and grieves to see his brother. The Lord has Lakṣmaṇa console him, then looks on him with compassion and says, 'Give up all sorrow and perform the rites.' There is no refusal in this telling and no speech about enmity: Vibhīṣaṇa obeys and performs the rites as scripture lays down. Mandodarī and the queens make their offering of water and sesame seeds and return to the palace, recounting the Lord's virtues in their hearts. Then the Lord sends Lakṣmaṇa with Sugrīva, Aṅgada, Nala, Nīla, Jāmbavān and Hanumān Jī to crown Vibhīṣaṇa, saying that because of his father's command he may not enter a town. They seat Vibhīṣaṇa on the throne, mark his forehead with the tilak and return. The Lord then tells the vānaras that it was by their might that the enemy was overcome and Vibhīṣaṇa received his kingdom.
What this story teaches
When a quarrel is over, let it be over
'Enmity ends with death,' said Lord Rāma. He did not carry his anger one step past the end of the fight. When an argument is finished, you do not have to keep it alive.
See the good, even in someone who did wrong
Lord Rāma did not pretend Rāvaṇa had been good. He said plainly that he had done wrong — and he still remembered that Rāvaṇa was brave and strong. You can be truthful about someone's faults and fair about their good points at the same time.
A winner thinks of others first
On the day he won, Lord Rāma thought about comforting those who were grieving, honouring the fallen king, and keeping his promise to a friend. Winning is the moment to be most kind.
Words to know
- Vibhīṣaṇa · Rāvaṇa's younger brother, who stood with Lord Rāma because it was right, and became the new king of Laṅkā
- Mandodarī · Rāvaṇa's chief queen, who had given her husband wise advice that he did not follow
- last rites · the prayers and ceremonies with which a family says farewell to someone who has died
- tilāñjali · an offering of water and sesame seeds made in farewell to someone who has died
- abhiṣeka · the sacred pouring of water over a person, which is how a king is crowned
- tilak · a sacred mark on the forehead; here, the mark that shows a new king
A true episode from the end of the war, told in both Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa — Yuddha Kāṇḍa — and Rāmcaritmānas — Laṅkā Kāṇḍa. Vibhīṣaṇa's lament about the sun and the moon, his refusal to perform the rites, Lord Rāma's words that enmity ends with death and that Rāvaṇa is as much his as Vibhīṣaṇa's, the sandalwood, sacred fires and decorated bier, the Lord laying aside his weapons and his anger, and the water of the four seas brought in golden jars are Sage Vālmīki's. Lakṣmaṇa comforting Vibhīṣaṇa, the queens' offering of water and sesame seeds, the companions sent to mark Vibhīṣaṇa's forehead with the tilak, and Lord Rāma staying outside the city because of his promise to his father are Gosvāmī Tulsīdās's. The grief of Vibhīṣaṇa and the queens, the rites performed with honour at the Lord's word, and Vibhīṣaṇa being made king of Laṅkā, with Lakṣmaṇa sent to do it, are in both tellings.