Depiction of the Battle at Lanka. Source: Wikimedia
The Indian Storybook: Rama's Quest, by Richard Wilson
Ravana stood on the ramparts of his city walls on the eve of what would be the most important battle of his life. He looked out onto the sea and saw the vast monkey hoard that was coming to take his life, spear-headed by the dreaded Rama. He looked back on the day he had captured the thing that seemed had ultimately sealed his fate. It was Sita, the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. When he saw her in the forest that day, it didn't matter who she was with, she had to be his. Little did he know she was married to Rama, one of the strongest men in all of the world who had been exiled to the forest by a vengeful queen.
As he pondered this, one of his councilmen came to him with a plan to convince Sita to abandon hope for Rama and marry him while he still had the chance. They would conjure up a fake head of Rama and convince her that he was killed in a night raid on the city to save her. When they carried out this plan it worked quite well, leaving Sita utterly devastated. Before Ravana could carry out the rest of his plan, he was called to the front lines by one of his generals. Rama's army was here and decimating Ravana's forces. Ravana had to think up something quick if he was to even save any of his army or his generals from getting wiped out on the first day of battle. He had some of his magicians conjure up a flying chariot and magic arrows. One of his Rakshasa allies took these up into the sky and rained down on Rama's forces, injuring Rama and his brother Lakshmana in the process. It seemed like Ravana's magic weapons had won them the day as Rama's forces panicked with their two leaders badly injured, but then came the Wind, a powerful deity that breathed new life into Rama and Lakshmana. With this new burst of energy Rama's forces once again began to pummel Ravana's army as Ravana could only watch as his fate was truly sealed.
Author's Note: I decided to tell this story from Ravana's perspective to give a new look at how this battle played out. It's interesting to see how the scene looks from the losers perspective and I think it adds a lot to the story overall.
