With bloodshot eyes, broad chest and long arms, his body, resplendent like the snow-capped Himalaya, was reddish-hued. Ravana, meanwhile, sent forth his gallant champions, who rushed out equipped with various missiles and other weapons.

Armed with mountains and claws and trees for weapons, the monkeys rushed at the demons, shouting, ‘Victory to Rama!’ They all closed in the fray, equally matched one with another, and each equally agog to win.

The monkeys in their triumph fell upon them with their fists and feet and bit them with their teeth. They struck them down and browbeat them. ‘Kill, kill! Seize! Seize and slay! Strike off their heads! Clutch and rend off their arms!’

Such were the cries that rang through all the nine divisions of the globe, while headless bodies sprinted furiously hither and thither. From the sky above, the gods witnessed the wondrous spectacle, now in dismay and now in rapture.

Blood filled every hollow of the earth and dried up there while clouds of dust hung over it like ashes that conceal heaps of glowing embers.

The wounded warriors shone like so many kimshuka trees in blossom. Lakshmana and Meghanada, champions both, closed in conflict, burning hot with wrath.

Neither could get the better of the other. When the demon resorted to guile and trickery and all that was contrary to the code of chivalry,Lakshmana (Ananta or Shesha) then waxed furious and in a moment smashed the chariot and brought down the charioteer in the dust.