6 HANUMAN CONTINUES TO FIGHT THE R AKSHASAS
The battle between Hanuman and the demons intensifies as birds flee in the sky and fish, turtles and serpents react with alarm in the stream into which the fallen trees have crashed. Ravana’s troops seem to be thinning out on the top right as each successive wave of great warriors is decimated by Hanuman. Following the death of Jambumalin, Ravana sends out the seven sons of his seven ministers in thundering chariots, accompanied by a large army with elephants and horses. They aim a thousand arrows at Hanuman, all of which he evades as swiftly as the wind. He leaps on them and destroys the entire host with his feet, hands, fists and nails. He then annihilates five generals and their forces. Virupaksha, Yupaksha, Durdharsha, Praghasa and Basakarna, leaders of Ravana’s forces and masters of military strategy, are all ground to death by the peak of a mountain which Hanuman tears off. Finally, Hanuman slays the youthful warrior Aksha, but not without regret at taking the life of one so young, so brave and so promising. Amazed by his prowess, the demons do not believe Hanuman to be a monkey but a being of a higher order.
India (Chamba), 1800 -1810 Image: Folio: Height: 26.8 cm Height: 22.5 cm Width: 31.3 cm Width: 36.5 cm Opaque pigments and gold and silver on paper within narrow blue and wide red borders
Shastri, 1953-1959, Sundara Kanda, chapters 45-47