A History of Indian Literature v2.c20.s3.70

v2.c20.s3.70

Cantos XII and XIII tell of a fight between Rāvaṇa and the god Indra. Indra is defeated and is brought in triumph to Laṅkā, but is then released. The reason for his humiliation is that in a previous incarnation he had molested a monk. Indra places his son on the throne, becomes a monk, and attains to bliss. Rāvaṇa visits shrines on the Meru hill, where the gods are just paying homage to Anantavīrya, who has attained to perfect knowledge, and he hears the sermon of the latter upon Karman, generosity, the duties of monks and the duties of laymen (XIV). This sermon is also responsible for the conversion of Hanumant, whose descent and whose fights as the ally of Rāvaṇa, are related in Cantos XV and XIX. Through Rāvaṇa Hanumant receives a thousand wives. Canto XX treats of the Jinas, the rulers of the world, the Baladevas and the Vasudevas. It is not until Canto XXI that King Janaka is mentioned, and the story of Daśaratha and the actual Rāma epic begins: it is only in its main features that this story agrees with Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa: as regards the details there are many divergences.