The Ramayana · 407 of 493

Yuddha Kānda (The War Book): Canto 15 — Indrajít’s Speech

He ceased: and Indrajít the pride Of Rákshas warriors thus replied:

“Is this a speech our king should hear, This counsel of ignoble fear? A scion of our glorious race Should ne’er conceive a thought so base, But one mid all our kin we find, Vibhishaṇ, whose degenerate mind No spark of gallant pride retains, Whose coward soul his lineage stains. Against one giant what can two Unhappy sons of Raghu do? Away with idle fears, away! Matched with our meanest, what are they? Beneath my conquering prowess fell The Lord of earth and heaven and hell.(924) Through every startled region dread Of my resistless fury spread; And Gods in each remotest sphere Confessed the universal fear. Rending the air with roar and groan, Airávat(925) to the earth was thrown. From his huge head the tusks I drew, And smote the Gods with fear anew. Shall I who tame celestials’ pride, By whom the fiends are terrified, Now prove a weakling little worth, And fail to slay those sons of earth?”

Insight

Indrajit enters the council and dismisses Vibhīṣaṇa's caution as cowardice. He is Rāvaṇa's eldest son, the warrior who once defeated Indra himself and earned his name by it, and the room belongs to him whenever he speaks. The Mahābhārata watches the same dynamic in the Kaurava court when Duryodhana shouts down the elders and the dynasty walks into the war that destroys it. There is a structural observation in both epics. A council that lets its boldest warrior set the moral question has already lost the conversation. Wisdom and courage are different virtues, and one cannot substitute for the other when the question is whether the war should happen at all.Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva (the failed peace embassy); on epic council scenes as political-ethical theatre, V.S. Sukthankar, On the Meaning of the Mahābhārata (1957).

He ceased: Vibhishaṇ trained and tried In war and counsel thus replied

“Thy speech is marked with scorn of truth, With rashness and the pride of youth. Yea, to thy ruin like a child Thou pratest, and thy words are wild. Most dear, O Indrajít, to thee Should Rávaṇ’s weal and safety be, For thou art called his son, but thou Art proved his direst foeman now, When warned by me thou hast not tried To turn the coming woe aside. Both thee and him ’twere meet to slay, Who brought thee to this hall to-day, And dared so rash a youth admit To council where the wisest sit. Presumptuous, wild, devoid of sense, Filled full of pride and insolence, Thy reckless tongue thou wilt not rule That speaks the counsel of a fool. Who in the fight may brook or shun The arrows shot by Raghu’s son With flame and fiery vengeance sped, Dire as his staff who rules the dead? O Rávaṇ, let thy people live, And to the son of Raghu give Fair robes and gems and precious ore, And Sítá to his arms restore.”