01Meghanada, conqueror of Indra
Mandodari’s son cried at birth with a sound like thunder, so Ravana named him Meghanada. The Uttara Kanda says he performed seven great yajnas in the Nikumbhila grove with Shukracharya as priest, and won from them a celestial chariot, quivers that never empty, and the tamasi maya, the power to fight unseen in darkness. In Ravana’s war against the devas he bound Indra himself and carried him to Lanka. Brahma came to free Indra, gave the young prince the name Indrajit, and granted him a boon: before each battle he would offer into the sacred fire and a chariot would rise from it, and so long as he fought from it he could not be killed. If he went to battle without completing that rite, he would die.
02Arrows from the clouds
He bound Hanuman with the Brahmastra in the Ashoka grove. In the war he fought hidden in the clouds, and twice brought Rama’s side to the edge of defeat. First his serpent arrows bound Rama and Lakshmana until Garuda swooped down and the serpents fled. Then his Brahmastra laid the whole army on the field in one night, and only Hanuman’s flight to the Himalaya saved them. To break the vanaras’ spirit he created a Maya Sita, an illusion, and cut her down before their eyes; Rama fainted at the news until Vibhishana told him it was a trick.
03Nikumbhila
Vibhishana knew the secret of the boon. While Indrajit was at his homa in the Nikumbhila grove, Lakshmana, Hanuman and Vibhishana fell on his guards and forced him to break off the rite. The duel with Lakshmana was long and even. At last Lakshmana fitted the Aindra astra to his bow and called on Rama’s truth: if Rama is devoted to dharma and true to his word, let this arrow slay the son of Ravana. The arrow took off Indrajit’s head. In his grief Ravana rushed to kill Sita, and his minister Suparshva held him back.