01Flung into the sea
Maricha was the son of the yakshi Tataka and her husband Sunda; Agastya’s curse had made mother and son rakshasas. With Subahu he fell upon Vishvamitra’s yajna, pouring blood on the altar. The boy Rama struck him with the Manava astra, which lifted him a hundred yojanas and dropped him into the ocean, senseless but alive, and killed Subahu with the Agneya. Years later, Maricha and two companions came at Rama again in Dandaka in the form of deer. Rama’s arrows killed the other two. Maricha escaped a second time.
02Advice Ravana would not take
He became an ascetic in a hermitage by the sea, and twice Ravana came to him for help in taking Sita. The first time Maricha talked him out of it. The second time, after Shurpanakha’s shaming, Ravana would not listen. Maricha told him who Rama was, in the line that has become a definition: Rama is dharma in a body. He confessed his terror: I see Rama in every tree, dressed in bark, holding a noose; even words that begin with ‘ra’, ratna and ratha, frighten me now.
03The golden deer
Ravana threatened to kill him if he refused. Better to die by Rama’s hand than by yours, Maricha said, and went. He took the form of a deer of gold dappled with silver, with horns tipped with jewels, and grazed near the hut until Sita saw him. Lakshmana knew him for Maricha; Sita wanted the deer, and Rama went. Maricha led him far into the forest. When Rama’s arrow struck, he threw off the deer’s form and cried out in Rama’s own voice, Ha Sita, ha Lakshmana, so that Lakshmana would be sent away. Later tellings such as the Adhyatma Ramayana say that dying at Rama’s hand, he was freed.