शत्रुघ्नलवणसंवादः

As Cyavana and the other sages told their stories and wished him a happy victory, the night passed quickly for the great-souled Śatrughna. Then, in the clear light of dawn, just as Cyavana had said, the rākṣasa Lavaṇa, bold and driven by hunger, went out of his city to find food, leaving his spear behind in his house. Meanwhile the hero Śatrughna crossed the river Yamunā and took his stand, bow in hand, at the gate of Madhu's city, keeping Rāma's counsel to the letter: to stand at the gate before the demon went back in. Then, when half the day had gone, the rākṣasa of cruel deeds came back carrying a load of many thousands of living creatures; he had spent the whole morning killing them, and now bore them home on his shoulders, a picture of his cruelty and his appetite. The poet makes it a dramatic scene: on one side the calm archer waiting ready at the gate, on the other the demon with his burden, suspecting nothing. Lavaṇa had no spear in his hand, so today he could be killed. And note Śatrughna's steadiness: he waited at the gate from dawn to midday without growing impatient.

Then Lavaṇa saw Śatrughna standing at the gate with his weapon ready, and the rākṣasa said to him, "What do you think you will do with that? I have eaten thousands of armed men like you in my rage, you lowest of men. Death has caught up with you. My meal isn't finished yet, you basest of men. How is it, fool, that you have walked into my mouth of your own accord today?" His arrogance is plain: taking Śatrughna for a mere man, he saw him only as food, and heaped insults on him, "lowest of men", "basest of men", "fool". That arrogance would be his undoing, for despising his enemy he took no care. That his meal was "not yet complete" though he carried thousands of creatures shows his insatiable greed; like the two rākṣasas in Kalmāṣapāda's story who "never had enough", the nature of rākṣasas is everywhere the same.

As Lavaṇa spoke, laughing again and again, the valiant Śatrughna shed tears of rage, the sign of a hero's fierce anger. From every limb of the great-souled prince, overcome with fury, rays of fiery energy streamed out: the energy Rāma had filled him with was now shining forth. In towering anger Śatrughna said to the night-rover, "Evil-minded one, I want to fight you in single combat. I am the son of Daśaratha, the brother of wise Rāma, Śatrughna by name, a slayer of foes by deed, and I have come to kill you. I want to fight; grant me single combat. You are the enemy of all beings, and you will not get away from me alive." The play on his name shows how well it fitted him. As a warrior's dharma requires, Śatrughna announced who he was and challenged the demon to fight; he did not kill him by stealth, and that is the decorum of a righteous battle. Rāma's counsel had been secrecy, but only until he arrived; once face to face with his enemy he challenged him openly, and so both policy and dharma were kept.

When Śatrughna had spoken, the rākṣasa answered the best of men as if with a laugh, "How lucky that you have come, fool! Rāvaṇa, the rākṣasa, my mother's sister's brother, was killed by Rāma for the sake of a woman, you evil-minded one, basest of men. I have put up with the destruction of Rāvaṇa's whole family, holding all of you in contempt, and you most of all. All those who came against me before were trampled like grass and killed, and so it will be with you and your kind, now and to come, basest of men." Śūrpaṇakhā was the sister of Lavaṇa's mother Kumbhīnasī, so Rāvaṇa was like an uncle to him; hence he called him his mother's sister's brother. Then he asked for a respite. "You want a fight, fool, and I will give you a fight. Just wait a moment while I fetch my weapon." His trick is plain: he wanted to fetch the spear, knowing he was weak without it, and he hid that weakness behind bold words.

"I will get ready whatever weapon you like," Lavaṇa said. Śatrughna answered at once, "Where do you think you can go from me alive? A man in command of himself must never let go an enemy who has come to him of his own accord. The dull-witted man who, out of a timid mind, gives his enemy room to move is killed like a coward." Rāma's counsel was fixed in Śatrughna's heart: the demon must not be allowed to fetch his spear, and he would not repeat Māndhātā's mistake. And in a closing verse he declared, "So take a good look at the world of the living, for the last time. With sharp arrows of many kinds I will send you, wicked one, enemy of the three worlds and of Rāghava, on your way to the house of Yama." Even in a righteous battle an enemy must not be given a chance to use a trick; that is the discernment of a warrior's dharma. The sarga ends at the very moment the fight begins, heightening the reader's suspense.