लक्ष्मणस्य रामसमीपगमनं सुषेणेन चिकित्सा च

Having slain in battle Indrajit, the conqueror of Śakra, Lakṣmaṇa of the auspicious marks was glad at heart, though his limbs were drenched with blood and his body was full of wounds. Then the valiant and mighty prince gathered Jāmbavān, Hanūmān and all the forest-dwellers and came quickly to where Sugrīva and Rāghava were, leaning on Vibhīṣaṇa and Hanūmān, for he was exhausted and hurt. Approaching Rāma, Sumitrā's son saluted him and stood close beside his brother, as Upendra, Indra's younger brother, stands beside Śakra; the comparison lends the bond between the two brothers something divine. Coming up almost groaning, a sign of his pain and weariness, the hero told great Rāghava of Indrajit's dreadful death, and then Vibhīṣaṇa, delighted, announced plainly to Rāma that the great Lakṣmaṇa had cut off the head of Rāvaṇa's son. Lakṣmaṇa's modesty shows throughout: after so great a deed he first salutes his brother and stays at his side, and it is his friend, not he, who spells out the victory, for he does not seek his own praise. Nor does he come ahead of the rest but arrives together with all his companions, as if the victory belonged to everyone; the naming of Jāmbavān, Hanūmān and Vibhīṣaṇa recalls the help they had given. Rāma had been waiting with Sugrīva, for it was he who had sent Lakṣmaṇa to break up Indrajit's sacrifice at Nikumbhilā.

On merely hearing that Lakṣmaṇa had slain Indrajit, mighty Rāma felt joy beyond compare. "Well done, Lakṣmaṇa!" he said. "I am pleased; you have done a deed that was hard to do. Know that with the destruction of Rāvaṇa's son the victory is won." He did not stop at praise but spelled out what the deed meant: with Indrajit dead the war was all but won, and so he set the greatness of Lakṣmaṇa's work before them all. Then valiant Rāma, out of affection, drew Lakṣmaṇa, who had increased his fame and was now abashed by the praise, forcibly onto his lap, smelled his head, embraced him tightly and gazed at his beloved brother again and again, as if to assure himself that he was safe. Drawing him onto his lap and smelling his head are signs of a father's tenderness. But when he saw Lakṣmaṇa tormented by the arrow-points still lodged in him, wounded by weapons and breathing hard, Rāma burned with grief at his laboured breath. His joy at the victory and his pain at his brother's suffering came together, and it is this very human feeling that brings his character to life. The bull among men smelled his head once more, touched him again in haste, comforted him, and spoke to him.

"You, who do what is hard to do," Rāma said, "have done a supremely auspicious deed. Now that his son is slain, I count Rāvaṇa as good as slain in battle; today, with that evil one dead, I am victor over my enemy. By good fortune, hero, you have cut off cruel Rāvaṇa's right arm, for Indrajit was his mainstay." Comparing the death of a king's chief support to the severing of his right arm is a well-known figure of statecraft. Rāma did not forget the others either: "Vibhīṣaṇa and Hanūmān too have done a great deed in this battle," he said, giving everyone his due. "For three days and nights the fight went on, and at last the hero has been brought down. Today I am rid of my enemies, for Rāvaṇa will surely come out now, with a great array of troops, when he hears that his son has fallen. When the lord of rākṣasas comes out, burning at his son's death, I shall surround that hard-to-conquer foe with a great force and kill him. With you as my protector, Lakṣmaṇa, now that the conqueror of Śakra is dead, neither Sītā nor the earth will be hard for me to win." Rāma read his enemy's mind well: grief for his son would drive Rāvaṇa into battle in rage. The three days and nights mark how long the struggle with Indrajit had been; the words "I am rid of my enemies" show Rāma's confidence, since with Indrajit gone Rāvaṇa stood almost alone; and in calling Lakṣmaṇa his protector Rāma paid him the highest honour.

Having comforted and embraced his brother, Rāghava gladly turned to Suṣeṇa. "Wise one," he said, "let Sumitrā's son, who loves his friends, be freed of these arrow-points; treat him so that he becomes entirely well. Draw out the arrow-points from him quickly, and from Vibhīṣaṇa too; and any others among the armies of bears and monkeys, heroes who fight with trees, who are still fighting here wounded and with arrow-points in them, make them all well with your care." Rāma does not think of his own brother and forget the rest; every soldier has a claim to healing, and Vibhīṣaṇa is named because he too had been wounded, struck in the face by three of Indrajit's arrows. Caring for all his friends is Rāma's nature. So addressed, the great monkey leader Suṣeṇa, the monkeys' famous physician, learned in herbs and Sugrīva's father-in-law, gave Lakṣmaṇa a supreme remedy through the nose. Merely by smelling its fragrance Lakṣmaṇa was freed of the arrow-points; his pain left him and his wounds healed, as if by a divine medicine, and this time the remedy was close at hand and did not have to be fetched from afar. At Rāghava's command Suṣeṇa then treated their friends, Vibhīṣaṇa first, and all the chief monkeys, patiently caring for every one, so that not Lakṣmaṇa alone but all the wounded warriors were restored; the passage shows how much a physician counts for in war. Then, the arrow-points removed and his weariness gone, Sumitrā's son was himself again, free of fever in a moment, and he rejoiced there; his quick recovery made him ready for the next stage of the war.

Then Rāma, Sugrīva lord of the monkeys, Vibhīṣaṇa and valiant Jāmbavān, lord of the bears, seeing Sumitrā's son up again and well, rejoiced with their armies for a long while. The great son of Daśaratha honoured that most difficult deed of Lakṣmaṇa's, and Sugrīva, lord of the monkeys, rejoiced on the battlefield when he heard that the conqueror of Śakra had fallen. So the sarga ends in gladness, with everyone waiting for the last stage of the war and for Rāvaṇa to come out.