After some time travelling, the exiled trio found Agastya’s Ashram. They were welcomed in and asked the Sage where they should next spend their time. Meditating on this thought, Agastya, whose tapas was so strong that he knew the past, present and future, told Rama to go to Panchavatī, knowing where fate would take them from there.
They settled down in Panchavatī, today known as Nasik, and met their met the vulture Jatāyu, one of Dasharatha’s friends, who would spend his time watching over the three, protecting them in any way he could. But, the trio would not encounter only their friends whilst in Panchvatī.
The demon Shūrpanakhā, also roamed around the forest where our protagonists were was staying, and one day found them by chance. Shūrpanakhā, the sister of the mighty Rāvana, beheld Rāma ‘who looked like a god’. Instantly infatuated by the sight of the majestic Rāma, the demon approached him, asking to be his wife, by virtue of her strength and power.
Shūrpanaka, whose eyes were ‘bound by the cords of love’, dashed towards Sita, so Rāma would be left only to her. Rāma worried about his beloved Sita, without hesitation, instructed Lakshmana to cut off her nose and ears. In Sanskrit the word for nose is nasika, and it is this event that gives Nasik its name.
Shūrpanakha, however, was the sister of Ravana, the demon Lord Vishnu had come down to kill. Finally, fate had ensured the crossing of the paths of Rāma and Ravana.
She went back to her abode in Janasthāna and told another one of her brothers, Khara, what had occurred. Distraught at the sight of his injured sister, and full of the most hateful anger, Khara commanded fourteen demons whose prowess resembled death, to kill those brothers and Sita.
Rāma, after realising that conflict was unavoidable, took out fourteen arrows from his quiver ‘that shone as brightly as the sun’, and sent them flying towards his enemies. Shūrpanakha, horrified at what had transpired, fled back to her brother, to relate to him the news. She berated her brother for thinking himself strong, yet being unable to defeat a lone human, in the form of Rāma. Khara, insulted and humiliated, violently exclaimed that he himself along with his army of fourteen thousand demons, would ensure that the brothers Rāma and Lakshmana would not cause no more trouble to the demons in the forest.
Eager to know the outcome of the impeding battle, Rishis, Gods and Gandharvas all assembled, to watch over the earthly events, and to witness the virtue of Rāma.
Like dark clouds enveloping a mountain, the fourteen thousands demons threw themselves at Rāma. ‘possessed by anger as though burning with glory’, Rāma fought the army before him. A terrible battle ensued, but the Rāmāyana reads that at its conclusion, ‘fourteen thousand ogres of terrible deeds were killed by Rāma, a human being, fighting on foot., single-handed’.
Stunned, Shurpanakha went to Lanka to tell Rāvana what had happened. The furious Rāvana said he would go to kill Rāma himself. However, advised against it by his council who knew that Rama could not be defeated in battle. He was instead convinced of a plan. Steal Sita from Rama. Without Sita who was Rama’s very life, he would soon die of a broken heart.
Ravana turned to Maricha, a demon and master of expression whom Viswamitra had asked Rama to protect him from in the forest all those years ago. Maricha, once a demon, started to live the life of an ascetic, after twice having had his life spared at the hands of Srī Rāma. Fearful of Rāma’s power, Maricha tried to warn Ravana against this. ‘If you forcibly take Sita away in spite of being repeatedly dissuaded by me, you will reach the abode of death together with your kith and kin, your army being destroyed and your life brought to an end by the arrows of Rama’.
But Ravana did not accept the wise council of Maricha, ‘any more than a man courting death would accept a remedy’. He ordered Maricha to turn into a gold dear and present himself before Sita. Sita being so enamoured by the beauty of the life in front of her would ask Rama to catch it for her. Allowing Rama to follow him far away from Sita, Maricha was to call out to Lakshmana asking for help in Rāma’s voice. Thus Rāma and Lakshmana would be lured away from their ashram, leaving Sita alone.
Ravana told Maricha that he may face death at the hands of Rama if he did this, but would certainly be killed by Ravana now if he did not. Maricha was left feeling helpless. His king and his friend who was meant to protect those under him, had chosen to pursue a path that would lead only to death, Maricha, wanting to be killed by his enemy rather than his king, chose to help Ravana who was driven by anger.
Through tricking Rāma and Lakshmana and luring them out of their ashram, Sita was left alone. Ravana, in disguise, came and took Sita away. The Ramāyana reads that:
‘Seeing Sita bring borne away, the glorious sun itself felt wretched with its splendour totally eclipsed and its orb rendered pale.’
In the process Ravana killed Rāma’s dearest friend the bird Jatayu, who died protecting Sita. Sita was taken to Lanka, and Rāma was left without his heart, in the city of Nasik.
