Two Cries of Victory Meet at the Center of the Field
Lanka Kanda, Doha 79
Doha 79 · Movement 3 of 3
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The two armies recognize their own formations and a cry of victory rises from either side. For one suspended moment, the battlefield is divided not only by bodies and banners but by the names in which those bodies place their confidence.
From one direction the heroes proclaim Rama. From the other they glorify Ravana. The same word, victory, passes through opposing hearts and receives a different center. One side moves beneath the Lord whose strength makes grass become a thunderbolt. The other gathers around a king who has mistaken refusal for sovereignty.
Then the warriors meet. The distance between the cries closes in the crash of combat, and allegiance becomes visible through action. Tulsidas offers no quiet abstraction here. Rama and Ravana are spoken into the dust by those who fight for them, and the field itself becomes the place where the truth carried by each name will be revealed.
When the armies collide, every cry of victory reveals the lord to whom the heart has already given itself.
Read the passage from the Manas
दुहु दिसि जय जयकार करि निज निज जोरी जानि। भिरे बीर इत रामहि उत रावनहि बखानि।।79।।
On both sides rose cries of 'Jaya! Jaya!' as each army recognised its own forces. The heroes clashed: here proclaiming Rama, there glorifying Ravana.