Chapter 44
Prahastha insisted that Ravana should see how his kingdom was doing and that it was the duty of
the king to take action against their suffering. Finally ravana agreed. He saw all the sufferings and
horriblr things everyone were undergoing in his kingdom. It brought him to tears as he thought of his
dead son. He felt that his loss of his son was nothing compared to what everyone else was going
through. An old woman was cursing him and shouting at him for lusting over sita and what it brought
onto them. Ravana felt like a loser, he tried to touch the old ladys feet to beg for her forgiveness but
then suddenly she apologized and so did the whole crowd. Suddenly everyone wanted revenge and
wanted to avenge their loved ones. Everyone were angry at hanuman for setting lanka on fire and
wanted kill all monkey men.
Later on when Ravana descended to his room and met with his wife and he saw that even she was
grieving over her son that she just lost. And they agreed to not send sita, their daughter back to
Rama. For a second it came to Ravanas mind to send her back to her husband, to her fate and thus
he and his people can end their sufferings. But then his wife mandodari didn’t let him do it. She told
him to think how the devas treat the women when they’ve lived among devas. She said that she
already lost a child and didn’t want to lose another. As ravana looked into the mirror he started
questioning himself as to what he had being doing and saw that he was growing old. In the council
meeting they discussed their plans. Ravana was itching for revenge. He wanted laxmana dead and
wanted to kill hanuman with his own hands. Finally, it was decided that Vibhishana would go with a
sizable army and Varuna’s navy would protect him from the sea. Vibhishana also assured us that if
required, he would use force and capture Rama, if he did not see reason. Prahastha was against this
and thought that they should take the advantage by attacking rama’s army first. But since ravana
ordered Vibhishana to go as an emissary, prahastha implied and carried out all arrangements for the
plans. Ravana was tired and sad as he had just cremated his son. Thus he retreated to his room.
Chapter 46
Ravana was done with the endless council meetings, their undying need to impress him, his palace,
empire, everything. He was done with life and the asuras. He wishes he chosen a simpler life instead
of choosing to be a king. He could’ve lived there and died peacefully and normally like other people.
He could’ve enjoyed and he would’ve had all the time in the world to do so. But life had other plans
for him and these were just dreams. He didn’t do his puja to Lord shiva today. He reached the durbar
for another council meeting and addressed vibhishanas betrayal. He left the asuras for the gods, to
become a slave for the devas. Prahastha suggested running away and waiting for the devas to
retreat but Ravana didn’t wanna run away. He wanted to kill them all. Another council member
suggested staying in the hills till next monsoon and trapping rama and his troops between the sea
and the city. Ravana was contemplating on both the options which made a lot of sense. B ut he
neither wanted to run away nor give up the city. He wanted to stay and prtotect his people. Later on
a whole crowd assembled and were chanting victory to Ravana. He felt good, he felt like God. He felt
the charisma he had lost somewhere in the labyrinths of power, return to him. he felt that he had
once again reconnected with my people. he regained his youth. He addressed the crowd, the
gathering, he gave a heartfelt speech. He apologised to them for blaming them, the crowd the
society for when he should’ve been blamed. He later on came out with his secret that sita was his
daughter.