Chapter 64 — Below the Waters

After leaving Yama's realm, Ravana turned Pushpaka toward the regions below the waters. He traveled through Rasatala, the lower realm already known in Agastya's account as a refuge for defeated rakshasas, and entered the great ocean guarded by Varuna, lord of the waters.

There were inhabitants and cities beyond human roads. Ravana came first to Bhogavati, a city of the nagas, serpent-associated beings, under Vasuki's rule. It was no empty cavern, and no hiding place for monsters. It is a defended polity with its own ruler and people. Ravana subdued its nagas and went on, pleased by the submission.

Beyond it lay Manimaya, the jeweled city. Its name marks what it was: not another nameless stop in Ravana's march, but a place of wealth and established strength beneath the waters, home to opponents protected by a boon as he was. Ravana came there still measuring every realm by whether it could be made to yield.

There lived the Nivatakavachas, a named people whose boon made them immune to defeat even by the gods together with the danavas. Ravana challenged them to battle. They accepted; they were strong, armed, and eager for the contest. His own boon had made him impossible for gods and asuras to conquer. The two sides had reached the same hard boundary from opposite directions.

But before the battle could decide anything, a messenger of Brahma came between the two sides. He told them that Ravana could not be overcome even by gods and asuras together, and that the Nivatakavachas likewise could not be destroyed by gods with the danavas. Neither side was being asked to bow. The messenger proposed friendship, a sharing of interests between powers neither could defeat.

Ravana accepted. Before fire as witness, he made a pact with the Nivatakavachas. He stayed with them for a year, treated there as a friend rather than a conqueror. The distinction mattered, though he did not carry it forward as a lesson.

Then he resumed his journey and came to a place of wonder before Varuna's dwelling: Surabhi, the celestial cow, and further marvels of the cosmic world. Ravana circled Surabhi in reverence and went on into Varuna's domain.

Varuna was no local ruler waiting in an underwater palace. Earlier in Agastya's account he was named among the great guardians of the world as lord of the waters. His domain was therefore a center of the element through which Ravana had traveled: bright as an autumn cloud, crossed by many streams, guarded by many kinds of force. To demand battle there was to extend Ravana's campaign against the keepers of the world's order, not merely to raid another city.

At the gate he defeated the commanders and sent his demand inside.

“Ravana has come seeking battle,” he said. “Let Varuna meet him. Or say with joined hands that you are defeated.”

Varuna's sons came out instead. They met Ravana from their chariots, and when those were broken they stood in the air, still fighting. Ravana's companion Mahodara struck down their vehicles; the sons answered with arrows and pressed him. Ravana entered the fight in anger. His arrows and weapons drove their foot soldiers down. When he saw Varuna's sons failing, he roared.

At last Varuna's minister spoke. Varuna himself, he said, had gone away to hear the music of the gandharvas. The sons who had remained had already been defeated. Ravana had not fought Varuna.

Ravana did not wait for the lord of the waters to return. He announced his own name with satisfaction, left the dwelling, and took the same sky-road back toward Lanka. In Rama's court, the story did not grant him the conquest he claimed. It recorded the difference between meeting an opponent and arriving after he was gone.