Chapter 71 — Ravana and Vali

Agastya's account did not make Kartavirya's victory an ending. Released by Pulastya's request, Ravana went on across the earth as before. If word reached him of a rakshasa or a human being whose strength was spoken of highly, he sought that person out and demanded a contest. Defeat had not taught him modesty; it had only sent him looking for a harder measure.

So he came to Kishkindha, the city of the vanaras, and called for its king. Vali was away. His kinsmen and elders answered Ravana with Sugriva among them. Their warning was not a boast. Vali, they said, had gone to make Sandhya, the observance offered at the meeting of day and night, at the four great oceans. If Ravana could wait a little, he would return. Around the city lay pale heaps of bone, the remains, they said, of others who had come seeking Vali's battle.

Ravana would not wait. He climbed into Pushpaka and flew south.

At the southern ocean he found Vali standing near the water, intent upon his observance. The vanara king's body shone in the late light; he stood unmoving as a mountain while the waves broke and drew back. Ravana descended from the celestial vehicle and approached without a sound, meaning to seize him from behind.

Vali saw him. He did not turn at once. He understood the purpose of the approach and let it come within reach. Then, as Ravana lunged, Vali caught him and held the ten-headed king beneath his arm.

Ravana struggled, clawed, and called to his ministers. They rose after him, shouting from below, but could not overtake Vali's course. With Ravana held as one might carry a captured serpent, Vali crossed the sky to the western ocean. There he completed the evening observance, bathed, and recited the appointed words. Then he went north, then east, making the same observance at each shore. The journey did not become a duel. It became a measure Ravana could neither interrupt nor escape.

At last Vali returned to a garden outside Kishkindha. He set Ravana down and, with laughter still in his voice, asked who he was.

Ravana had seen the four oceans from beneath another's arm. He did not deny what he had learned. He named himself and said that he had come seeking battle, but had found the encounter already decided. He praised Vali's strength, speed, and composure, and asked for enduring friendship.

Vali agreed. Before a kindled fire, the vanara king and the rakshasa king made their pact and embraced. Ravana remained in Kishkindha for a month, as an ally rather than a captive. Yet Agastya's tale left the encounter clear in Rama's court: Vali's power had not been a rumor, and Ravana's force had again met a limit it could not command.