The warriors of Ravana came to him and informed him

that the city of Lanka had been surrounded by Rama

along with his Vanara warriors. Knowing this, Ravana

began to make arrangements for war, and climbed up to

the ramparts of the city walls to look at the invading
army and to ensure that Lanka was well defended.
Ravana looked all about the beautiful city of Lanka, and
the mountains and forests that were within it, and around
the city walls. The beauty of his glorious city was
marred by the extensively spread out army of Rama,
waiting to attack.
From where he stood, Ravana could see that Rama's
army of Vanaras was in good strength. At this moment,
the valiant Ravana was perplexed, seeing the numbers of
the Vanaras, and wondered how he could destroy them
completely. Knowing the strength of his own army, his
generals and especially his son, Indrajit, Ravana
regained his confidence and assured himself that victory
would definitely be his, and Rama and his army of
Vanaras would be wiped out.
At the same moment, Rama was inspecting the city and
its great walls. Rama, seated on Hanuman's shoulders,
moved about his army of Vanaras, and inspected the
armies of Ravana, the manner in which the city was
defended, the various banners of Ravana's generals and
the numerous settlements within the protected walls. For
Rama, he did not see the beauty of Lanka, and neither
did he seem to appreciate the forests and mountains. For
him, his heart in anguish, he kept telling himself, that
this was the city where Sita, the daughter of Janaka, was
hidden away.
Valmiki writes that, at that moment, Rama thought of
Sita, who eyes resembled those of a fawn, and yet was
tormented with severe grief, and probably was in severe
physical distress, possibly refusing to eat, and sleeping
on bare ground and suffering all these days merely

because of the actions of Rama, himself. Thinking of

Sita in trouble, thus, Rama commanded his army of
Vanaras to attack the city of Lanka immediately.
Realising that Rama was not weary of having arrived in
Lanka just then, crossing over the bridge that they had
constructed, having struggled with it for many days, the
eager army of Vanaras were delighted. They were all
keen to begin the battle, and show their prowess to Rama
and Sugreeva, the King of the Vanaras.
The Vanara warriors roared in pleasure, eager to fight,
roaring that they would destroy the city of Lanka, and
that they would do so merely with rocks, mountainpeaks or with their fists. Some Vanara generals roared

that they could destroy the city of Lanka with their bare
hands. They could tear off and lift entire mountain
peaks, huge rocks or pull out huge trees and carry them
as weapons. Having armed themselves, they began to
attack the city walls, and Ravana stood, waiting,
watching and wondering.
Ravana wondered, "What sort of an army was this?
These Vanaras did not seem to carry any traditional
weapons. They were destroying Lanka, uprooting the
forests, breaking up mountains, and carrying huge rocks
as though it was the normal manner of war." The
Vanaras attacked the city walls, and demolished many of
the great walls, the gate arches and the moats.
They did all this by using trees, mountain-peaks and
huge rocks. They filled the moats with debris and scaled
the walls of the city, as Valmiki writes, "in battalions of
monkeys in thousands, in crores, and even hundreds of
crores." [Crore = ten million]

It seemed to Ravana that as the thrill of war took over

the Vanaras and their generals, they began to grow in
size, with some resembling large elephants in enormity.
These Vanaras, huge and capable of changing their size
and shape, attacked the arches of the walls and broke
down the gates of the city, as Valmiki wrote, "equaled
Shiva's Kailasa itself. These Vanaras kept shouting for
victory to Rama and Lakshmana and to Sugreeva, who
was protected by Raghava (= Narayana) himself.
The army of the Vanaras was not merely made of
Sugreeva, Angad, Hanuman and Jambavan. There were
great warriors, all known for their prowess and skill. The
Vanara generals, Virabahu, Subahu, Nala and Panasa
were known for previous battles and wars that they had
won. Each one of them could lead more than a ten
million Vanaras into battle, and they did command such
numbers in this war on Lanka.