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(moon at night, from Pexels)
Savanad gazed out of his window. The moon was a pale orb in the sky, casting a haunting glow on the forest below. Oh how he longed to be free from this place!
"Why could I not have been born a man!" he thought.
Sighing, he turned away from the window and read again the letter on his table. The jagged, barely legible scrawl said one simple thing: "Gather to kill Rama." He shuddered as he read it, for there was only one among them with such longhand - the rakshasa Khara.
Savanad was torn. As a rakshasa himself, he was duty-bound to answer the summons. But in his heart, he had no such desire. Despite his fellow people feasting on man, Savanad instead longed to live among men, for he had seen with what variety a skilled cook could prepare any ingredient set before him. He had glimpsed the exquisite beauties of the women, and yearned to have one, not as a meal but as a mate. But alas, because he was a rakshasa, he would be attacked upon sight. As Kali would dictate, man and rakshasa were to be enemies.
But there was another reason he would like to avoid this battle - Rama. He had heard of the uprightness and greatness of this blue-skinned man, rumored to be an incarnation of Vishnu himself.
"How can Khara hope to defeat such a one! He is surely protected by divine blessings, and gazed upon favorably by the gods themselves. How insignificant is our chance at victory in battle!" cried Savanad. But because of his rakshasa blood, he was bound to enter battle. He departed to Khara's domain, and joined the thousands-strong army that had gathered there. He watched as Khara stood and proclaimed to the army,
"Brothers, we gather today to take vengeance for Shurpanakha, who was disfigured by the spiteful Rama and Lakshmana. May Kali bless us this day!"
The army, save for one, roared in response. Savanad felt a growing sickness in the depths of his stomach, but had no time to nurse it before the army, moving as one shifting mass of darkness, started toward Rama.
They approached Rama and stopped for a split second as they gazed upon him, clad in his white celestial armor. Fear began to creep into their hearts, but the urging of Khara to forge on quickly shunted it away. And so they forged on.
"Please listen to me, brothers! We cannot win against Rama! He is the incarnation of Vishnu himself. Let us retreat now, for if we fight against him, we fight against the gods themselves!" Savanad desperately pleaded, trying to convince the ones around him to retreat. But the roaring of the mass, trying to dispel their own fear, drowned out his cries. Mournfully, he gripped his weapon tighter, knowing full and well they were marching to their deaths...
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Rama released the final arrow, striking Khara in the heart, instantly consuming him in a blaze of fire. Warily looking around, he sighed and lowered his bow. The battle was won. He carefully walked through the corpses of rakshasas, littered with endless arrows. As he stepped over one, he felt a faint shuddering of life from it. Retrieving an arrow from a dead rakshasa, he nocked it to his bow and aimed at the barely alive rakshasa.
"Great Rama...how I admire you...In another life......perhaps we could have been companions," shuddered the rakshasa, before breathing his last breath. Rama lowered his bow. Never before had he met such a rakshasa, who desired to befriend man. He paid his respects to this strange rakshasa.
"May Brahma look favorably on you in the next life, strange one." Rama spoke softly, and gently closed Savanad's eyes shut.
Author's Note: I based this off the battle between Khara and Rama, from the perspective of a (new) fictional character named Savanad. Savanad is a rakshasa, but one who doesn't like the animosity between rakshasa and man. The rakshasas' main diet is men, and they are thus known as man-eaters, and are traditionally portrayed as antagonists against Rama (and his associates) in the Ramayana. Savanad is a bit of a misidentified rakshasa (you may notice his name is Danavas backwards), who would rather befriend man than eat him. Danavas are evil Asuras - a class of deities in Hindu mythology - that war against Adityas, the good Asuras. Later, the benevolent Asuras are known as Devas, who fight against the Danavas, who are "enemies of the gods." Rakshasas are included in this class of malevolent Asuras; the terms are sometimes used interchangeably.
Interestingly, humans and rakshasas have a sense and knowledge of the same divine beings, and even worship the same gods. However, this just means that their religion isn't a be-all-end-all; it's like how many religions today have a large schism between the extremely radical side and the orthodox side - the latter wants nothing to do with the former.
Another example in the story of this - rakshasas and men worshipping the same gods - is with Khara's attempt at boosting his army's morale by invoking the blessing of Kali. Similarly, before Rama went to fight Ravana, he offered a sacrifice to Durga, the warrior goddess.
In the end, perhaps it is fate that man and rakshasa shall never be companions. But in this (and the coming stories), I would like to challenge such a fate.
Biblography: from the PDE Ramayana, "Lakshmana and Surpanakha" and "Battle with Khara"
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