Rama reproved him, saying, 'How
couldst thou come hither, leaving the princess of Videha in a forest that
is haunted by the Rakshasa?' And reflecting on his own enticement to a
great distance by that Rakshasa in the guise of a deer and on the arrival
of his brother (leaving Sita alone in the asylum), Rama was filled with
agony. And quickly advancing towards Lakshmana while reproving him still,
Rama asked him, 'O Lakshmana, is the princess of Videha still alive? I
fear she is no more!' Then Lakshmana told him everything about what Sita
had said, especially that unbecoming language of hers subsequently. With
a burning heart Rama then ran towards the asylum. And on the way he
beheld a vulture huge as a mountain, lying in agonies of death. And
suspecting him to be a Rakshasa, the descendant of the Kakutstha race,
along with Lakshmana rushed towards him, drawing with great force his bow
to a circle. The mighty vulture, however, addressing them both, said,
'Blessed be ye, I am the king of the vultures, and friend of Dasaratha!'
Hearing these words of his, both Rama and his brother put aside their
excellent bow and said, 'Who is this one that speaketh the name of our
father in these woods?' And then they saw that creature to be a bird
destitute of two wings, and that bird then told them of his own overthrow
at the hands of Ravana for the sake of Sita. Then Rama enquired of the
vulture as to the way Ravana had taken. The vulture answered him by a nod
of his head and then breathed his last. And having understood from the
sign the vulture had made that Ravana had gone towards the south, Rama
reverencing his father's friend, caused his funeral obsequies to be duly
performed. Then those chastisers of foes, Rama and Lakshmana, filled with
grief at the abduction of the princess of Videha, took a southern path
through the Dandaka woods beholding along their way many uninhabited
asylums of ascetics, scattered over with seats of Kusa grass and
umbrellas of leaves and broken water-pots, and abounding with hundreds of
jackals. And in that great forest, Rama along with Sumatra's son beheld
many herds of deer running in all directions. And they heard a loud
uproar of various creatures like what is heard during a fast spreading
forest conflagration. And soon they beheld a headless Rakshasa of
terrible mien. And that Rakshasa was dark as the clouds and huge as a
mountain, with shoulders broad as those of a Sola tree, and with arms
that were gig