In the story
Vajradaṃṣṭra is despatched after Dhūmrākṣa has fallen, marching out by the southern gate where Aṅgada holds station. He is a formidable bowman and swordsman, and the fighting he gives the vānaras is long and costly, littering the field with dead on both sides.
Aṅgada meets him crag against arrow, destroys his chariot, and in the close fighting at the end strikes off his head with a sword.
In the design of the siege
The engagement is the second of the four, and it is the one that establishes Aṅgada — Vālī's son, and until this point chiefly a young officer with a difficult family position — as a fighter of the first rank. The Yuddha Kāṇḍa uses its parade of rākṣasa generals partly to kill them and partly to show what each of the vānara commanders can do.
The name
Vajradaṃṣṭra — diamond-fang, or thunderbolt-tooth — belongs to a class of rākṣasa names built from a weapon or a body part, alongside Dhūmrākṣa, Mahodara, Triśiras and Atikāya. The epic uses such names to populate its enemy army quickly and memorably, and the tradition of illustrated Rāmāyaṇas has often taken them literally, giving each general the feature his name specifies.
Aṅgada's making
The engagement is where Vālī's son stops being a young officer with a difficult family position and becomes a fighter of the first rank. The Yuddha Kāṇḍa uses its parade of rākṣasa generals partly to establish what each vānara commander can do.
Further reading
- Bose, Mandakranta. The Ramayana Revisited. Oxford University Press, 2004
- Goldman, Robert P. The Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India. Princeton University Press, 1984
- Nagar, Shanti Lal. Genesis and Evolution of the Rama Katha in Indian Art, Thought, Literature and Culture. B.R. Publishing, 2005
- Ramanujan, A. K. The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan. Oxford University Press, 1999
- Richman, Paula. Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. University of California Press, 1991
See also
- Dhūmrākṣa — Dhūmrākṣa is the rākṣasa general in the Rāmāyaṇa sent out through the western gate of Laṅkā under evil omens, and killed by Hanumān with a boulder.
- Aṅgada — Aṅgada is the son of Vālī and Tārā in the Rāmāyaṇa, made crown prince of Kiṣkindhā at his father's dying request, who led the southern search and went as Rāma's envoy to Rāvaṇa's court.
- Prahasta — Prahasta is Rāvaṇa's chief minister and commander-in-chief in the Rāmāyaṇa, held back until three other generals had been killed and then sent out to die at the eastern gate.
- Yuddha Kāṇḍa — The Yuddha Kāṇḍa is the sixth and longest book of the Rāmāyaṇa, covering the bridging of the sea, the siege of Laṅkā, the deaths of Kumbhakarṇa, Indrajit and Rāvaṇa, Sītā's ordeal by fire and the return to Ayodhyā.
- Laṅkā — Laṅkā is Rāvaṇa's island city in the Rāmāyaṇa, taken from his half-brother Kubera, burned by Hanumān and besieged by Rāma — traditionally identified with Sri Lanka, though the epic does not settle the question.
- Akampana — Akampana is the rākṣasa in the Rāmāyaṇa who escaped the destruction of Janasthāna and first proposed to Rāvaṇa that Sītā be stolen rather than Rāma fought — and a general of the same name killed by Hanumān at Laṅkā.
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.