Lanka under siege

Lanka under siege marks the transition from crossing the sea to fighting at the gates of Rávaṇ’s capital. After a bridge has been cast across the water and Ráma’s legions have passed over it, the Vánar Army gathers around Lanká. What follows is both a military encirclement and a vivid change of scale: a force newly arrived in hostile territory confronts a city whose defenses seem formidable, then turns the landscape itself into a means of attack.

From Crossing to Encirclement

The siege begins only after the sea crossing has brought the army to Lanká’s shore. The bridge is the necessary link between the expedition and its immediate objective: once the legions have crossed, the conflict is no longer a distant pursuit but a confrontation with the defended city. The sequence makes the passage across the sea and the encirclement parts of one military operation, moving the army from approach to pressure on the capital.

The arrival does not erase the difficulty of the position. At a council, the warriors regard themselves as strangers in enemy territory and survey their hopes and fears as Lanká’s towers come into view. Their deliberation places the city before the reader as a visible objective, but also as an intimidating obstacle. The attackers have reached the place where the conflict must be decided; they have not yet overcome its defenses.

The City and Its Defenses

The towers and walls give Lanká a strong defensive outline. The council describes the city as defended by Rávaṇ’s power and might, and presents its protection as so formidable that even Devas and Gandharvas would fail against it. This is the warriors’ assessment of the challenge, not a report that the defenses have already been tested or breached. The claim heightens the contrast between the invaders’ arrival and the apparent security of the city they face.

The surrounding moat makes the approach more than a matter of reaching the walls. It is an obstacle the besiegers must address before their assault can press closer. The account’s emphasis on towers, walls, and moat sets out successive barriers between the Vánar Army and the city: the army can surround the fortifications, but it must also find a way to confront the defenses immediately before them.

Deployment Around the Walls

The siege is organized around Lanká rather than focused on a single gate. Myriads assemble on every side, closely hemming in the walls. Within this broad encirclement, Sugríva holds the wood east of the gate where Rávaṇ stands. The specified position gives the general description of a surrounding host a concrete point of reference: the army is distributed around the city, while Sugríva’s placement connects the besiegers to a particular eastern approach.

The composition of the scene shifts between the scale of that deployment and the individual placement of a leader. The many troops make the city’s enclosure appear extensive; the named position east of the gate shows that the force also has discernible organization. The passage does not set out a complete command structure or assign every section of the encircling army to a particular commander. It does, however, distinguish Sugríva’s position as the myriads converge around the defensive perimeter.

The Moat as the First Assault

The besiegers answer the moat with mass action. At their leader’s call, they fill it with stones, trees, and rocks, described in the verse as mountains overthrown. The obstacle that had separated the army from the walls becomes the immediate focus of the attack: rather than merely remaining outside the defenses, the troops bring material to bear on the intervening barrier.

This movement from encirclement to assault gives the siege its defining progression. The bridge has carried the army across the sea; now stones, trees, and rocks are driven into the moat. In both stages, the narrative presents movement and material as practical answers to a barrier, first the expanse of water and then the city’s defenses. The gathered army’s collective shout and its response to a leader’s call make the assault a coordinated undertaking, while the scale of the materials and the multitude of troops give the action its force. The account establishes the beginning of the attack on Lanká, not the outcome of the siege: at this point the city is surrounded and the moat is being filled, but its walls have not yet been reported taken.