Meghanáda

Meghanáda is a warrior in the conflict with Rávaṇ whose fighting and death are recorded in a brief retrospective account of the war. The poem gives no further details of his identity or individual deeds in this passage, but places his fall among the major deaths leading into the account of Rávaṇ’s defeat.

Identity and Place in the Narrative

Meghanáda appears in a summary of the war’s decisive events, after the treaty with Vibhíshaṇ and the plan for Rávaṇ’s destruction have been mentioned. The passage associates him with the fighting against Ráma’s forces, but offers no separate description of his background, rank, or personal aims.

Fighting and Death

The account states that Meghanáda fought and died, pairing his fate with that of Kumbhakarṇa. It does not narrate either warrior’s combat in detail: their deaths are compressed into a single line, which presents the two falls as part of the same sequence of wartime losses.

Narrative Role

Immediately after naming Meghanáda and Kumbhakarṇa’s deaths, the summary turns to Rávaṇ’s own death in battle. This ordering gives Meghanáda a place in the movement from the deaths of the warriors to the defeat of their king, while keeping the account focused on the conflict’s outcome rather than on individual episodes.