Indrajit
Indian mythology · rakshasa · sorcery, invisible warfare
Ravana's son Meghanada, called Indrajit for defeating Indra himself. Fighting invisible from the clouds, he twice felled Rama and Lakshmana with serpent-arrows; only Lakshmana, exploiting the one gap in his ritual armor, could kill him.
Stories
The Sanjivani Mountain
Indrajit's serpent arrows leave Lakshmana dying on the field, and the healing herb grows on one Himalayan peak a night's flight away. Hanuman, unable to tell which herb is which, uproots the entire mountain and carries it back across the sky before dawn.
The Fall of Ravana
Kumbhakarna has fallen telling his brother he was wrong; Indrajit has fallen to Lakshmana. Ravana himself takes the field, and Rama, aiming at last for the heart rather than the ten heads that regrow, ends the war. Mandodari laments a husband greater than his own choice; Vibhishana lights the pyre.