As the battle around him, Rama looked around him and instantly spotted Khara. Khara was sitting on a horse riding into the battle swinging left and right. He was slicing Rama’s men to bits. Rama decided that was enough and turned around.
He looked at Sita and said, “I do not know where this battle will go but you must go and be safe. I will come find you at the castle. Now hurry!”
Sita looked at him and nodded, then proceeded to run back into the castle and had the guards barricade the door. Rama then put on his helmet and got on his horse and charged down the hill towards Khara.
As he neared Khara he yelled, “We are going to finish this Khara!”
He then proceeded to jump off his horse and tackle Khara to the ground. Khara and Rama both rose quickly to their feet and drew their weapons. Khara struck right and left swinging widly while Rama tried to parry each blow. Unfortunately, he missed a few and was struck twice, once on his arm and another on his leg drawing a lot of blood.
Rama grimaced and yelled, “You got lucky, Khara. Now it’s my turn!”
Rama lunged and started slashing left, right, up and down. He never swung the same way twice so that it would confuse Khara about where he was going. He landed a multitude of hits and after swinging he looked at Khara.
Khara could not believe what had just happened. He thought he had this battle won but as he looked down he saw blood gushing from the cuts on his body and fell to his knees.
He cried out, “Rama, strike me down if you must in hate, but know killing me will never bring back the ones you lost.”
Rama was about to swing his sword down to behead Khara when he realized he was right.
He stopped himself short of beheading him and said, “Today, Khara, I spare your life and you now are indebted to me. Whenever I call on you or your army you must answer the call.”
Khara looked started and nodded in agreement. Now since the battle was finally over after 15 long grueling days, Rama raced back to the castle and was reunited with Sita. From that day on word of his mercy spread throughout the land.
Rama. (1816)
Na. Source: Wikicommons
Author's Notes:
I wanted this story to go a different direction than the original. In the original one Rama sent a flaming arrow and destroyed Khara. With this one I wanted it to drag out a while but instead of Khara dying, he was spared. I think it is more impressive to show mercy to people who don't deserve it than to kill.
Bibliography: Gibbs, Laura. Battle with Khara. Battle with Khara
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