Rama and Lakshman had found the dying bird Jatayu, who with his last breath had told them what had happened. They set off through the forest toward the ocean hundreds of miles away. On the way they were suddenly captured by a giant and terrible demon named Kabandha. Kabandha had no head, and had arms eight miles long. Rama and Lakshman fought, severing his great arms, and Kabandha fell to the ground.

He told them his story: He had been a demigod, who liked to assume the form of a demon to scare people. A sage, angered by this behavior, had cursed him to remain a demon. The sage told him he would be released from this curse the day he was killed by Rama and Lakshman. Later, in a fight with Indra, he had been struck by Indra’s thunderbolt which had driven his head into his chest.

Obligingly, Rama and Lakshman finished killing him and cremated the body. As Kadambha, in his own beautiful demigod body, assended the sky, he told Rama to find help from the great monkeys under the monkey King Sugriva.