Jatayu: The Eagle Who Fought Alone

He was old. His wings were tired. But when he saw Ravana carrying Sita away, he didn't hesitate.

An old eagle named Jatayu, who once knew Rama's father long ago, sees the demon king Ravana flying through the sky carrying a crying Sita away. He is too old to win. He fights anyway. He loses his wings and falls to the forest floor, but he holds on long enough to tell Rama which way Ravana went. One brave old bird becomes the reason the whole rescue begins.

An Old Eagle on a Tall Tree

In a quiet forest in the south of Bharat, on the very top of a tall sal tree, there lived an old eagle.

His name was Jatayu.

His feathers were not bright anymore. They were grey at the edges, brown in the middle, white near his old wise eyes. His wings, which had once carried him over mountains and oceans, were tired now. He spent most of his days sitting on his big branch, watching the sky, remembering.

Because Jatayu was very, very old.

He had been a friend, long ago, of a king named Dasharatha. Yes, the same Dasharatha who was Rama's father. Many years before this story, when Dasharatha was a young man, he and Jatayu had shared adventures together. They had once even raced in the sky, the king in his chariot and the eagle on his wings.

Now Dasharatha was gone. Jatayu was the last one left from those old days. He sat on his tree and waited for the wind, and he watched.

He did not know that on this very afternoon, he was about to meet Dasharatha's son.

A Cry from Above

It was a hot afternoon. The cicadas were singing. The forest was sleepy.

Suddenly, Jatayu's old eyes snapped open.

Something was wrong with the sky.

A huge dark shape was flying very fast, very high, going south. It looked like a black cloud at first, but a cloud does not fly that fast. Jatayu squinted his sharp eagle eyes.

It was a flying chariot. A magic chariot pulled by donkey-faced demons. Inside it sat a giant of a man with ten heads. Ten! Each head wore a crown. His arms were many and strong.

Jatayu's old heart went cold. He knew this giant. Every creature in the forest knew him. This was Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. And Ravana never came north for any good reason.