First published in Bengali in 1861, The Poem of the Killing of Meghnad (Meghnadbadh kabya) by Michael Madhusudan Dutt is an epic in blank verse that has Indrajit (Meghnad), Ravan’s warrior son who is slain by Lakshman in the Ramayana, as its protagonist. But the manner in which Meghnad is killed by Lakshman in a temple, where he has come to carry out a puja to Agni and has no means of defending himself is a departure from the Kshatriya warrior-code. This is ...
