Vaidehi

Flush with victory, Indrajit returns to battle before performing his daily rites. Lakshmana, recovered and advised by Vibhishana, attacks him and kills him with three arrows — slicing off his bow-arm, his arrow-arm, and his head. When Ravana sees his son's corpse dragged into Lanka, he rushes to kill Vaidehi, but Avindhya calms him with reasoned counsel.

Yudhishthira sits in the forest, weighed down by exile and loss, when the ancient sage Markandeya finds him. Instead of empty comfort, Markandeya offers a series of comparisons — Rama’s endurance in the wilderness, Indra’s victories won through allies, and the Pandavas’ own recent rescue of Draupadi from Jayadratha — to argue that Yudhishthira has no reason to despair.