The Punishment That Burned an Entire City

Ravana had a problem with the prisoner standing in front of him.

He could not kill him.

The vanara had crossed the ocean, found Sita in the Ashoka Vatika, and given her Rama's message. He had made sure she was alive and had not broken. Then, on his way out, he wrecked a good part of the grove and the grounds around it on purpose, just to make a point about what was coming.

It had taken a long fight to bring him down.

Now he stood in the court, and he was not pleading. He was still delivering the warning.

Why the tail

Killing a messenger had costs, and even Ravana's court kept to that line.

His advisers said so. Several told him plainly that harming a messenger, whatever he had done, broke rules Lanka was expected to keep.