During the devasura war, Indra and Ravana got into a vicious duel in which Ravana is defeated and faints. Meghanad, enraged, engaged in a duel with Indra. He defeated him and tied him to his chariot and took him to Earth. Brahma, feared that Meghanad might kill Indra, who is the king of the gods, and intervened. He asked Meghanad to release Indra in exchange of a boon. Thus Meghanad became Indrajit.

    Indrajit only entered the battle after Ravana was defeated and Kumbhakarna was killed. He employed all of his sorcery skills. This made it very hard for Rama and Lakshmana to kill him because Indrajit would suddenly disappear from their vision and appear behind them.Indrajit let loose one of his most powerful weapons – the Nagapash. The weapon unleashed a million snakes that wrapped themselves around the bodies of Rama and Lakshmana. They fell utterly exhausted and had to be revived by Divine Garuda.

    Frustrated that he could not still defeat all of them, he unleashed most terrible weapon. Rama and Lakshmana yielded to the weapon. This was the reason Hanuman had to go to the Himalayas to get the Sanjeevani herbs. Indrajit was surprised on the next day that Rama and Lakshmana were still alive. If the mightiest weapon didn’t work, what would? He needed time to do the Yagna which would make him invincible. So he planned to psychologically demoralize the entire vanara army. He created an illusory Sita so real, everyone believed it to be her and killed her. Luckily Vibhishana saw through his game and helped Lakshmana along with Hanuman to interrupt his yagna. 

     In a terrific fight that ensued Lakshmana and Indrajit, who were engaged in releasing several streams of arrows, fought like two lions. Lakshmana the foremost among humans and Indrajit the foremost among rakshas fought ferociously.

     Finally fitting a missile presided over by Indra to his bow and drawing it, Lakshmana discharged it at Indrajit after making the following prayer (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 90 – Sloka 71) :