In Bala Kanda the legend of Vishvamitra is there. And there his association with Menaka is narrated. Some say the Menaka and Ghritaachi are the same apsara-s. But others say that Ghritaachi is a separate apsara. Vishvamitra gives up even his daily routines sandhya upaasana, nitya karma, required of a Vedic sage, in all the ten years of his association with Ghritaachi.

The ever-alive bodily appetites common for any living being are four aahaara, nidraa, maithuna, bhaya 'food, sleep, sex, and fear.'

Rohini is one of the twenty-seven stars of Indian Astrology, commencing from ashvani, bharaNi, kR^ittika, rohiNi... et al These are the daughters of Daksha Prajapati and wives of Moon. But the Moon is much interested in Rohini and used to neglect other twenty-six. Then all the twenty-six stars went to their father and complained, basing on which Daksha Prajapati issues a curse to Moon that he shall wane away. When his waning is beyond the reason, again the twenty-six stars have gone to their father and requested him to withdraw his curse. As an amendment to his curse Daksha says that the Moon shall wax for fifteen days and wane for the other fifteen days and the Moon shall take holy bath on no-moon day in one of the Holy Rivers, namely River Saraswati, now extinct, at a place called Prabhaasa. Then all the twenty-six other stars stopped interfering with the coalescence of Moon with Rohini.

This military census is interpreted variously and in the above way it comes to 'one trillion thirty-nine thousand and six hundred; 1,000,000,399,600 plus many more in hundreds and thousands (?) However, the picture we get is that Lanka is a garrison of warriors, except for some sane citizens like Vibheeshana and his family, Mandodari, Sulocana wt al. Apart from them there is an invaluable wealth amassed by Ravana. And there are many sages and women that are held captive in that island.

On this verse some commentaries are having the meaning that 'Sugreeva cannot encounter those demons or Ravana, without any assistance of his forces...' Rama never wanted Sugreeva to wage war but sought help from Sugreeva in searching Seetha. Tara is a little ahead in her thinking and narrating the military capabilities of Ravana, as heard from Vali. Thus her opinion according to Tilaka commentary is 'Sugreeva cannot eliminate Ravana single-handedly and without assistance, and when Rama needs Sugreeva's help, Sugreeva needs his military assistance consequentially, which is a possibility only after Vali's elimination.' visheSataH sugriiveNa This verse is recorded in another method: na ca þaky˜ raõe hantum asah˜yena r˜kÿas˜× | r˜meõa k²ra karmaõa× sugrŸva sahitena vai || 'Rama cannot kill these many demons without assistance, more so Sugreeva. So Sugreeva summoned all his forces to assist him. Sugreeva in turn can assist Rama along with his millions and millions of troops.' This is keeping the import of the verse 19 also in view.

It is also unclear as to when Vali informed Tara of this military strength. For this the commentators deduce a situation where Vali might have told Tara. When Tara said to Vali that Angada informed her about Rama's befriending Sugreeva, Vali making fun of Sugreeva might have detailed Ravana's capabilities to Tara, 'This Sugreeva by himself is a useless fellow, and Ravana has got these many capabilities, then why that helpless Rama shall befriend this hopeless Sugreeva? Rama should have sought my help, instead!' This might be the occasion for Vali to give details of Ravana's capabilities to Tara.

Tara's reasoning is logical in calculating that a war is imminent and in the compund, tat yuddhe sahaaya nimittam if the word tat is used hen it will be: 'for the reason of helping that war'; and if tvat is used it will be: 'as a help to you...'. In any way, 'the war is yours, and we are here to help...' is the final output. Then the gist of her dialogue will be 'without attending to these pre-confrontation strategies what is the use of Sugreeva's or Hanuma's coming to you and sitting before you two, except to sing bhajan-s, kiirtan-s 'musical exalts and extols.' Thereby Sugreeva has done the need of the hour at the advise of Hanuma.'