ददौ चास्त्राणि दिव्यानि यस्मै ब्रह्मा महौजसे।
दानवेन्द्रं हतं दृष्ट्वा तिमिध्वजसुतं रणे॥
dadau cāstrāṇi divyāni yasmai brahmā mahaujase
dānavendraṁ hataṁ dṛṣṭvā timidhvaja-sutaṁ raṇe
dadau ca = has given; astrāṇi = weapons; divyāni = divine; yasmai = Rāma; brahmā = Brahmā; mahā-ojase = of great prowess; dānava-indram = the king of the dānavas; hatam = killed; dṛṣṭvā = upon seeing; timidhvaja-sutam = the son of Timidhvaja; raṇe = in battle.
Brahmā has given Rāma of great prowess divine weapons upon seeing the king of the dānavas, the son of Timidhvaja, killed in battle.
1 A commentator has objected to this explanation of Śrī Govindarāja by arguing that the Rāmāyaṇa has not described Rāma’s receipt of any weapon from Brahmā. But this is a trivial objection that can be easily disposed of. Śrī Govindarāja’s explanation to this verse is not based on the secondary meaning(s) for any of the words in it. Sometimes we come across additional information about a past activity in a later place in the Rāmāyaṇa. For instance, Varuṇa’s role in Lord Śiva’s bow will be described by Sītā-devī later on in this Canto even though it was not mentioned while describing the history of that bow in Canto 1. Apart from that, this verse of Rāmāyaṇa under consideration appears at the end of a cluster of verses describing Rāma’s supremacy of the demigods elucidating the text of Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.81. So this understanding is very much within the context of discussion. (Technically speaking, neither aprāsaṅgikatā nor kalpanā-gaurava can be attributed to Śrī Govindarāja’s explanation to this verse.)
Timidhvaja is Śambara:
vaijayantam iti khyātaṁ puraṁ yatra timidhvajaḥ
sa śambara iti khyātaḥ śata-māyo mahāsuraḥ
“Timidhvaja resided in the city named Vaijayanta. That great asura was famous as Śambara. He used hundreds of deceptive tricks.” (Rāmāyaṇa 2.9.12-13)
The following verse appears in the Rāmāyaṇa (2.2.37):
yadā vrajati saṁgrāmaṁ grāmārthe nagarasya vā
gatvā saumitri sahito na avijitya nivartate
“When He goes on war for the sake of a village or a city, He goes with the son of Sumitrā and does not return without having won the battle.”
Therefore, it is understood that Rāma had once gone to Daṇḍakāraṇya, captured the city Vaijayanta, killed the son of Śambara who was hostile to Daśaratha and received divine weapons from Brahmā who was pleased with Him for having done so.1