Chapter 4

Lanka at night

He searched the whole city, and Mother Sita was nowhere — that is the largest moment of this night

A woman standing at the gate

Night came. Hanuman made himself no bigger than a cat and went towards the wall.

Then somebody stood in front of him — the presiding spirit of Lanka, a woman keeping watch over the city.

"Thief," she said. "This city is mine."

She swung a mace. It struck. Hanuman staggered, and then hit her once with his left hand — a closed fist, without putting his full strength behind it.

She fell. And as she fell she began to laugh.

"Brahma told me," she said, "that the day a vanara defeats you, know that the demons' time is up. Go. That day has come."

A sleeping city

Inside, Lanka was asleep.

Walls of gold, lamps dying in the lanes, music somewhere far off that had stopped mid-phrase, the mixed smell of wine and flowers, and on the roofs, people asleep and unaware.

Hanuman went from roof to roof — small enough not to break anyone's sleep.

It looked like the safest place in the world. And somewhere inside it a woman was a prisoner.

Inside the palaces, and a doubt

He went palace by palace.

And here his largest difficulty came up: he did not know Sita by sight. He had never seen her. He had only two things — the description Rama had given him, and the jewellery that had fallen out of the sky when Ravana was carrying her off.

So he had to look everywhere — every chamber, every courtyard, every place where anyone might be.

And then a thought came that shook him through.

*I am going into other people's houses, uninvited, right inside. Am I committing a sin?*

He stopped. Then he argued it out with himself: *A man looking for someone lost has to look where people are. My mind has not wandered anywhere, and there is no fault in my intent. So where is the sin?*

He went on.

When everywhere had been looked at

The night began to thin.

The palaces looked at, the gardens looked at, the cellars, the chariot-houses, the sacrificial halls — all of it looked at.

Sita was nowhere.

Hanuman sat down on a wall, and for the first time the thing rose in him that had not risen so far.

*What if she is dead? What if she was dropped into the sea on the way? If I go back empty-handed, Rama will not live. And Lakshmana, and Bharata, and the whole army…*

*Then let me not go back at all. Let me sit here, go into the forest, or give up my life.*

And then, sitting in that same dark, he answered himself:

*No. There is no enemy greater than despair. A man who gives way to it makes even the work he has done worthless. As long as one place is left, this is not a defeat.*

One place that was left

He ran his eye over the whole city again from above.

There was one part he had not been to — a garden spread out beyond the wall, full of trees, set apart from the palaces.

The ashoka grove.

Hanuman got up and went that way.

Note: This whole chapter is from the Valmiki Ramayana's Sundara Kanda. The clash with the guardian of Lanka at the gate, the left-handed blow, and Brahma's condition that defeat by a vanara is the sign of the demons' end — all of it is recorded there. Hanuman's dharma-doubt with himself while searching, and his despair when the search failed and his coming out of it, are also Valmiki's own and not added by any later tradition. In the Ramayana this part goes by quickly, because there the question is what happened in Lanka; here the question is what that night did to a man on his own.

Source: from several texts, Lanka at night

Now — how much stayed with you?

Who said it?

"The day a vanara defeats you, know that the demons' time is up." — who said this, and to whom?

  • Brahma, to the guardian of Lanka
  • Ravana, to his army
  • Sita, to Trijata
  • Hanuman, to the guardian of Lanka
Read the whole story — A defeat that turned out to be an omen

The guardian of Lanka had the condition from Brahma that her invincibility would end the day a vanara defeated her.

Which is why she laughed as she fell — her defeat was not a defeat to her but the completion of an old prophecy.

Hanuman had struck her with his left hand, without full strength. The war had not even begun, and its outcome was announced at the city gate.

Why is that?

Why did Hanuman make himself small going into Lanka?

  • Because the gates of Lanka were very small
  • Because his strength had been used up crossing the sea
  • Because this was spying work, and he had to search the whole city without waking anyone
  • Because Sita had sent word to do so
Read the whole story — A messenger's work

Hanuman's task was not to take Lanka — it was to find out whether Sita was alive, and where.

Which is why he barely fights anywhere in this chapter. The one fight that does happen is forced on him at the gate.

This power of changing size had served against Surasa at sea too. Both times the work was done by getting smaller, not bigger.

What happened?

What doubt rose in Hanuman's mind while searching the palaces of Lanka?

  • He feared someone would wake
  • He thought Sita might not be in Lanka at all
  • He doubted whether going uninvited into other people's houses was a sin
  • He decided to stop looking
Read the whole story — An argument with himself

This is among the most extraordinary parts of the whole Sundara Kanda — mid-search the story stops and Hanuman questions what he is doing.

He finds the answer himself too: a man looking for someone lost has to look where people are, and if there is no fault in the intent there is no sin.

In the Ramayana this scene appears and moves on. In this gatha it is the place where Hanuman is most human — not strong, but honest. Strength is his largest mark; discipline is larger.

Who am I?

I am the part of Lanka that lay beyond the wall, apart from the palaces. After the whole city had been searched only I was left — and what was being looked for was in me. What am I?

  • Mount Trikuta
  • Ravana's inner apartments
  • The ashoka grove
  • Patala
Read the whole story — The place left at the end

The ashoka grove was inside the city and still apart from it — beyond the wall, full of trees, away from the palaces.

Perhaps that is why it was seen last. Hanuman started where people lived, and this was not a place of people.

Ravana had kept Sita there — not in a palace, not in a prison, but in a garden. That was a move of his too.

Who said it?

"There is no enemy greater than despair." — who said this that night, and to whom?

  • Sita, to Trijata
  • Jambavan, to Hanuman
  • Hanuman, to himself
  • Rama, to Lakshmana
Read the whole story — The hardest fight of a man alone

In this whole gatha Hanuman's hardest fight was not with any demon — it happened sitting alone on a wall.

He thought through every option, as far as killing himself — and then found the argument himself, that a man who gives way to despair makes even his own work worthless.

That is the moment the whole gatha rests on. Jambavan reminded him of his strength; here he reminded himself of his nerve, with nobody's help.

Why is that?

Why could Hanuman not recognise Sita by her face?

  • Because he had never seen her; he had only the description Rama gave him and the jewellery that fell from the sky
  • Because it was dark in Lanka
  • Because Sita had covered her face
  • Because he was looking from far off
Read the whole story — The woman he had never seen

This is the largest difficulty of the whole night, and it is often not noticed: Hanuman had gone to find a woman he had never seen.

When Ravana was carrying Sita off, the vanaras did see her jewellery fall from the sky — in the Ramayana it is that same bundle Sugriva shows Rama. But nobody had seen her face.

Which is why Rama gave Hanuman his ring. Hanuman could not recognise Sita, and Sita could not trust Hanuman — recognition rested on a token from both sides.

What happened?

When the whole city had been searched and Sita was nowhere, what did Hanuman do?

  • Went straight back across the sea
  • Went to Ravana's court and asked outright
  • Started burning Lanka
  • Sat on a wall thinking through every option, beat down the despair, and went towards the one place left
Read the whole story — The difference between losing and giving up

At that moment Hanuman really had lost — the search was complete and the result was nothing.

What made the difference was that he counted again and found one place left. The whole story turns on that one remaining place.

Which is why this chapter ends here, and not inside the ashoka grove — because the real event of this night is not the finding of Sita but Hanuman not breaking.

Fact

With which hand did Hanuman strike the guardian of Lanka at the city gate?

  • The right, with his full strength
  • The left, without using his full strength
  • He did not strike her
  • He took her mace and used it
Read the whole story — What the left hand means

The story does not keep this small detail for nothing — a left-handed blow, without full strength, and the one in front of him went down.

Two things come out of it together: how much strength Hanuman has, and how little of it he uses.

It was not an insult to her. In the story she laughs and takes it for an omen herself, and lets him in.

Riddle

That night I won no battle, burned no city, and did not find the one I had come to find. Even so, that night is counted my greatest. Why?

  • Because I had defeated Ravana
  • Because I had crossed the whole sea
  • Because even after everything had failed, I did not give up
  • Because I had memorised the map of Lanka
Read the whole story — A victory with no witness

The largest thing Hanuman did that night was seen by nobody — not by Sita, not by Rama, not by Ravana.

It was to sit alone on a wall and stop himself from giving up.

Which is why this chapter is different in this gatha from the Sundara Kanda story everyone knows. There, this night is the night Sita is found; here it is the night of a man who nearly broke.

Why is that?

Why did Hanuman go to the ashoka grove last of all?

  • Because the palaces and the city were searched first, and it was the one place left
  • Because he knew beforehand that Sita was there
  • Because Ravana had sent him there
  • Because it was the least guarded
Read the whole story — The last place left

This detail is what makes the story true: Hanuman did not arrive straight at the right place. He looked at the wrong ones first, and got tired doing it.

Searching is like this — the right place often comes last, not because it was hidden but because everything else has been looked at first.

And that is exactly why the moment of despair was so dangerous: if he had given up there, the place that was left would never have been seen.