Kanda 5

Sundara Kanda

One vanara, one sea, and a city that burned

Over the sea

Hanuman climbed Mount Mahendra.

Behind him the whole party stood watching him.

He made his body grow, pressed the mountain down under his feet, and leapt.

Below him was the sea. Ahead, nothing was visible — no shore, no mark. Only water, and the wind above it.

On the way the sea sent up Mount Mainaka from below.

Mainaka rose out of the water and stood in front of him, so that Hanuman could sit on it and rest a while.

Mainaka had come to help, not to stop him.

Hanuman touched it with his hand in thanks and went on. He said there was no stopping anywhere before the work was done.

Then Surasa blocked his way.

This was a test the gods had sent. They wanted to see whether Hanuman had intelligence as well as strength.

Surasa said that nobody could pass from here without entering her mouth.

Hanuman began to make himself larger.

Surasa made her mouth larger.

Hanuman grew again. The mouth grew again.

Then all at once Hanuman shrank to the size of a thumb, went inside that enormous mouth, and came out the other side.

The condition had been met, and there had been no fight at all.

Further on, Simhika caught his shadow from below. She would seize the shadow of creatures flying overhead and drag them down.

Hanuman felt as though something were pulling him backwards.

He used the same trick that had just worked. He went into her mouth, and tore his way out of her from the inside.

Ahead lay Lanka.

Lanka at night

Reaching Lanka, Hanuman made himself very small and slipped into the city in the dark.

At the gate Lankini stopped him.

A single blow from Hanuman brought her down.

As she fell she said she had been told long ago — the day a vanara defeated her, from that day Lanka's days would be numbered.

That day had come, and the city was asleep.

Hanuman searched every corner all night.

He climbed onto the roofs of palaces, looked into rooms, paced the lanes.

He reached Ravana's palace and saw him sleeping.

In one room he saw Mandodari and was deceived for a moment — could this be her?

Then he steadied himself. A woman sleeping here so peacefully could not be the one he had come to find.

Sita was nowhere.

The whole night had gone. Tired, Hanuman sat down.

The thought of turning back came to him — and with it the thought of what he would say when he got there.

Then he remembered that one place was still left.

The Ashoka grove.

The Ashoka grove

In the Ashoka grove, under a shinshapa tree, surrounded by demonesses, Sita was sitting.

Thin. In dirty clothes. Sitting on the ground.

But not broken.

Hanuman settled on a branch of the tree, hidden among the leaves, and watched.

Just then Ravana came there.

He tried once more to persuade her. Then he moved to threats.

When he carried her off he had given her twelve months' grace. Ten had gone.

Two months more, he said. After that, think it over.

The moment Ravana left, the demonesses surrounded Sita and began to frighten her.

Then one of them stopped the rest.

Trijata.

She told them her dream of that night — in it Lanka was burning, and Rama was winning.

After that the demonesses fell quiet.

The ring and the chudamani

Hanuman now had a hard task in front of him.

He had to speak to Sita, and in such a way that she did not cry out in shock. One scream would have woken all of Lanka.

So, sitting in the tree, he began quietly to tell Rama's story.

Starting from Ayodhya, up to the exile, and on from there.

The woman sitting below began to listen.

Then Hanuman dropped Rama's ring down from above.

Sita picked it up and knew it.

She took off her chudamani and gave it to him.

And she told him something old that only Rama knew, so that Rama would have no doubt that Hanuman had truly met her.

Hanuman said he could carry her away with him right now.

Sita refused.

She wanted Rama to come himself and take her away.

The burning of Lanka

The work was done.

But Hanuman did not simply leave.

He wrecked the whole grove — tore up trees, broke the garden, and made a great noise.

He killed the demons who came to seize him. He killed Ravana's son Akshaya.

And then he let himself be bound, deliberately, by Indrajit's Brahmastra.

He wanted to be bound, because he wanted to speak to Ravana face to face — and being captured was the easiest way to be taken straight into Ravana's court.

In the court Hanuman told Ravana plainly to give Sita back, or nobody would be able to stop what came next.

Ravana flew into a rage and ordered Hanuman killed.

Then Vibhishana stopped him.

He said Hanuman was an enemy's envoy, and killing an envoy is not considered right. A punishment may be given, but he should not be killed.

Ravana accepted this.

Then another punishment was decided — set his tail on fire.

Hanuman began to make his tail longer.

Cloth was brought and wound around the tail. Hanuman kept lengthening it, and the demons kept piling on more cloth and more oil.

Then it was lit.

And in that same instant Hanuman made himself small.

The bonds went slack, and he was out.

Carrying his burning tail, he went leaping from roof to roof across Lanka.

The city burned.

Hanuman crossed the sea and returned to his companions.

Then he came before Rama and put Sita's chudamani into his hands.

Sita had been found. She was alive, and she was in Lanka, waiting for Rama.

Note: Mainaka, Surasa, Simhika, Lankini, the meeting with Sita in the Ashoka grove, Trijata's dream, the chudamani and the burning of Lanka are all in Valmiki's Sundara Kanda. Ravana first orders Hanuman killed, and Vibhishana stops him by saying an envoy is not to be killed; Ravana agrees, and only then is the burning of the tail decided on (sargas 52–53). Surasa was sent by the gods, and the text gives the reason too: to see whether Hanuman had intelligence as well as strength (sarga 1). Ravana's threat of "two months" (5.22.8–9) is what remained of the twelve months' grace he gave her when he carried her off — ten months had passed by the time Hanuman arrived. Sita's refusal to return with Hanuman is in the text as well. Why this book is called the "Sundara Kanda" is something the traditions do not agree on — which is why no single reason is given here.

Source: Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kanda

Now — how much stayed with you?

Who am I?

I am the tree a captive woman sat under, waiting, for months. What am I?

  • Ashoka
  • Shinshapa
  • Banyan
  • Peepal
Read the whole story — Hanuman was in that same tree

The shinshapa is the tree now called sheesham — thick-leaved.

Hanuman went into the grove, looked over the whole garden first, then climbed this shinshapa and hid in the leaves.

He saw Sita from there, saw Ravana come and go from there, and heard the demonesses' threats from there.

The longest stretch of the whole Sundara Kanda is a scene watched from up in this one tree.

Riddle

I was a small thing, dropped from above — and the moment she saw me, a woman accepted that this messenger was not a liar. What am I?

  • The chudamani
  • A garland
  • A bow
  • The ring
Read the whole story — How to be believed

Hanuman's hardest problem was that Sita could take him for another of Ravana's tricks — Ravana had come dressed as an ascetic, after all.

So instead of appearing in front of her, he stayed in the tree and began telling Rama's story quietly, as though talking to himself.

When Sita was listening, he dropped the ring down.

On the way back the proof ran the other way too — along with the chudamani, Sita told him about an incident only she and Rama knew, so Rama would be certain the messenger had really reached her.

Fact

How long a deadline had Ravana given Sita?

  • Two months
  • One month
  • Six months
  • One year
Read the whole story — A clock starts

This deadline is the fastest-running clock in the whole Ramayana. Everything after it has to happen inside that limit.

Hanuman getting back, the army assembling, reaching the sea, the bridge being built, and the war — all inside those two months.

Sita had also told Ravana she would not so much as look at him. The threat did not move her, but the time limit was real.

Who am I?

I rose up out of the sea — not to block the way, but so a tired traveller could rest a little. Who am I?

  • Surasa
  • Simhika
  • Mainaka
  • Suvela
Read the whole story — Mainaka's old debt

Long ago mountains had wings and used to fly. Indra cut their wings off with his thunderbolt.

Mainaka hid in the sea at that time — with the wind god's help. That is why he counted Hanuman the son of the one who had saved him.

The sea had its own reason too: it thought it should help the work of the Ikshvaku line, because Sagara, who dug out the ocean, belonged to it.

Hanuman touched the mountain, saluted it, and chose to go on. That small moment sets the tone of the whole kanda.

Fact

What did Sita give Hanuman as a token for Rama?

  • The ring
  • A letter
  • Her shawl
  • The chudamani
Read the whole story — The chudamani, and the crow

The chudamani is an ornament worn in the hair. Sita said it had come from her mother's house, and that Rama would know it.

But she did not send only the ornament. She told an old incident as well — at Chitrakuta a crow had been pecking at her, and Rama had made an arrow from a blade of grass and punished it.

It was the kind of thing no third person could have known. So Sita sent proof of her own.

With it came a warning: only one month is left now.

Who said it?

Who had a frightening dream in the night and stopped the other demonesses from tormenting Sita?

  • Mandodari
  • Trijata
  • Shurpanakha
  • Lankini
Read the whole story — Trijata's dream

The demonesses used to surround Sita and frighten her — agree to Ravana, or we will eat you.

That night Trijata dreamed: Rama comes on a white elephant, Lanka burns, and Ravana, head shaved and dressed in black, rides south on a donkey.

She woke and told them all, and said stop tormenting Sita — because what has been shown will happen.

Valmiki presents it only as a dream, but it turns out to be a summary of the entire Yuddha Kanda.

What happened?

What did Hanuman do once the work was done?

  • Went back quietly
  • Tried to take Sita with him
  • Fought Ravana directly
  • Tore up the grove, was captured, and burned Lanka with his blazing tail
Read the whole story — Getting captured on purpose

Hanuman decided that carrying back news alone was half a job. You cannot judge an enemy's strength without seeing him.

So he broke up the grove. Soldiers came and were killed. Ravana's son Aksha came, and was killed too.

Then Indrajit came with the brahmastra. Hanuman could have avoided it, but he chose to be bound out of respect for the weapon — because he wanted to meet Ravana face to face.

In the court it was Vibhishana who said that killing an envoy was against the rule. So the sentence became the burning tail — and that sentence is what cost Lanka.

Fact

Who bound Hanuman, and with which weapon?

  • Indrajit, with the brahmastra
  • Kumbhakarna, with a noose
  • Ravana, with the nagapasha
  • Aksha, with a net
Read the whole story — Respect for the brahmastra

Hanuman recognised the weapon and remembered Brahma's boon. He accepted the binding — he did not try to break out of it.

The reason was that he wanted to be caught. There was no better route to speaking with Ravana directly.

Then the demons tied him with ropes on top of it — and the moment that second binding went on, the brahmastra's hold ended.

Hanuman did not even notice at the time. He wanted to arrive at the court bound, and he did.

Why is that?

Why did Sita refuse to go back with Hanuman?

  • Because she did not trust him
  • Because Ravana had increased the guard
  • Because she wanted Rama to come himself and take her
  • Because she was in no state to travel
Read the whole story — Sita's answer

Hanuman had offered to carry her across the sea on his back.

Sita gave two reasons. First, she would not willingly touch another man — what Ravana had done by force was a separate matter.

Second, and the larger one: it would leave Rama's work unfinished. She wanted Rama to come himself, kill Ravana, and then take her.

The entire Yuddha Kanda comes out of that one decision.

Put it in order

In what order did these three meet Hanuman as he crossed the sea?

  • Surasa → Mainaka → Simhika
  • Simhika → Surasa → Mainaka
  • Mainaka → Surasa → Simhika
  • Mainaka → Simhika → Surasa
Read the whole story — Three obstacles, three kinds

Valmiki keeps these three deliberately distinct, and each has a different nature.

Mainaka wants to help — this is hospitality, not temptation. Hanuman touches it and goes on.

Surasa is a test, sent by the gods — here it is not strength that answers but wit.

Simhika is a straight attack, and is dealt with by force.

So the crossing itself settles that this messenger can do all three — restraint, cleverness and strength.