Devalok
From the epics · 2 tellings · North India, Pan-India

Hanuman's leap to Lanka and the ring for Sita

Hanuman leaps the ocean to Lanka, passing the mountain Mainaka, the serpent mother Surasa and the shadow-catcher Simhika, searches the city by night, finds Sita in the Ashoka grove and gives her Rama's ring, then lets himself be caught and burns Lanka with his own tail.

Who is in it

Places: Mount Mahendra, Lanka, Ashoka Grove · Texts: Valmiki Ramayana, Ramcharitmanas

The story, beat by beat

  1. Hanuman grows huge on Mount Mahendra and leaps across the sea.
  2. Mainaka rises to offer rest, Surasa blocks him and is passed by a trick, Simhika is killed from within.
  3. He searches Lanka by night as a cat-sized monkey, and mistakes Ravana's queen Mandodari for Sita.
  4. In the Ashoka grove he sees Ravana threaten Sita and the guards torment her, and hears Trijata's dream.
  5. From the tree he tells Rama's story softly, comes down and gives her Rama's ring; she gives her hair jewel and a token story for Rama.
  6. He wrecks the grove, is bound by Indrajit, has his tail set alight and burns the city, then returns.

devotion search courage ring

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kanda

Pan-India Vaishnava

Hanuman presses Mount Mahendra with his feet and leaps; the hill sheds its trees. Mainaka rises from the sea and offers rest; he touches it and goes on. Surasa, mother of serpents, opens her mouth to swallow him; he grows, she grows, and then he shrinks to a thumb, goes in and out of her mouth and thanks her. Simhika seizes his shadow and he tears her from within. In Lanka at night he searches the palaces, sees a sleeping queen and thinks for a moment she is Sita, then is ashamed: Sita would not sleep in Ravana's house. In the Ashoka grove he hides in a shimshupa tree, sees Ravana give Sita two months, hears Trijata's dream, and softly recites Rama's story until Sita looks up. He gives the ring; she gives her chudamani and the story of the crow Rama once punished for her. He breaks the grove, kills Aksha, lets Indrajit bind him, speaks to Ravana, and with his burning tail sets the city on fire. Only then he fears for Sita, and finds her safe.

The Ramayan of Valmiki, tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith: Sundara Kanda and Yuddha Kanda 74 and 101; Sundara Kanda, Wikipedia

Popular retelling

Tulsidas, Ramcharitmanas, Sundar Kand

North India Vaishnava

Tulsidas's Hanuman crosses the sea chanting Rama's name. In Lanka he is surprised to hear the name from a house: it is Vibhishana's, and Vibhishana tells him where Sita is. From the tree Hanuman drops Rama's ring into Sita's lap and she knows it. He asks leave to eat the fruit of the grove, uproots it, and when his tail is wrapped in cloth and oil it keeps growing until all the cloth in Lanka is gone. He burns every house but Vibhishana's. The Sundar Kand is read whole on Tuesdays and Saturdays and in trouble.

Sundara Kanda, Wikipedia; Ramcharitmanas, Wikipedia

Sources: The Ramayan of Valmiki, tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith: Sundara Kanda and Yuddha Kanda 74 and 101; Sundara Kanda, Wikipedia; Ramcharitmanas, Wikipedia

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