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Yuddha Kand · Episode 3
Rama sends Vali's son Angada into Ravana's court with an offer and a warning — the unmovable foot is a later telling, not Valmiki's.
A retelling of Valmiki's Ramayana, not a translation. Where a later tradition adds to the story, we mark it.
Before the war of the armies began, Rama sent word to Ravana.
The army had crossed the ocean. Lanka rose before them -- walled, gated, hung with banners, its gardens and tall arched gates in plain view. Rama set his commanders at the four gates: he and Lakshmana at the north, Nila at the east, Angada at the south, Hanuman at the west. The vanaras stood all around the city, holding trees and rocks, waiting for his word.
Every commander expected the order to attack. Instead, Rama thought about what a good ruler does. Again and again he talked it over with his advisers, and Vibhishana agreed with his plan: before any fight, send word.
(Valmiki tells one thing just before this, in the sarga before: Sugriva, meeting Ravana at the gate, fights him in single combat and returns. This retelling begins with the embassy that follows.)
Rama sent for Angada.
The young prince was Vali's son -- Vali, whom Rama had slain, and whose son had since come to serve in the army of the one who killed him. Rama chose him to carry the message. "Go into Lanka without fear, Angada," he said. "Go to Ravana, and tell him my words."
Rama's message was not a soft one. In Valmiki's telling, it is an accusation and a choice. Ravana had troubled many good people, and he had carried Sita away. Rama's words say that Ravana should come out and fight, that he will be slain, that the world will be rid of rakshasas, and that Vibhishana will become king of Lanka. And inside that hard message is the offer itself: give Sita back, with respect, and ask for Rama's kindness (Yuddha Kanda 6.41.68 and 6.41.82). If he will not, he should make ready for battle (6.41.71).
Angada leapt into the air like a flame, and in an instant he was at Ravana's palace, where Ravana sat with his advisers. He came down close to Ravana, his golden bracelets shining like a torch.
"I am Angada," he said. "I have come as Rama's messenger."
Then he told Ravana everything Rama had said, in front of all the advisers. The sarga is careful about this: he did not add a word, and he did not leave one out (6.41.77).
Ravana grew very angry. "Seize this monkey!" he cried to his attendants.
Four of the attendants took hold of Angada. He let them, so that everyone there could see how strong he was. Then Angada leapt up, and the four fell from him and landed on the ground. He stood on the roof of the palace, as high as a mountain top, and under his feet the top of the roof crumbled while Ravana watched.
Angada called out his name. Then, with a great roar, he rose into the air and came down beside Rama in the middle of the army, and the vanaras were full of joy.
That is the embassy in Valmiki: Rama made the offer, Ravana answered with anger, and Sita was still in Lanka. Whatever came next, the offer had been made plainly, and what followed was on Ravana's side of it.
A later telling: the foot. The best-known image of Angada in Ravana's court is not in Valmiki's sarga 41. In Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas (Lanka Kanda) and in other later retellings, Angada plants his foot in Ravana's assembly and challenges any warrior to move it. None of Ravana's warriors can. The story of the immovable foot is loved because it says something true about a messenger who stands firm in front of a king -- but it is a later tradition's telling, not Valmiki's, and the details vary between retellings. This page keeps the two apart so that you can tell which one you are reading.
Angada went back to Rama's side, and the army waited at the gates. The embassy was over. The war was close.
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