Rama set out with his bow in his hand, leading the great army towards Lanka. Lakshmana, Vibhishana, Sugriva and Hanuman walked with him.
The monkeys and bears followed, carrying big trees and rocks. They covered the land as far as you could see.
Soon they stopped, in front of Lanka. Banners hung all over the city, and there were gardens, and tall arched gates.
Rama and Lakshmana stayed by the northern gate. Nila, a monkey captain, went to the east gate. Angada, a monkey warrior, went to the south gate. Hanuman went to the west.
All around the city the monkeys stood, holding their trees and rocks. They waited for Rama’s word.
Rama thought about what a good ruler should do. Again and again he talked it over with his advisers, and he chose to send word to Ravana.
Vibhishana agreed with Rama’s plan to send word. Then Rama sent for Angada.
“Go into Lanka without fear, Angada,” said Rama. “Go to Ravana, and tell him my words.”
“Ravana, you have troubled many good people. And you carried my wife, Sita, away from me.”
“Give Sita back, with respect, and ask for my kindness.”
“If you will not, then get ready for battle.”
Angada leapt into the air like a flame. Whoosh! In an instant he was at Ravana’s palace, where Ravana sat with his advisers.
Angada came down close to Ravana, his golden bracelets shining, like a bright 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. He did not add a word, and he did not leave one out.
But Ravana grew very angry. “Seize this monkey!” he cried to his attendants.
Four of them 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 off and landed on the ground. He stood on the roof of the palace, as high as a mountain top.
Under his feet, the top of the roof crumbled, and Ravana watched.
Angada called out his name. Then, with a great roar, he rose up into the air.
He came down beside Rama, in the middle of the army, and the monkeys were full of joy.
Ravana had answered with anger, and Sita was still in Lanka. But Rama had done what a good ruler does.
He had kept Vibhishana safe, he had been patient with the Ocean, and he had asked Ravana to give Sita back. Now he stood at Lanka’s gate, and the army waited beside him.
For grown-ups
Where this story comes from
This is Rama’s message to Ravana, from the Yuddha Kanda, the sixth book of the Valmiki Ramayana. The story follows sarga 41: the army reaching Lanka’s gates (verses 25–46 and 52–53) and the embassy itself (verses 58–92). Sarga 40, which comes just before it in Valmiki, tells Sugriva’s single combat with Ravana at the gate; it is not told in this story or in the earlier parts of the series. This is the last part of this series; the Yuddha Kanda goes on from here with the war itself. It is a faithful simplification. We shortened and skipped scenes, and we name them below. We did not add events, and we did not change anyone’s reasons. The lines said aloud on the pages are plain-English renderings of what Rama and Angada say, not word-for-word quotations.
Read the full episode
Three things this telling leaves out, and why
- The sharpest lines of the message (sarga 41, verses 66, 68–73, 79–82). In Valmiki, Rama’s message, and Angada’s delivery of it, say that Ravana should come forth into combat, that he will be slain, that the world will be rid of demons, that he cannot escape alive, and that he should make ready for his funeral rites; and that Vibhishana will become king of Lanka. Left out because they are the hardest words in the sarga and do not change the offer. The story keeps the offer itself (return Sita honourably, verses 68 and 82) and the plain alternative (get ready for battle, verse 71).
- “Put to death” (sarga 41, verse 84). Ravana’s command is “Let this stupid monkey be seized and put to death.” The story keeps “Seize this monkey!” and leaves out the rest.
- Rama’s longer accusations (sarga 41, verses 62–64). Rama lists those Ravana has wronged, among them sages and gods. The story keeps one line: Ravana has troubled many good people.
- Who Angada’s father was (sarga 41, verses 60, 78, 89). Valmiki calls Angada the son of Vali (and, at verses 74 and 86, of Tara). Vali was the “lord of monkeys” and Sugriva’s brother; Rama’s arrow struck him down earlier, in the Kishkindha Kanda (sarga 16, verses 35–37). That is not told in this series, and the story does not name Vali. Angada is on Rama’s side.
- Sugriva’s combat with Ravana and Rama’s scolding (sarga 40, verses 7–30; sarga 41, verses 1–10). Sugriva leaps to the gate, wrestles Ravana and flies back to Rama, who is displeased at the risk he took. Not told: this story begins after it, and no page describes it.
- The evil omens (sarga 41, verses 12–22). Rama sees frightening signs on the earth and in the sky before he goes down to the army. Left out as frightening and not needed to follow the story.
- Counts of the army, the crowd of monkeys, the fear of the demons (sarga 41, verses 42–44, 47–51, 54, 56–57, 98–99). Valmiki counts crores of monkeys at each gate and tells how the demons trembled at the sight and the clamour. Left out as clutter and as fear.
- Ravana’s anger and what came next (sarga 41, verses 93–100; sarga 42 onward). Ravana is furious and downcast, Rama moves forward with the army, and Ravana’s soldiers come out of the city. The story stops at Angada’s return, before the war of the armies begins.
- The unmovable foot, and the crown (later tellings, not Valmiki). Many families know a tale in which Angada plants his foot and no warrior in Lanka can move it. That comes from later tellings (our adult page credits Tulsidas’s celebrated retelling), and it is not in sargas 40 or 41 of Valmiki, so it is not here. Nor is the crown: in Valmiki, Sugriva takes Ravana’s crown in sarga 40, which is not told here, and a crown-kick by Angada belongs to later tellings. Nor are words Angada adds of his own: in Valmiki he says only what Rama sent him to say, “without adding or subtracting anything” (verse 77).
We also compressed several things. The army’s march is told in a few lines (verses 25–30), and the guarding of the four gates keeps only the names of the captains at the northern, eastern, southern and western gates (verses 33 and 38–40); Valmiki also names other monkey chiefs at each gate, with Sugriva in the middle (verses 38–44). The monkeys wait “delightedly for the signal to fight” (verse 45); the story says they wait for Rama’s word. Rama’s reasons for sending the message are told in a line: he knew the four ways of dealing with an enemy, took counsel again and again, called to mind the duty of kings, and did so with Vibhishana’s agreement (verses 58–60). The attendants who seize Angada are “terrible demons” in Valmiki and cling to his arms; when he leaps they are shaken off and fall on the ground (verses 85–88), and the story does not say more. The last two pages sum up what Rama had done (keeping Vibhishana safe, waiting for the Ocean), drawing on the earlier parts of the series as well as this one. Page 6 states Rama’s plan to send word, which Vibhishana agrees to (verses 58–60). The verses told here do not state in so many words that Ravana refuses to return Sita: he answers Angada with anger and a command to seize him (verses 83–84), and Sita is still in Lanka when the sarga ends. The story says just that. Two small notes: in the message, “honour” means respect and “mercy” means kindness (Valmiki’s word is closer to clemency); and Nila, the captain at the east gate, is a different monkey from Nala, the bridge-builder in part 2.
The question children ask here
“Why did Rama send a message before the war, instead of just attacking?” Valmiki tells it plainly:
- Rama knew the four ways a king may deal with an enemy, and used them in turn: a friendly word, a gift, causing division, and punishment (sarga 41, verses 58–60);
- he took counsel with his ministers again and again, and called to mind the duty of kings, and Vibhishana agreed (sarga 41, verses 58–60);
- his message asks Ravana to return Sita honourably and to ask for his mercy (sarga 41, verses 68 and 82);
- and only if Ravana would not, it says, should he get ready for battle (sarga 41, verse 71).
“A good king asks first. Rama sent word that Ravana could still put things right by giving Sita back.”
A Sanatani Production
