On Mount Prasravana, Rama waits with Sugriva for news. Within the month, the east, north and west groups come back. All month they have searched, and every night they have slept in trees full of fruit. But no one has seen Sita.
“Hanuman went south, the way Ravana took Sita,” the leaders say. “Hanuman will find her.” But the south group has not come back. Where are Hanuman, Angada and Jambavan? And where is Sita?
Far away in the south, Angada, Hanuman and Jambavan have searched all this time. They look in the caves and forests of the Vindhya mountains, on the peaks and by rivers and lakes. They eat wild fruits and roots, but find no sign of Sita.
Then they come to an empty forest. Its streams are dry, and its trees have no fruit or flowers. No birds or animals live there, not even bees! The sage Kandu put a curse on it. Still the vanaras search it all.
In the next forest, a demon as big as a hill rushes at them, shaking his fist. “Ravana!” cries Angada, and with one slap he knocks him down. The vanaras search the demon’s cave. But he is not Ravana, and Sita is not there.
Tired and sad, they sit under a lonely tree. Angada says, “Do not give in to sorrow or to sleep. Those who keep trying will find what they seek.” So they climb a silver mountain, white as an autumn cloud, and start the search again.
The days slip by as they search. Now the vanaras are hungry and very thirsty. They find a wide cave, hidden by creepers. Out fly swans and cranes, dripping wet, with lotus pollen on their feathers. “There must be water inside!” says Hanuman.
Inside, it is so dark that there is no sun and no moon. The vanaras hold hands so that no one gets lost. On and on they go, a long, long way, thirsty and tired. When they can hardly go on, they see a light!
They come into a shining forest. The trees are gold, bright as a holy fire, with golden fruit. Golden fish swim in lotus ponds. There are houses of gold and silver with golden windows covered with pearls, and golden bees make honey.
Nearby is an old holy woman in deerskin, glowing with her own light. The vanaras stand still in wonder. Hanuman joins his palms and bows. “Who are you?” he asks. “Whose cave is this, and whose are these golden houses?”
“I am Swayamprabha,” she says. “Maya, a demon with great magic, built this golden forest long ago. Now I guard it for a dear friend. But first, eat and drink, and then tell me why you have come.”
After the meal, Hanuman tells her about Rama and Sita. “You saved us,” he says. “What can we do for you?” “Nothing,” she says. “I am very happy with you all.” Then Hanuman says, “The month Sugriva gave us is over! Please help us out.”
“No one who comes in can leave alone,” she says. “Close your eyes.” The vanaras cover their eyes with their hands. Whoosh! In a moment they are outside. “There are the Vindhya mountains, and there is the southern ocean,” she says. “Go safely.”
The great sea roars, with no far shore in sight. The trees are full of new flowers: the month has passed while they searched the hills and the cave. They have not found Sita. Sadly they sit by the sea and talk of Rama’s troubles.
Out of a cave in the mountain comes an old eagle. He looks down at all the vanaras and is glad. “Food at last!” he says. “It was meant to come to me.” Angada gasps and turns to Hanuman.
“Even birds and animals do what Rama loves,” Angada says. “Remember Jatayu! He was a brave old eagle, a friend of Rama’s father. He fought Ravana to save Sita, and he died. We too searched every forest for Rama, but we have not found Sita.”
The eagle’s voice booms like thunder. “Who says that my brother Jatayu has died? He is dearer to me than my own life! Please carry me down from this peak. Long ago the sun burnt my wings, and I cannot fly.”
The vanaras are not sure they can trust him. Was he not just talking about food? Still, some of them climb up and carry him down. Angada tells him about Rama and Sita, about brave Jatayu, and about the long search and the lost month.
The old eagle is Sampati, Jatayu’s big brother. He weeps. “Long ago we raced into the sky, close to the sun. When the sun began to burn Jatayu, I spread my wings over him. My own wings burnt, and I fell on this mountain.”
“Do you know where Ravana lives?” asks Angada. “I cannot fly,” says Sampati, “but my words can help Rama. I saw Ravana carry a lady away. Her silk sari shone like sunshine. She called, ‘Rama! Lakshmana!’ and threw down her jewels.”
“We eagles fly on the highest path of all,” says Sampati. “Sparrows fly low. Higher fly the crows and parrots, then the cranes, then the hawks, then the swans. Highest of all fly the eagles, and we can see a hundred yojanas away.”
“From here I can see Ravana, and I can see Sita! A hundred yojanas across the sea is an island, and on it is Lanka, a city of golden houses inside a wall as bright as the sun. Sita is there, in Ravana’s palace.”
“Find a way across the salty sea,” says Sampati. “When you find Sita, you will come home again. Now take me to the sea to offer water for my brother.” Gently, the vanaras carry him to the shore and back, and they are glad again.
Then Sampati tells them what a wise sage once told him: “One day Rama’s messengers will be on their way to Sita. Tell them where she is, and your wings will grow again.” As Sampati speaks, new red feathers grow on his wings!
“You will find Sita, for sure!” says Sampati. “My new wings show that my words are true.” Up he flies. Shouting for joy, the vanaras camp at the water’s edge. Sugriva promised that Rama would get Sita back. Now his vanaras know where she is.
For grown-ups
Where this story comes from
This story is from the Valmiki Ramayana, Kishkindha Kanda, sargas 47–64, up to 64.4: the return of the east, north and west search groups, the south group’s search through the Vindhya, the dark cave and its keeper Swayamprabha, the lost month, the eagle Sampati, and his new wings. The sarga numbers are those of the Gita Press (Gorakhpur) edition. The verse numbers here follow the English translation by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao on valmikiramayan.net. They can differ by a few verses in the Gita Press text. It is a faithful simplification. We shortened and left out parts, and we name them below. We did not add events, and we did not change anyone’s reasons. The words people say are a plain rendering of the translation, not a word-for-word quotation. Six lines need a note.
1. The fast unto death (pages 14–16). In Valmiki, the vanaras do not only sit by the sea in sorrow. When they find that the month is over, Angada fears Sugriva’s anger and resolves to fast unto death on the shore, and the others join him (53–55). Sampati finds them there. The book keeps their sorrow, which Valmiki gives as its cause: the month had passed, and Sita was not found (53.2–5). Angada’s words on page 16 are from his lament in 56.10–13; we left out the parts about giving up their lives.
2. “Even birds and animals do what Rama loves” (page 16). Angada says that “all beings, even those birthed in animality, are doing what that is agreeable to Rama even on forgoing their own lives, as with us”, and that Jatayu did “a deed much liked by Rama” (56.10, 56.12). The page keeps the first half of 56.10 and leaves out “even on forgoing their own lives, as with us”. From 56.12–13a it keeps both halves, Jatayu’s deed and the vanaras’ search for Rama, and leaves out only “without caring even for our lives”.
3. Sargas 59–63. The translation on valmikiramayan.net notes that these five sargas are missing in various manuscripts and are held to be interpolated, but are kept because the old commentators comment on them. The Gita Press text includes them. Sampati’s new wings (63.8b–13) come from these sargas.
4. The season (page 14). Angada says that they set out in the month of Ashvayuja, about October (53.9), and the vanaras see the trees in spring flower when the month is over (53.4–5). Valmiki gives both. The book says only that the trees are full of new flowers.
5. The water offering (page 23). Sampati asks to be taken to the sea to offer water for his brother (58.35–36). Offering water for a loved one who has died is a Hindu custom, called tarpana. Rama himself had performed Jatayu’s last rites (57.11).
6. “Now his vanaras know where she is” (page 25). These are our words. Sugriva promised that Rama would get Sita back (in the first book). In this book his searchers learn where Sita is (58.20–23); Sita comes back only in the Yuddha Kanda. Rama’s own promise, to help Sugriva against Vali, was kept in the second book.
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Three things this telling leaves out, and why
- The fast unto death (53.6–55.20). Angada fears that Sugriva will punish them for the lost month and proposes to fast unto death. The vanara Tara (not Angada’s mother) proposes that they hide in the cave instead. Hanuman warns Angada that Lakshmana’s arrows would break the cave open, and that Sugriva means him no harm. Angada speaks bitterly of Sugriva, lies down on sacred grass, and the others join him. The commission asked that the book leave the vow out, because it is too heavy for a child of six to nine; the book keeps their sorrow (see honesty note 1).
- Fear of Sugriva (49.4, 49.9, 52.23–24a, 53.12–24, 57.18–19). Again and again the vanaras say that Sugriva is stern and will put them to death if they come back late. The book keeps the month as a promise not kept in time, not as a threat.
- The demon’s death (48.21b–22a). When Angada strikes the demon with his palm, the demon spits blood and falls dead “alike an inverted mountain”. The page says that Angada knocks him down. The demon had rushed at them shouting “you are all dead” (48.19b).
- Why the forest was cursed (48.13b–14a). The sage Kandu lost his ten-year-old son in that forest, and in his anger he cursed it to be empty of birds and animals. The page says only that he put a curse on it, so that a child does not meet a child’s death.
- Sampati’s hunger (56.4–5, 56.7, 57.1–3). When Sampati first sees the vanaras, he plans to eat them one by one, one each day. Angada calls him Death, come for the monkeys. Some vanaras, who were sitting in a fast unto death, say that if the eagle eats them they will go to heaven. The book keeps one line, “Food at last!” (56.4), and the vanaras’ doubt.
- Jatayu and Dasharatha (56.13b–14, 56.23b–24a, 58.3, 58.30). Angada says that Jatayu, killed by Ravana, is better off than they are. Sampati asks how Dasharatha died, and says that he cannot avenge his brother; he hopes Rama will. The page says plainly that Jatayu fought Ravana to save Sita, and died.
- The cave and its story (50.8a, 50.11b–13a, 50.18b–19a, 51.14b–18a). The cave is guarded by the demon Maya. The vanaras fear that it is hell or the netherworld, and lions come out of it. Swayamprabha tells that Indra killed Maya with his thunderbolt, and that she guards the golden forest for her friend Hema, a dancer of heaven.
- Sampati’s pain (60.4–5, 61.10–17, 63.4–6a). Sampati tells how he lay without his senses for six days after his fall, and how, having lost his brother, his kingdom and his wings, he wished to die. The sage’s words kept him alive. The page keeps the race to the sun and the shielding wings.
- Sampati’s long tale (59–62). Sampati’s son Suparshva saw Ravana carry Sita past Mount Mahendra and let him go, because he begged to pass. The sage Nishakara, whom Sampati and Jatayu used to visit, foretold Rama’s story, Sita’s sorrow in Lanka and her offering of Indra’s food to Rama, and the coming of Rama’s messengers, and then left his body. Page 24 keeps one sentence of the sage’s words.
- Sita in Lanka (58.16, 58.22b–23). Sampati says that he saw Sita struggling to free herself, and that in Lanka she is pitiable, closely guarded by demonesses. The page says that Sita is there, in Ravana’s palace.
- Names left out. The leaders of the other groups: Vinata (east), Shatabali (north) and Sushena (west), Sugriva’s father-in-law (47.7–9). The vanara chiefs Tara, Gandhamadana, Gaja, Gavaksha, Mainda, Dvivida and others of the south group (49.11, 50.5–8). Hema (51.14b–18a). Garuda and Aruna, the sons of Vinata, from whom the eagles come (58.29). The site spells the cave keeper “Swayamprabha”; she is also written Svayamprabha.
Page 1 tells 47.1–13; the place list (47.2–3, 47.11–12) moves to page 3, and the killing of “colossal beings … presuming that Ravana might have assumed those odd shapes” (47.13) is left out. Pages 3–6 tell 48–49 and 50.1–2. Page 7 joins 50.3a and 50.5–17. Page 9 tells the long list of golden things (50.24b–38a) as five. Pages 11–12 tell 51.10–19 and 52.1–25. Page 14 joins 53.1–5 and 55.21–22. Page 16 joins Angada’s lament (56.9–13) with what he tells Sampati about Jatayu (57.9–10). Page 18 tells 57.1–19. Page 19 joins 58.1–7 and 61.3–16. Page 21 shortens the seven flight levels of birds (58.26–29) to six, leaving out the vultures, and Garuda’s line. Pages 21–22 tell Sampati’s speech in a new order: the far sight (58.26–32) comes before Lanka (58.19–25), so that “I can see Sita” follows from “we can see a hundred yojanas”; it is one speech, and no meaning changes. Page 23 joins 58.34–37 and 59.1–2. Page 24 tells 59–63.11a in one sentence of the sage’s words (62.2, 62.11–13) and the new wings (63.8b–11a). Page 25 joins 63.12b–15 and 64.1–4; the next book begins at 65.
The question children ask here
“How could Sampati see Sita so far away?” Valmiki tells it this way:
- Sampati says that birds fly at different heights: sparrows lowest, then crows and parrots, then cranes, then hawks, then vultures, then swans, and highest of all the line of Garuda, from whom the eagles come (58.26–29).
- He says that eagles “can always see till the end of hundred yojana-s” (58.32), and that “staying here I am clearly seeing Ravana and like that Janaki” (58.31).
- In the next sarga he also tells that his son Suparshva saw Ravana carry Sita past Mount Mahendra (59.12–21).
“Eagles fly higher than any other bird, and Sampati said that eagles can see a hundred yojanas, all the way to Lanka.”
A Sanatani Production
