Retold from the Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kanda · ages 6–9

The Burning of Lanka

Ravana sets Hanuman's tail on fire, Sita prays for him, and the fire turns cool.

Ravana had promised that Hanuman would live. But he still wanted to punish him.

“A monkey loves his tail best of all,” said Ravana. “Set it on fire, and lead him through the streets!”

The guards wrapped his tail in old cloth and poured oil on it. As they wrapped, Hanuman made himself bigger and bigger.

Then they lit the end of his tail. Whoosh! It glowed bright orange.

They led him through Lanka, blowing conch shells and beating drums. “Look, everyone! A spy!”

Hanuman could have broken the ropes at any time. But he walked on quietly, looking carefully at the city, so he could tell Rama all about it.

Children, mothers and grandfathers came out of their houses to see the monkey with the glowing tail.

Some of the guards in the garden ran to Sita. “Your monkey friend's tail is on fire!”

Sita was very worried. She closed her eyes and folded her hands, and she prayed to Agni, the god of fire.

“If I have served my husband well, and if I have been true to him, then, Agni, please be cool to Hanuman.”

And Agni listened. The flame on Hanuman's tail still danced, but now the wind that blew on it felt cool, like snow.

Hanuman was puzzled. “My tail is on fire, but it does not hurt at all!”

Then he understood. “It is because of Sita's goodness, and Rama's power. And my father, the Wind, is a friend of Fire.”

Hanuman made himself tiny, and slipped right out of the ropes!

Then he grew as tall as a hill again, and sprang up onto the great gate of the city.

From the top of the gate, Hanuman thought, “I have seen the city and met the king. One job is left, and my tail is already lit!”

He leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Wherever his tail touched, the roofs began to glow.

The wind blew, and the fire spread, until the sky over Lanka was orange and gold.

The people of Lanka ran out of their houses. Hanuman left just one house alone: the house of Vibhishana.

Then Hanuman ran to the seashore and dipped his tail into the ocean. Tsssss! The fire went out.

But then Hanuman gasped. “Oh no! What about Sita? Did the fire reach her garden?”

He was cross with himself. “I let my anger run away with me,” he said sadly.

Just then he heard voices high in the sky. “How wonderful! The whole city burned, but Sita is safe. The fire did not touch her.”

Hanuman's heart filled with joy. “Sita is safe! I will see her once more, and then I will fly home to Rama.” And that is the next story.

For grown-ups

Where this story comes from

This is the burning of Lanka, from the Sundara Kanda, the fifth book of the Valmiki Ramayana. The story follows sargas 53 to 55. 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.

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Three things this telling leaves out, and why

  1. The guards at the gate (sarga 53). After slipping out of the ropes, Hanuman takes an iron bar from the gateway and kills the guards there before he climbs the gate. Left out because a fight is too much at bedtime for this age.
  2. Who the fire harmed (sarga 54). Valmiki says plainly that the fire burned the city's houses and gardens and many living beings in them, and that the people of Lanka cried out in fear. The story shows people running out of their houses and no one hurt. We name it here so the retelling stays honest; an older child may ask, and the answer is yes, people were hurt.
  3. What happens next (sarga 56 onward). Hanuman goes back to Sita once more, and she sends him home. Left out because it is the next story.

We also compressed three things. The parade (sarga 53) is long, with the crowds calling out what Hanuman had done in the garden. The houses Hanuman burned are named one by one in sarga 54, among them the houses of Ravana's ministers, like Prahasta; the story says only that the fire spread. And Hanuman's reasoning on the gate (sarga 54) is fuller than one line: he thinks over what he has already done in Lanka and decides that the city itself is the work that is left.

The question children ask here

“Why didn't the fire burn Hanuman?” Valmiki gives two answers, and they fit together:

  • Sita prayed to Agni, the god of fire, to be cool to Hanuman, and the fire turned cool, with a wind that blew on it like snow (sarga 53);
  • and Hanuman himself names three reasons: Sita's goodness, Rama's power, and the friendship between his father Vayu, the Wind, and Agni, the Fire (sarga 53).

“Because Sita prayed for him, and the Fire listened.”

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