Sugriva’s eyes fill with tears. He wipes them and says, “My big brother Vali is famous for his strength. Vali alone is my enemy.” Rama asks, “Why did you two become enemies? Tell me, and I will know what to do.”
One night a demon called Mayavi shouts at the gate of Kishkindha, Vali’s city. Vali and Sugriva chase him by the light of the rising moon. The demon runs into a deep hole. “Wait for me here,” says Vali, and he goes in.
Sugriva waits for more than a year. From the hole come the demon’s shouts, but never his brother’s voice. Sure that Vali has died, he sadly closes the hole with a great rock and goes home. The ministers, the king’s helpers, make him king.
Then Vali comes back! Sugriva bows till his crown touches Vali’s feet. He holds out the royal umbrella, open like a full moon. But Vali thinks Sugriva shut him in on purpose. Sugriva must run away in just one cloth, and Vali takes Sugriva’s wife.
Before sunrise, Vali strides from the western ocean to the eastern one. He tosses mountain peaks up and catches them like balls. Once Dundubhi, a buffalo demon as big as a mountain, roars at his gate. Vali grabs his horns and throws him far away.
Dundubhi’s body crashes into the sage Matanga’s forest and smashes his trees. The sage says, “Whoever did this must never come here, or my curse will strike him!” Vali begs with joined palms, but the curse stays. So Vali never comes to Rishyamuka, Sugriva’s mountain.
Sugriva shows Rama a great heap of bones, shining like a hilltop: Dundubhi’s. “Vali can strip each of these seven sala trees bare. How can you beat Vali?” Lakshmana smiles. “What would make you sure?” “Kick these bones two hundred bow-lengths,” says Sugriva.
Rama smiles. With just his big toe, he flicks the whole heap of bones ten yojanas away! But Sugriva is not yet sure. “It was heavy when Vali threw it. Now it is dry and light. Please, shoot through one sala tree.”
Rama draws his bow. Twang! The sound fills every direction. His golden arrow goes through all seven sala trees and the mountain, into the earth, and flies back into his quiver! Sugriva kneels, his head to the ground. “Who could stand against you?”
“Defeat my enemy today!” Sugriva begs. Rama hugs him. “Go to Kishkindha and call Vali out.” They hide among thick trees, and Sugriva roars so loudly that the sky seems to crack. Vali rushes out, and the brothers fight with hands and fists.
Rama watches, bow in hand. But the brothers look alike, like the twin gods of heaven. Rama cannot tell which is Sugriva, so he does not shoot. Vali beats Sugriva, who runs to Rishyamuka. Vali turns back, afraid of the curse.
Sugriva looks down in shame. “You let him beat me. Why?” Rama says, “You two have the same ornaments and clothes, the same size and the same voice. I could not tell you apart. My arrow might have hit you, my friend.”
Rama says, “Lakshmana, pick that flowering creeper and put it round Sugriva’s neck.” Lakshmana picks the flowers at the foot of the mountain and hangs them on Sugriva like a garland. Sugriva shines like a dark rain cloud with a line of herons across it.
Back at Kishkindha, with its golden gate, Sugriva says, “Now keep your promise.” Rama says, “With this garland, I will know you. I have never told a lie, and I never will.” Sugriva roars again. Deer run, and birds tumble from the sky.
Inside, Vali jumps up to go out. His wife Tara hugs him to stop him. “Sugriva would not come back alone after you beat him. Our son Angada has heard that Prince Rama is with him. Make peace with your brother. Make him your prince.”
Vali says, “I cannot bear his shouting. Do not fear Rama. A man who knows what is right will not do wrong. I will not kill my brother, only drive him away.” Tara walks round him, prays for his victory, and goes inside.
The brothers fight again. Vali is stronger, and Sugriva looks round for help. Rama draws his bow. Twang! Birds and animals run. Rama’s arrow flies, and Vali falls. A golden chain from Indra, king of the gods, keeps him alive a little longer.
Rama and Lakshmana come near. Vali looks up at them. “People say Rama is good and kind. Tara warned me, but I trusted you. You hid, and you struck me while I was fighting someone else. I never harmed you. Why?”
Rama answers, “You did a great wrong. You took your brother’s wife from him. And I gave Sugriva my promise. How could I break it?” Vali joins his palms. “You are right. Forgive my angry words.”
Vali speaks through tears. “I do not worry for myself or for Tara. I worry for my son Angada. I have loved him since he was little. Please protect him.” Rama says, “Do not worry. We will care for your wife and son.”
Tara comes running with Angada. She holds Vali close, and her tears fall on him. Hanuman says to her gently, “You still have your son. You must look after Angada now.”
Vali looks at Sugriva. “Brother, look at Angada. Love him as your own son. Be his father now. And keep your promise to Rama, made before the fire.” He gives Sugriva his golden chain. To Angada he says, “Listen to your uncle Sugriva now.”
Then Vali speaks no more. He has gone to heaven. Angada touches his father’s feet. “Father, I am Angada.” Sugriva weeps. “Vali used to tell me, ‘I do not wish to kill you. Go.’” Rama’s eyes fill with tears too.
After a farewell fit for a king, Hanuman asks Rama to Sugriva’s crowning in Kishkindha. Rama says, “By my father’s word, I may not enter a town. Be crowned, and make Angada crown prince. The rains have come. I will wait on this mountain.”
Under a white umbrella, Sugriva sits on a throne. He hugs Angada and makes him crown prince, as Rama said. In a mountain cave among red and blue lotuses, Rama waits out the rains. Now it is Sugriva’s turn to keep a promise.
For grown-ups
Where this story comes from
This story is from the Valmiki Ramayana, Kishkindha Kanda, sargas 8–26: why Sugriva and Vali became enemies, Rama’s two tests, the fight that failed, the garland, Vali’s fall, his talk with Rama, his last words, and Sugriva’s crowning. 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. The book opens at 8.29. Sarga 8 first retells the sala branch, Sugriva’s plea and Rama’s promise (8.12–24), which the first book told. 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. Rama’s answer to Vali (pages 18–19). Vali asks why Rama struck him from hiding while he fought someone else, though he had done Rama no harm (17.20–25). The page gives two of Rama’s reasons, both from 18: Vali misbehaved with Ruma, Sugriva’s wife, while Sugriva lived, and the punishment for that is death (18.18–23); and Rama gave Sugriva his promise before the vanaras, and cannot break it (18.26–27). Valmiki gives more. The whole earth belongs to the Ikshvakus, and Bharata, Rama’s brother, rules it; Rama and Lakshmana punish wrongdoing in Bharata’s name (18.6–11, 18.23b–25). Rama quotes two verses of Manu: a king who punishes rightly is free of sin, and a king who does not punish takes the sin on himself (18.30–32). On the hidden shot, Rama says that kings hunt, and a hunter may strike an animal that faces away or does not see him; hunting is no face-to-face contest (18.37–40). Vali joins his palms, says Rama is right and asks pardon for his words (18.44–48, 18.66). This is Valmiki’s answer, not ours. Readers have debated the hidden shot for many centuries, and Valmiki leaves Rama’s answer and Vali’s acceptance for the reader to weigh.
2. “Takes Sugriva’s wife” (pages 4 and 19). Her name is Ruma (18.19). Sugriva says Vali stole her (8.33, 10.27); Rama names the wrong plainly as lust towards a younger brother’s wife (18.18–22). The book says only that Vali took her.
3. “Vali thinks Sugriva shut him in on purpose” (page 4). This is Vali’s side, in one line. He killed Mayavi in the cave, found its mouth closed, shouted for Sugriva and got no answer, broke the rock with his foot, and told the court that Sugriva had shut him in to take the kingdom (10.20–25). Sugriva had closed the cave because he thought Vali was dead (9.16–20), and he offered the kingdom back (10.1–10).
4. “Rama’s eyes fill with tears too” (page 23). Valmiki says Rama’s eyes grew moist when he heard Sugriva’s grief (24.24). Sugriva’s words just before were a wish to die in the fire, which the book leaves out (see below).
5. “My father’s word” (page 24). Rama says that, as one who keeps his father’s command, he may not enter a village or a city (26.9b–10a). The first book tells that Rama obeyed his father and came to the forest.
6. Sarga 24. The translation on valmikiramayan.net notes that the critical edition leaves out sarga 24. The Gita Press text includes it. Page 23 uses two lines from it: Sugriva’s memory of Vali’s words (24.8) and Rama’s tears (24.24).
Read the full episode
Three things this telling leaves out, and why
- How Vali fell (16.35–39, 17.1–9). Rama’s arrow strikes Vali in the chest, and Valmiki describes the fall, the arrow still in him and the light of his body, his chain and the arrow. The book says only, “Rama’s arrow flies, and Vali falls,” as the commission asked. It also leaves out the blood of both brothers in the second fight (16.22, 16.30) and Sugriva soaked in blood after the first (12.22).
- Vali’s death and his funeral (22.24, 23.17–20, 25.13–53). Valmiki describes Vali’s face at the moment of death (22.24), the drawing out of the arrow (23.17b–20a), and the funeral: the bier, the pyre that Angada lights, the river rites. The book says, “Then Vali speaks no more. He has gone to heaven” (the vanaras say he “departed to heaven”, 22.26), and gives the funeral one phrase, “a farewell fit for a king” (25.32).
- Tara’s grief (19–21, 23, 24.29–44). Tara faints, laments over Vali at length, blames Rama and Sugriva (20.15, 20.20–21, 23.15–16), and asks Rama to kill her with the same arrow (24.33–40). She also says she wishes to die beside Vali (19.18–19, 21.13–16). As the commission asked, the book shows her grief by her tears only (23.20b–21a), and keeps Hanuman’s comfort (21.1, 21.4).
- Sugriva’s wish to enter the fire (24.4–23). After Vali dies, Sugriva says the kingdom gives him no joy and asks Rama to let him enter the fire (24.23). The commission asked that this be left out. Page 23 keeps his tears and his memory of Vali’s mercy (24.8).
- Mayavi and Dundubhi (9.4, 9.17, 10.20–21, 11.8–47). Mayavi quarrelled with Vali over a woman (9.4). Blood with foam flowed from the cave, and Sugriva took it as a sign of Vali’s death (9.17); page 3 keeps the other sign, the demon’s shouts without Vali’s voice (9.18). Vali killed Mayavi in the cave (10.20). Dundubhi first challenged the Ocean and the Himalaya (11.8–24). Vali killed him, and the blood from his mouth fell on Matanga’s hermitage (11.40–50). The book says only that Vali threw him far away and that his body smashed the sage’s trees (11.54).
- Vali’s angry words (17.22–53). Before Rama answers, Vali calls him a straw-covered well and an unrighteous flag-bearer of righteousness, and says he would have fetched Sita in a day. Page 18 keeps his question and its strongest fair point: you hid and struck me while I fought another.
- The Hermitage of the Seven Sages (13). On the way back to Kishkindha, Rama sees lakes, elephants and birds (13.7–12), and Sugriva shows him the hermitage of seven sages who lived on air and went to heaven in their bodies. Rama and his companions bow to it (13.13–28). It is left out to keep the story on the two fights.
- Two names left out. Ruma, Sugriva’s wife, is not named on a page. A vanara chief who is also called Tara (13.4, 25.17) is left out, so that a child does not meet two Taras.
Page 1 joins Sugriva’s tears (8.29–31), his short account (8.32–38) and Rama’s question (8.41–44); Sugriva’s praise of friendship (8.2–9) is left out. Pages 2–4 tell 9.4–25 and 10.1–28, the story Sugriva tells Rama, in the present tense; Sugriva performed water rites for Vali before he went home (9.19–20). On page 4, Sugriva’s spoken offer of the kingdom (10.9–10) is shown by the umbrella, and Vali’s speech to the court (10.13–25) is one line. Page 5 tells Vali’s feats (11.4–7) and Dundubhi (11.25–47) in four sentences. Page 6 tells Matanga’s curse (11.48–65); the curse also banished Vali’s friends from the forest (11.55b–56a). Pages 7–9 tell 11.66–12.11; Sugriva first asks for either test (11.71–72), and then, after the toe, for the tree (11.86–92). Page 10 joins 12.12–18. Page 11 tells 12.19–24. Page 12 tells 12.25–34; Rama also says that Sugriva is their shelter in the forest, and that he will strike Vali with one arrow (12.35–37). Page 13 tells 12.38–42; the cloud in the simile is lit by sunset (12.41), and the creeper is a gaja creeper. Page 14 joins 14.1–21; at the gate they hide among the trees again (14.1). Page 15 tells 15.5–25. Page 16 tells 16.1–12. Page 17 joins 16.13–36 and 17.4–5. Page 18 tells 17.14–25 and 17.41. Page 19 joins 18.18–27, 18.45–48 and 18.66 (see the honesty note). Page 20 joins 18.49–55 and Rama’s answer (18.59–64); Vali also asks that Tara not suffer for his fault (18.55). Page 21 joins 19.4, 20.1, 21.1, 21.4 and 23.20b–21a. Page 22 tells 22.1–23; Vali also says he does not think the two brothers were fated to be happy together (22.4), and gives Angada advice on how to serve Sugriva (22.20–23). Page 23 joins 22.24–26, 23.24b–25a, 24.1–8 and 24.24. Page 24 joins 25.27–53 and 26.1–15. Page 25 joins 26.16–18 and 26.22–41; Sugriva is crowned with Vedic hymns, and thousands of vanaras cheer (26.31–37). He also wins back his wife (26.42).
The question children ask here
“Why did Rama hide when he shot Vali?” Valmiki tells it this way:
- Rama and his friends hid among the trees near Kishkindha both times (12.14, 14.1). The first time, Rama could not tell the two brothers apart, so he did not shoot (12.19–20, 12.30–33).
- Vali asked the same question: why did Rama strike him while he fought someone else, though he had never harmed Rama (17.20–25)?
- Rama gave his reasons. Vali had done a great wrong to his brother by taking his wife (18.18–20). Rama had given Sugriva his promise and could not break it (18.26–27). And kings hunt, and hunting is no face-to-face contest (18.37–40).
- Vali joined his palms and said, “What all you have said is proper” (18.45). People have talked about this choice for many centuries.
“Rama had promised to help his friend, and Vali had done a great wrong. Vali asked Rama the same question, and when Rama answered, Vali said he was right.”
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