Ramayana · Vol 1
The Leap
Volume 6 of 9Start from Volume 1 →
Hanuman leaps the sea alone and slips into Lanka at the size of a cat to look for Sita. All night he searches the city of the rakshasa king and nearly gives up, until only one garden is left that he has not entered.
- Series
- Ramayana
- Contents
- 19 chapters, 33,167 words
- Transparency
- SI-assisted work
About this work
Hanuman, the vanara son of the Wind God, leaps from the peak of Mahendra with Rama's ring tied at his neck. He has been sent to find Sita, Rama's wife, carried off by Ravana, king of the rakshasas. Above the sea he faces Surasa, who means to swallow him, and Simhika, who catches her prey by its shadow. After sunset he shrinks to the size of a cat and gets past the walls of Lanka. He searches the rakshasas' houses all the way to Ravana's bedchamber. He takes a beautiful woman for Sita and rejoices too soon. Toward the end of the night he is sure Sita is dead, and he stands on the lip of the wall thinking about his own death. One garden remains that he has not entered. From a branch of a shimshapa tree he sees a thin woman sitting on the ground among the rakshasis, and he recognizes the ornaments on her body. In the palace, Ravana wakes. This novel retells the Sundara Kanda of Valmiki's Ramayana, in the Indian version.
