The friend in the hills
Episode 12 of 20 in Ramayana: Valmiki's story, told gently.
Narrated with an AI voice.
- Reading time
- 7 min
- Listening time
- 9 min
- By
- DharmikStudio Originals
- Narration
- AI voice
Read along
Namaste. Welcome back. Last time Rama grieved for Sita, honoured old Jatayu, and was welcomed by Shabari at Lake Pampa. Kabandha had told the brothers to look for a vanara named Sugriva on Rishyamuka hill.
Tonight they find him. And they find someone else, who will stay with Rama for the rest of this story.
**
Picture the scene. Spring has come to Pampa. The lake is full of lotuses, the trees are in flower, and for Rama every bit of that beauty hurts, because Sita is not there to see it. Valmiki gives him a long, sad song about the spring. Lakshmana, as always, keeps him walking.
High above, on **Rishyamuka**, **Sugriva** watches them come. Sugriva is a vanara prince who has been driven out of his home, the city of **Kishkindha**, by his elder brother **Vali**. Vali cannot come up this hill because of an old curse, so Sugriva lives here with four loyal companions. Now he sees two tall young men in bark clothes, carrying bows, walking straight towards his hill. He is afraid. Has Vali sent them?
So he turns to his wisest friend, his minister. Go and find out who they are, he says. Be careful.
That minister is **Hanuman**.
**
Hanuman does something clever. He does not go as a vanara. He takes the form of a wandering monk, a bhikshu, and walks down to meet the brothers.
He greets them with great courtesy. He praises their bearing. He asks who they are, why they have come to this lonely forest, why they look like kings but dress like hermits. Then, before they can worry, he tells them honestly who he is and who sent him. Sugriva wishes to be your friend, he says.
Rama listens. Then he turns to Lakshmana and says something that devotees have loved for centuries. Did you hear how he spoke? Not one word out of place. Not too long, not too short. His face was calm, his voice was clear.
**nānṛgvedavinītasya nāyajurvedadhāriṇaḥ**
"One who has not learned the Rig Veda, one who does not hold the Yajur Veda in memory, could not speak like this." Rama goes on to say that a king with such a messenger would succeed in anything.
**
Isn't it lovely that the very first thing Rama notices about Hanuman is not his strength? It is the way he speaks. His care with words. We usually think of Hanuman leaping over the sea or lifting a mountain. The Ramayana introduces him as a gentle, thoughtful, well-read friend.
Lakshmana answers Hanuman and tells him their whole story. Hanuman then takes his true form, lifts the brothers onto his shoulders, and carries them up to Sugriva.
**
Now comes the meeting of two people who have both lost a great deal. Rama has lost his kingdom and his wife. Sugriva has lost his kingdom and his wife too. Each understands the other without much explanation.
Hanuman lights a fire between them. Rama and Sugriva walk around it together, and with the fire as their witness they promise to be friends in happiness and in trouble. Rama will help Sugriva get back his home. Sugriva will help Rama find Sita.
Then Sugriva remembers something. Some days ago, he says, we saw a woman being carried through the sky by Ravana, crying out Rama's name. She saw us sitting here on the hilltop and she dropped a bundle wrapped in her upper cloth. We kept it safe.
He brings it out. Rama opens it and sees Sita's ornaments. He cannot speak. He holds them close.
And Valmiki gives us a small moment here that people remember. Rama asks Lakshmana, do you know these? Lakshmana says, I do not know her armlets, and I do not know her earrings. But I know these anklets, because every day I bowed at her feet.
**
Now we come to the hardest part of this kanda. I will tell it plainly and briefly, the way Valmiki tells it, and leave you to think about it.
Sugriva explains why Vali drove him out. Once Vali went into a cave to fight a demon and told Sugriva to wait. After a long time, Sugriva saw blood-coloured water flowing out and heard what sounded like Vali's end. Grieving, he closed the cave and went home, and the ministers made him king. But Vali came back alive, believed his brother had betrayed him, drove him out, and took Sugriva's wife **Ruma** for himself.
Sugriva is still unsure. Vali is famously strong, he says. Can you really help me? Valmiki then tells a gentle test. Sugriva shows Rama a row of seven great sala trees and asks whether he can pierce even one. Rama lets fly a single arrow, and it passes through all seven, through the hill behind them, and comes back to his quiver. Sugriva bows. His doubt is gone, and so is his fear.
It is worth noticing that Rama is not offended by the test. A frightened friend needs reassurance, and Rama gives it without fuss.
Sugriva challenges Vali. They grapple, and Sugriva has to flee. The second time, wearing a garland of flowers so that Rama can tell the brothers apart, Sugriva challenges him again. While the two brothers struggle, Rama, standing hidden among the trees, sends an arrow, and Vali falls.
**
Vali, lying on the ground, asks Rama a direct question. I was not fighting you. Why did you do this from hiding? Is this your dharma?
Valmiki does not avoid the question. He lets Vali ask it in full. And he lets Rama answer. Rama says that this land belongs to the rule of the Ikshvaku kings, now under Bharata, and that it is the king's duty to correct wrongdoing. Vali took his younger brother's wife while that brother was alive, which dharma counts as a grave wrong, like taking a daughter-in-law. This, Rama says, is why he acted.
People have discussed this moment for many centuries. Some find Rama's answer complete. Some still carry a question. Valmiki himself seems to leave space for both, because he tells us that Vali, after hearing Rama, accepts his words and asks only one thing. Please look after my son **Angada**. Care for him as you would care for Bharata and Lakshmana.
Vali's wife **Tara**, a wise and dignified woman, grieves deeply for him. Rama comforts her and sees that Vali's rites are done with full honour.
**
And so Sugriva returns to Kishkindha. He is crowned king, Ruma returns to him, and young Angada is made the heir. The friendship made before the fire has kept its first promise. Now it is Sugriva's turn.
But the rains are coming. Nobody can search the world in the monsoon. Rama and Lakshmana go to live in a cave on **Prasravana** hill to wait out the season.
**
So let us gather what we heard tonight.
Hanuman first met Rama disguised as a wandering ascetic, and Rama told Lakshmana that no one could speak so well without knowing the Vedas. Rama and Sugriva became friends with a fire as their witness, and Sugriva showed Rama the ornaments Sita had dropped from the sky. And Valmiki told the hard story of Vali plainly, gave Rama's reason, and ended with Sugriva crowned and Angada made heir.
**One thing to take with you.** Rama noticed how Hanuman spoke before he noticed anything else about him. Tomorrow, choose one conversation and take care with your words, the way Hanuman did. Not too many, not too few, and kind.
In the next episode the rains end, a promise seems forgotten, and the great search for Sita finally begins.
*[Wind softens. Silence 2 seconds.]*
**Credits (read out):** Written by the DharmikStudio team from the Valmiki Ramayana, Kishkindha Kanda. Narrated with an AI voice. If you hear a mistake, please use "Report a mistake" on this episode.