5. Sundara Kand
The Book of Beauty · 68 sargas
The best-loved kand, and all of it Hanuman's. He leaps the ocean to Lanka, finds Sita in the Ashoka grove, gives her Rama's ring to steady her, burns the city and returns with her crest-jewel. It is the one kand that holds victory and no defeat, which is why it is considered the most auspicious to recite.
What Happens in Sundara Kand
Sundara Kand is the most recited book of the Ramayan, and the reason is structural: it is the only one in which nothing goes wrong. Every other kand contains a loss. This one contains a leap, a search, a meeting, a fire and a return, and ends with everyone better off than they started. Households read it for exactly that reason — for work that needs to succeed, for news that needs to be good.
It is Hanuman's book from the first line. He grows to enormous size on Mount Mahendra and crosses a hundred yojanas of ocean, meeting three obstacles on the way: Surasa, who must be entered and left to satisfy her boon and is outwitted by his becoming tiny; Simhika, who drags at shadows and is destroyed; and Lankini, the city's guardian spirit, who is struck down at the gate and takes it as the omen of Lanka's fall. He shrinks to the size of a cat and searches the city all night — palace by palace, and finally Ravana's own chambers and the Pushpaka — and does not find her.
He finds her at last in the Ashoka grove, under a shimshupa tree, surrounded by rakshasis, refusing Ravana to his face and preparing to end her life. Hanuman waits, then begins reciting Rama's story quietly from the branches so that she will not take him for another illusion, and gives her Rama's ring. She gives him her crest-jewel and a memory only Rama could know. He then lets himself be captured, delivers Rama's terms in open court, watches them set his tail alight, and burns the city with it before quenching the flame in the sea and flying home with the news the entire army is waiting for.
Key Episodes
- The hundred-yojana leap across the ocean
- Facing Surasa, Simhika and Lankini
- Finding Sita in the Ashoka grove
- Giving Rama's ring, and receiving Sita's crest-jewel
- Akshaya Kumara killed, and Hanuman's message in Ravana's court
- The burning of Lanka, and the return in triumph
Who Appears in Sundara Kand
- Hanuman
- Leaps the ocean, finds Sita, delivers Rama's ring and message, burns Lanka, and returns with her crest-jewel.
- Sita
- Held in the Ashoka grove, refusing Ravana outright and close to ending her life when Hanuman reaches her.
- Ravana
- Receives Rama's terms in his own court from a captive messenger, and has his city burned for the reply.
- Vibhishana
- Ravana's brother, who intervenes to stop Hanuman being killed — an envoy may be punished but not executed.
- Trijata
- The one rakshasi in the grove who is kind to Sita, and whose dream foretells Lanka's destruction.
- Akshaya Kumara
- Ravana's son, killed by Hanuman in the grove before Meghnad finally binds him.
What Sundara Kand Teaches
A book without a defeat
Sundara Kand is considered the most auspicious portion of the Ramayan to recite because its whole arc is accomplishment. Nothing is lost in it and no one who matters dies. Traditional practice reads it for obstacles, journeys and undertakings that need to come off.
Serving without self
Hanuman could have carried Sita back — he says so, and she refuses, since Rama's honour requires that he come himself. Neither of them takes the shortcut. The Ramayan's model of service is one that declines the credit available to it.
Proof against despair
Sita has been alone for months and has stopped believing in rescue. Hanuman does not announce himself; he tells Rama's story aloud in the dark until she is willing to look up. The epic treats the restoring of someone's hope as a task requiring as much care as the leap across the sea.
Shlokas
Sundara Kand
जयत्यतिबलो रामो लक्ष्मणश्च महाबलः । राजा जयति सुग्रीवो राघवेणाभिपालितः ॥
jayaty atibalo rāmo lakṣmaṇaśca mahābalaḥ / rājā jayati sugrīvo rāghaveṇābhipālitaḥ
Victory to the mighty Rama, and to Lakshmana of great strength! Victory to King Sugriva, protected by Raghava! Hanuman's declaration — the words by which Sita knew he came from Rama.
Sundara Kand — Frequently Asked Questions
Because it is the only kand in which nothing goes wrong. Hanuman succeeds at every stage, no one on Rama's side suffers a loss, and the book ends in triumph — so it is traditionally read for success in difficult undertakings, and often recited on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
Hanuman leaps the ocean to Lanka, overcomes Surasa, Simhika and Lankini, searches the city, finds Sita in the Ashoka grove, gives her Rama's ring, is captured and delivers Rama's message in Ravana's court, burns Lanka with his flaming tail, and returns with Sita's crest-jewel.
Several explanations are given: that Hanuman was also called Sundara by his mother; that the kand's subject — Lanka, the grove, the leap — is described in unusually beautiful language; and that everything in it is auspicious. Valmiki gives no reason himself.
He offered, and she refused. She held that Rama's honour required him to come and win her back himself, and that she would not willingly be touched by another man. Hanuman accepted her reasoning and left with proof instead.
Captured and brought before Ravana, he was sentenced to have his tail set alight. Sita prayed that the fire would not burn him, and Hanuman leapt from roof to roof across the city, setting Lanka ablaze, before quenching his tail in the sea.