Laṅkā Dahana

The burning of Laṅkā is the high point of the Sundara Kāṇḍa. Vibhīshaṇa had asked Rāvaṇa to spare Hanumān’s life. The rākshasas then wrapped Hanumān’s tail in cloth soaked in oil, set it on fire, and led him through the city. But Agni, the deva of fire, could not burn the son of Vāyu. Sītā’s purity and Rāma’s grace made the flames cool. Hanumān broke his bonds and used his burning tail as a torch to set fire to the palaces, towers and streets of Laṅkā. He burned the houses of Prahasta, Mahāpārśva, Indrajit, Kumbhakarṇa, Rāvaṇa himself and many others, and spared only the house of Vibhīshaṇa. Laṅkā burned like a second Pralayāgni (the fire at the end of the world), and the rākshasas wailed through the night.

The burning of the tail

The rākshasas obeyed Rāvaṇa’s order. They wound strips of old cotton and other cloth around Hanumān’s tail, poured oil on it and lit it. They bound Hanumān and dragged him through the streets of Laṅkā. Women, children and old rākshasas came out of their houses to watch. Conch shells and kettledrums sounded to announce the procession. The rākshasas shouted through the streets, “This vānara is a spy!” as they led Hanumān through the crossroads, the marketplaces and the wide royal road. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 53)

Sītā’s prayer and Agni’s grace

Female rākshasas came to tell Sītā that the vānara who had spoken with her was being led through the city with a burning tail. Sītā at once turned to Agni in prayer. Her words came from the power of a perfectly faithful wife (satī): “If I have been true to my husband, if I have done tapas (austerity), if I am truly the wife of one husband alone, then, O Agni, be cool and safe for Hanumān. If Śrī Rāma has any kindness left for me, be cool for this vānara. If I have any puṇya (merit) left, be cool for the son of Vāyu.”

The answer came at once. Agni became cool to Hanumān. The flames blazed to the eye, but he felt no burning. Hanumān thought in wonder, “The fire does not touch me.” He put this down to Sītā’s purity, to Rāma’s grace, and to Vāyu’s friendship with Agni. He understood that forces far greater than his own strength were guarding him. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 53)

Breaking free

Hanumān let himself be held during the procession. When he had seen enough, he acted. He grew his body for a moment and snapped all his bonds. He leaped to the top of the gate tower and seized the iron bar fixed there. With it he killed the gate guards who had walked with the procession. Then he stood on top of the gate and roared. He was free, and his own tail had become a burning torch in his hand. He looked out over the golden city of Laṅkā spread before him. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 53)

Setting Laṅkā on fire

Hanumān thought of what was left to do. He had already destroyed the gardens, tested the army and spoken to Rāvaṇa. Now he leaped from building to building and touched his flaming tail to the roof of each one.

He burned the mansion of Prahasta first, the palace of the chief minister. Then he burned the houses of Mahāpārśva, Vajradaṃshṭra, Śuka, Sāraṇa, Indrajit, Jambumāli, Sumāli, Raśmiketu and Sūryaśatru, and many more. He burned the palaces of Kumbhakarṇa, Makarāksha, Yajñaśatru, Brahmāśatru, Narāntaka, Kumbha and Nikumbha. One by one he went through the palaces of the chief rākshasa leaders. At last he reached Rāvaṇa’s own central palace, the grandest building in Laṅkā, covered in gold and jewels, and touched it with his flame. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 54)

Vibhīshaṇa’s house is spared

In the middle of this destruction, Hanumān passed in front of Vibhīshaṇa’s house and chose not to touch it. He remembered that Vibhīshaṇa had spoken for dharma in the assembly and had stood up for the duty of protecting a messenger (dūta-dharma), even in Rāvaṇa’s court. A man of such character deserved protection. The fire of Laṅkā went everywhere except to Vibhīshaṇa’s gates. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 54)

Hanumān’s fear and its end

As the city burned and the rākshasas cried out, a terrible fear struck Hanumān. He thought, “Laṅkā is burned completely. Is there any place in it that has not burned? If not, then Sītā too has burned, and in my anger I have destroyed the very one I came to save. What will I tell Rāma?” The thought almost crushed him.

Then good signs appeared. His left eye twitched in a good omen. He heard, carried on the wind, the voices of the cāraṇas high in the sky: “Laṅkā has burned in every part, but Sītā has not burned. This is the wonder.”

Hanumān went back to the Śiṃśupā tree and found Sītā sitting there, unharmed and shining. The fire that had eaten a golden city had not touched one hair of Sītā. The tapas of the satī and the grace of Rāma had kept her unburned. Hanumān put out his tail in the ocean and got ready to return. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 54 and 55)

The world watches

From the sky the devas, gandharvas, siddhas and great ṛshis watched Laṅkā burn. They asked one another, “Is this a vānara? Or is it Agni himself come in the form of a vānara? Or is it the anger of Brahmā? Or is it the tejas (radiance) of Vishṇu taking this form to begin the destruction of the rākshasas?”

The rākshasas who lived through the night huddled together and asked the same questions in fear. Laṅkā had stood through the ages as a fortress no one could break, and even the devas had feared it. After one night’s work by a messenger of Rāma, it lay in ruins. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 54)

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 53 to 55