Rāma Sugrīva Maitrī

The friendship between Bhagavān Śrī Rāma and the vānara king Sugrīva is the turning point of the Kishkindhā Kāṇḍa. It began at the mountain Ṛshyamūka, on the bank of Lake Pampā, and it was sealed with fire as witness. This maitrī (friendship) joined two people who each needed help. Rāma was looking for Sītā. Sugrīva wanted his throne back. It was more than a political alliance. It was a pledge of friendship in dharma, and it made possible the freeing of Sītā and the end of Rāvaṇa.

Arrival at Pampā

Kabandha had been freed, and Śrī Rāma and Lakshmaṇa had left the āśrama of Śabarī. They walked south and reached the shore of Pampā Sarovara, at the foot of the Ṛshyamūka mountain. It was the height of vasanta (spring). All of nature was in bloom and rejoicing. For Rāma this was painful, because he was filled with grief at being parted from Sītā.

Rāma walked along the sweet-smelling shores of Pampā. He saw the water full of lotuses, the flowering trees and the pairs of birds singing in joy. Every sight of happy couples among the birds and animals made his longing sharper. He spoke his grief aloud to Lakshmaṇa in a long lament. The lake reminded him of Sītā’s eyes, the blossoms of her hair, and the spring breeze of her breath. He feared that she could not live through the separation. He feared that she was already dead.

Lakshmaṇa heard every word with devotion, and then spoke firmly: “You are no ordinary man. Sugrīva can tell you where Sītā is. Rāvaṇa cannot escape us, even if he hides in Pātāla or in the womb of Aditi. Utsāha (energy and effort) alone is true strength. Let us go forward.” Rāma steadied himself, and they went on. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Kishkindhā Kāṇḍa, Chapter 1)

Sugrīva’s fear and Hanumān’s wisdom

From the heights of Ṛshyamūka, Sugrīva saw two tall men moving through the forest. They carried weapons and wore bark clothes, but they had the strength of warriors. His heart filled with fear. He feared they were spies sent by Vāli to kill him in his hiding place.

His ministers were just as alarmed. They leaped from peak to peak, tore up trees and cried out. Sugrīva gathered them and told them his fear: “These two are surely Vāli’s men, sent in disguise. Vāli can use every trick.”

But Hanumān, his wisest minister, spoke calmly to him: “Ṛshyamūka is guarded by the curse of Mataṅga Muni. Vāli cannot set foot here. These men show no hostility in the way they stand. O king, you are a master of rāja-dharma (the duty of a king) and of wise reasoning. Use your judgment. Send me to find out. Let me learn who they truly are.” Sugrīva agreed. He sent Hanumān in disguise, without giving away where Sugrīva was, to find out who the strangers were. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Kishkindhā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 1–2)

Hanumān meets Rāma

Hanumān came down from the mountain. He took the form of a bhikshu (a wandering renunciant) and went up to the two princes on the shore of Pampā. He spoke to them in flawless Sanskrit. His words were eloquent and measured, and his voice was perfectly pitched, neither too loud nor too soft. His speech had no fault of grammar. It was well ordered, and it said what he meant without doubt or hesitation.

Rāma listened and was struck at once. He turned to Lakshmaṇa and said with deep admiration: “A man who has not studied the Ṛgveda, the Yajurveda and the Sāmaveda cannot speak like this. There is no flaw anywhere, not in his face, brow, eyes, forehead or limbs. His words come properly from the three places of the voice, the chest, the throat and the head. He has mastered the whole science of grammar. Even an enemy ready for battle would put down his sword on hearing such speech. This is a true minister. A king who has such an envoy is blessed indeed.”

Hanumān then showed who he was: “I am Hanumān, son of Vāyu, minister of the vānara king Sugrīva. He has sent me to you. He wants your friendship. I am a vānara and can change my shape. I came in this form to win your trust.” He told them of Sugrīva’s exile, of how Vāli had made him suffer, and of Sugrīva’s wish for an alliance.

Rāma said to Lakshmaṇa: “We were looking for Sugrīva ourselves, and now his minister has come to us. This is grace.” Lakshmaṇa told Hanumān their own story. He spoke of the royal house of Daśaratha, the exile in the forest, the abduction of Sītā, and Kabandha’s advice to look for Sugrīva.

Hanumān was sure that the union was right. He dropped his disguise and took his true vānara form. He lifted Rāma and Lakshmaṇa onto his broad shoulders and carried them up to Ṛshyamūka in one great leap. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Kishkindhā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 3–4)

The alliance with Agni as witness

On the Ṛshyamūka mountain, Hanumān brought the princes before Sugrīva. The vānara king came up to Rāma with joined hands and an overflowing heart. He said: “Great one, I know you by your virtues. It is a great honour that you, a supreme being, would seek the friendship of a vānara like me. I offer my hand.” Rāma embraced him, and their hearts opened.

Then Hanumān, who had brought them together, took two dry branches and quickly made fire by rubbing them. He placed the blazing flame between the two. Rāma and Sugrīva each took the other’s hand and walked around the fire. With Agni deva as divine witness, they became mitras (friends). The friendship was sealed in the oldest and most sacred way of the tradition, with fire as witness, before the devas.

Both then spoke. Rāma’s aim was to find Sītā and destroy Rāvaṇa. Sugrīva’s aim was to win back his throne and his wife Rumā from Vāli. Each promised to serve the other’s cause with full commitment. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Kishkindhā Kāṇḍa, Chapter 5)

The jewels of Sītā

Sugrīva told Rāma what he had seen from Ṛshyamūka. A rākshasa was carrying a weeping woman south through the sky. She cried out “Rāma! Rāma! Lakshmaṇa!” As she passed over the mountain, she threw down a bundle of ornaments wrapped in her upper cloth. Sugrīva had kept the bundle. Now he brought it out and set it before Rāma.

Rāma took it with trembling hands, and his eyes filled with tears. He knew Sītā’s jewels. He pressed them to his heart and wept aloud, “O Sītā!” He fell to the ground in grief. After a while he steadied himself and said to Lakshmaṇa: “These are hers. She threw them down, hoping I would find them.” That day he made a vow: “Rāvaṇa and all his family will fall by my arrows, even if he hides in Pātāla.”

Sugrīva made his own vow: “Even if she is hidden in Pātāla or beyond the sky, I will find her and bring her before you.” (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Kishkindhā Kāṇḍa, Chapter 6)

Rāma’s vow to slay Vāli

Sugrīva then told of his suffering. Vāli had driven him out of Kishkindhā and taken his wife Rumā, and he lived in fear and exile. He begged Rāma to free him from this bondage. Rāma listened patiently, and then spoke words with the weight of divine resolve:

“I will slay Vāli. I will do it before the sun sets this very day, if you wish. Even if he runs to Pātāla, to the depths of the ocean, even if he hides in the womb of Aditi, he will not escape. My arrow will find him.”

Rāma spoke from the fullness of his kshatriya dharma. A friend who has given his word must keep it. In return Sugrīva must find Sītā. The pledge between them was complete. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Kishkindhā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 7–8)

What the friendship means

The friendship of Rāma and Sugrīva is one of the foundations of the Rāmāyaṇa. It was a friendship made in hardship, sealed with a rite of dharma and kept alive by deeds. It shows that Bhagavān Rāma, though he is Parameśvara in human form, worked through the bonds of human and vānara life. He honoured friendship, kept promises, and respected the dignity of those who came to him for help. Through this alliance the whole vānara army was called up for the great purpose.

In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa

The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa follows the main account of Vālmīki, and adds several details that show the devotion of Tulasīdāsa.

Hanumān knows Rāma by his voice. Hanumān came down in the form of a brāhmaṇa and asked the two princes his questions. When they answered, Rāma’s voice alone was enough for Hanumān to know Bhagavān Rāma. The sweetness and authority of those first words told him. Hanumān was filled with the highest joy. He dropped his disguise at once and fell at Rāma’s feet. Knowing Rāma by his voice, before any introduction, shows the stress this text puts on bhakti (devotion): bhakti goes beyond form and outward look.

The “Tava māyā” verse. Hanumān lay at Rāma’s feet and spoke in self-blame, in the Avadhi of the Rāmacaritamānasa:

Tava māyā basa phiravau bhulānā, tā te maiṃ nahiṃ prabhu pahicānā.

The meaning is: “O Prabhu Rāma, I went about bewildered under the spell of your own māyā, and so I did not know you.” Hanumān praised the mystery of Rāma: it was Rāma’s own māyā that kept him from knowing. He asked forgiveness for the questioning tone of his words.

Rāma says Hanumān is first. Rāma lifted Hanumān up and embraced him with tears of love. He made a declaration found only in the Tulasī version: “Hanumān, you are a hundred times dearer to me than Saumitri (Lakshmaṇa).” He then explained: he is the same toward all, but those who love him with ananya-bhakti (devotion with one aim only) are the most dear to him. Rāma then told Hanumān that no fault attaches to a devotee for a lapse made without knowing.

The alliance and Rāma’s teaching on friendship. After the friendship was sealed with Agni as witness, Rāma spoke to Sugrīva about what true friendship means. A true friend can rejoice at another’s small success even while he faces a great misfortune of his own. Rāma made his vow plainly: even if Vāli flees to the realm of Brahmā, one arrow will end him. (Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Kishkindhā Kāṇḍa)

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Kishkindhā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 1–8
• Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Kishkindhā Kāṇḍa