Surasā Parīkshā

As Hanumān flew across the ocean towards Laṅkā, the Nāgamātā Surasā, the mother of the serpents, stopped him in mid-air. She told him that the devas had ordained him as her food, and that none had ever passed her without entering her mouth. Hanumān met her vara (boon) with a clever plan: he made himself as small as a thumb, went into her mouth, came out again, and so was never swallowed. Surasā then blessed him and let him go on.

Surasā’s challenge

The devas wanted to test whether Hanumān was fit for the great task he had taken up. They sent Surasā, the Nāgamātā, a divine being of terrible form, to meet him in the middle of the ocean. She took a monstrous shape with a huge open mouth. She stood before Hanumān and declared that the immortals had decreed that he was to be her food. She had a vara that no one could pass her without first entering her mouth, and she meant to keep to it.

Hanumān answered with respectful words. He told her he was the messenger of Śrī Rāma, son of Daśaratha. Rāma had entered the Daṇḍaka forest with his wife Sītā and his brother Lakshmaṇa. The wicked rākshasa Rāvaṇa had carried Sītā away, and Hanumān was on his way to find her. He promised faithfully that when he had finished his task and gone back to report to Rāma, he would return and enter her mouth without resisting. Until then, dharma required him to go forward.

The contest of growing forms

Surasā did not give way. Her vara was firm, she said, and he must enter her mouth now. When it was clear that she would not yield, Hanumān changed his plan. He began to grow. His body became five yojanas wide, then ten, then fifteen, then twenty. Each time, Surasā opened her mouth wider to match him. When he grew to thirty yojanas in breadth, she opened her mouth to forty. Neither could win by size alone, because she could grow without limit, just as he could.

At that moment Hanumān’s intelligence showed him the way. In one instant he drew himself in to the smallest size, no bigger than a human thumb. He darted into Surasā’s open mouth and flew out again through her ear before she could close it. Then he stood before her in his own form and bowed. He asked whether her vara was now fulfilled, because he had indeed entered her mouth and come out of it.

Surasā’s blessing

Surasā saw at once that Hanumān had kept her vow in both its words and its meaning. She gave up her terrible form and showed her true divine shape, which was radiant, kind and calm. She praised him warmly and said that the mission he carried was surely already a success. She said: “Go, blessed one. Unite Maithilī with the great Rāghava. May success attend you.”

All the beings who watched from the sky, the devas, the siddhas and the gandharvas, were filled with joy at what they had seen.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 3
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 58 (Hanumān’s own account of the journey)