After Sita was abducted by Ravana, Rama and Lakshmana searched the forests in grief. They found the dying Jatayu — the great eagle who had tried to save Sita and been mortally wounded by Ravana’s sword. Jatayu told them which direction Ravana had flown before he breathed his last in Rama’s arms.
The search led Rama to the Vanaras — the monkey people — led by the exiled prince Sugriva. Rama helped Sugriva reclaim his kingdom from his brother Vali. In return, Sugriva sent his armies south to search for Sita. One Vanara stood apart from all others: Hanuman, the son of the Wind God, devotee of Rama, and possessor of limitless strength and wisdom.
When the search party reached the southern sea, they learned from the vulture Sampati that Sita was imprisoned in Lanka — across a hundred yojanas of ocean. The Vanaras were devastated. No one could jump that far. Then Hanuman closed his eyes, remembered his divine nature, and grew to the size of a mountain. He leapt from the peak of the Mahendra hills, and flew across the ocean like a comet.
In Lanka, he searched in darkness and silence. He found Sita in Ashoka Vatika — a garden of ashoka trees — pale and thin, surrounded by female demons who tormented her day and night. She sat with her eyes fixed on the earth, thinking only of Rama.
Hanuman sat in the branches above her and began to softly sing the story of Rama. Sita looked up, startled. Hanuman descended and introduced himself. She did not believe him at first — Ravana had tried to trick her before. So Hanuman showed her the ring Rama had sent, bearing his name. When Sita held that ring, she wept — and the tears of relief and love on her face were, Valmiki tells us, like the first rains after a long drought.
The Message Hanuman Carries Back
Hanuman offered to carry Sita on his back across the ocean to Rama. She refused. “It is not right,” she said. “Rama must come and rescue me himself. That is his duty as a husband, and my honour as a wife.” She gave Hanuman her hairpin as proof of their meeting, and asked him to tell Rama that she could survive no more than a month.
Before leaving Lanka, Hanuman allowed himself to be captured so he could deliver a warning directly to Ravana. Then he set fire to Lanka with his own tail — a tail Ravana’s soldiers had wrapped in burning cloth as a punishment — and flew back across the ocean carrying Sita’s message in his heart.
Of all the figures in the Ramayana, Hanuman alone moves between the human and the divine with complete ease. His love for Rama is so total that it makes him capable of the impossible. The ocean parts, mountains bow, demons flee — not because Hanuman is powerful, but because nothing can stand between pure devotion and its object.
Retold from Valmiki’s Ramayana, Sundara Kanda.