In the previous episode we witnessed that Rama is aggrieved upon seeing the ornaments that Sita had thrown while being abducted by Ravana. Upon hearing the confirmation from the Vanaras that Ravana was the person who had abducted Sita, Rama becomes extremely furious and vows in front of everyone that he would be the one who would certainly put an end to Ravana for what he has done to his beloved wife!
Now moving on, Rama and Sugriva decide upon an action plan for the near future – The first objective would be to kill Vaali and instate Sugriva as the king of the Vaanaras. The second objective would be that the Vaanaras would help Rama and Lakshmana to search and find Sita and subsequently be of help in killing Ravana to relieve Sita from his clutches.
“Tathaha prahrishta vadanaha sugreevo lakshmanaagraje!
Vairasya kaaranam tathvam aakhyaath upachakrame!!”
Here is where Sugriva is narrating to Rama and Lakshmana the historical background of the Vaanaras. Everyone might know this story and hence I’m keeping it a little brief at the moment. There was this demon by name “Maayaavi”. He had once come to fight with Vaali and subsequently Vaali fought with Maayaavi inside a cave. Sugriva was waiting at the entrance of the cave as his brother Vaali and Maayaavi. After sometime there was a stream of blood that started flowing out from the cave. Terrified to see blood flowing out, Sugriva thinks that his brother Vaali has lost his life to Maayaavi and thus closes the cave with a huge rock, so as to prevent Maayaavi to come out of the cave. Once Sugriva returns to the kingdom with all the dejection, the ministers request Sugriva to succeed Vaali to the throne because the kingdom shouldn’t be without a king. Hence, Sugriva assumes the throne and starts ruling Kishkinta.
However, after a few months, Vaali manages to come out of the cave unhurt! On the contrary, it was Maayaavi who was killed by Vaali and it was Maayaavi’s blood that has flown out of the cave! Sugriva has clearly misunderstood the entire situation! Eventually when Vaali comes back to Kishkinta, he was shocked to see Sugriva sitting on the throne. He becomes terribly furious upon seeing this. However, Sugriva immediately comes down from the throne and submits the kingdom back to his brother. But Vaali was not in a mood to accept Sugriva’s request. He started abusing Sugriva and chased him out of the kingdom. Moreover, to inflict more insult on Sugriva, Vaali abducted his wife Ruma in the process. It is thus, Sugriva and his small group of Vaanaras (including Hanuman) were hiding at the Rishyamukha mountain when Rama and Lakshmana came along!
There is another story as to why Sugriva was hiding in this particular Rishyamukha Mountain. There was another demon by name “Dundhubi”. Vaali eventually killed him during the fight and his dead body was lying near the palace of Kishkinta. Upon seeing the dead body lying there, Vaali wanted to dispose it off and thus he kicked the body with his foot with all his strength. Unfortunately for Vaali, the body flew away and landed right in front of Sage Mathanga’s ashram located at this Rishyamukha Mountain. On seeing a dead body being thrown at him by Vaali, Mathanga Maharishi got furious and inflicted a curse on Vaali that his head would burst away if he sets his foot on this Rishyamukha Mountain! It is for this reason that Vaali doesn’t come to this place and Sugriva knowing this story, is purposefully hiding at this Rishyamukha Mountain!
Listening to all this, Rama and Lakshmana were surprised with the strength and valor of Vaali and the way in which Sugriva was insulted by Vaali. Hence the plan was made to kill Vaali at any cost. At this point, Sugriva was a bit puzzled! He was not sure if Rama would be able to defeat Vaali, given his extreme power and boons obtained by him and hence he wants to test Rama’s capabilities to handle Vaali. What does he do? How did Sugriva test Rama? Did Rama pass the test? Let’s witness this interesting phase in the next episode! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 