Introduction

Sundara,” means "beautiful," and "Kandam" means "section". Sage Valmiki named this section the "Beautiful Section" possibly because:

This section contains poetic descriptions of several beautiful objects, places and people, including Sri Lanka, the Pushpaka Vimana, the Asoka forest, the Madhu Vana, Hanuman, Sita, Rama, and Ravana.

Sundara Kandam is the fifth section of the Ramayana and is composed of 2885 verses and 68 chapters. “

The Sundara Kandam provides inspiration to its readers and listeners and helps them find a resolution for all problems.

Summary of Sundara Kandam :

Hanuman at the suggestion and encouragement given by Jambhavan decided to cross the ocean and reach Sri Lanka. He promised his friends that he would search and find Sita in Sri Lanka. To help Hanuman, the God of the sea asked his friend the Mainaka Mountain to rise above the sea and help Hanuman to relax and take rest. Hanuman however refused the offer and went ahead. The assembled Devas wanted to test the efficiency of Hanuman and sent Devi Surasa to test him. She took the form of a Rakshasi and informed him that he should enter her mouth and become her food; Hanuman increased his size to a very mega form. Surasa also made her mouth sufficiently big to swallow Hanuman. At that time Hanuman reduced his body to a thumb size jumped in and out of Surasas’s mouth. Surasa blessed him and the devas were very sure that Hanuman could do the job assigned to him. After this a Rakshasi called Simhika caught hold of his shadow and started dragging him to her mouth so that she could eat him. Hanuman again increased the size of his body and killed Simhika.

After this Hanuman reached the city of Sri Lanka. There he took a small midget form before entering the city, to avoid detection. However the Lanka Devatha stopped him and challenged him. He hit her with his clenched fist and she fell down. She realised that the end of the city of Sri Lanka was nearing and blessed Hanuman in his endeavour. Hanuman then searched all over the city including Ravana’s harem. Though on seeing Mandodhari he thought that he had seen Sita, he concluded immediately that she who was living a life of luxury could not be Sita. Later he located Sita in the Asoka forest which was attached to the harem of Ravana. She was sleeping on the floor, and had not taken bath nor changed her dress. She also had removed all non-essential ornaments and hung them on a tree.

While he was watching Ravana paid a visit to Sita and requested her to be his wife. She refused and told him that the only way for him to continue to live was to give her back to Rama. Becoming furious he set a period of two months for her to live and instructed the Rakshasis to terrorise her and make her agree for his proposal. While the Rakshasis were trying their best, Trijata, the daughter of Vibhishana told the Rakshasis about her dream in which she clearly foresaw the defeat and death of Ravana and the victory of Rama. The Rakshasis were scared because of this. However, Sita, dejected by her situation, decided to commit suicide by hanging by her own hair.

Hanuman hiding in the tree related the story of Rama up to that point and hearing this Sita became enthused. Hanuman appeared before her, after all Rakshasis were asleep and related to her the adventures of Rama and also gave her Rama's signet ring as identification. He also requested her to ride on his back and reach Rama. Sita refused this offer, saying that this would be an insult to Rama’s valour, and also because as a virtuous woman, she would not touch another male willingly. She also gave him her pearl hair brooch as identification.This brooch was given to her by her father. She also told him the story of the crow that attacked her and how Rama put a Tilak on her forehead with a red stone.

Hanuman took leave of Sita and while returning made up his mind to see Ravana as well as the city of Lanka. To draw attention to himself, he destroyed the Asoka forest. Ravana sent many of his warriors including his younger son Akshaya Kumara to capture Hanuman. However Hanuman killed all of them. Then Ravana sent his elder son Indrajit to capture Hanuman who succeeded by using his Brahma Asthra. Though he became free due to his boon, Hanuman seemingly submitted himself to the rakshasas and reached the court of Ravana.

Becoming angry Ravana awarded the capital punishment to Hanuman. However Vibhishana, the younger brother of Ravana pointed out that such a punishment couldn’t be given to emissaries. Agreeing to his view, Ravana ordered the Rakshasas to set fire to the tail of Hanuman. However acceding to the prayer of Sita, who heard the news from other Rakshasis, the God of fire did not hurt Hanuman. Hanuman escaped from the clutches of the Rakshasas by his sheer prowess, and using the fire in his tail, set fire to the city of Lanka. Then he took leave of Sita and jumped back to the other shore.

He then related his story to his friends and they together decided to tell it to Sri Rama. On their way back to Sri Rama, they destroyed the honey garden of King Sugreeva. They then reached Kishkinda and related in detail that they had been able to find Sita, that she was sad, that she was guarding her virtue, and that she would die be executed by Ravana in 2 months.

Description of Hanuman :

Hanuman is described to be one for whom nothing is impossible and who is the embodiment of faith, devotion, fearlessness, self-confidence, and loyalty. Valmiki goes on to point out that success is the outcome of such an attitude.