The mighty Sugrīva was living on Rishyamukh Hill, banished from the Kingdom of Kishkinda by his older brother, the King Vali, who had threatened Sugriva with death if he ever returned.
Upon seeing Rāma and Lakshmana, Sugrīva was worried that they had been sent by Vali to kill him. He decided to send the ever faithful Hanumān, to ascertain the intention of those two brothers that had come to Kishkinda.
Hanumān, disguising himself as a mendicant approached Rāma and Lakshmana, asking what had brought them too Kishkinda. Lakshmana relayed their story, telling Hanumān how they were told to find Sugrīva who could help them in their quest to find Sita.
Delighted to hear that they came as friends, and knowing that these two brothers could help Sugrīva too, Hanumān, ‘the noble minded son of the wind god’, was overjoyed. He took Rāma and Lakshmana on his shoulders, and departed for Rishyamukh hill.
Upon meeting Rāma and Lakshmana and becoming friends, Sugrīva told the two brothers of his woe brought to him at the hands of his brother Vāli, how he had taken his wife and banished him from his kingdom. Rāma reassured Sugrīva that he would defeat Vāli, giving him back his kingdom. Sugrīva in turn told Rāma that once he had his kingdom, he would ensure Sita was found.
These two whose joys and woes were so similar had found a new friendship and hope in each other.
Rāma asked his newly found friend to tell him the story of why Vāli had banished him, and Sugrīva obliged.
A long time before, Vāli was fighting with a demon in a cave. Vāli told his younger brother to wait outside. Many months passed and still Vāli had not emerged. A year after entering, Sugrīva saw blood emerge from the mouth of cave, accompanied by the roar of the demon, with no sound of his brother. Fearing his brother dead, Sugrīva closed off the cave and headed back to Kishkinda. In the absence of his brother, the despondent Sugrīva was crowned king.
Vāli, however, had in fact killed the demon, and when he freed himself from the cave, he returned horrified at the actions of his brother. He banished Sugrīva, who had thought he had done what was right, and having taken Sugrīva’s wife for himself, told his younger brother never to return.
Sugrīva still filled with love for his brother, knew he would receive only anger in return. Sugrīva resolved that the only way he could solve his problem was to kill Vāli.
However, Vāli was powerful. He had performed intense tapas to Shiva, giving him strength greater than most could fathom. Killing him would therefore be no easy task. Rāma and Sugrīva devised a plan. Sugrīva would go to fight Vāli, and Rāma hiding in the trees, would release an arrow to kill him.
The fight ensues and Sugrīva and Vāli resembled ‘the moon and the sun in the sky’. Rāma, seizing his moment and released his arrow ‘as the god of death would lift his weapon for the destruction of the world’. Vāli, with tears rolling down his cheeks, struck by the arrow of Rāma, fell to the ground.
The dying Vāli saw Rāma emerge from the trees, and asked the noble prince why he acted so unjustly. How could one so well versed in knowing and doing what is right, commit such an act.
“You are cruel,’ Vāli wails, ‘resembling the sun, shorn of its brilliance’.
Rāma, listening to the words of Vāli, replied in turn. He reminded Vāli how he had strayed from the path of virtue in the treatment of his younger brother. His duty was to look after Sugrīva, and instead he banished him from his kingdom, and took his wife too.
Vāli, in his last moments thinking only of his son Angada, understood the words spoken by Rāma. He looked to his brother Sugrīva.
‘O dear brother, happiness was not ordained for us at one and the same time,’ spoke Vāli.
Asking for his brother’s forgiveness, Vāli also asked Sugrīva to look after his son Angada, as if he were his own. Finally saying goodbye to his son, Vāli died.
Tāra his wife, looked to her husband, fallen on the ground.
‘Surely O lord, the earth is dearer to you in comparison with me as you lie embracing her, without responding to me.’ she cried.
Sugrīva too, was overwhelmed with grief. Seeing what he had done, and the pain he had caused to Vāli’s wife and son, Sugrīva knew he would regret his actions as long as his life would last. Unable to bear this burden, Sugrīva said he would take his own life.
Rāma, sadenned at the grief of his friend, told him that it was now his duty to look after the kingdom, and to watch over Vāli’s son. We cannot ignore our duties on this earth, he reminded Sugrīva.
And so it was, that with Vāli’s death, Sugrīva assumed the throne of Kishkinda, and pledged to help Srī Rāma find his Sita.
The Rāmāyana is amongst other things, a tale of what it means to perform our duty. In this light, I have never fully understood the story of Rāma and Vāli. I couldn’t understand why Rāma could deceive and kill Vāli who was in many ways a king and a ruler of virtue, as he did. When Sugrīva came to fight Vāli, Vāli exclaimed that it was not his desire to kill his younger brother, yet Rāma and Sugrīva transpired to kill Vali all the same.
It made me question ideas of duty and righteousness that the Rāmayana, and Rāma himself espouses, and I am still left wondering why this part of the story transpired as it did.
Nevertheless, with Sugrīva on the throne, the Vanara Army is assembled, and the search begins for Sita. Monkeys and bears are sent to the four corners of the earth to find the wife of Rāma. Sugrīva willed by fate, decided to send his most trusted friends to the south. He sent Angada, endowed with speed and prowess. He sent Nīla, the son of the god of fire and he sent Jāmbavān the son of Brahma. He also sent of course his most faithful friend, Hanuman. And so these monkey’s along with their army’s were sent to find Sitā, the heart of Rāma.