Ramáyana IV: Kishkíndha

The Valmiki Ramayana #4

by Vālmīki, Rosalind Lefeber

Rama goes to the monkey capital of Kishkíndha to seek help in finding Sita, and meets Hánuman, the greatest of the monkey heroes. There are two claimants for the monkey throne, Valin and Sugríva; Rama helps Sugríva win the throne, and in return Sugríva promises to help in the search for Sita. The monkey hordes set out in every direction to scour the world, but without success until an old vulture tells them she is in Lanka. Hánuman promises to leap over the ocean to Lanka to pursue the search.
Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation
For more on this title and other titles in the Clay Sanskrit series, please visit

Genres: Poetry, Philosophy, Literature

415 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 501

About the author

Valmiki is celebrated as the poet harbinger in Sanskrit literature. He is the author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself.He is revered as the Adi Kavi, which means First Poet, for he discovered the first śloka i.e. first verse, which set the base and defined the form to Sanskrit poetry. The Yoga Vasistha is attributed to him. A religious movement called Valmikism is based on Valmiki's teachings as presented in the Ramayana and the Yoga Vasistha.
At least by the 1st century AD, Valmiki's reputation as the father of Sanskrit classical poetry seems to have been legendary. Ashvagosha writes in the Buddhacarita,
"The voice of Valmiki uttered poetry which the great seer Chyavana could not compose."
This particular verse has been speculated to indicate a familial relationship between Valmiki and Chyavana, as implied by the previous and subsequent verses.

Reviews

[Reece · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fourth volume of the Ramayana is the most important among the volumes for me up to this point. Rama’s journey brings him to the dethroned king of the apes, Sugriva, who seeks to dethrone his brother, Vali. It is questionable, considering the fratricide would seemingly be adharma, but Vali’s taking advantage of Sugriva’s wife seems to be worthy of punishment as well. In the end, Sugriva takes the throne after Rama slays Vali. Sugriva is the worst example of the kshatriyas up to this point, ignoring his duties and only embarking upon helping Rama, as agreed upon, due to fear rather than conformity with dharma – it provokes the question: does conformation with dharma, our end, justify the fear that leads us to it rather than our faith, the means? Even Vali’s son, who travels southward with Hanumat to search for Rama’s wife and the demon, Ravana, questions Sugriva’s conformation by claiming the king is nothing but a coward who fears being slayed by either of the Raghava brothers. Angada, Vali’s son, is fed up with being roped into such a damned mess, and debates whether or not he should commit to praya, or return home whereby Sugriva may very well kill him and his troops – Hanumat pushes back on this, citing the king’s virtues, but the reader cannot possibly be convinced, for Sugriva has acted as the intoxicated, power-hungry coward this whole time. Even according with dharma, he should never have abandoned Vali during the story, nor should he have killed his brother for the throne once more. Sugriva is not reliable, and is weak in terms of kings we have seen up to this point. I was scratching my head often, thinking, “Why must we continue to pretend as though this man has any honor or valor?” And finally, Angada responds with similar sentiments to our own. The Kishkindha Kanda is ruthless in its opening up on the role of fate in each one’s life, and it further breathes more life into the preceding kandas of the Ramayana. A truly impressive and thoughtful volume.

Here is a note I recorded on the cover page of this volume: “Fate has a way of roping countless lives into a large mess, seemingly when those lives had nothing to do with the mess’s cause(s) in the first place. Just as Tolstoy’s War and Peace explores the ways in which one’s will concatenates with countless others unto a catastrophe, Valmiki’s Ramayana captures that burden under the weights of divinity and dharma.”