The Ramayana (Adventures of Rama) narrates the epic saga of the valiant Prince Rama and his dutiful wife, Princess Sita, who was abducted by Ravana, the arrogant ten-headed King of Lanka (probably modern Sri Lanka), during Rama's unjust fourteen-year forest exile from his capital of Ayodhya (near Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh). To rescue Sita, Rama and his faithful brother Lakshmana assembled a great army of monkeys and bears led by the Monkey-King Sugriva and his Monkey-General Hanuman. After several magical battles, the princess was freed, and the happy couple triumphantly returned home to rule Ayodhya.
This illustration (no. 39) from Book 5 (Sundara kanda) depicts Hanuman’s encounters searching for Sita on his way to and in Lanka. In continuous narration beginning in the upper right corner, on the way to Lanka, the shape-shifting demoness Surasa vows to eat Hanuman by expanding her mouth to accommodate the heroic monkey who had enlarged himself to the size of a mountain. Hanuman then shrunk himself to the size of a thumb and darted into and out of Surasa’s mouth, thus fulfilling her vow for him to enter her mouth. In the lower left quadrant, Hanuman finds Sita imprisoned in the forest grove. In the upper left quadrant, after Hanuman allowed himself to be captured so he could be brought before Ravana, he breaks free of his captors and sets the citadel of Lanka ablaze by leaping over the city after his tail had been set on fire during his captivity.
See its series mate M.79.191.7.
