Itihāsa / Rāmāyaṇa chronicle / Kiṣkindhā · 27 of 50
27. Sugrīva
Kiṣkindhā (किष्किन्धा)
Sugrīva has been driven out by his brother Vālin and lives on a mountain Vālin cannot step on, a curse keeping the stronger brother off the slope. He sees two armed men and assumes Vālin has sent them. Hanumān, his minister, goes down in a brahmin's form, talks, and recognizes what Rāma is. The recognition is Hanumān's gift, early. He is the one who knows.
The alliance is a trade, and the poem does not pretend it is anything finer at the start. Rāma will deal with Vālin. Sugrīva will search the world for Sītā. To believe a man can deal with Vālin, Sugrīva asks for a proof. Rāma's arrow, the sal trees, the bones of the demon Dundubhi: the proofs are strength. The page names them and does not turn them into a display to imitate. Sugrīva is convinced, and still afraid, which is reasonable. He has fought his brother before.
They go toward Kiṣkindhā. Lakṣmaṇa is uneasy about a fight between brothers, being a brother. Rāma has accepted a friend's war in order to get an army for his own. The moral complication of the next sitting is already in the bargain. He is about to kill a king he has never met, for a king he met yesterday, for a wife neither monkey has seen.
नेपालीमा
सुग्रीवलाई वालिले धपाएका थिए, र उनी वालिले टेक्न नसक्ने पर्वतमा बस्थे। हनुमान ब्राह्मण भेषमा ओर्लिए, कुरा गरे, र रामलाई चिने। गठबन्धन साटासाट हो। रामले वालिलाई सम्हाल्ने, सुग्रीवले सीता खोज्ने। सुग्रीवले प्रमाण मागे। यो पृष्ठले बलको प्रमाण भन्छ। तिनलाई नक्कल गर्ने प्रदर्शन बनाउँदैन। आफू भाइ भएकाले भाइभाइको लडाइँमा लक्ष्मण असहज थिए। राम हिजो भेटेको राजाका लागि, कहिल्यै नभेटेको राजालाई मार्न लाग्नुभएको छ।