Śri Maha-ganapataye namah

In mad fury Vali had chased Sugriva seeking to kill him, however, Sugriva escaped to Maharishi Matanga’s ashram situated upon the Rushyamukha mountain. As Vali did not dare to step on this mountain, he retreated to his capital city. He now decided to make Sugriva’s wife Ruma his own. When she refused to comply with his demands, he threatened to kill her thereby leaving her with no choice. Using his physical might, he won.

Let us now move to the story of how the friendship developed between Sugriva and Rama. As we are dealing with the story of Hanuman, we shall skip the many in-between incidents in Sugriva’s life and directly move to that incident which involves Hanuman.

Sugriva, who was living on the Rushyamukha mountain, kept himself abreast of every happening in Vali’s kingdom. Although Vali was the ruler there were many in that kingdom who sympathized with Sugriva and they turned informers who carried all news to him.

Through these informers, Sugriva learnt that Srirama, the son of Dasharatha, had been exiled from his kingdom Ayodhya and that, accompanied by brother Lakshmana and wife Sita, he was wandering in the forests. He also learnt that presently Srirama was in the Chitrakoota forest range. Sugriva, who was grieving for his wife Ruma, had little interest in this story of Rama.

As time went by, Sugriva came to know that Surphanaka, the sister of demon Ravana, had incurred the wrath of brothers Rama and Lakshmana as a result of which she had lost her nose and ears. He also learnt that her brothers Khara, Dushana and Trishiras had, along with a massive army of 14,000 soldiers, attacked Rama to avenger their sister’s insult and that within a few minutes Srirama had single-handedly reduced them all to dust. Even this news of Rama’s bravery did not create any excitement in Sugriva who was grieving for his wife Ruma. However he understood that a new rivalry had cropped up between Ayodhya and Ravana’s kingdom of Lanka and was eager to know how the future events would unfold.

One day, at mid-noon, Hanuman, who possessed sharp ears, suddenly heard the wails of a woman coming from a great distance. Immediately he scanned all the directions and climbed up a tree to ascertain the direction of the wail. Even the other four vanaras immediately climbed atop the trees and keenly observed all directions trying to locate that sound. Who could be this woman who is weeping? Could it be some mischief of the wicked Vali?- they thought.