66697602-The-Ramayana-R-K-Narayan

of Lanka, and tells him of the cruelty inflicted upon her.
The accounts of Sita’s beauty stir Ravana’s curiosity and
desire. He arranges for a distraction that draws Rama and
Lakshmana away from her hermitage. Then, dressed as a
holy man, Ravana manages to enter Sita’s dwelling and
kidnaps her.
Now begins Rama’s pursuit of Ravana, which leads him to
unexpected friends and allies in a monkey kingdom. His
most devout monkey ally, Hanuman, crosses the ocean to
Lanka and alerts Sita that help is on the way. Hanuman also
allows himself to be captured and produced in Ravana’s
court. Ravana disregards his warning of impending doom at
the hands of Rama and orders Hanuman’s tail to be set
alight. But Hanuman escapes and, in the process, sets all of
Lanka on fire. On his return, he helps Rama plan for the
inevitable assault on Lanka, which comes after the monkey
army builds a bridge over the ocean to the island.
After a long and bloody battle, Rama kills Ravana and his
closest associates. But he suspects that Sita’s virtue has not
survived her long confinement in Lanka and refuses to
accept her. A distraught Sita undergoes a trial by fire in
order to prove her chastity, and survives. A chastened Rama
returns with her to Ayodhya to be crowned king. But doubts
about Sita’s virtue haunt him and when he hears of rumors
against her among the general public he banishes her from
his kingdom. In exile she gives birth to two sons. Not long