The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

63 - How Far Historical in Character?
the Rāmāyaṇa, seeing that the actual connection of Rāma with the
revivification of Ahalya is not under allusion here. The two
references to Rāma’s bridge must be held as referring to the
Rāmāyaṇa itself. The first is in canto V, line 37. In this all that is
stated is that the famous bathing place of Kumāri is said to have ‘been
made by monkeys’. Nothing more is stated regarding it and leaves us
merely to surmise whether it is not a reference to Rāma’s bridge
which is now located in the island of Rāmēśvaram, a considerable
distance from where Kumāri is.
In canto XVII, lines 9 to 16, however, there is a far clearer and
indubitable reference to the causeway built by the army of monkeys
for Rāma who is stated in so many words to have come [29] on earth
as a result of the delusion brought upon him by a curse. The particular
point of the reference is that all the big stones and other material for
bridge-building brought by the monkeys and thrown into the water
disappeared completely without the slightest assistance to achieving
his object, the comparison instituted being to the great hunger from
which Kāyaśaṇḍikai suffered; all the quantities of food that she ate
vanished without effect as did the stones that the monkeys threw into
these when building the bridge. Almost exactly the same detail is
given in the Rāmāyaṇa in the construction of the bridge across to
Lanka. It must be noted here that in this context the locality is not
actually stated though taking the two together one may infer that the
tradition in the days of the author of the Maṇimēkhalai connected
Rāma’s bridge with Kumāri, as in the Rāmāyaṇa itself.
One clear incident is under reference from the Mahābhārata, from
the Virāṭaparva. In canto III, lines 146 to 148 Arjuna’s appearance in
the city of the Virāṭa king as a eunuch is brought into comparison