A story · Ramayana · The War

The Ocean and the Bridge

Valmiki Ramayana 6.20 · read aloud in the app

The story · English

Ravana had a spy named Shardula, and Shardula went to the shore and looked at the army gathered there. What he saw frightened him, and he carried it straight back to his king. "They are coming," he said. "They spread ten leagues from one side to the other, like a flood, and they mean to storm your city. Rama and Lakshmana, the pride of Dasharatha's line, lead them, and they have stopped on the ocean sands. Rise, my king, and meet this danger. Don't risk defeat. Try the wiser ways first. Bribe them, win them over, or split them apart." Ravana listened, and then he called for Shuka. "Fly to Sugriva, king of the vanaras," he said, "and give him a message from me."

This was the message. "You are strong and famous, Sugriva, son of King Riksharaja, and I see you as a brother and a friend. What harm have I done you? What do you hope to gain here? If I took Rama's wife from the forest, why should that grieve you? You have lost nothing. Go home to your mountains. Your armies will never set foot inside Lanka. Even the gods together could not take it." Shuka took the shape of a bird and flew out over the sea. He hovered above the vanara king and called the message down from the air. The vanaras sprang up at him, struck him again and again on the head and wings, and dragged him struggling to the ground.

Wounded and frightened, Shuka cried out to Rama. "Stop them, quickly. A herald must never be killed. The only messenger who deserves death is the one who drops his master's words and speaks his own instead." Rama was moved, and he jumped up and told the vanaras to hold back. Shuka rose again into the sky and asked, "King of the vanaras, what answer shall I carry to my king?" Sugriva said, "Tell your lord this. Rama killed Vali for his guilt, and you will die the same way, with your sons and friends and all your kin, and Lanka will be burned and left empty. Hide in the Sun's path or deep in the underworld, it won't help you. You beat an old, weak vulture-king. Now face Raghu's sons."

"The lady with lotus eyes is a captive in your palace," Sugriva went on, "and you have no idea how strong the man you've wronged really is." Then Angada shouted, "This is no herald. He's a spy. From up there he's been counting our whole army, front to back. Bind him, and don't let him fly home." The vanaras threw Shuka down again, seized his neck and tied his wings, and he cried out uselessly. But Rama's heart leaned toward mercy. He listened to the pleading and said, "Let him go. Untie him." After that, Rama joined his hands in reverence and looked south across the water. Then he lay down on a bed of sacred grass, resting his head on his own strong arm.

That was the arm Sita used to hold in happier days, with her soft arms bright with pearls and gold. Rama rose and said, "Today the army crosses to the southern shore, or the Ocean himself will cease to be." Then he lay down again by the sea, silent, and waited. Three times the sun rose and set. Three nights passed. The lord of the Ocean did not come. At last Rama turned to Lakshmana, his eyes burning. "Gentleness is wasted on the base," he said. "Patience and kind words never reach them. The world honours the one who boasts and strikes. My humble request has been refused by Ocean's pride. Bring my bow and arrows. Today the vanaras will walk across the dried seabed."

He stood and gripped his great bow, terrible as the fire that ends the world. He drew the string, and burning arrows flew like lightning from the lord of the sky, straight down into the startled water. The waves heaved and crashed against the trembling bank. Huge sea creatures roared like thunder. The water rose and fell, crowned with foam and pearl and shell. The serpents woke and raised their glowing crests, and even the Danavas imprisoned in the deep felt the terror. Rama set another flaming arrow to the string, but Lakshmana held his arm and spoke gently. "Brother, think. The wise hold their anger in check. Let Ocean give you what you want without threats. He won't refuse Rama." Then voices came clearly from the air: Spare him, Rama, spare him.

But Rama spoke to the Sea in anger. "With a flood of fiery arrows I will drain your channels dry, and the vanaras and I will walk to the far coast. Your creatures will not escape, and time will never wipe out your disgrace." He took up the deadly weapon of Brahma, red with fire that cannot be put out. As he bent the bow, heaven and earth shook. Thunder rolled, mountains rocked, the earth went black and the sky vanished. Meteors flashed, red lightning struck the ground, and fierce winds tore down trees and broke rock from the mountains. Every valley and peak cried out. The waters rose and leapt onto the shore, and still Rama stood there unafraid, watching.

Then Ocean rose from the seething water like the sun climbing in the east, dark blue as lazulite set in gold, with gems at his neck, a crown of pearls, and calm lotus eyes. Sea serpents came with him, and Ganga, Sindhu, and all the famous rivers stood around him. He bowed his head, hands raised, and said, "Air, fire, earth, water and sky each keep their nature, and mine is to be uncrossable. I won't pile up my waters to leave a path, not for love or fear. But I will give you an easy crossing, smooth as a city street." Rama said, "This weapon is never drawn for nothing. Where should it fall?" Ocean told him to shoot north, at Drumakulya, where fierce Abhira raiders drank from his waters.

Rama loosed the arrow. The earth groaned at the wound, and water rushed up through it, and that place became the famous well of Vrana. Rama dried up every brook and lake in that region, but he also gave it a blessing: no disease would touch it, sheep and cattle would thrive, trees would bend with fruit, and there would be oil, milk, honey and sweet herbs. Then Ocean said, "Let Nala do this, the son of Vishvakarma. He has his father's skill. He will build a bridge across me," and Ocean vanished. Nala came forward. "I will build it," he said. "Vishvakarma promised my mother Mandari her son would be next to him in skill. But why praise myself. Order the vanaras to lay the foundations today."

At Rama's word the vanaras jumped up and went into the forest. They tore up palms, asokas, tall sals, light bamboos and flowering trees still wrapped in creepers, and dragged them to the sea. They brought down great piles of stone and whole hills, and the ocean roared and heaved as the mountains fell in. Rocks as big as autumn clouds were tied with ropes and thrown in from the shore, with broken hillsides and trees still in flower. The din was enormous. By sunset on the first day the bridge was fourteen leagues long. The second day added twenty more. On the fifth day, as the sun went down, the whole bridge was finished, a hundred leagues long, and it did not sway under all those countless feet.

कथा · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Vibhishana Comes to Rama · Valmiki Ramayana 6.17
• Next: The Magic Head · Valmiki Ramayana 6.31
• All of Ramayana · Ask Krishna about it

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