The Cave and the Boulder

After seeing Sita's ornaments, Ram repeated his promise to help Sugriva. But before acting, he asked for the whole account of the quarrel with Vali. Sugriva's first request had described injustice; it had not yet explained how two brothers who once trusted each other became enemies.

Sugriva began with a night when a powerful challenger named Mayavi came to Kishkindha and called Vali out to fight. Vali rushed after him. Sugriva followed, unwilling to let his brother face danger alone. Mayavi fled into a vast mountain cave. Vali ordered Sugriva to wait outside and entered after him.

Sugriva waited. Days became weeks and months. A whole year passed, Sugriva said. At last he heard terrible sounds and saw ominous foam emerge from the darkness, but he did not hear Vali's voice. Believing his brother had died and fearing that Mayavi would escape, Sugriva rolled a great boulder across the entrance. He returned to Kishkindha in grief. When the ministers learned what had happened, they placed him on the vacant throne.

Sugriva had been wrong about Vali's death. Vali had defeated Mayavi and eventually forced his way out. When he returned and found Sugriva ruling, he interpreted the blocked cave and coronation as deliberate betrayal. Sugriva tried to explain the long wait and his mistaken conclusion, but Vali would not accept it. He drove Sugriva from the kingdom, pursued him from refuge to refuge, and kept Sugriva's wife Ruma separated from him within Vali's control.

Only Rishyamuka offered safety, because an old curse prevented Vali from entering its boundary.

Ram said that Vali's treatment of Sugriva and Ruma required an answer. Sugriva still feared that no warrior could defeat his brother. To show that his promise was not empty, Ram sent an arrow through seven sala trees standing in a line. The single shaft passed onward with controlled force and returned after completing its path. Sugriva's doubt changed to confidence.

Sugriva went to Kishkindha and challenged Vali. In their first encounter the brothers looked so alike while wrestling that Ram could not safely distinguish them. He did not release an arrow. Sugriva escaped badly hurt and angrily accused Ram of abandoning him. Ram explained that shooting without certainty might have killed the wrong brother. Lakshman placed a flowering garland around Sugriva's neck so that he could be recognized in a second encounter.

Outside the city, Ram, Lakshman, and Sugriva waited — this time Sugriva could be told apart, and the question of whether Vali would stop to listen still remained.