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Updated: May 14, 2025
So Hoonamunta took upon himself the form of a rat, and sped nimbly through the huts of dwarfs and the towers of giants, through the hiding-places of misery and the high seats of power, through the places of trouble and the places of ease; till at last he came to an ivory dome, hard by the silver palace of Rawanna, the Monstrous; and there lay Seeta, buried in a profound trance of despair.
Then Hoonamunta broke away from his captors, and with a loud laugh started on his fiery race, over house-tops and hay-ricks, through close bazaars and dry rice-fields, through the porticoes of palaces and the porches of pagodas, kindling a roaring conflagration as he went.
The tails glide swiftly through each glowing hand, and quick as lightning on the trees they stand. And Hoonamunta, their chief, prostrated himself before Rama, and said, "Behold, my Lord, we are here! I and all my host are yours, command us!" But Rama spoke not; he only stood where he was stricken, and stared at his desolation.
And he went forth, and stood at the head of Hoonamunta's monkey host, and called for a sword; and when they gave him one, it became alive in his hand, and was a sword of flame; and when they gave him a spear, lo! it became his slave, flying whithersoever he bade it, and striking where he listed. So Rama and Hoonamunta, with all their monkey host, took up their march for Lunka.
And all the people pursued him, screaming with fear, imploring mercy, imploring pardon, crying, "Spare us, and we will make you our high-priest! Spare us, and you shall be our king!" But Hoonamunta staid not, till, having laid half the city in flames, he ascended to the top of a lofty tower to survey his work with satisfaction.
So Hoonamunta took his tail in his hand, and pulled and pulled; and the tail grew, and grew, a fathom, a furlong, a whole coss. And Hoonamunta coiled it on the floor, a lofty coil, on the right hand of the throne, higher and higher, till it overlooked the golden cushion of the king; and Hoonamunta laughed.
Then immediately they fell upon Lunka; and Rama slew Rawunna, the Monster, and rescued the delighted Seeta. And now those three sit together on a throne in heaven, Seeta, the faithful wife, on the left hand of Rama, and Hoonamunta on his right hand, the shrewd and courageous friend. Who would not be a monkey in Hindostan? Dr.
Then Hoonamunta took counsel with his cunning; and he came down and stood in the midst of the angry people, and asked, "What would you with me? and where is this demon you pursue?" But they cried, "Hear him, how he mocks us! Hear him, how he flouts us!" and they dragged him into the presence of Rawunna, the king.
In the famous Hindoo epic, the "Ramayana" of Valmiki, "by singing and hearing which continually a man may attain to the highest state of enjoyment, and be shortly admitted to fraternity with the gods," the exploits of Hoonamunta, the Divine Monkey, are gravely related, with a dramatic force and figurativeness that hold a street audience spell-bound; but to the European imagination the childish drollery of the plot is irrestistible.
Thither the great men of Lunka followed him, the princes, and the Brahmins, and the victorious chieftains, the strong giants, and the cunning dwarfs. And when they were all gathered underneath the tower, and in the porch of it, he shook it, till it fell and crushed a thousand of the first citizens. Then Hoonamunta sped away northward to Ayodhya, extinguishing his tail in the sea as he went.
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