Lanka in Flames

The demons wrapped cloth around Hanuman's tail and soaked it in oil. But the more cloth they wrapped, the longer the tail grew, until the whole city began running out of cloth and oil. At last they set it alight and paraded Hanuman through the streets to the beat of drums.

The whole city came to watch. Then Hanuman made himself tiny and slipped out of his bonds. Next he grew huge and in one leap reached the high rooftops. The Ramcharitmanas says that at that moment, moved by the Lord, the forty-nine winds began to blow.

Hanuman leapt from palace to palace, and fire from his burning tail spread across golden Lanka. Demons ran screaming. But in the Ramcharitmanas he spared Vibhishan's house, because it was the home of a devotee of Ram.

Seeing the flames, Hanuman suddenly trembled: what if Mother Sita in the Ashok Vatika was harmed? He rushed back in alarm. The Valmiki Ramayan says Sita had prayed to Agni not to hurt Hanuman, which is why the fire did not burn him. Sita was safe.

Hanuman jumped into the sea and put out the fire on his tail. The people of Lanka understood: if his messenger is like this, what must his master be like? Ravan's golden city of pride had taken its first great blow.