Ramayana – Hanuman vs Ahiravana – {Ep.259}

We’ll continue the Ramayana today with Hanuman’s journey to the center of the Earth to rescue Ram and Laxman, a showdown with his own son, and a showdown with the Lord of the Underworld, Mahiravana a.k.a. Ahiravana 

Namaskar and welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

In this episode, we’re back to the Ramayana. 

The Ramayana is one of the two major epics in Indian mythology. The saga began in the Kingdom of Ayodhya, with Crown Prince Ram, who was actually an avatar of Vishnu. Vishnu is the preserver of the Universe in the holy trinity together with Brahma its creator and Shiva its destroyer. But when Ram was on the cusp of becoming the King, his stepmother upset everything by forcing him into exile for 14 years. Ram went into the forest, with his wife Sita and brother Laxman.

The forest was a dangerous place. But the Ayodhya trio brushed aside all challenges. Until Ravana showed up. Ravana was the 10-headed demon King of Lanka, and the mega villain in this epic. Ravana had acquired so many superpowers that defeating him was virtually impossible. He directed one of his minions to create a diversion while he abducted Sita. 

In the absence of any police force, CBI, or the Gumshuda Talash Kendra, Ram and Laxman sought help from the next best option – the Vanars. The Vanars were a kingdom of monkeys led by their King Sugriva. Hanuman was Sugriva’s adviser and right hand Vanar. And he provided most of that actual help. Hanuman flew across the ocean and found Sita in Lanka. He burnt down most of Lanka but he couldn’t persuade Sita to return with him. She wanted Rama to come himself and rub Ravana’s noses into the ground. 

And that’s what Ram did. First though the Vanars helped by building a bridge across the Ocean to Lanka. Ravana’s brother Vibhishana also switched sides and teamed up with Rama and the Vanars.

The war began, and Ram, Laxman and the Vanars were quickly decimating Ravana’s army. Despite a couple of major setbacks that brought the Ayodhya brothers to the brink of death. But they survived – thanks to some timely intervention from Garuda, and then Hanuman’s pharmacy trip all the way to the Himalayas and back.

We’ll continue the story at this point at Ravana’s palace. This palace was oddly empty. There was no one to even light the lamps even though it was getting quite dark. 

All the doom and gloom was justified considering Ravana was on a sticky wicket. It was not an option to send in a night watchman to buy himself some time to think through his strategy. He was down to his last wicket. The worst part for there was no possible fairytale ending for Ravana in sight. Even if he entered the maidan himself and scored some big hits, this was not a battle he could win. This wasn’t a T20, this was just the first day of a long test match. 

And then inspiration came to him. If he couldn’t win on the battlefield, he could beat the Vanars off of it. A sneak attack in the middle of the night. And he knew just the underworld don who could pull it off. His brother Mahiravana, also known as Ahiravana.

Ahiravana was literally the lord of the Underworld. Patala, as it was called. 

Ravana dispatched a messenger to his brother. The messenger was a mole, naturally because of all the digging involved in getting to Patala. But while Ravana was dispatching one mole down a hole in the ground, he didn’t notice the other mole at the keyhole who was watching all this. This second mole wasn’t a literal mole, but a disgruntled Lankan who had turned spy for Vibhishana. There was low morale in the palace – from the evil megavillain boss who tortured everyone around him, to seeing all your friends and family slain on the battlefield. That was enough to motivate a few people to switch sides when they saw how the tide was turning. Not openly, because Ravana was still a lot scarier to them than the Vanar army. Just secretly.

This spy dashed away to the Vanar camp. She had to show her identification papers, and the dozen secret passwords that Vibhishana had setup with her. But eventually she got an audience with Vibhishana. Quickly she informed him of Ahiravana’s involvement. He rewarded her and sent her back to spy some more.

Vibhishana understood the importance of this news. Ahiravana was going to be a big problem. Most folks were sleeping at this time, but this news was important and urgent enough to warrant an emergency meeting of the war council.

15 minutes later, all the members of the war council gathered but most were not happy with the disturbance. Jambavan the bear was the first to speak.

“This better be good. I had just begun my hibernation.”

“Bear with me one moment” Vibhishan responded. “We are facing perhaps the greatest threat of all”.

Sugriva yawned. “We know we have Ravana to deal with. But that’s a tomorrow problem.”

But Vibhishana clarified that he was talking about a tonight problem. And the clear and present danger was not Ravana, but Ahiravana. Also called Chota Ravan. The underworld don. Ravana had called him in and Vibhishana was ready to bet that right now, Ahiravana was plotting to abduct Ram and Laxman.

Laxman wasn’t impressed. “But we took care of Kumbhakarna, Indrajit and many other generals – there are too many to name. What makes Ahiravana special?”

“In a word, physics.” Vibhishana said. “What makes Patala different from here is Physics. Patala is deep in the Earth. It’s a very high pressure environment, and you’d feel the heat too”

“Sounds just like Ravana’s palace tonight” Sugriva said and immediately laughed at his own joke.

“What that means,” Vibhishana ignored him and continued “is that if Ahiravana comes up to the surface, he brings up a little bit of that underworld physics with him. Chemistry too – he can bring up toxic gasses and lava. He can literally make your floor lava.”

That convinced everyone that they had to act. It was also obvious that Ram and Laxman needed rest if they were to take on Ravana in the battlefield tomorrow. So they needed to sleep. The natural choice for a guardian was Hanuman. Hanuman was thrilled to get that responsibility. But he wouldn’t be content with simply guarding the tent that the brothers slept in. He would be the tent for them. Instantly, his tail grew an enormous length. It kept growing and then it immediately organized itself into a conical shape. Now not even a fly could get in without Hanuman knowing about it.

Alert and ready, he stood there scanning every direction while Ram and Laxman slept inside.

Not long after, Vibhishana arrived. “There’s one more thing I want to tell Ram and Laxman. And you too,” he cautioned the Vanar. “Ahirvana is a tricky guy.”

“So watch out for his monkey business, eh?”

“Exactly,” confirmed Vibhishana. “He is also a master of disguise. He could show up here as Bharath, or Dasharath, or even Sita – just to get past you.”

“Not to worry, Vibhishana, I’m not so easily fooled!” Hanuman asserted.

Relief spread across Vibhishana’s face. “I had better go warn Ram and Laxman as well,” he said. Hanuman moved the coils of his tail and let him in.

Not 5 minutes later, Vibhishana appeared. But not from inside Hanuman’s coils. He appeared from the outside. “Say, Hanuman. I remembered one more thing. I wanted to caution you and Ram and Laxman. This Ahiravana has a whole bag of tricks up his sleeve.”

But Hanuman had already figured out what had happened here. The wrong brother of Ravana had gotten past him.

He asked “That he’s a master of disguise? He can impersonate Bharath, Dasharath or even Sita?” though he already knew what the answer would be.

Vibhishana was surprised. Hanuman had anticipated his exact words.

Hanuman had uncoiled his tail and returned it to normal size. And looking inside he saw just what he feared. There was no Ram, no Laxman, no fake Vibhishana inside. There was a hole in the ground, probably leading straight to Patala lok.

“I must go after them, go warn the others,” Hanuman told Vibhishana, and dived into the hole.

The lack of a struggle during the abduction didn’t really bother Hanuman. Of course he knew that Ram and Laxman could have easily overpowered Ahiravana if they had been awake. But he reasoned that Ahiravana must have brought some sleeping gas from the underground to keep them out of the action.

Hanuman could zoom faster than any speed Ahiravana could have managed. And yet Ahirvana had a head start. So when Hanuman got to the end of the tunnel and at the gates to Patala, Ahiravana was already on the other side of it.

First Hanuman had to get past this giant of a guard at the entrance. And the closer he looked, the guard seemed like a monstrosity. He seemed part crocodile, part monkey.

Hanuman decided to approach with tact. “Genetic experimentation gone wrong?” he asked the creature.

“Oh hey Dad, I didn’t see you there” the creature replied.

This bothered Hanuman. He was a bachelor, a celibate – by choice. He couldn’t have a child. Or maybe it was just the way people addressed each other down here in the Underworld.

But no, the creature, whose name was Makardhwaja explained that Hanuman was in fact his father. You see, a few weeks ago, when Hanuman was flying over the ocean, a lady crocodile had been swimming right under him. She looked up at the flying monkey, and it was love at first sight. “And that’s how I was born.”

“Though you’re just a few weeks old, you do seem all grown up and mature,” Hanuman said “but it seems to me you’ve missed an important lesson about the birds and the bees. It usually takes two to….”

Makardhwaja interrupted. “I know all that. But you see mummy has this special power that she can give birth to anyone she likes, she just needs to think about whom she wants a child with, and boom – their DNA suddenly gets teleported into a child.”

That made some sense. Kunti would have a similar superpower later in the Mahabharata too.

Now that those introductions were out of the way, Hanuman asked to be let in. But Makardhwaja flat out refused. He

“You’re not a Chimp off the old block, I guess. You’re working for the bad guys and I’m supporting the good guys here”

“My employers may be evil, but they pay me a salary. Can you imagine anyone up there wanting to hire me?”

Reluctantly, Hanuman had to agree. It would be a PR disaster anywhere that wasn’t ruled by a demon King.

But now the problem was getting past this guy. Hanuman didn’t want to hurt his son too much. Being a Crocodile-Monkey hybrid was hard enough, without also damaging his ego.

So Hanuman threw up his hands as if in despair. “Alright, I can see you’re the perfect guard. It would be impossible to get past you. I’ll just head home now.”

He walked away, while Makardhwaja celebrated what he thought was his victory.

But Hanuman had the power to change size, he transformed himself so he was barely visible and calmly flew past Makardhwaja and through the keyhole. The guard didn’t even notice. 

Once past the guard, Hanuman zoomed through all the buildings and quickly located the dungeons. Ram and Laxman were there, still unharmed. But it wouldn’t remain that way for long. He saw that people were preparing for a big sacrifice in their temple. It was obvious from the conversations he overheard about the two Princes from the surface that Ram and Laxman were going to be killed in a few hours.

Hanuman headed for the archives building. This wasn’t the time for light reading. But he needed to pore over the government records to find a way to defeat Ahiravana. It would not be sufficient to break out Ram and Laxman. He also needed to defeat this underworld don. And any intelligence he could gather on Chota Ravana would prove valuable. 

It proved immensely valuable. It turned out that Ahiravana could only be killed by a person who performed a nearly impossible task. There was a room near the temple with 5 lamps that always burned. Only a person who could extinguish all 5 lamps exactly at the same time. It had to be done by blowing at the flame, he couldn’t use other artificial ways to extinguish the flames, like flooding the room, or cutting off the oxygen. He couldn’t move the lamps. Obviously the lamps were spread out across the room and protected from being extinguished accidentally.

This was too elaborate, but not very intelligent, thought Hanuman. And if he really wanted to make it impossible, why not keep even just one of the lamps at Ravana’s palace. Or somewhere miles away. Instead of keeping them all in the same room. The flawed logic didn’t stop there. In a recent cost-cutting measure, they had cut guard duty outside the temple of the five flames. Makardhwaja was considered sufficient, besides no one had attempted to even enter the temple of the five flames before.

Hanuman went straight to the temple of the five flames. He looked around and realized that it was a difficult task indeed. There was no position he could be in to simultaneously extinguish all 5 flames. Difficult, but not impossible. Hanuman twisted his neck and suddenly 4 more heads sprung up. All 5 mouths breathed out and extinguished the five flames. See, it hadn’t been so difficult after all. All it took was a little intelligence, confirming again that Knowledge is power.

Next step was Ahiravana. Hanuman went straight to the temple where Ahiravana had just given the order to fetch the prisoners from the dungeon. Well, now or never. Hanuman suddenly grew massive in size. The residents of Patala were not surprised. A supersize 5-headed monkey didn’t seem all that out of place in a land guarded by a crocodile-monkey and where moles were messengers. 

Ahiravana had been warned about Hanuman. Ravana had told him all about this monkey that had burned down most of Lanka. Ahiravana was prepared. He aimed chunks of boiling hot lava at Hanuman. But they bounced off harmlessly.

“I got this superpower from Agni, high temperatures don’t really bother me.”

“Stop chattering, Monkey, and start fighting,” Ahiravana said through gritted teeth.

He landed several blows with his club. 

Hanuman yawned. “Was that it? You’re done? Well then allow me to retort.”

He snatched away Ahiravana’s club and crumpled it as if it were made of paper. Then, he did exactly the same thing to Ahiravana.

The citizens of Patala were too stunned to say anything. But they had brought up Ram and Laxman from the dungeons. So Hanuman thought a speedy exit was in order here. Besides, it was almost dawn at the surface. The next day of battle was before them.

He carried Ram and Laxman and sped through one of the numerous tunnels and back to the surface. 

Ram and Laxman woke up. Ahiravana’s sleeping gas had actually a positive effect. They were refreshed and recharged, and ready for battle with Ravana.

We’ll see what happens in the final showdown between Rama and Ravana, but that’s for a future episode.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Previous Ramayana episodes are linked in the show notes and on the site sfipodcast.com, check them out.

https://sfipodcast.com/category/ramayana

There are a few different variations of the story today. There’s one that involves Vishnu’s Sudarshan Chakra guarding the top of Hanuman’s tail-tent.
There’s another version which tells of Hanuman not only killing Ahiravana, but also killing everyone in Patala. But that is clearly not accurate. Hanuman is not bloodthirsty and not the type to go on a Rambo or even Godzilla style rampage.

Hanuman did fight and defeat Makardhwaja in some versions. And what I related today is just my interpretation. But it’s based on several conversations with Hanuman over afternoon tea over the centuries. I didn’t ask him outright, but I have inferred all this from some hints that he dropped.

Today’s story also explains why Hanuman is sometimes depicted with 5 heads – the Panchamukha version of Hanuman.

Another bit to consider here is how Hanuman’s adventure may have been part of the canon that inspired Joseph Campbell’s theory about the Hero’s journey. Something that is seen in Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Wizard of Oz and countless other stories.

It begins with the hero, Hanuman, getting a call to adventure – Vibhishana ringing alarm bells about the underworld don Chota Ravan. Followed by some initial reluctance perhaps because the Vanar war council underestimated Ahiravana. Followed by a supernatural wonder – being confronted by Ahiravana’s non-mainstream tactics, a threshold guardian in the form of Vibhishana’s advice. A setback, with Ram and Laxman getting abducted. Transformation – rising to the challenge of the flames and developing 5 heads in response. And then atonement for his earlier mistake and defeating Ahiravana. Being such a huge devotee of Ram, rescuing him and his brother Laxman was the reward. 

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll continue Chandrakanta, with more cat-and-mouse games between Tej Singh and Shivdutt’s evil aiyyaars.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Tejoraditya, Adi, Kaira, thank you for your support. Kaira, I hope you don’t have to wait too long. I do plan to cover the follow-up story soon.

Abeer, yes we will get back to the Mahabharata soon. I do have a few other episodes lined up first. And correct, Sushena certainly contributed in healing Laxman. There are multiple Sushena, even in the Ramayana. One of the Vanars was Sushena, but the Chief Medical Officer in the Lankan army was also Sushena.

Abhinav – sure. I’ve added that to my list and will get to it, hopefully soon.

Chatterbox – you’re getting your wish. Chandrakanta will be coming up next week.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook. You can listen to the show on all podcast apps, and that now includes Youtube. If you want to send me an email it’s stories.from.india.podcast@gmail.com.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!