Reading Diary A: Rescuing Sita

Hanuman, a monkey that serves as the chief counselor of Sugriva, joins Rama and Lakshmana in their search for Sita. Hanuman becomes a loyal member of the trio. The monkey explains that Sugriva also lost his wife. Vali left to go fight a demon in a cave and left Sugriva in charge in guarding the mouth of the cave. After hearing shouts and cries, Sugriva assumed that his brother died and left the cave to rule the kingdom. However, Vali never died. He climbed out of the cave and saw that Sugriva took responsibility of the kingdom. Not only that, but the cave had been filled in which made Vali's escape from the cave more difficult. Infuriated with his brother, Vali accused Sugriva of trapping him in a cave in order to take over the kingdom. Vali then kidnapped Sugriva's wife. Rama then promises Sugriva that he will battle Vali. How can Rama trust Sugriva? What if Sugriva really did trap his brother in the cave?

Rama battles Vali, but not in the most honorable way. Actually, Rama hides from Vali in a bush and shoots an arrow that kills Vali. I wonder if Rama felt that his actions were justified, or if he felt guilty that he didn't battle Vali in a fair match. Although Vali did kidnap Sugriva's wife, Sugriva still wept for his brother's death. Sugriva becomes king and promises Rama to find Sita. After the end of the rainy season (which made Rama really impatient), Sugriva sent four armies of monkeys in four directions to find Sita. They found a lead to Sita in the southern direction when Sampati, the bird brother of Jatayu, confirms that Ravan took Sita towards Lanka.

I thought it was interesting that Ravana tried to convince Sita to leave Rama. To me it's pretty funny that Ravana actually thinks that he could persuade Sita to leave her soul mate. He threatened Sita that after two months if she didn't give in to his requests to become his wife, then she would be tortured

Ravana attempting to persuade Sita. Source: Mewar Ramayana