Lord Hanuman entered Lanka by night. At the gate the city herself met him in her own shape and told him that, by the mandate of the rakshasa sovereign, she guarded it. Hanuman, enraged, struck her with his clenched left hand, but because she was a female he did not give way to excessive wrath. She told him of a boon: when a monkey should bring her under his sway, a fear would have come on the rakshasas. So she bade him enter and do what he wished.1
He searched Lanka again, striving for the welfare of Lord Rama, but did not see Janaki. Sampati, the vulture-king, had said that Sita was in Ravana's mansion; why did Hanuman not see her there? He resolved to explore the Ashoka wood, which he had not yet searched.2
He leapt from the wall of Ravana's mansion onto that of the Ashoka wood, took his place in a tree, and surveyed the whole wood. There he beheld Sita in a soiled cloth, thin from fasting, sighing again and again and ringed round by a band of rakshasis. Parted from her kin and from Rama and Lakshmana, she looked like a hind surrounded by dogs.3
Hanuman knew the ornaments Rama had mentioned to him, and judged that this golden-faced woman must be Rama's beloved queen, still in Rama's mind though parted from him. With tears in his eyes he wept for Sita, and thought that Rama had done a hard thing in keeping up his life in her absence. Concluding that she was Sita, he stayed on the tree.4
From the tree he began to speak sweetly, so that Vaidehi could hear: of King Dasharatha of the Ikshwakus. When he ceased, Sita, greatly wondering, looked around and above her and beheld the Wind's son, minister of the king of the vanaras, shining like the rising sun. She was almost breathless with fear.5
Hanuman came down from the tree, joined his palms, and asked whether she was the Sita who had been stolen from Janasthana by Ravana. Hearing Rama's name, Sita answered: she was Dasharatha's daughter-in-law and Janaka's daughter, her name was Sita, and she was the consort of Rama. Ravana had stolen her, she said, and had allowed her two months, after which she would be slain.6
Hanuman said that he came as Rama's messenger: Rama was safe and had asked after her welfare, and Lakshmana, worn with grief, bowed his head to her. Sita was overjoyed, but the nearer Hanuman came, the more she suspected him of being Ravana in a new disguise.7
To win her trust, Hanuman showed her the ring with Rama's name engraved on it, given by her lord. Taking it from him and looking at it, Janaki seemed to have her lord himself.8
Then Sita gave Hanuman a jewel for the head, which had been tied in her attire, as a sign that Rama would know; seeing it, he would remember his mother, Sita, and King Dasharatha.9
She asked him to bring good news to Rama and Lakshmana, to Sugriva with his counsellors and to all the aged vanaras, and to strive so that Raghava might rescue her from her sea of sorrow. Hanuman comforted her: she should not weep or fear; she would meet her lord, and who was greater than Rama?10