Lord Hanuman, endowed with great strength, crossed the ocean and stayed on a mountain plateau. When he had refreshed himself, he cast his eyes on Lanka. He saw the city vigilantly guarded by Ravana because Sita had been carried away, with rakshasas bearing fierce bows ranging all around it, and a golden wall surrounding that mighty capital.1
Hanuman reflected on what he saw. Even if the monkeys came here, he thought, they would fail, for not even the celestials could take Lanka in battle. First he would find out whether Vaidehi was alive, and only after seeing Janaka's daughter would he think about what to do.2
He judged that he could not enter the city of the rakshasas unseen in this form. So he resolved, for the welfare of Lord Rama, to make himself small, enter Lanka at night in his own form, and seek Janaka's daughter in every dwelling. Eager to see Vaidehi, he waited for the sun to set; when it had set, the son of the Wind-god contracted his body to the size of a cat and became wonderful to behold.3
Entering Lanka by night, Hanuman came at length within Ravana's own mansion. There he saw a grand and spacious structure belonging to the lord of the rakshasas, half a yojana wide and a yojana long, with many palaces. In the midst of the mansion stood the Pushpaka car, adorned with every gem, which the rakshasa chief had taken by his prowess; and Hanuman climbed up onto it.4
Searching for Sita, he passed through the halls where Ravana's wives lay asleep. Thinking of Sita, he reflected that she was crowned with chastity and other virtues, and that the powerful lord of Lanka had with much ado carried her off by assuming an illusory form, an ignominious act. In the middle of the night he came to the chamber where Ravana himself slept on a shining bed: like a mass of clouds, with blazing ear-rings, reddened eyes and mighty arms. Reaching there, Hanuman grew greatly agitated and shrank back, as if in fear.5
Then he saw Mandodari, the mistress of the inner apartments, lying apart, and he guessed that she might be Sita. In great joy he struck his arms, kissed his tail, frolicked and sang, ran up the pillars and leapt down to the ground, showing his monkey nature. But he soon put that thought aside and regained his calm. Separated from Rama, he reasoned, Sita could not sleep, eat, adorn herself or drink, nor could she go to any other, even the lord of the celestials; and in all heaven there was none equal to Rama. This woman was someone else. Assured of this, he searched on through the rest of the inner apartments. He saw everything there thoroughly, but he did not see Janaka's daughter.6
Having passed among Ravana's sleeping wives, Hanuman was seized with a great fear of losing his righteousness, for to look upon another's wedded wife while she sleeps destroys righteousness. Then he reflected carefully on his course. All of Ravana's unsuspecting wives had come before his eyes, yet there was no sign that his mind had changed; it is the mind that moves the senses to good or evil, and his mind was righteously disposed. Nor could he have sought Vaidehi anywhere else, for people always search for a woman among women. With a pure heart he had searched the whole inner apartment, but Janaka's daughter was not there.7
Still within the mansion, he went into bowers, picture galleries and night-houses, but he did not find her. Then he reflected that Sita was surely not alive, since he had searched through and through and had not found Mithila's daughter. Without seeing Sita, his prowess brought to nothing and the appointed time long spent with the monkeys, he had no way to present himself before King Sugriva, who was mighty and stern in punishment. What would the assembled monkeys say when he returned and they asked him what he had done there? What would he answer, not having seen Janaka's daughter? The time fixed by Sugriva had passed; it would be fitting for him to fast to death. And what would the aged Jambavan say, and what Angada?8
But perseverance, he told himself, is the source of good fortune and brings the highest happiness; he would search again where he had not yet searched. Whatever is done with vigour bears fruit, so he would put forth fresh efforts. He searched again the underground dwellings, the religious buildings and the many-storeyed mansions, flying up and coming down, opening doors and shutting them, until there was not a space of four fingers in Ravana's inner apartment that he had not visited. Still he did not see Janaka's daughter. Seeing that the efforts of the king of the monkeys and his own leap over the sea had come to nothing, the son of the Wind-god was plunged in thought; and coming down from the aerial car, his senses overcome by sorrow, he was again filled with anxiety.9