In the fourth book of the Ramayana, the Kishkindha Kanda, Rama and his brother go to the monkey kingdom, Kishkindha, where they call upon the monkeys for aid in finding Sita. One of the monkeys, Hanuman, finds out that Sita had been taken to a land called Lanka (believed to be modern Sri Lanka). Hanuman takes a gigantic leap across the water, as depicted in the Sundara Kanda, and finds Sita. She refuses to go back with him as she does not want to be touched by any male except her husband. Hanuman agrees and then attacks Ravana’s palace before returning to Rama.
Kishkindha Kanda
The isle eventually takes her, binds her in its long tendrils, squeezes her keeper’s trigger finger. He knows the shadows of the isle within him, knows they came from similar threads, was his adoptive mother. The isle wants her in its palms, calls and beckons her with royal towers and queenly turrets. It hums tunes to her in familiar tongues, whispers that it could turn his head if and when it wants.
He takes his brothers and stumbles through his citadels and calls for help, which comes running in colors and songs and animal gods, all sighing and hissing that she’d been swept away by the isle’s winds.
Sundara Kanda
But she is not wooed by the isle’s colours and flavours. She has come blinking for the steam of masala in her tea and the sheen of bells around ankles in the sun.
The isle can’t speak the languages of silk or puja, despite trying for a century. Instead, the isle sighs and whispers: You belong with me.
She: I don’t belong to anyone but my keeper.
They were two north-set magnets.
Over the rivers, he sends wisps of patchouli and speckle-nosed elephants and giant fruit bats with soft wings like kites. They shelter her from his past, from the isle. They promise that he’ll recover her soon.
Emily Northey is a senior creative writing major, minoring in photography and Asian studies. Her poetry and photographs have been published in RiverCraft and she has had a photographic essay published in Essay. When she's not writing or taking pictures, she spends her time shimmying with the SU Belly Dance Circle, of which she is the marketing and promotions manager.
Also by Emily Northey: "Tanvi" and "Blink: Ramayana, (part one of three)"
Coming next week: "Blink: Ramayana, (part three of three)"
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