Hanuman Sets Lanka on Fire
This story has been created as a part of the Future School 9th grade Mythology Project.
HANUMAN SETS SRI LANKA ON FIRE
This myth is about the monkey god, Hanuman. It is from the Ramayanam, the Indian epic about Rama and Sita and it shows you how Lord Shani, will not harm any devotees of Lord Hanuman.
Once upon a time, Lord Rama, who is the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu, and his consort Sita were living happily in the forest.
One day, while Rama was away, Sita was abducted by Ravana the multi-headed demon king of Lanka. Lord Rama sent Hanuman the monkey god to look for Sita in Lanka, the glittering city of gold Hanuman had the ability to change his shape: He could let himself grow to the size of a mountain, or he could let himself shrink to the size of an ant. On his way to Lanka Hanuman met Sampati, the brother of Jatayu a demi god who had the form of an eagle. Sampathi told him that Sita was held captive in a garden called Ashokavatika in Lanka.
Hanuman went to meet Lord Ravana to ask him to release Sita. To deliberately humiliate him, Ravana did not offer a seat to Hanuman.Instead of feeling insulted, Hanuman grew his tail, made a seat from it and sat on it. This seat was tall taller than Ravanas throne. This enraged Ravana who was insulted by Hanumans behavior and ordered his slaves to set fire to Hanumans tail. As they did that, Hanuman lept away from them.
With his tail on fire, Hanuman jumped from building to building, setting them all on fire. Soon the whole of Lanka was burning and people were terrified. Sita came to know about this and prayed to lord Agni, the god of fire. Lord Agni made sure that even though Hanumans tail was burning, he wouldnt feel any pain.
Worrying that the fire would harm Sita, Hanuman visited Ashokavatika and saw that she was safe. When he asked Sita to come away with him, she refused. She would wait to be freed by Lord Rama instead.
Lanka glittered even, more after the fire, because of the remains of the gold that it was built out of. Meanwhile, locked up in Ravanas palace Hanuman found lord Shani, the brother of Lord Yama the god of death. Shani is known for his anger and revered as the god of justice. Hanuman freed Shani upon his request. After he was released Shani came out to find that Lanka was burnt to the ground. Pleased with Hanuman, Shani promised him he would not harm any devotees of Hanuman, which explains the rationale behind worshiping Hanuman to stay protected from Shanis harm.
After releasing Shani, Hanuman went back to Lord Rama, who then was convinced that he would wage war on Lanka to free Sita.
9 h 58 min
It not myth its true