Friendship with Sugriv

Hanuman gathered wood and lit a fire. Taking Agni as their witness, Ram and Sugriv walked around it and became friends. The promise was simple: one friend's joy and sorrow would be the other's too.

Sugriv told them that some days earlier a demon had carried a weeping woman across the sky. She had tied some jewellery in a cloth and dropped it. Seeing the jewels, Ram's eyes filled with tears. Lakshman said: I don't know the armlets or earrings, but these anklets are surely hers, for I bowed at her feet every day.

Then Sugriv told his own story. Once a demon called Mayavi fought Bali and fled into a cave. Bali followed him in. After many days, seeing blood flow out of the cave, Sugriv thought his brother was dead and sealed the cave's mouth with a rock.

But Bali came back alive. He believed Sugriv had betrayed him to take the throne. He beat Sugriv, drove him out, and even took his wife Ruma. Since then Sugriv had hidden on Rishyamuk, which Bali could not enter because of the sage Matang's curse.

Sugriv was not fully sure of Ram's strength, because Bali was mighty. So Ram shot a single arrow that pierced seven huge sal trees in a row. Seeing this, Sugriv's fear vanished and he held Ram's feet.