Hanuman plans to console Sita - Chapter 15

In the previous chapter, we saw Sita tries to hang herself. , Now we'll see Hanuman's plan to console Sita.

Hanuman was watching all that had happened and particularly seeing Sita in front of him said to himself “I am the messenger and I have seen the power of the enemy, Ravana’s power, and also the city. This is the right time for me to console Sita who is thinking all the time of Rama wholeheartedly or else she would have certainly put an end to her life. But I do not know how I can do it”. He debated in his mind, which was the safest and best way to convey to Sita whatever he wanted. He thought if he spoke in grammatically correct language Sita would surely take this monkey to be Ravana who could take any form he liked.

Hanuman debated for a long time on how he should go about it. It was indeed a very delicate situation. He thought that if he appeared before Sita suddenly she might scream thereby alarming the rakshasis who might send for force and capture him. In that case, he said that he would be unable to cross the sea back and inform Rama what had happened. Even if he fought with all of them then he could become weak and unable to cross the sea. He thought that a good messenger should act in such a way that there was no risk and finish his mission successfully. After a long reflection, he came to a decision that he would utter sweet words and tell about Rama’s good qualities.

Valmiki uses the Sanskrit word ‘Madhuram Vakyam’ meaning sweet sentence. Recently there has been some discussion as to in what language Hanuman talked to Sita. It is perhaps only of academic interest as we do not have much information. For that matter, one could even ask in what language Hanuman talked to Rama. The interesting point is that some Tamil Pundits have recently concluded that Hanuman must have spoken to Sita in Tamil. The reason quoted is that Valmiki has said that Hanuman spoke in a sweet language and Tamil is well known as the sweet language. However, this is not correct in my opinion because

Valmiki only said ‘Madhuram Vakyam’ which means a sweet sentence and not Language. It is often that people misquote our ancient works and use them to their advantage.

In the next chapter, We'll see Hanuman tells the story of Rama.