It was very high and was enclosed by the ocean on all sides. The ramparts of gold shed great lustre all round.

Golden were its ramparts, inlaid with gems of various kinds, and contained many splendid mansions, squares and bazars, well-planned streets and lanes, and all the other accessories of a fine city. Who could count the multitudes of elephants, horses and mules, the crowds of foot soldiers and chariots, and the troops of demons of every shape – a formidable host beyond all description?

Groves and orchards and gardens and parks, lakes and wells, big and small, were all charming to behold; daughters of men and serpents and gods and gandharvas enraptured with their beauty the soul of a sage. Here mighty wrestlers, of monstrous stature like mountains, roared like thunder an grappled with one another in many an arena and closed and challenged one another with shouts of mutual defiance.

Myriads of champions of frightful forms diligently guarded the city on all four sides; elsewhere evil demons feasted on buffaloes an men, cows and donkeys and goats. Tulasidasa has told their story in brief because they will drop their bodies at the holy shrine of Rama’s shafts and will assuredly find salvation.

Seeing a host of sentinels guarding the city, Hanuman thought to himself: ‘I must assume a very tiny form and slip into the city by night.’

So Hanuman assumed a form as small as a mosquito and, invoking the Lord in human semblance, headed towards Lanka. (At the gateway of Lanka) lived a female demon, by name Lankini, who called out to him, ‘Where should you be going heedless of me?

You fool, don’t you know my practice, that every thief hereabouts is my food?’ the mighty monkey struck her such a blow with his fist that she toppled down vomiting blood.