One of the arms of the demon-prince, when cut off, fell into the courtyard of his wife Sulochana’s palace. She was the daughter of Shesha, the serpent-king. The monkeys carried Indrajit’s head to their camp with great exultation.

Rama rejoiced at the victory and instructed the monkeys to preserve the head and hand it over to a woman who would come seeking it.

Sulochana came out of her chamber, and as soon as she saw her husband’s arm, she took it in her hands and lamented bitterly. With tears in her eyes, she said to the arm, “My beloved, tell me how you were killed. If I have been faithful to you, let this your arm write for me a short account of the battle you fought with Rama.”

She placed a piece of paper, a pen, and an inkstand before the arm. The arm miraculously wrote a full account of the battle and informed her that the monkeys had carried Indrajit’s head to Suvela.

Sulochana read the account, grieved deeply, and placed the arm and letter before her father-in-law, Ravana. Reading the letter, Ravana fainted away. Mandodari came running from her room and, learning the sad news of her brave son’s fall, wept violently.

Sulochana said, “I shall burn myself with my beloved Indrajit. I implore you, therefore, to get his head back from the monkeys.”

Ravana, filled with pity for his daughter-in-law yet seething with rage against the monkeys, exclaimed, “Daughter, I shall bring you the head. Rest assured. I will fight Rama myself and never return unless I slay him.”

Mandodari said to Sulochana, “There is no need for battle. If you go to Rama yourself, he will surely give you the head — for he is compassionate.”

Ravana objected, “She is helpless; what if someone insults or harms her?”

Mandodari replied, “There is not a single monkey with Rama who would covet another’s wife.”

Hearing this, Ravana hid his face in shame and confusion, and allowed Sulochana to go alone to Suvela.

Sulochana came to the camp of the monkeys, who took her to Rama. She said, “I am the wife of Indrajit. I have come to take my husband’s head, for I am going to burn myself with him. I beg you to give it to me.”

“How did you know that the head was carried off by us?” asked the monkeys.

Sulochana recounted all that had happened. The monkeys said, “We cannot believe this. It is impossible that a lifeless arm could write. Here is the head of your husband. If you are truly faithful, make it laugh, and we shall believe your words.”

Embracing the head, Sulochana said, “My love, I am in great difficulty. These monkeys doubt my chastity. If your head does not laugh, they will deem me false.” She tried her utmost to make it laugh, but it remained still.

At last she said, “I made a great mistake. If I had called upon my father, Shesha, to help you, no harm could have come to you.”

As soon as she spoke these words, the head laughed aloud.

The monkeys were astonished. “Though Sulochana spoke so many tender words, the head did not laugh; but when she mentioned Shesha’s name, it laughed heartily. What is this mystery?”

Rama said, “Sulochana is the daughter of Shesha, and Lakshman is the incarnation of Shesha. The head laughed because the son-in-law was slain by his own father-in-law.”

Hearing this, Lakshman grieved deeply for Indrajit, but Rama consoled him, saying, “If you wish, I shall bring him back to life.” At the monkeys’ entreaty, however, Rama did not revive the demon-prince.

The monkeys handed the head to Sulochana. She took it, went to the seashore near Lanka, prepared a funeral pyre, and burned herself with the head.

Ravana, who was present there with his family as per custom, was overwhelmed with grief and returned home desolate.

Confused and desperate, Ravana consulted his minister Vidya, who advised him to write to his uncles Ahiravana and Mahiravana in Pātāla (the underworld).

Ravana wrote to them, describing his misfortune and distress. They replied, “Do not fear. Tonight we shall descend and carry Rama and Lakshman to Pātāla. There we will sacrifice them to our goddess.”

The ministers of Vibhishan overheard this conversation and reported it to their master. Vibhishan informed Maruti, Nala, Nila, Sugriva, and the other monkeys, instructing them to guard Rama and Lakshman through the night.

Accordingly, the monkeys built a fortification of their tails around the princes, who lay asleep on a cot within it.

At midnight, Ahiravana and Mahiravana arrived and were astonished at the strange fortification. Finding no entry, they dug through the ground and, through this subterranean passage, carried the cot with the sleeping princes to Mahikavati in Pātāla. There they placed the brothers under enchantment and confined them in a house.

At the entrance to the tunnel they stationed twenty kotis of demons under the command of Makardhwaja to guard it.

At dawn, the monkeys of Suvela went to visit Rama, only to find the cot missing. They discovered the excavation and demon footprints, realizing that Rama and Lakshman had been carried away underground.

The monkeys were panic-stricken, but Vibhishan cautioned them, “Make no noise. If Ravana learns of this, he will attack and destroy us all.”

The monkeys and Vibhishan then asked Maruti if he could go through the tunnel and trace the princes. “Even at the cost of my life, I will bring Rama and Lakshman back,” replied Maruti.

He entered the passage with Nala, Nila, Angada, and Jambavan, and after a long journey through the dark depths, they emerged near the sea, exhausted but alive. They refreshed themselves in the cool breeze. Seeing the multitude of demons there, they disguised themselves as fakirs (mendicants) and asked the guards to show them the way to Mahikavati.

|| OM SAI SHRI SAI JAI JAI SAI || 

|| SHRI SATCHIDANANDA SADGURU SAINATH MAHARAJ KI JAI ||

Note(s): This narration is based on Ramavijaya: The Mythological History of Rama (Bombay, 1891, Dubhashi & Co.), a public domain text shared here for free reading.

This section belongs to the Ahiravana-Mahiravana Kanda, a later addition unique to devotional Ramayanas(especially the Adbhuta, Ananda, and Ramavijaya). It dramatizes the “descent into the subconscious realms”(Pātāla), where Hanuman rescues the Divine within darkness, archetypally mirroring the katabasis (underworld descent) motif found in Greek, Egyptian, and tantric traditions.