Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Pūrva 4.25
॥
Devanāgarī
आदाय मैथिलीमद्य ददताश्वाशु गच्छत । ततस्ततार हनुमानब्धिं लङ्कां समाययौ
Transliteration (IAST)
ādāya maithilīmadya dadatāśvāśu gacchata | tatastatāra hanumānabdhiṃ laṅkāṃ samāyayau
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
आदाय मैथिलीम् अद्यādāya maithilīm adya“having taken Maithilī today”; “taking the daughter of Mithilā now”
ददत आशु गच्छतdadata āśu gacchata“give her back; go swiftly”; “hand her over, go in haste”
ततः ततार हनुमान् अब्धिम्tataḥ tatāra hanumān abdhimthen Hanumān crossed the ocean; then Hanumān traversed the sea
लङ्काम् समाययौlaṅkām samāyayauand came to Laṅkā; and reached Laṅkā
Translation
“Taking the daughter of Mithilā now, give her back — go swiftly!” — and Hanumān crossed the ocean and came to Laṅkā.
Version
148ebd58b854 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Sugrīva's words break off at the command, and the verse carries across the sea in one movement.
Hanumān's leap the tradition paints at length: a hundred yojanas, a mountain under his feet, monsters in the water. Here — three words: tatāra hanumān abdhim, “Hanumān crossed the ocean”.
This brevity is no negligence. Our book is not the Rāmāyaṇa; it needs not the tale but its meaning, and it leaves the details to those who tell in detail.
But it is remarkable who is named. Of the whole army only Hanumān is named, and named now a second time — in the twentieth verse he was “the son of the Wind and the devotee”.
Because the work now being done is the work of a bhakta, and no one else will do it. It is not strength that carries across the ocean — the tradition says Hanumān did not even remember his strength until he was reminded of it. What carried him was that whose name he kept repeating.
The word maithilī — “the daughter of Mithilā” — is one of Sītā's names, from her native city, where Janaka reigned and where Rāma bent the bow.