राक्षसगृहेषु सीतान्वेषणं रावणभवनप्रवेशश्च

Able to take whatever form he pleased, Hanumān roamed at will through the lofty seven-storeyed mansions of Laṅkā, moving everywhere with nimble speed. Then the glorious monkey came to the palace of Rāvaṇa, lord of the rākṣasas, girdled all round by a shining golden rampart the colour of the sun. As a great forest is guarded by lions, so that palace was guarded by fearsome rākṣasas; and as he surveyed it, the elephant among monkeys glowed with delight. He is called "glorious" because he enters not like a thief but fearless, like Rāma's envoy. That he could take any form reminds us that he had shrunk to the size of a cat, so the rākṣasas did not notice him. The lions tell of the guards' ferocity, the forest of the palace's vastness. His delight has a reason: where Rāvaṇa lives, there Sītā may well be.

The palace was enclosed by gateways overlaid with silver, painted and adorned with gold, by wonderful courtyards and splendid doors. Mahouts sat mounted on their elephants, tireless warriors stood by, and there were chariot-horses that nothing could hold back. Chariots were always moving about it, covered with lion and tiger skins, set with figures of ivory, gold and silver, and ringing with nets of bells. It was strewn with many jewels and graced with costly seats, the resort of great chariot-warriors and the place of their great thrones. It was full on every side of thousands of beautiful and splendid beasts and birds of many kinds. It was well guarded by disciplined wardens of the bounds and by rākṣasas, and filled with the most beautiful women; those jewels among women lived there happily, and the tinkling of their fine ornaments sounded like the roar of the sea. Endowed with every royal splendour, fragrant with the choicest sandal, crowded with great folk, it was like a great forest full of lions. It resounded with kettledrums and tabors and rang with conches; worship was offered there daily, soma was pressed on the festival days, and the rākṣasas always honoured it. Deep as the ocean and roaring like the ocean, the great house of the great-souled Rāvaṇa, furnished with great jewels, shining with its own splendour and thronged with elephants, horses and chariots, the great monkey beheld. The poet spends eleven verses on this one palace, fixing in the reader's mind how vast Rāvaṇa's wealth was. The image of the forest guarded by lions comes twice, reminding us again how strongly it was guarded. The pressing of soma and the offerings on festival days show that even the rākṣasas perform sacrifices, recalling Rāvaṇa's learning in the Veda. The order of the description matters: first the gateways and doors outside, then the elephants, horses and chariots at the gate, then the jewels and seats within, then the beasts and birds, then the guards, then the women, and last the sounds, scents and worship. As Hanumān goes further in, the description deepens, and the reader seems to enter step by step with him. This house has everything — wealth, power, beauty, pleasure and even the outward forms of dharma — everything except dharma's inner substance, for another man's wife has been brought here by force. Yet all this splendour does not bewitch Hanumān; his mind stays fixed on Rāma's work. The ocean supplies the image twice, for depth and for sound, since Laṅkā stands in the middle of the sea. The poet calls even Rāvaṇa "great-souled", not hiding the greatness of the enemy, for the defeat of a great enemy only adds to Rāma's glory. The "disciplined wardens" show that Rāvaṇa's rule was well ordered; he was not only a pleasure-seeker but a capable ruler, and so Hanumān's task was not easy but extremely hard.

The great monkey thought the palace the very jewel of Laṅkā, and Hanumān moved about close to Rāvaṇa's palace. Going from house to house of the rākṣasas and looking through all their gardens, he roamed without fear over mansions and towers. "Without fear" shows his courage: even in the enemy's house he feels no dread. Thinking that Sītā would be somewhere near Rāvaṇa, he searches all around — a methodical way of searching. He does not neglect the gardens either, for a captive woman might be held in a garden; and indeed it is in the Aśoka grove that she will be found.

With great speed the valiant Hanumān leapt down onto the house of Prahasta, and from there bounded to the house of Mahāpārśva. Then he reached Kumbhakarṇa's dwelling, huge as a cloud, and the house of Vibhīṣaṇa, and leapt likewise to the houses of Mahodara and Virūpākṣa, of Vidyujjihva and Vidyunmālin, and of Vajradaṃṣṭra. The leader of the monkey troops went swiftly to the houses of Śuka and of wise Sāraṇa and to Indrajit's dwelling, and on to the houses of Jambumālin and Sumālin. The son of the Wind went to the houses of Raśmiketu, Sūryaśatru and Vajrakāya, of Dhūmrākṣa and Sampāti, of Vidyudrūpa, Bhīma, Ghana and Vighana; of Śukanābha, Cakra, Śaṭha and Kapaṭa, of Hrasvakarṇa, Daṃṣṭra and Lomaśa, of Yuddhonmatta and Matta, of Dhvajagrīva the horseman, of Vidyujjihva and Dvijihva, of Hastimukha, Karāla, Piśāca and Śoṇitākṣa, leaping from one to the next in turn. In all those costly mansions the glorious monkey saw the riches of those wealthy lords. Then, passing beyond them all, he came back again to the palace of the lord of the rākṣasas. The poet gives a roll-call of rākṣasas who will be seen fighting against Rāma in the Yuddha Kāṇḍa, so they are introduced here in advance, setting the future characters on the stage. Vibhīṣaṇa's house is named among the rest without anything said about it. Kumbhakarṇa's house is "like a cloud", recalling his enormous body and his long sleep; Indrajit's is only named, though he is the one who will later bind Hanumān with Brahmā's weapon; Śuka and Sāraṇa are Rāvaṇa's spies and ministers, who in the Yuddha Kāṇḍa will be sent to count Rāma's army. Hanumān's route too has an order: first the chief ministers, then Rāvaṇa's brothers, then his son, then the other warriors. The repeated verbs of leaping let the listener hear the speed of his bounds. The very length of the list shows the size of Laṅkā and Hanumān's toil, for he goes into every house and searches it rather than glancing from outside. His circuit ends where it began, at Rāvaṇa's palace, and though it is not said, it is understood that for all his searching he had not found Sītā.

As he moved about there, the tiger among monkeys saw the rākṣasīs with their misshapen eyes who slept near Rāvaṇa to guard his bed. In the house of the lord of the rākṣasas he saw troops of many kinds with spears and maces in their hands, bearing javelins and lances; huge rākṣasas ready with weapons of every kind; and swift horses, red and white, pale and bay. He saw elephants of noble breed and fine form, breakers of the enemy's elephants, trained in the lore of elephants, equal to Airāvata in battle and slayers of hostile armies; streaming with ichor like rain-clouds, or like mountains running with springs, they thundered like clouds and were invincible in battle. And in Rāvaṇa's palace he saw a thousand troops adorned with gold, their bodies covered in golden mail, shining like the rising sun. Here we are shown Rāvaṇa's military strength: as an envoy, Hanumān counts the enemy's forces too, and will report them to Rāma. An envoy's duty is twofold, to find Sītā and to learn the enemy's strength, and he does both at once. The elephants are described at special length, for elephants are the chief arm of a royal army, and the comparison with Airāvata recalls Rāvaṇa's victory over Indra. The many colours of the horses show the variety of the host. The rākṣasīs who sleep near Rāvaṇa to guard him tell us that Hanumān is now close to the king's bedchamber, and their misshapen eyes foreshadow the terrible rākṣasīs who will be seen surrounding Sītā in the Aśoka grove. Seeing all this, he goes on without fear; before he burns Laṅkā, he will put this very strength to the test.

In Rāvaṇa's palace the monkey, son of the Wind, saw palanquins of many shapes, bright bowers of creepers and picture-halls, pleasure-houses, artificial hills made of wood, a charming chamber of love and a day-house as well. He saw a mansion lofty as Mandara, full of perches for peacocks and crowded with flagstaffs, the finest of houses, with endless heaps of jewels and treasures on every side, its every part finished by steady, skilled hands, like the house of the lord of beings — whether Śiva, lord of spirits, or Kubera. With the radiance of its jewels and the splendour of Rāvaṇa, that house shone like the sun with its rays. The leader of the monkey troops saw couches and seats all of gold and gleaming vessels. Its floors were wet with honey and wine, it was crowded with jewelled cups, and it was lovely and spacious like the palace of Kubera. It rang with the sound of anklets and the jingle of girdles, with the beat of drums and the clapping of hands and with other resounding instruments. Hanumān entered that great house, full of clustered mansions, crowded with hundreds of jewels among women, its chambers well laid out. The poet describes things for every sense: jewels and banners for the eye, anklets, girdles and drums for the ear, the smell of honey and wine for the nose. The comparison with Kubera's palace is apt, for Laṅkā had once been Kubera's city and Puṣpaka his aerial car, taken by Rāvaṇa by force. "Hundreds of jewels among women" hints at the drinking-hall and the sleeping women who will be described in the sargas to come. The house is spacious and its chambers well ordered, and the reader can judge for himself how hard it is to search for one woman in so vast a place. Whatever his eyes fall on, Hanumān's goal is Sītā alone, so he goes deeper into the inner palace, where in the next sarga he will see Puṣpaka. The sarga ends with his entry only; what he saw inside is kept for the next — a skilful division of the story.