01Heir of Kishkindha
Angada was the son of Vali and Tara. His father, dying, placed him in Rama’s care and told him to serve Sugriva faithfully, holding back neither his love nor his anger at the wrong time. At Rama’s wish Sugriva made him yuvaraja on the day of his own coronation. Valmiki shows him brave and young, quick to despair and quick to recover, and the vanaras follow him gladly.
02The southern search
Sugriva put him at the head of the party sent south, with Hanuman, Jambavan and Nila. They lost themselves in the enchanted cave of Svayamprabha, and when they came out on the shore of the ocean the month was over. Angada, sure that Sugriva would put him to death, sat down to fast until he died, and the others joined him. Talking of Jatayu, they woke the old vulture Sampati, who told them Sita was in Lanka. When Hanuman came back with news, Angada let the vanaras loose in Sugriva’s honey grove, Madhuvana; its keeper ran to complain, and Sugriva understood at once that they had succeeded.
03Envoy to Ravana
Before the assault Rama sent Angada into Lanka with a last offer: give Sita back or fight. He delivered it in Ravana’s court. Four rakshasas seized him; he leapt up onto the palace roof with them hanging from his arms, shook them off, broke the pinnacle with his foot, and flew back over the walls. In the battle he killed Narantaka and Mahaparshva. The famous scene in which Angada plants his foot and no one in Ravana’s court can move it belongs to the Ramcharitmanas. At the end Sugriva crowned him king of Kishkindha.