01Son of Indra
Vali was born of Indra and ruled the vanaras from Kishkindha, wearing a golden garland Indra had given him. Every morning before sunrise, Sugriva tells Rama, he went from the western ocean to the eastern and from the southern to the northern to offer his sandhya. He killed the buffalo-shaped asura Dundubhi and hurled the carcass a yojana; drops of its blood fell on Matanga’s ashrama, and the rishi cursed him to die if he set foot on Rishyamuka. The Uttara Kanda tells how Ravana once crept up on him at his sandhya: Vali tucked him under his arm, carried him across all four oceans, and then made friends with him with fire as witness.
02The cave of Mayavi
The quarrel with Sugriva began in a misunderstanding. Vali chased the asura Mayavi into a cave and fought him there for a year. When he finally killed him and came out, he found the cave sealed with a rock and his brother on his throne. He would not believe Sugriva had thought him dead. He drove him out of Kishkindha, took his wife Ruma for himself, and hunted him through the forests until Sugriva found refuge on the one hill Vali could not climb. Valmiki’s Vali is not cruel by nature; he is proud, and his pride would not let him listen.
03One arrow from behind a tree
Tara begged him not to answer Sugriva’s second challenge; she had heard that Rama was with him. Vali went anyway, and while the brothers grappled, Rama shot him from behind a tree. Dying, Vali reproached Rama for striking a man who was fighting someone else. Rama answered that the earth was Bharata’s to rule and he its servant, that Vali had taken his younger brother’s wife, who stood to him as a daughter, and that a king’s punishment cleanses the sinner. Vali accepted it. He asked Rama to protect Angada and Tara, gave Sugriva the golden garland, and died. Commentators have weighed this scene for centuries; Valmiki lets both of them speak.