Column | The monkeys of Jain Ramayana

Mangi-Tungi consists of two striking rock pinnacles standing side by side in Nashik district, Maharashtra. They resemble a pair of raised thumbs. Each peak rises more than 4,000 feet. The site matters because Jain tradition connects it directly with the final liberation of major Ramayana figures.

Most climbers are Digambara Jains. They come because of a single Prakrit verse in the Nirvana Kanda. It states that Rama, Sugriva and Hanuman attained nirvana at Mangi-Tungi. The slopes also preserve older Jain images of Hanuman, Gava, Gavaksha and Nila. One cave shows Kritantavakra, Rama’s army chief, as an ascetic.

The climb therefore works as both pilgrimage and encounter with Jain memory. About 900 years ago, Rajput patrons of Jain faith carved the caves. The site continues to present the Ramayana through Jain ideas of renunciation, asceticism and liberation rather than warfare or divine return.

Mangi-Tungi is a large twin-peaked pilgrimage site in Satana taluk of Nashik district, Maharashtra. Its two rock pinnacles stand side by side like raised thumbs. Each is more than 4,000 feet high. The article presents the site through its peaks, caves and extensive carved imagery rather than through a total land measurement.

The caves were carved 900 years ago by Rajput patrons who followed Jainism. Their images include Hanuman, Gava, Gavaksha and Nila. A cave also shows Kritantavakra, Rama’s army chief, in the posture of an ascetic. Local accounts count 356 carvings at the base of the Mangi pinnacle, including Vali.

This combination of scale and age explains the site’s religious weight. Pilgrims climb a dramatic natural landmark that also preserves a medieval Jain retelling of the Ramayana. The article gives no wider measurements, so the clearest scale is the peaks’ height and the number of recorded carvings.

Jain tradition gives Mangi-Tungi a sacred role by placing the final liberation of famous Ramayana figures there. The reason is textual: the Nirvana Kanda contains a single Prakrit verse naming Rama, Sugriva and Hanuman as having attained nirvana at the site. Nila and other vanaras are also included in the local religious memory.

The carvings reinforce that claim. Old images show Hanuman, Gava, Gavaksha and Nila. Another cave presents Kritantavakra, Rama’s army chief, as an ascetic. The figures are no longer remembered mainly as soldiers. They appear as men who have abandoned warfare, and the tradition says they climbed Tungi, fasted and left the world.

This changes the meaning of the Ramayana’s ending. In the Jain telling, the vanaras do not simply return to divine origins. They reach liberation through renunciation. Mangi-Tungi thus becomes both a physical pilgrimage destination and a Jain answer to the question of how the epic heroes finally end their lives.

The Valmiki Ramayana describes the vanaras as forest creatures with tails and divine parentage. In Bala Kanda, Brahma tells the devas to father monkey sons who will serve Vishnu as Rama. Vali is Indra’s son, Sugriva is Surya’s son, and Hanuman is born to Anjana through Vayu.

Jain tradition rejects both the tails and the divine births. In Vimalasuri’s Paumachariya, vanaras are vidyadharas. They are humans who know magical sciences and can fly in vimanas. A prince receives an island of monkeys, adopts their symbols on flags and crowns, and establishes the Vanaravamsha, or monkey clan. Ravana’s family becomes the Rakshasavamsha.

The change is more than physical. It removes the idea that the vanaras are a supernatural army created for a god. They become human figures identified by clan badges and magical knowledge. This makes the Jain Ramayana a distinct moral and social retelling, not simply a small variation on Valmiki’s creatures.

Jain retellings change all three heroes sharply. Vali is a devout Jain who bows only to the Jina. After defeating Ravana, he gives the throne to Sugriva and becomes a monk on Mount Ashtapada. Sugriva remains capable of becoming lazy after victory, but Jain stories give him a different marital situation and a new crisis.

In the Paumachariya, Tara is Sugriva’s wife, not Vali’s widow. A vidyadhara named Sahasagati copies Sugriva through shape-changing magic and desires Tara. Rama kills the impostor. Hanuman also changes dramatically. In Jain tradition, he is a handsome Kamadeva with many wives, including Anangakusuma, daughter of Khara and Ravana’s sister.

These changes redirect the epic’s relationships and values. Vali’s renunciation replaces the original conflict over Ruma and Rama’s killing of him. Sugriva’s weakness remains recognizable, while Hanuman becomes a married heroic figure. The Jain versions preserve familiar names but rebuild their identities around Jain ethics, magic and social ties.

The two endings send the vanaras in opposite directions. In Valmiki’s final sargas, they follow Rama into the Sarayu. They return to the gods who fathered them. Hanuman is the exception. He remains on earth for as long as the story continues to be told.

The Jain ending is centered on Mangi-Tungi. Rama, Hanuman, Sugriva, Nila and the other vanaras climb the hill, fast and leave the world for good. Their final act is not a return to divine parentage. It is a movement toward nirvana, understood in the article as the end of worldly existence.

That change transforms the epic’s conclusion. The Hindu vanaras complete a divine cycle by going back to heaven, while the Jain figures complete a spiritual journey through renunciation. The hill becomes their lasting trace. Instead of remaining as beings with gods to return to, they leave behind carvings, pilgrimage and a story of liberation at Mangi-Tungi.

In Jainism, moksha and nirvana refer to liberation from worldly existence and the cycle of rebirth. The article does not explain the full doctrine, but it presents liberation as leaving the world for good. It contrasts this goal with the Hindu ending, in which the vanaras return to the gods who fathered them.

The Jain Ramayana makes renunciation the decisive action. Vali gives up his throne and becomes a monk. At Mangi-Tungi, Rama, Hanuman, Sugriva, Nila and others climb, fast and attain nirvana. The carvings also show former warriors as ascetics. Their story ends when attachment to power, battle and worldly identity is abandoned.

This matters because liberation changes what counts as a successful ending. Returning to heaven preserves a relationship with divine origins. Jain moksha goes beyond that relationship. The heroes do not need a godly home to return to. They seek release itself, making the hill a place where epic action culminates in renunciation and final freedom.