Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.156

c9.156

Bāli and Sugrīva fought again, and this time Rāma from his concealment behind a tree shot an arrow at the chest of Bāli. The arrow felled him. Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa then came into the open and Bāli spoke disparagingly to Rāma about shooting the arrow from concealment. Rāma answered him saying that if he had seen him (Rāma) face to face he would have become his devotee and he had to shoot Bāli from his hiding place as it was not proper to kill one’s devotees. At last, after handing over charge of his wife and son Aṅgada, to Sugrīva, Bāli breathed his last. Śrī Rāma decided to crown Sugrīva as King and install Aṅgada as crown prince and returned to Ṛṣyamūkācala for rest after entrusting, under the supervision of Lakṣmaṇa, Hanūmān and Jāmbavān with the duty of making preparations for the coronation. Though Sugrīva invited Śrī Rāma to Kiṣkindhā when preparations for coronation were over, the latter declined the invitation gracefully and deputed Lakṣmaṇa to represent him at the ceremony. Lakṣmaṇa installed Sugrīva as the Mahārāja, Aṅgada as crown prince, Rumā as queen and Tārā as queen-mother. Also, Hanūmān was appointed as Sugrīva’s minister. Those things over, Lakṣmaṇa returned to Rāma at Ṛṣyamūkācala.