When Hanuman landed on Lanka, the eight-armed goddess Lankini challenged him. She held a pot of fire in one hand; in another, a bell. She waved a club capped with a human skull, and also a trident on which an elephant was impaled. In her other hands she brandished a torch, a sword, and an axe, and a snake that spewed poison.
"STOP!" she shouted at Hanuman. "You will go no farther."
But Hanuman knocked her to the ground with his tail.
Lankini shuddered. "I cannot stop this monkey," she groaned. "This was foretold: the city of Lanka is doomed."
Inspired by: Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana by Devdutt Pattanaik
Notes: This story is on p. 193 of the book. In Valmiki's Ramayana, this is the Sundara Kanda (Book 5), sarga 3.
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