The
Ramayana narrates that
Sita - the wife of
Rama, prince of
Ayodhya and
avatar of the god
Vishnu - was kidnapped by
Ravana, the
rakshasa (demon) king of Lanka. Rama, aided by an army of vanaras (monkeys), reached the end of land and wanted to cross over to Lanka. Rama worships the god of the ocean,
Varuna and requests him to make way. When Varuna does not appear before Rama, Rama starts shooting various weapons at the sea, which starts drying up. A terrified Varuna pleads to Rama. Though he refuses to give way, he gives Rama a solution. He tells Rama that Nala, the son of
Vishwakarma - the architect of the gods, is amongst his vanara army; Nala has the necessary expertise of an architect, owing to a boon from his divine father. Varuna suggests that Rama construct a bridge across the ocean to Lanka, under the supervision of Nala. Nala volunteers for the task and also comments that the arrogance of the Ocean (Varuna) was tamed by Rama with a threat when love had failed. The vanaras fell mighty trees, and collect logs of wood and giant boulders and cast them in the sea. With the help of the vanara army, Nala completes the (ten
yojana) bridge in just five days. Rama and his army pass over it and reach Lanka, where they prepare to fight Ravana. Commentaries on the
Ramayana elaborate the event. Nala is said to have been born when Vishwakarma embraced Nala's vanara mother and has an ejaculation. While some commentaries say that other monkeys merely collect the building material, Nala is the one who constructs the bridge; others says that the monkeys build the bridge under his directions. The
Kamba Ramayana also solely credits Nala as the architect and builder of the bridge, the
Ramacharitamanasa credits Nala and his brother
Nila for the creation. In some versions, Nala is said to have the power to make stones float and, thus, easily makes the sea-bridge.
Telugu and
Bengali adaptations of the
Ramayana as well as
Javanese shadow plays narrate about an argument between Nala and Hanuman. Hanuman feels insulted that Nala takes stones Hanuman fetches with the "impure" left hand and uses the "pure" right hand to place them in the ocean. Hanuman is pacified by Rama who explains him that is the tradition of workers to take from the left hand and place the object by the right. The
Ananda Ramayana, an adaptation of the
Ramayana, says that Rama worships nine stones installed by Nala as the
Navagraha deities before commencing the bridge. ==The battle==