The Squirrel and the Bridge

Long ago, Prince Rama stood on the southern shore of India and looked out at the sea.

Far away, across the water, lay the island of Lanka. There, the demon king Ravana was keeping Rama's wife, Sita, a prisoner. Rama had to reach her. But the sea was wide and deep, and his army had no ships.

So the army decided to build a bridge.

The great bridge

Rama's army was made of vanaras, the strong and clever monkey people, and bears, led by the wise old bear Jambavan.

They set to work at once. Huge monkeys tore rocks from the mountains and carried them to the shore. Bears rolled enormous boulders down to the water. Two clever builders, Nala and Nila, showed everyone where to place each stone.

Splash! went the rocks into the sea. Crash! went the boulders. The bridge began to stretch out across the waves, little by little.

Everyone was working so hard that nobody noticed a small brown squirrel.

The little squirrel

The squirrel had been watching. She wanted to help Rama too. But she was so small. She could not carry a rock. She could not even carry a pebble.

So she thought, and she found her own way to help.

She ran down to the water and dipped herself in the sea until her fur was soaking wet. Then she ran up the beach and rolled over and over in the sand, until the sand was stuck all over her. Then she scampered onto the bridge and shook herself, shake, shake, shake, so that the sand fell into the gaps between the stones.

Then back she ran to the sea. Dip. Roll. Run. Shake.

Again and again and again.

"Out of the way!"

A big monkey carrying a huge rock nearly stepped on her.

"Out of the way, little one!" he said, laughing. "What are you doing? You'll get squashed. This is work for big, strong animals."

Some of the other monkeys laughed too. "Look at the squirrel," they said. "She thinks she's building a bridge with a few grains of sand!"

The little squirrel's whiskers drooped. But she did not stop. Dip. Roll. Run. Shake.

Rama sees

Rama had been watching too.

He walked over to the place where the squirrel was working. He knelt down, and gently picked her up in his hands.

The monkeys stopped laughing.

"Don't laugh at her," said Rama. "She is doing all she can, just as you are. You carry rocks. She carries sand. The sand fills the cracks between your rocks and makes the bridge stronger. Without the small things, the big things would not hold together."

Then Rama looked at the little squirrel with great love.

"Thank you, little friend," he said.

And very gently, he stroked her back with three fingers.

The three stripes

The story goes that where Rama's fingers touched her, three pale stripes appeared on the squirrel's back. And that is why, to this day, the little striped squirrels of India have three lines running down their backs: the mark of Rama's thanks.

The bridge was finished at last, strong enough for the whole army to cross. Every rock was part of it. And so was every grain of sand.

About this story

This tale is not part of Valmiki's Ramayana. It is a folk story that has grown up around the epic and is told to children all over India, especially in the South. The bridge itself, called Rama Setu, is part of the Ramayana's Yuddha Kanda. This version is a shortened, simplified retelling.