Prof.Dr.Satya Vrat Shastri's Thai Ramayana 27. Hanuman meets Suvarnamatsya.

Hanuman with an army of monkeys began the work of building a causeway. He with hundreds of monkeys kept throwing stones into ocean, but next morning he was highly surprised to see that the stones had disappeared. He thought and thought but could not solve the mystery. So, he and all the monkeys under his command started to work afresh and threw heaps and heaps of stones into the ocean.

Next morning, he was astonished as the stones thrown the previous day were missing! He pondered, 'How do these stones, which we threw into the ocean in the day, disappear at night? Who carries them away and why? Alas! The hard work we put in, in the day, goes waste at night. If things go on like this, the construction of the causeway may not be possible. That will be a great misfortune.'

Hanuman decided to stay at the sea-shore to see what happened. Though tired, he did not go to sleep that night. The strong-minded devote themselves wholeheartedly to their work, and under no circumstance, retire from the work which they have taken in hand.

He jumped in to the water and hid himself. There he saw a very curious scene. The scene which had never taken place and had never been heard before, left him extremely astounded. It was entirely beyond imagination. He saw fish, both male and female, thousands in number, engaged in throwing out the stones. He also saw the queen under whose order they were doing this.

She, Suvarnamatysa by name, was the intelligent daughter of Ravana. She was half fish and half woman.

Hanuman approached her and asked her why the fish were removing the stones. What propelled them to do that. She replied that she was doing this under the order of her father. The order of elders is never questioned.

'If a causeway is built, your army will able to reach Lanka. To avoid that my father has deputed me to do this task. The wise one came to know that a causeway was being built and asked me to go and  make efforts of the enemy fruitless. O good sir I am doing the same. There is no duty higher than self-defence'