Rishimukha Flashback — S1/E3: Kishkinda — The Monkey Kingdom
Rishimukha Flashback — S1/E3: Kishkinda — The Monkey Kingdom
Anjanadri Hill, Hampi, Karnataka · April 2025
I did not know what I had filmed
This was my first trip to Hampi as a researcher. I had questions, but no real field method yet. I filmed almost everything: the climb, the temple, the sunrise, the landscape, people praying—and the monkeys around Anjanadri Hill.
At the summit, after climbing 575 steps in the April heat, I filmed three short sequences without thinking much about them. They seemed like ordinary moments: a family sitting above the steps, young monkeys playing below, an adult monkey doing a backflip.
Weeks later, back home in the United States, I watched the clips one after another.
Then I watched them again.
Only in sequence did the story become visible.
An older pair sat above the steps with one young monkey. Below them, another baby played with adult monkeys. When the baby tried to run toward the boundary fence, an adult blocked it, held the limit, distracted it with a backflip, and led it toward a tree. Another adult remained below. Eventually, the baby returned to the older pair.
I had filmed what looked like a functioning monkey society: leaders above, a family, adults guarding the young, and a rebellious child being redirected through play.
Kishkinda in the Ramayana
Anjanadri Hill is traditionally identified as Hanuman’s birthplace and as part of Kishkinda, the monkey kingdom of the Ramayana.
The epic does not describe a random gathering of animals. It describes a kingdom: Vali as king, Sugriva in exile at Rishimukha, Hanuman as Sugriva’s great ally, and a society with families, territory, leadership and warriors.
When I watched the three clips together, that old description suddenly felt less abstract.
The footage does not prove the Ramayana. But it shows a living monkey society whose behaviour made the ancient story feel unexpectedly possible.
Act I — The family above the steps
The first video shows two adult monkeys sitting at the top of the steps. One young monkey plays beside them.
The pair are calm and settled. They are not involved in the activity below. They are positioned above the others, as if watching over the hill.
That is why I began to think of them as the King and Queen of the troop. I cannot know their exact biological roles, but the height, spacing and behaviour created a clear visual hierarchy.
The Queen appears to care for the King. Their first child plays beside them. The family is completely untroubled by what is happening below.
Watch Act I:
Act II — The soldier monkeys and the rebellious child
The second video begins below the steps. A smaller monkey is playing with adult monkeys.
Then the baby gets restless. It turns toward the boundary fence and begins moving along it.
One soldier monkey follows the child. A second soldier monkey suddenly jumps ahead and sits on the ledge beside the fence, directly blocking the route.
The baby protests loudly. It throws a tantrum—almost as if it is arguing in monkey language. But the soldier on the ledge does not move. It is completely unmoved by the protest and gently nudges the child back.
The first soldier monkey, the one that followed the child, now runs ahead to get its attention. The baby ignores it. The soldier at the fence keeps nudging, slowly turning the child back toward the group.
Then the first soldier starts doing flips.
The child’s attention changes instantly. It moves toward the flipping soldier and does a flip of its own.
The rebellion is over—not because the child was defeated, but because its attention was redirected. The soldiers hold the boundary, stay patient through the tantrum, and finally give the child something more interesting to do.
That is why I call these adults the soldier monkeys—not as a scientific classification, but because that is what they appeared to be doing: one guarding the boundary, one managing the child’s attention, and both protecting and training the young through play.
Watch Act II:
Act III — The child returns
The third video begins after the play in the tree.
The baby comes down. An adult monkey remains at the edge, watching. The child then walks back up the steps toward the older pair.
It returns to the King, the Queen and the first child.
The family is complete again.
Three videos. One story.
Watch Act III:
What I realised afterward
Only by watching the clips together did I notice the pattern:
- an older pair positioned above the group;
- one child settled beside them;
- a second child playing below;
- adults guarding a boundary;
- a baby protesting;
- an adult redirecting the baby through play;
- another adult remaining on watch;
- and the child eventually returning to the family.
The King and Queen were watching from above. The soldier monkeys were managing the world below. The royal child was curious, rebellious and safe.
That is my reading of the footage. It is not a claim that I can identify their biological ranks with certainty. But the behaviour was so clear that the visual story was impossible to ignore.
What science contributes
Research on wild bonnet macaques documents dominance relationships, complex social networks and the ability of individuals to track the rank and relationships of others. Research on primate social systems also shows that group structures vary across species and populations.
That research gives context to what I filmed. It helps explain why adults may set boundaries, guide juveniles, protect access to space and use play within social interactions.
But the footage itself is the evidence for this particular sequence: the baby approached the boundary, an adult blocked it, the baby protested, the adult redirected its attention with a flip and a climb, and the baby later returned to the group.
The Ramayana connection is an interpretation prompted by those images. It is not a claim that three clips scientifically prove the epic.
Why it felt like Kishkinda
The power of the footage is not that it proves the Ramayana.
It is that the footage made the old description suddenly understandable.
Leadership. Family. Boundaries. Protection. Play. Young animals testing limits. Adults guiding them back.
These are not abstract ideas. They are visible behaviours in a living monkey society.
On Anjanadri Hill, traditionally identified as Hanuman’s birthplace, Kishkinda felt less like a distant mythological kingdom and more like a landscape still carrying an echo of that world.
I did not plan to film this story.
I only recognised it later.
Nambikke
Nambikke is knowledge that lives in a place, even when nobody writes it down.
The guide’s knowledge of the hill, the monkeys’ knowledge of their boundaries, and the story carried through the landscape all belong to the same kind of living memory.
Travel information
Location: Anjanadri Hill, also called Anjaneya Hill, near Hampi, Karnataka.
Access: Reach the hill from the Kishkinda/Anegundi side of the Tungabhadra.
Front route: Approximately 575 steps. Start early to avoid the heat.
Back route: A quieter second staircase used by locals, ending among the rocks behind the temple. See S1/E2 for that route.
Rishimukha Flashback Series
- S1/E1 — Jatayu, Rishimukha and Rama’s Two Trails
- S1/E2 — Hanuman’s Birthplace Has a Back Route
- S1/E3 — Kishkinda: The Monkey Kingdom ← you are here
- S1/E4 — The Log Bridge and Two Ducks — coming soon
- S1/E5 — Rishimukha Cave — coming soon
🎧 Listen to the full investigation: timelenspodcast.com
📍 Instagram: @timelenspodcast
▶️ Watch S1/E3: Kishkindha — The Monkey Kingdom
References
- Sinha, A. (1998). “Knowledge acquired and decisions made: triadic interactions during allogrooming in wild bonnet macaques, Macaca radiata.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 353(1368), 619–631. DOI
- Sinha, A., Mukhopadhyay, K., Datta-Roy, A. & Ram, S. (2005). “Ecology proposes, behaviour disposes: Ecological variability in social organization and male behavioural strategies among wild bonnet macaques.” Current Science, 89(7).
- Silk, J. B. (2007). “The adaptive value of sociality in mammalian groups.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 362(1480), 539–559. DOI
- Kappeler, P. M. & van Schaik, C. P. (2002). “Evolution of primate social systems.” International Journal of Primatology, 23(4), 707–740. DOI
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