One of the most amazing things about the Ramayana — which makes it special — is that it is perhaps the world’s first mystery novel, a whodunnit. It is a process involving Jatayu, Kabandha, Shabari, Sugriva, and finally Jatayu’s elder brother, Sampati.

Ram returns after hunting deer to find Sita missing, and he doesn’t know where she is. There are no footprints on the ground. He asks the birds, the animals, the mountains, the rocks, and the rivers but they know nothing. 

Then he finds a bird, Jatayu, with wings hacked off. Jatayu tells him that a man came by air, picked Sita up in his flying chariot, and took her in a southern direction. Jatayu tried to stop them by spreading his wings, but the man hacked them off. So, the first piece of information Ram receives is that a man called Ravan has abducted Sita in a flying chariot and taken her southward.