The Sage Who Was Really a Trap, and the Mountain Hanuman Carried Instead

Lakshmana was dying on the battlefield, and there was one thing that could stop it.

Indrajit - Ravana's son - had struck him down. The physician Sushena examined him and named the remedy: Sanjeevani, also called Vishalya Karani.

It grew on the slopes of Mount Gandhamadana, in the Himalayas.

That is most of a subcontinent away from a battlefield in Lanka, and the poison was working.

There was exactly one person present who could cover that distance in the time left.

Hanuman went.

Ravana hears about it

Ravana understood at once what Lakshmana's death would do to Rama's army, and he understood that the mission did not need to be defeated. It only needed to be slowed.