Angada (Sanskrit: अंगद), in the Hindu epic Ramayana, is a vanara who helped Rama find his wife Sita and fight her abductor, Ravana. He was the son of Vali and Tara and the nephew of Sugriva. Angada and Tara are instrumental in reconciling Rama and his brother, Lakshmana, with Sugriva after Sugriva fails to fulfill his promise to help Rama find and rescue his wife. Together they are able to convince Sugriva to honor his pledge to Rama instead of spending his time carousing and drinking. Sugriva then arranges for Hanuman to help Rama and organises the monkey army that will battle Ravana's demonic host.
In his efforts to seek a peaceful solution, Rama sent several messengers to Ravana; Angada was one of them. Angada explained to Ravana that Rama had sent him as messenger to seek the release of Sita and that Ravana ought to heed this last appeal so that war could be averted. Angada tried every means to convince Ravana, but the ruler was dogged and firm to face a battle instead of returning Sita to Rama peacefully.
At Ravana's court, after Angada explained the divinity of lord Rama and the message he carried, Ravana paid no heed to it. Angada then planted his foot firmly on the ground and challenged anybody in the courtroom to uproot his foot. If anybody were to accept the challenge and was successful, Rama would concede defeat and return without Sita. All the rakshasa commanders of Ravana's army and even his son Indrajit tried to lift Angada's leg but none succeeded. Feeling humiliated by this failure, an infuriated Ravana slowly walked towards Angada's planted foot and just as he was about to hold Angada's leg to attempt the challenge, Angada moved away and Ravana fell down. Angada explained that the challenge was for Ravana's commanders and not for Ravana. He told that Ravana was prepared to fall on his feet but instead he should choose to fall on the lord Rama's feet, for those are the ones that remove fear of cycle of life and death. He then picked up Ravana's crown which fell down on the ground and threw it out of the palace. Ravana ordered his men to kill Angada but then Angada took a jump and flew back to the place where the army was congregating.
When the vanaras saw the flying crowns approaching, they got frightened. But Rama knew that it was the crown of Ravana. Hanuman caught the flying crown in the air and placed it at Rama's feet.
In the war that followed, he killed Ravana's son Devantaka.
It is said that after 14 years of exile in the forest was ended and after winning the battle of Lanka, Rama along with few of his close friends like Sugriva, Hanumana, Angada, Jambavantha, Vibhishana returned to Ayodhya in pushpak plane. After some time Rama got an invitation to attend a ceremony along with all his associates in Janak pur thrown by Rama’s father-in-law King Janaka in the celebration of Rama’s return from exile.
Rama decided to attend the party at Janaka's palce along with the monkey brigade, Lakshamana was against this as a small mistake happens there at Janaka's place will be a big reason for a joke. And going in the party along with monkey brigade was like inviting or being prepared for mistakes.
The date came when Rama along with Lakshmana, Hanumana, Sugriva, Jambavantha, Angada and the monkey brigade went to Janak pura to attend the party. Lakshamana was very worried about the monkey’s behaviour in Janak pura. He was worried that monkeys may start jumping and fighting for the food in Janak pura, as this will create a bad impression about Ayodhya. So Lakshamana arranged a meeting to dictate clear-cut instruction to monkey brigade on dos and donts in Janak pura. The instructions were like this: No one(monkey) will jump on food after seeing it and will wait patiently for my signs (hidden instruction). Every one will follow my signs and will do or act exactly as per my instruction.
Rama along with Lakshamana and others along with monkey brigade reached Janak pura. Every monkey was looking at Lakshamana at one sight to watch his hidden instructions. Rama, Lakshamana and others went to the dining room and sat on the floor in a queue for having food. Food was served to every one and every monkey was gazing at Lakshamana to watch his instruction so after Lakshamana’s sign they can start having food. Lakshamana took a lemon from his plate and tried to remove the seed from the lemon. The seed went up in the air, on this the monkeys thought that Lakshamana is instructing to jump before having food. The monkey sitting near Lakshamana jumped a bit and monkey next to that jumped a more and so on. Before Lakshamana can ask to stop jumping the Angad’s turn came and he jumped so high that he took the roof along with him in the sky.
Ladies and peoples form Janak pur started laughing hard on this incident and the news of this incident spread to all over India and became famous as Angad Kood or Angad’s Jump.
It is also said that Angada, whose father Vali had been killed by an arrow shot by Lord Rama from back, had taken a rebirth as a hunter who killed Krishna with an arrow during dwapara yuga. The moral lies in the fact that, not even GOD can escape karma when HE takes birth of a human being.