Nala and Nila undertook the construction of the bridge with stones and tree trunks. They were confident that they would be successful in spanning the ocean as Nala had a boon from his illustrious father Vishwakarma - the famous architect of gods, which made the stones touched by him, float over the water. Nala told Rama about this boon. Rama deputed hundreds and thousands of monkeys to help Nala and Nila in bridging the sea. Like great heroes all the monkeys jumped in joy from all sides towards the great forest and broke the rocks and trees and dragged them towards the sea-sight. Some monkeys even brought trees with roots intact and some without roots. The construction of the bridge across the ocean was considered unimaginable, impossible and astonishingly unbelievable, still the bridge was built in time under the supervision of Nala and Nila and with the tremendous cooperation of monkeys and bears and all forest dwellers. The term Vanara too literally meant 'forest-dweller' (van- means forest and nara means dwellers).

There is another story generally popular in folk tales and folklore that when Nala told Rama about his boon, Rama immediately understood the over confidence and the hidden pride of Nala. Hence, when stones were floated on the surface of the sea, the sea waves did not allow them to join and fixed mutually as bridging required. Not understanding the reason why it is happening Nala went to Rama and explained his difficulty to him. Rama then advised Nala that each and every stone should be thrown with the name of Rama on it then these stone would float on the sea waters.

The Malwa artist followed the folk story as a base for his composition and painted Rama himself inscribing his name on the stones. Sometimes even Hanuman is shown writing the name of Rama on the stones and giving it to other vanaras to carry it to the waters. In the painting monkeys have been represented as carrying the stones in the middle of the sea. Nala is holding the dark brown stone with both hands to fix it on the bridge. One monkey is handing over the stone to Rama for inscribing his name and Lakshmana is shown standing behind Rama and watching the whole process attentively.