Sita
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Sita (Sanskrit: सीता; "Sītā", also spelled Seeta) is the wife of Rama, the seventh avatāra of Vishnu, and is esteemed as an exemplary of wifely and womanly virtue. Understood theologically in Hinduism, Sita is an avatāra of Lakshmi, Vishnu's consort, who chose to reincarnate herself on Earth as Sita and endure an arduous life, to provide humankind with an example of good virtues. Sita is one of the principal characters in the Ramayana, a Hindu epic named after her husband Rama.
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[edit] Legend
Sita was a foundling, discovered in a furrow in a ploughed field, and for that reason is regarded as a daughter of Bhudevi, the earth Goddess. She was found and adopted by Janaka, king of Mithila (modern-day Janakpur, Nepal) and his wife Sunayana. Upon her coming of age, a swayamwara was held to select a suitable husband for her, and she was wed to Rama, prince of Ayodhya, an avatara of Vishnu.
[edit] Exile and abduction
Some time after the wedding, circumstances forced Rama to leave Ayodhya and spend a period of exile in the forests of Dandaka. Sita willingly renounced the comforts of the palace and joined her husband in braving the travails of exile, even living in Dandaka forest. However, worse was to come: the forest was the scene for the abduction of Sita by Ravana, King of Lanka, one of her former suitors. Ravana kidnapped Sita, disguising himself as a brahmana mendicant while her husband was away fetching a magnificent golden deer to please her (this deer was actually Ravana's demon uncle, Mareecha, in disguise). Jatayu, the vulture-king, who was a friend of Rama's, tried to protect her, but Ravana chopped off his wings. Jatayu survived long enough to inform Rama of what had happened.
Ravana held Sita captive in his distant island realm. In captivity, Sita not only consistently rejected the many advances of her powerful and royal captor, but also preserved her chastity of mind, never once wavering in her adherence to her husband. She was finally rescued by Rama, who waged a tremendous battle to defeat Ravana and secure the release of Sita. Since Sita was kept in captivity by Ravana all this time, Rama asked her to go through the 'Agni-Pariksha', the test of going through the fire, which would prove her chastity.
In Hindu dharma every action has results irrespective of the stature of the person. A school of thought states that Rama questioned Sita on her integrity as a punishment for her questioning the integrity of Lakshmana who had left all his comfort and served Rama and Sita for 14 years. Lakshmana was asked to create the fire despite his protests about needing such a procedure to prove that Sita is innocent.
[edit] Later life
The couple returned to Ayodhya, where Rama was crowned king with Sita by his side. While Rama's trust and affection for Sita never wavered, it soon became evident that some of Ayodhya could not accept Sita's long captivity under the power of Ravana.
[edit] Sita's exile
During Rama's period of rule, an intemperate washerman, while berating his wayward wife, declared that he was "no pusillanimous Rama who would take his wife back after she had lived in the house of another man". This calumnious statement was reported back to Rama, who knew that the aspersion cast on Sita was entirely baseless. Nevertheless, he felt his position as ruler undermined by the ever-present possibility of slander attaching itself to his hitherto unimpeachable dynasty and personal reign. It was this train of thought that led Rama to remove Sita from his household.
Sita was thus again in exile; she was not only alone this time, but also pregnant. She attempted to commit suicide in the Ganges, but she was rescued by the sage Valmiki. He gave her refuge in his hermitage, where she delivered a son named Lava. Once day Sita left her son with Valmiki, and went to the river bank to fetch water. Valmiki who was in deep dhabas without noticing the return of Sita and picking up her child, created by his ascetic power another baby with Dharba. She finds two sons of the same virtue and hears from the sage what happened there in her absence. She accepted both sons as her own, naming the other Kusha.
In the hermitage, Sita raised her sons alone, as a single mother [1]. They grew up to be valiant and intelligent, and were eventually united with their father. Once she had witnessed the acceptance of her children by Rama, Sita sought final refuge in the arms of her mother Bhumidevi, the Earth Goddess. Hearing her plea for release from an unjust world and from a life that had rarely been happy, the earth dramatically split open; Bhumidevi appeared and took Sita away to a better world. But this part of Ramayana is disputed, it is said that Rama and Sita lived together happily, ruling their kingdom for 11,000 years ( considered a common lifespan in that age, the Treta Yuga). According to this version, Sita was only sent into a 14-year exile, one year of which she spent in Ravana's kingdom. So it is generally considered that Rama and Sita had a perfectly happy married life with very little disturbance.
This part of the epic has been disputed. Scholars maintain it was written later than the Valmiki Ramayana. Some believe that this part of the story, Lava-Kushakanda, was promoted by the British. Many Hindu organizations today disown Lava-Kushakanda and state that after Rama was crowned king there followed Rama Rajya, when everyone was happy.
Sita also took part in the Hindu ritual of Ashvamedha, as narrated in the Uttara Kanda (book 7). In this narrative, Rama was married to a single wife, Sita, who at the time was not with him, having been excluded from Rama's capital of Ayodhya. She was therefore represented by a statue for the queen's ceremony[citation needed]. Sita was living in Valmiki's forest ashram with her twin children, Lava and Kusha, whose birth was unknown to Rama. In its wanderings, the horse, accompanied by an army and the monkey-king Hanuman, entered the forest and encountered Lava, who ignored the warning written on the horse's headplate not to hinder its progress. He tethered the horse, and with Kusha challenged the army, which was unable to defeat the brothers.
[edit] Significance
The actions, reactions and instincts manifested by Sita at every juncture in a long and arduous life are deemed exemplary; her story, Sitayanam [2] is one by which every young girl in India is raised to this day. The values that she enshrined and adhered to at every point in the course of a demanding life are the values of womanly virtue held sacred by countless generations of Indians.
The story of Sita's kidnapping and subsequent rescue forms the core of the Indian epic, the Ramayana, confirmed and written by the sage Valmiki in whose hermitage Sita took refuge during her second stint of exile.
A female deity of agricultural fertility by the name Sita was known before Valmiki's Ramayana, but was overshadowed by more well-known goddesses associated with fertility. According to the Ramayana, Sita was discovered in a furrow when Janaka was plowing. Since Janaka was a king, it is likely that plowing was part of a royal ritual to ensure fertility of the land. Sita is considered to be the child of the earth, produced by the union between the king and the land. Sita is a personification of the earth's fertility, abundance, and well-being.[3]
[edit] Sita's speeches in the Ramayana
While the Ramayana mostly concentrates on Rama's actions, Sita also speaks many times during the exile. The first time is in the town of Chitrakuta where she narrates an ancient story to Rama, whereby Rama promises to Sita that he will never kill anybody without provocation.
The second time Sita is shown talking prominently is when she speaks to Ravana. Ravana has come to her in the form of a Brahmin and Sita tells him that he doesn't look like one.
The most interesting of her speeches are with Hanuman when he reaches Lanka. Hanuman wants an immediate meeting of Rama and Sita, and thus he proposes to Sita to ride on his back. Sita refuses as she does not want to run away like a thief; instead she wants her husband Rama to come and defeat Ravana to save her.
When Rama wins the war, Hanuman goes to Ashok Vatika to give this news to Sita, and asks for permission to kill the female Rakshasas who have tortured her. Sita tells Hanuman an ancient story known as Na parah paap ma adate (Do not follow the sins committed by others) - one should behave according to one's dharma (righteousness) even if another has done you wrong.
Once she speaks badly to Lakshmana when he does not go after Rama to save him, but in a later part of the story she repents this.
[edit] Epithets
In common with other major figures of epic literature, Sita is known by many epithets. As the daughter of king Janaka, she is called Janaki; as the princess of Mithila, Mythili or Maithili; as the wife of Raama, she is called Ramaa. Her father Janaka had earned the sobriquet "Videha" due to his ability to transcend body consciousness; Sita is therefore also known as Vaidehi (Vaidehi or Vaydehi (Sanskrit: वैदेही)).
[edit] Etymology of the name Sita
However, she is of course best known by the name "Sita", which literally means "furrow". The word "furrow" was a poetic term in ancient India, its imagery redolent of fecundity and the many blessings coming from settled agriculture. The Sita of the Ramayana may have been named after a more ancient Vedic goddess Sita, who is mentioned once in the Rigveda as an earth goddess who blesses the land with good crops. In Vedic period, she was one of the goddesses associated with fertility. A Vedic hymn recites:
Auspicious Sita, come thou near;
We venerate and worship thee
That thou mayst bless and prosper us
And bring us fruits abundantly.
The Kausik-sutra and the Paraskara-sutra associates her repeatedly as the wife of Parjanya (a god associated with rains) and Indra.
[edit] Other legends
Two other legends obtaining in certain versions of the Ramayana may be mentioned in connection with Sita. These legends are significant in that they do not endorse the mainstream view of Sita having been an avatara of the goddess Lakshmi.
[edit] Vedavati
Some versions of the Ramayana suggest that Sita was a reincarnation of Vedavati (an avatar of Mother Laxmi), an orphan lady who had been ravished by Ravana. The legend goes thus:
Sage Kushadhwaja was a learned and pious scholar residing in a remote hermitage. His daughter Vedavati grows up in her father's hermitage to become an ardent devotee of Vishnu, and resolves early in life to wed no one other than Vishnu. Her father refrains from stifling her aspirations, and even rejects proposals from many powerful kings and celestial beings who seek his daughter's hand in marriage. Among those rejected is Sambhu, a powerful Daitya king. Smarting under his humiliation, Shambhu seizes an opportunity and murders Vedavati's parents on a moonless night.
Vedavati continues to reside at the hermitage of her parents, meditating upon Vishnu. She is described as being inexpressibly beautiful, dressed in the hide of a black antelope, her hair matted, the bloom of her youth enhanced by her austerities. Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, once finds Vedavati seated in meditation and is captivated by her beauty. He propositions her and is rejected. Ravana mocks her austerities and her devotion to Vishnu; finding himself firmly rejected at every turn, he finally molests Vedavati, pulling her hair.
Her chastity thus sullied beyond redemption, Vedavati immolates herself on a pyre, vowing to return in another age and be the cause of Ravana's destruction. She is duly reborn as Sita, wife of Rama, and became the direct cause of Ravana's destruction at his hands. In the process, Vedavati also receives the boon she so single-mindedly sought: Vishnu, in his avatara as Rama, becomes her husband. In some versions of the Ramayana, sage Agastya relates this entire story to Rama.
[edit] Daughter of Mandodari and Ravana
A somewhat obscure legend, originating in some parts of Kerala, seeks to explain Sita's birth. This legend goes thus:
Although they were married at the end of a courtship of lyrical majesty, Ravana and his wife Mandodari grew estranged from each other since Mandodari found it impossible to condone or ignore her husband's arrogance and misdeeds. In particular, Mandodari was repelled and distraught at her husband's ravishment of the hapless Vedavati. She soon afterwards found herself pregnant, and feared that the child within her would be the harbinger of her husband's doom, as per Vedavati's awful oath. Despite her judgment of her husband, Mandodari could not condemn him; and also could not do away with a child even if her suspicions were confirmed, since Fate could not be defied. Both these considerations are quintessentially in the spirit of Hindu legend, as indeed is her chosen course of action.
Mandodari went to her father's home in mainland India, and then on a series of pilgrimages, to prevent Ravana or anybody else from finding that she was pregnant. As the birth grew near, Mandodari searched for a suitable foster-home for her child. She discovered that Janaka, the pious king of Mithila, a man of noble character and eminent lineage, was childless; the deeply sorrowful king was intent upon performing a yagya to seek the boon of a child. At this time, a female child was born to Mandodari. Soon afterwards, just before Janaka began ploughing a field to prepare for the intended rituals, Mandodari managed to spirit her baby into the field and into Janaka's path. King Janaka duly discovered the child and adopted her. Gratified at this turn of events, Mandodari returned to her husband and resumed her everyday life. The child was given the name "Sita" and grew up in king Janaka's household.
These legends build on ancient Indian traditions which hold, in wry spirit, that one's worst enemies are re-born as one's own children to fulfill the karma of one's sins.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Contemporary Influence of Sita" by Anju Bhargava [1];
- ^ "Sitayanam - A Woman's Journey of Strength" by Anju P. Bhargava;
- ^ Kinsley, David (1986, pp.65-80). Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition. Berkeley, University of California Press.
[edit] Further reading
- Hindu Goddesses: Vision of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious traditions (ISBN 81-208-0379-5) by David Kinsley
- The Ramayana (2001) by Ramesh Menon
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