Travels in India (Tavernier) 120.3

120.3

They were unlucky at first, for while passing through a forest, Rama having gone in pursuit of a bird, where he remained a long time, Sita, fearing that some disaster had happened to her husband, by force of her entreaties obliged Lakshman to go in search of him. He strongly objected, Rama having told him not to leave Sita, having foreseen by a spirit of prophecy what would happen if she remained alone. Nevertheless Lakshman, moved by the earnest prayers of his sister-in-law, went to seek for Rama his brother. In the meantime Ravana, another god of the idolaters, appeared to Sita in the garb of a Fakir and asked alms of her. Rama had told Sita not to go outside the place where he had left her, — this being well known to Ravana he refused to receive the alms which Sita offered him unless she moved from her position. Sita, either by mistake or forgetting the command of Rama, passed beyond the limits which he had indicated, and then Rávana seized her and took her into the depths of the forest where his followers awaited him, with whom he departed to his territories. When Rámá returned from the chase, not finding Sítá, he fell senseless from grief, but Lakshmán his brother having brought him round, they went together to search for Sítá, who was tenderly beloved by her husband.