The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c16.7

c16.7

A critical student of the Rāmāyaṇa, however, finds it difficult to believe that the sentiments above expressed really represented the views of Śrī-Rāma. He knew from Jaṭāyu within an hour of Sītā's abduction that she was taken into captivity by Rāvaṇa. There are several passages in the epic to show that Śrī-Rāma wanted to recover Sītā not so much to avenge a wrong done to him, as to restore to happiness a cherished wife, whom he continued to love intensely and respect very highly for her voluntary resolution to share his miseries of the forest life¹. Later on when Śrī-Rāma reaches the ocean along with his army, and the bridge is being built, he is once again overpowered by the thoughts about his beloved. He regrets very much that he could not reach in time to respond to his wife's pathetic call for help when she was being carried away by force, and shows an intense anxiety to be once more united in her loving arms¹. There is not the slightest indication in any of these passages that Śrī-Rāma intended to spurn away his wife, because she was remaining in the captivity of Rāvaṇa. His cruel address to Sītā, when she is actually brought before him after the victory over Rāvaṇa, therefore comes as a great surprise to the reader. It is very probably a later interpolation, introduced to facilitate the incorporation of the superhuman proof of Sītā's unbroken chastity.