The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s3.19

c7.s3.19

There is some ambiguity in the present version of the Rāmāyaṇa about the age of Sītā at the time of her marriage. In her talk with Rāvaṇa at the time when he had come to abduct her, she informs him that she was 18 at the time of her husband's banishment, and that her marriage had taken place twelve years earlier³. This would lead to the conclusion that Sītā was a child of 6 at the time of her wedding. This passage is, however, a spurious one; that Sītā who was very anxious for her husband's safety should have discussed her history with Rāvaṇa, an absolute stranger, appears extremely improbable. The Bālakāṇāḍa, on the other hand, states that the marriages of Rāma and his brothers were consummated immediately after the return of the marriage party to Ayodhyā¹. Similarly, while narrating the story of her marriage to Anasūyā, Sītā describes to her the great anxiety of her father when she had attained an age fit for being united to a husband². It is therefore clear that Sītā was a youthful maiden when she was married, and the passage in Araṇyakāṇḍa, suggesting that she was a child of six at her marriage, is a later interpolation. It is true that Bhavabhūti also represents Sītā to have been quite a child in her marriage in several passages: herein, however, he was influenced by the practice of his age, rather than by the evidence of any earlier and genuine tradition⁴.