Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.263

v1.c5.263

Just like this one is the trial in the Rāmāyaṇa (i, 66, 67). Janaka, the king of Videha, possesses the wonderful bow of Çiva, and a daughter Sītā, alone in her kind, who came forth at the ploughing, out of the furrow under the plough ; and this maiden born from no mother's womb he promises as vīryaçulkā to the strong man that can lift the huge bow, and string and draw it. Kings come in throngs and seek Sītā's hand, but none can fulfil the condition. Filled with anger they besiege Mithilā, the royal city, but Janaka, who at the end of a year finds himself at the end of his resources, wins the favour of the gods by ascetic deeds ; they give him an army and the kings have to withdraw in shame. Then later the youthful Rāma comes with his brother and the royal Ṛiṣi Viçvāmitra to Janaka, and asks him to have the bow brought. A hundred and fifty men drag up an iron chest fitted with eight wheels, wherein the bow, marked out by the people with divine honours, lies. Rāma lifts it out as though in play, strings it, and draws it, whereon the bow breaks in two in the middle, and with such a crash that the earth quakes, and all the people, excepting the king, the two youths, and Viçvāmitra, fall swooning on the ground. Then Sītā is wedded to Rāma.