Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.50

v2.c20.50

or to whomever it please thee thyself.¹ For Rāvaṇa, who saw thee in such heavenly beauty and charm, assuredly did not leave thee long alone in his house.” Weeping, she that is thus accused almost sinks into her own limbs for shame, and with noble dignity she remonstrates with him : “What meanest thou by uttering such dreadful and unworthy words to me, like some base man to a base woman? Because of the ways of some women² thou dost doubt the whole sex. That which was in my own power, my heart, dwelt but in thee; but what power had I over my limbs, that were in the power of another? Together with thee I grew up, and together with thee I have lived; if thou hast not thus learned to know me, and put me to the test, then I am lost for ever. But thou followest the way of thine anger, and holdest the fact before thee, just as a man of no account, that I am a woman. To thee it is nothing that in my childhood thou hast pressed my hand (at the wedding), and on my loving devotion and all my good life thou turnest thy back.” Then she begs Lakṣmaṇa to set up the pyre, which for her, for her that is cast off, is the only refuge. Wrathfully Lakṣmaṇa looks on his brother, but he stands there only with downcast eyes, looking like the god of death. With folded hands the glorious one makes oath : “So truly as my heart never forsook Rāma, so truly shall the witness to the world, the fire god, shield me from all. So truly as the child of Raghu deems me, who am pure-living, to be stained,³ so truly shall the witness to the world, the fire god shield me from all.” Then before the eyes of the gods, of men, and of all beings she leaps into the glowing fire, and a loud wail rises all around. She is kept unharmed, and to Rāma, who stands there in gloomy thought and with streaming eyes, the gods come down, enlighten him as to his own real and everlasting nature, and out of the flames rises the god of fire in bodily form, brings him his beaming wife, and solemnly bears witness to her spotless purity, and heroic rejection of the amorous Rākshasa. Rāma says that he had thus to act so that his beloved, whose unwavering faith he had never doubted, might be cleared before the whole world also, and no shame come upon himself.