A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1692

c5.1692

SĪTĀ. ‘A furrow.’ In the Veda, Sītā is the furrow, or husbandry personified, and worshipped as a deity presiding over agriculture and fruits. In the Rāmāyana and later works she is daughter of Janaka king of Videha, and wife of Rāma. The old Vedic idea still adhered to her, for she sprang from a furrow. In the Rāmāyaṇā her father Janaka says, “ As I was ploughing my field, there sprang from the plough a girl, obtained by me while cleansing my field, and known by name as Sītā (the furrow). This girl sprung from the earth grew up as my daughter.” Hence she is styled Ayonijā, ‘ not born from the womb.’ She is said to have lived before in the Krita age as Vedāvatī, and to be in reality the goddess Lakshmī in human form, born in the world for bringing about the destruction of Rāvaṇa, the Rākshasa king of Laṅkā, who was invulnerable to ordinary means, but doomed to die on account of a woman. Sītā became the wife of Rāma, who won her by bending the great bow of Siva. She was his only wife, and was the embodiment of purity, tenderness, and conjugal affection. She accompanied her husband in his exile, but was carried off from him by Rāvaṇa and kept in his palace at Laṅkā. There he made many efforts to win her to his will, but she continued firm against all persuasions, threats, and terrors, and maintained a dignified serenity throughout. When Rāma had slain the ravisher and recovered his wife, he received her coldly, and refused to take her back, for it was hard to believe it possible that she had retained her honour. She asserted her purity in touching language, and resolved to establish it by the ordeal of fire. The pile was raised and she entered the flames in the presence of gods and men, but she remained unhurt, and the god of fire brought her forth and placed her in her husband’s arms. Notwithstanding this proof of her innocence, jealous thoughts passed through the mind of Rāma, and after he had ascended his ancestral throne at Ayodhyā, his people blamed him for taking back a wife who had been in the power of a licentious ravisher. So, although she was pregnant, he banished her and sent her to the hermitage of Vālmīki, where she gave birth to twin sons, Kusa and Lava. There she lived till the boys were about fifteen years old. One day they strayed to their father’s capital. He recognised and acknowledged them and then recalled Sītā. She returned and publicly declared her innocence. But her heart was deeply wounded. She called upon her mother earth to attest her purity, and it did so. The ground opened, and she was taken back into the source from which she had sprung. Rāma was now disconsolate and resolved to quit this mortal life. (See Rāma.) Sītā had the appellations of Bhūmi-jā, Dharani-sutā, and Pārthivī, all meaning ‘daughter of the earth.’