Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.199

c9.199

31) *Sītā abandoned.* Under Rāma’s rule the country overflowed with milk and honey. Nobody had to fear anything from enemies. He made Sītā kill Sahasramukha Rāvaṇa. (For details see under Sahasramukharāvaṇa). Śrī Rāma used to go about the country in disguise to enquire about the welfare of his subjects. On a particular dawn he happened to be standing outside the house of a washerman. The washerman scolded his wife, who had gone out of the house that night for something. He suspected that she had gone to meet her paramour. He bluntly told his wife that he was not prepared to act like Rāma, who had accepted Sītā, though she had lived with another person. Śrī Rāma, who heard the above talk, returned to his palace very sad. After thinking about a long time he decided that it was his duty to abandon Sītā in the interests of his subjects. Then Sītā was in the seventh month of her pregnancy. She had on the previous day, expressed a desire to go to the forest areas once again. Rāma considered this as the most suitable opportunity to abandon Sītā in the forest and Lakṣmaṇa was entrusted with the matter. That day at Sun-rise Lakṣmaṇa took Sītā in a chariot to the suburbs of Vālmīki’s āśrama, abandoned her there and returned to the palace. (According to the Rāmāyaṇa written by Kamba, a Tamil author, it is said that Sītā was left in the suburbs of Gautama’s hut. There, Sītā was pregnant was looked after by Ahalya, the wife of Gautama.) Weeping aloud Sītā fell down. Young munis—Vālmīki’s disciples—saw her and took her to the āśrama. At the āśrama she delivered two sons, Kuśa and Lava.