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Sita Devi

Sita (Sanskrit: सीता; "Sītā") is the wife of Rama, the seventh avatāra of Vishnu, and is esteemed an exemplar of womanly and wifely virtue. According to Hindu belief, Sita was herself an avatāra of Lakshmi, Vishnu's eternal consort, who chose to reincarnate herself on Earth as Sita, and endure an arduous life, in order to provide humankind an example of such virtues.

Legend

Sita is one of the principal characters of the "Ramayana", the Hindu epic named after her husband Rama.

Sita was a foundling, discovered in a furrow in a ploughed field, and for that reason is regarded as a daughter of Bhumidevi, the earth Goddess. She was found and adopted by Janaka, king of Mithila, and his wife Sunayana. Upon coming of age, a swayamwara was held to select a suitable husband for her, and she was wed to Rama, prince of Ayodhya, an avatara of Vishnu.

Exile and abduction

Some time after the wedding, circumstances became such that Rama felt it his duty to leave Ayodhya and spend a period of exile in the forests of Dandakaranya. Sita willingly renounced the comforts of the palace and joined her husband in braving the travails of exile, even living in a forest. Worse was however to come; the forest was the scene for the abduction of Sita by Ravana, King of Lanka, one of her former suitors. Ravana kidnapped Sita while her husband was away hunting. Jatayu, the vulture-king, who was a friend of Rama, tried to protect her, but Ravana chopped off his wings. Jatayu survived long enough to inform Rama of what had happened.

Ravena held her captive in his distant island realm.In captivity, Sita not only consistently rejected the many advances of her powerful and royal captor, but also preserved her chastity of mind, never once wavering in her adherence to her husband. She was finally rescued by her husband Rama, who waged a tremendous battle to defeat Ravana and secure the release of Sita.

Later life

The couple returned to Ayodhya, where Rama was crowned king with Sita by his side. While the trust and affection in which Rama held his wife never wavered, it soon became evident that a (perhaps small) section of the citizenry of Ayodhya found the fact of Sita's long residence in captivity, under the power of Ravana, a circumstance difficult to accept. The story goes that an intemperate washerman, while once berating his wayward wife, declared that he was no pusillanimous Rama that he would accept his wife back after she had lived in the house of another man. This calumnious comment was reported back to Rama, who knew that the aspersion on Sita was entirely baseless; nevertheless, he felt his position as ruler undermined by the constant possibility of slander attaching itself to his hitherto unimpeachable dynasty and personal reign. It was this train of thought that led Rama eventually to desire the removal of Sita from his household.

Sita was thus again in exile; she was not only alone this time but also pregnant. She sought refuge in the hermitage of the sage Valmiki, where she was delivered of twin sons, Lava and Kusha.

Sita raised her sons single-handedly in the hermitage of the sage Valmiki. Her sons grew up to be valiant and intelligent; they were eventually united with their father some years later. Once she had witnessed the acceptance of her children by Rama, Sita sought final refuge in the arms of her mother Bhumidevi, the Earth Goddess. Hearing her plea for release from an unjust world and from a life that had rarely been happy, the earth dramatically split open; Bhumidevi manifested herself and took Sita away to a better world.

Significance

The actions, reactions and instincts manifested by Sita at every juncture in a long and arduous life are deemed exemplary; her story is one on which every young girl in India is raised to this day. The values that she enshrined and adhered to at every point in the course of a demanding life are the values of womanly virtue held sacred by countless generations of Indians.

The story of Sita's kidnapping and subsequent rescue forms the core of the Indian epic, the Ramayana, supposedly written by the sage Valmiki in whose hermitage Sita took refuge during her second stint of exile.

Etymology of the name Sita

In common with other major figures of Hindu legend, Sita is known by many names. As the daughter of king Janaka, she is as Janaki; as the princess of Mithila, Mythili or Maithili; as the wife of Raama, she is called Ramaa. Her father Janaka had earned the sobriquet "Videha" due to his ability to transcend body consciousness; Sita is therefore also known as Vaidehi.

However, she is of course best known by the name "Sita", which literally means "furrow". The word "furrow" was a poetic term in ancient India, its imagery redolent of fecundity and the many blessings accruent from settled agriculture. The Sita of the Ramayana may have been named after a more ancient Vedic goddess Sita, who is mentioned once in the Rigveda as an earth goddess who blesses the land with good crops.

Other legends

Two other legends obtaining in certain versions of the Ramayana may be mentioned in connection with Sita. These legends are significant in that they do not endorse the mainstream view of Sita having been an avatara of the goddess Lakshmi.

• Vedavati: Some versions of the Ramayana suggest that Sita was a reincarnation of Vedavati, an orphan lady who had been ravished by Ravana. The legend goes thus:

Sage Kushadhwaja was a learned and pious scholar residing in a remote hermitage. His daughter Vedavati grows up in her father's hermitage to become an ardent devotee of Vishnu, and resolves early in life to wed no one other than Vishnu. Her father forbears from stifling her aspirations, and even rejects proposals from many powerful kings and celestial beings who seek his daughter's hand in marriage. Among those rejected is Sambhu, a powerful Daitya king. Smarting under his humiliation, Shambhu seizes an opportunity and murders Vedavati's parents on a moonless night.

Vedavati continues perforce to reside at the hermitage of her parents, meditating upon Vishnu. She is described as being inexpressibly beautiful, dressed in the hide of a black antelope, her hair matted, the bloom of her youth enhanced by her austerities. Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, once finds Vedavati seated in meditation and is captivated by her beauty. He propositions her and is rejected. Ravana mocks her austerities and her devotion to Vishnu; finding himself firmly rejected at evert turn, he finally molests Vedavati.

Her chastity sullied beyond redemption, Vedavati immolates herself on a pyre, vowing to return in another age and be the cause of Ravana's destruction. She is duly reborn as Sita, wife of Rama, and became the direct cause of Ravana's destruction at his hands. In the process, Vedavati also receives the boon she so single-mindedly sought: Vishnu, in his avatara as Rama, becomes her husband. In some versions of the Ramayana, sage Agastya relates this entire story to Rama.

• Daughter of Mandodari and Ravana: A somewhat obscure legend obtains in some parts of Kerala, which seeks to explain Sita's birth. This legend goes thus:

Although they were married at the end of a courtship of lyrical majesty, Ravana and his wife Mandodari grow estranged from each other since the latter finds it impossible to condone or ignore her husband's arrogance and misdeeds. In particular, Mandodari is repelled and distraught at her husband's ravishment of the hapless Vedavati. She soon afterwards finds herself pregnant, and fears that the child within her could be the harbinger of her husbands doom, as per Vadavati's awful oath. Despite her judgment of her husband, Mandodari is unable on the one hand, to condemn him; on the other hand, she cannot do away with a child even if her suspicions find confirmation, for, she may consider, how long can Fate be defied? Both these considerations are quintessentially in the spirit of hindu legend, as indeed is her chosen course of action.

Mandodari goes to her father's home in mainland India, and then on a series of pilgrimages, in order to prevent Ravana or anybody else from discovering that she is pregnant. As her confinement grows near, Mandodari seeks around for a suitable foster-home for her child. She discovers that Janaka, the pious king of Mithila, a man of noble character and eminent lineage, is childless; the deeply sorrowful king is intent upon performing a yagya to seek the boon of a child. At this junctre, a female child born to Mandodari. Soon afterwards, just before Janaka begins ploughing a field preparatory to the intended rituals, Mandodari manages to spirit her baby into the field and into Janaka's path. King Janaka duly discovers the child and adopts her. Gratified at this turn of events, Mandodari returns to her husbands and resumes her everyday life. The child is given the name "Sita" and grows up in king Janaka's household.

These legends build on ancient Indian traditions which hold, in wry spirit, that one's worst enemies are re-born as one's own children to fulfill the karma of one's sins.

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