Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana Read online

  Hanuman said, ‘The stupid monkey is checking to see if Sita and Ram are in them. If they are not, these pearls are useless.’ When people started to laugh saying that even the blind knew that Ram and Sita were seated on the throne and were not inside pearls, Hanuman tore open his chest and said, ‘I am not lying. Sita and Ram are in my heart. Are they not in your heart yet?’ Everyone was dumbstruck on seeing this incredible sight. They did not know how to react. They wondered what was in their heart. They dared not tear it open.

  In the fullness of Hanuman’s heart, Vibhishana remembered the emptiness of Ravana’s.

  Ravana wanted Shiva to be with him all the time, because the presence of Shiva energized him, made him happy. So with his twenty hands he uprooted Mount Kailas, intent on taking Shiva with him to Lanka. This upset Shiva’s wife and children. They begged Ravana to stop. When Ravana refused to heed their cries, Shiva pressed his big toe against the mountain slope, creating so much pressure that Ravana’s knee buckled and he fell flat on the ground, the mountain crushing his back. In apology, Ravana composed a wonderful song in praise of Shiva called the Rudra-stotra. Pleased, Shiva pulled him out from underneath Mount Kailas and Ravana returned home to Lanka shamefaced. ‘Shiva is much stronger than me,’ he said on returning home. He had failed to hear what Shiva was trying to tell him: God is not an external trophy to be possessed; God is internal human potential to be realized. Ravana refused to see the world as Shiva could, but Hanuman had learned to appreciate the world as Ram did.

  Ravana is born to a learned priest and functions as a king, but fails to gain wisdom despite great knowledge and great power and great wealth. Hanuman is born a monkey and studies from the sun, has no social status or wealth, but by serving Ram finds purpose for his knowledge and power, and thus becomes the embodiment of wisdom. The contrast of the two characters is not accidental but clearly designed to provoke thought.

  In a Kannada retelling, Hanuman reveals the name of Ram written across his bones. But the idea of the image of Sita and Ram etched on Hanuman’s heart captured the imagination of the people.

  The idea of Ram as the embodiment of the purusha and Sita as prakriti is found in the seventeenth-century Ramtapaniya Upanishad.

  Jambuvan had a great desire to wrestle with Ram. So Ram promised him that in his next life he would visit him as Krishna and wrestle with him following a disagreement. In the Bhagavat Purana, Krishna marries Jambuvan’s daughter, Jambavati.

  In one Odia folktale, Sugriva saw Sita’s feet and wondered how beautiful the rest of her would be. Ram told him that in his next life he would marry a woman called Radha, who would be Sita reborn, but the relationship would never be consummated for she would be in love with Krishna.

  Ram’s Name

  Hanuman took care of all the guests who visited Ayodhya. These included rajas, rishis, rakshasas, yakshas, devas, asuras, gandharvas, bhalukas, vanaras and garudas. Amongst them was Narada, the sage who loves to create trouble.

  He told Hanuman, ‘The vermilion dot on Sita’s forehead is a mark of her unconditional love for Ram. How do you express your selfless love for Ram?’ In response Hanuman covered his entire body with vermilion powder, as he felt that for a monkey a simple dot, or even multiple dots, would not be enough.

  Narada then told Hanuman, ‘It is good manners to touch the feet of all rishis. But there is no need to fall at the feet of Vishwamitra; he is not a real seer – he is just a king who pretends to be a sage.’

  Hanuman did as told and touched the feet of all the rishis, except Vishwamitra. This upset Vishwamitra so much that he demanded that Ram teach Hanuman a lesson: ‘Raise your bow and pin this arrogant monkey’s tail to the ground.’

  Hanuman saw the amusement on Narada’s face, as the situation got tense: Ram would have to listen to his teacher however unreasonable his demands were. Hanuman wondered how he could protect himself from Ram. He then remembered Taranisen, Vibhishana’s son, and got an idea.

  He sat on the ground and began chanting Ram’s name. Ram shot his arrows and they were unable to penetrate the shield created by the chanting of his name.

  Vishwamitra smiled in realization: greater than a person is the idea that person embodies; greater than Ram is the idea that Ram embodies; greater than Vishwamitra’s name is the idea that Vishwamitra embodies. ‘Lower your bow, Ram,’ said the old teacher who had just learned a new lesson, ‘you cannot defeat Hanuman as long as he chants Ram’s name.’

  Hanuman is often shown covered in red colour, which is associated with the Goddess. Some art historians hold that old tribal deities known as yakshas were bathed in blood, which was later substituted with red dye. Nowadays there is a preference to visualize Hanuman in saffron, the colour associated with celibacy.

  The battle between the deity and the devotee is a common theme in late devotional literature. The devotee protects himself by chanting the deity’s name. The idea these stories try to convey is that the thought (the name of the deity) is more important than the thing (the image of the deity). Thus Ram nam is greater than Ram rup. It is the supreme mantra and is greater than visiting temples. It indicates the rise of nirgunabhakti (worship of the formless divine) over saguna-bhakti (worship of the forms of the divine).

  Ramnamis are people for whom chanting the name of Ram is the greatest means to wisdom and realization. They usually belong to the lower castes of the Gangetic plains. When they read Tulsidas’s retelling of the Ramayana, they often replace all references that favour upper castes with the phrase ‘Ram Ram nam’.

  For Kabir and Nanak of the Sant tradition, which thrived between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, Ram is not so much a person as the idea of divinity.

  In many parts of India people greet each other with the phrase ‘Ram Ram’.

  During funeral processions it is common amongst many Hindus to chant ‘Ram Ram’ or ‘Ram nam satya hai’ (the name of Ram is the truth). The Ram being referred to might be the divine hero of the Ramayana (saguna Ram) or the formless divinity (nirguna Ram).

  United at Last

  All through that day, the people of Ayodhya gazed upon their king and queen seated like a god and a goddess on the golden throne of the Ikshavakus.

  That night, when everyone had left, and when the clouds parted to let the moonlight stream into the courtyard of the new queen, Ram finally saw Sita as only a husband can and Sita finally saw Ram as only a wife can.

  The exile was finally over.

  Ram-rasiks are devotees of Ram who through meditation seek to discover in their mind the heaven called Saket, with its bowers and the Kanak-bhavan palace, where, if worthy, they are allowed to witness the intimacy of Ram and Sita and thus find peace.

  Many Ram-rasiks believe that the exile of Ram and the abduction of Sita did not take place. These are delusions created by Sita and Ram to amuse those who seek the thrill of adventure and are not content simply with their bliss.

  One Ram-rasik visualized himself as the brother of Janaka, hence Sita’s uncle, and in keeping with common custom never ate food in Ayodhya, the land of his son-in-law. Another Ram-rasik saw himself as Sita’s younger brother and travelled to Ayodhya hoping she would feed him sweets. Still another bought toys for Sita whom he considered his daughter. Thus was intimacy with the divine couple expressed.

  Unlike Krishna, Ram is rarely associated with eroticism. But this has not stopped poets like Upendra Bhanja who wrote the rather sensual Baidehi-bilasa (pleasures of Sita’s husband) in Odia in the seventeenth century.

  For many, the Ramayana is Ramveda, great wisdom, and the relationship between Ram and Sita is of word (mantra) and meaning (artha): one cannot exist without the other.

  Ravana’s Drawing

  It was the royal cat that first sensed that Sita was with child. Then it was the royal dog. Then the parrots. Finally the rooster, who could not contain himself; he crowed out the news so loudly that the fishes could hear it in the river and they took the news downstream all the way to Mithila. Janaka smiled on hearin