Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana Read online

  ‘That monkey has written the Ramayana too!’ Valmiki did not like this at all, and he wondered whose Ramayana was better. So he set out to find Hanuman.

  Narada directed him to the kadali-vana, the grove of plantains, not far from Ayodhya, that Hanuman frequented. There, on seven broad leaves of the banana tree, Valmiki found inscribed Hanuman’s Ramayana. He read it and found it to be perfect. The most exquisite choice of grammar and vocabulary, metre and melody. Valmiki could not help himself. He started to cry.

  ‘Is it so bad?’ asked Hanuman.

  ‘No, it is so good,’ said Valmiki.

  ‘Why then are you crying?’ asked Hanuman.

  ‘Because,’ replied Valmiki, ‘after reading Hanuman’s Ramayana no one will read Valmiki’s Ramayana.’ Hearing this, Hanuman simply tore up the seven banana leaves on which he had inscribed his telling of Ram’s tale. ‘What have you done?’ screamed Valmiki, watching Hanuman cast the pieces into the wind. ‘Now no one will ever read Hanuman’s Ramayana.’

  Hanuman said, ‘You need your Ramayana more than I need mine. You wrote your Ramayana so that the world remembers Valmiki; I wrote my Ramayana so that I remember Ram.’

  At that moment, Valmiki realized how he had been consumed by the desire for validation through his work. He had not used the work to liberate himself from the fear of invalidation. He had not appreciated the essence of Ram’s tale to unknot his mind. His Ramayana was a product of ambition; Hanuman’s Ramayana was a product of affection. That is why Hanuman’s Ramayana sounded so much better.

  Valmiki fell at Hanuman’s feet and said, ‘Just as the flesh distracts us from the mind, so do words distract us from the idea. Now I realize that greater than Ram is the idea of Ram.’

  Many retellings give Hanuman as the source of the Ramayana. Valmiki is said to have written only a part of what Hanuman had to say.

  The idea that all narratives are incomplete and so no one must be arrogant about their creation is a common theme in Indian stories.

  In some versions, Hanuman carves the Ramayana on rocks. In others he writes it on palm leaves that the wind carries to different parts of India.

  Shatrughna Hears the Ramayana

  Valmiki taught the idea that is Ram through the song that is the Ramayana to Luv and Kush. He also hoped that they would grow up admiring the man who was their father, understand why he did what he did. As they learned the song of Ram, Luv and Kush experienced wonder, and understood the difference between being learned and being wise.

  Then one day, when Luv and Kush were approaching the fourteenth year of their life, a warrior with his soldiers bearing banners of the Suryavamsa and the Raghu-kula came to Sita’s hermitage. Sita recognized the warrior as her brother-in-law Shatrughna. He looked just like Lakshman. Memories welled up inside her. She chose to withdraw into her hut.

  ‘May I rest here for the night?’ asked Shatrughna. He explained he was returning after defeating Lavana, the terrible king of Mathura, who had challenged the authority of Ram. Valmiki welcomed him and offered him fruit and water, and some fish that the twins had caught earlier that day. When Shatrughna had eaten, Valmiki asked the two boys to sing the song he had taught them.

  The two boys picked up a stringed instrument and sang their song through the night. Shatrughna was spellbound by the verse and the voices. ‘What is this musical instrument that you hold? It looks like a fiddle but is very different,’ he said.

  ‘It is like a lute, just like a veena, but instead of plucking its strings with our fingers we run the string of our bow on it to create sound,’ said the boys. ‘We call it Ravana-hatta, the hand of Ravana. The hand that stole Sita from Ram now makes music for our song that praises Ram.’

  ‘Bows that we use to shoot arrows, you use to make music. You two are truly gifted.’ Turning to Valmiki, Shatrughna said, ‘You must bring these boys to Ayodhya and sing this song before the king. It describes his life so beautifully. This is the perfect time. He is conducting the Ashwamedha yagna and, as you know, between the rituals, bards and minstrels and dancers are invited to entertain the city.’

  In the Valmiki Ramayana, Ram encourages his brothers to establish independent kingdoms of their own. Lakshman and Bharata refuse to leave his side. Shatrughna ventures out and establishes a kingdom after defeating Lavana-asura. On the way back, he stops at Valmiki’s ashrama and hears two young boys learning to sing the sage’s composition, the Ramayana. He invites them to sing in Ayodhya. Does he recognize his nephews? Does he orchestrate the reunion? Is that the only role given to Shatrughna in the Ramayana?

  Shatrughna does not have much to do in the Ramayana except shadow Bharata and defeat Lavana-asura in the Uttara-Ramayana.

  Folk retellings speak of how Lakshman often visited Sita secretly. Once he brought Ram along to see the children, and Sita, noticing Ram, threw garbage at him, a folk expression of rage.

  Ravana-hatta is a folk musical instrument, a fiddle made using a coconut shell at one end, used by the musicians of Rajasthan. Rudra-veena is a classical lute, with two pumpkin gourds at either end. Stringed instruments are associated with Ravana; he is often described as their creator.

  Entertainers in Ayodhya

  When Shatrughna left, Valmiki sniggered, ‘The great prince does not realize that he has just invited his own nephews to dance and sing on the streets of the city like common entertainers.’

  ‘Is that bad?’ asked Sita, realizing that Valmiki had known her identity all along, but had respected her silence on the matter. ‘Do you think to be an entertainer is inferior to being a prince? As long as you think so, Brahma will never be a true brahmin, for hierarchy stems from the animal need to dominate, not the human ability to expand the mind in the quest for brahman.’

  Duly chastised, Valmiki decided to take the sons of Sita to Ayodhya and make them perform the Ramayana before the king. ‘Should I introduce them to their father?’ wondered Valmiki.

  ‘Do not impose the burden of fatherhood on Ram. It will create more turbulence in Ayodhya, for then these boys will become contenders to his throne,’ said Sita.

  ‘But is it not their right by birth?’ asked Valmiki.

  ‘The kingdom is not a king’s property. Besides, property is a human delusion granted by man to man. The children belong to no one and nothing really belongs to Ram.’

  The sons of Sita were excited at the prospect of visiting Ayodhya for the first time. They knew all the stories about this famed city: how it came into being following the wedding of the king of North Kosala and the princess of South Kosala, how its people followed Ram to the edge of the forest, for they loved him so much, and how the old king Dashratha died alone at the threshold of the palace without his sons or his subjects around him. As they prepared to leave, Sita gave her hairpin to Valmiki. ‘Give this to Ram’s new queen.’

  ‘New queen? Ram does not have a new queen.’

  ‘He is conducting a yagna. He cannot conduct the ritual without a wife by his side. Give this to that lady with my love. She will be a lonely woman, for I know while Ram will respect her he will never love her as he loved me,’ she said. Valmiki wondered how Sita could stay so calm. Sensing his thoughts, Sita said, ‘This was an eventuality. I accept it with grace. Sorrow only comes when we resist reality, for a dream.’

  The children touched their mother’s feet before following Valmiki through the forest to Ayodhya. The city had four gates: one for kings and warriors, one for priests and poets, one for farmers, herders, artisans and traders, and one for servants and entertainers. The sons of Sita entered by the fourth gate.

  Right from the gate, Luv and Kush started singing and dancing. The bells on their feet tinkled. Everybody stopped to see the boys who had the Ravana-hatta in one hand and a bow in the other. They had the arms of archers but the mannerisms of entertainers. Their voice was beautiful and the words they sang were even more wonderful. The people clapped and cheered and followed the boys to the square in front of the palace where the king was performing his great