Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana Read online

  Ram did not look at Sita. Sita did not look up at Ram. Both knew the implications of what was being said.

  The people of Ayodhya had rushed to Valmiki’s hermitage on hearing what was happening there. The boys who had entertained them with song and dance, they now realized, were the sons of Ram.

  When they arrived, they found Ram standing on his chariot and Sita on the ground below. In between were the twins. They heard Sita say, ‘The earth accepts all seeds with love. She bears the judgement of her children with love. If I have been as true as the earth in my love for Ram then may the earth split open and take me within.’

  And that was what happened in a moment, without warning. The mountains rumbled, the rivers stopped, the earth split open and Sita descended below the earth.

  Ram, taken by surprise at what was happening, rushed to stop his wife, hold her hand and pull her out, but the earth had closed before he could reach her. All that he could clutch were the ends of her hair that turned into blades of grass.

  Would the pain have been less had she chastised him before she left? Would the pain have been less had they at least spoken before she left? Would the pain have been less had she at least looked at him before she left? But then she was under no obligation. He had liberated her long ago from the burden of being Ram’s wife. But he would always be Sita’s husband.

  There was nothing more Ram could do but return home to Ayodhya with his sons, and live the rest of his life with the doll of gold that was his Sita.

  By refusing to return to Ram, Sita turns away from sanskriti and the rules of society. She does not need social structures to give her status. She chooses the earth, where there are no boundaries and rules.

  Many modern renditions of the Ramayana focus on Sita’s banishment by Ram, but do not even refer to Ram’s refusal to remarry and even his refusal to live after Sita’s descent. Such incomplete narratives, often qualified as a woman’s perspective, strategically reveal a very different Ram. These have won many admirers in the West, perhaps because they reinforce a particular image of India and Indians.

  In the Gobind Ramayana, after the defeat of Ram by Luv and Kush, Ram returns to Ayodhya with Sita and rules for ten thousand years, but then the women of the palace get Sita to draw Ravana’s image and a jealous and insecure Ram once again demands that Sita prove her chastity. It is then that she enters the earth.

  In another folk version, Sita refuses to return to Ayodhya even when called and so is told that Ram is dead. She rushes to the city but, on finding that he is alive, and that she has been tricked, asks the earth to open up to claim her.

  In one Assamese Ramayana, Hanuman goes to the netherworld in search of Sita and convinces her to come back to Ram.

  The Sitamai temple at Karnal in Haryana marks the spot where the ground split so that Sita could enter the earth.

  Solitude for Ram

  ‘I wish to be alone,’ said Ram, after he had put Luv and Kush to bed.

  That night, their first night in the palace, the twins had chosen to sleep on the floor on a mat of reeds. Ram had let them. It would be some time before they got used to beds and cushions.

  All the palace women sat around all night watching the two boys sleep. In the lamplight, one looked like Ram and the other like Sita. In the moonlight, he who looked like Ram looked like Sita and he who looked like Sita looked like Ram.

  The old mothers, who had never spoken to Ram since the departure of Sita, kept sobbing. These were their grandsons, gaunt like ascetics, hardly the next kings of the Raghu clan.

  ‘I will guard the door. No one will disturb you. I will put to death anyone who dares open the door to your chamber,’ said Lakshman, theatrical as ever. This time, however, Ram did not smile.

  Sword in hand, Lakshman sat in front of the closed door and kept watch all night.

  Then, just before dawn broke, he saw the sage Durvasa rush towards him. ‘Let me pass. I wish to see Ram this very instant,’ grunted the sage.

  ‘He seeks solitude. Please wait for some time,’ said Lakshman, bowing to the rishi known for his short temper.

  ‘No. Now. I want to see him now. This very instant.’

  ‘He needs some time. Just a little time. You know what happened yesterday, don’t you?’ Lakshman tried to reason with the sage.

  ‘Now. Now. Now,’ insisted the sage, ‘I want to see Ram now. And if you don’t open that door, I will curse the city of Ayodhya, set it aflame with my rage.’

  A frightened Lakshman opened the door to Ram’s chamber and fell at Ram’s feet. ‘I had to open the door. I had to disturb your solitude. I had to disobey you. For Ayodhya.’ As he spoke, he turned around and found to his surprise no Durvasa, just an empty corridor. There never was a Durvasa. It was just an apparition. What was going on?

  Ram pulled Lakshman up and said, ‘You finally understand, little brother.’ Lakshman was not sure he did. ‘Ayodhya matters more than Ram. All my actions are for Ayodhya, not for my wife, not for my sons, not for my brother, not for my father, not for my mother, only for my people. But all your actions were out of love for me. You were loyal to me. You demanded loyalty for me. But I only demanded love for the people of Ayodhya, all their faults notwithstanding. That, my brother, is kingship.’

  ‘So much sacrifice.’

  ‘Is it sacrifice to give up sleep for your crying child, Lakshman?’ asked Ram. He then added, ‘I will miss you so much, Lakshman, when you are gone.’

  ‘But I am going nowhere,’ said Lakshman, puzzled at Ram’s remark.

  Ram then reminded him, ‘Did you not say that you would behead anyone who opened the door to my chambers and disturbed my solitude? Keep your word, Lakshman, as scion of the Raghu clan.’

  ‘Will that make you happy, brother?’

  ‘Not for me, Lakshman. For family reputation. Let no one question the integrity of the Raghu clan.’

  ‘But I am your brother.’

  ‘And Sita was my wife, Shambuka was my subject. Rules are rules, Lakshman. I will always uphold the rules, however distasteful they may be. I expect you to do the same.’

  Lakshman looked up at Ram and saw the same expression as when Sita was presented to him in Lanka. Lakshman did not like this expression, but finally he understood it. With understanding came peace. In peace, he turned around and walked into the forest, unafraid like Sita, ready to behead himself and walk into the arms of Yama.

  As Ram sank into his throne, aware of his aloneness, he heard, from beyond the gates of Ayodhya, Yama shout, ‘She is gone. He is gone. Now it is time for you to go. But that will not happen as long as Hanuman guards the gates of Ayodhya.’

  He who breaks no rules would not break the law of nature. All things have to come to an end: exile in the forest, joy with Sita, as well as the reign of Ram. Yes, it was time to enter the river Sarayu and return to Vaikuntha.

  So Ram dropped his ring into a crack in the palace floor, and called out, ‘Hanuman!’

  Is loyalty a virtue? This story in the Valmiki Ramayana questions this popular notion. Lakshman’s actions are based on his love for his brother. He does not care for the rules or for Ayodhya. For Ram, the latter is more important than the former. Through his rather cruel approach, Ram compels Lakshman to appreciate dharma and not be simply blinded by Ram.

  The dog is a loyal, lovable animal but Hindu scriptures do not treat it as an auspicious creature perhaps because loyalty feeds on fear and the purpose of Vedic scriptures is to outgrow fear by expanding the mind.

  Ram is dependable and Lakshman is dependent on Ram. Through this story, Ram seeks to make Lakshman outgrow his dependence and become more dependable. That his ‘head is cut off’ is, like always, a metaphor for expanding the mind.

  In Jain narratives, Ram weeps when Lakshman dies, until a Jain monk starts watering a rock to tell him that his tears will not awaken a corpse just as the water will not get the rock to bear fruit.

  In a way the Ramayana warns us about the dangers of excessive reliance on rules. It reveals