Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana Read online

  The four princes were asked to display their valour. Arrows were shot towards the sky; they transformed into flowers and fell on the cheering crowds that lined the city streets. Swords were held aloft and spears swung with agility and grace. This display of skill impressed one and all.

  And finally, rings of pearls and diamonds were pierced into their nostrils: on the left side of the brides and the right side of the grooms.

  Everyone in Ayodhya felt assured that the future was safe, and fertile.

  Vasishtha told the boys, ‘Before your wife came into your life, you were a student with no claim over property. After your wife leaves your life, you must become a hermit, with no claim over property. Only as long as she is by your side do you have claims over wealth. Without her, you cannot perform yagna; you must only perform tapasya.’

  Arundhati, Vasishtha’s wife, came to meet the brides and told them her tale. ‘We were seven couples in the forest. Our husbands were rishis well versed in the understanding of yagnas and tapasya and we were their faithful wives. One day, after our bath, we went to worship the fire in the yagna-shala. The other wives, in their hurry to finish their chores, forgot to wear their symbols of marriage – no beads around the neck, no bangles on their arms, no vermilion in the parting of the hair, no toe-rings. Agni, the fire-god, mistook the women to be without husbands and made love to them. I, however, remained untouched. The rishis abandoned their six wives; they are now known as the Matrikas, forest virgins who are bound to no man. I alone, faithful wife of Vasishtha, serve my husband in the yagna-shala while the other six have become tapasvins, refusing to see women. I have a star by my name in the sky beside the constellation of Saptarishi, named after the seven rishis. And the six women, once my sisters, form another constellation, the Krittika cluster of stars. The Krittikas were rejected by all except Shiva and Shakti, who made them the wet nurse of their son, the warlord Skanda, named Kartikeya after them.’

  Sumitra told the daughters-in-law that at night they should ask their husbands to show them the star called Arundhati. That would be the first time they would touch their bodies, holding their hands until the fingers pointed to the star that has come to be the symbol of marital fidelity in Aryavarta, the land of Vedic wisdom.

  ‘But that is some time away,’ said Kaikeyi. For the girls were still young. They would not be given courtyards of their own. They would sleep in the beds of their mothers-in-law while the boys, now men, would leave their mother’s courtyard and sleep in the courtyard of their father, the king.

  In time, when the lotus bloomed, the love-god Kama would be invoked to strike the young hearts and the grooms would be invited as bees to the flower-bedecked bedchambers of the brides.

  The threshold plays a key role in the Indian household. It separates the domesticated inside from the wild outside. And so there is great fear when the daughter leaves the household and the daughter-in-law enters the household. Both events are marked by ceremonies aimed at drawing positive energies and keeping out negative energies.

  Even today, grooms of many communities are expected to hold a sword during the wedding ceremony, as a reminder of times when brides, along with their dowries, were at risk of being abducted by bandits.

  In Jagannath Puri, the image of Krishna sports a nose-ring on the right side. In ancient times, in many communities, men too wore nose-rings. The practice disappeared with time.

  The Saptarishi constellation is known as the Great Bear in English; Arundhati is known as Alkor; Krittika is known as the Pleiades or the Six Sisters. The twin stars of Alkor and Mizar in Ursa Major are known as the Arundhati and Vasishtha stars, Arundhati being fainter than Vasishtha.

  The Krittikas or the six virgin goddesses (sometimes seven) are fierce forest maidens who are revered and feared by women unable to bear children or whose children suffer from fevers and rashes. Their open-air shrines are found in rural communities throughout India. In the Mahabharata, they collectively bear the seed of Shiva and give birth to the six-headed son of Shiva, Kartikeya, who leads the armies of devas into battles. In later narratives, they become gentle wet nurses. They embody nature’s raw power undomesticated by social rules, marriage in this case.

  In the Valmiki Ramayana Ram and Sita are rather young but they are much older in later versions, perhaps indicating what different communities considered a suitable age for marriage.

  Child marriage does not imply immediate consummation. Marriage in many parts of India takes place in two stages. In the first stage, the relationship is formal as the bride and groom are very young. In the second stage, the relationship is consummated after the girl attains physical and mental maturity. Until then the girl lives with her mother or mother-in-law. The point is to help her fit into the husband’s household from an early age. Ceremonies mark her entry into womanhood and the groom is invited to come and claim his wife. This ritual is called ‘gauna’ in Bihar. There are many folk ballads that speak of women married in childhood waiting in their parental house for their husbands to come and claim them. Failure to understand the difference between the formal ritual and the actual marriage has led to many social problems.

  Kaikeyi, the King’s Charioteer

  Sita stayed with Kaushalya while Mandavi stayed with Kaikeyi. Urmila and Shrutakirti stayed with Sumitra. They spent all day and all night listening to tales of the sons told by their adoring mothers.

  Kaushalya said, ‘Once Ram refused to sleep, for he wanted the moon to sleep beside him. Finally, to appease him, we put a pot of water on his bed. Reflected in the water was the moon. Thus he slept with the moon and, from that day, we decided to call him Ramachandra, Ram of the moon, even though this family worships the sun.’

  Sumitra warned her daughters-in-law about the affection of their husbands for their brothers. ‘You have to work hard so that they prefer you to them.’

  ‘At night at least,’ chuckled Kaikeyi, making the women blush.

  In the common courtyard of the three queens, Kaikeyi was most in demand. She was the most beautiful queen, dazzling in her daring.

  The courtyard walls had murals showing how she served as the king’s charioteer when he was invited to fight the asuras by Indra, king of the devas. She had shielded the king from arrows and motivated him with her words while she steered the horses through the battlefield. At one point the axle of the chariot broke. Without a moment’s hesitation, she bent down and shoved her hand into the wheel, using her forearm to replace the broken axle.

  Kaikeyi’s stories were delightful, especially those about horses, for she came from the land of horses in the north-west. Her maid Manthara, who had nursed her as a child, and had also nursed her son, Bharata, was a great cook. So the girls spent hours with her in the kitchen understanding the different ways in which food was cooked in Kekaya, Kosala and Videha.

  Kaushalya made dolls for the girls. Sumitra fashioned their hair, decorating it with jewels, but it was Kaikeyi’s stories and Manthara’s food that got the most attention.

  ‘She knows how to become everyone’s favourite,’ said Sumitra.

  ‘She may be the king’s favourite queen,’ said Kaushalya, ‘but Ram is his favourite son.’

  Manthara overheard this conversation and accidentally squeezed lime into boiling milk, curdling it.

  The story of Ram’s love for the moon is commonly told to children across India. Ram is also called Ramachandra because his later decisions regarding Surpanakha and Sita brought a blemish to his solar glory.

  The story of Kaikeyi saving Dashratha’s life in battle comes from later narratives.

  The Valmiki Ramayana acknowledges Kaikeyi as Dashratha’s favourite queen, perhaps because it was foretold that she would bear an illustrious son and he was eager for one.

  Kekaya is located to the north-west of India, near Pakistan and Afghanistan. Many epic princesses, like Gandhari and Madri of the Mahabharata, belong to this land. It is associated with horses, which is why Kaikeyi’s father is called Ashwapati, master of horses.