Recalling Ram
Suman K Sharma
Hanuman had thoroughly searched Ravan’s antahpur for Sita but failed to find her. That had to be. She had never been there.
He then chanced upon the fragrant grove of Ashok Vatika. Jumping from tree to tree in his quest for Sita, Hanuman had spent nearly the whole of the night. In the last watch, he heard the sacred recitation of the Vedas from the houses of the Brahm-rakshasas. It was then that he espied Ravan from his perch on a tree. Surrounded by a hundred of beautiful women, the Rakshas raja walked in royal splendour towards the Ashok grove, his path brightly lit by torches –
VritahparamnaribhistarabhirivChandramah/
Tam dadarshmahatejastejivantammahakapih//
Ravanoayammahabahuritisanchintyavanarah/
Soaymev pura shetepurmadhyegrihtottme/
Avplutomahateja Hanuman Marutatmjah//
Like stars surrounding the Moon, the prettiest among young women surrounded him. The most brilliant Hanuman saw the lustrous rakshas and decided that he must be Ravan of powerful arms. He was the same one who had been asleep in the palace. Thinking in this manner, the brave and most brilliant son of Marut -Hanuman – descended from the branch he had been sitting on, to a lower one (to be better able to watch Ravan’s activities).
– Balmiki Ramayan/Sunderkand/Canto 18(xxix-xxx)
As Ravan approached Sita, she began to weep, covering her bosom and abdomen with her arms and legs. She sat on the bare ground under the constant watch of rakshasis, looking miserable. Her appearance looked sloppy and her ornaments were missing. Separation from her beloved husband Ram had emaciated her.
Observing her in that pathetic condition, Ravan said that he cherished her and she too should reciprocate his feelings. “No other man, nor any form-changing rakshas except me can come to this place,” he told her, “But you too, O Sita, should discard the fear you have of me. I have done nothing improper. Taking away forcibly women who are not ours is the way with us rakshasas. Even so, I won’t touch you until you desire me. Have no fear on that account. Trust me. Give me your love.”
“You are a jewel among women,” he added. “Shed your dirty garb. Wear jewellery. With me by your side, you cannot remain in this unseemly condition. Like water flown down a river, your pristine youth is vanishing; never to return. O Princess of Mithila! Become my wife. I will bestow on you all that is mine. I will conquer the whole of this earth and give it to your father, Raja Janak.”
And he went on, “There is no man who can face me in the battle field. Noble Lady! Think of my wealth. What will you do with Ram of an ascetic’s garb? He has lost hope of any victory. Shorn of glory, he wanders from forest to forest. He has only his austerities to observe and hard earth to sleep on. I have begun to doubt whether he isstill alive or not…”
Ravan talked on and on in this vein,making all sorts of pleas to win over Sita. She was deeply pained at what he said. Refraining from giving him a straight look, she spoke to him behind the token cover of a straw, “Take your mind away from me and love your own (wives). You don’t deserve my liking. I was born to a great family and am married also into a great family.”
Sita turned her back to Ravan and continued, “Ravan! I am a chaste woman, married to someone else. I cannot be your wife. Your women seek protection in you; likewise, you should protect women who belong to others… As Light cannot be separated from the Sun, so too I am inseparable from Ram. Reunite me with Ram, or else you would land yourself in great misery…
“Lowly Night-walker! You abducted me from the abode of Ram and Lakshman when both of them were away…, otherwise you would have tasted the fruit of your misdeed. Can a dog stand before two lions?”
Angry at Sita’s trenchant response, Ravan roared at her –
Sita tain mam kritapmana/katihauntav sir kathinkripana//
Nahin ta sapadimanu mam bani/Sumukhi hotina ta jivanhani//
Sita! You have insulted me. I will cut off your head with this hard scimitar. (Even now) Agree to what I tell you. Otherwise, you will have to lose your life.
Ramcharitmanas/Sunderkand/9(i)
In that instant, Ravan had to fight two contrary emotions that arose in his mind with the same intensity: his deep infatuation with Sita and his insufferable anger on being despised by her. He chose to follow a midway. “I give you two months.”He exclaimed to her, a surge of rage seething inside him, “In two months if you do not accept me as your husband, then my cooks will chop you to bits to serve me at my breakfast.” (See, Balmiki Ramayan, Sunderkand, Canto 22). (Tulsidas, however, says that he gave her only a month – Mas divas mahun kaha na mana/Tau men marbikarhikripana – if she does not obey me in a month, I shall draw my sword and kill her (Ramcharitmanas/ Sunderkand/9(v))”
Even so, Sita was not the one to back off. Taunting him, she said, “You boast of being a brave fighter. You are a brother to Kuber. You have huge armies at your command. Then why did you have to lure away Ram for stealing his wife?”
Smarting under a wounded vanity, Ravan was about to strike Sita when his wife, Mandodiri, and another young rakshasi, Dhanya Malini, soothed him with their caresses and inanities to shore up his hurt ego. He left the place with his entourage, but not before instructing his fearsomerakshasi-guards to use every means at their disposal, individually and jointly, to bring around the captive Sita to submit to his will.
All this while, Hanuman, who was perched unseen on a branch of an Ashok tree, silently watched the goings-on below. It was not his brief to intervene at that juncture. A paragon of wisdom, he could divine all the causes and their consequences. But to a lesser mortal, Ravan’s behaviour with Sita would have seemed strange. Why could not that mighty chief of rakshasas have his way with Sita who languished in his custody? Perhaps Ravan had a greater purpose in his mind than just the satisfaction of his carnal desire. Was it to shame Ram, or was it his death-wish to get killed at the hands of the Vishnu-incarnate?
It could simply have been his destiny!
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