The Ramayana Sung Before Ram: Sita Returns to the Earth

Ram decided to perform the Ashwamedha sacrifice. The ground was laid out in the Naimisha forest on the bank of the Gomati. Kings came from all over the earth, Sugriva with his vanaras and Vibhishana with his rakshasas. Lakshmana went to guard the horse.

The rule of scripture was that a king must sit at a sacrifice with his wife. Ram had not married again, and when it was suggested he refused. He had an image of Sita made in gold, and at every sacrifice it sat beside him.

Two singers

The great sage Valmiki also came with his disciples and stayed in huts near the sacrificial ground. He sent for Luv and Kush.

"Go, both of you, to the place of sacrifice. Sing this poem in the camps of the sages, on the royal road and at the door of Ram's dwelling. Sing twenty cantos each day. If Ram calls you to sing, sing before him. If anyone offers wealth, do not take it; say that those who live on forest fruit have no use for gold. And if Ram asks whose sons you are, say only this: we are disciples of Valmiki. Never show disrespect to the king; by dharma he is father to all."

The next morning the two boys began to sing. Ram heard them and was amazed. He found time from the work of the sacrifice and called an assembly: sages, kings, scholars, masters of music. The two boys stood in the middle.

People began saying to one another, "Look at these two. They are just like Ram. If they had not matted hair on their heads and bark on their bodies, we could not tell them from him."

They began with the conversation of Narada and Valmiki and sang twenty cantos. Ram said to Bharata, "Give them eighteen thousand gold coins." The boys would not take them. Ram asked, "How long is this poem, and who composed it?" They said, "The blessed Valmiki. Your whole life is in it."

The singing went on for many days. Ram listened to his own life: the boyhood, the wedding, the exile, the golden deer, the empty hut. And then the story came to the place where a king sent his blameless queen to the forest, and two boys were born there.

Ram knew who they were.

Sita is summoned

He sent messengers to Valmiki. "If Sita is without sin, let her come to the assembly tomorrow and take an oath."

The next morning the whole assembly was full. Valmiki came, and behind him Sita: head bowed, hands folded, tears in her eyes, Ram alone in her mind. At the sight of her a sound rose from the assembly. Some said, "Blessed is Ram," and some, "Blessed is Sita."

Valmiki stood in the middle of the assembly. "Ram, this is Sita, whom you left near my ashram for fear of public reproach. These two boys are your sons. I am the tenth son of Prachetas; I do not remember ever having told a lie. I have practised austerity for thousands of years. If there is any fault in Sita, may I not receive the fruit of that austerity."

Ram folded his hands. "Sage, I trust your word. Sita took an oath before the gods once already. I know she is without sin, and I know these are my sons. I left her for fear of public reproach. Forgive me. If she now gives proof of her purity before this assembly, I shall be glad."

The Earth

Sita wore ochre. She lowered her eyes and folded her hands. Then she said what no one expected:

Yathaham Raghavad anyam manasapi na chintaye,
tatha me Madhavi devi vivaram datum arhati.

"If I have never, even in thought, dwelt on anyone but Ram, may the goddess Earth give me room within her. If in mind, word and deed I have worshipped Ram alone, may the goddess Earth give me room. If it is true that I know no one but Ram, may the goddess Earth give me room."

The ground split open. From it rose a heavenly throne borne on the heads of serpents. On it sat the goddess Earth. She stretched out her arms, took Sita on her lap, seated her beside her, and the throne went down. Flowers rained from the sky.

No one in the assembly spoke.

Ram stood leaning on the staff of the sacrifice. His head was bowed and his tears would not stop. Then anger came to him. "Earth, give me back my Sita, or I will destroy you with your mountains and forests." Then Brahma appeared and calmed him. "Ram, remember who you are. Sita has gone to her own world. You will meet her again."

The last word

Sita was born from a furrow, and to that same earth she returned. She did not give proof a second time. She neither pleaded nor raged. To the assembly that had demanded an answer she gave one after which there was nothing left to ask. The Ramayana gives the last word to her. And when people say the name today, they still say hers first: Siya-Ram.

The sacrifice was completed. Ram returned to Ayodhya with Kush and Luv. Valmiki says that without Sita the whole world seemed empty to him.

Popular tradition holds dear another story that is not in Valmiki's Ramayana: that Luv and Kush captured the sacrificial horse and held off the army of Ayodhya, their uncles included, without knowing who they were.