{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/dutt/rama06.htm","path":"hin/dutt/rama06.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/dutt/rama06.htm","text":"The Ramayana and Mahabharata, by Romesh C. Dutt, [1899]\n(Sita Lost)\nWE exchange the quiet life of Rama in holy hermitages for the more stirring incidents of the Epic in this Book. The love of a Raksha princess for Rama and for Lakshman is rejected with scorn, and smarting under insult and punishment she fires her brother Ravan, the king of Ceylon, with a thirst for vengeance. The dwellers of Ceylon are described in the Epic as monsters of various forms, and able to assume different shapes at will. Ravan sends Maricha in the shape of a beautiful deer to tempt away Rama and Lakshman from the cottage, and then finds his chance for stealing away the unprotected Sita.\nThe misfortunes of our lives, according to Indian thinkers, are but the results of our misdeeds; calamities are brought about by our sins. And thus we find in the Indian Epic, that a dark and foul suspicion against Lakshman crossed the stainless mind of Sita, and words of unmerited insult fell from her gentle lips, on the eve of the great calamity which clouded her life ever after. It was the only occasion on which the ideal woman of the Epic harboured an unjust thought or spoke an angry word; and it was followed by a tragic fate which few women on earth have suffered. To the millions of men and women in India, Sita remains to this day the ideal of female love and female devotion; her dark suspicions against Lakshman sprang out of an excess of her affection for her husband and her tragic fate and long trial proved that undying love.\nThe portions translated in this Book form the whole or the main portions of Sections xvii., xviii., xliii., xlv., xlvi., xlvil., and xllx. of Book iii. of the original text.\nAs the Moon with starry Chitra dwells in azure skies above,\n In his lonesome leafy cottage Rama dwelt in Sita's love,\nAnd with Lakshman strong and valiant, quick to labour and obey,\n Tales of bygone times recounting Rama passed the livelong day.\nAnd it so befell, a maiden, dweller of the darksome wood,\n Led by wand'ring thought or fancy once before the cottage stood,\nSurpa-nakha, Raksha maiden, sister of the Raksha lord,\n Came and looked with eager longing till her soul was passion-stirred!\nLooked on Rama lion-chested, mighty-arm\u00e9d, lotus-eyed,\n Stately as the jungle tusker, with his crown of tresses tied,\nLooked on Rama lofty-fronted, with a royal visage graced,\n Like KANDARPA young and lustrous, lotus-hued and lotus-faced!\nWhat though she a Raksha maiden, poor in beauty plain in face,\n Fell her glances passion-laden on the prince of peerless grace,\nWhat though wild her eyes and tresses, and her accents counselled fear,\n Soft-eyed Rama fixed her bosom, and his sweet voice thrilled her ear,\nWhat though bent on deeds unholy, holy Rama won her heart,\n And, forlove makes bold afemale, thus didshe her thoughts impart:\n\"Who be thou in hermit's vestments, in thy native beauty bright,\n Friended by a youthful woman, arm\u00e9d with thy bow of might,\nWho be thou in these lone regions where the Rakshas hold their sway,\n Wherefore in a lonely cottage in this darksome jungle stay?\"\nWith his wonted truth and candour Rama spake sedate and bold,\n And the story of his exile to the Raksha maiden told:\n\"Dasa-ratha of Ayodhya ruled with INDRA'S godlike fame,\n And his eldest, first-born Rama, by his mandate here I came,\nYounger Lakshman strong and valiant doth with me these forests roam,\n And my wife, Videha's daughter, Sita makes with me her home.\nDuteous to my father's bidding, duteous to my mother's will,\n Striving in the cause of virtue in the woods we wander still.\nTell me, female of the forest, who thou be and whence thy birth,\n Much I fear thou art a Raksha wearing various forms on earth!\"\n\"Listen,\" so spake Surpa-nakha, \"if my purpose thou wouldst know,\n I am Raksha, Surpa-nakha, wearing various shapes below.\nKnow my brothers, royal Ravan, Lanka's lord from days of old,\n Kumbha-karna dread and dauntless, and Bibhishan true and bold,\nKhara and the doughty Dushan with me in these forests stray,\n But by Rama's love emboldened I have left them on the way!\nBroad and boundless is my empire and I wander in my pride,\n Thee I choose as lord and husband,--cast thy human wife aside,\nPale is Sita and misshapen, scarce a warrior's worthy wife,\n To a nobler, lordlier female consecrate thy gallant life!\nHuman flesh is food of Rakshas! weakling Sita I will slay,\n Slay that boy thy stripling brother,--thee as husband I obey,\nOn the peaks of lofty mountains, in the forests dark and lone,\n We shall range the boundless woodlands and the joys of dalliance prove!\nRama heard her impious purpose and a gentle smile repressed,\n To the foul and forward female thus his mocking words addressed:\n\"List, O passion-smitten maiden! Sita is my honoured wife,\n With a rival loved and cherished cruel were thy wedded life!\nBut no consort follows Lakshman, peerless is his comely face,\n Dauntless is his warlike valour, matchless is his courtly grace,\nAnd he leads no wife or consort to this darksome woodland grove,\n With no rival to thy passion seek his ample-hearted love! \"\nSurpa-nakha passion-laden then on Lakshman turned her eye,\n But in merry mocking accents smiling Lakshman made reply.\nRuddy in thy youthful beauty like the lotus in her pride,\n I am slave of royal Rama, would'st thou be a vassal's bride?\nRather be his younger consort, banish Sita from his arms,\n Spurning Sita's faded beauty let him seek thy fresher charms,\nSpurning Sita's faded graces let him brighter pleasures prove,\n Wearied with a woman's dalliance let him court a Raksha's love!\"\nWrath of unrequited passion raged like madness in her breast,\n Torn by anger strong as tempest thus her answer she addrest:\nAre these mocking accents uttered, Rama, to insult my flame,\n Feasting on her faded beauty dost thou still revere thy dame?\nBut beware a Raksha's fury and an injured female's wrath,\n Surpa-nakha slays thy consort, bears no rival in her path!\"\nFawn-eyed Sita fell in terror as the Raksha rose to slay,\n So beneath the flaming meteor sinks Rohini's softer ray,\nAnd like Demon of Destruction furious Surpa -nakha came,\n Rama rose to stop the slaughter and protect his helpless dame.\n\"Brother, we have acted wrongly, for with those of savage breed,\n Word in jest is courting danger,--this the penance of our deed,\nDeath perchance or death-like stupor hovers o'er my lov\u00e9d dame,\n Let me wake to life my Sita, chase this female void of shame!\"\nLakshman's anger leaped like lightning as the female hovered near.\n With his sword the wrathful warrior cleft her nose and either ear,\nSurpa-nakha in her anguish raised her accents shrill and high,\n And the rocks and wooded valleys answered back the dismal cry,\nKhara and the doughty Dushan heard the far-resounding wail,\n Saw her red disfigured visage, heard her sad and woeful tale!\nVainly fought the vengeful Khara, doughty Dushan vainly bled,\n Rama and the valiant Lakshman strewed the forest with the dead,\nTill the humbled Surpa-nakha to her royal brother hied,\n Spake her sorrows unto Ravan and Maricha true and tried.\nShape of deer unmatched in beauty now the deep Maricha, wore,\n Golden tints upon his haunches, sapphire on his antlers bore,\nTill the woodland-wand'ring Sita marked the creature in his pride,\n Golden was his neck of beauty, silver-white his flank and side!\n\"Come, my lord and gallant Lakshman,\" thus the raptur'd Sita spake,\n \"Mark the deer of wondrous radiance browsing by the forest brake!\"\n\"Much my heart misgives me, sister,\" Lakshman hesitated still,\n \"Tis some deep deceitful Raksha wearing every shape at will,\nMonarchs wand'ring in this forest, hunting in this lonely glen,\n Oft waylaid by artful Rakshas are by deep devices slain,\nBright as day-god or Gandharva, woodland scenes they love to stray,\n Till they fall upon the heedless, quick to slaughter and to slay,\nTrust me, not in jewelled lustre forest creatures haunt the green,\n 'Tis some maya and illusion, trust not what thy eyes have seen!\"\nVainly spake the watchful Lakshman in the arts of Rakshas skilled,\n For with forceful fascination Sita's inmost heart was thrilled,\n\"Husband, good and ever gracious,\" sweetly thus implored the wife,\n \"I would tend this thing of beauty,--sharer of my forest life!\nI have witnessed in this jungle graceful creatures passing fair,\n Chowri and the gentle roebuck, antelope of beauty rare,\nI have seen the lithesome monkey sporting in the branches' shade,\n Grizzly bear that feeds on Mahva, and the deer that crops the blade,\nI have marked the stately wild bull dash into the deepest wood,\n And the Kinnar strange and wondrous as in sylvan wilds he stood,\nBut these eyes have never rested on a form so wondrous fair,\n On a shape so full of beauty, decked with tints so rich and rare!\nBright his bosom gem-bespangled, soft the lustre of his eye,\n Lighting up the gloomy jungle as the Moon lights up the sky,\nAnd his gentle voice and glances and his graceful steps and light,\n Fill my heart with eager longing and my soul with soft delight!\nIf alive that beauteous object thou caust capture in thy way,\n As thy Sita's sweet companion in these woodlands he will stay,\nAnd when done our days of exile, to Ayodhya will repair,\n Dwell in Sita's palace chamber nursed by Sita's tender care,\nAnd our royal brother Bharat oft will praise his strength and speed,\n And the queens and royal mothers pause the gentle thing to feed!\nIf alive this wary creature be it, husband, hard to take,\n Slay him and his skin of lustre cherish for thy Sita's sake,\nI will as a golden carpet spread the skin upon the grass,\n Sweet memento of this forest when our forest days will pass!\nPardon if an eager longing which befits a woman ill,\n And an unknown fascination doth my in-most bosom fill,\nAs I mark his skin bespangled and his antlers' sapphire ray,\n And his coat of starry radiance glowing in the light of day!\nRama bade the faithful Lakshman with the gentle Sita stay,\n Long through woods and gloomy gorges vainly held his cautious way,\nVainly set the snare in silence by the lake and in the dale,\n 'Scaping every trap, Maricha, pierced by Rama's arrows fell,\nImitating Rama's accents uttered forth his dying cry:\n \"Speed, my faithful brother Lakshman, helpless in the woods I die!\n\"Heardst that distant cry of danger?\" questioned Sita in distress,\n \"Woe, to me! who in my frenzy sent my lord to wilderness,\nSpeed, brave Lakshman, help my Rama, doleful was his distant cry\n And my fainting bosom falters and a dimness clouds my eye!\nTo the dread and darksome forest with thy keenest arrows speed,\n Help thy elder and thy monarch, sore his danger and his need,\nFor perchance the cruel Rakshas gather round his lonesome path,\n As the mighty bull is slaughtered by the lions in their wrath!\"\nSpake the hero: \"Fear not, Sita! Dwellers of the azure height,\n Rakshas nor the jungle-rangers match the peerless Rama's might,\nRama knows no dread or danger, and his mandate still I own,\n And I may not leave thee, Lady, in this cottage all alone!\nCast aside thy causeless terror; in the sky or earth below,\n In the nether regions, Rama knows no peer or equal foe,\nHe shall slay the deer of jungle, he shall voice no dastard cry,\n 'Tis some trick of wily Rakshas in this forest dark and high!\nSita, thou hast heard my elder bid me in this cottage stay,\n Lakshman may not leave thee, Lady, for this duty--to obey.\nRuthless Rakshas roam the forest to revenge their leader slain,\n Various are their arts and accents; chase thy thought of causeless pain!\"\nSparkled Sita's eye in anger, frenzy marked her speech and word,\n For a woman's sense is clouded by the danger of her lord:\nMarkest thou my Rama's danger with a cold and callous heart,\n Courtest thou the death of elder in thy deep deceitful art,\nIn thy semblance of compassion dost thou hide a cruel craft,\n As in friendly guise the foeman hides his death-compelling shaft,\nFollowing like a faithful younger in this dread and lonesome land,\n Seekest thou the death of elder to enforce his widow's hand?\nFalse thy hope as foul thy purpose! Sita is a faithful wife,\n Sita follows saintly Rama, true in death as true in life!\"\nQuivered Lakshman's frame in anguish and the tear stood in his eye,\n Fixed in faith and pure in purpose, calm and bold he made reply:\n\"Unto me a Queen and Goddess,-as a mother to a son,\n Answer to thy heedless censure patient Lakshman speaketh none,\nDaughter of Videha's monarch,-pardon if I do thee wrong,\n Fickle is the faith of woman, poison-dealing is her tongue!\nAnd thy censure, trust me, Lady, scathes me like a burning dart,\n Free from guile is Lakshman's purpose, free from sin is Lakshman's heart,\nWitness ye my truth of purpose, unseen dwellers of the wood,\n Witness, I for Sita's safety by my elder's mandate stood,\nDuteous to my queen and elder, I have toiled and worked in vain,\n Dark suspicion and dishonour cast on me a needless stain!\nLady! I obey thy mandate, to my elder now I go,\n Guardian Spirits of the forest watch thee from each secret foe,\nOmens dark and signs of danger meet my pained and aching sight,\n May I see thee by thy Rama, guarded by his conquering might!\"\nRavan watched the happy moment burning with a vengeful spite,\n Came to sad and sorrowing Sita in the guise of anchorite,\nTufted hair and russet garment, sandals on his feet he wore.\n And depending from his shoulders on a staff his vessel bore.\nAnd he came to lonely Sita, for each warlike chief was gone,\n As the darkness comes to evening lightless from the parted Sun,\nAnd he cast his eyes on Sita, as a graha casts its shade\n On the beauteous star Rohini when the bright Moon's glories fade.\nQuaking Nature knew the moment; silent stood the forest trees,\n Conscious of a deed of darkness fell the fragrant forest breeze,\nGodavari's troubled waters trembled' neath his lurid glance,\n And his red eve's fiery lustre sparkled in the wavelets' dance!\nMute and still were forest creatures when in guise of anchorite,\n Unto Sita's lonely cottage pressed the Raksha in his might,\nMute and voiceless was the jungle as he cast on her his eye,\n As across the star of Chitra, planet Sani walks the sky!\nRavan stood in hermit's vestments,--vengeful purpose unrevealed,--\n As a deep and darksome cavern is by grass and leaf concealed,\nRavan stood sedate and silent, and he gazed on Rama's queen,\n Ivory brow and lip of coral, sparkling teeth of pearly sheen!\nLighting up the lonely cottage, Sita sat in radiance high,\n As the Moon with streaks of silver fills the lonely midnight sky,\nLighting up the gloomy woodlands with her eyes serenely fair,\n With her bark-clad shape of beauty mantled by her raven hair!\nRavan fired by impure passion fixed on her his lustful eye,\n And the light that lit his glances gave his holy texts the lie,\nRavan in his flattering accents, with a soft and soothing art,\n Praised the woman's peerless beauty to subdue the woman's heart:\n\"Beaming in thy golden beauty, robed in sylvan russet drew,\n Wearing wreath of fragrant lotus like a nymph of wilderness,\nArt thou Sri or radiant Gauri, maid of Fortune or of Fame,\n Nymph of Love or sweet Fruition, what may be thy sacred name!\nOn thy lips of ruddy coral teeth of tender jasmine shine,\n In thy eyes of limpid lustre dwclls a light of love divine,\nTall and slender, softly rounded, are thy limbs of beauty rare,\n Like the swelling fruit of tala leaves thy bosom sweetly fair!\nSmiling lips that tempt and ravish, lustre that thy dark eyes beam,\n Crush my heart, as rolling waters crush the margin of the stream.\nAnd thy wealth of waving tresses mantles o'er thy budding charms,\n And thy waist of slender beauty courts a lover's circling arms!\nGoddess or Gandharva maiden wears no brighter form or face,\n Woman seen by eyes of mortals owns not such transcendent grace.\nWherefore then, in lonesome forest, nymph or maiden, make thy stay,\n Where the jungle creatures wander and the Rakshas hold their sway?\nRoyal balls and stately mansions were for thee a meeter home,\n And thy steps should grace a palace, not in pathless forest roam,\nBlossoms rich, not thorn of jungle, decorate a lady's bower,\n Silken robes, not sylvan garments, heighten Beauty's potent power!\nLady of the sylvan forest! other destiny is thine,\n As a bride beloved and courted in thy bridal garments shine,\nChoose a loved and lordly suitor who shall wait on thee in pride,\n Choose a hero worth thy beauty, be a monarch's queenly bride!\nSpeak thy lineage, heaven-descended! who may be thy parents high,\n Rudras or the radiant Maruts, Vassus leaders of the sky,\nAll unworthy is this forest for a nymph or heavenly maid,\n Beast's of prey infest the jungle, Rakshas haunt its gloomy shade,\nLions dwell in lovely caverns, tuskers ford the silent lake,\n Monkeys sport on pendant branches, tigers steal beneath the brake,\nWherefore then this dismal forest doth thy fairy face adorn,\n Who art thou and whence descended, nymph or maid or goddess-born?\n\"Listen, Brahman!\" answered Sita,--unsuspecting in her mind\n That she saw a base betrayer in a hermit seeming kind,--\n\"I am born of royal Janak, ruler of Videha's land,\n Rama prince of proud Kosala by his valour won my hand.\nYears we passed in peaceful pleasure in Ayodhya's happy clime,\n Rich in every rare enjoyment gladsome passed our happy time,\nTill the monarch Dasa-ratha,-for his days were almost done,\n Wished to crown the royal Rama as his Heir and Regent son.\nBut the scheming Queen Kaikeyi claimed a long-forgotten boon,\n That my consort should be exiled and her son should fill the throne,\nShe would take no rest or slumber, nourishment of drink or food,\n Till her Bharat ruled the empire, Rama banished to the wood!\nFive and twenty righteous summers graced my good and gracious lord,\n True to faith and true to duty, true in purpose, deed, and word,\nLoved of all his loyal people, rich in valour and in fame,\n For the rite of consecration Rama to his father came.\nSpake Kaikeyi to my husband:--'List thy father's promise fair,\n Bharat shall be ruling monarch, do thou to the woods repair,'--\nEver gentle, ever duteous, Rama listened to obey,\n And through woods and pathless jungles we have held our lonely way.\nThis, O pious-hearted hermit, is his story of distress,\n And his young and faithful brother follows him in wilderness,\nLion in his warlike valour, hermit in his saintly vow,\n Lakshman with his honoured elder wanders through the forest now.\nRest thee here, O holy Brahman, rich in piety and fame,\n Till the forest-ranging brothers greet thee with the forest game,\nSpeak, if so it please thee, father, what great rishi claims thy birth,\n Wheref ore in this pathless jungle wand'rest friendless on this earth.\"\n\"Brahman nor a righteous rishi,\" royal Ravan made reply,\n \"Leader of the wrathful Rakshas, Lanka's lord and king am I,\nHe whose valour quells the wide-world, Gods above and men below,\n He whose proud and peerless prowess Rakshas and Asuras know!\nBut thy beauty's golden lustre, Sita, wins my royal heart,\n Be a sharer of my empire, of my glory take a part,\nMany queens of queenly beauty on the royal Ravan wait,\n Thou shalt be their reigning empress, thou shalt own my regal state!\nLanka girt by boundless ocean is of royal towns the best,\n Seated in her pride and glory on a mountain's towering crest,\nAnd in mountain paths and woodlands thou shalt with thy Ravan stray,\n Not in Godavari's gorges through the dark and dreary day,\nAnd five thousand gay-dressed damsels shall upon my Sita, wait,\n Queen of Ravan's true affection, proud partaker of his state!\"\nSparkled Sita's eyes in anger and a tremor shook her frame,\n As in proud and scornful accents answered thus the royal dame:\n\"Knowest thou Rama great and godlike, peerless hero in the strife,\n Deep, uncompassed, like the ocean?--I am Rama's wedded wife!\nKnowest thou Rama proud and princely, sinless in his saintly life,\n Stately as the tall Nyagrodha?--I am Rama's wedded wife!\nMighty-arm\u00e9d, mighty-chested, mighty with his bow and sword,\n Lion midst the sons of mortals,--Rama is my wedded lord!\nStainless as the Moon in glory, stainless in his deed and word,\n Rich in valour and in virtue,--Rama is my wedded lord!\nSure thy fitful life is shadowed by a dark and dreadful fate,\n Since in frenzy of thy passion courtest thou a warrior's mate,\nTear the tooth of hungry lion while upon the calf he feeds,\n Touch the fang of deadly cobra while his dying victim bleeds,\nAye, uproot the solid mountain from its base of rocky land,\n Ere thou win the wife of Rama stout of heart and strong of hand!\nPierce thy eye with point of needle till it racks thy tortured head,\n Press thy red tongue cleft and bleeding on the razor's shining blade,\nHurl thyself upon the ocean from a towering peak and high,\n Snatch the orbs of day and midnight from their spheres in azure sky,\nTongues of flaming conflagration in thy flowing dress enfold,\n Ere thou take the wife of Rama to thy distant dungeon hold,\nEre thou seek to insult Rama unrelenting in his wrath,\n O'er a bed of pikes of iron tread a softer easier path!\"\nVain her threat and soft entreaty, Ravan held her in his wrath,\n As the planet Budha captures fair Rohini in his path,\nBy his left hand tremor-shaken, Ravan held her streaming hair,\n By his right the ruthless Raksha lifted up the fainting fair!\nUnseen dwellers of the woodlands watched the dismal deed of shame,\n Marked the mighty-arm\u00e9d Raksha lift the poor and helpless dame,\nSeat her on his car celestial yoked with asses winged with speed,\n Golden in its shape and radiance, fleet as INDRA's heavenly steed!\nAngry threat and sweet entreaty Ravan to her ears addressed,\n As the struggling fainting woman still he held upon his breast,\nVain his threat and vain entreaty, \"Rama! Rama!\" still she cried,\n To the dark and distant forest where her noble lord had hied.\nThen arose the car celestial o'er the hill and wooded vale,\n Like a snake in eagle's talons Sita writhed with piteous wail,\nDim and dizzy, faint and faltering, still she sent her piercing cry,\n Echoing through the boundless woodlands, pealing to the upper sky!\n\"Save me mighty-arm\u00e9d Lakshman, stainless in thy heart and deed,\n Save a faithful wife and woman from a Raksha's lust and greed.\nTrue and faithful was thy warning,--false and foul the charge I made,\n Pardon, friend, an erring sister, pardon words a woman said:\nHelp me, ever righteous Rama, duty bade thee yield thy throne,\n Duty bids thee smite the sinful, save the wife who is thy own,\nThou art king and stern chastiser of each deed of sin and shame.\n Hurl thy vengeance on the Raksha who insults thy faithful dame!\nDeed of sin, unrighteous Ravan, brings in time its dreadful need,\n As the young corn grows and ripens from the small and living seed,\nFor this deed of insult, Ravan, in thy heedless folly done,\n Death of all thy race and kindred thou shalt reap from Ragu's son!\nDarksome woods of Panchavati, Janasthana's smiling vale'.\n Flowering trees and winding creepers, murmur to my lord this tale,\nSweet companions of my exile, friends who cheered my woodland stay,\n Speak to Rama, that his Sita ruthless Ravan bears away!\nTowering peaks and lofty mountains, wooded hills sublime and high,\n Far-extending gloomy ranges heaving to the azure sky,\nIn your voice of pealing thunder to my lord and consort say'\n Speak of Rama, that his Sita ruthless Ravan bears away!\nUnseen dwellers of the woodlands, spirits of the rock and fell,\n Sita renders you obeisance as she speaks her sad farewell,\nWhisper to my righteous Rama when he seeks his homeward way,\n Speak to Rama, that his Sita ruthless Ravan bears away!\nAh, my Rama, true and tender! thou hast loved me as thy life,\n From the foul and impious Raksha thou shalt still redeem thy wife,\nAh, my Rama, mighty-arm\u00e9d! vengeance soon shall speed thy way,\n When thou hearest helpless Sita is by Ravan torn away!\nAnd thou royal bird, Jatayu, witness Ravan's deed of shame,\n Witness how he courts destruction, stealing Rania's faithful dame,\nRama and the gallant Lakshman soon shall find their destined prey,\n When they know that trusting Sita is by Ravan torn away!\"\nVainly wept the anguished Sita; vain Jatayu in his wrath,\n Fought with beak and bloody talons to impede the Raksha's path,\nPierced and bleeding fell the vulture; Ravan fled with Rama's bride,\n Where amidst the boundless ocean Lanka rose in towering pride!","title":"The Ramayana and Mahabharata: Book VI: Sita Lost","type":"page"}