Vedavatī and Rāvaṇa

Vedavatī was the daughter of the ṛshi Kuśadhvaja. She did tapas in the forest to win Bhagavān Vishṇu as her husband. During his campaign of conquest, Rāvaṇa met her there. He grew wild with desire and seized her by the hair. She gave up her body in the fire of her yoga and said she would be born again as his destroyer. This is the account in the Uttara Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Chapters 22–23.

Kuśadhvaja and his daughter

Vedavatī was the daughter of Kuśadhvaja, a great ṛshi and a son of Bṛhaspati, the teacher of the devas. Kuśadhvaja was a devoted Vaishṇava. All his tapas and his deepest wish were for his daughter to win Vishṇu as her husband. The girl was born from his wish and from the power of his wife’s austerities during her pregnancy. She was filled with Vedic sound from the moment of her birth, so she was named Vedavatī, “she in whom the Vedas dwell”.

When Vedavatī grew up, many suitors came. Kings of the gandharvas, kings of the devas and kings of the dānavas all wanted to marry her. Her father turned away every one of them. He held to his vow that only Vishṇu was a worthy husband for his daughter.

One of those he refused was a powerful rākshasa named Śambhu. Śambhu could not accept the refusal, and in the night he killed Kuśadhvaja. Kuśadhvaja’s wife could not live after her husband’s death, and she performed satī. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 22.)

Vedavatī’s tapas

Vedavatī was left alone. Both her parents were dead and no family tie remained, so nothing held her to the world. She went to the forest and began the tapas her father had always hoped to arrange through a marriage. She would do austerities so hard that Vishṇu himself would have to accept her. She let her hair grow matted, wore the bark and hide of a forest dweller, and did tapas with great force.

She was very beautiful. She was a tapasvinī (a woman of tapas), and her inner fire, tapas-tejas, made her glow. Her beauty was all the more striking because she wore no ornament and had no care for worldly things. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 22.)

Rāvaṇa comes

On his campaign of conquest, Rāvaṇa came to the place where Vedavatī was doing tapas. He saw a woman of unearthly beauty sitting in stern meditation, and he was overcome at once. He went up to her, asked who she was, praised her beauty and asked her to marry him.

Vedavatī answered calmly. She had begun these austerities only to win Vishṇu as her husband. She was bound by her father’s wish and by her own vow, and no other husband was possible.

Rāvaṇa’s desire would not listen to reason. He reached out and seized her by the hair, trying to drag her away. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 22.)

Her yoga fire and her śāpa

Vedavatī had been touched against her will, but she did not run or cry out. She was a yoginī with great power of tapas. She cut off her hair, the hair Rāvaṇa had held, and spoke plainly. This body had been touched by an unclean hand, and she would not carry it any longer. She would give it up now in the fire of her yoga.

She said to Rāvaṇa: “I shall be reborn as your kāla (destroyer). The pāpa (sins) you have done against righteous women will meet their reckoning through me.”

Having spoken, she stepped into the fire of her own yoga-bala (yoga power) and gave up her body. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 23.)

The form born of the fire

From the flames her form rose again, born of the fire itself, shining and whole. Rāvaṇa was shaken by what he had seen, but he still did not see what was right. He took this fire-born form with him to Laṅkā.

In Laṅkā his wise minister Aviddha saw the fire-born form and knew at once what it was. He warned Rāvaṇa: “This woman who has cursed you will become your destruction. You must not keep her here. She is no ordinary being. She is the power of a great tapasvinī’s vow. Cast her away.”

Rāvaṇa could not argue against Aviddha’s wisdom. He took the fire-born form and threw her into the ocean. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 23.)

Born as Sītā

Cast into the ocean, the fire-born form of Vedavatī did not perish. She came to rest in the earth. She entered the yajña-kuṇḍa (the fire-pit of the yajña) of King Janaka, when he was preparing a great yajña and ploughing the ground for it. She came out of the furrow (sītā) made by the plough in the ritual field. Janaka found this wonderful child in the earth, named her Sītā, and brought her up as his own daughter. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 23.)

In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, in the Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 13–14, tells the account of Vedavatī in its own way.

• In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Kuśadhvaja is the brother of Dharmadhvaja.
• It speaks of a māyā-Sītā (an illusory Sītā). Agni protects the real Sītā during the Laṅkā episode, while a duplicate is carried off. The real Sītā is joined again with Rāma at the agni-parīkshā (the trial by fire).
• In the Uttara Kāṇḍa there is no māyā-Sītā, and Sītā is Vedavatī born again.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 22–23
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 13–14