Ekapatnī Vrata of Śrī Rāma

Ekapatnī vrata means “the vow of one wife”. Śrī Rāma’s ekapatnī vrata, his vow of complete faithfulness to his one wife, Sītā, is one of three lasting vows he made at the start of his life and never broke. In the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, the vow carries deep meaning for dharma and for Rāma’s divine nature.

The vow is tested again and again during Rāma-rājya (Rāma’s reign): by deva women who come seeking his love, by the veśyā (courtesan) Piṅgalā, who enters his room at night, and by Vyāsa Ṛshi, who wonders how a powerful young king can keep so strict a discipline. Each time, Rāma stands firm. To the women who seek him, he gives a boon that they will be united with him in a future birth in the Dvāpara Yuga, as gopīs or as Satyabhāmā. He stays completely pure in mind, speech and action.

The Three Vows

When Vyāsa Ṛshi visited Ayodhyā and wondered at Rāma’s discipline, Rāma set out the three vows that had guided his whole life:

1. First: Sītā alone is my wife. Every other woman is to me like my mother Kausalyā. This is the ekapatnī vrata in its fullest form.
2. Second: when I am roused to anger, I will destroy the enemy with a single arrow. I will not need a second.
3. Third: whatever word leaves my mouth, I will not take back or change.

The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa presents these three vows as absolute, without conditions, and lasting for the whole of this janma (birth) of Rāma. No situation, no temptation and no outside authority, not even the words of Vyāsa, can change them.

Vyāsa’s Question

Vyāsa asked Rāma directly. He said he had seen many great kings of the past, such as Dilīpa, Manu and Sagara, but none of them had truly and bravely kept the ekapatnī vrata even for a while. Looking at Rāma, young, powerful and ruler of the seven dvīpas (continents), he marvelled. How could Rāma bear the fire of youth while keeping to one wife alone? Was this possible for a human being?

Rāma smiled and answered by declaring his three vows. He made clear that they were not just outer rules but the expression of his own deepest nature, and that nothing could change them.

Vyāsa heard this in awe, and then made a prophecy. He said: so be it; but the fruit of this ekapatnī vrata in this life will itself ripen as many wives in your next birth. In the Dvāpara Yuga, as Kṛshṇa, you will have many wives.

Rāma, curious, asked what he should do now to make sure of this fruit. Vyāsa told him to give sixteen golden images of Sītā, each equal to Sītā’s own weight and dressed and adorned, to sixteen worthy brāhmaṇas on the bank of the Sarayū river. The brāhmaṇas’ blessing promised that the fruit would multiply a thousandfold, becoming sixteen thousand women.

The Deva Women’s Plea

During the Caitra snāna (holy bath) at Rāma-tīrtha, thousands of deva-patnīs (wives of the devas) and apsarās (heavenly dancers) who had come for the bath at the time of the eclipse were overcome with kāma (desire) on seeing Rāma’s divine form. They gathered and came to Rāma at night. When his guards stopped them, they threatened to drown themselves in the river. When their state was reported to Rāma, he came out, sat on the sandy riverbank, and gave them darśana (let them see him).

He spoke to them with perfect clarity and compassion. He reminded them that in this life he was wholly committed to the ekapatnī vrata, and that every one of them was like a mother to him in this life. Then he gave them a boon. In the Dvāpara Yuga he would be born as Kṛshṇa in the house of Nanda in Vṛndāvana. All the devas would be born as gopas (cowherd men), and each of the deva women would be born as a gopī (cowherd woman) in that village. He would play with them all in the Rāsa dance on the banks of the Kālindī (Yamunā) on many nights, and all their wishes would be fulfilled then.

Piṅgalā’s Night Visit

The most dramatic test of the ekapatnī vrata came one night during Rāma-rājya, when the veśyā Piṅgalā entered Rāma’s bedroom while Sītā was asleep. She had taken off her anklets to move silently, slipped past the sleeping guards, and took hold of Rāma’s feet. She begged him for mercy, saying desire had overpowered her.

Rāma woke and understood her state. He spoke to her kindly and without anger, and reminded her of his vow. He told her that in this life he held the ekapatnī vrata as a vow, that his word was never false, and that her wish could not be fulfilled in this janma. Then he gave her a boon to make up for it. She would be born in Mathurā as the hunchbacked woman Kubjā. When Kṛshṇa had killed Kaṃsa and was staying there, she would offer him sandal paste in the street, and at that very moment he would take her by the chin, lift her up straight, and free her.

When Rāma told Sītā what had happened, Sītā burst into fierce anger and threatened to drown herself in the Sarayū. She demanded that he swear an oath, but not on the usual elements, fire, water, the sun or the moon. Those, she said, all serve Rāma, and so they could not be trusted as witnesses. She demanded that Rāma swear on the feet of his guru, Vasishṭha.

Vasishṭha was called at midnight. Rāma placed his guru’s feet on his head and swore that he was completely innocent, in mind, speech and action. Seeing Rāma bow down before his guru, Sītā was at once filled with remorse and begged Rāma to forgive her.

What the Vow Means

In the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, the ekapatnī vrata works on several levels:

An example of dharma: Rāma sets the standard of purity that a king and husband of dharma should keep. His discipline is meant as loka-śikshaṇa, a teaching for all householders.

Restraint and abundance: the vow is not a limit forced on Rāma from outside. It is the natural expression of his nature in this janma. Yet, by Vyāsa’s prophecy, its very completeness in the Tretā Yuga creates the karma that blossoms into the joyful fullness of Kṛshṇa’s many relationships in the Dvāpara Yuga. Restraint and abundance are two sides of the same divine reality.

Sītā as the guardian of dharma: Sītā’s fierce reaction to Piṅgalā’s intrusion is not petty jealousy. The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa presents it as her role as the guardian of dharma in Rāma-rājya. Her declaration that a kingdom where the king tolerates contact with a veśyā cannot last long is a statement of rājadharma (the dharma of kings).

The guru as the true witness: Rāma’s oath on Vasishṭha’s feet shows a deep point that Sītā herself makes plain. All of creation, fire, water, the sun, the moon, the earth, Śesha and all weapons, serves Rāma, so none of it can be an independent, trustworthy witness. The guru alone, standing for dharma, stands apart from this. Rāma bowing before Vasishṭha is at once the deepest act of guru-bhakti (devotion to the guru) and the natural result of his own all-powerful nature.

Sources

• Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Vilāsa Kāṇḍa, Chapter 7
• Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Vilāsa Kāṇḍa, Chapter 8