Sītā Agni Parīkshā (Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa)
The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa tells the agni parīkshā (the fire-ordeal) of Sītā and gives it a reason drawn from the three guṇas (qualities of nature): sattva, rajas and tamas. The text says that before Rāvaṇa took her, Sītā had set her three guṇas apart. Her sattva was kept with Rāma. Her rajas was kept in the sacred fire. She herself stayed in the form of tamas. So the Sītā who lived in Rāvaṇa’s Laṅkā was not the full Sītā. The fire-ordeal gave the three guṇas back to her and made her whole.
The ordeal
After Rāvaṇa died, Rāma told Vibhīshaṇa to bring Sītā to him. Sītā was bathed and dressed in divine clothes and ornaments. She was carried in a palanquin (śibikā) to Rāma. She stepped down from the palanquin, went to her husband and bowed to him with shy joy.
Rāma knew in his heart that Sītā was perfectly pure. Even so, he spoke the words that would bring about her open vindication through the fire-ordeal. He said, for the sake of the world’s understanding and to complete the great work, that she had lived in another’s house and he could not take her back. He told her to go wherever she wished.
Hearing this, Sītā asked Lakshmaṇa to prepare a funeral pyre. When it was ready, she did ācamana (the ritual sipping of water) and prayed to Agni:
“O Agni! Even in my mind I have never thought of anyone but Rāma. If this is true, then be cool to me.”
With these words she entered the blazing fire.
The three guṇas
The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa then says what lay behind the ordeal: “Previously, at Pañcavaṭī, Sītā had hidden her rajo-guṇa in the fire.”
The text sets it out so:
- Sattva-guṇa, the quality of purity, light and goodness, was kept within Rāma. Rāma always held Sītā’s sattva with him.
- Rajo-guṇa, the quality of passion and action, was hidden in the fire. Agni kept her rajo-guṇa.
- The Sītā whom Rāvaṇa took was the tamo-guṇa form. It was a shadowy and incomplete form that did not have the full divine presence of Mahālakshmī.
In the fire-ordeal, Agni gave the rajo-guṇa back to Sītā. Rāma, who had always held her sattva-guṇa, gave it back to her when he embraced her and placed her on his lap (the Telugu text says aṅkamuna kūrcuṇḍabeṭṭukoni). The meeting gave all three guṇas to Sītā again. She became fully tri-guṇātmikā, the one who holds all three guṇas in balance.
The text says plainly: “In this way, the three guṇas — sattva, rajas, and tamas — that had been previously separated for the destruction of Rāvaṇa were now reunited. The Sītā who had previously been tamo-mayī (pervaded by tamas alone) now again became tri-guṇātmikā (possessed of all three guṇas).”
The devas and Daśaratha speak of her purity
The devas and Daśaratha himself, who came from svarga (heaven), declared that Sītā was pure. Daśaratha came down in a divine vimāna (flying chariot) and praised Rāma. He blessed the occasion and then went back to the divine realm.
The fallen vānaras are raised to life
After the fire-ordeal, Rāma asked Indra to bring back to life all the vānaras who had fallen in the battle. Indra sent a sudhā-vṛshṭi, a shower of divine nectar. All the fallen vānaras were raised to life and full health.
One vānara could not be revived this way. Kumbhakarṇa had eaten him, so no body remained for the shower of nectar to reach. Rāma looked at Yama, the deva of death, who was present. Yama understood Rāma’s wish and brought even that vānara forth alive.
The return in the Pushpaka
The battle was over and Sītā was whole again. Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa boarded the Pushpaka vimāna. Vibhīshaṇa and the vānaras boarded it too. Rāma would not take his victory bath at Laṅkā. He did not want to celebrate until he had seen Bharata, who had been waiting at Nandigrāma for fourteen years. The party set out for Ayodhyā.
Sources
- Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Sāra Khaṇḍa, Sarga 12