Sītā’s Abandonment (Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa)
The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa tells the leaving of Sītā in its Janma Khaṇḍa. In this account the leaving is a plan that Rāma and Sītā both know about. Before she goes, Rāma tells Sītā the whole five-year timeline. The account also gives a cause for the people’s suspicion: Kaikeyī finishes a portrait of Rāvaṇa that Sītā had begun to sketch from memory. Lakshmaṇa is told to take Sītā to Vālmīki’s āśrama, where Janaka has already prepared a home for her.
Sītā’s pregnancy and her wish to visit the āśramas
After Rāma came back from Laṅkā, Sītā became pregnant. Rāma looked after her with great care. He performed the puṃsavana saṃskāra (the rite for a child in the womb). He invited Janaka to Ayodhyā for the sīmanta rite in the seventh month. Sītā asked to visit the forest āśramas of the ṛshis. Rāma arranged for her to stay in the royal garden near the Gaṅgā. This is in Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 2.
Kaikeyī’s portrait of Rāvaṇa
Kaikeyī had a part in what led to Sītā’s leaving. Sītā had remembered Rāvaṇa’s face and had drawn an outline of it on a piece of cloth. She did this only to describe how he looked. Kaikeyī took the sketch and used it to paint a full and vivid portrait of Rāvaṇa. She completed his whole form from the thumb-sized outline that Sītā had drawn.
When this came to light, it gave people who held suspicions a reason to speak ill of Sītā’s time in Rāvaṇa’s keeping. The rumours reached the people and became a loka-apavāda (public blame). Rāma was a king who held the trust of his people, and he could not ignore it. This is in Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 3.
Rāma tells Sītā the plan
Before sending Sītā away with Lakshmaṇa, Rāma called her aside and told her in private the whole plan that had been settled beforehand. He told her that this leaving was not a rejection. It was a needed part of the divine plan. He told her the five-year timeline. She would live at Vālmīki’s āśrama, give birth to their sons and raise them. At the end of five years, events would bring them all together again.
Rāma told Sītā that he knew her purity was complete and that she was Mahālakshmī in human form. He told her that the parting served loka-śikshaṇa (teaching for the world): a king must hold dharma above his own feelings. Sītā understood that it was divinely needed and accepted the plan calmly. In the Janma Khaṇḍa, what looked to the world like abandonment was a parting that Rāma and Sītā both knew, and both knew to be for a time and for a purpose. This is in Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 3.
Lakshmaṇa takes Sītā to Vālmīki’s āśrama
Lakshmaṇa was told to take Sītā to the region of Vālmīki’s āśrama and leave her there. He did this with sorrow. He knew how painful the act was, yet he obeyed Rāma’s command. The journey to the āśrama is told with Lakshmaṇa’s grief. Sītā herself walked with the inner calm that came from knowing the plan.
When Lakshmaṇa arrived at the āśrama, he found that Janaka had already been told of what was coming. Janaka had prepared a home for Sītā near the āśrama. Vālmīki and the ṛshis of the āśrama welcomed Sītā with all honour. She entered the āśrama knowing it would be her home during the years of separation. The ascetics cared for her with respect, as the divine consort of Bhagavān Rāma. This is in Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 3.
Sources
- Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 2
- Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 3