Rāma Viraha Vilāpa (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa)

The Rāma Viraha Vilāpa is Rāma’s lament of separation. It is the part of the Āraṇya Kāṇḍa where Rāma comes back to Pañcavaṭī and finds that Sītā is gone. He goes through the Daṇḍakāraṇya (the great forest) in deep grief, searching for her.

He questions the trees, the birds, the rivers and the flowers. He moves between grief and fury. He calls Sītā’s name through the empty forest.

The discovery

Rāma had gone to kill Mārīca. On his way back he met Lakshmaṇa coming toward him on the path. Fear seized him, because Lakshmaṇa’s coming meant that Sītā was alone.

They hurried to the āśrama (the forest dwelling). It was empty, and Sītā was not there. The āśrama had been their home in the forest, the place they had made together, and without her it was hollow. Scattered flowers and an overturned water vessel showed that something terrible had happened.

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 61–62.

Questioning the forest

Rāma could not find Sītā, and he did not yet know what had happened. He moved through the forest calling her name. In his grief he spoke to the trees and plants around him. He asked the aśoka tree, the kadamba and the pāṭali whether they had seen Sītā pass, and whether they had seen who had taken her.

He spoke to the river Godāvarī. He spoke to the animals and the birds. None of them answered. The forest is usually full of sound, and its silence was a torment to him. All the world seemed to have closed around Sītā’s absence.

This is in Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 62.

The grief

Rāma’s grief was total. At times he searched in anguish. At times he came near to collapse under the weight of what he feared had happened.

He told of Sītā’s qualities. He remembered her on these very forest paths, and he recalled her voice and her face. His lament was the private grief of a husband. It was also the grief of a man who had brought the woman he loved into the forest, into danger, and had not protected her. He blamed himself. He raged at the rākshasa who had done this.

This is in Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 62–64.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 61–64