Sītā Banishment

Sītā’s banishment is told in the Uttara Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. After Rāma came back to Ayodhyā and was crowned king, a time of splendid rāja-dharma (the dharma of a king) began. It ended in one of the saddest events in the Rāmāyaṇa. Rāma’s spies told him that the people of Ayodhyā were speaking against his taking Sītā back, since she had lived for months in Rāvaṇa’s Laṅkā. The words of a washerman set it off. Rāma decided that his duty as king came before his duty as husband. He told Lakshmaṇa to take Sītā to the forest near Vālmīki’s āśrama and leave her there. Sītā was expecting a child. She gave birth to twin sons, Kuśa and Lava, and Vālmīki raised them.

Rāma-rājya, the ideal kingdom

After the war in Laṅkā and his return to Ayodhyā, Rāma was crowned king. The Uttara Kāṇḍa describes Rāma-rājya in rich detail. There was no untimely death. There was no illness that did not answer to treatment. There was no poverty and no dishonesty. People lived long, healthy and virtuous lives, and the kingdom flourished in every direction. Rāma did his duty as king. He ruled with justice, protected all classes of people, held court regularly and listened to everyone who came.

Sītā, after her long ordeal, was now safe in Ayodhyā as queen. She was expecting Rāma’s child. This is told in chapter 51.

The washerman’s words

Rāma kept a network of spies (cara). They told him what people in the city were saying, feeling and worrying about. This was a normal tool of dharmic kingship: a king must know the mood of his people.

The report that reached him struck him like a weapon. A washerman (rajaka) had quarrelled with his wife. In the quarrel he drove her out and said words to this effect: “Do you think I am like Rāma? I am not Rāma, who would take back a woman who lived in another man’s house.”

The meaning was that Rāma, by taking Sītā back after her months in Laṅkā, had set a low standard, and that people could point to his act to excuse any wrongdoing. This was the particular loka-apavāda (public reproach, the blame of the people) that reached Rāma’s ears. This is told in chapter 52.

Rāma’s decision

The report shook Rāma deeply. He knew Sītā was perfectly pure. He had taken her back after the agni-parīkshā (the trial by fire), knowing she was innocent. But he was a king, and a king’s dharma includes keeping his own conduct such that the people can take it as an example. If the people spoke against him, it was the king’s duty to answer that. A king who ignored public blame would lose the moral authority he needs to rule.

Rāma talked over the matter with his brothers. He declared his decision: he could not go on as king while this blame stood. He would send Sītā away from Ayodhyā. She would live in the forest near Vālmīki’s āśrama, a place of safety and dharma.

He called Lakshmaṇa and gave this order: take Sītā across the Gaṅgā; tell her that she wished to visit the āśramas of ṛshis on the far bank; and at Vālmīki’s āśrama leave her there, without telling her the true reason until you must. Lakshmaṇa was shocked. His devotion to Sītā was complete, and so was his love for Rāma. The order put him in an impossible place. But the command of his eldest brother, who was also the king, could not be refused. This is told in chapter 53.

The departure

Sītā was overjoyed at the thought of visiting āśramas. She had said she wished to see the āśramas of great ṛshis on the bank of the Gaṅgā. Lakshmaṇa prepared the chariot, and they left Ayodhyā. As they went, his misery grew. He knew what he was about to do, and Sītā did not.

When they reached the bank of the Tamasā river near Vālmīki’s āśrama, Lakshmaṇa could wait no longer. He told Sītā the truth: Rāma had told him to leave her here, the cause was loka-apavāda, and she must live near Vālmīki’s āśrama. He bowed to the ground before her in grief.

Sītā’s answer was one of the deepest moments of the Rāmāyaṇa. She did not curse Rāma. She did not cry out against the wrong. She took up the burden of a righteous person placed in an impossible situation. She understood the weight of rāja-dharma. She asked for one thing only: that Lakshmaṇa tell her that Rāma still held her in his heart, even though duty forced this parting. This is told in chapter 54.

At Vālmīki’s āśrama

Vālmīki received Sītā with full honour. He knew who she was, both the queen of Ayodhyā and the divine Mahālakshmī in human form. He took her into the āśrama community. The women of the āśrama cared for her. Lakshmaṇa could not stay long, and he left, and Sītā was alone in the forest.

Her grief was very great: for the parting from Rāma, for what had happened, and for being alone and with child in the forest. The wives of the ṛshis in the āśrama became her companions and her family. This is told in chapter 54.

The birth of Kuśa and Lava

In Vālmīki’s āśrama Sītā gave birth to twin sons. Vālmīki performed the birth rites with great care. The elder twin was named Kuśa, and the younger was named Lava. Both boys showed the marks of Rāma’s line: divine beauty, natural dignity and keen minds from birth.

Vālmīki saw how special the two children were and took them under his own teaching. He taught them the Vedas, the śāstras and archery. In this same time he composed the Rāmāyaṇa, and he taught the whole text to Kuśa and Lava in all its metres, rhythms (tāla) and musical modes. The two boys learned the Rāmāyaṇa by heart without fault and sang it with great beauty. This is told in chapters 69 and 70.

Rāma’s choice

Rāma knew that Sītā was innocent. He also knew that a king who ignores loka-apavāda cannot hold up the moral life of his kingdom. He chose the king’s duty. The Uttara Kāṇḍa does not show this as an easy or painless choice. Rāma spent the rest of his life in grief. He performed the rituals that remained with a golden image of Sītā in the place of the queen who should have been beside him.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, chapters 51–54
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, chapters 69–70