He strode towards the grove of Ashoka trees. One hundred beautiful ladies holding chowrie fans and golden lamps followed him. They were madly in love with Ravana and though they were still sleepy with the wine they had imbibed the previous night, they were curious to get a glimpse of Sita and to find out what her approach to Ravana would be. Hanuman watched him carefully from the top of the tree. He had only seen Ravana asleep. Now he looked even more magnificent.
Hearing the tread of his feet as he approached, Sita trembled in terror and grief. She loathed the very sight of him but she tried to put up a brave front. She sat on the bare ground looking like the felled branch of a flowering tree. Crossing her arms across her chest, she tried to cover her scantily clad body with her two hands and thus avoid his piercing, lusty, looks.
Looking at her pitiable efforts to cover herself, Ravana said, “Why do you try to hide your beauty from my eyes. Wherever my eyes fall, I see nothing but your beauty. I am sure there is no one in all the three worlds as exquisite as you. Honour my love and accept me as your husband. You think my action is unrighteous. In the code of the rakshasas it is quite acceptable to take another man’s wife for one’s own. Do you think I cannot force you to be mine! It is only my intense love for you that stops me from doing this. I want you to come to me of your own accord. Why are you torturing yourself like this? Your lovely hair is matted with neglect, your silk garment soiled and dirty and you are half-starved and emaciated. Come, rise up, dress yourself in lovely silks and satins. Wear jewels and perfumes. This ground is not a fitting couch for your flaming beauty. My seductive Sita, Why do not you listen to me and accept my attentions? Youth and beauty are short-lived. Do not waste both in unnecessary sorrow. Come, shed your grief and accept my love. I will make you the happiest woman in the world, my chief queen. I cannot bear to take my eyes off your tantalizing form. Night and day I am haunted by your face. Can’t you see that I am crazy with love for you? After having met you, I cannot bear to look at my other wives. Your dress is in rags and you have no ornaments, yet you continue to fascinate me. You have seen me and my glory. What has Ram got, to compare with this? He is only a mendicant, clad in bark, with not even a kingdom to call his own. Take it from me that you will never see him again”.
From the moment he entered the garden, Sita had cast her eyes down and sat with averted face throughout his passionate declaration of love. Though she was terrified of Ravana and tortured by his sensual talk, she clutched at the remnants of her tattered pride. Without raising her eyes, she picked up a straw from the ground and placed it before her and spoke to it, as if addressing Ravana, no doubt with the idea of impressing on him the fact that she cared two straws for him, however grand his opinion of himself might be.
“I am the wife of Ram and it is against all the laws of dharma for you to lust after me. Give up these sinful thoughts and go back to your own wives. Be satisfied with them. I am not the one for you”. Turning her back on Ravana she continued, “Why are you bent on destroying your race? An entire kingdom can perish, if its ruler becomes the slave of his passions. Lanka is doomed. Do you think you can tempt me with gold and riches? Ram is to me, what sunlight is to the sun. Restore me to him and earn my gratitude, if that will suffice, but never hope to earn my love, for that is irrevocably given to Ram. Before long, he and Lakshman will arrive and shoot their deadly arrows at you which will suck your life’s blood. So beware”!
Ravana retorted, “You are different from any other woman I have ever known. Most women respond to compliments and gifts but the more I offer you, the more you repulse me. It is lucky for you that my love controls my anger or else you would have been killed long ago. But do not think you can escape so easily. You have only two months left, of the twelve I promised you. After that, either you share my bed or become my breakfast! Bed or breakfast! The choice is yours”. So saying, he glared at her. His angry eyes, sparked with green and blue flames and pierced through the thin piece of silk, in which she was clad. She trembled with rage and fear and spoke bitter words of condemnation to him.
“How dare you talk to me like this! I have warned you. Your death is imminent. You call yourself a hero because you defeated the gods. Yet you stole me away from my husband, when he was not there and took me away by force. Is that the action of a hero”!
A few of the women who had followed Ravana felt sorry for Sita but none dared say anything. Some took the opportunity to ingratiate themselves in Ravana’s favour and entwined their soft arms round his neck and offered themselves in lieu of Sita. But he shook them off angrily and told the rakshasis who were guarding her, to make sure that she changed her mind fast, either by persuasion or by coercion. With this ultimatum, he strode off making the ground tremble with the force of his strides.
As soon as he left, the guards started shouting and abusing Sita. “What a stupid woman you are, to refuse to be the wife of this king of kings? At his command, the trees scatter flowers and clouds release rain. The sun and moon would stop shining if he did not wish it. Why don*t you agree to his wishes and become his wife”?
Another said, “You are very lovely. I have an irresistible desire to feast on your luscious breasts and berry-like lips and delicious liver and spleen. Come let us have an orgy. Bring the wine and we will chop her into little bits and eat her”.
All the pent up feelings which she had repressed before Ravana now broke loose and Sita burst into heart-rending sobs. She cried as if her heart would break. Leaning on the trunk of the tree on which Hanuman sat, she cried out, “0 Ram! Ram! Where are you? Why don’t you come? I realise now, that death will not approach a person, till the appointed time has come, or else how can I continue to live, in the midst of these cruel rakshasis, in the palace of this lecherous man, parted from my beloved Ram”.
Hanuman could not bear to see her grief but dared not come down. Then one of the rakshasis called Trigata, who was wiser than the rest told the others to shut up and stop tormenting Sita, for she had seen a dream in which Ram and Sita were dressed in white and riding victoriously on an elephant, while Ravana was defeated and dressed in black, with shaven head.
Sita in the meantime had shed so many tears that she had none left. Heartbroken and lonely, she felt she had reached the end of her endurance and determined to end her life. As she was leaning on the trunk of the tree, her left eye and shoulder started to throb, which was a good omen for ladies. She was surprised. Was there some truth in what the woman was saying? Was her Ram coming for her? Hanuman in the meanwhile was wondering how he could approach her, without frightening her.
Surrounded as she was by these hostile creatures, she was sure to mistrust everyone. “If I jump down in front of her she will surely scream and alert the rakshasis and thus foil my plan”. Then he hit upon a bright idea. Since her mind was always full of Ram, he would start by extolling him and then perhaps she would trust him. Without revealing himself, he spoke from his hiding place in the tree under which she was leaning.
Suddenly Sita heard these sweet words coming from above. “There was once a king called Dasaratha who was famous for his prowess. He had four sons, of whom Ram was the eldest. He is the noblest of all men. He went to the Dandaka forest with his wife and brother. One day when the brothers were away, Ravana entered the hermitage and stole his wife, Sita. Ram was heartbroken and wandered all over the country, looking for her. At last he made friends with the monkey king, who promised to help him find her. The monkeys were sent in all directions to search for her. I am one of them and I have come here because I have found the person who has been described to me by Ram, as being graceful, charming and beautiful”. So saying he fell silent.
Sita was filled with wonder and hope when she heard this. Brushing her dishevelled hair aside, she looked up at the tree and tried to find out the person who was responsible for bringing this ray of hope into her despondent heart. The thick foliage hid him from her sight. Her eyes roved in all directions but she could not find him. The rakshasis had given up their efforts to persuade her. Some had gone to tell Ravana and the rest were snoring under the trees.
