Storytelling, Week 3: A gift for Sita

Ravana was an evil demon king who had become intoxicated with the idea of having the best of everything in the land. He had heard of a great warrior’s wife who was said to be more beautiful than any woman on earth, and so he devised a plan to take her away from Rama (her husband) and keep her for himself. He managed to accomplish this task but not without the attention of Rama. Rama and his brother along with recruited help declared war on Ravana if he did not return Sita unharmed. Ravana would not give his prize up, for she was too beautiful to let go. Annoyed with her constant aching for her beloved however, he ordered many spectacles to take place in order to sway her heart towards Ravana and forget about Rama. One day, when a battle was eminent on his door steps, Ravana hatched his most evil plan in order to trick Sita into losing hope of rescue by Rama. Ravana procured a sorcerer and told him to create a body part of Rama’s to thrust into Sita’s view so there would be no doubt in her mind of his utter demise.

“Here is a present for you my dear Sita,” Ravana explained, “you yearn to kiss the lips of your husband, feel the brush of his cheeks against your palms, and to get lost in his eyes. I hear you at night wailing of these deep wishes and I have decided that I only wish to make you happy so here is the answer you seek.”

Sita raised her head up at these words, could it be true that Ravana has chosen to delight her in this way? Her heart filled with happiness as she replied, “Oh yes! Those are my true desires and I would be the happiest woman if you could grant me these wishes. Give me my Rama back and I to him. All your discrepancies would be pardoned and we would leave you and your family alone. Please I beg of you!”

A sly smile crept across Ravana’s face and his eyes gleamed. He dropped a box in the middle of the room and simply said “very well then my princess” and left Sita alone with her dreams.

Sita stared at this box that had appeared before her. She waited for Rama to burst out of captivity and hold her in his arms, but the air stood still. After what seemed like forever, Sita finally went to the box and lifted the lid with urgency. What she saw inside the human sized box was not human sized at all. In the corner of the box laid Rama’s head, decapitated from his absent body.

From ritsin.com

Horror and shock took over Sita’s body and she sunk to the ground on her knees. There was blood still rushing out and it ran to her knees still warm yet she could not move. Her heart started to break and send pain throughout all crevices of her body. There was no hope of rescue, and even if there was, there was no point in rescue. Rama was her world. All she could do was look at her husband’s lifeless face on its side. She had wanted to kiss his lips, but here they were for her and she would not get kissed back. She had dreamed of holding his face in her hands, but not detached from his body. She had yearned to share love between a simple locking of eyes, but his eyes were to never move to meet hers again. It was her Rama. Yet it wasn’t. His eyes were staring wide open into the depths of her soul. She had never seen his eyes look like this before. They were filled with fear. Fear. Sita stood up and walked away from the box, back to her position of meditation on the floor.

Ravana was outside her chamber waiting to hear the cries of Sita’s heartbreak. Nothing happened. He peeked inside and saw the box opened but Sita rested seemingly undisturbed. Why is she not running to him for comfort and love now that hers was lost? Had she not looked into the box? Alas, did she not love Rama as much as she led on? Ravana rushed inside.

“You do not like my gift? I would have thought you to be cuddling your husband right now.”

Sita replied with a steady voice, “You are a tortured soul, if you have one at all. This trickery will not conquer my hope or my love for my husband’s arrival. Tell your sorcerer he made a major error in the creation of that thing to reflect Rama. His eyes would never yield fear at his demise.”

Author’s Note----

I chose to write about the event where Ravana presents to Sita a creation of Rama’s decapitated head in order to try and sway her of holding onto hope. I changed it into a proposed ‘gift’ from Ravana to Sita. I also created Sita’s woes at night in order for the meaning of Rama’s head as a gift instead of a leg or arm etc. I made sure that Sita was shaken at first but quickly recovered. I used Rama’s eyes filled with fear as the sudden indicator of foul play for Sita. I thought it would be fun to elaborate on this scene in the book since there is literally only two sentences about it on page 134. A little backstory was given at the beginning because it felt weird to just jump right into the scene. 

 Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana.