Will the Real Sita standup?

During Ram Rajya, we’re told, the people were a contented lot. There was no shortage of food and other material comforts and sickness was rare. People lived happy and long lives. Ram himself often toured the city to check and inquire their welfare.

Yet, in many parts of eastern and southern India, the Ramayana is not considered on par with the Mahabharata. Rama is viewed, at best, as a heroic but ultimately flawed protagonist; at worst, a male chauvinist. One reason for this atypical perception is because he made Sita undergo the agnipariksha, trial by fire, to test her purity after being abducted by Ravana. However, a careful study of the peculiar circumstances and background that led to the fire-trial might help us see Rama in a different light.

When Goddess Earth saw the destruction wrought by Ravana, she prayed to Brahma the Creator to rescue her. Brahma and Goddess Earth thereafter jointly invoked Vishnu who promised to incarnate in order to kill Ramana. Vishnu became Rama, his consort Lakshmi became Sita and Seshnag became Lakshman.

Vishnu and Lakshmi had never been separated in previous incarnations. Mandodari, Ravana’s wife, knew that Rama and Sita were divine and inseparable and that anyone daring to separate them would be destroyed. She’d repeatedly begged Ravana to let Sita go back to Rama but in vain.

In his incarnation as Rama, Vishnu had to perforce get separated from Lakshmi since Sita had to be abducted by Ravana in order for Rama to kill him. And so it came to pass that before the abduction took place Agni the fire god came, to Rama and said, “The aim of your incarnation is to destroy Ravana, and Sita is meant to be the cause for that since Ravana will come and carry her away. So entrust Sita with me and I will make a “Maya Sita’ for you to keep. After Ravana’s death when she enters fire to prove her purity, I will return the real Sita to you.” Hearing this Rama agreed.

Thereafter through intense meditation Agni created a look-alike Sita which was not an illusion or facsimile but a real double with a real name, history and destiny like any other puranic personality. (Interestingly, the reference to Maya Sita is available in regional versions of Ramayana but not in Valmiki’s account.) Thus, the Sita who was abducted by Ravana was not the actual Sita but a version of her and more importantly, Rama had full knowledge of this although no one else knew at the time – not even Lakshman.

As foretold, the real Sita came out at the time of Maya Sita entering the fire to prove her purity and the Maya Sita vanished in the flames. To substantiate the role of Maya Sita and real Sita. Tulsi Das in Ramcharitmanas mentions that when the real Sita came out of the Agni she was wearing the jeweler given to her by Arundhati before her abduction and not the jeweler given by Ravana in Lanka.

Certain schools of thought even believe that Rama specifically asked (Maya) Sita to take the agnipariksha so that he could get back his original Sita, and not necessarily to prove her chastity. However, this is often tempered by adding the rider that at the time people would not have accepted Sita as their queen if she had not passed the trial by fire.