ORIENTAL SERIES.

S7TA. 295
old Yedic idea still adhered to her, for she sprang from a furrow.
In the Ramayana her father Janaka says, " As I was ploughing
my field, there sprang from the plough a girl, obtained by me
wnile cleansing my field, and known by name as Sita (the fur-
row).
This girl sprung from the earth grew up as my daughter."
not born from the womb.' She
Hence she is styled Ayonija, c
is said to have lived before in the Knta age as Vedavati, and to
be in reality the goddess Lakshmi in human form, born in the
world for bringing about the destruction of Ravawa, the Rak-
shasa king of Lanka, who was invulnerable to ordinary means,
but doomed to die on account of a woman, Sita became the
wife of Rama, who won her by bending the great bow of iva,
She was his only wife, and was the embodiment of purity, ten-
derness, and conjugal affection. She accompanied
her husband
in his exile, but was carried off from him by Ravana and kept
in his palace at Lanka. There he made many efforts to win her
to his will, but she continued firm against all persuasions, threats,
and terrors, and maintained a dignified serenity throughout.
When Rama had slain the ravisher and recovered his wife, he
received her coldly, and refused to take her back, for it was hard
to believe it possible that she had retained her honour. She
asserted her purity in touching language, and resolved to estab-
lish it by the ordeal of fire. The pile was raised and she entered
the flames in the presence of gods and men, but she remained
unhurt, and the god of fire brought her forth and placed her in
her husband's arms. Notwithstanding this proof of her innocence,
jealous thoughts passed through the mind of Rama, and
after he had ascended his ancestral throne at Ayodhya, his people
blamed him for taking back a wife who had been in the power
of a licentious ravisher. So, although she was pregnant, he
banished her and sent her to the hermitage of Yalmiki, where
she gave birth to twin sons, Kusa and Lava, There she lived
till the boys wore about fifteen years old. One day they strayed
to their father's capital He recognised and acknowledged them
and then recalled Sita. She returned and publicly declared her
innocence, But Iwr heart was deeply wounded. She called
upon her mother earth to attest her purity, and it did so. The
ground opened, and she was taken back into the source from
which she had sprung. Rama was now disconsokte and resolved
to quit this mortal life.
(See Rama,) Sita had the appellations