Ramayana, Epic of Rama, Prince of India

87
Book VI. Sita-Harana (Sita Lost)
[88] We exchange the quiet life of Rama in holy hermitages for the more
stirring incidents of the Epic in this Book, The love of a Raksha princess for
Rama and for Lakshman is rejected with scorn, and smarting under insult and
punishment she fires her brother Ravan, the king of Ceylon, with a thirst for
vengeance. The dwellers of Ceylon are described in the Epic as monsters of
various forms, and able to assume different shapes at will. Ravan sends Maricha
in the shape of a beautiful deer to tempt away Rama and Lakshman from the
cottage, and then finds his chance for stealing away the unprotected Sita.
The misfortunes of our lives, according to Indian thinkers, are but the results of
our misdeeds; calamities are brought about by our sins. And thus we find in the
Indian Epic, that a dark and foul suspicion against Lakshman crossed the
stainless mind of Sita, and words of unmerited insult fell from her gentle lips, on
the eve of the great calamity which clouded her life ever after. It was the only
occasion on which the ideal woman of the Epic harboured an unjust thought or
spoke an angry word; and it was followed by a tragic fate which few women on
earth have suffered. To the millions of men and women in India, Sita remains to
this day the ideal of female love and female devotion; her dark suspicions
against Lakshman sprang out of an excess of her affection for her husband; and
her tragic fate and long trial proved that undying love.
The portions translated in this Book form the whole or the main portions of
Sections xvii., xviii., xliii., xlv., xlvi., xlvii., and xlix. of Book iii. of the original
text.
1. Surpa-nakha in Love
[89] As the Moon with starry Chitra dwells in azure skies above,
In his lonesome leafy cottage Rama dwelt in Sita’s love,
And with Lakshman strong and valiant, quick to labour and obey,
Tales of bygone times recounting Rama passed the livelong day.
And it so befell, a maiden, dweller of the darksome wood,
Led by wand’ring thought or fancy once before the cottage stood,
Surpa-nakha, Raksha maiden, sister of the Raksha lord,
Came and looked with eager longing till her soul was passion-stirred!
Looked on Rama lion-chested, mighty-arméd, lotus-eyéd,
Stately as the jungle tusker, with his crown of tresses tied,