Week 5 Story: Sita's Disgrace

(Rama and Sita in happier days. Photo by Asian Curator at the Sand Diego Museum of Art)

Rama sat on his high horse giving out orders. He ordered Hanuman to go search for Sita, tell her his message, and  bring her back to him. Hanuman searched high and low, near and far, and finally found Sita by the sacred Ashoka Tree, which was being guarded. Hanuman gave his spiel as Rama ordered, Sita was a bit hesitant and refused to go back with Hanuman. Therefore, Hanuman returned back to Rama empty handed, but with a message from Sita.

Rama mulled over Sita's word for awhile, and finally he frustratedly yelled at Vibhishana to go get Sita. He also commanded that Sita should be bathed and accessorized with bangles and necklaces. Sita thought in her head that she would have gone to see Rama without getting all dolled up, but she agreed to Rama's antics anyways.

After Sita got cleaned up and prettied up, Rama instructed that Sita should be presented to him, so a path was cleared for Sita to come through, but this in itself was not good enough for Rama. He then required that Sita get off of her palanquin and was to walk to him herself.

Sita finally made her way to Rama, when she got to him she stood in front of him bashfully. Sita looked as though she had been through a lot lately, which she had. Her outward appearance was rugged, sorrowful, and depressed, but when she saw Rama's face the sorrow was drained from every fiber in her; she then looked like a ray of sunshine glowing and beaming. 

As happy as Sita was, Rama did not hold back his feelings on the prior events to that meeting. Rama lashed out telling Sita how he sent Hanuman and his army to save her from Ravana, but she declined that offer because she wanted Rama himself to save her. He went on the claim that even if he did not come personally, he still was involved in planning for her rescue. He continued to notify Sita of her foolishness, and how her foolishness made him look like a fool also.

Sita finally breaks down into tears, Rama continues to reprimand her. Rama then moved on to say that he had gotten over the fool Sita had made out of him. However, he then went on to say that if Sita did not leave with Hanuman, then she must have had a reason to stay. All is all, Rama eventually accused Sita of infidelity, and that of course tore Sita to shreds. However, Sita kept her head screwed on, and the knew she was innocent, therefore, she told Rama she would walk through the fire to prove her innocence to him.

Authors Note:
This is a story retold in my own words, based off of the original story Sita and Rama. In my story, I have kept the characters the same. I also kept the same plot. The paragraphing is similar to the original form, but it is a little different too. I also chose to leave the Old English in the original version. I used an abundance of modern day phrases and of course words. In my version, I really honed on the emotions of the whole scene, but also on the individual characters too. I put in the emotions that I thought I would probably feel if I were in the characters' situation. I also wanted to include, that I chose to use this story because I am planning on combing this recreated story and previous retold story by me to make a full story for my portfolio website.

Bibliography:
Sita and Rama by Sister Nivedita. Web Source.