Week 3 Storytelling: The Story of Sita's Fear

As Ravana carried her away, Sita saw Jatayu fall, and with him, her last hope.

“Eventually, you will grow to care for me,” Ravana said, half trying to convince himself.

“I will always hate you! I only care for Rama and you have taken me away from him! You will never have me!” Sita replied angrily.

For days, Ravana carried Sita over his shoulder. She kicked and screamed the whole way, dropping jewelry with her as a trail, but no matter what Ravana continued on.

After a week of this, Ravana and Sita arrived in his capital. There, he locked her away in a house.

“You will stay here, locked away, until you can appreciate the strong god you have in front of you, instead of longing for a man you will never see again,” Ravana said.

“No, I will stay here until Rama saves me from you!” Sita yelled, as Ravana slammed the door.

Many days passed, which Sita kept track of by carving tally marks in the wall with a sharp rock. Each day, Ravana would come to see her. First, he would appear in good spirits with gifts for Sita, but when Sita refused to look at him, he would become angry and leave.

One day, she decided to pretend to care for Ravana in order to escape. After faking pleasantries and accepting his gifts, Sita easily fooled Ravana.

“I told you that you would grow to care for me.” Ravana said proudly.

“You’re right! Once I forgot about that simple man, Rama, I could finally see how lucky I was to have the admiration of someone like you, so strong and handsome.” Sita said convincingly.

“”Now that you finally understand, I see no reason to keep you locked away. I will unlock the door so that you can join me and my siblings for dinner this evening.” Ravana replied.

Sita politely accepted his invitation and played nice with Ravana and his family.

Later that night, Sita sneaked out of the house and started running as far as she could from Ravana’s terrible city.

When Ravana came to visit her and realized she was gone, his scream could be heard all over the Earth. This made Sita run even faster, but it did not matter. However fast she ran, Ravana could run one hundred times faster. Ravana came after her and recaptured her within an hour.

Once they were back in the city, Ravana took her to the Ashoka Vana garden. This was no normal garden. Instead of red roses, there were black roses. Instead of gnome statues, there were terrifying gargoyle statues. On many of the flowers, thorns stuck out, dripping with poison. Within the garden, stood many demons. Ravana threw Sita, who wept desperately, onto the ground.

“Until I have vanquished your dear Rama, you will never feel safe again! I leave you with these demons.  May they terrify and frighten you every moment, until Rama is dead. Once I have killed him, we may have a chance,” Ravana said.

After instructing the demons to constantly frighten Sita, Ravana left and held up in his palace.

Sita remained in the garden, terrified for her life, with no way to keep track of the days. For what seemed like an eternity, Sita sat there in constant fear. One day, however, everything changed. She had finally decided that there was no point in living any longer and prepared to end her life, but then Hanuman appeared, and with him, new hope.

Image information: Hanuman approaching Sita in Ravana's garden

Source: Spiritual Messenger

Author's Note: For my storytelling this week, I wanted to feel in the gap of what had happened to Sita during her abduction. In Narayan's Ramayana, Sita is taken away after Ravana kills Jatayu, and then we hear nothing of her, except that she dropped jewelry along the way, until Hanuman finally finds her. I wanted to tell a story about how those months passed for her in Ravana's capital. I really like to use dialogue, so I narrated the story, with a focus on Sita.

Bibliography: Narayan, R.K. (1972) The Ramayana.