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THE JAINA GAZETTE father's permission to go and rule over their former kingdom of Varanasi. Dasaratha agreeing, Rama, with Sita and his brother Lakshmana went and settled in Varanasi. where he was reigning according to Dharma.
Let us now turn to Ravana the great Vidyadhara over-lord of Lanka. When Ravana was ruling over the land without any rival he heard one day from a soothsayer that the birth of a daughter would be the cause of the ruin of his Empire. Ravana was very much agitated by this prediction. When his wife Mandodari gave birth to a daughter, Ravana, fearing that the prediction might turn out to be true, commanded one of his officers to take the child away and leave it in the wilderness to perish. But the mother managed to influence the officer in charge of this commission to save the child. The child was kept safely in a box with a document as to her parentage and with a letter of request to any stranger who happened to come across the child to bring her up as his own. The officer took the box with the child without the knowledge of Ravana, and left it before a party of “ BoomiSodakas" belonging to Janaka's realm. These surveyors probably that is the meaning of the term-accidentally came across the box in which was a beautiful child. They took the box to King Janaka who adopted the child as his own daughter and that was Sita. While Ravana was in ignorant bliss that he had averted the danger predicted, by disposing of the child, Sita was married by his future adversary Rama.
One day when Rama was in the darbar hall with his wife Sita by his side, Narada entered the sabha-mandapa. Rama did not notice him as he was talking to his queen. Narada felt that he was slighted by Rama and hence wanted to punish him, for not awarding respectful welcome. Narada attributed this neglect on the part of Rama, to the pride of his beautiful wife. Therefore some means must be devised to deprive him of his wife. So Narada went straight to Ravanesvara of Lanka and told him : “While I was in Varanasi some time back I happened to see Sita, Rama's queen. She is the jewel of woman-kind. She ought to be the queen of the Vidyadhara Emperor and not of the petty Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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