Setubandha

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 21

Sita was seized with grief when she espied it, and began to tremble as the demons brought it near, and fainted when they said it was Rāma's head. v. 53
She shed no tears nor could even look at Rāma's head. Having fainted, she only sank to the ground, helpless like one dead. v. 56
With eyes closed as she swooned, she felt only bliss free from the pangs of separation, with the sorrow caused by Rama's death forgotten for the moment. 0. 58
Coming to herself, she bemoans her fate.
During separation from thee, I kept somehow alive in the hope of seeing thee, and thus have I seen thee. My hopes, although they were coming to fruition, were not fulfilled.
The Earth will have another lord, and Royal Fortune pass to many an eminent man. How is it that this uncommon widowhood hath befallen me alone? vv. 77-8 .
She feels ashamed that she is alive after witnessing the severed head, and fears that she will be remembered as a woman that lacked the courage to die.
Trijatā, a Rākṣasa woman who had befriended Sitā, tries to console her in her grief. She lays stress on the divine character of Rāma, and asks her got to judge him to be on a par with other men. How could she believe that the earth could hold Rāma's severed head without convulsions like the overturning of the earth and the commingling of the oceans, or the collapse of the mountains ? The wind still breaks the branches of the trees in Rāvana's palace garden, and the lotus blossoms there still close in contact with the rays of the moon, showing that Rama is alive, and the forces of nature continue to function under his protection (vv. 90, 91).
Rāma will come to her before long.
Soon wilt thou see Rāma happy with his bow unstrung, and serene and free from wrath, his face worn and pallid on account of separation from thee. v. 93