Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 4

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 366

SĪTĀ'S PURIFICATION AND TAKING OF THE Vow
331
Sītā smiled and said: "No one else is wise except you, who without knowing any fault of mine had me abandoned in the forest. First you punished me; now you test me. You are clever, Käkutstha. Certainly, I am ready for that." Embarrassed, Räma said: "I know there is no fault of yours. This is said for escape from the fault invented by the people.”
Jänaki said: "I assent to the five ordeals.800 I will enter a blazing fire, eat rice, mount the scales, drink the heated bath-water of gods, seize the ploughshare with my tongue. Say which is pleasing to you." ...Just then, standing in the air, Siddhārtha and Nārada, too, and all the people, having restrained the tumult, said, "Sir! Sir! Rāghava! Sītā is certainly a virtuous wife, a pattern of fidelity. Do not cause any doubt about it here." Räma said: "Oh, people! Is there no propriety in you? She has been injured in the past by you alone, inventing a fault. You say one thing; before, you said something different. But say nothing of that. How was she guilty then and virtuous now? There is nothing to prevent your ascribing a sin again. Therefore, let Sītā enter a blazing fire for proof." Saying this, Räma had a ditch dug three hundred cubits long and deep as two men and had it filled with sandal-fuel.
900 189. Ten ordeals are usually given as standard. See Indian Wisdom (p. 226) and Balfour, s.v. For an elaborate discussion of the laws of ordeals, see the Yājñavalkya Smrti, Bk. II, Chap. VII. There are 5 ordeals prescribed for the exoneration from an accusation, but they do not correspond with the five Sitā suggests. They are: the balance, the fire, the water, the poison, and the bath-water. The ordeal of the fire is quite different from Sitā's. It consists of carrying a redhot ball of fire in the hand protected by certain leaves. Taptamāsa, lifting a weight of gold out of heated oil, and dharmadharma, drawing concealed images of virtue and vice out of a vessel filled with earth, are described in the commentaries to the Yājñavalkya Smrti; and also the tandula and phāla which Sītā offers to perform. The tenth ordeal, the tulasi, is not discussed.