The Illusory Rampart of Lanka

Ravana flew slowly through the sky with Sita atop his vimana, circling her with pleading words as her lotus face withered with weeping: he was dying from the arrows of Kama and she would bear the sin of killing a man; let her bathe him in the light of her eyes or else crush his head with her lotus feet; he wished he were an ashoka tree in her pleasure garden, which blossoms at the touch of a woman's foot; and he bade her look down from above the sun at the earth with Meru, the kulachala (boundary) mountains and the oceans. From behind her veil Sita, a Sumeru of chastity, answered: ‘Away, vile one, do not touch me or speak such sinful words; your lust for another's wife will bring you great sorrow, like stepping on fire hidden in ashes, and preaching dharma to you is as useless as dancing before the blind.’

Ravana's well-wishers Shuka, Hasta, Prahasta and others, who had gone to Kharadushana's war, returned to Lanka dejected at his death, but Ravana, heeding no one, kept pleading with Sita with folded hands; then, hailed by ministers and warriors from every quarter amid songs, dances and music, he entered Lanka like Indra. Sita thought that if a king himself breaks all bounds, none will protect the earth, and vowed to renounce all four kinds of food and drink until she heard news of her lord Rama's well-being, and Ravana placed her in the heavenly Devaranya garden and went to his palace.

News of Kharadushana's death arrived, Ravana's 18,000 queens wailed aloud, and Chandranakha rolled in her brother's lap lamenting that her husband and son were both dead; Ravana consoled her that no one dies before their time, not even by a thunderbolt, and none escapes when death comes, for how else could a wretched land-dweller kill her husband, the Vidyadhara Kharadushana, lord of the Daityas? He promised to kill whoever had killed her husband and son, and told her to worship the Jina and keep the vows of a shravika (laywoman).

Ravana then went to his palace and fell on his bed sighing like a serpent, and his chief queen Mandodari, finding him so troubled, reminded him that he had never grieved when his uncle Shrimali and many kinsmen fell in the war against Indra, so why grieve so for Kharadushana? Ravana made her promise to do as he asked and confessed that without Sita, unrivalled among women, he could not live, his kingdom of three khandas being worthless without her; Mandodari laughed that any woman who refused him must be unfortunate and asked why he did not simply take her by force with his trunk-like arms.

Ravana explained that in the presence of Anantavirya Kevali, who taught that even a single vow bears great fruit and that a person without vows is like a cracked pot, no better than a beast, a monk had urged him, ‘Dashanana, you have come to the jewel-island of compassion; do not leave without taking the jewel of a vow,’ and so, with gods, asuras, Vidyadharas and monks as witnesses, he had vowed never to take by force another man's wife who did not desire him, thinking that no woman could refuse so handsome a man. Since a king must keep his word, he begged Mandodari to win Sita over before he died, for digging a well after the house is on fire is futile, and she went to the Devaranya garden followed by Ravana's 18,000 queens.

Mandodari told Sita that blessed is the woman whose husband is Ravana, lord of all Vidyadharas, conqueror of the gods and the handsomest in the three worlds, asked why she grieved for poor, powerless, forest-dwelling land-dwellers, and warned that Rama and Lakshmana could not survive Ravana's wrath. With tears Sita replied, ‘You are called a devoted wife, yet such words come from your lips? Let my body be pierced, cut to pieces or die, I will never desire another man, were he as handsome as Sanatkumara or Indra; even if all 18,000 of you have come together, I will not do as you say.’

Then Ravana came, tormented by desire like a thirsty elephant at the Ganga, sweetly declared himself her devotee, lord of the three worlds who lacked nothing, and stepped forward to touch her, but Sita cried, ‘Away, vile man, do not touch my body!’; when he urged her to give up anger and pride and become the mistress of divine pleasures like Shachi, she replied that the splendour of the unchaste is like filth while the poverty of the virtuous is an ornament, that for one born in a noble line broken chastity ruins both worlds, and that death was her refuge, for the life of one who lusts after another's wife is itself death. Rebuffed, Ravana turned in anger to illusion: the 18,000 queens left, the sun set as if afraid, and through the night illusory rutting she-elephants, showers of sparks, hissing serpents, fierce monkeys with gaping jaws and fire-tongued pythons assailed her, yet Sita never sought refuge with Ravana.

At dawn, as drums sounded in the Jina temples, Vibhishana and Ravana's other brothers came grieving for Kharadushana and sat with bowed heads, and hearing a woman weeping behind a curtain, Vibhishana asked who she was; Sita replied, ‘I am the daughter of King Janaka, sister of Bhamandala and queen of Rama; Dasharatha is my father-in-law and Lakshmana my brother-in-law,’ told how Ravana had seized her while Rama went to aid Lakshmana against Kharadushana, and begged him as a brother to send her back before her husband died of grief. Vibhishana humbly told Ravana that another's wife is like a tongue of flame or the hood of a venomous snake, that this lust would burn the creeper of his fame and ruin both worlds, and that adulterers sink into hell like a red-hot iron ball into water, but Ravana answered that every beautiful thing on earth was his, so how could anything be another's, and changed the subject.

The wise minister Maricha too lamented that delusion had led even so discerning a king astray and said the wise should reflect each morning on their own welfare, but Ravana made no reply, mounted his elephant Trailokyamandana and, with his vassals bearing spears, swords, lances, chowries, parasols and banners, entered Lanka. Sita, who counted his chakravarti-like splendour as less than straw and stayed untouched like a lotus in water, was placed beneath an ashoka tree in the Pramada garden, one of the seven wondrous gardens, Prakirnaka, Jananada, Sukhasevya, Samuchchaya, Charanapriya, Nibodha and Pramada, that adorn Lanka as the Bhadrashala and other forests adorn Sumeru, beside the lotus-filled Ashokamalini stepwell with steps of gems and gold; there, by Ravana's order, many Vidyadharis tried with garments, perfumes, songs, dances and music to cheer her as she grieved for Rama like Indrani parted from Indra, but in vain.

Ravana's messengers reported that Sita had renounced food and water, would neither speak nor look at them and would not even glance at the delicacies set before her; consumed by desire, Ravana sighed, sang, babbled, threw himself on the ground, beat the earth with his hands, called ‘Sita, Sita’, wept, drew her picture and tossed on his bed, then reflected with dismay that he, who had conquered thousands of Vidyadharas in their fortresses and amid the seas and defeated the famed Indra, was now so maddened by delusion that he could not govern his own body. Gautama tells Shrenika that while Ravana was ruled by desire, the wise Vibhishana, who carried the burden of the kingdom and had Ravana's welfare most at heart, gathered the ministers to ask what must be done.

The minister Sambhinnamati said that all was going wrong: Kharadushana, Ravana's right arm, was dead, Viradhita, a jackal turned lion, had aided Lakshmana, the Vanaravamshis looked loyal outside but were venomous within like snakes, and Hanuman, son of Pavana and husband of Kharadushana's daughter Anangakusuma, had also married Sugriva's daughter and so leaned toward Sugriva's side. The minister Panchamukha scoffed that dying in battle is a warrior's lot, that one death was but a drop lost from the ocean, and that praising forest-dwelling land-dwellers was shameful, since neither the Suryahasa sword in Lakshmana's hand nor Viradhita's alliance changed anything.

The minister Sahasamati rebuked such idle talk, warning that a single spark can burn the whole earth, as little Triprishtha slew the mighty Ashvagriva, and urged them to ring Lanka with illusory machines, reassure the people, win Sita with gifts and sweet words as one soothes a she-serpent with milk, and post Vanara warriors as guards outside the city so that no news could leak and none would know who had taken Sita or where; without Sita Rama would surely die and Lakshmana of grief for him, leaving Viradhita helpless, and the machines should be entrusted to Sugriva, into whose house a Vidyadhara in Sugriva's form had come, to please him so that Ravana would destroy his enemy. Agreeing, they dispersed, and Vibhishana surrounded Lanka with an illusory rampart (mayamaya kota) of machines and many vidyas so that none could enter from above, below or the sides, and Gautama concludes that the wise should turn from worldly concerns to strive for liberation, for good deeds bring happiness and evil ones sorrow.