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Re: Rama's banishment of Sita

From the Bhakti List Archives

Mani Varadarajan • January 18, 1996 


On Jan 18,  5:05am, Jaganath.Bharadwaj@nrecatao.nreca.org wrote:
> One point that seems to have been missed in the discussions so far is
> that there were two instances when Sita entered a fire.  One was
> before Ravana showed up to kidnap her and the second time was in
> Lanka after Ravana was killed.  In the first instance Mahalakshmi
> left the earth and was replaced by a Jivatma Vedavati.

This version of the story is only found in Tulsidas's
Ram Charit Manas and has no basis in Valmiki's original.
Having a ``maaya'' Sita adds no interest to the story
and should not be given much weight.  According to
Valmiki, the one and only Sita was forcibly abducted
to Lanka by Ravana with his own hands.

Mani