Sita wooden puppet

SITA

(West Java's Sundanese ethnic style, in batik cloths; adaptation of Hindu epic Ramayana)

The exemplar of womanly and wifely virtue, Goddess of good crops.

Sita, the wife of Rama, was esteemed as an exemplar of womanly and wifely virtue. She was an avatar of Goddess Lakshmi, God Vishnu’s eternal consort, who chose to reincarnate herself on earth and endured an arduous life to provide humankind an example of good virtues.

She was a foundling, discovered in a furrow in a ploughed field and adopted by king of Mithila (modern-day: Janakpur, Nepal) and his wife. Upon her coming to age, she wed Rama, prince of Ayodhya, the seventh avatar of God Vishnu.

The name Sita literally means “furrow”, its imagery redolent of fecundity and the many blessings accrue from settled agriculture. Thus, it is Sita who blesses the land with good crops.

Exile and abduction

Some time after the wedding, Sita willingly renounced the comforts of the palace and joined her husband in braving the travails of exile in the forests. However, worse was to come; the forests was the scene for the abduction of Sita by Ravana, king of Lanka, while her husband was away fetching a magnificent golden deer to please her.

Ravana held Sita captive in his distant island realm. In captivity, Sita not only consistently rejected the many advances of her powerful and royal captor, but also preserved her chastity of mind, never once wavering in her adherence to her husband.

Later life

With the vast help from Hanuman, Sita was finally rescued by Rama, who waged a tremendous battle to defeat Ravana. Rama’s trust and affection for Sita never wavered. The couple returned to Ayodhya, where Rama was crowned king with Sita by his side.

Significance

The actions, reactions and instincts manifested by Sita at every juncture in a long and arduous life are deemed exemplary, her story is one by which every young girl in India is raised to this day. The values that she enshrined and adhered to at every point in the course of a demanding life are the values of womanly virtue held sacred by countless generations.

When Rama won the war, Hanuman went to give the news to Sita and asked for permission to kill the female giant who had tortured her. Sita told Hanuman not to follow the sins committed by others ― “one should behave according to one’s righteousness even if another has done you wrong”. Once she spoke badly to her brother-in-law when he did not go after Rama to save him, but in later part of the story she repented it.

Product specification:
    Wood:        Alstonia spp.
    Dress:        Batik cloth.
    Process:     Hand made.
    Colour:        Full colour.
    Height:        ± 55 cm.
    Weight:       Approx. 2.5 kg (including packaging).