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Sita

Sita

Sita  or Seeta, is the consort of Lord Rama (incarnation of Vishnu) and an avatar of Sri Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess that denotes good sign, good fortune, prosperity, success, happiness. She is esteemed as the paragon of spousal and feminine virtues for all Hindu women.

She is the central female character and one of the central figures in the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. She is described as the daughter of the earth goddess, Bhūmi and the adopted daughter of King Janaka of Videha and his wife, Queen Sunaina. She was the elder sister of Urmila and cousins Mandavi and Shrutakirti. Sita is known for her dedication, self-sacrifice, courage and purity.

Sita, in her youth, marries Lord Rama, the prince of Ayodhya. After marriage, she goes to exile with her husband and brother-in-law Lakshmana. While in exile, the trio settle in the Dandaka forest from where she is abducted by Ravana, the Rakshasa king of Lanka. She is imprisoned in Ashoka Vatika in Lanka until she is rescued by Rama, who slays her captor. After the war, Rama asks her to undergo Agni Pariksha (an ordeal of fire) by which she proves her purity before she is accepted by Rama, which for the first time made his brother Lakshmana get angry at him.

In some versions of the epic, the fire-god Agni creates Maya Sita, who takes her place and is abducted by Ravana and suffers his captivity, while the real Sita hides in the fire. At Agni Pariksha, Maya Sita and the real Sita exchange places again. While some texts mention that Maya Sita is destroyed in the flames of Agni Pariksha, others narrate how she is blessed and reborn as the epic heroine Draupadi or the goddess Padmavati. Some scriptures also mention her previous birth being Vedavati, a woman Ravana tries to molest.

After proving her purity, Rama and Sita return to Ayodhya, where they are crowned as king and queen. After few months,she becomes pregnant which brought doubt to the Kingdom. Rama then sends her away on exile. Lakshmana is the one who leaves her in the forests near sage Valmiki’s ashrama after Rama banishes her from the kingdom. Years later, she returns to her mother, the Earth’s womb, for release from a cruel world as a testimony of her purity after she reunites her two sons Kusha and Lava with their father Rama.

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