Maa Sita Maa

Maa Sita Maa


Sita is one of the principal characters in the Ramayana, a Hindu epic named after Her husband Rama. Goddess Sita was born in Sitamarhi (Punaura) in Bihar (India), taken to Janakpur by King Janak part of Nepal. She is esteemed as the standard setter for wifely and womanly virtues for all Hindu women. Understood theologically in Hinduism, Sita is an avatāra of Lakshmi, one of the forms of the Goddess or Shakti, who chose to reincarnate Herself on earth as Sita and endure an arduous life in order to provide humankind with an example of good virtues.

Sita was raised by King Janaka; she was not his natural daughter but sprang from a furrow when he was ploughing his field. Rama won her as his bride by bending Shiva’s bow, and she accompanied her husband when he went into exile. Though carried away to Lanka by Ravana, she kept herself chaste by concentrating her heart on Rama throughout her long imprisonment. On her return she asserted her purity and also proved it by voluntarily undergoing an ordeal by fire. Rama, however, banished her to the forest in deference to public opinion. There she gave birth to their two children, Kusha and Lava. After they reached maturity and were acknowledged by Rama to be his sons, she called upon her mother, Earth, to swallow her up.