Sita, Warrior of Mithila (Ram Chandra Series Book 2)
I have recently finished Book 2 Sita of Ram Chandra series by Amish Tripathi. Amish is a wonderful author. The way he takes Indian mythology as base and then mix his imagination into it, is something beyond excellence. I adored his Shiva Trilogy series and now I am finding Ram Chandra series very fascinating.
In this book the characters names and relations between them are taken as it is portrayed in epic Ramayana. But unique thing about this book is that it shed light on Sita’s life. It tells the story of Sita. In Ramayana we never got a chance to know Sita’s life until Swayamwar. However the story of Sita’s life is pure imagination of author, nothing to do with mythology, but he had brilliantly portrayed her life’s story in this book.
This books focus mainly on finding next Vishnu after Lord Parshu Ram. There were two tribes in India at that time, Vayuputras and Malayaputras. Tribe Vayuputras was left behind by Lord Rudra and Malayaputras was left behind by Lord Parshu Ram (Sixth Vishnu). It was the duty of Malayaputra’s leader to find next Vishnu. The leader of Malayaputras was Guru Vishwamitra. However, The Vayuputra’s leader was also engaged in finding the next Vishnu. The leader of Vayuputra’s was Guru Vashishtha.
Vishnu is considered as a ruler who will take India to new heights. One who will remove poverty, maintain rules and regulations in the nation. India was suffering from poverty, divisions and many other social evils at that time. It was the duty of Vishnu to remove all these problems and make India greatest nation again.
Guru Vashishta and Guru Vishwamitra is shown as friends turned into enemies in this book. The reason is not explained in this book.
This was the background and now let’s start story of main protagonist of this book.
Sita was found by king Janaka of Mithila and queen Sunaina in a jungle. Sunaina resuced her from the jungle and adopted as her own daugther. Sita was a very brave, kind hearted and intelligent girl. Once at a very young age (8 years) she visited a slum area of Mithila where she got attacked by some young boys of slum area. She was saved by a slum girl called Samichi. (Samchi had a very big role to play in later part of this book and series) Samichi was then appointed as caretaker of Sita.
King Janak had huge interest in philosophy, So he was always engrossed in reading and took very less interest towards his kingdom. It was his wife Sunaina who was looking after the whole kingdom.
Kushadhwaja was younger brother of Janaka and king of Sankasya. Sanksya was a small kingdom but it was flourishing better than Mithila because the trade routes were better in it. Queen Sunaina wanted to set better trade routes in Mithila so that it can also prosper again. One day Sunaina, Janaka and Kushdhwaja were sitting in a room and had a discussion for setting up route between Mithila and Sankasya. Sunaina asked Kushdhwaja some financial help which he agreed but it needed to be sealed. When Kushadhwaja took out his royal seal then it was found that he was having a different non expectable seal over which arguments started between them. Kushadhwaja started insulting queen Sunaina. That time Sita entered the room and destroyed the royal seal which made Kushadhwaja as Mithila’s enemy. He got very angry over this and vowed to take revenge. Both Janaka and Sunaina also got very angry with Sita for this incident and then they decided to send her to gurukul.
Sita was sent to Rishi Shvetketu’s gurukul. She was a great warrior and a child prodigy. Once Vishwamitra visited the Gurukul and got very impressed by Sita’s skills. He then decided to make her next Vishnu. After this her education of becoming Vishnu started. Meanwhile queen Sunaina fell sick and Sita returned to Mithila for looking after the kingdom. She became prime minister of Mithila and Samichi became chief of police. She made good progress in uplifting Mithila. Her education to become Vishnu also continued parallely. She used visit multiple parts of Sapt Sindhu in between.
On the other side, Ram was selected as next Vishnu by Guru Vashishtha. During Sita’s swayamwar, Ram was tricked by Vishwamitra to visit Mithila. He came to know that he also needed to take part in swayamwar. Initially he was not happy with it. (He had always thought that he would marry someone in front of whom he would bow his head.) After coming to Mithila he and Laxman visited market. In market he saw prime minister Sita fighting with some goons. After seeing her his head automatically bowed in front of her and he fell in love with her.
Raavan was also invited in the swayamwar by Kushadwaja. However Ram was first to participate which made Raavan angry. Ram won the swayamwar. ( In this book the swayamwar’s task is completely different than the original mythology. In this, the participant needed to fire arrow from Pinaka , Lord Rudra’s bow, and then he needed to strike a fish eye, this is something similar to Mahabharata)
Raavan attacked Mithila on swayamwar day. Vishwamitra suggested to use Asuraastra on Raavan’s army. That would make them unconscious for few days and in that time Mithilan army could capture the prisoners. Sita and Ram did not want to use that because it was banned by Lord Rudra. Still Vishwamitra convinced Rama to fire the astra to save Mithila. This defeated the Raavan’s army.
As per the law anyone who use daivi astra has to go through 14 years of banishment, Ram was a great follwer of rules, that’s why he decided 14 years of exile for himself. Sita and Laxman also decided to accompany him in the exile.
After reaching Ayodhya he told about his decision of 14 years of exile to his father. King Dashrath did not agree to it but then queen Kaikeyi demanded it from king in kopa bhawan. This way Ram, Sita and Laxman went for exile.
To prepare for the exile Sita asked some Malayaputran soldiers to follow them without knowledge of Ram to protect them from any unexpected threat. She also took enough somras from guru Vashishtha. This would keep them young after 14 years as well.
In the exile they had visited many places and faced a lot of troubles which they overcome as a group. Finally in the 13th year of exile they decided to stay in Dandkaarnya. One day Vibhisan and Surpankha visited their place and asked to keep them as their guest. As the law for guests was “Atithi devo bhava” , So Ram agreed to keep them for few days. Surpankha had her eyes on Ram but Ram only loved Sita. One day a huge fight happened between Sita and Surpankha and to protect Sita Laxman cut nose of Surpankha.
As the royal blood was shed , Raavan was compelled to take revenge. One day he came on this Pushpak vimaan with Kumbhkarna, his army, and Samichi and took Sita with him.. (Yes, Samichi was in Raavan’s army)
End of the book on this suspense.
This was a short summary of the book. The book is an interesting read. I had read Book 1, Ram, Scion of Ikskvaku as well. I will write about that as well later. Few points which were interesting and different in this book:
Sita was selected as next Vishnu by Malayaputras and Ram was selected as next Vishnu by Vayuputras. ( After getting married, they both decided that they both would be next Vishnu. There will be two Vishnu as there was no law to not have more than one Vishnu)
Malayaputras and Vayuputras were tribes left by Lord Parshu Ram and Lord Rudra respectively.
Sita’s education held in Shvetketu’s gurukul.
Sita was a warrior of Mithila. She was the prime minister of the kingdom. Mithila prospered in her rein.
Hanuman was a friend of Sita from her childhood. In her gurukul she had a friend named Radhika, Hanuman was a her cousin brother. They both used to meet him and he was given a cool name by them, Hanu Bhaiya. Hanuman was a Vayuputra.
Radhika and prince Bharat loved each other a lot. But they broke up to pursue different things.
King Janaka had no interest in his kingdom. He was a great philosoper and always engrossed in his books. It was his wife Sunaina who used to take all decision of the kingdom.
The way Sita’s Swayamwar was designed was completely different. It looked more like the swayamwar of Draupadi.
Manthra was shown as a businesslady. She had money more than entire Sapt Sindhu. She wanted to take revenge of her daughter. That’s why she instigated Kaikeyi to give exile to Ram.
During their exile, before Sita was kidnapped they met Angad and Vali. Vali played Jalikattu. Laxman also played it to save vali from a bull.
Thanks for reading. Please leave comments.