Storytelling Week 6: Trijata's Loyalty

My name is Trijata.  My mistress, Sita, is greatly distressed.  I have been serving as her maid since the time that Ravana captured her and brought her back to the palace.  Though no one could tell at the time, she proved to be extremely loyal, as well as being extremely stubborn.  My lord, Ravana, originally assigned me to work for her in an attempt to win her over through kindness.  It did not work.  As time passed and his patience decreased again and again, he changed his tactics from kindness to terror.  The beautiful rooms that he originally placed her in were replaced with his personal gardens, meant to terrify her and break her.  He had her surrounded by demons threatening her with physical violence for refusing Ravana.  Through this all she refused to break, remaining faithful to her husband.  As I spent more time with her, I grew to respect her as a strong woman.  Though she does not make it obvious, she remained a strong woman and a devoted wife.  No other person would be able to follow their husband into exile in the forests for 14 years, living without the luxuries that she was raised with.
As I said, I grew closer to her, coming to care for her as if she was my sister.  Because of this, I do my best to protect her from Ravana's attempts of scaring her into submission.  The latest one, however, was difficult.  Ravana decided that Sita may choose to marry him if her husband is taken out of the picture.  To do this, he originally had his court magicians create an illusion of Rama's decapitated head.  He threw this at her feet, trying to convince her that he had defeated Rama and that no one was going to come and save her now.  She nearly fell for it, but a lucky mistake allowed her to realize that it was false.  He later tried to convince her that Rama was dead by showing her his body lying still on the battle field.  This was a very convincing argument.  Thankfully, I was able to help her.  I remembered that Ravana's chariot would not move if there was a widow on it.  This meant that the story being given to Sita was false.  Her husband was still alive.

I decided to take the story of Rama's illusioned death and tell it from the perspective of Trijata.  She is there throughout the story for Sita, even though she is only mentioned on occasion.  I felt that she may be able to give another view of the occurrences, showing how Sita reacted to Ravana's approaches and how it was received by him. 

(Image of a puppet Trijata; photo source Wikipedia)

• Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Week 6: Reading Diary B

Hanuman returns to Rama and tells him that he has seen Sita.  They have to go to Lanka to rescue her.  Rama and his army go in that direction, reaching the sea.  They cannot cross it, making Rama curse at it.  The Sea god tells him that one of the monkeys can make rocks float, allowing the army to build a bridge across the sea.  In Lanka, Ravana's brother Vibhishana tries to convince him to end the fighting and return Sita.  Ravana refuses, leading Vibhishana to seek refuge with Rama and aid him, though he will not fight against his people. Ravana begins sending spies into Rama's camp to find out what is going on.  Though he sends spies in twice, both times they are discovered and returned to him.  After that fails, he tries to trick Sita into thinking that her husband is dead, having his magicians make an illusion of Rama's decapitated head.

Ravana continues to try to convince Sita that her husband is dead, hoping that she will turn to him for comfort in her time of sorrow.  At the same time, he is pushing Rama's attempts for a peaceful resolution away.  He wants war.  When war finally comes he tries again to trick Sita, though her aid Trijata helps keep her hopeful and devoted to Rama.  At the end of this section, Ravana is preparing to go to war after his son has been killed.