Itihāsa / Rāmāyaṇa chronicle / Sundara · 35 of 50
35. The grove
Sundara (सुन्दर)
He sees her before he speaks. Sītā is thin, in a soiled cloth, surrounded by rākṣasīs who urge her to yield, and she is not yielded. Rāvaṇa comes into the grove and makes the offer again, kingdom, bed, and a threat of time. She refuses. She speaks of Rāma as the fact Rāvaṇa keeps trying to edit. Rāvaṇa leaves. The threats stay behind with the guards. Hanumān has watched the scene a rescuer most wants to interrupt, and he has not interrupted it, because a small stranger's sudden violence would get her killed.
When the grove is quieter he speaks, from the tree, a praise of Rāma. She thinks she is going mad, or that the praise is another trick. He comes down and gives her Rāma's ring. A ring is a small proof and it works, because grief recognizes an object. She gives him a jewel from her hair, the cūḍāmaṇi, and a memory only Rāma will know: a crow at Citrakūṭa, and a blade of grass Rāma made into a weapon. The page names the memory and does not linger on the crow.
He offers to carry her back across the sea, now. She refuses. Rāma must come. Her refusal is dignity and it is strategy and it is the poem's decision that the war will happen. She asks him to tell Rāma to come before her courage ends. A month is the time the tellings give her. He takes the jewel and the sentence. The meeting is the heart of the kāṇḍa. Everything else in it is getting there and getting back.
नेपालीमा
राक्षसीहरूले घेरिएकी सीता दुब्ला थिइन्, र झुकेकी थिइनन्। रावणले फेरि राज्य, ओछ्यान र समयको धम्कीको प्रस्ताव राख्यो। सीताले अस्वीकार गरिन्। हनुमानले बीचमा हस्तक्षेप गरेनन्। सानो अपरिचितको हिंसाले उनलाई मार्न सक्थ्यो। रुखबाट हनुमानले रामको स्तुति गरे। सीताले त्यो छल हो कि भनेर सोचिन्। उनले औंठी दिए। सीताले चुडामणि दिइन्, र चित्रकूटको कागको सम्झना, जुन राम मात्र जान्नुहुन्छ। यो पृष्ठले सम्झना भन्छ। कागमा अल्झिँदैन। हनुमानले अहिले नै लैजाने प्रस्ताव गरे, र सीताले अस्वीकार गरिन्। राम आउनुपर्छ। युद्ध हुने निर्णय यही हो।