Itihāsa / Rāmāyaṇa chronicle / Yuddha · 45 of 50
45. The ordeal
Yuddha (युद्ध)
Sītā is brought. She has waited through a war fought, she believes, for her. Rāma speaks to her in front of the army, and the speech is cold. He did not do this for her. He did it because a theft had to be answered, and the honor of his house had to be recovered, and she is free to go where she wishes, to Bharata, to any of the brothers, anywhere but into an unquestioned return. The poem does not ask the reader to like the speech. It writes it as a public cruelty, spoken by a man who has just won.
She answers with an anger that matches the speech, and she steps into fire. Agni returns her and says she is without fault. Rāma says he knew, and that the people needed to see what he already knew. The page says she steps into the fire and the fire gives her back. It does not linger, and it does not make the fire a method. The public doubt is answered. The private wound is not. A marriage that began with a bow in Mithilā is now a marriage with a burn in the middle of it, even if the burn left no mark the people can see.
This is the ordeal of the Yuddha-kāṇḍa. Uttara will ask again, without fire, and the earth will answer. A reader who collapses the two into one test has missed the poem's cruelty. He puts her through a public proof here, and it is not enough for the book that follows.
नेपालीमा
सीतालाई ल्याइयो। रामले सेनाका सामु चिसो भाषण गर्नुभयो। उहाँले भन्नुभयो, यो उनका लागि गरिएको होइन, चोरीको उत्तर र घरको मान फर्काउन गरिएको हो; उनी जहाँ चाहन्छिन् जान स्वतन्त्र छिन्। कविताले भाषण मन पराउन भन्दैन। उनले आगोमा पाइला टेकिन्। अग्निले उनलाई निर्दोष भनेर फर्काउनुभयो। रामले भन्नुभयो, मलाई थाहा थियो, प्रजाले देख्नुपर्थ्यो। यो पृष्ठले आगोमा टेकिन् र आगोले फर्कायो भन्छ। विधि बनाउँदैन। सार्वजनिक शङ्काको उत्तर आयो। निजी घाउ रहेको छ। उत्तरकाण्डले फेरि सोध्नेछ, आगो बिना। दुई परीक्षा एक होइनन्।