The Story of the Bow

Then Anasūyā, sitting beside her, asked for a story. I have heard, Sītā, that Rāma here won you at a svayaṃvara, the gathering of suitors for a princess's hand. I want to hear it in full, just as it happened.

So Sītā told her. My father Janaka, lord of Mithilā, was ploughing his field when I rose up out of the earth. He saw me covered in dust and was filled with wonder, and since he had no child he took me in his lap and said, This is my daughter, and a voice from the sky said, She is truly your daughter by dharma. He gave me to his chief queen, and she loved me as a mother loves.

When I was of age, my father grew anxious, for he could find no husband fit for a daughter who was not born of any womb. He resolved to hold a svayaṃvara. At his great sacrifice the god Varuṇa had given him a bow, with two quivers of arrows that would never run out, a bow so heavy that kings could not bend it even in their dreams. My father called the kings together and said, Whoever lifts this bow and strings it shall have my daughter. The kings saw the bow, heavy as a mountain, and bowed to it and went away.

After a long time, Rāma came with Lakṣmaṇa and the sage Viśvāmitra, who had taken the two princes from their father's court, to see the sacrifice. The sage said to my father, These two sons of Daśaratha wish to see the bow. Show it to Prince Rāma. The bow was brought, and in the blink of an eye Rāma bent it and strung it and drew it, and as he drew it the bow broke in two, with a sound like a thunderbolt falling.

My father lifted a fine vessel of water to give me to him there. But Rāma would not accept until he knew the wish of his father, the king of Ayodhyā. So my father called the aged king Daśaratha, and gave me to Rāma, and my younger sister Ūrmilā to Lakṣmaṇa. So I was given to Rāma, and by dharma I am devoted to my husband.