The Woman by the River

Many years later, after Rāma had come back from Laṅkā and become king, the people of Ayodhyā murmured that Sītā had been carried off by Rāvaṇa and kept in his city, and that Rāma should not have taken her back. Because of what the people said, Rāma sent her away to the forest, and Lakṣmaṇa left her on the bank of the Gaṅgā near Vālmīki's hermitage. Some young ascetics saw her weeping by the river and ran to the sage and bowed at his feet. Master, they said, we have never seen her before. She is like Śrī, the goddess of fortune, fallen from heaven. She is weeping on the riverbank, alone and without protection, a woman who does not deserve such sorrow. She is not an ordinary woman; she should be honoured. She has come near the hermitage looking for you, for refuge. Save her.

The sage, who saw by the eye of his austerity, knew at once what had happened, and hurried to the place on foot with his disciples, carrying offerings of welcome. On the bank of the Gaṅgā he found Sītā, Rāma's wife, alone and forlorn, and he spoke to her gently, as if his own radiance could soothe her grief.

You are the daughter-in-law of Daśaratha, he said, the dear queen of Rāma and the daughter of King Janaka. Welcome, faithful wife. I knew by my meditation that you were coming, and why. I know the whole truth of you, as I know everything that happens in the three worlds. I know by the eye of my austerity that you are without sin. Be at ease, Sītā. You are in my keeping now. Near my hermitage live women who practise austerity, and they will look after you always, child, as a mother looks after her own. Take this offering of welcome. Put away your fever of worry and come as if to your own home.

Sītā bowed her head to his feet and said, with folded hands, So be it, and followed him. The wives of the hermits came out gladly to meet him, and Vālmīki said to them, This is Sītā, the faithful wife of the wise Rāma, the daughter-in-law of Daśaratha and the daughter of Janaka. Though her husband has abandoned her, she is without sin, and I must always protect her. Look on her with great affection, for my sake and at my word. Then he went back to his hermitage.