her eyes modestly downcast rather than
look directly at another man. When
Rama’s ally Hanumandiscovers where
Sita is hidden, she refuses to let him
carry her away, since this will have
meant touching another man, as well as
depriving her husband of the opportu-
nity to rescue her.
Her devotion is severely tested after
her rescue, when Rama insists that she
must have been unfaithful to him dur-
ing her long captivity. This accusation
reflects the Indian cultural assumption
that womenhave much higher sex dri-
ves than men, and much less ability to
control these drives. Stung by this accu-
sation, she asks Rama to have a funeral
pyre built for her and enters it with the
wish that, if she is innocent, the firewill
not harm her. When the blaze dies down
she emerges unscathed, with the god
Agni(fire personified) as a witness to
her chastity. Despite this proof, Rama
banishes her from Ayodhyaafter their
return. When Rama later demands a
second ordeal, Sita calls on the earth
to swallow her up as a witness to her
purity, and disappears forever.
Sita’s ability to withstand both
ordeals reflects the widespread Indian
belief that women gain power through
their devotion to their husbands, power
that can be so great that they can even
cursethe gods themselves. Encoded in
this notion are cultural messages about
the role of women and the importance
of their relationships with others. Sita
represents the model Indian woman,
whose primary loyalty is to her husband
and his family. This reflects the northern
Indian marriage pattern in which brides
are brought into the groom’s home and
become part of their marital families,
severing their connection with their
birthfamily. Wives are expected to place
other people’s welfare before their own,
so that they may live a happily married
life. In return for such self-sacrifice, a
wife becomes a model for all to respect
and honor.
For more information on Sita and all
the goddesses of Hinduism, see John
Stratton Hawley and Donna Wulff (eds.),
The Divine Consort, 1986; David R.
Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses, 1986; and
Sara Mitter, Dharma’s Daughters, 1991.Sitamarhi
City in the northern part of the state of
Bihar, about ten miles from the border
with Nepal. It is in the Panchalaregion
traditionally reckoned as the kingdom of
King Janaka, and Sitamarhi is believed
to be the place where the goddess Sita
was found in a furrow of the earthwhile
King Janaka was plowing.Six Schools
Collective name for the six developed
schools of traditional Hindu philoso-
phy. All six schools consider the reli-
gious texts known as the Vedasto be the
most authoritative pramana, the means
by which human beings can gain true
and accurate knowledge. All six schools
also assume that philosophical reflec-
tion must ultimately serve religious
goals, to release the embodied soul
(atman) from an otherwise unending
cycle of transmigration. Aside from
these basic similarities, each of these
schools developed distinctive and char-
acteristic perspectives. Despite their dif-
ferences, by the early centuries of the
common era the schools had become
associated in pairs: Nyaya-Vaisheshika,
Samkhya-Yoga, and Purva Mimamsa-
Uttara Mimamsa, with the final school
more commonly known as Vedanta.
Of these, the Nyaya school focused
on examining and cataloguing the pra-
manas, the means by which human
beings can gain true and accurate
knowledge, and their conclusions
became accepted by all six schools. The
Vaisheshika school was a descriptive
ontology that categorized the world in
atomistic fashion, in which all things
were considered to be constructed from
smaller parts. This school had inherent
philosophical problems that con-
tributed to its eclipse. Samkhyais an
atheistic dualism based on the distinc-
tion between a conscious but inertSitamarhi