Sri Soundararajan, I believe that the first time this is encountered is in Tulsidas' Ramayan; although references to it can are also found in popular stories surrounding the sthala purAnam of Thirumalai, indicating that the story had been around long before this work. The need for a Maya Sita came about to assuage the pain of Sita's having to undergo agni pravEsham within minutes of her release from her long imprisonment. How else could one explain Rama's strange behaviour towards his wife, other than by simply saying that the woman who was rescued from Lanka was not his true wife? Using this example, it was believed that that the Maya Sita, who was the reincarnation of the sagely Vedavathi (who cursed Ravana for his advances towards her by cursing that a woman would cause his downfall) and who went through all the suffering, was the creation of agni dEvatha, who brought her to Panchavati to replace the real Sita just at the moment that Ravana was about to kidnap her. By entering the fire, the Maya Sita would return to her abode, and the real Sita, who had remained in the care of Agni all along, would be returned back to her Rama. Along with its lack of authenticity in light of Sri Valmiki Ramayana, this notion also dilutes the level of sacrifice and suffering that the Divine Couple had to endure in order to redeem not only the rishis of the forests, but the rAkshasas of Lanka, as well. By the way, the connection to Thirumalai was established by saying that Sri Rama, recognizing all the suffering and that Vedavathi/Maya Sita underwent for in Service to Him, consented to marry her in His future AvAthAram as Srinivasa. This is why the Lord has two consorts residing on His Chest. adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan Mohan ----- Original Message ----- From: "vimalkumar ranganathan" <panardasan@xxxx> To: <ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 3:29 PM Subject: Re: [ramanuja] SriRama > Sri: Sri Nappinnai, Thanks for the nice article. I had gone to the ISKCON temple for Sri Rama Navami yesterday, and according to Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Sita that was kidnapped and incarcerated by Ravana was not the original Piratti, but Mayadevi. I would like to know from the adiyaars in this group, if they had ever heard of this version of the story of Lord Rama and if so, the origins of it, could it be Srimad Bhagavatham for GVs give maximum importance to SB?? Now, lets not attack the GVs in the process, they are another Vaishnava Sampradaya. I just thought that that piece of information was rather interesting to share it with the group, and want to know what the Adiyaars in this group think of the understanding of the GVs. Dasan, Kidambi Soundararajan >
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
ramanuja-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |