Wife of Rama, a Symbol of the Ideal Woman in Hinduism
The Hindu epic Ramayana records that Sita is the wife of Rama, said to have been found in a furrow of a plowed field and regarded as a daughter of the earth goddess. She went willingly with her husband into forest exile, was later carried off to Lanka by the demon king Ravana, and, though in peril, firmly refused his coercion and enticements. After her rescue, to prove her purity she walked into fire, and the fire god attested that her chastity was untouched. Sita has long been seen in Indian culture as a symbol of fidelity and endurance, but her story — especially Rama’s later exile of her over popular rumor — is also an important subject of contemporary Hindu reflection on female narratives and gender.
After her rescue, when Rama grew doubtful because she had been in the demon king’s captivity, Sita, to prove her purity, asked that a fire be lit and walked straight into it. The fire god Agni then appeared, bearing the unharmed Sita out and attesting her chastity — an episode read variously across the ages, and the passage most often discussed as modern readers re-examine the epic’s view of gender.
Sita’s twofold trial of chastity and even her exile to the forest have long been re-examined and discussed among modern Indian scholars and feminist researchers, and some modern retellings (such as the novel The Forest of Enchantments) recount this part of the epic from Sita’s perspective. This site presents the original text’s record while noting that this episode has room for modern reinterpretation.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
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