Chapter Seven: Literature of the Rasika Tradition

—Rama’s anguish in separation from Sita in Bhavabhuti’s Uttara-rāma-carita, as well as Sita and Rama’s awakening love in the Mahāvīra-carita. In the first act of the Mahāvīra-carita, Vishvamitra invites Sita and Urmila to his ashram, where Rama and Lakshmana are attracted upon seeing them. Study of these dramas makes it clear that from the eighth century onward, the erotic sentiment and the Couple’s love before union began to receive special treatment in literature about Rama and Sita.¹

3. Maithilī-kalyāṇa

This drama by the Jain poet Hastimalla is said to have been written in the final decade of the thirteenth century.² Its first four acts describe the love that awakens between Rama and Sita before their union. Before the svayaṃvara, the two meet at Mithila’s temple of Kamadeva and in the Madhavi grove. Sita is subsequently portrayed as an abhisārikā, a heroine going to meet her lover, in the Chandrakanta mansion. The final act presents their marriage.

4. Udāra-rāghava

The Udāra-rāghava is said to have been composed in the middle of the fourteenth century. Its author is Sakalyamalla. Of its eighteen cantos, only nine have survived and been published. When Rama is leaving for the forest, Sita argues: “I have heard many ancient Rāmāyaṇas, but in none of them have I heard of Rama going to the forest without Sita.”³ The description of Mithila’s women in Canto 3 and the loving forest recreation of Rama and Sita during exile in Canto 9 are especially noteworthy.

5. Jānakī-haraṇa

Kumaradasa’s Jānakī-haraṇa describes Rama and Sita’s mutual attraction and Sita’s separation even before the marriage.⁴ It describes their intimate union after the marriage.⁵ Canto 3 gives an especially extensive account of Dasharatha’s amorous recreation.

6. Satyopākhyāna

The Satyopākhyāna is available in book form, printed by Venkateshwar Press, Bombay. At its opening, Rama is described as an avatāra of Vishnu, Lakshmana of Shesha, Bharata of Sudarshana, and Shatrughna of the conch—