Ravana Lifts Sita into the Chariot and Fear Seizes the Reins
Aranya Kanda, Doha 28
Doha 28 · Movement 2 of 2
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Ravana's anger breaks through the last restraint. He takes Sita and seats her upon his chariot, forcing the stillness of Panchavati into sudden movement. The empty hermitage drops beneath them as the vehicle rises toward the path of the sky.
He drives in desperate haste, but terror has entered the abductor before Rama has returned. The king who came through disguise and solitude cannot drive the chariot properly. Fear grips the motion he has begun without bringing it to a halt.
The sky-road opens before Lanka's lord, yet the flight carries no freedom. Sita is held against her will, Ravana urges the chariot onward, and the unseen presence of Rama already weighs upon the reins. The abduction has scarcely begun, but dread travels with it.
The chariot takes the sky, yet Rama's unseen name makes fear heavier than its wheels.
Read the passage from the Manas
क्रोधवंत तब रावन लीन्हिसि रथ बैठाइ। चला गगनपथ आतुर भयँ रथ हाँकि न जाइ।।28।।
Then Ravana, consumed by krodha, seated Sita upon his chariot and flew through the sky-path in desperate haste. Yet fear gripped him so tightly that he could not drive the ratha at all.