In the Ashoka grove

Read along

Namaste. Last time Hanuman crossed the ocean, searched all of Lanka by moonlight, and nearly lost heart. Then he chose hope, and turned towards a great grove of ashoka trees he had not yet searched.

Tonight, at last, he finds her.

**

Hanuman climbs a tall **shimshapa** tree in the middle of the grove, thick with leaves, and hides among its branches. Below him are streams, lotus ponds, birds, flowering trees. It is one of the loveliest gardens he has ever seen.

And then he sees a woman sitting on the ground.

She is thin from fasting. Her clothes are old and faded. Her hair is tied in a single plait. She is surrounded by guards, and she looks, Valmiki says, like a flame hidden under smoke, like the moon covered by clouds. She is sighing, and her eyes are full of tears.

Hanuman looks at her carefully. He remembers the ornaments Sugriva had shown Rama, and he notices that the few ornaments she still wears match them. He remembers how Rama described her. And his heart fills. This is Sita.

Valmiki lets Hanuman think about both of them for a moment. Rama is worthy of her, he thinks, and she is worthy of Rama. Even here, in this grove, she keeps her mind on him alone.

**

Before he can do anything, there is noise and light. It is just before dawn, and **Ravana** himself is walking into the grove with his attendants, carrying lamps.

Hanuman stays very still.

Ravana speaks to Sita. He praises her, and asks her to accept him. He offers her his kingdom, his wealth, his palaces. He promises to make her his chief queen.

Sita does not look at him. And here Valmiki gives us a gesture that has stayed with Indian families for thousands of years.

**tṛṇam antarataḥ kṛtvā**

"Placing a blade of grass between them." She picks up a single blade of grass and puts it down between herself and Ravana, and she speaks to the grass, not to him.

**

People understand this gesture in different ways. Some say it means: to me you are no more than this blade of grass. Some say it is the custom of a noble woman who will not speak directly to a man who is not her husband. Some say she is simply keeping a line he must not cross. Perhaps it holds all three.

And what she says is calm and firm. I am another's wife. Go back to your own queens. If you want to live well, return me to Rama and ask his forgiveness. He is kind to anyone who comes to him for refuge.

Ravana is furious. With harsh words he gives her two months to change her mind, and he leaves. He tells the guards to keep pressing her.

**

The guards frighten Sita with their words all morning. At last, worn out, she sits alone under a tree and thinks her troubles may never end.

But one of the older guards, **Trijata**, has woken from a dream. She tells the others to stop. In my dream, she says, I saw Rama and Lakshmana dressed in white, coming on a white elephant, and Sita with them, and Lanka falling into the sea. Leave this woman alone. It may be that we will need her kindness one day.

I find it beautiful that, in the middle of Ravana's own guards, Valmiki places one person who sees clearly and speaks kindly.

**

Hanuman now has a problem. How does a vanara suddenly speak to a frightened woman surrounded by guards without making her scream?

So he does something wise. He does not jump down. He stays in the branches, and in a soft, human voice, he begins to tell a story. There was once a king named Dasharatha, in Ayodhya. He had a son named Rama, truthful and kind. Rama went to the forest with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana. Sita was taken away. Rama searched for her. He made friends with Sugriva. And I have come, sent by Sugriva, to find her.

Sita looks up, astonished, and sees a small vanara among the leaves.

**

At first she is afraid. Is this a trick? Ravana has used disguises before. Hanuman comes down, bows, and tells her who he is. He answers her questions. He describes Rama and Lakshmana so lovingly and so exactly that she begins to believe.

Then he gives her the proof. He places in her hand Rama's ring, with Rama's name on it.

Sita holds the ring and, Valmiki says, it is as if she were holding Rama himself. Her face shines with joy, like the moon set free from an eclipse.

Then the questions pour out of her, the way they would from anyone who has been alone and afraid for months. Is Rama well? Is he eating? Is Lakshmana with him? Does he still think of me? Why has he not come?

Hanuman answers each one tenderly. Rama barely sleeps, he tells her, and when he does, he wakes calling your name. He hardly eats. When he sees a lovely flower, he sighs and thinks of you. He does not come only because he does not yet know where you are. Once he knows, nothing will stop him.

Sita listens, and for the first time in a long time, she smiles, and she also weeps. Both at once.

**

Hanuman, full of love, makes an offer. Climb onto my back. I will carry you across the sea to Rama today.

Sita thanks him, and says no. You are small, she says, how could you carry me? Hanuman grows to show her he can. And she still says no, gently, for deeper reasons. She might fall into the sea, she says, and she does not want to touch another man by her own choice. And most of all, it should be Rama who comes. It is his honour, and his right, to set this wrong right.

Then she gives Hanuman her sign for Rama. She shares a private memory: a day in Chitrakuta when a crow troubled her, and Rama, full of anger, sent a blade of grass after it as a weapon, and then spared the crow when it came back to him for refuge. Only Rama would know this. And she unties from the edge of her garment her **chudamani**, the jewel she had kept hidden, and gives it to Hanuman.

Tell Rama, she says, I will wait. But not forever. Ask him to come soon.

**

So let us gather what we heard tonight.

Sita answered Ravana with a blade of grass placed between them, refusing to speak to him face to face and telling him to return her to Rama. Hanuman, hidden in the tree, softly told Rama's story so as not to frighten her, and gave her Rama's ring as proof. And Sita declined Hanuman's offer to carry her away, trusting that Rama himself should come, and sent back her chudamani and a private memory as her sign.

**One thing to take with you.** Hanuman did not rush in. He thought first about how his news would feel to the one hearing it. Before you give someone important news this week, pause and ask yourself: how can I say this so it helps them, not frightens them?

In the next episode, Hanuman decides that before he leaves, Lanka should know that Rama is coming.

*[Birdsong fades. Silence 2 seconds.]*

**Credits (read out):** Written by the DharmikStudio team from the Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kanda. Narrated with an AI voice. If you hear a mistake, please use "Report a mistake" on this episode.

Keep going

• Listen: In the Ashoka grove
• Previous: The leap
• Next: "I have seen Sita"
• हिन्दी में पढ़ें
• All episodes of Ramayana: Valmiki's story, told gently