THE ABDUCTION AND RESCUE OF SIT A. 167

sanctity; and thence across the river to the hermitage ofValmfki, among the Banda jungles, where a hill is still pointedout as the scene of their abode. Meanwhile Rama ’s father,the king, dies, and the loyal youngest brother, Bharata, althoughthe lawful successor, refuses to enter on the inheritance, butgoes in quest of Rama to bring him back as rightful heir. Acontest of fraternal affection takes place. Bharata at lengthreturns to rule the family kingdom in the name of Rama , untilthe latter shall come to claim it at the end of the fourteenyears of banishment appointed by their late father.

So far, the Ramayana merely narrates the local chronicles of Thethe court of Ajodhya . In the third book the main storybegins. Ravana , the demon or aboriginal king of the far south,smitten by the fame of Slta’s beauty, seizes her at the hermitagewhile her husband is away in the jungle, and flies off with herin a magical chariot through the air to Lanka or Ceylon . Thenext three books (4th, 5 th, and 6th) recount the expedition ofthe bereaved Rama for her recovery. He makes allianceswith the aboriginal tribes of Southern India, under the namesof monkeys and bears, and raises a great army. The Monkeygeneral , Hanuman , jumps across the straits between India andCeylon , discovers the princess in captivity, and leaps back withthe news to Rama . The Monkey troops then build a cause-way across the narrow sea,—the Adam’s Bridge or line ofsubmarine rocks well known to modern geography,—by whichRama marches across, and, after slaying the monster Ravana ,delivers Si'ta. The rescued wife proves her unbroken chastity, Herduring her stay in the palace of Ravana , by the ancient ordeal rescue -of fire. Agni, the god of that element, himself conducts herout of the burning pile to her husband; and, the fourteenyears of banishment being over, Rama and Sita return intriumph to Ajodhya . There they reigned gloriously; andRama celebrated the Great Horse-Sacrifice ( Asva-medha ) as atoken of his imperial sway over India . But a famine havingsmitten the land, Rama regarded it as a judgment of heaven onsome secret guilt in the royal family, and doubts arose in hisheart as to his wife’s purity while in her captor’s power atCeylon . He banishes the faithful Si'ta, who wanders forthagain to Valmiki ’s hermitage, where she gives birth to Rama ’stwo sons. After sixteen years of exile, she is reconciled to herrepentant husband, and Rama and Si'ta and their children areat last reunited. 1

1 Respectful mention should here be made of Growse’s translation of theHindi version of the Ramayana by Tulsi Das . (4to, Allahabad , 1883.)