Why was Sita born from Earth - Page 2

Valmiki Ramayan (which is the most original version of Ramayan) does not call Sita as Ravan's daughter.

Sitamata can not be Ravan's daughter. Which father in the world would kidnape his own daughter and try to force her to become his wife.

Originally posted by: mainkaun

Sitamata can not be Ravan's daughter. Which father in the world would kidnape his own daughter and try to force her to become his wife.

Well, Ravan didn't KNOW sita was his daughter....He kidnapped her as Ram's wife...He didn't have the slightest clue that this was the same person he had buried in the Earth.....

You have to understand one thing....Ravan lived for almost a thousand years....maybe even more......because at the time...ppl had long life spans...actually....ravan's tap was for a thousand years.....so...yea...he lived more than that.......so his first child........he prolly had when he was really young....then he buried her in the earth......and the problem was solved....at least he thought it was....

How was he supposed to recognize someone he buried about a thousand years ago????


I, myself, didn't believe that Sita was Ravan's child at first.  But now, it kind of makes sense.  According to Ravan's Kundali, his first child is supposed to be the cause of his death.  After Sita, his first child was Meghnad.  Meghnad wasn't harmful to him at all.  Actually, Meghnad was more beneficial to Ravan than anything else in the world.  He was almost twice as powerful as Ravan. 

If it wasn't for him, Lanka would've been captured by Indra, the King of Gods.  Because, once, during a God-Demon War (Dev-Asur Sangram), Indra had tied Ravan up, and was taking Ravan to his kingdom.  Meghnad saw this, and then he immediately turned invisible.  In invisible form, he got on Indra's chariot, untied his father (Ravan), and tied up Indra and brought him to Lanka.  Brahma had to personally appear in Lanka and ask Meghnad to untie Indra and return him.  Brahma had to give him a boon just for that.  That is why Meghnad is also known as Indrajeet (Victory over Indra).  So, Meghnad couldn't have been Ravan's first child, because he was VERY BENEFICIAL for Ravan.

So, if Ravan's Kundali was interpreted correctly, then Sita is definetely his daughter.  From that perspective, it makes sense...
Edited by islandboy401 - 16 years ago

islandboy401,
Your analysis is based on the assumption that as per Ravan's kudli his first child was to be the cause of his death. It is possible but not necessary because no such thing is mentioned in Valmiki Ramayan. In fact, it is not mentioned in anywhere in Valmiki Ramayan, Mahabharat, any of the Puranas.

The concept of his kundali itself does not make any sense so forget about Sita being his daughter.

There are many versions/tellings of the Ram-Ravan legend where Sita is Ravan's daughter. Most of these versions also include the element of a prophecy or astrological prediction that Sita would cause Ravan's death which leads to her abandonment. This motif is actually pretty common. It's found in various subcontinental tellings (including Tibetan, Nepali and Burmese versions) as well as Chinese and many South-East Asian versions. In some of them it is Vibhishan who warns Ravan about the child's future.

There are many many different accounts of Sita's birth. In some accounts, her birth story is different from the "born from earth" and "Ravan's daughter" versions.


Some examples I can think of:

Adbhut Ramayan - Ravan takes a jar of milk mixed with the blood of a rishi he killed and tells Mandodari that it is the strongest form of poison. Later, when he is away on war, she feels that he betrayed her and decides to commit suicide. She drinks the "poison" and, instead of dying, becomes pregnant. She is scared of what Ravan would think of her getting pregnant like that. So she buries the child in a field where she is discovered by King Janaka. This version also mentions that Ravana would die if he ever became lustful towards his own daughter and that is what eventually happens when he kidnaps Sita (although he is unaware that he is her father).

The Kashmiri Ramavatarcarita - Sita is born to Mandodari in Ravan's absence. Astrologers predict that she will be the cause of Ravan's death. The prediction even goes into some detail about Sita's fate post marriage. Mandodari gets worried, both by the prediction as well as the fact that she became pregnant in Ravan's absence. What does she do? The only logical thing of course: she ties a stone around the baby's neck and throws her into a river! 🤔 The baby is later discovered by King Janaka.

In Dasavataracita (another Kashmiri telling), Sita is born out of a lotus flower when Ravan was worshipping Lord Shiva. Mandodari adopts her but then Narad appears and predicts that Ravan will fall in love with that girl some day. Result: Mandodari has the child buried in another land as usual.

Kannada version (Janapada Ramayan) - Ravan & Mandodari are childless and Lord Shiva gives Ravan a fruit. He instructs him to give it to Mandodari to eat so that she would bear a child. However, due to his feelings of insecurity, Ravan decides to eat the fruit himself. As a result he becomes pregnant. Nine days later he gives birth to a daughter through his nose via sneezing (in Kannada, "Sita" means sneezed). The astrologers in Ravan's court tell him that the child will be unlucky for him since he disobeyed Lord Shiva's instructions about the fruit. So he decides to abandon Sita in a field where, as it turns out, King Janaka finds her and adopts her.   

The Malayalam version says that Sita was Ravan's daughter and that she was the reincarnation of Vedaveti whom Ravan had molested earlier. Mandodari was scared that Vedaveti would fulfill her oath of vengeance and buries in a field in Mithila.

The Telugu version has something similar I think.

Some Bengali as well as North-Western versions (such as  the Kashmiri Ramayana Manjari) say that King Janaka wanted a child and the apsara Menaka grants his wish with Sita. She is said to be Janaka's "spiritual daughter" born of Menaka and found in the earth by the king.

Things get more interesting when you look at the Jain and Buddhist versions of the myth.

In the Jain version by Sanghadasa, astrologers predict that if Ravan gets married to Mandodari then their first child will cause his doom. Ravan, however, is too deeply in love with Mandodari to cancel the marriage. The marriage takes place and he later orders the child to placed in a box and buried somewhere far away. You can guess the rest of the story.

In another Jain version by Gunabhadra, Sita is still Ravan's daughter but the story is slightly different. Sita is the reincarnation of some ascetic woman whom Ravan offended and who swore revenge. Again, astrologers predict an ominous future and the child is buried far away. An additional detail in this version is that Mareech is ordered to bury Sita.

It is interesting to note that the Ravan serial is currently very much in line with these Jain traditions including the role of Mareech in the story of Sita's birth. 😊 There maybe Hindu versions of this story too (considering the hundreds of variants) but I can't recall or find any at the moment.

The Jain Paumacariyam (along with the Ramopakhanya found in the Mahabharat unless I'm very much mistaken) says that Sita is Janaka's biological daughter.

The Buddhist versions go into even stranger realms. In the Dasarath Jataka, Ram and Sita are brother and sister! (yes you read that right). They are both Dasarath's children and they become King and Queen at the end of the story. 

(It is often claimed that above Buddhist telling predates the Valmiki version though this is heavily disputed. The jury is still out on this issue though.)

The above is not the only version where Ram-Sita are siblings. There are some Jain as well as several Laotian, Javanese and Malay tellings with this motif including one where Sita is the daughter of Dasarath and Mandodari thus making her Ram's half-sister.

BTW, Sita is not an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi in every version. In some tellings, such as the Tibetan one, she is an incarnation of Goddess Parvati/Uma. Once again astrologers predict doom and she is set afloat on a river (instead of getting buried). I have already mentioned the Jain and Malayalam versions where she is simply a reincarnation of a human ascetic. In some Laotian versions she is the reincarnation of Indra's wife (reborn to take revenge on Ravan).

There are countless versions all over the subcontinent and beyond. Hundreds of different tellings of the myth have been discovered to date. It's a fascinating field of research you know. :)

One thing that is common in almost every telling of the myth is that Sita does eventually become the direct or indirect cause of Ravan's death. The road to his death begins with her abduction which is the direct reasoning behind Shri Ram's invasion of Lanka. So, if you think about it that way, this astrological prediction thing does make sense. In fact, there are some South Indian oral versions (songs) where it is Sita who kills Ravan instead of Ram! She also takes on the form of Maa Kali in other tellings including the Adhyatma Ramayan if I remember correctly.


😃 Edited by Kal El - 16 years ago

Originally posted by: akhl

islandboy401,
Your analysis is based on the assumption that as per Ravan's kudli his first child was to be the cause of his death. It is possible but not necessary because no such thing is mentioned in Valmiki Ramayan. In fact, it is not mentioned in anywhere in Valmiki Ramayan, Mahabharat, any of the Puranas.

So, what they show in Ravan is not mentioned ANYWHERE??????  Then, how do we know if its true???  That could be another mistake with the show....Or maybe the makers of the show had a copy of Ravan's kundali and mandodaris....and someone actually did the readings....

What does Valmiki Ramayan say about the origin of Sita..........I'm betting it says she was the daughter of the Earth Goddess, who Janak uncovered in a trunk while he was doing a yagna.......correct me if i'm wrong....

Do any of the scriptures say anything about the reason behind Ravan's transformation from good to bad.......I always thought it was because his and mandodari's kundali didn't match.......

Also, I got a glimpse of Ravan's kundali when Vishrava and Ravan were arguing about whether Ravan should marry Mandodari.  I noticed that in Ravan's kundali, the sun and the moon are confronting each other, in the lagna sthaan (luxury lot) of the kundali.  A person who has that specific feature should be able to get ANYTHING they want, unless they marry someone who's kundali doesn't match......

Originally posted by: islandboy401

So, what they show in Ravan is not mentioned ANYWHERE??????  Then, how do we know if its true???  That could be another mistake with the show....Or maybe the makers of the show had a copy of Ravan's kundali and mandodaris....and someone actually did the readings....

It is mentioned in some versions of the story. Read my post on the last page. 😊

If you think that sita was ravan's daughter,then why did he supposedly(according to ramayana)go to the sayamvar(marriage ceremony)of sita.According to ramayan he went there to win the competion,and to marry her.

Originally posted by: sshuchisharma

If you think that sita was ravan's daughter,then why did he supposedly(according to ramayana)go to the sayamvar(marriage ceremony)of sita.According to ramayan he went there to win the competion,and to marry her.

In the versions where she is his daughter, Ravan usually never finds out the truth. He dies without knowing that Sita is actually his daughter. In fact, in one version (the Adbhut Ramayan) it is mentioned that the very cause of his doom is that he (albeit unknowingly) becomes lustful of his daughter. Incest leading to doom is actually a very common motif in mythology in general.

Ravan going to the swayamvar is not part of every version either. Each version has it's own internal reasoning separate from the others.

And I'm not 100% sure but I think there are some oral versions where he kidnaps her because he wants his daughter back not because of lust. 🤔
Edited by Kal El - 16 years ago