Enter the Villain

Just as Sita promised, as soon as the harvest was over, she and Rama were wed. The people were overjoyed to see their princess marry someone, and the celebrations lasted for days. Sita found she wasn't as displeased with her marriage as she was anticipating. Rama respected the fact that she was a competent person and she respected him for that. As it turned out, he was also a pretty good archer, and even had a few tips for her.

By the time a year had passed, and King Janaka was ready to step down as ruler of Mithila, Sita was almost fond of Rama. She was starting to realize the benefits of having a partner to share affairs of state with, especially considering the warnings her counselors were giving her about a new ruler who had come into power in the west. It was said that King Ravana had somehow taken out his own father in order to receive the crown and that he ruled the kingdom of Lanka with an iron fist. That hardly would have concerned Sita if it wasn't for the fact that Ravana was no longer content with just ruling Lanka. He had started invading some of the smaller city states surrounding his country, and one by one those city-states had fallen to his armies.

After weeks of late night meetings and countless arguments, she and Rama were finally in agreement: for the sake of their country, they were going to have to stop Ravana before his eye turned to Mithila. They met with their advisory counsel and laid the plan out, step by step.

"Unfortunately, the one thing that all the neighboring countries know about me is that I'm pretty," began Sita.

"Luckily we can use that to our advantage," Rama continued. "Our spies have informed us that Ravana has already tired of his most recent wife and is growing restless. He has been interrogating various ambassadors about the princesses and queens residing in the kingdoms they represent, so we're going to have Hanuman feed him a story that Sita has grown discontented with me. Then, we're going to spread the word that Sita is traveling with a group of her handmaidens to the summer palace. With any luck, Ravana will take the bait and come kidnap her as he has done with other princesses in the past. I will summon the royal army to go 'rescue' her, and we will amass our forces outside the Lankan Royal court as quickly as possible."

Sita continued, "Kidnapping the ruler of a country and bringing them across any border is grounds to declare war, so I will declare war on Lanka the second Hanuman brings word that Rama's forces have arrived. As acting Queen of Mithila, I have the power to do so without advisory permission if the circumstances are extreme, so the Lankans should believe we are serious. Once their patrols spot Rama and the Mithilan army, the people of Lanka will become alarmed. That's when I'll challenge Ravana to single combat. He cannot refuse to fight a challenger without losing the respect of his people, so he'll have to accept. We'll destroy the threat of Ravana without needing to shed a single drop of Mithilan blood."

Sita looked around the table. Some of her advisors were nodding, but most of them appeared perturbed. She sighed.

"You worry that I won't be able to defeat him. If that happens, Rama is my second. One way or another we'll see it through, and Mithila will be safe."

Author's Note: This is a continuation of the actual story told in the Ramayana, but in this case I've reimagined Sita and Rama as equal partners, both capable of using common sense. One of the most ridiculous parts of the Ramayana (in my opinion at least) was when both Rama and Sita went into exile because one of Rama's mothers was jealous and Rama insisted it was "the right thing to do." I also thought it was ridiculous how easily Sita and Rama got tricked by Ravana, so in this version, Sita decides to get kidnapped on purpose. I thought it would be interesting to take the same overall premise of Rama being on the earth to destroy evil and protect those who could not protect themselves, but reimagine it with both of them being on this quest. One of the other aspects of the Ramayana that I found disturbing was how much blood was shed over Sita. Rama and Ravana both think it's completely reasonable to let thousands of their own people die if that's what it takes to win. It's another Helen of Troy situation in which entire armies are wasted because two men can't let go of their egos. In my version, I wanted Sita and Rama to take a more reasonable approach, and to have a little more value for human life, hence the necessity for single combat.

Bibliography: Narayan's Ramayana