Vedavati

Vedavathi refuses Ravana

In Hindu mythology, Vedavati (Sanskrit:वेदवती) is speculated to have been the spirit of Sita Devi, the wife of Lord Rama in the epic Ramayana. She was another avatar of Devi Lakshmi.

Early life

Vedavati is the daughter of Brahmarishi Kushadhvaja, who is the son of Brihaspati, Lord-Guru of the Devas, the Gods. Having spent his life chanting and studying the sacred Vedas, he names his daughter Vedavati, or Embodiment of the Vedas, born as the fruit of his bhakti and tapasya.

Dedication to Vishnu

Her father wants his child to have Lord Vishnu as her husband. He thus rejects many powerful kings and celestial beings who sought his daughter's hand. Outraged by his rejection, King Sambhu murders her parents in the middle of a moonless night.

Vedavati continues to live in the ashram of her parents, meditating night and day and performing a great tapasya to win Vishnu for her husband.

The Ramayana describes her as wearing the hide of a black antelope, her hair matted in a jata, like a rishi. She is inexpressibly beautiful, in the bloom of her youth, enhanced by her tapasya.

Immolation and death

Ravana, the emperor of Lanka and the asura race found Vedavati sitting in meditation and is captivated by her incredible beauty. He proposes her and is rejected. Ravana mocks her austerities and her devotion to Vishnu; finding himself firmly rejected at every turn, he grabbed her hair and assaults her. This greatly incensed her, and she forthwith cut off her hair, and said she would enter into the fire before his eyes, adding, "Since I have been insulted in the forest by thee who art wicked-hearted, I shall be born again for thy destruction." So she entered the blazing fire, and celestial flowers fell all around. It was she who was born again as Sita, and was the moving cause of Ravana's death, though Rama was the agent.

Prophecy

Vedavati refuses to curse Ravana as it would exhaust her tapasya, but pledges to return in another age and be the cause of his destruction.

Her ashes were remained after burning herself up. Ravana took those ashes in a closed box and returned to Lanka. He placed those ashes near to a Shiva statue in his fort. After some days Ravana's wife Mandodari come to worship the Shiva statue and looked in the closed box. The thing in the box made her shook. she ordered one of the soldiers to place the box far away from Lanka. The soldier took the box and left. The box later discovered by Janaka with a new born girl who is named as Sita.

In some versions of the Ramayana, Vedavati is reborn as Maya Sita, who takes Sita's place and is abducted by Ravana and suffers his captivity, while the real Sita hides in the fire, only to exchange places again once Rama asks Sita to go through the trial of Agni Pariksha.

See also

• Vedavathi River

References

• Ramesh Menon, The Ramayana (2001)

Further reading

• The Srinivasa Kalyanam Story. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams
• The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume VII: Uttarakāṇḍa. Princeton University Press. 2018-09-11. ISBN 978-0-691-18292-6.