Vedavati

Vedavati refuses Ravana's advances

In Hindu mythology, Vedavati (Sanskrit: वेदवती) was the previous birth of Sita, the consort of Rama in the Ramayana. She was an avatar of the goddess of prosperity, Lakshmi.

Early life

Vedavati is the daughter of Brahmarishi Kushadhvaja, who was the son of Brihaspati, the guru of the devas, the gods. Having spent his life chanting and studying the sacred Vedas, he named his daughter Vedavati, or 'Embodiment of the Vedas', born to him as the fruit of his bhakti and tapasya.

Dedication to Vishnu

Vedavati's father wanted his child to have the preserver god Vishnu as her husband. He thus rejected many powerful kings and celestial beings who sought his daughter's hand. Outraged by his rejection, King Sambhu murdered her parents in the middle of a moonless night.

Vedavati continued 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

Ravana, the king of Lanka and the asura race, found Vedavati sitting in meditation as a tapasvini and was captivated by her incredible beauty. He proposed his hand in marriage to her, and was rejected. Ravana, firmly rejected at every turn, grabbed her hair and assaulted her, raping her in some iterations of the Ramayana. Losing her chastity, the furious Vedavati cursed Ravana that she would be born once more, and would be the cause of his death. Vedavati would be born again as Sita, and as proclaimed, was the triggering cause of Ravana and his relatives's death, though her husband Rama was the agent.

Prophecy

Vedavati refuses to curse Ravana as the penance would be rendered void, but pledges to return in another age and be the cause of his destruction.

Vedavati is the daughter of Janaka, her supposed father, O Strong-armed Lord, and your consort, for you are the eternal Vishnu. That woman, who, in anger, formerly cursed the enemy who resembled a mountain, destroyed him by appealing to your supernatural power. Thus that goddess was reborn among men, springing up like a flame on the altar, from a field which was turned by the blade of a plough. First she was born as Vedavati in the Golden Age and subsequently, in the Silver Age, she was re-born in the family of the magnanimous Janaka in the race of Mithila, for the destruction of that Rakshasa..

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.