Sita Hears the News — Кассета

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Dharma Katha · Season 4: The Road to Diwali · Episode 121 There is a garden in Lanka where no one comes with good news. It is beautiful. Valmiki fills it with ashoka trees, the trees whose name means without sorrow. Their red blossoms fall on the paths. There are pools, and birds, and the sound of water. And in the middle of all that beauty, under a tree, sits a woman who has not changed her clothes in months, whose hair is one long, matted braid, who is thin, and pale, and surrounded day and night by guards whose only work has been to frighten her. Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 103 first. Source note. Label: scripture. The scene is from the Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda: Vibhishana's consecration, Rama sending Hanuman to Sita, Sita speechless with joy, her wish to reward Hanuman, Hanuman's offer to kill the rakshasa guards, Sita's refusal, her citing of a verse spoken by a bear to a tiger, her wish to see Rama, and Rama's tears and his instruction to Vibhishana. Sarga numbers differ between the critical edition and the popular vulgate editions, where this falls around sargas one hundred and twelve to one hundred and fourteen. The full fable of the bear, the tiger and the hunter is told by later commentators and storytellers, not narrated by Valmiki. The verse is quoted from the vulgate text as commonly cited; a Sanskrit reader should confirm it. The reflections are my own. Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.