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Continued
from yesterday’s instalment
 Obviously, the suitors who had come from a long distance, eager to win the hand of Sita felt slighted and ultimately their numbers dwindled with the passage of time, as they had all come to a conclusion that it was an impossible task that Janaka was asking them to perform. Janaki later coyly recounts this to Anasuya, wife of sage Atri, when they commence their life in the forest.
"Perceiving my age to be such when union with a husband can be easily had, my father for his part fell a prey to anxiety, feeling distressed as a destitute would through loss of fortune. The father of an unmarried girl, even though he is a compeer of Indra (the lord of paradise) on earth, suffers indignity in the world at the hands of a suitor's men, no matter if they are equal or (even) inferior (in status) to him. Perceiving that indignity threatening him at no distant date, the king was plunged in a sea of anxiety and did not reach its end any more than a man without a bark would reach the end of a sea." (Ibid, Ayodhya Kanda, Canto CXVII, Sloka 34 - 36)
Janaka faced stiff resistance from the kings who could not perform the task; he faced humiliation in that he could not give his daughter in marriage at the right age; he was too anxious about anyone at all be able to meet his condition. But, so typically like the fathers of all daughters at this stage, he was not ready to go back on the condition. It was the question of his daughter's life, after all! He had to ensure that she gets the most befitting person for her.
 Kamban varies the drama here. He wanted to lay stress on the point that the girl has a say in the matter. He wanted to establish beyond doubt that she accepted Rama not just because her father identified him to be the best among men, who passed a test of stringing the massive bow of Lord Shiva. No. Not that alone. She accepted him because she happened to see him as he walked in the streets of Mithila, abutting the palace. She married him not just because the condition that her father laid was fulfilled; but because she also liked the person; because she fell in love with him even before he entered their palace, before he heard of the bow, before he took the bow as lightly as a garland in his hand to string.
A question would naturally arise in the minds of the readers now. Well. Let that be so. But this move, this deviation has an inherent danger in it. If she fell in love with this boy, -
neela mega shyamalan, kamala pathraakahan of hue like the cloud and eyes like petals of lotus - what would have happened if he failed to string the bow! What would have happened that somebody else did so! The Poet has with sufficient forethought, answered all these questions. We will examine them one by one.
They saw each other. They fell in love with each other. Sita lost her heart to this rain-bearing cloud of a lotus-eyed prince, without knowing anything about him. Neither did Rama know that he has come to Mithila for the sake of this girl, nor did Sita know that this boy is named Rama and this is her suitor. Without knowing anything about each other, they fall in love.
More follows...
Published on 18th
December 2002
Hari Krishnan
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