A Note on Sītā as Rāvaṇa’s Daughter in the Jain Rāmāyaṇa: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

In the course of its development, the Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, the oldest and for a long time most authoritative of the Rāma tellings, went through a process of “mythologization,” through interpolated verses, passages and episodes transforming its originally human protagonists first into highly exemplary men and women, and ultimately into divine beings. In this process the Vālmīkian Sītā
evolved from king Janaka’s biological daughter, who was married to prince Rāma and during their banishment was kidnapped by Rāvaṇa, the lustful king of the Rākṣasas, to a princess of mysterious and extraordinary origin, “not born from a womb” (ayonijā), found and adopted by king Janaka, after a plough in his field dug her up (1.65.14).