Chapter 107 — The Summons

Many days passed while Rama listened to the boys' recital with rishis, kings, vanaras, and the gathered court. Through the poem, Rama came to know what the public resemblance had not yet made him say: Lava and Kusha were Sita's sons.

The twins were no longer only distant voices in the ritual city. They remained with Valmiki's disciples at the edge of the sacrifice, near enough to the public world their singing had opened but still under their teacher's protection. Their names had not yet been proclaimed before the assembly. The next day's demand would change that.

The recognition came not in a private room but while the king's own life was being sung back to him. Around him sat the brothers who had shared exile and war, allies who had crossed the sea for Sita, sages who knew the old obligations of kingship, and rulers who had come to his sacrifice. The poem had made the past audible in the present. It had brought Sita's name, the abandonment, and the sons she had borne beyond the walls of Valmiki's hermitage and into the center of the kingdom.

Bharata, Lakshmana, and Shatrughna belonged to that royal world of the rite: Bharata and Shatrughna had overseen its hospitality, and Lakshmana had been charged with the horse. Hanuman stood with the vanaras who had come with Sugriva. None of them spoke. Their presence held the long history that had made Sita's loss a matter for more than Rama alone.

Then he spoke before the assembly. He sent messengers to Valmiki with a command: if Sita's conduct was pure, if she was free of fault, let her come with the great sage's consent and give proof of herself here.

Rama asked that the messengers learn Valmiki's will and Sita's own mind, then report quickly. At dawn, he said, Janaka's daughter should make an oath before the gathered assembly, for his own purification.

The messengers went to Valmiki's enclosure and delivered Rama's words. Valmiki understood both the request and Rama's purpose. He answered that it would be done as Rama wished, and added that a husband is a woman's deity.

Rama had asked for Sita's own mind as well as Valmiki's will. It was Valmiki who answered. The request went from the king to the sage, and what came back to Sita was a summons to stand before an assembly that had been invited to watch.

When the messengers returned with that answer, Rama was glad. He called to the rishis, kings, and all who wished to see: let them come with disciples and companions to witness Sita's oath.

The leading rishis answered with approval; kings praised Rama as acting fittingly. Their praise did not remove what stood before them: Sita, already publicly vindicated once and already abandoned despite Rama's knowledge of her innocence, was summoned to stand again before a crowd.

Rama fixed the matter for the next morning and dismissed the gathering. The sacrifice ground emptied into night, while the next day's assembly waited for Sita.

The night did not erase the contradiction held in the command. Rama would soon say that he knew Sita innocent. The public slander that had led him to abandon her had never been made into proof. Yet he ordered another public demonstration, this time before a crowd enlarged by the horse sacrifice. No private repentance came that could settle it. The command stood as it was, and Sita stood on the other side of it.