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' In the Yeda, Sita is the furrow, or hus- bandry personified, and worshipped as a deity presiding over agriculture and fruits. In the Ramaya?ia and later works she is daughter of Janaka king of Yideha, and wife of Rama. The SITA. 295 old Vedic idea still adhered to her, for she sprang from a furrow. In the Eamayarza her father Janaka says, " As I was ploughing my field, there sprang from the plough a girl, obtained by me while cleansing my field, and known by name as Sita (the fur- row). This girl sprung from the earth grew up as my daughter. " Hence she is styled Ayonija, 'not born from the womb.' She is said to have lived before in the K?7ta age as VedavatI, and to be in reality the goddess Lakshmi in human form, born in the world for bringing about the destruction of Rava7?a, the Rak- shasa king of Lanka, who was invulnerable to ordinary means, but doomed to die on account of a woman. Sita became the wife of Eama, who won her by bending the great bow of /Siva. She was his only wife, and was the embodiment of purity, ten- derness, and conjugal affection. She accompanied her husband in his exile, but was carried off from him by Ravawa and kept in his palace at Lanka. There he made many efforts to win her to his will, but she continued firm against all jDersuasions, threats, and terrors, and maintained a dignified serenity throughout. 'When Rama had slain the ravisher and recovered his wife, he received her coldly, and refused to take her back, for it was hard to believe it possible that she had retained her honour. She asserted her purity in touching language, and resolved to estab- lish it by the ordeal of fire. The pile was raised and she entered the flames in the presence of gods and men, but she remained unhurt, and the god of fire brought her forth and placed her in her husband's arms. JN^otwithstanding this proof of her inno- cence, jealous thoughts passed through the mind of Rama, and after he had ascended his ancestral throne at Ayodhya, his people blamed him for taking back a wife who had been in the power of a licentious ravisher. So, although she was pregnant, he banished her and sent her to the hermitage of Yalmiki, where she gave birth to twin sons, Kusa and Lava. There she lived till the boys were about fifteen years old. One day they strayed to their father's capital. He recognised and acknowledged them and then recalled Sita. She returned and pubHcl}^ declared her innocence. But her heart was deeply wounded. She called upon her mother earth to attest her purity, and it did so. The ground opened, and she was taken back into the source from which she had sprung. Rama was now disconsolate and resolved to quit this mortal life, i^ee Rama.) Sita had the appellations 296 SIVA. of Bhunii-ja, Dliaram-suta, and Parthivl, all meaning ' daugliter of the eartli.' aS^IVA. The name Siva is unknown to the Yedas, but Rudra, another name of this deity, and almost equally common, occurs in the Yeda both in the singular and plural, and from these the great deity Siva and his manifestations, the Rudras, have been developed. In the i^ig-veda the word Rudra is used for Agni, and the Maruts are called his sons. In other passages he is distinct from Agni. He is lauded as " the lord of songs, the lord of sacrifices, who heals remedies, is brilliant as the sun, the best and most bountiful of gods, who grants prosj^erity and welfare to horses and sheep, men, women, and cows ; the lord of nourishment, who drives away diseases, dispenses remedies, and removes sin ; but, on the other hand he is the wielder of the thunderbolt, the bearer of bow and arrows, and mounted on his chariot is terrible as a wild beast, destructive and fierce." In the Yajur-veda there is a long prayer called ASatarudriya which is addressed to him and appeals to him under a great variety of epithets. He is " auspicious, not terrible ; " " the deliverer, the first divine physician ; " he is " blue-necked and red-coloured, who has a thousand eyes and bears a thousand quivers ; " and in another hymn he is called " Tryambaka, the sweet-scented in- creaser of prosperity ; " "a medicine for kine and horses, a medi- cine for men, and a (source of) ease to rams and ewes." In the Atharva-veda he is still the protector of cattle, but his character is fiercer. He is " dark, black, destroying, terrible." He is the " fierce god," who is besought to betake himself elsewhere, "and not to assail mankind with consumption, poison, or celestial fire." The Brahmawas tell that when Rudra was born he Avept, and his father, Prajapati, asked the reason, and on being told that he wept because he had not received a name, his father gave liim the name of Rudra (from the root rud, 'weep'). They also relate that at the request of the gods he pierced Prajapati because of his incestuous intercourse with his daughter. In another place he is said to have applied to his father eight successive times for a name, and that he received in succession the names Bhava, Sarva, Pasu- pati, Ugradeva, Mahandeva, Rudra, Isana, and Asani. In the IJpanishads his character is further developed. He declares to the inquiring gods, " I alone was before (all things), and I exist and I shall be. No other transcends me. I am eternal and not SIVA. 297 eternal, discernible and imdiscernible, I am Brahma and I am not Bralima." Again it is said, "He is the only Rudra, he is Isana, he is divine, he is Mahe-swara, he is Mahadeva." " There is only one Rudra, there is no place for a second. He rules this fourth world, controlling and productive ; living beings abide with him, united with him. At the time of the end he annihilates all worlds, the protector." " He is without begin- ning, middle, or end ; the one, the pervading, the spiritual and blessed, the wonderful, the consort of Uma, the supreme lord, the three-eyed, the blue-throated, the tranquil. . . . He is Brahma, he is /S'iva, he is Indra ; he is undecaying, supreme, self- resplendent ; he is Yislmu, he is breath, he is the spirit, the supreme lord ; he is all that hath been or that shall be, eternal. Knowing him, a man overpasses death. There is no other way to liberation." In the RamayaT^a /S'iva is a great god, but the references to him have more of the idea of a personal god than of a supreme divinity. He is represented as fighting with Vish?zu, and as receiving worship with Brahma, Vislimi, and Indra, but he acknowledges the divinity of Rama, and holds a less exalted position than Yishmi. The Maha-bharata also gives Yishmi or ILrishna. the highest honour upon the whole. But it has many passages in which ^S'iva occujDies the supreme place, and receives the homage and worship of Yishmi and Ivrishna. " Maha-deva," it says, " is an all-pervading god yet is nowhere seen ; he is the creator and the lord of Brahma, Yish?2,u, and Indra, wdiom the gods, from Brahma to the Pisachas, worship." The rival claims of /S'iva and YisliTiu to supremacy are clearly displayed in this poem ; and many of those powers and attributes are ascribed to them which were afterwards so widely developed in the Purawas. Attempts also are made to reconcile their con- flicting claims by representing Siva and Yish72-u, Siva, and K?*ish7?a, to be one, or, as it is expressed at a later time in the Hari-vansa, there is " no difference between Siva who exists in the form of Yish?m, and Yishmi who exists in the form of /S'iva." The PuraTzas distinctly assert the supremacy of their particular divinity, whether it be /S'iva or whether it be Yishmi, and they have developed and amplified the myths and allusions of the older writings into numberless legends and stories for the glori- fication and honour of their favourite god. The Rudra of the Yedas has develojDed in the course of ages 298 SIVA. into the great and powerful god ^iva, the tliird deity of the Hindu triad, and the supreme god of his votaries. He is shortly described as the destroying principle, but his powers and attri- butes are more numerous and much wider. Under the name of Rudi-a or Maha-kala, he is the great destroying and dissolving power. But destruction in Hindu belief implies reproduction ; so as Siva, or iSankara, ' the auspicious,' he is the reproductive power which is perpetually restoring that which has been dis- solved, and hence he is regarded as Iswara, the supreme lord, and Maha-deva, the great god.