#6 - Myths: Sita banishmenet, Shambuka murder

Sita Banishment and Shambuka Murder Myths

"The earliest mention of a mighty king bearing the name Rama is found in a hymn of the tenth book of the Rgveda and this is in conformity with the genealogical account of the Puranas which makes it clear that this great hero lived in the Vedic age. ... The oldest of the present Puranas are the Vayu and its counterpart Brahmanda.  The account of Rama as found in them is as follows:

...

This story [Sita's banishment] is found in the seventh book of the Ramayana, called the Uttarakanda. 

This book contains a number of myths concerning Ravana and other prominent figures of ancient times, many of whom are well-known in the Puranas.  But the central theme of the book is the exile of Sita and the slaying of the Sudra ascetic Sambuka by Rama.  The spurious nature of the entire Uttarkanda is indubitably established by the unimpeachable evidence of the last canto of the Yuddhakanda.

After a charming account of the coronation of Rama and Sita, this Canto not only gives a glowing description of the peace, prosperity, and piety that prevailed in the kingdom of Kosala during the reign of Rama, but also mentions the promise of the reward [sravanaphala] which is assigned to those who would hear the Ramayana.  This is the clearest proof of the fact that the poem of Valmiki ended here, because the sravanaphala is always at the end of a poem.

So far as the central theme of the Uttarakanda is concerned we are fortunate in possessing the additional testimony of the Mahabharata and the Puranas.  A study of these works conclusively establishes that the central theme of the Uttarakanda is not only unauthentic but also a very late invention.  The Ramopakhyana of the Mahabharata gives a fairly detailed story of Rama but is silent about the banishment of Sita and the slaying of the sudra ascetic by Rama.  The Harivamsa and the Vayu,

Brahmanda, Kurma, Garuda and Visnu Puranas also give the story of Rama but are totally unaware of the banishment of Sita and the slaying of the sudra ascetic by him.  These myths had not yet come into existence even when Bhasa wrote his Rama plays.  The earliest works which mention the incident of the banishment of Sita by Rama are the Gautamimahatmya of the Brahma Purana, the Agni, Bhagavata and Padma Puranas and the Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa.  The slaying of sudra ascetic Sambuka is mentioned only in the last two works.  The inevitable conclusion is that the incident of Sita's exile by Rama was invented at a very late period, while the tale of Sambuka arose later still.  The date of the rise of these myths could not have been earlier than the fourth century AD.

The central theme of the Uttarakanda, is discredited not only by the internal evidence of the Ramayana and the external evidence of the Mahabharata, the Harivamsa and the ancient Puranas, but is also inconsistent with some other facts.  Having commended the tapas of a woman of the lowly Sabara tribe in III,70,7, Rama could not have punished a man of the sudra caste, for the same act of piety.

So far as the banishment of Sita is concerned, it does not take note of the fact that from the report given by Hanumat, the people of Ayodhya must have been convinced about the purity of Sita, and so there was no question of any murmur arising among them.

In summing up we can say that besides the testimony of Hanumat, two very important facts lead us to the inevitable conclusion that the stories of Sita's banishment and the slaying of the sudra ascetic Sambuka by Rama were invented at a very late period.

These two facts are as follows:

1) The Ramayana has been concluded at the end of its sixth book named Yuddhakanda pointing to the fact that its last book named Uttarakand, containing the stories of Sita's banishment and the slaying of Sambuka, was a later addition.

2) The Mahabharata, the Harivamsa, and five of the ancient Puranas, viz., Vayu, Brahmanda, Kurma, Garuda and Visnu which give the story of Rama are silent about the incidents of the banishment of Sita and the slaying of the sudra ascetic by him.

The evidence against the genuineness of the story of Sita's banishment by Rama is so overwhelming that one really feels flabbergasted on seeing not only laymen but even scholars harping on it.

It is, to say the least, the gravest of injustice to Rama that is being perpetrated by the very people who claim to adore him."

(Source: Retrieval of History from Puranic Myths, PL Bhargava, DK Printworld Ltd, 1998)