SOURCE: Sahai, S. “Sources of the Lao Ramayana Tradition.” Indian Horizons 21, nos. 2-3 (April-July 1972): 70-81.

[In the following essay, Sahai compares Southeast Asian versions of the Ramayana with Valmiki's Indian text.]

Constant and continuous cultural contacts from the first centuries of the Christian era created favourable circumstances in South East Asia for understanding and appreciation of Indian ideas and values as expressed through the classical works of literature. In literary works like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the people of South East Asia found indeed some fine human values similar to those which they cherished most. This would explain partly the rapidity with which the Ramayana, one of the most important Indian epics, became so popular in this part of Asia.¹

As early as the seventh century A.D., the epigraphic texts of Cambodia make pointed references to the Ramayana.² In the same epoch, an inscription of Champa records the construction of a temple of the celebrated poet Valmiki, author of the Indian epic, whose image was installed therein.³ The sculptors of Angkor Vat who executed the exquisite bas-relief representing the story of Rama had been thoroughly acquainted with the Indian Epic.⁴ In Indonesia, the story of Rama has been immortalised in the relief panels of Prambanan and Panataran. The earliest version of the story comes from Java. It is the Ramayana Kakawin written most probably in the first quarter of the tenth century A.D. by Yogisvara.⁵ The story has been handed down to the present generation in South East Asia through the recent Thai, Khmer, Burmese, Indonesian, Malaysian and Lao versions and transformed into a living and growing tradition by the performing arts of this area.⁶

However, it has been correctly asserted that South East Asian versions of the Ramayana differ considerably from the classical work of Valmiki and that they are composed with local colours on a local canvas. They depict customs and manners of the people among whom they are so popular. And finally, they unfold a geographical horizon which is equally local.⁷ Thus the study of South East Asian versions of the Ramayana involves three major points:

(1) Critical editing and comparative study of various versions.

(2) Systematic analysis of those events, episodes and details which are not found in the work of Valmiki in order to trace the sources of their origin.

(3) Cultural study of these versions in order to discover the subtle procedure of fitting the realities of local life in the Indian framework of the Ramayana, and to assess their value as an important source for the study of South-East Asian cultural patterns.

The present study, limited to the second point only, would show that those episodes and details in the Lao version which are untraceable in the classical work of Valmiki are not necessarily extra-Indian. Some of them have certainly been taken from Indian sources other than Valmiki.⁸ In fact, a large number of literary works coming after the masterpiece of Valmiki narrate the story of Rama and introduce therein certain details which are absent in the original Ramayana. In support of our view-point, we would present the story of Sita's birth as narrated in the Phra Lak Phra Lam:

As Raphanasuan (Ravana) was very jealous of his cousin Phra Rama, he went one day to the celestial abode of Phra in (Indra) in order to obtain supernatural powers from the god against his cousin. Indra put him in his own mould from where he came out with a striking physical resemblance to the god himself. Taking advantage of this he was able to seduce Nang Susda, wife of Indra. When she knew the reality she decided to avenge the wrong done to her and with the consent of her husband, she took birth as the child of Ravana and Nang Chantha, his wife. A short time after her birth, the daughter named Nang Sida attacked her father with a knife. Extremely angry at the wickedness of his daughter, Ravana ordered her to be thrown into the river. However, she was saved by a seer Chao Laksi who accepted her as his adopted child.⁹

A slightly different version is found in the modern Lao explanatory inscriptions under the five successive frescoe panels in Vat Up Mung in Vientiane, illustrating the story of Sita's birth. According to these inscriptions, the wife of Indra who was seduced by Ravana already had the name of Nang Sita. Another difference is that Ravana ordered her to be thrown into a tank and not a river.¹⁰

The Ramajataka, another Lao version prevalent in the North-eastern part of Thailand, also relates how the wife of Indra, seduced by Ravana, reincarnated as a daughter of the latter in order to avenge the wrong done to her. It was, however, on the advice of the royal astrologer Phikphi (Vibhisana), brother of Ravana, that the new-born named Sita was abandoned, for she was destined to bring about the downfall of her father. She was guarded by the genii of the forest until discovered by an unnamed seer living on an island.¹¹

According to the P'ommachak (Brahmacakra), a T'ay lu version of the Ramayana in the northern Laos, Sita was born from the tree, Nithon Hom, in the garden of P'ommachak (Ravana). When presented to Ravana, she transformed herself into a yaksa. Thereupon Ravana ordered her to be sealed up in an urn and thrown in the water. The waves brought the urn near the city of Kannaka where it was buried under the sand. The existence of the girl was disclosed to the king of Kannaka by a sage. The king adopted her as he was childless.¹²

According to the “Luang Prabang” version, Nang Sida was the daughter of Dasaratha from his fourth queen Nang Mando. As one of the astrologers, Phipheka, predicted that the birth of the child was not propitious for the kingdom, she was cast adrift on the ocean in an urn and was saved later on by a sage who adopted her.¹³

It is interesting to note that the Tibetan, Khotanese, Indonesian, Malay and Thai versions of the Ramayana agree with the Lao versions in describing Sita as a daughter of Ravana. According to the Tibetan¹⁴ and the Khotanese¹⁵ versions, probably assignable to the ninth century A.D., Sita, the daughter of Ravana, had to be thrown into water as her horoscope indicated that she would be responsible for the destruction of her family. While in the Tibetan version we are told that a farmer adopted her, in the Khotanese version it is said that a hermit found her.

The Serat Kanda, a Javanese version of the Ramayana, also relates how a seer named Kala, resident of Mantil (Mithila) found the abandoned daughter of Ravana, who was in fact an incarnation of Sri, and adopted her and gave her the name of Sita. The Patani version of Seri Rama says that the queen of Ravana gave birth to a girl whose palate was black. This being a bad characteristic, she was thrown into water. However, a crocodile saved the infant and Maruta placed her on a lotus in the garden of a hermit who adopted her under the name of Sita.¹⁶ The Javanese Rama Keling and the Malaya Hikayata Seri Rama also say that Sita was the daughter of Mandodari and Ravana. As the horoscope of the child indicated that her husband would kill Ravana, she was cast adrift on the sea and subsequently found by the sage Kali.¹⁷ The Khmer Ramaker does not seem to state expressly that Sita was the daughter of Ravana. It is said, however, that the king of Mithila found her floating in the river and adopted her as his own child.¹⁸

In the Burmese version of the Ramayana (Rama Thagyin) Sita is supposed to have been born in Lanka. We are told that Dasagiri, having tasted the juice of the Artharwati creeper, became a slave to temptations and oppressed his people. Once he saw on a mountain peak a beautiful fairy engaged in the observance of Eight Precepts and religious meditation. Ravana attempted to seduce her. However, the fairy defied his immortality and cursed him, and then, descending to the earth, kindled a fire and entered the flames. Later the fairy emerged from the earth as a baby. When the child was brought to Lanka, the terrified Dasagiri put her in a box and let the box float over the ocean. The box reached a bank near the city of Mithila. King Janaka, on the advice of his Brahmanas, came to the bank and, while ploughing the ground for sacrifice, saw the baby whom he adopted.¹⁹

The Thai Ramakien relates a similar story with some additional details. We are told that Mando, the queen of Ravana, conceived a child as she ate some of the sacred food prepared for the sacrifice to be performed by Dasaratha. She gave birth to a girl who was in fact an incarnation of Laksmi. As soon as the girl saw the first light, she pronounced maledictions against her parents which they could not hear. Afterwards, the royal astrologers, including Bibhek, predicted that she would bring destitution to the whole race of Ravana. She was, therefore, cast adrift on the sea in a glass bowl. Through the divine intervention of Laksmi, there arose a lotus on the surface of water which received the urn which was then carried to a bathing place and found by the seer Janaka. The latter was anxious to continue his ascetic life and found it difficult to keep the baby with him. And so he dug a hole under a tree and prayed that if the girl was destined to be the queen of Narayana in his incarnation as a king, there would arise a lotus from the hole to receive the urn. A lotus did indeed bloom at once. Janaka placed the urn in the hole and covered it with earth. As the sixteen years of austere life did not bring him his desired satisfaction, Janaka decided to return to his own kingdom. Before returning, he demanded that the urn be dug up. However, all his servants and soldiers failed to locate it. At last Janaka himself took the plough and to the astonishment of all present, the urn appeared at once. In the urn was found a beautiful maiden seated on the petals of a lotus.²⁰

Any one familiar with the classical Ramayana knows that according to Valmiki, Sita was not born from the womb of a mortal mother (ayonijah). She was born from the earth. She was supposed to have sprung from the furrow (Sita) made by king Janaka while ploughing the ground to prepare it for a sacrifice which he had instituted to obtain progeny. Therefore, she was named Sita.²¹ The Lao versions of the Ramayana have not followed Valmiki in this respect; Sita was born to the queen of Ravana. In the Thai version, an effort has apparently been made not to discard altogether the tradition of Valmiki. Thus we are told that the abandoned daughter of Ravana was found by Janaka who enclosed her in an urn and placed it under the earth. After sixteen years, he had to plough the earth to find the child again.

The tradition according to which Sita was the daughter of Ravana is not altogether unknown in India, though it has not been recorded by Valmiki. Some of the Prakrta works of the Jains later than Valmiki have adopted this tradition. The earliest known form of the story is found in the Vausudevahindi or the Vausudevacariyam, which was written most probably in the fifth century A.D. by Sanghadasa.²² We learn from this source that Vidyadhara Maya offered his daughter, Mandodari, to Ravana in marriage. But according to the predictions of astrologers, her first child would destroy the entire line of Ravana. The latter was, however, so enamoured of Mandodari that he married her with the understanding that her first child was to be abandoned. Accordingly, when she gave birth to a daughter, Ravana ordered her to be put in an urn and buried under the earth. By coincidence the urn was buried in the field of Janaka who discovered it while he was ploughing the earth. He adopted the girl and entrusted her to the care of his queen Dharani.

The Uttarapurana of Gunabhadra, another Prakrta text of the ninth century A.D., explains the birth of Sita in a similar way, but furnishes certain details which are not found in the Vasudevahindi. It introduces princess Manimati, daughter of the king of Alakapuri, who was engaged in ascetic practices on the mountain of Vijayadhara (Vindhya). Ravana was so much attracted by the beauty of the princess that he disturbed her spiritual meditations. This infuriated the princess so much that she decided to reincarnate herself as the daughter of Ravana in order to avenge the wrong done to her. She was born to Mandodari, queen of Ravana. After her birth, the kingdom of Lanka witnessed, every day, some bad omen. The astrologers predicted that the new-born would cause the destruction of Ravana. Frightened by this fearful prediction, Ravana asks Marichi to go and leave the new-born in some far-off country. Marichi placed her in an urn and buried her in the kingdom of Mithila where she was found the same day by the farmers and brought to King Janaka who adopted her.²³

The Lao versions of the Ramayana are in complete agreement with the two Prakrta texts cited above in describing Sita as the daughter of Ravana. According to the Phra Lak Phra Lam, it is the wife of Indra who decides to avenge the wrong done to her. In the Uttarapurana, on the other hand, it is a certain princess Manimati who is reincarnated as the daughter of Ravana. In the Phra Lak Phra Lam, the newborn is abandoned as she makes an attempt on the life of her father. In the Indian versions, she is abandoned because the astrologers predicted that she would cause the destruction of the entire family. On this point the Ramajataka, the other Lao version, is quite close to the Indian sources. Again according to the Phra Lak Phra Lam, the newborn was thrown into water; while according to the Indian sources discussed above, she was enclosed in an urn and buried underground to be later discovered by Janaka. However, the Ramavatara carit, the Kashmiri version of the Ramayana²⁴ ascribed to the eighteenth century A.D., says that Mandodari gave birth to a child in the absence of Ravana. As it was predicted that the new-born would cause the death of her father, the mother asked to throw the child into the river. This story recorded by a comparatively later work seems, however, to be based upon oral tradition prevalent in India from an early date.

Let us now see how the tradition of Sita being the daughter of Ravana (which is not recorded by the celebrated poet Valmiki but by some later Prakrta texts) became so popular in Laos. As we have seen, the same tradition is accepted by the Thai, Indonesian, and Malay versions of the Ramayana. Therefore, it may safely be assumed that the Lao texts have drawn upon versions from one of the neighbouring countries.

There is every possibility that the story, told differently by the authors after Valmiki, became fairly well known in South-East Asia not too long after their creation in India. In fact, cultural links between India and South East Asia were constant and unbroken. In different epochs, the progress in the field of Indian art and literature was closely followed by the people of South-East Asia. The various schools of Indian art (Amaravati, Gupta and Pala) were known in South-East Asia not long after their origin in India and the different idioms exercised tangible influence on the art patterns of this area. The Pallava characters used in the Khmer inscriptions followed the same pattern of development as in India for a pretty long time before becoming an independent Khmer script with its own distinguishing characteristics. The development of scripts in these two areas were so closely interlinked that even minor modifications and changes brought into Indian script did not take more than about fifty years to get known to the Khmer calligraphers, as A. Barth remarked while editing the first inscriptions from Cambodia. It is equally significant to note that the unprecedented growth of the Visnuite cult in Cambodia and Java in the beginning of the twelfth century A.D. coincides with the Bhakti movement in India.²⁵ It is not surprising that the principal phases of the evolution of the story of Rama were closely followed in South-East Asia and that the versions of Indian Ramayana after Valmiki were known in due course in this area. For example, the old Javanese Ramayana, though not directly inspired by Valmiki, was definitely based on a later Indian work; it is partly a translation and partly an adaptation of the Sanskrta Bhattikavya or Ravanavadha.²⁶

Nor is it at all surprising that some of the episodes in the Lao Ramayana and other South-East Asian versions are not found in the Sanskrta work of Valmiki but in the later Prakrta works. In fact, the celebrated works of the Prakrta language were equally known in this area. One of the inscriptions of Yasovarman mentions twice a Prakrta author named Gunadhya who is the well known Indian author of the Brhatkatha.²⁷ The work of Gunadhya written most probably in the first century A.D. is unfortunately lost. But later works like the Vasudevahindi of Sanghadasa, the Kathasaritsagara of Somadeva, the Vrhatkathamanjari of Ksemendra and the Brhatkathaslokasamgraha of Buddhasvami are supposed to be based on the work of Gunadhya. All these works, except the last one, narrate the story of Rama in varying degrees of details. And it has been already noted that the Vasudevahindi of Sanghadasa describes Sita as a daughter of Ravana, a tradition which may have been borrowed from the Brhatkatha of Gunadhya. Thus we may safely conclude that some of the post-Valmiki Prakrta texts were known in South-East Asia.²⁸

As regards the “Luang Prabang” versions, the influence of the Dasaratha Jataka is easily discernible. According to this Jataka, Rama, Laksmana and Sita were born to the chief queen of Dasaratha. Thus Sita was the sister of Rama, who according to the Dasaratha Jataka, took her for his wife. However, this is not a solitary example of a marriage between brother and sister of the same blood. In the Buddhist literature, some other examples of such marriages are also found.²⁹ In the Luan Prabang version, Sita is the daughter of Dasaratha from his fourth queen Mang Mando and Rama from his first queen. Thus the marriage takes place between half-brother and sister. It may be recalled that according to the Prakrt tradition of the story of Rama, Sita is the daughter of Mandodari (Mando) who is the wife of Ravana. In the Luang Prabang version also, Mando is the mother of Sita. But strangely enough, she is described as the wife of Dasaratha. The Javanese Rama Keling and the Malaya Hikayata Seri Rama agree with the present version on this point. This modification has been apparently introduced in an effort to follow the tradition of the Dasaratha Jataka. With the tradition of this Jataka, the Luang Prabang version has attempted to combine the Ramakien tradition according to which Sita was abandoned due to unfavourable predictions of astrologers about her. The Phra Lak Phra Lam also betrays an indirect influence of the Dasaratha Jataka. According to this text, Sita, the wife of Rama, was born of the queen of Ravana named Nang Chandha who was the daughter of Dasaratha and the sister of Rama. Ravana was the son of Vilounha, younger brother of Dasaratha. So he was a cousin of Rama who married in this way his cousin's daughter. These texts disagree on details but all of them establish some sort of pre-nuptial family relations between Rama and Sita.

Such was the continuity of cultural contacts between India and South-East Asia, including Laos, that all the Ramayana traditions which existed in India at various periods must have been known to Laos. The Lao versions of the Ramayana like the other South-East Asian versions can thus be shown to have drawn not only upon the Ramayana of Valmiki but also on the various post-Valmiki traditions in Prakrta and Pali, though in the present stage of our knowledge no dogmatic assertions can be made about the path by which these traditions travelled to Laos.

Notes

1. According to another author, the Ramayana was “the great seal of the king's divinity. Small wonder that it proved so popular throughout South-East Asia, for wherever the struggle for power was fiercest the Ramayana was most in demand, both as a testament to the awful divinity of kingship by monarchs with an insecure tenure of the throne, and as a ready-made genealogy by those usurpers who had none.” J. M. Cadet, The Ramakien p.31.

2. One of the Khmer inscriptions mentions the Brahmana Somasarman who offered the texts of the Mahabharata, the Purānas and the Ramayana to a temple and made provisions for their daily and regular recitation.—A. Bergaigne & A. Barth, Inscriptions Sancrites du Cambodge et de Champa, No. IV, p.30 st II cf. Majumdar, R. C., Kambuja Inscriptions, No.13, p.19 st.4.

3. Bulletin de l ‘Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, XXVII, pp. 151-152 (Inscription of Praksasadharma).

4. G. Coedes, Les bas-reliefs d'Angkor Vat, p.50.

5. H. B. Sarkar, Some Contributions of India to the Ancient Civilization of Indonesia and Malaysia, p.94.

6. In addition to the oldest Ramayana Kakawin, the Serat Rama composed by the famous ninteenth century Javanese poet Jasadipur, the Serat Kanda, the Rama Keling and the Hikayat Seri Rama may be noted. According to Kats, in East Java alone there are some 1200 different versions of the Rama saga. Het Ramayan on Javaanche temple-reliefs., p.17 cf. H. B. Sarkar, op. cit. p.94. The first Burmese version of the Ramayana hitherto known is the Rama Thagyin by U. Aung Phyo. The work was composed in 1775 in Ava. The other versions of the Burmese Ramayana are the Rama Yagau (1784), a Ramayana drama composed in 1789, the Kalai Rama (translated from a Tamil version in 1800), the Maha Rama, the Thiri Rama, the Pontawy Rama, (1800), the Rama Thonmyo (1904), Alaung Rama Thagyin (1905), the Pontaw Rama and Lakkhan (1910). Cf. U. Thein Han, The Ramayana in Burma, a paper submitted at the first International Ramayana Festival in East Java, pp 8-9. In Thailand, the earliest known rendering of the Ramayana is that of King Taksin of Thobburi (1775 A.D.). In 1798, King Rama I completed his celebrated work, the Ramkien which is now accepted as a Thai classic. His successor king Rāma II(1809-1824) prepared a dramatised version of the story. Finally, Rāma VI wrote the story of Rama on the basis of the Ramayana of Vālmiki. Cf. S. Karpeles, Un Episode du Ramayana Siamois, Etudes Asiatiques I p.317. Among the known version of the Lao Ramayana we may note the Phra Lak Phra Lam which seems to record the tradition of central Laos, the Rama Jataka from the Lao-speaking area of the North-Eastern Thailand, the P'ommachak (Brahmachakra), a T' ay Lu version from northern Laos and a version from Luang Prabang.

7. J. Przyluski, La legende de Rama dans les bas reliefs, Arts et Archeologie Khmers, 1924, p.3, Lafont, B. P'alak P'a Lam Pommachak, p.2, Deydier, H. Les Origines et la naissance de Ravana dans le Ramayana Laotien, Bulletin de' Ecole Francaise d' Extreme Orient, XLIV-I(1947), pp.141-146.

8. There are three distinct traditions of the Rāma story in India: the Hindu, the Jain and the Buddhist. The Hindu tradition is embodied in the work of Valmiki. A number of Jain authors have followed Valmiki. But some of them like Sanghadasa, the author of the Vasudevahindi and Gunabhadra, the author of the Uttarapurana, introduce new details in the story. The Buddhist tradition is pretty well known through the Dasaratha Jataka.

9. Vo Thu Tinh, Phra Lak Phra Lam, Bulletin des amis du Royaume Lao, No. 6. pp 26-28. Mr. Tinh has made a valuable addition to our knowledge of the Lao Ramayana tradition by presenting a detailed analysis of the manuscript of Vat Kang Tha.

10. Vo Thu Tinh, op. cit.

    It is interesting to note that Nang Sita is described as one of the wives of Phra In (Indra) in the inscriptions of Vat Up Mung. According to V. S. Apte (cf. Sanskrta-English Dictionary) Sita is the wife of Indra.

    It seems to us that the manuscripts of the Ramayana from Central Laos are loosely called “Phra Lak Phra Lam”. In the text itself the title “Phra Rama” occurs. In fact, in the beginning of each phouk of various manuscripts at our disposal, including that of Vat Kang Tha, the title Phara Lak Phra Lam is not found. The “Phra Lak Phra Lam,” edited by the National Library, Vientiane, is named Ramakien in the text. The other name which the manuscripts give for the texts called Phra Lak Phra Lam is “Rama Jataka”. In the beginning of the manuscript at Vat Kang Tha and other manuscripts, Buddha proposes to teach Rama Jataka to his disciples. The name “Phra Lak Phra Lam” seems to be a popular name given by the Lao to the story of the Ramayana. In fact, in the Lao story only two brothers Rama and Laksamana are mentioned.

11. Prince/Dhani Nivat, The Rama Jataka, p.78 (collected articles published by the Siam Society, 1969).

12. P. B. Lafont, op. cit. p.21.

13. Phra Lak Phra Lam (in Lao), National Library, Vientiane edition, pp.37-38. In the preface of this edition, it is mentioned that the text has been established on the basis of a manuscript from the Department of Fine Arts. But nothing has been said regarding the origin of this manuscript.

14. Camille Bulcke, La naissance de Sita, Bulletin de l 'Ecole Francaise d' Extreme Orient, XLVI(I) P.III.

15. Bailey, H. W., The Rama Story in Khotanese, Journal of American Oriental Society, Vol.59 pp. 460-468, idem, On Ramayana and Rama in Khotanese, Bulletin of School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. X. pp.365 ff.cf. Camille Bulcke, op. cit. P.III.

16. W. Stutterheim, Rama Legenden und Rama Relief in Indonesia ch.3.

17. Stutterheim, W. op. cit. p. 28 ff.

    We are also told that Mandodari was wife of Dasaratha. She was so beautiful that Ravana asked Dasaratha to forego his wife in his favour. Afraid of being given away by her husband, she herself magically created a second Mandodari whom Ravana brought with him. When Dasaratha discovered this strategem, he was afraid that Ravana might know the reality, as the magically created Mandodari was a virgin. So he went to Lanka and secretly entered the chamber of Mandodari and then returned to his kingdom. Afterwards this new Mandodari gave birth to a child, the future Sita. The remark of Camille Bulcke that in no other version is Mandodari supposed to be the wife of Dasaratha is no more valid as the Phra Lak Phra Lam (National Library, Vientiane edition) clearly says that she is one of the wives of Dasaratha.

    Camille Bulcke, op. cit. p. 117

18. J. Przyluski, Indian Historical Quarterly, XV, p. 289. cf. Camille Bulcke, op. cit. p.112.

19. U. Thein Han, The Ramayana in Burma, op. cit. p.4

20. Swami Satyanand Puri, The Ramakien, p. 21, Ray A. Olsson, The Ramakien pp.65-69., J. M. Cadet, The Ramakien.

21. Ramayana, I.66,13-14.

22. V. M. Kulkarni, The Ramayana version of Sanghadasa as found in the Vasudevahindi, Journal of Oriental Institute (Baroda), Vol. 2 pp. 128-138.

23. Uttarapurana, parva 68. cf. Mahabhagavat Devipurana (10th or 11th century) ch. 42. st.62. It has been suggested that the Jain tradition of the birth of Sita is based on the story of Vedavati as related in the Uttarakanda of the Ramayana of Valmiki. We are told that Sita was the daughter of the sage Kusadhvaja in her past life. She practised ascetism in the Himalayas in order to obtain Narayana as her husband. Ravana was attracted by the beautiful Vedavati. He tried to abduct the lady, catching her by her long hair. However, she transformed her hand magically into a sword and cut her hair. Thus, after escaping Ravana, she decided to reincarnate in a miraculous way to destroy the evil-doer and enter the fire. Later on she was born from a lotus and was found again by Ravana who brought her to his kingdom. However, the astrologers of the court predicted that the child would cause the death of Ravana who ordered her to be thrown into the ocean. But through divine intervention she was saved and deposited under the earth in the kingdom of Janaka who found her while ploughing a field. Camille Bulcke, op. cit. p.109.

    The Adbhut Ramayana, probably written in the XVth century A.D. (Sarga 8) also relates the story of Sita's birth as a daughter of Ravana in a somewhat different manner. We are told that Ravana gave a vase filled with the blood of hermits to his queen Mandodari, saying that it contained poison. With the intention of committing suicide because of her husband's infidelity, the queen drank the liquid and became pregnant, as Laksmi was present in the vase due to the sacred incantations. Thereupon she had to submit to an abortion and to bury the foetus. Janaka, while ploughing the field, found the abandoned child of Ravana and adopted her, giving her the name of Sita.

24. G. A. Grierson, The Kashmiri Ramayana (Calcutta, 1930).

    Vincenzo Maria gives a similar account. It is, however, Ravana himself, who orders the new-born to be sealed up in a box and thrown in the ocean. Janaka finds her on the coast of Coromandal. Il Viaggio all Indie Orientalise, Rome 1672 p.269. cf. C. Niebuhr who relates a similar story. Voyage en Arabie, Amsterdam., 1790, vol II. p.22.

    Cf. Bulcke, op. cit., p. 111.

25. G. Coedes, Les Etats Hindouises, p.297.

26. Ghosh, Manmohan, On the Source of the Old Javanese Ramayana, JGIS pp. 113-117.

27. B. R. Chaterjee, Indian Cultural Influence in Cambodia, 1964 p.113-117.

28. Fausboll edition No. 461.

29. Fausboll, No. 6.