68 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Rama is sexually roused and is extremely passionate when Sita is heavy with her pregnancy; hence he sends her away in order to avoid temptation. The second and only unmitigated reason for abandoning Sita is public scandal (Lokapavada). This is found in Valmiki, Bhavabhuti's Uttararamacarita, Bhatti's Ravanvadha, Campuramayana and Krttibasa. In Valmiki (VT: 115: 2-4), Rama crushes Sita's hope for reunion. He says that he cannot have anything to do with a woman who was abducted and who stayed in Lanka for a full year. The battle he has fought and won had nothing to do with Sita; he fought it to redeem his reputation and the heroic stature of a Ksatriya King whose wife was stolen by another. Now she is an eyesore to him because Ravana cannot have let such a beautiful woman alone. She is free to marry Laksmana, Bharata, Sugriva or Vibhisana. Krittabasa virtually repeats this harangue, 'none of mine was there (in Lanka) near you*. In this Uttarakanda, subjects whisper that Sita was in Ravana's palace; with such a Sita Rama indulges in dalliance. He has polluted his pure lineage, the woman who Ravana had held is now in Rama's palace. The subjects are too timid to say all this to Rama's face. Bhavabhuti insinuates the same scandal although he does not endorse the view, 'men are apt to malign the chastity of women and of good speech' (I; 5). In the Raghuvamsa Kalidasa omits Rama's cruel words; very casually he mentions their return to Ayodhya 'after Sita she speaks up in defence of her chastity: 'Tell that king from me, I was purified by the fire ordeal in his presence, yet he has abandoned me; is it worthy of his learning, or even of his lineage?' (XIL61). And we remember that most authors plead that abandoning Sita was Rama's social obligation to remove the stain from his glorious line, yet Sita says that this very act taints the honour of the line. Bhatti in his epic says, 'the king who doubted her chastity spoke. . . .' you who have been pressed in" Ravana's arms give me pain in the heart. . . . where is the famous line of Raghu and where are you who have lived in a stranger's house!' But Sita says, 'Take fright of what Fate has in store for you, be ashamed of the people. You are wrongly angry with me who was helplessly abducted by the enemy. My heart is yours, this body alone was stolen by the monster.' (XX: 20-28). She then enters fire, and Brahman, the spokesman of public opinion says to her, 'If you hadn't done this, there would have been a great disaster, we would never be able to be free of our doubts.' Here through Brahman, the public demand for proof of a maligned woman's chastity is conceded. (XXI: 13, 14). In the Campuramayana of Bhojaraja, at the trial by fire in the Yuddhakanda we read of 'Sita's impurity which accrued from a long contact with an impure object' (i.e. Ravana, 97-98). In the 'Ramopakhyana' in the Mahabharata there is no mention of Sita's banishment in Ayodhya but there definitely is a most cruel and humiliating rejection of the virtuous wife on bare suspicion. After the battle when Sita approached Rama, he said, 'Go, Sita; you are free; I did what had to be done. With