Valmiki Ramayana 2.38.5: Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 38, Shloka 5
अयोध्याकाण्डे अष्टत्रिंशः सर्गः · Sita in Bark Garments; Public Outcry and Dasaratha’s Lament
Spoken by Dasharatha to KaikeyiSetting: Ayodhyā (public space/assembly among people)
इयं हि कस्यापकरोति किञ्चि त्तपस्विनी राजवरस्य कन्या ।
या चीरमासाद्य जनस्य मध्ये स्थिता विसंज्ञाश्रमणीव काचित् ॥५॥
iyaṃ hi kasyāpakaroti kiñcit tapasvinī rājavarasya kanyā |
yā cīram āsādya janasya madhye sthitā visaṃjñā śramaṇīva kācit ||5||
นางเคยทำร้ายผู้ใดแม้เพียงน้อยหรือ—พระราชธิดาผู้ทรงพรต บุตรีแห่งพระราชาผู้ประเสริฐ—ผู้สวมผ้าจากเปลือกไม้แล้วยืนท่ามกลางผู้คน ประหนึ่งภิกษุณีจาริกผู้หมดสติ?
Sandhi Notes
- Sandhi resolved: कस्यापकरोति → कस्य + अपकरोति
- किञ्चित्तपस्विनी → किञ्चित् + तपस्विनी
- चीरमासाद्य → चीरम् + आसाद्य
- मध्येस्थिता → मध्ये + स्थितā
- विसंज्ञाश्रमणीव → विसंज्ञा + श्रमणी + इव
Sita, daughter of Janaka, the greatest among kings, stands amidst people wearing bark garment like an ascetic with her senses switched off. To whom and what harm has she done?
The teaching
Public dharma is measured by whether the innocent are forced into suffering without cause; compassion itself becomes an argument against injustice.
Duties in tension
- Political fulfillment of Kaikeyī's boons
- Protecting a blameless princess from public degradation
- Maintaining royal dignity vs enforcing harsh ascetic signs
- Ethical theme
- Nyāya (justice) and rājadharma
For your practice
Meditation on Sita's kṣamā (forbearance) and the vow to avoid harming the faultless.
Mood and themes
- Rasa
- Karuna (compassion)
- Mood
- Public humiliation, innocence, stunned silence
Themes
- Dharma
- Satya
- Innocence
- Compassion
- Royal ethics
The pure self is untouched by outer conditions; yet society's dharma is judged by how it treats the innocent embodied person.
Echo of the contrast between inner awareness and apparent unconsciousness; the 'senseless' look is a veil over steadfast inner resolve.
- Dasharatha and Sita
- Father-in-lawỚughter-in-law; advocateinnocent victim (protective compassion)
- Dasharatha and Kaikeyi
- Husbandwife; moral accuserẬcused (indignant reproach)
- Sita and People of Ayodhya
- Princesssubjects; spectacle of suffering (public pity and shock (implied))
- Sita and Janaka
- DaughterỺther (named) (honor and filial identity (evoked))
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.40 (citizens' lament and Sita's resolve context); Rāmacaritamānasa, Ayodhyākāṇḍa (Sita's exile portrayal and public grief)
Vedic/Smṛti ideal of the king as protector of the weak; tapasvinī imagery of renunciation
Ayodhyākāṇḍa: Sita's adoption of ascetic garb and the city's reaction
Anuṣṭubh (with extended descriptive compounds typical of epic anuṣṭubh)
Grieving
Madhyama-centered lament; elongated dīrgha on 'tapasinī' and 'visaṃjñā'
FAQs
Dharma rejects harming the blameless: the verse argues that righteousness requires protecting innocents from undeserved suffering and public humiliation.
Daśaratha points to Sītā’s stunned presence in bark-cloth among the crowd and questions what wrongdoing could justify such treatment.
Moral indignation grounded in justice: Daśaratha’s conscience protests the extension of exile’s hardship onto Sītā.
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