Sita’s Agni-pravesha, a case of fire-walking?

Sitaayah caritam Mahat!

Greater are the two ordeals she underwent!

The Agnipariskha and exile as a pregnant woman are so heart-wrenching that the current generation is totally at a loss to understand those events. One needs to shed present-mindedness in judging these events of a remote past. In this context it is worth remembering the verses inscribed on stone 1000 years ago by the Chola King Veerarajendra, the grandson of Rajaraja Chola.

The exile of Sita is discussed in this inscription besides the other contentious issues of Ramayana. These were debated all these years, perhaps right from Rama’s times. The one who understands them in the way they should be understood is truly closer to the state of ‘Sthitaprajna’, others can try to learn more, but never attempt to whitewash the truth. Any attempt to twist or remove Agni Pravesha incident is grave injustice to the Epic, to Sita and to posterity. Since because people of current times can’t understand the purport of it, it is not right to rewrite the Ramayana, which is Veda as per Valmiki and for scores of devotees of Rama including this writer.

Here I am taking up the analysis of ‘Agni Pravesha’ to show the historicity behind and the historic developments around that over the millennia.

Fire-walking as Agni Pravesha.

Anyone visiting Sri Lanka on a cultural tour will be pleasantly surprised to get introduced to Sita’s Agni Pravesha as Fire-walking. The cultural events arranged for tourists in Sri Lanka contain the event of fire walking too, which Sri Lankans think was done by Sita to prove her loyalty to Rama! This version prevalent in Sri Lanka cannot be ignored, for, that country was very much part of Ramayana events and the memory carried by them down the ages cannot be false. That memory of fire walk by Sita offers a convincing reason on how she managed to come out of the ordeal unhurt.

Sita asked Lakshmana to prepare a pyre (चितां मे कुरु). Similar pyre is created for fire walk even today. The following picture is that of the preparation of the fire in Draupadi Amman temple in Udappu, Sri Lanka.

Source:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thimithi

Fire- walking is wide-spread in Tamil lands even today. Huge pyre is created for the fire-walk. The devotees walk on smoldering fire, not on burning fire. They come out unscathed due to their devotion – something to do with their thought force and will power. In all the cases the underlying concept is complete allegiance to the deity.

Similar fire walking is found in the Pacific island of Vanuatu where fire walking is a native practice. Today it is promoted as fire-dance for tourist attraction.

Pic courtesy: http://www.santotoday.com/mavoonlefu.htm

This could not have started as a past time, but anything other than that. Most probably as a ritual with religious connotations but is exploited as tourist attraction today.

The concept and causes for this ritual are best known from the Tamil lands only. In the contemporary world no other people conduct the fire-walking events as Tamils do. And this has been a continuing practice from an undated past. There was a Sangam age poet by name “Thee-midhi Naaganaar” – meaning, ‘Naaganaar who walked on fire” There is a tradition to call this event as “Poo midhi” – “walking on flowers”. One can understand from this expression what the devotees think about this ordeal. For the devout, walking on fire is akin to walking on a bed of flowers. And they voluntarily do it, as a show of devotion and commitment to the deity.

The strange feature of Fire walking is that it is done only to female Goddesses. Prominent among them is Draupadi Amman! Not many know that there are temples for Draupadi in remote regions in Tamilnadu where Fire- walking is an important annual festival. The devotees of this deity (Draupadi amman) in Tamil lands believe that she did this walk after Mahabharata war to wipe out the insult done to her by disrobing her in the court of Dhritarashtra! This proves that Draupadi Amman is indeed Draupadi of Mahabharata. How she came to Tamil lands is best understood from the literary references to the migration of Velir groups consisting of  relatives of Krishna and others owing allegiance to Krishna and Pandavas after the last deluge that happened 3500 years ago (coinciding with the decline of the Harappan culture and inundation at Byt Dwaraka).

The migrants had continued with their previous practices, one of which is worshiping Draupadi by means of fire-walk. The migration of fire-walking practice from Dwaraka and Harappan regions shows that this practice must have been prevalent in North India too in remote past but forgotten after a series of invasions.  

Now let us go from the known to the unknown to justify that Agni Pravesha done by Sita was nothing but fire walking.

Honor and Allegiance

Two features are deciphered from the fire walking ritual done by the devotees of Tamil lands. One is that the deity for whom the fire walking is done is a female and the other is absolute commitment or allegiance to her. The popular belief that Draupadi did fire walking to wipe off the dishonor she suffered in the hands of Dussasana could not have come up in the first place without an incident of fire walk done by her. It is like how gold shines more when burnt. The high level of importance attached to chastity must have given rise to this practice. The same act also demonstrates her complete allegiance to the Lord – in her case the Pandavas.

The incidence of Jauhar committed by Rajput women in the event of facing certainty of dishonor (rape) in the hands of the cruel Mleccha Muslims seems to be rooted in this practice only. Draupadi had a future with her husbands after the war and so opted for fire-walk, but the hapless Rajput women had none and therefore decided to end their life by fire. They could have chosen easier and less painful means to end their lives, but by choosing fire they seemed to have gone with the age old views on wiping out dishonor caused by or expected to be caused by a male and to demonstrate their complete allegiance to their husbands. What a thought, what a sublime emotional thought these women have held on to! Certainly we have no right question the way they thought.  

This has a parallel to Sita’s fire walk!

She did that to wipe out the dishonor suffered in the hands of Ravana. She had hopes of a future with her beloved husband Rama. An examination of the dialogues by Rama and Sita that ended with Sita entering fire sheds more light on this issue.

After winning Ravana, Rama says that he killed Ravana to wipe out the insult meted out to him by way of having abducted his wife, Sita. Now that insult had been paid back, Rama was not in a position to take back Sita in the interests of keeping up the honour of his dynasty.

Sita’s response to this was to undergo test by fire. She did not enter fire to get perished in it. Instead she wanted to show that fire would not harm her if she was genuinely loyal and faithful to Rama.

She made 3 statements as a kind of command to the Fire god, all of which convey only one meaning – that she was absolutely loyal to Rama in thought, word and action and that Fire would not harm her if this was true.

She used the same statements when she created yajna fire at Ashoka Vana to worship Fire God appealing him not to harm Hanuman whose tail was put on fire. The fire God did not hurt Hanuman. Such was the power of Sita, the Pati Vrataa! Could that fire do any harm to her when she entered the smoldering fire?

With Sita and then Draupadi being fire-walkers by themselves, the practice would have evolved after them and directed at female deities.

This practice might sound primitive and might have been in existence in the times of Sita or before.

Or it could be the other way that it was Sita who started the practice and others followed her - to show loyalty to whomever it matters and to show that they are as pure and golden like Sita. 

With Draupadi more recent in memory, fire walking has come to be associated with Draupadi. Following Draupadi this practice must have thrived and inspired Kshatriya women whenever they faced ordeal of similar nature. Today it continues with an emotional and spiritual fervor throughout Tamilnadu.