If you are even vaguely familiar with the Ramayana, you would know that Rama had to lift a mighty bow to become eligible to marry Sita at her swayamvar.
This tells us that Rama was a very strong person. The illustrations that depict him with six pack abs and bulging muscles do not do any harm to that idea either.
But you may be surprised to know that Rama was a very young boy, only a teenager (some say 13, some say 16), at the time of his marriage to Sita!
The illustrations that commonly depict this scene show a tall, strong Rama and a delicate, petite Sita.
However, do you know that Sita lifted the same bow that Rama did, much earlier?
Sita is often spoken of as the epitome of patience, forbearance, and virtue. Unlike the fiery Draupadi who took oaths and threw open challenges, Sita is mostly remembered as a gentle queen whose strength was to suffer with fortitude. We have heard of the thorns that pierced her soft feet as she walked barefoot through the jungle during the days of exile that she spent with her husband Rama. We read about the tears she shed in Ravana’s palace as a hostage. She is compared to the doe and the flowers, all of them conveying an image of softness and gentleness. We almost never hear about Sita’s physical strength. But just as Rama was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, Sita was an incarnation of Lakshmi, a very powerful goddess!
There are many stories about Sita’s origin. Some say that she was Bhumi Devi’s daughter and that King Janaka found her in a furrow in a ploughed field, while others say that she was the spiritual child of Menaka, the apsara. In some versions she is Ravana’s daughter, born to destroy him. Whichever story you choose to believe, one thing is sure: Sita grew up in the kingdom of Mithila, which was ruled by King Janaka. She was dear to the king and was a much loved princess to the people of his kingdom.
King Janaka had a bow called shivadhanush, which once belonged to Lord Shiva. The bow was very big and heavy and required hundreds of men even to push the cart it was kept on.
But when Sita was a small girl playing with a ball, the ball fell inside this cart. Sita jumped in, lifted the bow, found her ball and put the bow back without even breaking a sweat! Janaka was astonished to see this and realised that Sita was no ordinary child. She was exceptionally strong and he knew that the man who married her had to be worthy of her. This is why he came up with the bow test!
You may wonder why a woman who was capable of such physical strength even as a child did not defend herself against Ravana. Why didn’t Sita fend him off and save herself instead of helplessly getting abducted?
As is true of most questions that come to your mind while reading mythological stories, this one too has several explanations.
The most convincing one is that Sita was paving the way to fulfil the purpose of her birth. When she was an avatar of Goddess Lakshmi, who had been sent to Earth to destroy Ravana, she had become very powerful and arrogant. If Rama was to declare war and kill a king like Ravana, he must have sufficient motive to do so. This is why she refuses to leave Lanka with Hanuman, citing that her husband must come to Lanka and rescue her. For it’s not just a god’s duty to fight evil, it’s also the goddess!