śrī sītā cālīsā

An Awadhi chalisa that is almost entirely narrative: instead of praising Sita by epithet it tells her life through. Janaka's despair when no king can lift the bow, Vishvamitra's smile, Rama breaking it in the space of a blink, the garland going round his neck; the return to Ayodhya and the welcome from the three mothers, Kaikeyi giving her the golden house. Then Manthara, the fourteen years, and Sita walking out with Rama and Lakshmana; the deer, the mendicant at the door, Lanka, Hanuman arriving with the ring and given the crest-jewel to carry back, the bridge, the return by air. It does not stop there. The washerman's remark, the second exile, Valmiki's hermitage, Lava and Kusha born there and singing Rama's story back to Rama, and the earth opening. Its closing doha asks only that she be remembered at dawn.