''Uttararāmacarita'' ( sa, उत्तररामचरित,

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: Uttararāmacarita) () is a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

play in seven acts in the ''Nataka'' style by

Bhavabhuti Bhavabhūti (Devanagari: भवभूति) was an 8th-century scholar of India noted for his plays and poetry, written in Sanskrit. His plays are considered the equal of the works of Kalidasa. Bhavabhuti was born in Padmapura, Vidarbha, in Gondi ...

. It depicts the later life of

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

god

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

, from the coronation after Rama's return from exile, to his reunion with his wife

Sita Sita (; ) also called as Janaki and Vaidehi is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, ''Ramayana''. She is the consort of Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, and is regarded as a form of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi. She ...

whom he abandoned immediately after his coronation and his two sons

Lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

and

Kusha Kusha was a Suryavansha The Solar dynasty ( IAST: Suryavaṃśa or Ravivaṃśa in Sanskrit) or the Ikshvaku dynasty was founded by the legendary king Ikshvaku.Geography of Rigvedic India, M.L. Bhargava, Lucknow 1964, pp. 15-18, 46-49, 92-98 ...

, covering a period of more than twelve years.

Characters

Main characters: * Ramathe eldest son of King Dasharatha * SitaRama's wife * LakshmanaRama's brother * Atreyian elderly ascetic * Vasantithe sylvan deity

Plot

Composed in seven acts, Uttararāmacarita's main theme is Sita's abandonment. The first act gives a brief summary of Rama's story up to the fire-ordeal of Sita. The common people who were away from the scene of the fire-ordeal, refused to be convinced, and made uncharitable criticism of Rama's acceptance of Sita. This forced Rama to take the regrettable decision of abandoning her. He sends her away without explanation under the pretext of satisfying her longing to visit the forests again in her pregnant condition. But Rama never entertained any doubt about her chastity and he never banished her from his mind, and this makes him undergo a living death for the next 12 years. Sita gives birth to the twins,

and

, who are brought up under the guardianship of

Valmiki Valmiki (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, ) is celebrated as the wikt:harbinger, harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic ''Ramayana'', dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on ...

. Some time later, Rama goes to

Panchavati Nashik (, Marathi: aːʃik, also called as Nasik ) is a city in the northern region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Situated on the banks of river Godavari, Nashik is the third largest city in Maharashtra, after Mumbai and Pune. Nashik ...

to punish a

Shudra Shudra or ''Shoodra'' (Sanskrit: ') is one of the four '' varnas'' of the Hindu caste system and social order in ancient India. Various sources translate it into English as a caste, or alternatively as a social class. Theoretically, class ser ...

ascetic and meets Vasanti, the presiding deity of the forests. She rebukes Rama for having abandoned Sita, and Rama becomes remorseful and experiences untold agony. Bhavabhuti projects this situation dramatically by making the invisible Sita a witness to Rama's deep agony. Sita who experiences grief due to the inexplicable abandonment, mentally reconciles to her husband completely on hearing that her golden icon was Rama's consort in the horse sacrifice. Goddesses Ganga and

Prithvi Prithvi or Prithvi Mata (Sanskrit: पृथ्वी, ', also पृथिवी, ', "the Vast One") is the Sanskrit name for the earth, as well as the name of a devi (goddess) in Hinduism and some branches of Buddhism. In the Vedas, her cons ...

declare Sita to be chaste, and Arundhati hands over Sita to Rama after the repentant public has given a full-throated approval to Sita's restoration. Thus Sita and Rama happily reunited.

Influence

The Sanskritist and Archaeologist

Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia (10 December 1908 – 28 January 1989) was an Indian Sanskrit scholar and archaeologist specialising in proto- and ancient Indian history. He is considered to have pioneered archaeological excavation techniques in In ...

demonstrated that Dinnaga, author of Kundamala, influenced Bhavabhuti in the writing of the Uttaramacarita.

Translation

Uttaramacharita was translated into

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

Manilal Dwivedi Manilal Nabhubhai Dwivedi (; 26 September 1858 – 1 October 1898) was a Gujarati-language writer, philosopher, and social thinker from British India, commonly referred to as Manilal in literary circles. He was an influential figure in 19th-c ...

References

External links

Rama’s Last Act
the

Clay Sanskrit Library The Clay Sanskrit Library is a series of books published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation. Each work features the text in its original language (transliterated Sanskrit) on the left-hand page, with its English translation on the ...

edition of the book (translated by

Sheldon Pollock Sheldon I. Pollock (born 1948) is an American scholar of Sanskrit, the intellectual and literary history of India, and comparative intellectual history. He is the Arvind Raghunathan Professor of South Asian Studies at Columbia University. He was ...

)
1874 translation
by

C. H. Tawney Charles Henry Tawney (1837–1922) was an English educator and scholar, primarily known for his translations of Sanskrit classics into English. He was fluent in German Language, German, Latin, and Greek Language, Greek; and in India also acqu ...

1895 edition
(Nyaya Sudha Press, Nagpur)
1903 edition
(Nirnaya Sagar Press)
1915 edition
( Harvard Oriental Series 21)
Balamanorama series
{{Authority control Hindu poetry Works based on the Ramayana Sanskrit plays Medieval Indian literature