Ravana saw Sita, who was following severe austerities and whose body was smeared with dust of many colours. Sita appeared as if she was going towards Rama in her Manoratha, (chariot of mind) which had her resolutions as its horses.
She looked like the wife of the king of serpents made immobile by magical gems and spells, and also like the star Rohini covered by a comet. Sita appeared like a woman who is born in a respectable and pious family but married to a wretched family. For women, marriage is like the Upanayana and so the marriage is itself the second birth for women. Sita appeared like a future result destroyed, like an order ignored, and like a direction burnt during a catastrophic time, like a sacred altar that is spoiled by impure persons. She looked like a lotus pond from which the lotuses are plucked and thrown out, in which the birds are scared on account of the turbulence caused by the elephant.
She appeared like a river, which has become empty of water by the breakage of the banks. She had not cleaned up and so looked like the dark night of the Krishnapaksha. She had her hands folded and looked as if she was begging the gods in her mind that Rama should cause the defeat of Ravana.
As Ravana sees Sita 5.19.5-23
Ravana saw Sita, who was following severe austerities and whose body was smeared with dust of many colours. Sita appeared as if she was going towards Rama in her Manoratha, (chariot of mind) which had her resolutions as its horses.
She looked like the wife of the king of serpents made immobile by magical gems and spells, and also like the star Rohini covered by a comet. Sita appeared like a woman who is born in a respectable and pious family but married to a wretched family. For women, marriage is like the Upanayana and so the marriage is itself the second birth for women. Sita appeared like a future result destroyed, like an order ignored, and like a direction burnt during a catastrophic time, like a sacred altar that is spoiled by impure persons. She looked like a lotus pond from which the lotuses are plucked and thrown out, in which the birds are scared on account of the turbulence caused by the elephant.
She appeared like a river, which has become empty of water by the breakage of the banks. She had not cleaned up and so looked like the dark night of the Krishnapaksha. She had her hands folded and looked as if she was begging the gods in her mind that Rama should cause the defeat of Ravana.