Devalok
Local story · 2 tellings · East India, North India

Sita's fast at Munger

After the war in Lanka, Rama must be cleansed of the sin of killing Ravana, who was born a Brahmin. The sage Mudgala calls Rama and Sita to his hermitage at Munger, and Sita keeps the fast and offers to the setting and rising Sun. Her footprints are shown on a rock in the Ganga. Another telling has Rama and Sita keep the fast at Ayodhya before Rama's reign begins.

Who is in it

Places: Munger, Ayodhya

The story, beat by beat

  1. Rama's priests say the killing of Ravana, a Brahmin's son, must be atoned for.
  2. Vasishtha sends for Mudgala, who asks Rama and Sita to come to him at Munger.
  3. Sita keeps the fast of Kartika shukla shashthi and offers to the setting and rising Sun.
  4. She leaves her footprints on a rock in the Ganga, now the Sita Charan temple.
  5. In another telling Rama and Sita keep the fast at Ayodhya before his reign begins.

purification fast worship festival

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Temple tradition

As Munger tells it

East India · hi Folk 🪔 Chhath

After Rama returns, the priests say killing Ravana, son of the sage Vishravas, needs atonement. Vasishtha sends for the sage Mudgala, who asks Rama and Sita to come to his hermitage at Munger. Rama joins the rites; Sita stays in the hermitage and keeps the fast of the sixth day of the bright half of Kartika, offering water to the setting and then the rising Sun from a rock in the Ganga. Her footprints and the marks of her basket and pot are on the rock, Manpathar or Sita Charan, under water half the year.

Manpatthar (Sita Charan), Munger district administration; with DNA India and Bihar press reports

Popular retelling

As it is told in Ayodhya

North India · hi Folk 🪔 Chhath

After the return to Ayodhya, on the sixth of the bright half of Kartika, before the reign begins, Rama and Sita fast and offer to the setting Sun on the Sarayu and to the rising Sun at dawn, worshipping the ancestor of Rama's line.

What is different here:

At Ayodhya, without Mudgala; Rama and Sita fast together.

Chhath, Wikipedia

Sources: Manpatthar (Sita Charan), Munger district administration; with DNA India and Bihar press reports; Chhath, Wikipedia

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