3-056-632 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Agni Pariksha, 1652. Trial by fire. Scene from a Hindu epic, with multi-headed gods, white elephants and monkeys. With Ravana finally dead, Sita has prepared herself for seeing her husband once again. But Rama has repudiated her: she has lived in another man's house and hence it would not be fitting for him to take her back. To prove her chastity and vindicate her honour, Sita has a great fire prepared and casts herself into it. Agni the golden god of fire himself rises from the flames attesting to Sita's purity and presents her to her husband. The gods - headed by Brahma on his goose, Indra on his elephant and Siva and Parvati on the bull Nandi - come down from heaven and Rama's father, king Dasaratha, comes back from the dead, all with the same message. Rama announces that he has not doubted her for an instant, but that the trial was necessary so that the people should not doubt her either. He requests that the god Indra restore to life those monkeys who have died in the struggle. As Indra departs, he bathes the dead monkeys in nectar, so that they return, wildly rejoicing, to life.