Maya Sita
Sita undergoes Agni Pariksha (an ordeal of fire) by which she proves her chastity before she is accepted by Rama.
While some texts mention that Maya Sita is destroyed in the flames of Agni Pariksha, others narrate how she is blessed and reborn as the epic heroine Draupadi or the goddess Padmavati.
Similar doubles or surrogates of Sita and other goddesses are found in various tales of Hindu mythology.
He imprisons her in the Ashoka Vatika grove of Lanka, until she is rescued by Rama, who slays Ravana in war.
When Rama doubts Sita's chastity, she undergoes a trial by fire (Agni Pariksha).
Sita enters a burning pyre declaring that if she has been faithful to Rama let the fire not harm her; she comes out unscathed with the fire-god Agni as proof of her purity.
Rama accepts Sita back and returns to Ayodhya, where they are crowned as king and queen.
[1][2] The Maya Sita motif is considered as the "most important instance of an addition" in the Ramayana.
[4] This "important ideological development" in Vaishnavism (Vishnu-centric sect) protected Sita's chastity.
[6] With the growing popularity of Rama bhakti movement in the 12th century, numerous works adopted the concept of Maya Sita.
Devotees could not bear that Sita – the consort of Rama and the chief goddess of Rama-centric sects – was kidnapped by the demon Ravana and had to suffer his imprisonment and was defiled by his touch.
The illusory deer motif in the Ramayana may have inspired the Maya Sita concept too.
Chaitanya then travels to Rameswaram, where he listens to the Kurma Purana and obtains the authoritative proof to comfort the brahmin.
After Ravana's death, Maya Sita has to face the Agni Pariksha and vanishes in the fire.
They advise her to go to Pushkar and perform austerities Tapas and prophesy that she will be become Svargalakshmi ("Lakshmi of the heaven") as the result of her asceticism.
Maya Sita, who is transformed into Svargalakshmi by practising austerities for three lakh years, anxiously repeats five times that she get a husband.
Draupadi, the heroine of the Mahabharata, is born out of the flames of a yajna (fire sacrifice) of Drupada (King of Panchala) and later becomes the common wife of the five Pandava brothers, princes of Kuru kingdom.
[12][21] The Tamil text Sri Venkatachala Mahatyam relates Maya Sita to Vedavati, but her next birth is Padmavati, not Radha.
The real Sita informs Rama that Vedavati was abducted in her place and suffered the incarceration in Lanka.
He promises that in Kali Yuga (the present and final age), when he appear on earth as Venkateshwara, Vedavati will be born as Padmavati, whom he will marry.
After Agni Pariksha when Sita is reunited with Rama, Vedavati is blessed to marry Vishnu in Kali Yuga.
[4] Kamban's Ramavataram (12th century) narrates that Shurpanakha – the sister of Ravana – impersonates Sita to seduce Rama, but her trickery is exposed by him.
A Tamil text narrates how Ravana once asks for Parvati as boon from her husband Shiva, however Vishnu – disguised as a sage – deludes Ravana into believing Shiva granted him an illusionary Parvati.
This time, Shiva gives an illusionary Parvati, which he accepts as the real one and returns to Lanka with her.
[32] In the Mahabharata, the goddess Svaha assumes the form of six of the wives of the Saptarishi (seven great sages), with whom Agni is in love with, and has coitus with him.
Christian Gnostic traditions suggest that Simon of Cyrene as the man who was crucified, instead of Jesus, a concept deemed heretical.
