Template:Trijata
Trijata – (Dewi) – Ramayana
Dewi Trijata was a demoness in the service of Ravana. When Ravana brought the abducted Sita to his palace, he told Trijata and other demonesses to convince Sita to marry him.
Dewi Sita refused to stay inside Ravana’s palace and hence, it was decided that her place of captivity will be Ashoka Vatika. Ravana appointed rakshasis or demonesses as her guards and gave them a strict instruction: they had to convince her to forget Lord Rama and marry him.
All the rakshasis took Ravana’s orders very seriously and started harassing a distraught Sita. They were exceptionally rude to her and their manner of speaking wasn’t just disrespectful but also heartbreaking. They taunted her about Lord Rama’s exile while telling her that Ravana possessed immense wealth. They spoke at length about how she was a lucky woman that their king wanted to marry her.
For Sita, who had been through the trauma of being tricked by Ravana dressed up as a brahmin, eventually being abducted by him and brought to a land far away from her husband with no means of communicating with him, their taunts and crass behaviour only made her feel even more lonely.
It was at this point that Trijata stepped in. She gave a good earful to her fellow rakshasis for their behaviour towards Sita. According to the original Ramayana written by Valmiki, this is the instance where Trijata narrates to them her prophetic dream where she saw Lanka getting burnt down by a vanara (monkey) and Lord Rama coming to rescue Sita. Trijata tells the rakshasis to apologize to Sita instead of harassing her. Since Trijata is the oldest one, they do obey her.
This becomes an important point not just because of the prophetic dream but also because Trijata’s words comfort Sita who is extremely scared about her fate. One can only understand how relieved Sita would have felt by Trijata's presence. To have someone save you from the rude behaviour of strangers while you’re held captive away from your loved one is obviously the only silver lining you can see and Trijata came as exactly that for Dewi Sita.
Over time, Trijata becomes Sita’s confidant and the only warm relationship she develops in her captivity. As a result, Ravana asks Trijata to accompany Sita to the battlefield when Lord Rama comes with his vanar sena to rescue her. There is a point where Sita thinks Rama has died and becomes distraught with grief. Her whole world falls apart but even at this point, it is Trijata who reassures her that he is very much alive and would come to rescue her from the clutches of the evil king. Trijata does admit that it's because Sita’s nature, which is so gentle and her morals so strong, that it was absolutely impossible to not love her.
Even though Trijata was a rakshasi, her heart was pure. She went against her master and stood up for Sita during her most difficult time. Trijata's story is an example that even on the darkest days, there's always a glimmer of hope, given you never leave the side of righteousness. While serving Dewi Sinta in Taman Argasoka Park, Alengka, Trijata heard many stories from Dewi Sinta about Ramawijaya, her husband and Laksmana, her brother-in-law. Trijata was interested in Laksmana, even though she only heard the story from Dewi Sinta. How handsome Laksmana was, not only heard from Dewi Sinta's story but she also witnessed it herself.
The first opportunity to see and get to know Laksmana occurred when Trijata was sent by Dewi Sinta to sneak into the Suwelagiri Camp. At that time, Prabu Dasamuka reported that Rama and Laksmana had died, but Dewi Sinta did not believe it. In order to prove whether the two were still alive, at Dewi Sinta's request, the daughter of Gunawan Wibisana secretly sneaked into Rama and Laksmana's camp. Dewi Trijata truly fell in love with Laksmana, after witnessing the handsomeness of Ramawijaya's younger brother with her own eyes. However, her love was not welcomed by Laksmana. Because in fact, Laksmana had cut off his genitals and swore not to touch women. How disappointed Trijata was after the war was over and she found out about it.
Meanwhile, a powerful old monkey named Kapi Jembawan fell in love with the goddess Trijata. However, he also realized that he was not worthy if he were side by side with the woman he adored. Unable to contain his love affair, with his supernatural powers, Kapi Jembawan changed his form to resemble Laksmana. The fake Laksmana then met Trijata and succeeded in making love to her. Trijata did not suspect anything, because she did hope for Laksmana's love.
The maids found out about this and reported it to Sri Rama. Rama then sent the real Laksmana to capture the fake Laksmana. Laksmana succeeded in capturing the fake Laksmana and it was discovered that he was Kapi Jembawan.
What Dewi Trijata experienced was in accordance with the curse of Prabu Dasamuka, when the king of Alengka found out that Trijata had helped Anoman so that he could meet Dewi Sinta. Prabu Dasamuka cursed Trijata that she would later marry an old and ugly monkey.
After the end of the Alengka war, Dewi Trijata was married to Kapi Jembawan by Ramawijaya, the old monkey who was the caretaker of Resi Subali and Anoman. The decision was in return for Kapi Jembawan's help and also because he was sure that Kapi Jembawan truly loved Trijata. Dewi Trijata and Kapi Jembawan then lived in the Gadamadana hermitage.
Blog: Hadisukirno – Yogyakarta - 1987
