Prohibition on Seizing Another Man’s Wife

The Prohibition on Seizing Another Man’s Wife is an inherited rule of conduct invoked against Rávan’s possession of Sítá. Its force in the narrative comes from the collision between a clear boundary—another person’s marriage—and a ruler’s attempt to override it. The appeal is at once legal, ethical, and practical: Rávan is reminded of the old laws he claims to keep, urged to refrain from the act, and told to release Ráma’s consort before the conflict brings ruin upon him.

Definition and Scope

The rule is stated as a limit on a king’s conduct: he is not to touch another man’s wife. The surrounding counsel gives particular weight to the status of the woman involved, emphasizing that the prohibition applies with special seriousness to a prince’s wife. The principle is therefore not presented merely as advice about private affection. It marks a boundary that royal power is not entitled to cross.

The wording also makes possession the central wrong. Sítá is identified as Janak’s child and Ráma’s wife, and her devotion to her husband is set beside the demand that she remain free from Rávan’s contaminating touch. Her marriage and allegiance are treated as facts that Rávan must respect, not obstacles that force or rank can erase. The rule protects the bond by forbidding the would-be possessor from treating another man’s wife as his own.

The Rule Invoked Against Rávan

In counsel addressed to Rávan, a speaker appeals to faith and laws ordained from olden times, then tells him that he, too, should refrain. The appeal places the rule within a remembered moral order rather than presenting it as a new restriction devised for the immediate crisis. Its authority is sharpened by the speaker’s personal address to Rávan as a brother: the demand to stop is made within a relationship as well as in the language of public conduct.

The argument then turns Rávan’s own standards against him. He is reminded that the law he boasts of keeping does not permit a king to take another man’s spouse. The charge is thus not simply that he has failed to meet an unfamiliar ideal; he is acting against a rule associated with his own profession of lawful conduct. The contradiction makes his conduct especially exposed: royal standing and declarations of respect for law cannot excuse the very violation the law forbids.

Sítá as the Test of the Prohibition

The account of Sítá gives the rule a concrete human subject. She is named as Janak’s daughter and Ráma’s beloved wife, and her devotion is described as enduring through both good and ill. These details establish her identity and marital allegiance before the prohibition is applied to Rávan. The wrong at issue is therefore not left abstract: it is an attempt to possess a woman whose relationship to Ráma is explicitly affirmed.

The insistence that Sítá must remain free from Rávan’s touch makes bodily violation part of the rule’s immediate concern. The counsel’s demand that Rávan release the Maithil woman and let Ráma’s consort go in peace turns the principle into a specific remedy: he must relinquish his claim. In this framing, the prohibition is not satisfied by outward restraint while captivity continues. The appeal calls for Sítá’s release from Rávan’s control.

Moral Force and Consequences

The counsel links the rule to shame, blame, and respect. Heroic people, it argues, should consider conduct condemned by others beneath them; respect is associated with restraint, not with the ability to take what power makes accessible. The prohibition consequently judges the ruler by the standards he is expected to uphold. Rank enlarges his responsibility rather than granting him an exception.

The warning is also practical. Rávan is told to release Sítá lest Ráma’s terrible force fall upon him. The appeal does not present the rule as detached from the unfolding danger: violating it has helped make the situation perilous, and release is urged as a way to avert further harm. At the same time, the rule’s authority does not depend only on fear of retaliation. The references to ancient law, Rávan’s own professed observance, Sítá’s marriage, and the shame of blameworthy conduct give the prohibition several mutually reinforcing grounds.

The passages frame this rule through admonition rather than through a complete legal code. They state the forbidden act, identify the woman whose marriage is being violated, and press Rávan to release her, but they do not set out a general procedure or a formal penalty. What they do establish is a pointed standard of accountability: a king who claims to honor old law must not seize another man’s wife, and neither power nor reputation can make that breach honorable.