Rāma's ring

Rāma's ring is a token sent by Rāma with Hanumán on the mission connected with Sītá. The book's note also gives the object a cosmic reading: it reports De Gubernatis's interpretation of the ring as a symbol of the sun's disc, linking Rāma with the Sun and Sītá with the Dawn.

Identity and Use

The ring belongs to Rāma and is entrusted to Hanumán as he carries Rāma's message toward Sītá. In that role it is more than an ornament: a personal object can identify the sender and establish a connection across separation. Its importance comes from what it can communicate between the separated figures, not from any physical description of its workmanship, which the evidence does not provide.

Solar Interpretation

An explanatory note in the book describes the ring as one that the Sun, in the figure of Rāma, sends to Dawn, in the figure of Sītá. It attributes to De Gubernatis the interpretation that the ring represents the sun's disc. This is a commentator's symbolic reading, distinct from the ring's practical role as a token carried by Hanumán; the two functions let the same object operate both within the story and within a larger mythic interpretation.

Narrative Significance

The ring condenses a long-distance bond into something tangible: Hanumán can carry a token from Rāma toward Sītá when the two are separated. The note's solar analogy enlarges that intimate exchange into a cosmic image, but it remains an interpretation supplied by commentary rather than an explicitly stated explanation by the characters. The object therefore holds together a concrete narrative function and a symbolic possibility without requiring the latter to replace the former.