Uttararamacharita

(“Later Acts of Rama”) Drama written by
the Sanskrit playwright Bhavabhuti
(8th c.), which retells the story of the
Ramayana, the earlier of the two
Sanskrit epics. Bhavabhuti’s play largely
follows the plot of the original Valmiki
Ramayana, with one important difference. Valmiki’s text ends with Rama’s
banishing Sita because of suspicions
about her virtue and Sita’s being swallowed up by the earth, which is her
mother and witness to her chastity. The
Uttararamacharita, on the other hand,
ends with a complete reconciliation
between Rama and Sita. This change
may have been prompted solely by the
desire for a happy ending, which is one
of the characteristic features of Sanskrit
drama. It may also indicate that some
people were not comfortable with the
moral ambiguities of the original text, in
which Rama, although claimed to be
divine, sometimes acts in unscrupulous
and disturbing ways.