King Janaka entertained many wise men and women at his court and rewarded them with cows. "May the milk forever serve you as your wisdom has served me," he proclaimed.
Sita wondered who fed the philosophers while they attended her father's court. Curious, she went to the kitchen and found her mother Sunaina there: chopping, slicing, stirring, baking.
From her, Sita learned to cook.
One day a crow carried some food Sita had cooked all the way to Lanka, and it fell into Ravana's mouth. "I must find this woman!" Ravana exclaimed. "Someday she must come and cook for me."
Inspired by: Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana by Devdutt Pattanaik
Notes: This story is on p. 21 of the book. The legend of the crow comes from a folktale told in Himachal. Pattanaik also notes that "in Ayodhya, even today, we have the Sita-ki-rasoi, or Sita's kitchen, where the objects of worship include the rolling board and rolling pin used to make rotis."
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