Sita: Warrior of Mithila

Sunaina, the Queen of Mithila, and Janak, the King of Mithila, find Sita in the forest and adopt her. Even though this child was not brought into this world by her, she gives her the best teachings and training possible. Sita grows up to be a determined and strong princess. One day Sunaina gets into an argument with Kushadhwaj, the King of Sankashya. Sankashya is like a sister kingdom of Mithila. During this argument, Sita overhears him being disrespectful to her mother and visibly shows her frustration.

After this incident, Sankashya ceases to be a cooperative kingdom. A few years later, Sunaina gives birth to Urmila and Sita is sent to the gurukul for further training. One day at the gurukul, Sage Vishwamitra visits. He proposes to Sita about the chance of becoming the next Vishnu. Vishnus work with Lord Mahadev to defeat all evil.

Over years, the bond between Sita and Urmila changes for the better. Sunaina passes away and Sita takes charge of the Mithila kingdom as Janak has always been more passionate about philosophy than the affairs of his kingdom. She is a strong and just Queen. She finds out that there is something in play between Sage Vishwamitra and Sage Vashishta regarding Ram and the decision of who will be the next Vishnu.

Later a Swayamwar is held for Sita where she meets and gets to know Ram. She finds out about his opinions and values and realizes he is just as true to his morals as she is. After the Swayamwar, Sage Vishwamitra manipulates Ram into firing an illegal Daiviastra to save the kingdom of Mithila. The punishment to fire it is fourteen years of exile. Ram imposes this punishment on himself.

During their years in exile, Raavan, along with his brother and group of soldiers, abducts Sita from the forest. As is consistent with this book series so far, this book ends on a cliffhanger too!

As with any other books written by Amish, the characters are very well developed. The readers feel connected to the characters and their struggles and stories. Their chemistry with each other is perfectly described too. I always find books with a lot of characters intimidating but this one manages to introduce a bunch of characters and still have a very well constructed and engaging story. Because the flow is so well controlled, you end up keeping track of all characters that feature during the story.