Sargas 112–118: Vibhīṣaṇa crowned in Laṅkā (the vow of sarga 19 redeemed to the letter); Hanumān carries the news to Sītā — and asks leave to slaughter her tormentor-rākṣasīs, which she refuses with the epic's great verse of clemency: servants act under orders; my own karma, not they, earned my suffering; and "the noble deal compassionately even with the wicked, for no one is guiltless" (na kaścin nāparādhyati). Then the reunion Vālmīki refuses to soften: Sītā, bathed and adorned at Rāma's insistence, is received before the whole army with a public coldness that stuns it — the war was for honour, not for you; twelve months in another man's house end my claim; go where you will. Her reply cuts to the bone — "you speak like a common man to a common woman... my birth from the Earth you never weighed; the heart that never left you, you never knew" — and she orders the pyre from Lakṣmaṇa, whose eyes ask Rāma and receive silence. She circles her husband, invokes Agni as witness of her purity, and enters.
The testimony of fire, and the reply to Brahmā
Sargas 117–120: the gods descend in a body — this of all things cannot stand — and Brahmā speaks the revelation: you are Nārāyaṇa, the imperishable; Sītā is Lakṣmī; the abduction was the device of your descent. Rāma's answer first (117.11), before any acceptance: ātmānaṁ mānuṣaṁ manye rāmaṁ daśarathātmajam — "I hold myself a man, Rāma, Daśaratha's son; who I am, and whence, let the Lord himself say." Then Agni rises from the pyre bearing Sītā untouched, testifying on oath to her absolute purity in thought, word and glance — and Rāma receives her with the tradition's key gloss: he never doubted; but the world would not have believed his private knowledge, and the queen of the standard-bearer must be vindicated publicly or the standard dies. Vālmīki has arranged that Sītā's exoneration is delivered by god and element, not granted by her husband — her honour owes Rāma nothing. Daśaratha appears from heaven, blesses both, and at Rāma's asking pardons Kaikeyī; Indra revives the fallen vānara host.
Maryādā Puruṣottama — the costliest boundary, and the declined divinity
Two ❖ readings, held in tension by the tradition itself. The parīkṣā: the king's private certainty may not overrule the public standard — the most expensive application of "the ruler is the copybook," paid for by the two people least deserving of the bill; whether the principle justified the price is the argument Vālmīki deliberately leaves running (and the Uttara will reopen). The revelation: told to his face that he is God, Rāma declines to be relieved of his humanity — the maryādā holds even against Brahmā, for an ideal man who knew himself divine would be no ideal for men. The fence's last test is flattery from heaven, and it holds.
The return — the road home replayed
Sargas 121–127: fourteen years expire the next morning; the Puṣpaka vimāna (Vibhīṣaṇa's gift of Kubera's stolen craft) carries the whole company north as Rāma narrates the entire journey to Sītā in reverse — setu, Kiṣkindhā (where the vānara wives join at Sītā's asking), Ṛṣyamūka, Pañcavaṭī, the āśramas, Citrakūṭa, the rivers — the epic recapitulating itself from the air. At Bharadvāja's, Hanumān is sent ahead to Nandigrāma in human form on the mission the tradition loves: watch Bharata's face as the news lands — if the regent flinches at losing the regency, say nothing and return. Bharata, matted-haired, emaciated beside the enthroned sandals, hears — and floods with joy. Sarga 127: the reunion of the four brothers; the sandals restored to Rāma's feet by Bharata's own hands with the kingdom "returned with interest — its treasuries and armies tenfold."
Kamba Rāmāyaṇam differs — where the epic ends
Kambar's epic concludes with the paṭṭābhiṣeka: no rumour, no second exile, no final separation — the traditional Tamil Uttara Kāṇḍam is attributed to Oṭṭakkūttar, not Kambar. The devotional logic is exact: an epic of the Lord's saving descent properly ends in enthronement and union, Lakṣmī and Nārāyaṇa restored, the world set right. The tragic coda belongs to Vālmīki's colder and vaster design — see the Uttara below.
