Seetha is abandoned by her husband Rama, because of what she did long ago when she was a young girl – it is the curse of the birds to whom she had been cruel.
Very briefly, the washerman’s past life story says that he was a male parrot in that other life time and one day he and his wife parrot, both perched on a mountain cliff, were speaking about Rama and Seetha – how Rama would wed Seetha and how they would live a happy life as king and queen and so on. Seetha asks her sakhis, her girl friends, to catch the birds and bring them to her so that she can get more details of her future from them. When they are brought to her, they answer all her questions, but she refuses to let them go, saying that she would let them go only after Rama comes to Mithila and weds her as they said, for they have created longing for Rama in her heart through their words. She tells them she would keep them in her palace with all love and care. The female parrot tells Seetha this will not do, they will not be happy in the palace since they are birds of the wild. She also tells Seetha she is pregnant [with eggs] and would go to the wild and after the chicks are born, would come back to her.
When Seetha does not agree, the male parrot too speaks, promising to bring his wife and give her to Seetha after the chicks are born. Seetha tells him he can go wherever he likes, but she is not going to let the female parrot go. The bird requests her repeatedly to let his wife go, but Seetha refuses. Eventually, the female bird give up her life after cursing Seetha that she too would be separated from her husband Rama while she is pregnant. Seeing her dying, the male birds throws himself into the waters of the Ganga, vowing he would be reborn in Rama’s city and because of his words Rama would give her up. It is the male bird who dies with vengeance in his heart after cursing Seetha that is reborn as the washerman.
Padma Puran
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