The New International Encyclopædia/Sītā

SĪTĀ, sē′tȧ (Skt., furrow). In the Sanskrit epic of the Rāmāyana (q.v.), the daughter of Janaka, a king of Mithila, and the wife of Rama. She seems to have been originally an earth goddess, as Sita, ‘the furrow,’ is besought in the Rig and Atharva Vedas (see Vedas) to yield fertility to the worshiper. In the later Hindu accounts she is said to have arisen from a furrow when her father was plowing the ground.