Did Ravana Love Sita?

Ravana was the king of Sri Lanka and Sita was the wife of God Ram. The Ramayana the great epic relates the story of how Ravana abducted Sita from her Ashram and carried her away to his palace in Sri Lanka. He kept her in a special palace and visited her everyday.

He also showered her with gifts and presents, but the Ramayana does not throw any light on the exact nature of the relationship between Sita and Ravana. Ravana kept Sita imprisoned for some years in his palace till the God Rama mounted an invasion of Lanka and killed Ravana and rescued his wife Sita. This is the bland tale.

The tale however is devoid of emotion and reads like a clinical treatise. What could be the relationship of Ravana and Sita? We learn that Ravana was a lusty man who was fond of women. He was also a highly educated and erudite man. In sum total he was a man of power, with intellectual appeal as well as a great lover. Did he force himself on Sita ? probably not as he was a man of principles. One can't be sure however as he was known as a lusty man. But perhaps he loved Sita as her beauty had been related to him.

This is a touchy subject, but one aspect on which the Ramayana is silent. We can only conjecture and wonder what really happened. Another bit of information I came across is that Ravana wanted to attend the Swayamvara of Sita, but a false alarm that his sister was in trouble, led him to be away from the Swayamvara , where Ram won Sita. All this makes the entire relationship more complicated.