Revisiting Sita of Shri Ram: The equal partner

revisiting sita of shri ram: the equal partner

Revisiting Sita of Shri Ram: The equal partner

She is the epitome of Indian womanhood. She is mother courage. She is also one of the most misunderstood figures. She is Sita.

The world is excited and counting down to the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ (consecration) ceremony of Lord Ram’s idol in Ayodhya on January 22. The festivities are to do with Ram Lalla, the baby form of Lord Ram.

As Lord Ram grows up, Sita gets woven intricately into his story. She compliments and enhances him. Ramayana is as much about Sita as it is about Ram.

Sita is also integral to Indian culture and lives. One doesn’t need to look far. She is present in the common greetings ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Siya Ram’. Shri means Sita, explains acclaimed writer Amish Tripathi.

“We say ‘Jai Shri Ram’ or ‘Jai Siya Ram’. Lord Ram and Goddess Sita are inseparable. When we worship Lord Ram, we worship Sita as well. We learn from Lord Ram, we learn from Goddess Sita as well,” Amish Tripathi tells IndiaToday.In.

“In our core texts, the wife has been referred to as ‘ardhangini’, essentially a man and a woman together becoming a whole. They are equal halves of each other. In that way, Goddess Sita completes Lord Ram,” says best-selling author Amish, who, in 2017, wrote the book ‘Sita: Warrior of Mithila’.

“Traditionally, when you say ‘Jai Shri Ram’ or ‘Jai Siya Ram’, Shri means Sita. Sita is the avatar of Goddess Laxmi and referred to as Shri. So, that’s the way to see it. It’s an equal partnership,” Amish Tripathi adds.

SITA: A SHINING EXAMPLE OF INDIAN FEMINISM

Sita has always been considered ‘pativrata’ or obedient. Of course, she was. But there’s much more to Sita than that. She is a shining example of feminine courage and one of the defining figures of Indian womanhood.

“Sita was a person of enormous spiritual strength and intellectual conviction, which are perennial values for women. At crucial points in the narrative of the Ramayana, she makes important decisions, such as accompanying Ram to the forest. Moreover, in Ashok Vatika, Sita knows how to protect herself against her captor,” Malashri Lal, former professor of Delhi University and member of the English Advisory Board at the Sahitya Akademi, tells IndiaToday.In.

Sita takes crucial decisions and lives the life she wants to. She is strong-willed, like several other women in Indian epics.

“In Ramayana, Sita did everything she wanted to do. She wanted to go to the forest. She wanted the golden deer. She had a very strong say in everything,” author Koral Dasgupta tells IndiaToday.In. In her ‘Mandodari: The Sati Series IV’, Dasgupta mentions the exchange between Mandodari (queen of Lanka) and Sita.

Sita is strong in her own way. Strong, powerful women have been part of Indian tradition.

“In the Indian way, we have always seen women as strong and equal. Not just in the Ramayana, even Rig Veda — the oldest scripture — was written by women rishikas. So it’s part of Indian tradition,” says Amish Tripathi.

Here, the celebrated author also tries to draw a contrast with the feminism of the West.

“Indian feminism or masculinity never went to the western extreme. In the West, feminism means hatred of masculinity or the masculine spirit means hatred of women. Feminists end up hating men in the West. But in India, you can see in Valmiki’s Ramayana that women are strong and both men and women work in partnership with each other,” Amish tells IndiaToday.In.

RELEVANCE OF SITA FOR MODERN WOMEN

What is the relevance of Sita today? Do modern Indian women see any reflection of Sita in themselves?

“Modern-day women continue to see themselves reflected in films, serials, and soap operas based on Sita’s narrative,” says Malashri Lal, who has co-edited ‘In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology’ with Namita Gokhale.

In the book, scholars cite several references to Sita being a primary figure, as in Bengali ‘Vrat Katha’, in Himachal’s ‘Pahari Lok Ramain’, in Bhojpuri women’s songs and Telugu folk literature.

“While researching for our book ‘In Search of Sita’, we came upon folktales and folksongs where Sita was the primary figure,” Malashri Lal tells IndiaToday.In.

In fact, Sita has been portrayed as a “folk heroine” in several Maithili songs.

Though their stories are very intertwined, is it possible for a devotee to sing of Sita without Ram or vice versa?

“Ram and Sita are interlinked divine figures, but they also have individual stories and identities. It is possible to sing of one without the other, depending on the context,” explains Lal.

In fact, there is a centuries-old shrine of Sita in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra that celebrates single motherhood. The shrine at Raveri just has the idols of Sita and her twins Luv and Kush.

RAM JANMABHOOMI TO JANAKI JANMABHOOMI YATRA

Even as the focus is on the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, Lord Ram’s birthplace, in Uttar Pradesh, the Bihar government too has renewed efforts to attract devotees to Sitamarhi, Sita’s birthplace.

The temple at Punaura Dham in Sitamarhi is being renovated. The Bihar government is also developing the place and the adjoining areas as a major tourist destination.

“The Sita temple and Luv-Kush Vatika are being constructed, and the area is being developed as a tourist destination. A sum of Rs 72 crore has been sanctioned for the development project by the Bihar government,” Ravi Shankar Upadhyay, Public Relations Officer of Bihar Tourism, tells IndiaToday.In.

Bihar is making efforts to ensure that Ram and Sita are linked for pilgrimage too.

“Efforts are being made by Bihar Tourism to ensure that tourists who visit Lord Ram in Ayodhya also visit Goddess Sita’s temple here. It’s going to be a Ram Janambhoomi to Janaki Janmbhoomi yatra,” says Upadhyay.

To convey this to the devotees, Bihar Tourism conducted a roadshow on January 13, 2024, in Varanasi.

“Thematic Ramayana parks are being developed to make Sita Janmbhoomi as popular as Ram Janambhoomi as both complement each other. A large number of devotees from Janakpur (Nepal) visit Sitamarhi, but we are expecting a great number of devotees from Ayodhya as well,” adds Upadhyay.

There is definitely a link between Sita’s parental place, Mithila, and her marital place, Ayodhya.

“Lots of gifts have reached Ayodhya from Sita’s ‘mayaka’ (mother’s house) in Mithila and Janakpur in Nepal ahead of the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony of Ram Lalla idol,” says Amish Tripathi.

‘SITA, A GROSSLY MISUNDERSTOOD FIGURE’

Sita is one of the most interesting, but also misunderstood figures of our epics. She is no “bechari or ablaa naari” (vulnerable and helpless).

Actor Dipika Chikhlia, who rose to fame as Sita in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana that was aired in 1987 once told IndiaToday.In that playing the character changed her life.

Dipika Chikhlia, ‘TV’s original Sita’, says she believes the character is an extension of who she is and played it according to her understanding. “Sita was never an ‘ablaa naari’, but a very strong woman.”

Author Koral Dasgupta rejects the portrayal of Sita by feminists and explains how she is such a strong woman.

“In all that, even the feminists posed Sita as a bechari. They kept saying that our ancient texts are very regressive. Sita was made to go through a fire test. Sita is celebrated because she is very obedient. Sita is anything but obedient. Everything she did was by her will. She crossed the Lakshman Rekha, and she was aware of what she was doing,” says Dasgupta.

“But then I have heard many feminist scholars talk about this Lakshman Rekha as a boundary put around women. But if you look at it, Lakshman Rekha applies to everybody. If you don’t know the limits, you cross the Lakshman Rekha,” adds Koral Dasgupta.

Dasgupta says these narratives have a lot more profound meaning and “Sita is definitely one of the most interesting and strong characters but also one of the grossly misunderstood characters” of our ancient literature.

SITA’S CHOICES AND THE MODERN WOMAN

Sita’s mental strength is also displayed when she refuses to leave with Hanuman from Ashok Vatika, where she is kept in captivity.

“She must have thought ‘why should I run away like a thief? I am not the culprit?’ This was a very strong statement that she made by not going, which we have overlooked, happily,” says Koral Dasgupta.

She also elaborates on the significance of the ‘Agnipariksha’ that Sita willingly took. The ‘Agnipariksha’ or trial by fire is part of Uttar Kand, which several experts suggest never existed in the original Valmiki Ramayana.

“When we see the ‘Agnipariksha’ that Sita goes through willingly, it is not really a stage that was set on fire and Sita had to walk through. What Sita had to face was the collective doubt, the fire of doubt,” explains Dasgupta.

She also says had it been Ram’s doubt, they could have just parted ways without the trial by fire.

“But Ram asked for an Agnipariksha. An Agnipariksha is what people go through, leaders undergo all the time. This particular statement is a Western proverb ‘every leader goes through fire’. And when you put that in the Ramayana, you see that ages ago, our epics had said this, then we didn’t realise. Even now, we don’t realise it,” argues Koral Dasgupta.

Most importantly, the author says that what we choose to forget is that Sita was an equal partner in the dream for a ‘Ram Rajya’, a reign of goodness and justice.

“The dream of Ram Rajya was woven together by both Ram and Sita. The term Ram Rajya was coined because Ram became the king, but then it was not just the dream of Lord Ram. This is evident from ‘Siya Ram’ in all ancient hymns. You see the chant was Jai Sriyaram or Jai Sri Ram. So, Ram Rajya was a joint dream and that Ram Rajya is the idea of democracy,” says Koral Dasgupta.

Ramayana is about ‘dharma’ and right conduct. It is about the immense power of reposing faith in righteousness. That unshakeable faith is seen in Ram and Sita, the equal partners. They dream together of ‘Ram Rajya’ and confront evil, never wandering off the path of righteousness. This is what Ram teaches us, and this is exactly what Sita, too, tells us. We just need to take a relook.

“Sita’s war is metaphorical towards every kind of war that women have fought for ages and that is not just the visible crime. Sita showed a lot of resilience and a lot of power in the way she carried herself. First of all, Sita’s journey tells us there’s nothing to fear,” says Dasgupta.

Ramayana talks about the mental ability to be fearless and the belief that whatever happens, I stick to my dharma. So whatever comes, I’ll face it. I’ll fight it. That is Sita. And that is something that we have totally missed. We have not grown up learning that power,” Koral Dasgupta sums up.

ALSO READ: Silent films to VFX: The evolution of Ramayan storytelling on screen

ALSO READ: How the Ayodhya Ram temple became a mandir of the masses

ALSO READ: Story of the iconic monkey image of Ram Mandir movement

Watch Live TV in English

Watch Live TV in Hindi

News Related

OTHER NEWS

Guru Nanak Jayanti: Rishi Sunak Highlights Punjabi Heritage In Message, Trudeau Extends Greetings

In a greeting from 10 Downing Street on the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak mentioned his Punjabi Indian origin, news agency PTI reported. The 43-year-old ... Read more »

What US easing sanctions on Venezuela, home to world’s largest oil reserves, could mean for India

This report is the second of a three-part series on recent Indian engagement in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. New Delhi: The US’ decision last month to ease ... Read more »

Rajshri Deshpande dedicates OTT award to innocent lives lost in Gaza, Palestine

Rajshri Deshpande dedicates OTT award to innocent lives lost in Gaza, Palestine Actor and social worker Rajshri Deshpande won the Best Actor, Series (Female) award for Netflix’s ‘Trial By Fire’. ... Read more »

‘Ramchandra Keh Gaye…’: From Jan 1, RSS to Spread Word of God, Ayodhya Inauguration Among 10 Crore People

‘Ramchandra Keh Gaye…’: From Jan 1, RSS to Spread Word of God, Ayodhya Inauguration Among 10 Crore People In its effort to take the Ram Janmabhoomi message to households across ... Read more »

Ace designer Rohit Bal critical, on ventilator: report

Ace designer Rohit Bal critical, on ventilator: report Celebrated fashion designer Rohit Bal is in critical condition and is on ventilator support, HT City reported, quoting sources. He has been ... Read more »

Bengaluru: Traffic Advisory Issued, Parking Restrictions In Place As Samyukta Horata Samiti Holds Protest | Details

Bengaluru: Traffic Advisory Issued, Parking Restrictions In Place As Samyukta Horata Samiti Holds Protest | Details The Bengaluru Traffic Police has issued a traffic advisory for November 27 and 28 ... Read more »

Vistara Flights Diverted Due To Air Congestion At Delhi Airport | DETAILS

vistara flights diverted due to air congestion at delhi airport | details Delhi: Two Vistara flight has been diverted to Lucknow and Jaipur due to bad weather and air congestion ... Read more »
Top List in the World