Sunday, September 26, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Just another view
By now, I am sure you know that I am a lover of the great Indian epics - Ramayana and the Mahabharata. However, I never seem to get enough of it. I always try to read as much as I can, to get another perspective on these always. And considering there are so many views, its almost become a hobby these days. I know - my friend calls me a dork!
For some time now I have been trying to get insights into the woman who still remains an enigma to me - Sita. Sita, etched in my brain is a demure lady with lovely eyes and a kind face. She, to me, as I was always taught, was devoted to her husband. That is what every Indian thinks of Sita - the perfect, devoted wife - who did everything to please her husband; even accepted being thrown out of her own house (yes, that's how I'd like to put it).
Of late however, what I have been reading makes me think, and think seriously. I came across this very interesting analysis of Sita a few days ago. It said that Sita was India's first single mother and a person of great strength. An interesting analysis, isn't it? She probably was India's first single mother, but a person of great strength...? I am not too sure about it. Besides I have never thought of her that way, I think that is Ramayan's greatest flaw. In an effort to portray the so called ideal it looses many other details that one would be interested in.I suppose that is because Ramayana is hardly her story. Ramayana is obsessed with Rama killing Ravana, so much so that Sita remains Rama's shadow. But was she just that I tend to ask myself ....
I think there are shades of her character in the book. Considering the young age at which women probably married back then, Sita married at around 13 or 14 and was too young to be able to give her opinion on anything. Yet, don't think it is interesting that Sita should choose to go with her husband to the forest as against staying with her in-laws in Ayodhya? And then of course, there is this 'agni pariksha' that she had to undergo and its something on which everyone has an opinion. I am sure she must have felt slighted, but there was no retort, just acceptance. I've always wondered if that was normal - and I've never got an answer to that one. But I think the incidence did leave a scar in her mind forever. I think so, because she decided to live alone and look after her children. And when she had the opportunity to rejoin her husband, she refused to be hurt anymore and decided to join mother earth instead. Now the words - a character of strength makes more sense, doesn't it?
For some time now I have been trying to get insights into the woman who still remains an enigma to me - Sita. Sita, etched in my brain is a demure lady with lovely eyes and a kind face. She, to me, as I was always taught, was devoted to her husband. That is what every Indian thinks of Sita - the perfect, devoted wife - who did everything to please her husband; even accepted being thrown out of her own house (yes, that's how I'd like to put it).
Of late however, what I have been reading makes me think, and think seriously. I came across this very interesting analysis of Sita a few days ago. It said that Sita was India's first single mother and a person of great strength. An interesting analysis, isn't it? She probably was India's first single mother, but a person of great strength...? I am not too sure about it. Besides I have never thought of her that way, I think that is Ramayan's greatest flaw. In an effort to portray the so called ideal it looses many other details that one would be interested in.I suppose that is because Ramayana is hardly her story. Ramayana is obsessed with Rama killing Ravana, so much so that Sita remains Rama's shadow. But was she just that I tend to ask myself ....
I think there are shades of her character in the book. Considering the young age at which women probably married back then, Sita married at around 13 or 14 and was too young to be able to give her opinion on anything. Yet, don't think it is interesting that Sita should choose to go with her husband to the forest as against staying with her in-laws in Ayodhya? And then of course, there is this 'agni pariksha' that she had to undergo and its something on which everyone has an opinion. I am sure she must have felt slighted, but there was no retort, just acceptance. I've always wondered if that was normal - and I've never got an answer to that one. But I think the incidence did leave a scar in her mind forever. I think so, because she decided to live alone and look after her children. And when she had the opportunity to rejoin her husband, she refused to be hurt anymore and decided to join mother earth instead. Now the words - a character of strength makes more sense, doesn't it?
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