The Ramayana and The Mahabharat

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The Ramayana and The Mahabharat are the 2 well known Hindu epics in India. In both the epics, especially in The Mahabharat, we find a gallery of portraits. The Ramayana too has sundry characters who contribute a lot in forming the plot of the venerated legendary. The age in which these two impressives had actually been placed had a great deal of deities rubbing shoulders with individuals who lived in the world at that time.

In this instant essay we are far more concerned with the representation of female characters in The Ramayana than any other issue.

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In this impressive, the female characters are quite convincingly depicted and again it is interesting to keep in mind that there are many shades in the female characters in The Ramayana. The ladies are faithful to the age-old custom-mades of the land-- they follow the dictates of their husband without any demonstration, they value chastity as a treasured virtue, they render selfless service to all the elders in the family, apart from their husband.

They are prepared to show the commitment to their hubby at any cost.

Sita was the better half of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya. She came as a daughter-in-law to the household of King Dasharath. However, as ill luck would have it, owing to heinous conspiracy of Kaikeyi [Bharat's mother and Dasharath's second partner], Rama needed to go on exile for fourteen years.Without any complaint or grudge, Sita followed Rama to the wilderness. Another sibling of Rama, Laxman, who was devoted to Rama, joined them on their extensive and tedious life in the woods.

Sita served her hubby and brother-in-law by making food for them, by making their life a bit simple, relieving the grief they harboured in their hearts. Rama was naturally troubled after the unfortunate incident and Laxman used to keep an eye on the comforts and features of his elder sister-in-law, Sita. Sita utilized to like Laxman just like her own bro. Laxman too reciprocated that love, in the truest possible sense of the term.

But everything got topsy-turvy when Ravana took the guise of a golden deer and came to tempt Sita. This too had a story of wreaking vengeance on Laxman behind it. Ravana’s sister Surpanakha had fallen in love with Laxman and sought his love. But Laxman spurned her advances with contempt and this triggered off Ravana’s focus on Laxman’s family. Sita was imploring Laxman to get hold of the running deer and hand it to her. Laxman tried his best but failed. Sita nursed no grudge against him though he failed.

But a greater misfortune awaited Sita. And right from this point, Sita catapults to the centre-stage of the epic. Ravana ,again, came in the disguise of a saintly beggar and hoodwinked Sita and abducted her to her utter dismay. Sita was in for a shock, when, Jatayu the wizened bird failed to free her from the clutch of Ravana.

The womanly instinct worked in Sita and she began to throw all her precious ornaments so that her husband could be able to trace her, on seeing her belongings lying strewn !So far, Sita had every reason to be obedient to her husband and his family. But now all the limits of patience seemed to break down. During the flight in the air ,being kidnapped by Ravana , Sita began to cry at the top of his voice and in a plaintive tone entreated all the creatures down in the forests to inform Rama of her humiliation in the hands of Ravana, the demon.

As an Indian wife, Sita here feels helpless,and Valmiki beautifully describes her inability to escape from the fatal grasp of Ravana as a failure to save her chastity which stands threatened at this point. Sita is incarcerated in the sprawling precincts of Ashokvan [Ashok forest] under the vigilant eyes of his venomous women sentries, in common parlance termed as ‘chedis’[ugly-looking, veteran shrews].

Sita’s soul-searching begins and she prays to God that her husband must come to her rescue at this crucial juncture, at least. Her character has been portrayed in a laudable way by Valmiki—she is, in fact, the representative of an Indian wife who can endure all troubles for the sake of her husband’s weal. Sita, in no way, surrenders her chastity and purity to Ravana. Not even when she is assured to be given comfort of all kinds. But Sita, the chaste Indian wife, remains stubborn in her stance.

Hanuman ,the ape, who worships Rama as his mentor, comes to her rescue. He runs errands for Sita, on the sly, and acts as a connective link between Rama and his devoted wife, Sita. And later on events after events transpire in quick succession and Rama with the aid of his vanarsena [the monkey retinue],attacks the kingdom of Ravana only to rescue Sita. But a series of unexpected incidents occur, Laxman falls on the battleground being struck with Shaktishel[a powerful weapon]and Hanuman’s timely service to save him, Bharat’s act of expiation for his mother’s wrongdoing and so forth. Rama wins the battle and Sita is rescued and brought to Ayodhya.

But now her real affliction begins. Sounds false? In fact, with regard to the people of Ayodhya’s demand , Rama has to ask Sita to prove her chastity that she claims to remain unsullied by passing through fire. If she can come out unscathed , she must be taken into the family with due honor. She,being loyal to her husband, undergoes the trial and emerges successful. Yet, the people of Ayodhya cannot give her a clean chit and Rama declines to take her into the palace with due respect.

Indian wives were gewgaws in the hands of their husbands and danced to the tune they played. Sita was sent to a saint’s ashrama to give birth to her two sons :Lav and Kush. Even after, Sita was denied access to the Ayodhya Palace and out of sheer grief and sense of neglect, she asked Vasundhara [Mother Earth] to take her in. Her supplication was finally answered and everyone around was moved to tears to see the sad plight of a holy , sacred woman who had a pathetic burial under the earth, to drown all the sorrows that had been heaped on her so far. Such is Sita –sadness incarnate, born to suffer. A negation of femininity in the hands of irrational male. Was it not the duty of Rama to turn deaf ears to the subjects and pay due reverence to his wife who shared the trials and tribulations with him for long fourteen years in the exile? Valmiki rues.

Another female character who suffers in the hands of fate in Ramayana is Urmila—Laxman’s wife. About her life in the portals of the palace—solitary, forlorn, Valmiki however is less eloquent. But, in later years, Rabindranath Tagore analyzed the female characters of The Ramayana in his famous essay, Kabyey Upekshita[ A woman neglected in the scriptures] and opined that Urmila, Laxman’s wife was more neglected than Sita in the epic. Sita, at least, came to the limelight because of her stay with Rama in the exile.

But ,after her marriage to Laxman, he went out on exile to the woods with his elder brother and sister-in-law. She kept herself confined in the smothering premises of the palace and kept moping in the dark. All the precious hours of the youth slipped by to no avail .But was it justified at all? Was it not again a case of making the woman inferior than man deliberately? The portrayal of Urmila touches the heart of every reader of Ramayana ,no doubt. No laws of today’s Feminism can justify the portrayal of these ideal classical characters, which are sui generis!