Feminist Re-tellings of the Ramayana
Traditionally, stories in the Indian mythology place the male protagonists at center stage while relegating the women into roles of damsels in distress or as meek beings who need protection. The Ramayana in particular, has many patriarchal storylines and which made women victims of injustice. Today, however, there are many retellings of the Ramayana in which the subaltern are given voices to share their view point of the famous stories. Many writers of modern mythological fiction are taking up feminist cudgels to give us narratives with tropes turned on their heads, to give us re-interpreted missing pieces and to give us more just and logical outcomes.
‘Sita’s Ramayana’ by written by Samhita Arni and illustrated so beautifully by Moyna Chitrakar, shifts the point of view of the Ramayana to bring a female retelling of the timeless epic. Narrated by Sita herself, the book raises questions about women’s fate and choice in instances of war. Samhita Arni was quoted saying “For once, you get to see the tale of India’s most respected prince from a very feminine side. Instances of war and violence, which find so much prominence in other retellings, are relegated to the backbench in my tale. My story looks at Ramayana for its pathos and its impact on the survivors of the Great War — the widows, the orphans, the departed, so on and so forth. It’s the human cost that I’m concerned with.”
Looking at the war from Sita’s eyes, we read, in the story, a different perspective instead of the monolithic good vs evil story that has been told time and time again. We find out that Rama fights this war as his mission not for saving his beloved queen Sita but rather to save his honor as a man. The death, destruction and suffering of both foes and allies attempts to validate Rama’s masculinity as both a man and as a leader. The “masculinities of war” are brought out in that the war projects male soldiers as brave and valiant warriors who are saviors to women and children, often by self-sacrificially protecting them. However, the narration itself points out the irony in this trope: “War, in some ways, is merciful to men. It makes them heroes if they are the victors. If they are vanquished — they do not live to see their homes taken, their wives widowed.” Thus Arni points out, even if the men win wars and fight to protect the women, it is the women who suffer in consequence.
“But if you are a woman — you must live through defeat…you become the mother of dead sons, or an orphan, or worse, a prisoner.” In the Ramayana, the women’s voices are stereotypically associated with needing protection or being the trophy for winning wars. It was extremely refreshing to see Sita take control of her life and her story by refusing to take the blame for a war she didn’t ask for. Sita’s story is one of a woman whose righteousness is in equal and copious amounts as her compassion. Even as she anxiously waits and craves for her captivity to end and for Rama to come and rescue her, through every step of the book she empathizes with the suffering of others, even the enemy. Be it with the rakshasis who lose their husbands and children in the war the rakshasas who died fighting in battle. We, as readers, “see things as a wronged woman would and feel along with her — for the sheer waste and violence that wrongful pride and war bring about.” As Sita rightly points out, “violence breeds violence and an unjust act only begets greater injustice”.
Sita emerges as a changed person as a result of what she goes through. Her sense of what has befallen her renders her not only open to what other women also endure but also obtain a vision that doesn’t divide the world into good and bad binaries. The graphic novel imparts feminist values kept alive by the female narration. ‘Heroism’ isn’t merely constrained to the conventionally “masculine” values of anger and aggression on the battlefield. It celebrates, instead, traditionally “feminine” virtues such as solidarity, compassion, justice, sisterhood and empathy.
Another impressive feminist retelling if the Ramayana is The Liberation of Sita, written by the renowned Telugu (feminist) author Volga and translated into English by T. Vijay Kumar and C. Vijayasree. This book is an anthology of sorts, featuring five short narratives. Sita meets and interacts with four women (who are minor characters in Valmiki’s Ramayana): Surpanakha who has lost her beauty; Renuka whose sculptures evoke awe; Ahalya who leads the life of a hermit and Urmila who has found her inner peace. Even though the narrative is non-linear, we see that Sita is a constant learner who starts of her marriage as a naive and innocent young woman who gains wisdom and knowledge throughout her journey.
At its core, Sita’s Ramayana is all about sisterhood and solidarity between women. Each story is as much as the other woman’s — Surpanakha’s, Ahalya’s, Renuka’s and Urmila’s — as it is Sita’s. We listen to the voices and stories of these women who have endured great injustices, some of which parallel Sita’s own struggles at the time as evoked by the line “When she understood that the anguish in their lives was similar, she felt a camaraderie, a companionship with them. When Sita heard the sufferings of others, she realized she was not alone.” These women’s life experiences have given them so much wisdom and knowledge which is ultimately passed on to Sita, when she most needs it. Their stories are valorized and it is their voices that Sita repeatedly recalls and listens to throughout the book. Ultimately, her own inner voice gains strength from the advice she receives from these women who look out for her and care for her. It is the bonds she forms with these women who inspire her that reinforce sisterhood — a pleasant departure and contrast from the hackneyed Ramayana that tells the stories of war, doubt, judgement and rivalry.
Great emphasis is placed on Sita’s unlearning of the ‘truths’ and ‘dharmas’ she strongly believed and abided by her entire life. Surpanaka teaches Sita that joy needn’t depend on a man or anyone but herself (“I’ve realized that the meaning of success for a woman does not lie in her relationship with a man”). Ahalya makes Sita realise that men have the power of questioning a woman’s fidelity and the distrust of such questioning (“What does conducting an enquiry imply, Sita? Distrust, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be better, instead, to believe in either your innocence or your guilt?”). Renuka counsels Sita to stop identifying herself on the basis of her family, solely as a wife or a mother (“Does a woman have a world other than her husband’s? Is there a higher meaning to a woman’s life than motherhood?”). Finally, Urmila urges Sita to ‘look within until she finds the truth that is her’. She advises Sita to liberate herself completely and secure herself for herself and nobody else.
The Liberation of Sita celebrates womanhood and the power to make a choice. Sita achieves inner peace and liberation through questioning the very notions of truth and fidelity. As Renuka so aptly says: “ It is only through experience that one understands the truth. And whatever you understand, you tell others… As you see more of the world, you may understand the truth of my words too.” Being curious, questioning the world and debunking ingrained notions are after all, the foundation pillars of feminism and this book proudly presents them to the world.
Feminist re-tellings of magnanimous epics such as the Ramayana, and in fact any mythological story, are crucial in not only bringing a modern context that makes the morals more relatable in a 21st century context, but also for discouraging the patriarchal values that they run on. By making way for new spaces within the old discourse, these authors show Sita as one who no longer serves as a means to serve someone else’s ends nor is she merely a prize in a man’s conquest. She is free to create a world in which she has a sense of freedom. And that is the kind of world we want to see as feminists.
