Sita as the Hidden Hero of Ramayana
Valmiki's Ramayana was written around 300 B.C.E. (Carrier 207). Typically, the character of Rama is seen as the hero and the character of Sita is seen as the hero's wife. In this essay, I will compare Sita's journey of capture and inner growth with the "save the kingdom" journey of Rama, show how the two correlate, and eventually connect in the influential chastity scene. I will also prove that Sita is the "hidden hero" of this epic even though she is seen as taking a secondary role to Rama and show how this reflects women's secondary roles in society today.
To begin our comparisons, we must first look at each character and recognize their separate journeys. Through summarization of the
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The archetypal "initiation" has three phases"1. Separation, 2. Transformation, 3. Return (Guerin et.al.154). With her encapturement and separation, she begins her journey of self-growth.
While Sita is held captive, Rama frantically makes plans to save her and spends the better part of the story trying to find her and kill asuras, demons. The Ramayana vividly describes these plans and Rama's actions, but only vaguely hints at what Sita is going through. The reader knows Ravana wants to seduce her and there are brief descriptions of Sita being tortured by Ravana's rakshasa, or demon, women.
In one particular scene, the reader is particularly aware of Sita's plight and can see she is changing, entering the "transformation" phase of her journey. In this scene, Hanuman, an dally of Rama, goes to Ravana's palace to give Sita a token form Rama. Hanumen finds Sita surrounded by sleeping, armed rakshasa women. Sita is "unkept, undecorated, with only one piece of yellow sari covering her body, and with the dust of many days on her" (Narayan 132). Hanumen watches as the women wake up and harass Sita. He also observes Ravana approach her and appeal to her to become his prime mistress, but throughout the whole ordeal, Sita remains true to Rama (Narayan 132).
Sita's transformation is evident. Sita was a beautiful, well kept princess who relied on Rama for
Sirka is no longer the sweet daughter, she has lost her naïve personality, changing to a
After leaving Gautama, Siddhartha decides to experience the world of ordinary living. Siddhartha sees a beautiful young courtesan, Kamala, and begs her to teach him the art of love. She tells Siddhartha that he
Ramayana, translated by William Buck, is an ancient Indian epic telling the story of a prince named Rama who fights against his adversary, Ravana. Although there are many important female characters throughout the book, they are often seen as subordinate to their male counterparts where intelligence and strength are concerned. One character who proves this stereotype wrong is Sita, Rama’s wife, who often shows that she has the capacity of being just as powerful as the men of the story. By being more mindful than most people around her, Sita defies the expectations that many characters have placed on her. Sita lets the reader see another side of women’s power and shows us the strength that women could have. The reason that Sita proves to be powerful is that she seems to have an understanding of the deeper meaning of her life; precisely the quality that men don’t expect her to have.
Let alone all that. I thought forest life was okay; let Me at least live with My wife and forget everything; sītā naṣṭā | How can one forget the kingdom? (sundara.16.14) – Āñjaneya says that even rulership over three kingdoms will not equal Sītā. I wanted to forget the kingdom because Sītā was with Me.
Siddhartha begins to deviate from his holy walk in life when he meets Kamala. In Siddhartha Kamala is a pleasure woman who owns a beautiful grove outside of a larger town. “Siddhartha saw how beautiful she was
The Ramayana is an Ancient Indian epic poem that follows the story of a young prince named Rama who is a mortal incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. The plot follows a narrative that starts from his first time outside the royal palace, through his banishment from the kingdom and his quest to save his beloved wife Sita from Ravana, the evil King of Lanka, all the way to his coronation as King of Ayodhya, the kingdom from which he was originally banished. Throughout the whole narrative, there is one factor that remains constant, the role of women in the culture. The acceptance, or rejection of these cultural values by the women directly corresponds with how their character is perceived by the reader and how their role directly influences the
The first major change in the novel ‘Parvana’ is father being arrested. The Taliban soldiers have found out about Father’s western education and have come to arrest him. When the two Taliban soldiers burst through the door Ali is the first to react screaming. Parvana feels helpless as the soldiers drag father away. However, her ‘mother sprang at the
You all must be aware of the epic tale of Ramayana that begins as Lord Rama was exiled to a forest for 14 years with his dear wife, Sita and brother Laxman. To get to the main point straight away, Sita, the epitome of grace and beauty was abducted by the main antagonist of the Ramayana written by Valmiki- Raavan. My mention on Valmiki as the writer is on purpose because it was according to him that Raavan was termed as the villain but in reality,
It would be reasonable to begin this essay by comparing the protagonists of both novels, and drawing
The epic story of Rama and Sita, as portrayed by Valmiki’s Ramayana and the modern day film Sita sings the Blues are two different versions of the same story which contain several contrasts as well as similarities. The Ramayana is the ancient version which was written by a sage named Valmiki in 550 B.C.E, featuring a love story between an ideal prince and an ideal woman. It outlines the adventures of Rama in his journey to find his abducted wife Sita. Rama is portrayed as an avatar, being the eighth incarnation of one of the Hindu gods Vishnu, while Sita is representing Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of light. The modern day version of the Ramayana is seen in Sita Sings the Blues, where the animator Nina Paley is relating her love story to that of Sita’s predicament. This paper will compare and contrast the epic story of Valmiki’s Ramayana and Sita Sings the Blues in the quest for power, honor, faithfulness and the conflict between good and evil.
Kamala is the master tutor of the material world, this makes her the opposite of Gotama who is the master tutor of the spiritual world. Whilst Gotama teaches his followers the virtues of patience and inner peace, Kamala focuses on a lifestyle of “living in the moment”. She also contrasts the Samanas whom Siddhartha has become when he first meets Kamala. The Samanas live without personal property but Kamala demands items such as clothing and jewelry from clients for her courtship.
He even risked his life by battling Ravana in order to save her. After Rama defeated Ravana and saved Sita, he not only became King again, he was made Emperor of the World. He requested that his trustworthy brother Lakshmana become the yuvaraja, or prince, though he ultimately the position to his other brother Bharata, who ruled the kingdom while Rama was gone.
‘Sita Sings the Blues’ is an animation movie created by an American woman, Nina Paley. The three strands that make up the warp and woof of the narration are: the personal story of Nina Paley’s betrayal by her husband; heartfelt- blues, the sentimental songs of Annette Hanshaw; and the larger-than-life canvass of the epic Ramayana. The movie, prima facie, is the story of the Director’s failed marriage as is evident from the official tagline of the movie ‘the greatest break up story ever told’. But the overarching depiction of Sita’s plight in the Ramayana, parallel to her own, assumes great significance. The portrayal of the travails and tribulations of Sita in the movie instead of the usual glorification of Rama, lends this movie
In Sita Sings the Blues, Paley has an alternate, customized picture of Sita. All through the motion picture we see that Sita is crying, and is assuming the part of the casualty instead of being solid and following the Dharma of Indian culture. Paley conflicts with the conventional understanding and overlooks the possibility of Dharma in general and social perspective. The account of Rama and Sita in Ramayana goes ahead and Rama who was viewed as the perfect child and spouse, abandons Sita after she was captured, trusting that she was touched by another man making her debased and not deserving of him. She is surrendered by her significant other to live in a timberland while she was pregnant with Rama 's twin young men. Regardless she remains faithful to him and brings forth two young men and shows them to love their dad and regard him like a God.
Rama is upset to discover Sita's disappearance and he and Lakshmana head out to find her. On their travels through the forests they meet Sugreeva and Hanuman. Hanuman and Sugreeva promise to help Rama in his search for Sita. Sugreeva and Hanuman organizes a huge army of their own people. They cannot find her and Rama becomes so discouraged he thinks of suicide. Until Hanuman finds out he can be any size he wants so he travels to Lanka. There he talks to Sita but on his way out is caught by Ravana. Hanuman becomes big again and destroys Ravana's city.