![]() THE GIRL WHO CHOSE: A NEW WAY OF NARRATING THE RAMAYANAHansika Chhabra THE GIRL WHO CHOSE: A NEW WAY OF NARRATING THE RAMAYANA A Project of Devdutt Pattanaik Year 2016, pp. 112, Rs.199.00 VOLUME XL NUMBER 11 November 2016 In line with Devdutt Pattanaik’s philosophy
which portrays myth as a subjective
truth, he essentially tries to tell a story
that has been told innumerable times in history
as a more flexible and consequencedriven
recount of events. He takes on the
Ramayana by delving into Sita’s psyche while
breaking the epic into five seamlessly knit
together chapters, each one unfolding as one
of her choices. It is his perception on the
reasons behind a character’s actions which
makes it an original account. For a young
mind, these justify the behaviour and choices
of the various characters and highlighting
their contrasting characteristics clearly. For
example, the Sun kings and princes fulfil the
most unreasonable of promises because they
are governed by the unspoken laws of their
dynasty; their word is of the highest honour
and they rule to serve the people of their
kingdom, thus Rama respects strict rules
through the course of events. But Sita knows
when she is free to choose differently from
what rules might dictate. She is loyal in choosing
to follow her husband into the forest; kind
to help a seemingly harmless hungry hermit
by crossing the Lakshman Rekha; stays true
to Rama’s honour, by choosing to stay captive
in Lanka when Hanuman offers to take her
back to Rama, bestowing an opportunity for
him to reclaim reverence for the Sun dynasty,
and equally adamant about asserting her selfworth
when she chooses not to return to the
Kingdom of Ayodhya in the end.
Devdutt actively uses this contrast of
Rama’s character against that of Sita’s, and
the differences in the kingship of Rama and
Ravana, both devotees of Shiva, to create layered
characters driven by a unique moral fibre.
He draws application to the current
world from these, explaining that people too
make choices everyday and that rules are
meant to encourage helping society, but they
too can be challenged and altered.
Sita is introduced as an infant that King
Janka of Mithila serendipitously finds inside
a clay pot underneath the ground during the
first ploughing of the fields. Shiva had told
Janaka that only she would be able to pick
up the bow he gifted him and that her future
husband would string it. We follow her
life until her second exile in the forests where
she takes her fifth and final choice of not
returning to Ayodhaya with ... Table of Contents >> |