She turns her disappointment into triumph. 

Her grief into joy. 

Her rejections into approvals. 

If no one believes in her 

It does not matter. 

She believes in herself. 

Nothing stops her. 

No one can touch her. 

She is woman

Sita, born of the earth, raised among sages, the non-uterine daughter of King Janak of Mithila, devoted wife of Lord Ram, and single mother of twins Kush and Luv, is the central female character of the Hindu epic Ramayana. Sita, as an integral part of the Indian psyche, has been venerated by Valmiki in the first chapter itself,

Sita, the best one among ladies, a possessor of all best qualities befitting an ideal lady, the one who is as though fashioned by a divine marvel, born in Janak’s fany and became Dashrath’s daughter-in-law and she who is the loving wife and an ever-amiable alter ego of Ram, even she followed Ram to forests, as with Lady Rohini following the Moon… 

A paragon of beauty, intellect, dedication, and sacrifice, Sita, the ideal woman, struggled with maintaining her dignity, her identity, and her rightful place in a patriarchal society. Worshipped throughout India, she is considered a symbol of chastity, the wife who stayed unwavering in her devotion and loyalty towards her husband Ram, like Ruth who, swearing eternal fidelity to her husband, said, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.”

It is believed that Sita’s birth preordained the elimination of evil forces, and that she was the link between the opposing forces of righteousness and evil, symbolised by Ram and Ravan respectively. Her sense of dharma or duty was superior to that of her husband, the most perfect of men, the maryada purush Ram, who sacrificed his conjugal life at the altar of ‘higher’ duties, first to fulfill the expectations of him as a son, and subsequently, that as a king. Sita’s devotion and love for Ram, her firmness of purpose in upholding the truth, even at the cost of her own life, are all put to the test. Ram, her beloved husband, publicly declares that he rescued her to save his own honour, and Sita is made to prove her chastity multiple times. She passes each test and wins hands down, like the devotee who triumphs over the god he worships.

Fiercely independent, Sita dared to challenge social norms and break loose from the shackles of patriarchy, while making her own choices with courage and dignity. She did not allow her life situation to choose for her, nor did she let the abuse dishearten her. Finding strength in the knowledge of her own uniqueness—self-confident, self-disciplined, and selfless—she chose to uphold her self-respect, thereby exemplifying the power of womankind. Sita’s offer of agnipariksha (after the battle) was not an act of self-annihilation, nor that of surrendering to the whim of an unreasonable husband. On the contrary, her emerging from the fire unscathed was proof of her defiance in challenging her husband’s aspersions, showing him to be so flawed in his judgement that the gods had to come and pull up Ram for his foolishness. When a pregnant Sita was abandoned deceitfully in the cruelest manner, placing her and her unborn child’s life in jeopardy, she demonstrated to the world that it was possible for an abandoned single mother to not only survive, but successfully raise two outstanding and fearless sons. Sita loved her husband wholeheartedly, and sacrificed a life of luxury to be exiled with him in the forest; but when her honour was repeatedly doubted by her beloved for what he considered his kingly duty, she chose with supreme dignity to reject her husband and return to Mother Earth. Rightfully so, people perceive Sita’s steadfastness as a sign of emotional strength, because she refused to forsake her dharma in upholding the truth, even though Ram forsook his dharma as a responsible husband.

Often underplayed is the fact that Sita had a mind of her own; she stood her ground and remained determined not to give up even if the odds looked daunting. She even went to the extent of rebuking her husband that he was not man enough to take his wife along into exile. During their exile in the forest, Sita envisaged the danger in Ram’s decision to eliminate the rakshasas of Dandaka forest without any provocation, and felt it was her role as a wife to remind the maryada purush of his dharma when she perceived he was straying from the path of righteousness.

Delivering a powerful discourse on non-violence, she reminds Ram that duty always pairs with privilege, and since he had renounced his Kshatriya powers, he should avoid involving himself in activities that run contrary to forest life and its norms Sita, not one to be cowed down, proudly proclaimed that since she was Janak’s daughter and Ram’s wife, she could not refrain from free speech on observing dharma retreating. Graciously Ram responded to her words of caution and said ‘Oh, graceful Sita, you are the co-pursuer in dharma with me, hence you are loftier to me than my own life…’ When Hanuman had come to Lanka searching for her, she could have easily made her escape. But, not wanting to steal her husband’s glory, she chose to wait for Ram to rescue her from Ravan’s captivity. When Ram wanted her to testify to her own innocence for the second time, instead of complying, Sita prayed to Mother Earth to take her into her recourse

Sita epitomizes the struggle of women throughout the world.

[Niyogi Books has given Fair Observer permission to publish this excerpt from Sita Returns: Modern India Through Her Eyes, Charu Walikhanna, Niyogi Books, 2018.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.