Ramayana ft. Feminism
See I know this blog is about teenage, but I recently saw something which affected me so deeply, that I felt to share it with you readers. Ramayana was started again on the television; it was seen as good step, as people could now learn the great teachings of Ramayana in this tough period of lockdown. It was seen as something which will unite and uplift the hopes of the nation.
The Ramayana was interesting, though in the end it became bizarre! All of you must know the story of Ramayana, but if you don’t, in short, Rama Ji is the virtuous, wise, and powerful prince of Ayodhya; he was born during an age when the demon Ravana terrorized the world.
As a young man, he is able to accomplish what no other man has ever done: he lifts and strings the bow of Siva, and by doing so he earns the right to marry the beautiful Sita Ji. Just when he is about to ascend the throne of Ayodhya, his father Dasaratha is forced to exile him for fourteen years to the forest due to a vow made long ago.
Rama Ji accepts his exile; his wife Sita Ji and his loyal brother Lakshmana Ji accompany him. In the forest, the brothers kill many demons and visit many wise men and women. The evil demon Ravana hears of Sita Ji’s beauty, and kidnaps her. He has fallen in love with her. Desperate to win her back, Rama Ji and Lakshmana Ji form an alliance with the monkey king Sugriva, and invade Lanka with an army of monkeys.
After many violent battles, Rama Ji defeats Ravana and wins back Sita Ji. After returning to Ayodhya, Rama Ji hears his people gossiping about Sita Ji’s “Purity”, and influenced by this he banishes her to the forest, where she gives birth to Rama Ji’s twin sons. Sita Ji and the children confront him years later; even then Rama Ji asks her again to prove her “purity”, to satisfy his subject’s concerns, but this time Sita Ji had had enough and she vanishes into the earth to escape him. (Note that there have been many versions of Ramayana written, this is the summary of the one which was being shown on our televisions)
In the end, all I want to ask is what was the point of the war? Millions of creatures died in the war, and in the end, Sita Ji got so fed up that she just went away! Like even in Satyuga the position of women was so bad, this fact hurts that in the golden era of our country, women even then had to face discrimination! Though if we try to see this image doesn’t only depict what happened in that era, but also depicts what happens today! Why women are still asked to give an “Agni Pariksha on every next step? Sita Ji died in vain, and for what? Just to satisfy Rama Ji’s ego. I’m not against anyone and I don’t mean to offend any community or religion, but what was depicted in Ramayana was really depressing. Sita Ji was made to live a life of hell, what mistake did she do? She just got stuck between two egoistic men Rama Ji and Rawana, for them she was an object, a trophy stating superiority in this world. This kind of mentality still persists in many minds. I can’t change this mentality, but I can just ask you that even though it was a mythological story, ask yourselves that everything that happened, was it justified? Everything happening is it justified?
I want to point out that Ramayana is fiction, for all intents and purposes. It shows ideal relationships: an ideal relation between husband and wife, between father and son, between brothers, within the army, between a ruler and his subjects, and so much more.
When visiting his kingdom, he heard one of his subjects say to his wife, "I'm not like our king who easily accepts his wife after she spent the night underaunder man's roof." And as an ideal ruler, Ram felt the need to set an example.
Truth be told, society at Ram's time was actually more feminist than today's society. Sita was the ideal wife and Ram was the ideal husband, never taking a second wife even though he himself had three mothers.
As far as the war goes, it was a war to protect _dharma_: because it goes against all chivalry to kidnap another man's wife. Ravan knew she was married. He forced himself on her even when Sita rejected his advances. And even in captivity, Ravan made sure she was treated well. That fits the idea of feminism.
And yes, the idea of feminism is also different today than it was during Ram's rule. But you can still catch glimpses of modern feminism in Ramayana.
Sita was the daughter of the Earth, and so to the Earth she returned.
A good point of view. Still I lack the eyesight to catch any glimpse of feminism in the whole Ramayana. I myself love the whole tale, and i do not stand against anyone, but I personally felt what happened to Sita Ji was wrong and it was an injustice. WE all know that for giving any punishment there should be some evidence, an idea our judiciary follows even today, a person cannot be punished merely because of someones opinion and it doesn’t matter if she is the wife of a king or not. Sita ji was punished without any evidence, and i do not feel that it was the ideal decision.
*under another man's roof
While totally understanding your point, I'd like to point out the answer Devdutt Pattanaik gave to the question about what happened with Sita. According to him, since Rama was Maryada Purushottam (the ideal mean who follows rules) had to exile her, because where on one hand she was fit to be his wife, she was not fit to be a queen, because her subjects didn't want the queen.
But uf you ask my opinion, what happened with Sita was wrong.
Thank you sir. Devdutt Pattanaik sir has a wonderful opinion but I am glad that you feel the same way as me.
It was just that the public wanted to know that is sita pure and it was that that the sita was goddess so no one could force her and if she became impure by herself it was considered wrong and it also taught us that we should not be feeling this much unsafe for a women and it was not Ram's ego Ram did it to satisfy the public who were asking for it and she also had to go before Ram as she was their real wife so that when Vishnu ji go to their lok she would be ready to greet them.
Maybe, maybe not