Namita Gokhale (NG): Over the last two years, Malashri and I have collected an enormous amount of material for this project called ‘In Search of Sita’. The book we have edited is uniquely focused on Sita. Our project, like the story of the Ramayana, is situated in a cultural and mythic space, which, on the one hand is extremely specific to India, yet on the other also permeates the cyber culture and worldview of the Indian diaspora.
Malashri Lal (ML): In a globalized India, the Ramayana has taken on a new relevance. While young people such as students and trained professionals are connecting with transnational impulses, travelling widely and seeking job opportunities far from ‘home’, they are also finding in the Ramayana core issues on value and tradition. But it is not a fixed paradigm. The Ramayana speaks of feminism, environment protection, rights and duties, the problem of choice, of power. In other words, most modern dilemmas are reflected in the mythic lore, to be interpreted in contemporary terms. My involvement with the project seeks to understand the stability of an ancient narrative in relation to its new orientations. For me, Sita is the key to this understanding, for it is in the rethinking about patriarchy that the greatest social changes have evolved.
NG: One day, three years ago, in Sri Lanka, on my way to the Ashok Vatika, the spot where Sita was allegedly held hostage, I was consumed by a sense of proximity to Sita, of empathy, curiosity, sadness. I resolved to work on this book, made what we call a sankalp, a private determination. After we began working together, my responses were first a sense of indignation at the lack of equity in what is the dominant myth of our religion and culture, and the injustices and dysfunctionalities that are perpetuated because of the archetype of Sita as the ideal woman. This graduated to a profound appreciation at the depth of scholarship, historical and contemporary, on the subject, and a realization of the deeper strengths of Sita, and of Indian women, or perhaps women everywhere.
ML: In the depictions of Sita’s birth, we see the beginnings of the mythologizing process and the reliance on the fantastical. Sita, daughter of the Earth, was found in a furrow while her adoptive father Janaka was ritually ploughing the ground. How Sita came to be in the furrow is narrated differently in different regions. But what is evident is the dominance of the Earth myth emphasizing Sita’s link with nature. In many other mythologies in world civilizations, the woman is associated with nature: in Japan, this is symbolized in the figure of Amateresu, while in Greece, we have Gaia. Women have the strength of the earth, they are nurturers and life-givers. But their strength is foolishly disregarded and civilizations have to go through a cycle of trials before the acknowledgement is made once again. In our own times, eco-feminism has established the connection between woman and nature, man and technology—a questionable equation, no doubt, but it will set us thinking about the origin of such ideas. In India, there has developed a discourse on the feminization of agriculture and Sita becomes a convenient point of reference.
NG: Sita is the unusual girl child too, endowed with divine powers. When Sita was a child, one day she was swabbing the floor of the temple which housed the Bow of Shiva. Janaka, who happened to walk by, was astounded to see her lift the bow with her left hand (the left hand being the source of intuitive, instinctive strength), and resolved that only the man who could string and break Shiva’s bow was fit to marry his daughter. Several paintings show the young prince Rama winning the hand of his future bride. The unuttered strength of woman, which is mute, not valorised, is given heroic dimensions in these portrayals.
ML: We should clarify that we did not plan to make this book an illustrated volume, though the episodes we refer to have been variously painted in many traditions. Our purpose is to focus on content and implications. When Rama is about to assume the kingship of Ayodhya, he is banished by his father because of the wiles of his stepmother Kaikeyi. Rama wishes to proceed alone but Sita asserts herself by insisting on accompanying him into exile. The place of a wife is by the side of her husband, she says, even though Rama paints a picture of a difficult life of deprivations in the forest. Sita, it is believed, gives away her jewels and fine clothing and assumes the appearance of an ascetic in keeping with the new status of Rama. Accompanied by the younger brother Lakshmana, Rama and Sita begin their journey in the forest.
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