Rama and Sita may not be the couple that comes to mind on the weekend post Valentine’s day. But the fact remains that theirs is possibly the greatest love story India has every known. There’s a lot of mytho-fictional work around their love story. Different perspectives, all of whom seem to agree on one thing – their devotion towards each other. Arguably, it was Ashok Banker’s “Ramayana Series”, an eight-volume effort, which propelled the genesis of this burgeoning mythology genre.
This week, on Bookstrapping, we take a look at five books that highlight the love of the characters in the Ramayana.
1. What if ‘Dharma’, was not just duty, but an alignment with the higher forces of love, that make the preservation of our world possible? Author Dena Merriam talks about this, in her book ‘The Untold Story of Sita: An Empowering Tale for our Time’. She tears away the patriarchal lens through which the story is traditionally viewed. In this book, told by the people of Sita’s household, the role of the sacred feminine is front and centre of the narrative. Sita’s life and message are particularly relevant for the modern age when a new understanding of feminine wisdom and leadership is needed.
2. Arshia Sattar’s book ‘Lost Loves’, makes you meet the human side of Ram in eight essays. The book fuses the King and the man; how does Ram express his anguish after losing his beloved? She says, “A God who can forget his divinity in order to show us the enormously tragic consequences of our frailties is surely far more compelling than one who remains unreachable in his distant righteousness and perfection. It is precisely in his failure that we learn, it is in his crushing personal defeats that we understand the meaning of our lives. If we see Rama as one of us, the Ramayana becomes more poignantly a story that explores the human condition rather than one that stridently declares the unimpeachable nature of divinity.” Touche!
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3. Dr. Charu Walikhanna, a Supreme Court lawyer and a former member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) writes a book on how Sita often flouted the conventions and norms of her time. Titled ‘Sita Returns’, she pitches Sita as a woman who stood up to Ravan, and raised two children as a single mother. She talks about how Sita may have undergone two trials by fire, but the ordinary Indian woman faces trials every day! Lessons for our times perhaps?
4. Another hidden gem is Sita’s Ascent by Vayu Naidu, in which the love story of Sita and Rama is constructed through a string of remembrances. Indeed when Sita comes to know about Rama’s order banishing her to Valmiki’s Ashram, she is devastated! She gets abandoned in the ashram by Lakshmana under instructions from Rama. She accepts her fate and begins to live in the forest where she has two sons, Lava and Kusa. Although she had “reached a point past caring for social opinion,” she remains devoted to Rama. Vayu Naidu is a PhD scholar in Epic and Oral traditions of Ramayana and Mahabharata no less!
5. Our last pick is Kavita Kane’s book ‘Sita’s Sister.’ Remember Urmila, the wife of Lakshmana? This book traces the love between Urmila and Lakshmana – the much ignored love story in the Ramayana. The book suggests that Urmila, who refused to go on the 14 year old exile, has her own travails. How does she survive with her husband gone for 14 years? What sacrifices does she make for her love so that Lakshmana could focus on protecting his brother and sister in law, even as he gets fatally injured during the war against Ravan?
Which is your favorite love story based on the Ramayana? Share it with us.
Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia’s first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.