Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana

by Devdutt Pattanaik

  The male form represents the mind, the world of thoughts. The female form represents nature, the world of things. This gendering of gender-neutral ideas is done to communicate ideas through the powerful medium of stories. It is based on the observation that a man’s body can create new life only through a woman’s body just as formless thoughts can only be expressed through things.

  A mind that is self-indulgent and dominating is the creator Brahma, God who shall not be worshipped. For him, nature is the patient Saraswati, source of wisdom, awaiting his enlightenment.

  A mind that is indifferent to the other’s point of view is the destroyer Shiva, the hermit. For him nature is the alluring Shakti, source of power, awaiting his engagement.

  A mind that cares for the other’s point of view is the preserver Vishnu, the householder. For him, nature is the playful Lakshmi, source of enrichment and abundance. When Vishnu is Krishna, Lakshmi is Radha, Rukmini, Satyabhama and Draupadi. When Vishnu is Ram, she is Sita.

  The notions of creation, preservation and destruction in Hindu mythology thus deal with culture, not nature. Of course, this subtle interplay of word and meaning can easily be misunderstood, and often is, especially since we live in a world that is dominated by the Western discourse shaped by Greek and biblical mythology that are more comfortable with tangible, measurable and categorizable actions and things than abstract thoughts.

  This book seeks to rediscover the Ramayana as one of the many maps of the human mind, an open-source document evolved by generations of thinkers, a narration that evokes empathy and affection for the human condition. I hope I succeed. If I don’t, indulge me, for:

  Within infinite myths lies an eternal truth

  Who sees it all?

  Varuna has but a thousand eyes

  Indra, a hundred

  You and I, only two.

  The traditional belief is that whatever Ramayana we know is incomplete. Of the millions of Ramayana narrations available, Shiva narrates the story in a hundred thousand verses, Hanuman narrates 60,000 of these, Valmiki narrates 24,000 and all other poets narrate fewer than that.

  Academicians often distinguish the informal story of Ram or Ram-katha from the Ramayana, the more formal written retellings attributed to a poet or an author. There are many Ram-kathas and many Ramayana s, each influencing the other.

  For the past two centuries, European and American scholarship with its methodologies and academic funding has played a significant role in the study of the Ramayana. It has allowed for meticulous translations and documentation of rare Ramayana s and Ramkathas that would otherwise have stayed inaccessible.

  European scholars in colonial times preferred the conqueror’s gaze and so interpreted the Ramayana along racial terms (Aryans versus Dravidians, North versus South, Vishnu-worshippers versus Shiva-worshippers, priests versus kings).

  American scholars in postcolonial times have preferred the saviour’s gaze and so interpret the Ramayana in terms of gender and caste conflict, which inadvertently leads to demonizing men, especially brahmins, and viewing devotion only in feudal terms.

  Indian scholars tend to be defensive or apologetic as they are expected to carry the burden of justifying the actions of their heroes and gods.

  Modern scholarship values the outsider’s gaze, as it is deemed more objective, scientific and less sentimental. Writings that flow from this often come across as rather irreverent and judgemental to most Hindus. For while modern scholarship demands that the enquirer distance himself from the object of enquiry, traditional scholarship from India demands the enquirer be transformed by the enquiry.

  Modern scholarship has been unable to classify the Ramayana. Is it actually history, as right-wing scholars insist? Is it propaganda literature serving the interests of particular social groups, as left-wing scholars insist? Is it the story of God, as the devotees believe it is? Or is it the map of the human mind, an attempt to explain the human condition?

  There are three dominant trends of approaching the various retellings of the Ramayana: first, the modern gaze (‘only the Ramayana of Valmiki in Sanskrit is valid’); second, the postmodern gaze (‘all Ramayana retellings are equally valid’); third, the post-postmodern gaze (‘respect the gaze of the believer’).

  Few have been able to fathom the hold of this 2500-year-old narrative over the Indian psyche, especially those who see the epic as irrational but modern education as a tool to make people rational. In 1987 the first teleserial based on the Ramayana, made by Ramanand Sagar, brought the country to a standstill every Sunday morning when it was being telecast. In 1992 dispute over the location of the birthplace of Ram led to a political crisis that ripped the secular heart of the nation. In 2013 the Ramayana continues to be referred to in articles that speak of the unsatisfactory status of women in India. Appropriated by politicians, criticized by feminists, deconstructed by academicians, the epic stands serene in its majesty giving joy, hope and meaning to millions.

  Epilogue

  Ascent to Ayodhya

  Hanuman stopped speaking, suddenly aware that he had been describing events he had not witnessed. The narration was as much for him as it was for the nagas who sat before him spellbound. In the glow of Vasuki’s gems, Hanuman realized he was being told something he was not willing to accept.

  ‘I have told you all that I know of Ram’s Sita,’ said Hanuman. ‘Now please point me to the ring of Sita’s Ram.’

  ‘Why do you call him Sita’s Ram? Why not just Ram? Why do you call her Ram’s Sita? Why not just Sita?’ asked Vasuki, ignoring Hanuman’s impatience.

  ‘Ravana’s rage separated Sita from Ram. Ayodhya’s gossip separated Ram from Sita. But Hanuman’s tongue will never separate Sita from Ram or Ram from Sita.’

  ‘Yet you seek to stop Yama who seeks to bring the two together?’

  Silence ensued as realization dawned. Hanuman’s shoulders fell, his heart sank as he felt Ram’s yearning for Sita on the other shore. Taking a deep breath he said, ‘Still, I must complete my mission. I have told you the story. Now where is the ring?’

  ‘You will find it there,’ said Vasuki, pointing to a vast mountain in the centre of Naga-loka.

  Hanuman rushed to the mountain and found to his surprise it was no mountain but a gigantic pile of rings. Each ring looked like an exact copy of Ram’s ring. ‘What is this mystery?’ he asked Vasuki.

  The seven hoods of Vasuki sprouted a thousand hoods as he spoke. ‘Did you think there was only the one? As many rings, so many Rams. Every time a ring falls into Naga-loka, a monkey follows it and Ram up there dies. This is not the first time it has happened. This is not the last time it will happen. Every time the world awakens and Treta yuga begins, Lakshmi rises from the earth as Sita and Vishnu descends from the sky as Ram. Every time the Treta yuga ends Sita returns to the earth and Ram to the sky. So it has happened before. So it will happen again.’

  The enormity of the cosmos and of Ram’s story suddenly unfolded before Hanuman’s eyes. ‘Why does the story repeat itself again and again?’

  ‘So that every generation realizes the point of human existence.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘Fear is a constant, and faith is a choice. Fear comes from karma, from faith arises dharma. Fear creates Kaikeyis and Ravanas, streets full of gossip, families with rigid rules and fragile reputations. They will always be there. Faith creates a Sita and a Ram. They will come into being only if we have faith that the mind can expand until we do not abandon the world even when the world abandons us.’

  Hanuman remembered how Sita and Ram were always at peace, whether in the palace or in the forest, whether together or apart. Committed to each other, they did not fear the forces that strove to break their commitment. Yes, there were doubts, uncertainties, anxieties, but these only served to unfold more wisdom. They understood the ways of the world and the nature of living creatures, and loved them unconditionally. Hanuman bowed to Vasuki for making explicit the implicit.

  Leaving Ram’s ring beh
ind in Naga-loka, Hanuman rose back through the tunnel and found an Ayodhya desolate without its lord. He followed the footprints of Ram to the banks of the Sarayu and learned how his master had walked into the river, chanting Sita’s name, while all of Ayodhya stood on the riverbank weeping. He would never rise again.

  Luv and Kush sat on the throne. Would they share the throne? If anyone could, they would.

  The waters that contained Ram seeped into the earth that contained Sita, and caused the seeds to germinate. Leaves rose, flowers bloomed, fruits formed. Luv and Kush ate the fruits with relish.

  Vedic thought, commonly known as Vedanta, always speaks in terms of relationships. There is never one, there are always two. This is Dvaita, the dualistic school of Vedanta. In wisdom, the one realizes he has no existence without the other and the other has no existence without the one. This is Advaita, the monistic school of Vedanta.

  The heartbreak of Ram after Sita’s departure, his gradual loss of interest in worldly matters and his eventual departure into the river is described in vivid detail in the Uttara-kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana.

  The idea of a king killing himself is distasteful to modern sensibilities. Rationalists view it as suicide while devotees view it as samadhi, an act of voluntary rejection of the flesh by enlightened beings. This practice of voluntarily rejecting the body was observed by Jain monks as well as by many Hindu saints, like Dnyaneshwar.

  Ram emerges from the womb and so is destined to die. Thus nothing in the world is permanent. Yet, Hanuman is chiranjivi, immortal, perhaps because he is celibate. The householder Ram dies but the hermit Hanuman does not. All possibilities exist in Indian mythology.

  Every time the Ramayana is read out as a holy book, a seat in the audience is kept empty, for Hanuman.

  In many retellings, Luv and Kush inherit two different cities, Shravasti and Kushavati. Later, Luv returns to Ayodhya and finds it derelict and shorn of splendour. He restores it to its former glory. In Jain versions, Luv and Kush become ascetics. In some versions, Kush follows his mother and Luv inherits Ayodhya.

  The Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa tells the story of Ram’s descendants. It ends with Agnivarna, who is a spoiled, hedonistic king and spends all his time with his queens; when asked to grant an audience to the people, he shows his feet through the window, as he is too lazy to get off the bed. Finally he dies and his pregnant widow is installed on the throne.

  In the seventeenth century, Latin American fruits of the Annona family reached India. They were given Indian names to make them popular. Thus we have sita-phal or fruit of Sita (custard apple) and ram-phal or fruit of Ram (bull’s heart). There is even a lakshman-phal and hanuman-phal.

  That there are many Rams and many Ramayana s is a recurring theme in Indian mythology. It indicates that life is not linear; there is no full stop. Life is cyclical; what goes around comes around. Such a view of time will never respect history, for what is the past is also the future. That is why in many Indian languages the word for tomorrow and yesterday is the same, for example ‘kal’ in Hindi.

  Traditionally, Ram is always invoked after invoking Sita, hence the phrase ‘Jai Siya Ram’, meaning victory to Sita’s Ram. However, increasingly, in many pockets, the feminine is being edited out as people prefer ‘Jai Shri Ram’ indicating the rise of a less inclusive culture. Some argue, however, Shri is not a mere honorific like mister, but the Vedic name of Lakshmi, goddess of wealth.

  The Ramayana, like the Mahabharata, is called itihasa, which can be translated in two ways: first, as history, a record of events of the past; second, as a story that is tense-neutral or timeless. Thus, it can be located in a particular period (5000 BCE or earlier) and place (the Gangetic plains) and ascribed to a single poet (Valmiki); or it can be seen in psychological terms with each character representing a different aspect of our personality.

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  Acknowledgements

 
To the mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, teachers and household help, whose Ramayana is in all probability the first Ramayana for most children in India, long before they are exposed to other retellings.

  To my teachers (Ms Pinto, Ms Pereira, Ms Lobo, Ms Rodricks, Ms Fernandes, Ms Coutino, Ms Gulvadi, Ms Gersape, Ms Qadri) of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School, Chembur, Mumbai, who encouraged us to stage those wonderful plays based on episodes of the epic with childlike innocence and wonderment. No one then even thought politics.

  Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts Research, Pondicherry, for their vast Ramayana archive.

  Chinmayi Deodhar and Madhavi Narsalay of Department of Sanskrit, Mumbai University, for helping me write the name Ram in the Ashokan and Gupta Brahmi scripts.

  Rupa and Partho (my friends) for helping me with the manuscript, and Partho again along with Shami (my sister), Janardan and Aniket (my assistants) and Deepak (my driver) for helping me clean, shade and scan the illustrations.

  The talebearers who for the past 3000 years have been writing and narrating the Ramayana as song and stories.

  The artists who have made the Ramayana visible through their art and their performances.

  The translators of the various Ramayanas who made these accessible to people like me.

  The art historians and curators who made available the various paintings and images of Ram from different regions from different historical periods.

  The scholars whose essays on the Ramayana showed me how to think and how not to think about the nuances of the epic.

  The academicians whose work on various aspects of Hindu mythology enabled me to contextualize the Ramayana.

  The cultural experts who helped me appreciate what distinguishes Indian thought patterns from thought patterns of other parts of the world.