A friend ran a recent discussion thread on Sita and the various ways she has been interpreted in the various tellings of the Ramayana. . Lot of people had lot to say about Sita and many of them nice things. So I went away to ponder over what it was about her that bothered me. I was surprised by what I discovered.
I wouldn't be so bothered by her if we read Sita like how other cultures read their mythological characters- like how Diana or Athena or Medusa or Venus was read. Like a mythological god from our collective heritage. Unfortunately, Sita has been read , here, in a prescriptive manner. She has been held up as the image of' the 'Ideal Woman' and either directly or subliminally the message has been the one that say she is a n aspirational figure, the one to be emulated.
A lot can be said and has been too about how it stems from the Patriarchal Viewpoint and the desire to perpetuate the concept of wife who treats her husband as master and God. There is one side-story in one of the version of Ramayana, in which one of Sita's friends call her to the temple to pray and she replies saying that now that I am married ,Rama is my god , I cannot pray to another. It doesn't take a genius to figure why such ideas were fostered and encouraged in the female mind. This would have been extremely effective or dangerous. depending on your position in this argument, at a time when education was not accessible to women.
I didn't want to be a goddess and lot of you out there I am sure must have felt the same. I think the unconscious rebelling against such clever subliminal campaigning made me think ,'you know what, I don't want to be a Goddess, what I need to be is a Bitch Goddess"
And so Mira was born. Is that the ideal solution? I could answer it,but alas that would spoil the book for you. So we can discuss it after you read.the book.
A lot of the book is as tongue-in-cheek as the flippant remark I make about wanting to be a BG. So there will be quite a few laughs.
Eager to hear about what you think about Mira's journey.
Maya
I wouldn't be so bothered by her if we read Sita like how other cultures read their mythological characters- like how Diana or Athena or Medusa or Venus was read. Like a mythological god from our collective heritage. Unfortunately, Sita has been read , here, in a prescriptive manner. She has been held up as the image of' the 'Ideal Woman' and either directly or subliminally the message has been the one that say she is a n aspirational figure, the one to be emulated.
A lot can be said and has been too about how it stems from the Patriarchal Viewpoint and the desire to perpetuate the concept of wife who treats her husband as master and God. There is one side-story in one of the version of Ramayana, in which one of Sita's friends call her to the temple to pray and she replies saying that now that I am married ,Rama is my god , I cannot pray to another. It doesn't take a genius to figure why such ideas were fostered and encouraged in the female mind. This would have been extremely effective or dangerous. depending on your position in this argument, at a time when education was not accessible to women.
I didn't want to be a goddess and lot of you out there I am sure must have felt the same. I think the unconscious rebelling against such clever subliminal campaigning made me think ,'you know what, I don't want to be a Goddess, what I need to be is a Bitch Goddess"
And so Mira was born. Is that the ideal solution? I could answer it,but alas that would spoil the book for you. So we can discuss it after you read.the book.
A lot of the book is as tongue-in-cheek as the flippant remark I make about wanting to be a BG. So there will be quite a few laughs.
Eager to hear about what you think about Mira's journey.
Maya
