Chitra Banrjee Divakaruini’s “The Forest of Enchantments: Revisiting the Epic from Sita’s Prespective”

: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Forest OF Enchantments is about the retelling of our ancient prestigious epic of Ramayan from Sita’s perspective. As an Indian diasporic writer Divakaruni has nostalgia about Indian culture and tradition. The word culture comprises of behaviours and institutions, for its attempts at retelling an ancient epic through the female’s perspective. This novel focuses on the self discovery of Sita who is a celebrated female character of ancient India. So, Divakaruni has changed her way of thinking from traditional portrayal of simple and selfless women into modern female characters who is searching for their identity in the patriarchal world. This study attempts to analyse the self-identity of Sita from Sita’s perspective. The Forest of Enchantment gives an insight into what happened through the eyes of strong protagonist Sita who is a daughter of earth, later adopted by king Janaka, Sita is a wife of Ram and princess of Ayodhya. In this novel Divakaruni introduces Sita, who lost everything except her babies.

SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH e- ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 VOL. 8, ISSUE 6, JUNE 2020 www.ijellh.com 115 Award and the Pen Faulkner Award. The setting of Divakaruni's novels mostly in India and the United States, and often focus on the experiences of South Asian immigrants.
India is a land of culture and strong beliefs in superstition, preserving and praising the culture is a prestige of all countries. Indian Literature is a full of depiction of the myths and legends, myths are one of the segments which serves to determine the Indianness in Indian Literature. Divakaruni uses various techniques in her novels like dream, myth, magic realism, culture. As a woman novelist she has added a new dimension to Indian English novel. Her novel reflects the changing role of Indian women from the traditional mythicised one to the new one of emancipation, modernity and the resultant changes in the social set up.
Divakaruni's major theme centred on her desire to investigate the identity of South Author clearly justifies about Sita's narration of her tale herself; this narration of the protagonist reconstructs the traditional Ramayan into modern Sitayan.
Sita has a knowledge of different subjects, she is an expert in marital arts because her mother queen Sunaina feels that every girl should learn. Sita is entirely different from her sister Urmila. Urmila always wants to play with toys and fond of jewellery but Sita is a keen observer of her father's ruling, her mother who is a counsellor to her father. So, Sita learned how to deal with the troublesome circumstance, from watching the decision of her father. Sita enjoyed the journey with nature, she wanted to feel the plants when she touched the plants, she can feel the healing properties of that plant even she can hear the sounds of plants.
Sita's life after marriage is not a happy one. In Ayodhya Kaikeyi who is the dearest wife of king Dhasaradha, she got boons from her husband that is Ram should go to the forest where he has to live as hermit for fourteen years and Bharata will be a king of Ayodhya.
Being a new bride, this makes her life complicated, Ram agreed to go to the forest he insisted Sita to stay with her mother in law because he felt it is too dangerous for women to live in forest but unexpectedly Sita raised her voice, "I wanted to say not all women are weak and helpless like you think, for all you know, I might be of help to you". (FOE 111).
This decision taken by Sita without consulting anyone in the palace, the words of a young woman stunned everyone in the palace, then she accompanies her lord to the forest.
By projecting this fact Divakaruni breaks the stereotype and shows the spunky performance of Sita.
During the journey in the forest, Sita was abducted by Ravan a demon king of Lanka.
She was dropped under Ashoka tree, he deploys many demonesses to guard the area and prevent Sita from escaping. Sita refuses to need his advances and maintains her chastity.
There are so many women some spoke kindly; some spoke to her rudely. Sita knew that her Ram will come to rescue her, she maintains her faith and confidence in the palace. Under the Ashoka tree Sita is exercising about face Ravan, she acknowledges, "Allow him to pursue you and at the last moment, step sideways and bring up a knee in a sudden movement to the opponent's groin; when he doubles over, press your thumbs into his eyes to blind him. Or step back as though retreating, and when the opponent lungs at you hit his wind pipe with your hand, held straight as a knife, At the right angle, the impact will break his neck" (FOE 188