Heroism redefined: women’s gaze and a celebration of ‘othernesses’ in Samhita Arni’s Sita’s Ramayana

Abstract

Sita, the central character of the epic Ramayana is an integral part of India’s collective psyche and is often one of the most defining role models for womanhood in India. The persona of Sita is so integral to our lives that she as a character is central to several narratives-paintings, statues, plays, films, dances, folk songs, poems and so on. She is an enigma who is a woman and a Goddess, who is connected to the lives of rural women through her timeless predicament while she is deified in canonical texts. Sita narratives across genres explore her multiple hues and layers making every aspect fascinating, lending themselves to newer interpretations. Beyond every interpretation, Sita is a woman, a human, tried and tested by daunting challenges, makes clear choices and moves on. The paper explores the woman’s gaze as seen in Samhita Arni’s Sita’s Ramayana and attempts to understand how Sita breaks the stereotype of restricting heroism to male values of anger, bravery and warrior ship, thereby shifting the site of heroism itself.