The Ideal Woman in Ramayana

Valmiki was a Hindu sage and author of an Indian epic known as Ramayana. The author who was a Brahman by birth lived around the first millennium under the lineage of the Bhrigu. He was raised up in a family believed to be robbers who were living near northeast India exposing him to a violent life and turned into a highway robbery. Despite robbing people and helping his family, the family members never acknowledged his efforts and he opted to find a way he could get out of this menace. Valmiki came across a priest who instructed him to learn various holy syllables and after he perfected on them, he was introduced to the tale of an ideal hero known as Rama and through hard experiences, he composed the Ramayana poetry. According to Prasad, the poet gives readers an experience that covers the Hindu culture along with values in which the Hindus embrace in their living (418). The Indian epic explores the ideal humankind relationship, the constant battle between the realization of the good and the evil, as well as the experiences of an ideal man. Additionally, the script is so valuable for the Indian Community as it provides a clear picture of the existence of Hindu god who is portrayed as the main character, Rama who in the case is a common man who demonstrated as a model in his struggle with the god and the evil.

The characters in the poem have substantially contributed in the molding of Indians character and inspired them with deep love, devotion and respect along with multidimensional approaches in ideal life. The script allows for the exploration of an ideal woman, who is portrayed through various characters of Ramayana through the incorporation of female characters such as Sita, Mandodari, Kaikey, Shoorpanaka, and Urmila. According to Prasad, these characters play a crucial role in by taking lead in demonstrating how an ideal woman gets emotional in attempts to attain their personal targets (421). Ramayana enriches the Indian culture sentiments through different types of emotions depending on various instances and situations. The female characters are brought out from all parts of the society and each of them is shown to have contributed to the upliftment of male characters and their success or failures in one way or another. The script shows how women are committed to upholding the ideals of life, despite the hardships and suffering that they are exposed to in efforts to make things work. Sita, Mandodari, Sumitra, Kausalya, and Sabari are some of the female characters who portray ideal values by standing for their competence, faith, righteousness, and firmness while making decisions.

            Comparison of a modern ideal woman and the traditional ideal woman provides a lot of complexities especially while focusing on the cultural aspects. An ideal woman character in the Ramayana demonstrates total dedication and commitment to cultural values and sacrifices made to ascertain how committed they were in the preservation of cultural morals. Sita is a woman who is perceived to be a symbol of an ideal woman and whom many Indians want to be identified with. According to Prasad, she provides a popular image of set values, character, and attitudes which shapes her womanhood and colors her life expectations along with self-perceptions (422). Sita demonstrates unbounded love through various instances where she is subjected to cruelty, neglect, injustice, and humiliation uncomplainingly. Her unwavering decisions are evident by willingly giving sacrifices for the sake of her man Rama, without any personal purposes. Ramayana’s Sita is an ideal woman who stands with her own mind and through fearless independence, she suffers immensely in attempt to protect her dignity and conforming to her standards.  

             On the other hand, an ideal modern woman seems to differ with the cultural morals and beliefs of an ideal Ramayana’s woman. An ideal modern woman has been socially scrutinized as religious conversion has dominated in the world impacting on their cultural and social economic lives (Ojong, & Muthuki, 17). Additionally, they are expected to be both homemakers and also be part of breadwinners in the family. The pursuit of the well-paying job has become of more importance, forcing women to abandon their children and husbands and hire outsiders for the housekeeping and childcare. The independence of modern women is determined by how stable is their career and their hard work will reward them in controlling their emotions. Thus, it becomes easy for married women who are employed to seek other alternatives if their husbands subject them to unbearable hardships. Additionally, modern women are not ready to suffer at the hands of their men as they easily opt their way out of the relationship. Sita is ready to suffer as she is treated coldly and goes to an extent of walking across the fire to prove her innocence to his husband Rama. A modern ideal woman cannot subject herself to such pains in the name of love as the majority of them seeks divorce and separation as the best option.

            Rama was an ideal and perfect son among the four sons of King Dasharatha of the Ayodhya and who was married to Sita, a princess from a neighboring kingdom (Richman, 8). Rama was crowned the prince, a decision that made her step Kaikeyi upset and sought an exchange of her debt with Rama being sent to exile so as his son Bharata could take over as a prince. Without any option, Rama decided to leave with Sita her wife where his stepbrother Lakshmana decided to follow him into the forest. While in the forest, they had a bad encounter with demoness Surphanaka who was wounded by Lakshmana in attempt to kill Sita. She sought help from her brother Khara who together with his army got killed by Rama and his brother Lakshmana leaving with only one soldier surviving. The lone soldier flees to seek vengeance from Surphanaka’s brother king Ravana who decides to abduct Sita after hearing of her beauty and uses his magic and trickery to lure Lakshmana and Rama.

            The abduction of Sita marks the beginning of her distress and misery for the ten months she is under Ravana’s captivity. The firm decision and assertiveness portrayed by Sita clearly show how much she was devoted to defending her love to Rama which is evident during her encounters with Ravana. While in Ravana’s custody, Sita meets Hanuman a mighty warrior of the vanarans who lures her by promising to take her back to Rama and relief her from monstrous guards threats and assault (Banker, 5). She is not aware of Rama’s efforts and how long it will take for him to rescue her, but that does not convince her to go with Hanuman. She had made a vow not to have any physical contact with any man except Rama and gave various excuses to Hanuman to keep him away from taking advantage of the situation. One of the reasons she gave was that she knew Hanuman was capable of killing the guards and rescue her, but that would wash away Rama’s glory as he was also making attempts to rescue her.

            On the other hand, Rama and Lakshmana traveled for long searching for Sita and fortunately, they met with monkey-men who promised to help them. Hanuman also made up his mind and became a devotee to Rama where Sita narrates him a personal and intimate incident that would convince Rama that indeed they two had met. The epic entailed a deep intimacy scene between them and Sita cherished these moments to an extent she could not give in to Ravana or Hanuman. As vanarans seek out the whereabouts of Sita, Hanuman flies to Lanka and confirms that Sita was imprisoned there by Ravana and goes ahead to inform Sita that Rama was around and would ultimately rescue her. Rama and Lakshmana finally rescue Sita with the assistance of Vanar army and Hanuman and in a fierce battle, Ravana is killed. After returning to their homeland and Rama is informed of peoples’ disapproval for him accepting Sita back while she had sat on Ravana’s laps and that affected the morals of Ramayana’s women (Hazarika, 298). These claims made Rama furious and instructed Lakshmana to take her away and leave her in the forest. Sita was pregnant and passed a lot of difficulties before she could give birth to the twins Lava and Kusha. Afterward, Rama discovered that the two boys were actually his own sons and asked Sita to forgive her.

Works Cited

Banker, Ashok. King of Ayodhya. Orbit, 2006.

Hazarika, Munmi. “Gender Roles and Representation of Feminine Identity in Ramayana: A Critical Study.” International Journal of English Language, Literature, and Humanities, vol. 2, no. 5, 2014, pp. 295-301

Ojong, Vivian, and Janet Muthuki. ”Religious Conversion and the Regeneration of Gender Identity Amongst Indian Women in Chatsworth.” International Journal for the Study of Hinduism, vol. 22, no. 2010, 2010, pp. 9-112

Prasad, Rashmi. ”Ashtanāyikas in Ramayana.” International Journal of Recent Advances in Organizational Behavior and Decision Sciences, Vol. 1, no. 3, 2015, pp. 417-428. 3, globalbizresearch.org/files/c546_ijraob_rashmi-prasad_choodamani-nandagopal-173458.pdf

Richman, Paula. Ramayana Stories in Modern South India: an Anthology. Indiana University Press, 2008.