In Search Of Sita Quotes

“it is by robbing Sita of her voice that victimhood has been made palatable for women—indeed their highest destiny—through literary manipulation.”
― Namita Gokhale, In Search Of Sita: Revisiting Mythology

“Rama and Sita’s final separation, after she is asked to prove herself again (this time for the people of Ayodhya) is at Sita’s initiative. She disappears into the Earth without even a glance at the man she has loved and it is Rama who is left alone, abandoned to his public life and duties. At the very end of the story, we are left with the man—hero, husband, king, divine reflection—and his emptiness. Glorious Rama, destined for greatness and success from birth, ends up alone and lonely—that should be enough reason for us to read the text anew. For our sake, and not his.”
― Namita Gokhale, In Search Of Sita: Revisiting Mythology

“It is the internal battles that Rama has to fight that interest me now, and there are many. Sadly, he loses the most important battle of all, the battle to be the person that he wants to be, irrespective of what his cosmic and public destinies have in store for him. It is this terrible dislocation of the self that gives rise to his anxieties about Sita and his treatment of her.”
― Namita Gokhale, In Search Of Sita: Revisiting Mythology

“By the time the Ramayana was written by Valmiki, patriarchy had registered its authority over women’s bodies and over their reproductive rights. Rama considers Sita his property until he loses her to Ravana. Despite Sita’s purity, Rama rejects her twice, doubting her fidelity. One cannot imagine anyone doing this to Draupadi and it is impossible to accuse Kunti of any infidelity except to her own self! Yet Sita is a silent heroine as she refuses to bear Rama any child till he secures his throne. She brings up her sons on her own as a single abandoned mother and finally returns to her mother’s womb, thus establishing the autonomy of the female.”
― Namita Gokhale, In Search Of Sita: Revisiting Mythology

“a woman who seems to be a passive character in major portions of the Ramayana, following her husband through thick and thin, insistent in her demand for the suvarnamrig, finally emerges as a strong woman with a will of her own. However, that is not what she is worshipped for.”
― Namita Gokhale, In Search Of Sita: Revisiting Mythology

“What is interesting is they have no children in these long years and Sita becomes a mother in her late thirties or perhaps even later. This implies that she is at least in control of her reproductive cycle, as she manages to delay her child-bearing until her husband is secure on a throne. This is one hidden strength she displays, as she does again, when finally, at the age of perhaps fifty, she abandons her family.”
― Namita Gokhale, In Search Of Sita: Revisiting Mythology

“The story of Sita lifting the Shiva dhanushya, which it takes 5000 servants to fetch for Rama to break (Bala Kanda, sarg 66), signifies the onset of puberty. Yet, if we are to take this literally, we have to ask what happened to this strong woman after marriage that she let herself be abducted by Ravana without a fight.”
― Namita Gokhale, In Search Of Sita: Revisiting Mythology

“Rama looks on as Lakshmana disfigures Surpanakha but then, he is maryada purushottam. The ideal man allows other women to be disfigured and, constantly suspicious of her chastity, neglects his own wife!”
― Namita Gokhale, In Search Of Sita: Revisiting Mythology

“Then why do I picture her weeping? When and why did she become a figure of weakness rather than strength? Sita, in our prevalent idiom, is weak, oppressed, a natural victim. Considering that Sri Rama’s wife—Vaidehi, Sita, Ramaa, call her what you will—is the primary archetype for all Indian women, a role model pushed and perpetuated by a predominantly patriarchal society, it is no wonder that she is someone the modern emancipated consciousness prefers to banish into yet another exile.”
― Namita Gokhale, In Search Of Sita: Revisiting Mythology

“Subscribing to the gender stereotype of the day, Gandhi declared, ‘I do not believe in women working for a living or undertaking commercial enterprises.’ Using graphic imagery he declared, ‘in trying to ride the horse that man rides she brings herself and him down . . .’6 Gandhi’s attempt to channelize women’s participation in the movement along a prescribed course was appreciated by most men who saw no threat to their own interests.”
― Namita Gokhale, In Search Of Sita: Revisiting Mythology