Sita is vindicated and Rama and she return triumphantly to the kingdom which Rama’s noble brother had kept in custody for him. The demon is defeated but Rama asks his wife to undergo a public trial by fire to prove her chastity since she had been kept by another man for such a long time.
After Sita has been located, a massive battle ensues. Rama sets up an alliance with a monkey king who commands millions and millions of gigantic monkey warriors to help him defeat the demon. One such demon, Ravana, the mightiest of them all, abducts Sita, leaving Rama bereft and grieving but determined to recover his wife and defeat the creature who has now become his sworn enemy. As they travel deeper and deeper into the woods, Rama visits the settlements of many sages and their companions even as he encounters and defeats terrifying demons. Rama obeys his step-mother, renounces the kingdom and retreats into the forest with his wife Sita and his devoted younger brother Laksmana. Sadly, his step-mother Kaikeyi intervenes to make her son king and have Rama exiled into the forest for fourteen years. The story of the Ramayana, a story of trial and tribulation, of the subtlety of right and wrong, love and loss, runs as follows: Rama is the beloved eldest son of a good and wise king, the heir apparent. Many of these retellings (in all the media mentioned) have been prompted by those aspects of the text that have made the tradition uncomfortable, for example, the times when Rama, the hero (who is later acknowledged as an incarnation of the great god Vishnu), acts unrighteously and appears to violate dharma which each individual needs to work out for him/herself. Through these multiple re-tellings, it is the central idea of dharma (the Hindu code of conduct also defined as the ‘right’ and the ‘good’) that is explored and worked out since there is no categorical imperative for human morality. It is these refractions and reflections that seep into the popular imagination and into popular culture – Valmiki’s Ramayana, however, remains somewhat shrouded, seen and understood through the lenses and veils of those who are intimate with the Sanskrit epic.
In fact, the Ramayana provides the metaphors through which Indians understand themselves, an alternative language which explores how we choose to live in the world.Īn indigenous tradition of interpretation and explanation, of developing the nuances and meanings of the Ramayana through reflection, commentary and opposition is as old as the text itself. The Ramayana and all its versions and retellings have been at the heart of Hindu culture for more than two thousand years – in literature, performance, painting and sculpture.
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