Ramayana Analysis

Sita is iconic as the ideal wife, her character is so fixed into the hearts of the people that she become a monument for the ages to come, mainly because woman are the main basis on which the various concepts of the society like the truth, compassion, tolerance, virtueous and many others. Valmiki in his text Ramayana does an amazing work by bringing in women characters from all sections of the society. There is on the one hand, the wifehood and the generous motherhood of Kausalya, on the other hand, the dominating wifehood of Kaikeyi who is proud of her beauty and motherhood. There’s a tender feeling of dedication of Sita and Kshatriya quality of Sumitra, Manthara who is motivated by selfishness and Sabari engaged in Self-upliftment, this diversity makes it easier for the people till today to connect and identify themselves with the test. Also, it’s important to note that all these characters posses unmoved faith, their own righteousness, their firmness and endurance and mark their way for individualism that makes the text of Ramayana more compelling than any other stories.

As we have seen, Sita's character is the most idealized character in the Ramayana. She is tolerant and forgiving to her husband’s orders yet at the same time does not compromise her individualism in his actions an instance would be when Lakshman decided to stay with Sita than to search for Rama, who was on the hunt for the golden deer, Sita persuades him by accusing him. When she found any harm to her self-esteem she decided to rather sink into her mother than to accept her husband's humiliation again. And so one character that is normally considered as a foil to Sita is the Surpanakha, Paula Richman explains their characterization as,

“Sita and Surpanakha e...

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...ty of this “other” group, also this identity of the “other” group keeps altering based on the society and the readers. In other words, the demonization of the “other” is altered based on the audience of the study. For example, Traditionally in the Ramayana, all humans are fair-skinned, except for blue-skinned, divine Rama. All men are handsome and well muscled; all women are fair- skinned, voluptuous, and have flowing hair. Even Hanuman and other animal allies of Rama are human-like whereas the rakshasas – the “others” were depicted as dark-skinned, stocky, and grotesque. The men have potbellies and pointy moustaches. Only ten-headed Ravana and his brother Vibhishana, both commonly regarded as heroes, are drawn with well-muscled, fair-skinned bodies.The women rakshasis are also dark- skinned and stocky, with sagging breasts, fangs, and exaggerated noses and lips.