The hidden form of Sita in Amish Tripathi's Sita: Warrior of Mithila | An Abstract | English Literature

                   The hidden form of Sita in Amish Tripathi's  Sita: Warrior of Mithila

Feminism, Mythology

Abstract : from the ancient India we are seeing that Hindu mythology is one of the oldest and most diverse in the whole world. Hindu mythology is filled with stories of  Gods and Goddesses, demons and sage, philosophies of Veda and so on. Rich in moral lessons,  spiritual insights, and the true meaning of karma. These narratives are preserved in epic texts like the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and the puranas , shaping the cultural and spiritual ethos of India. In most of the Hindu mythology, we have seen the male figure is the savior, like we see in the famous epic Ramayana, Lord Ram is the savior from the evil. Sita, wife of lord Ram, is one of the most influential and famous character in Hindu mythology. Sita has always been regarded as 'Adarsh Bhartiya Nari'. she is shown as the epitome of kindness, gentleness, softness and weak who is always protected by her husband. This paper aims to give a reinterpretation of Sita through  Amish Tripathi's book Sita: Warrior of Mithila (2017) where Sita is not just an obedient and humble wife; she is a warrior. Amish Tripathi  an Indian author whose main topic is the Indian mythology and its heroic characters, portrayed Sita in a completely different outlook. we see this Sita in his 2nd part of the Ram Chandra Series. In Hindu mythology stories or epics, we have always seen women as meek-mild, kind, and mute. But never questioned why they are always like that or are they really like that what we have heard of. Expect the character Draupadi, almost the portrayal of every woman is the same. We have seen males are always in the spotlight. it also displays the ongoing rule of patriarchy in our Indian society. and through this male domination we encounter with some crucial issues which we can see in today's India. the most significant issue is gender inequality which mostly creates the other issues. But Amish Tripathi  changed the scenario. His book Sita: Warrior of Mithila gives Sita the spotlight. It talks about  her birth to how she married Ram and the later events. It is quite similar to Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The palace of illusions where Mahabharata is told from Draupadi's perspective. But Tripathi reminded, "One point to be noted is that it is not Ramayana from Sita’s perspective ... It is, instead, the story of Sita, where Ram comes ... in the last part of the book,” . through this book Amish Tripathi has broken the old concept of writing and gave us a warrior Sita instead of a submissive one, who is ready to protect India. this paper will try to extract the essence that our scriptures basically tell us, the purpose is to catch up on the lessons and inspirations from the heroic figures and their lives rather than worrying about a single truth. this abstract is an informative one in unstructured manner.

keywords : Indian Feminism, Empowerment, Re-telling, Molding, Fiction

Image of Amish Tripathi ( Google Source )