The women who directed ‘Ramayana’

I have known the stories of Ramayana from my early childhood and they have stayed with me ever since. But when I took to reading Adhyatma Ramayanam much later, I was fascinated by the beauty of its language. The concept of words and their usage are unique. Its beauty as a literary text has always attracted me.   

And after reading Adhyatma Ramayanam all these years, and delving on it, I feel that Ramayana gives a new meaning and a new interpretation for its text every time. When I approach it as a literary text alone, and as a classic, I find that it answers many questions on how the gender values of our society were evolved and firmed up through the generations.

Like others, I, too, read it as the journey of Rama, but I feel it is also about the journey of a man to his ultimate masculinity or the status of ‘Maryada pushothaman’ by answering and overpowering the challenges posed by femininity all the way.

But for the women characters, is there a ‘story’ in Ramayana?  And I also take notice of how women are portrayed in it. Is it accidental that the first major enemy killed by Rama is Thadaka, a woman?  She is described as kaamaroopiniyaaya Thadaka bhayankari by Ezhuthachan.

Rama’s first task as a God was to give moksha to Ahalya, who had to pay a heavy price for her love for someone other than her husband. See the roles of Kaikeyi , Sita and Shoorppanakha, too. Kaikeyi is held responsible for sending him off to the forest. The story of Soorpanakha is particularly interesting.

Rama, benevolence incarnate, punishes her for expressing her desire for him. Though he was the perpetrator, he is portrayed as the victim.  It was Sita who had to pay for his adventurism and again it was Sita who had to pay for the restoration of his ‘honour’ too!

If you look at Ramayana not as a religious text, but as a record of human emotions, it portrays Rama being haunted by women with their love, lust, devotion or veneration. Looking at him as a reader, shorn off halos, he appears to me as one who barely manages to answer those challenges upholding human dignity.

(K R Meera is a noted writer. As told to K J Jacob)