Author- Volga (Popuri Lalitha Kumari)
Publisher- Harper Collins India
Format- Paperback
M.R.P- 199
No. of pages- 132
Our childhood mythologies include the very famous Valmiki’s Ramayana, the fourteen years of exile & return to Ayodhya of Lord Rama, his wife Sita and younger brother Laxmana, from which we are taught about moral values and ethics.
But how do we all remember Sita?
As Purushottam Rama’s wife?
Or
As Janaka’s daughter?
This is because father’s pride before a wedding becomes husband’s pride after the one. A woman is believed to carry her man’s name.
The Liberation of Sita as the name only suggests is the self realisation story of Sita as the daughter of Earth goddess after she was abandoned by Lord Rama. During this arduous journey she meets other extraordinary women like Surpanakha, Renuka, Urmila and Ahalya who have broken free from all that held them back: husbands, sons and their notions of desires, beauty and chastity. While Rama on the other hand too must reconsider and weigh out his role as a King and as a man deeply in love with his wife. It is reliving the epic Ramayana through Sita’s eyes.
Sita raises her two sons by herself living in an ashram where she loves peace, beauty and wildness of the deep forest, a contrast to her splendid capital stays of the past. In the beginning she is full of pain and confusion but meeting one woman after another, listening about their paths, she questions Rama and his dharma, her own identity, complex nature of fidelity. By the end she is sure about herself. Her actual origin, values, and her need for no one, not even her husband. This novel is one of the feminist best by Volga.
Somehow the story still depicts how our society doubts a woman but not a man. A man is still the dominant soul and his wife should always do according to his wishes. This book is a must read lesson to all women out there to know about and realise their own-selves.
From the book-
“I am the daughter of Earth, Rama. I have realised who I am. The whole universe belongs to me. I don’t lack anything. I am the daughter of Earth.
Rama was left speechless by these solemn words.
Devoid of Sita’s support, Rama tasted defeat for the first time in his life. By refusing to bow down to external authority, Sita had fully experienced, for the first time, the inner power of self-authority."(41)
Rating- 4.2/5
Happy reading friends!
-©Auldrin❤
No comments:
Post a Comment