IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT
THIS RETELLING OF RAMAYANA IS A POWERFUL TALE OF DUTY, BETRAYAL, INFIDELITY AND HONOUR FROM A WOMAN’S PERSPECTIVE
Years ago, after publishing The Palace of Illusions — Draupadi’s version of the Mahabharata, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was asked about her next work. Usually, most writers don’t have a definitive answer or idea about what they are penning next but Chitra already had her novel idea in place— Ramayana from Sita’s perspective. “Sita has always fascinated me. Even as a girl, I felt there was more to her story than what I was told by my elders. In The Forest of Enchantments, I’ve tried to show what I believe were her real motives for her actions: they arise not only from her being a devoted wife but a courageous heroine who refuses to give in to external pressures,” says the author adding that a book must “live, breathe and be complicated, like life, and so must its protagonists”. “I have tried my best to be honest in presenting what I consider the essence of both Sita and Draupadi. They are complex characters and do things for complex reasons. I want my women readers to understand and relate to them. I want my male readers to do the same too, because it is my great belief and hope that literature enables us to empathise across boundaries of time and gender.”
The book, says the author, is also one of the most challenging among her works. “Because I was trying to correct so many years of patriarchal misunderstanding that saw — and admired her — as meek and long- suffering when in truth Sita is so dynamic and resilient,” she says. In the book, the often- misunderstood heroine of this epic goes on to narrate the events— right from the time she laid her eyes on her future husband till the day she was sucked into the womb of the earth. But Chitra doesn’t alter or change the story that’s in the collective memory. “Each writer is different when re- telling an epic. Some change the story and the world of the epic to a great extent. For me, it’s very important to stay close to the events of the original,” says the author adding that in the case of the Ramayana, however, there are several important older texts that vary from each other but that are equally respected. “So I drew parts from Valmiki, Krittibas, the Adbhuta Ramayan and Chandravati. But I didn’t
invent any of the major events. What I create are the thoughts, motives and emotions of Sita which were left untold in the original texts, so that in my novel, we get a sense of why she does certain things and how she feels, loves, suffers or triumphs,” she adds.
The Forest of Enchantments is also a very human story of some of the other women in the epic who have been often misunderstood and relegated to the margins: Ram’s stepmother Kaikeyi, Ravan’s Surpanakha and wife Mandodari. While Sita is central to the book, it explores how she responds to other women in the epic — such as Kaikeyi and Sarama and even Trijatha, the rakshashi chief of guards. While the Ramayana resonates even today, Chitra makes it more relevant than ever, in the underlying questions in the novel: How should women be treated by their loved ones? What are their rights in a relationship? When does a woman need to stand up and say, ‘ Enough! To this Chitra says, “I was struck, over and over, by Sita’s courage. She chose to go and live in the forest with Ram because she loved him. She spent a year in Lanka in captivity without giving in to all the pressure Ravan put on her. In fact, her strength of character made him respect her. Towards the end of the Ramayana, when she was pregnant, she was abandoned in the forest without even knowing ahead of time that she was being banished, or why. All this happened to her for no fault of her own— and yet she pulled herself together and found the inner strength to bring up her two boys beautifully on her own. And finally, when Ram ( whom she still loved) asked for a second trial by fire, she refused— because it wasn’t right of him to ask for that. She gave up her chance of being a queen, a beloved wife, and most of all, a happy mother, for the sake of her principles. Courage like that is something we can all applaud.”
I’ve tried to show what I believe were her real motives for her actions: they arise not only from her being a devoted wife but a courageous heroine