The Ramayana
World Civilization 101 May 13, 2011 The Ramayana deals with many cultural values reflective of the author and his community. ________________________________________ In a five to seven page paper discuss the underlying values you see. What might be said about the intersection of religion and political rule? What can be said about gender relations and role models for husbands and wives? Is the end of the story reality based? Ater reading the Ramayana I noticed the theme was loyalty. It would seem loyalty to Dharma (duty) at any measure. The problem is that loyalty here is expressed as black and white.
No grey areas that would encourage a change in position. No attribute from an imperfect person can be considered truly one way. Loyalties can change. Rama had unmatched loyalty to his parents and his homeland of Ayodhya. At one point Rama even treated his loyalty to Sita as black and white. There was no other woman for him. This was his choice. In ancient India, a loyal and devoted son was the height of attraction to women – even if the loyalty was not geared toward the woman. Rama showed unwavering loyalty to his homeland never giving a second thought to a grey area or even question if the thing he was loyal to was correct.
In the final chapters a dhobi (launderer) began to slander Sita’s name, it was Sita who was banished. Why? Dhobi law condoned wife beating if she took shelter in another man’s home, regardless if she was unfaithful or not. Rama showed loyalty to dhobi rights and immediately took action – against Sita and not the slanderer, thus proving Rama’s disloyalty to Sita. The story gives indication that Rama knew that Sita was never unfaithful to him but his desire to be the epitome of dutiful, forced him to choose between loyalty to Ayodhya or to Sita when in fact no choice needed to be made.
Regarding the intersection of religion and political rule, the Ramayana has expressed that one cannot do without the other. The fact that Rama was the incarnate of Vishnu expresses that politics on earth is being governed by higher powers – deities. According to the Ramayana, the whole point of Rama’s existence was to remove the evil Ravana from his place of rule. Something the deities decided must take place. The loyalty the King would show is to the law of the land that had been approved by the dieties. The Dharma of the king was to uphold the political law based on religious moral standards and to represent these standards in his own life.
This is evident after Rama rescues Sita. Although he had no reason to believe she was no longer worthy of his hand, he rejected her because of how it looked to others. Here is an example of intersection of religion and political rule. Rama’s acts were in line with preserving the king’s right to rule in a public forum and Sita’s response was completely religious. Saddened by his rejection, Sita offered to commit suicide to prove her virtue by walking through fire. This was accepted and all onlookers witnessed that Sita was preserved alive as proof that she remained a dutiful loyal wife.
After this proof Rama and Sita resumed their life as husband and wife and began their reign as King and Queen. Time passes and Sita becomes pregnant with twins. The intersection occurrs again when a dhobi questioned Sita’s virtue as was mentioned earlier. Sita was again being slandered for the same crime. Political law demanded that dhobi rights be upheld by responding to the inquiry of Sita and Rama chose to banish her during the cover of night leaving her for dead instead of talking to her and hearing her side. Gender relations have been a heated topic for discussion since the beginning of history.
There has always been a looming question of who is owed honor, who deserves it. It is interesting that Rama is considered to be the one that is long suffering and must carry on as a martyr with a heartbreaking destiny when it is clear that Sita’s suffering far surpassed Rama’s. According to the Ramayana, the weaker vessel was born to suffer in silence. Who in this story is the weaker vessel? It would seem that both Rama and Sita share this position as a weak vessel. This epic story puts Rama in the position of martyr on many occasions including the end when he is not able to get Sita back from mother Earth.
In ancient India, the motherland holds the same status as parents, an unparalleled devotion. Rama has this. His devotion to his parents and motherland are extreme. To the point of him rejecting the love of his life for it and following his dharma, he never questions if it is the right thing to do. His weakness was shown when Rama did not show courage to support his wife. His rejection of Sita may have been the right thing to do in order to fulfill his duty, but what about the way he did it? On two occasions Rama rejected Sita for the same supposed crime of being unchaste essentially rehashing old issues because of heresay.
In the end Sita is tired of the playing a yo-yo game with her life and would rather die than continue being falsely persecuted and chooses to die. Rama is looked again as the martyr wh o has now been rejected by Sita. Here Sita is a weak vessel because she could no longer endure the punishment she was positive was happening because of something she did in a past life. Never blaming Rama only expressing heartbreak. As with any marriage, the issue of gender relations and role models can be seen from two sides.
The story follows the life of Rama as the dutiful main character and the interactions with key characters who play a major role in helping him to fulfill his commission. To look at it from the perspective of Rama, he is the ideal son, the ideal husband? Not so much. Ancient Indian history gives the impression that a woman’s place is to show weakness even if her weakness is just a facade. This was expressed when Hanuman offered to rescue Sita from Ravana’s garden and she refused because she knew that it should be her husband that frees her from this bondage and not virtuous for a woman to assert her power.
Ravana keeps her for a year. There are two ways to look at this. Some view this response as blind ignorance. Refusal to use her own intellect to free herself rather than stand on her own two feet is ridiculous. Many view Sita as patient with quiet strength and power, recognizing the need to extend some of her power and all of her dignity to her husband even if that means waiting as long as she did; of the incarnation of Lakshmi. What is the view of a woman in love? At this point in their marriage, Rama had been a dutiful husband.
He (from what we read) had never given Sita a reason to believe he would not handle his business as a husband to keep her safe, after all, they were living in the forest filled with demons and other threats and managed to keep her safe. It was implied that the years spent in the forest together were happy times. Sita’s refusal to be rescued could have been her devotion to Rama and faith in his abilities. She risked her life to give him the honor of rescuing her from her oppressors and preserve his dignity as a man; a woman in love endures great pain to preserve the dignity of her mate.
This can be likened to modern times where although the woman in the relationship brings significantly more money to the household than her mate, she works tirelessly to preserve his dignity by reminding him that he is the head of the household. There is no doubt that Sita was a loving and devoted wife to Rama. She proved that in all her activities. However, if love is not returned in kind, it cools off. Rama was cruel in rejecting her after rescuing her from Ravana. His accusations were painful and the delivery made all onlookers sad by such behavior.
Sita gave him her dignity and with what she had left, he dragged through the mud. If he would reject her, why did he bother to rescue her at all? Some interpretations of this defends Rama’s behavior by understanding that, fulfilling his duty as a public servant was more important than fulfilling his duty as a husband. He saw the weakness of his father’s kingship in that he succumbed to the wishes of his second wife that led to Rama’s banishment. His desire not to follow in his father’s faulty footsteps is what caused such a hardhearted view.
Again it is believed that this is the long suffering that Rama had to endure; to love Sita, reject her for love of country and to live out his days in loneliness. If Rama was so devoted to his beloved wife, why did he hurt her so many times? Not just small hurtful comments but big grand gestures that say ‘I hate you’. Kidnapped because of Rama’s arrogant behavior, Sita patiently waited for her love to rescue her and when he did, he vehemently rejected her. In front of onlookers, he insists that she prove herself when it was really he that failed her.
Tried twice for the same crime, by her great love for not being virtuous, left for dead in the woods while pregnant with twins! If it was not for the kindness of a stranger, Sita and her unborn children would have surely perished in the forest. At the same time, Rama suffers through loneliness for her companionship and has a golden statue of Sita made so he would never be truly alone. Time passes and when word returned to him that Sita and the boys were doing well, he summoned her and told her that if she could give him a sign that she was virtuous, he would restore her position.
Fed up with slander, rejection and the uncertainty of whether his rejection would happen again, Sita decides that she would rather be dead than continue with this ordeal. Sita begs mother Earth to be put out of her misery thus rejecting Rama before he does it to her again. To me this story tells me that there are no real model husbands or wives. The Ramayana reminds us all that we as humans are imperfect, and the business of love is never easy. Rama and Sita both displayed honorable characteristics, but this did not stop them from making decisions contrary to their own well being. Martyrdom permeates through the entire story.
Rama was martyred as the long suffering son, and lonely husband to accomplish his duty, forsaking the love and support that gave him the strength to fulfill his commission as a public servant. Sita is martyred as a devoted wife who would follow her husband to the ends of the earth and when they got there, he threw her off. The view of women in ancient India may have included the overall view of the motherland where women have their place, last place. The writer of the Ramayana seems to assert the point that no matter what decisions or path we take, every individual will suffer, including those directly linked to divinity.
Suffering is a part of life. We can ask is the story steeped in mysticism reality based. Unfortunately in these perilous times, it is quite realistic. As an example, consider this example: A young man and woman marry and expect to live in blissful happiness. The husband provides for the family, economically and when he returns home from a hard day of work, he abuses his wife mentally and physically and it follows with apologies and expressions of love. The wife makes repeated excuses for his behavior and even wonders what she might have done to deserve such action on her.
As time passes his reprehensible behavior takes a toll on his wife and she reaches a point where cannot go on suffering, so she commits suicide. When the husband is left alone, he drowns in guilt because he never appreciated her and realizes that she would rather live without him than continue suffering. The Ramayana raises the issue and demands examination of human imperfection and the decisions made based on duty. In order to do this we as humans must be able to define duty and when fulfilling the duty is right or wrong.
