We need to tell the Hindu generation of the present day that there are indeed various versions and folk renderings of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and - while not all have the same quality - they all show the way India has absorbed the epics into its very being as a nation. However, present the story as ‘Sita, daughter of Ravana’ and you have your shock value and an audience enthralled. It is a folk rendering where the Indian mind does not want to make anyone a villain and attributes a noble motive even to Ravana.
So he abducted Sita because he did not want his daughter to suffer in the forest and also to see if his son-in-law would cross all barriers and fight the battle. Like all father-in-laws, he was also doubtful if Rama was really worthy of his daughter. So, with a heavy heart, Ravana arranged for Sita to be put in a golden basket, which would eventually reach the hand of Janaka. In this version, Sita was Ravana’s daughter but a divine voice proclaimed during her birth that she would be the cause of Lanka’s destruction. Unfortunately, I could not join that derisive laughter because I was familiar with this version and this was indeed popular in South India. So informs one of the stories of this book,” the speaker told the audience and the audience burst into laughter. One of the speakers whom I will not name, was speaking against a particular book introduced in an undergraduate course.Īs the speaker listed the ‘errors’ in the book, one of the ‘errors’ caught my attention. A few years back I attended a Hindutva conference.