As the temple at Ayodhya solidifies the image of Lord Ram in our attempt to crystallise civilisational glory, one wonders whether women of the Ramayana will ever have their own stories to tell or shrines edifying them. Although their relevance is scattered across various versions of the Ramayana, Sita, Kaikeyi and Mandodari exist in the shadow lines of their husbands — Ram, Dasharath and Ravan — flickering between myth-making and historicity, finally settling into a metaphor. Yet they are the moral compass and a quiet counterfoil to the hypermasculinity of the epic, and, therefore, relevant to discussion.

These women have been etched variously in regional versions of the Ramayana, clearly reflecting the societal context of their origins. Parts of India, where the sacred feminine dominates, have reserved a more robust role for them in retelling the epic. Perhaps, it is this fluidity of interpretation that has layered their persona and made them more dynamic, complex and ever-evolving. That’s why Sita is the Prakriti to the Purush and to understand her, one must go back to the story of her origins, something which is glossed over in popular narratives. Born of the earth, she became a symbol of fertility and continuity in an agricultural........

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