Following the ‘Ram- Scion of Ikshvaku’ book in the Ramchandra series by Amish (review at bottom of the post) is ‘Sita- The Warrior of Mithila’. Now this one offers a fully novel image of Sita. Amish attempts a retelling of the Ramayana in a manner that perhaps no one has imagined before – that the Vishnu incarnate is not Ram, but Sita. Moreover, ‘Vishnu’ is not exactly born into the world in Amish’s world; but ascended to. The Vayuputras and Malayaputras (a carry-over from his Immortals of Meluha series) are the two tribes finding the ‘next Vishnu’ who will be conferred the mission of saving the country and restoring order. And two leaders from both tribes appoint Ram and Sita, simultaneously but not in coordination.
Ram and Sita, however, meet, marry each other, fall in love and eventually team up for the mission. In the first book, Amish establishes Ram as that painfully idealistic man who believes in the masculine order of the world and adheres by the law to pin-point precision. You would expect Sita to be on the other end of the spectrum for the flavour of the narrative; but she is apparently on the same side with a few tweaks in the approaches to the ways of the world. They form a strong team, and the love story of Ram and Sita that we know from the original Ramayana is kept intact. What’s completely different is the identity of Sita herself, as the title itself calls her “the warrior of Mithila”.
She’s raised by her adoptive mother Sunaina, a strong woman herself who had to be the pillar of Mithila while her husband, Janak, drowned himself in spiritual pursuit. Sita grew up with a fiery spirit that enabled her to make difficult decisions and stand tall against the consequences. As the Prime Minister of Mithila after her mother passed away, Sita transforms her kingdom and makes it a model town despite the hardships of governing a diverse population. And a fierce warrior she was, trained in combat, tall, muscular and scarred.
Certainly not the delicately beautiful, feminine Sita we have known from the original Ramayana. I liked the way Amish pictured her but I couldn’t help but notice how he has fit her into a prototype even after deflecting from her original image so much. I’ve made a social media post about this particular element of the book and will write a detailed post soon.
In all, though the Ramayana series has not picked up for me yet, I will say that the second book was slightly more interesting and impressive than first. There wasn’t much innovation in Ram, but Amish’s signature is more evident in ‘Sita’. I have Raavan and the War of Lanka (3rd and 4th books in series respectively) lined up but I guess I will take a small break from the series for now and wander into a different realm. I’ll come back to this post when I pick it back up.
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