Sambodhi 2010 Vol 33

Author(s): J B Shah, K M patel
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 12

Satya Vrat Varma
SAMBODHI
plea to return to Ayodhyā to end his tribulations21. "She would have no truck with a woman-killer", she howled22. It would be wiser and safer for her, she added, to perish in wilderness than to stay with a petty-minded, jealous man who could question her chastity on so fragile a pretext as a portrait that she had been tricked to draw unsuspectedly23. She taunts him to enjoy the comforts in his mansion, leaving her to suffer the fate to which she had become accustomed after undergoing agony for ten long years23a. Otherwise also, she bitingly remarked, she was for him as good as dead.
Her caustic tongue did not stop there. She became all the more aggressive. She not only rejected Rāma's subsequent plea, conveyed through the two sons, to bury the past, she was unmoved by his threat to end of his life in case she refused to return. She proclaims her resolve to visit Ayodhyā only for his last 'darśanal24. She had all the reason to fly into a frenzy. On discovering that she had been cheated by her husband by the fake news of his death, she vehemently reproached him with choicest of epithets. She denounced him in biting terms for his despicable action and declared her determination not to give credence to him under any circumstances. She had lost faith in Rāma to the extent that Lord Sankara had to exert hard to bring about rapprochement between the two. It was not before Isvara had Rāma guilty on several counts, and she herself had reviled him for his ficklemindedness and unjust behaviour to her that she agreed to terminate the estrangement26. It is indeed surprising that she could lead a smooth life with her 'dear' husband thereafter, free from rancour.
Sītā, not unlike Rāma, suffers from infirmities of the worst type. She has shed her idealism that accorded her the most enviable status in the Indian tradition. She has an unmistakable imprint of a highly modernized woman. She is different from the common rut of women. She has been divested of all that made her great. HANUMĀN
Though an ancillary character, Hanumān is the most colourful figure. He is the driving force behind all that transpired in the Thai epic, represented by the RKM. But for him, it would sink into a stale exercise, shorn of vibrance and action. The various layers of his character unfold themselves so forcefully that he may justly be rated as a strong contender for the highest position. Though he retains some of his indigenous characteristics, he is essentially the product of the land of his adoption. Peer of wind in velocity and impetuosity, he is vāyuputra, Māruti. He