Sita to Padmini: How women's roles helped romanticise our history

What if all we believe about ourselves is nothing but an elaborate hoax?

What if our memories are really not as long as we would like to believe? And what if our understanding of the spoken and written word changes every 100 years? It could well be true as current circumstances determine perception.

Take for instance the one of the oldest stories of India - the Ramayana.

In a nutshell: the handsome prince Rama is victorious over the demon king Ravana. The theme is an old one: good triumphs over evil.

Also read - What Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsa tells you that Valmiki’s Ramayana doesn't

The ostensible triggers for the war were the humiliation of Ravana's sister Shurpanakha - the lustful woman, followed by the abduction of Sita.

Parallels can be drawn with the Iliad but unlike Helen, Sita was the embodiment of chastity.

Only too often have women been used as scapegoats to justify senseless testosterone-driven rage.

Remove the women from the scenario and examine the facts. Facts that are glossed over all too often.

The story becomes one of a Kshatriya from north India vanquishing a successful Brahmin king from the south. It now becomes an issue of preserving job security.

Shurpanakha, Sita and even Kaikai and Manthara serve as mere embellishments in what would otherwise have been a drab tale.

Kshatriya; no one bats an eyelid. But Brahmin, you say? Ravana was a Brahmin and not a demon? Clues have been left behind despite repeated retellings and sanitisation required by the changing perceptions of the centuries.

As Rama grew into his divinity, Ravana was required to be demonised. There was nothing stopping a Brahmin from going rogue. It was acceptable. Ravana's caste status was the last to go given the requirements of the new era that dawned with the coming of the 1800s.

The oldest version of the Ramayana, that is the one written by Valmiki, has been translated, reinterpreted and re-edited the most - especially in the last 200 years. And yet, even translations into English continue to have secret clues.

Hanuman reaches Lanka and spots Sita. Now begins his quandary. How would he approach Sita without frightening her? But if I speak Sanskrit like a Brahmin, Sita will be terribly frightened. She will think that I am Ravana.¹

More forthcoming are the ancient regional versions of Valmiki's Ramayana for they are cocooned with the security of the vernacular, and therefore less prone to deviations found in English translations and abridged editions.

Also read - How Indians solved the great shoe question of the British Raj

In Kamban Ramavataram of Tamil Nadu written in the 11th-12th century AD, Rama addresses Shurpanakha: "The Shastras do such unions condemn as thou desirest: for thou com'st of Brahman stock, and I am Kshatriya born."²

The temple of Rameshwaram is said to mark the site where Rama, the Vishnu incarnate, worshipped Shiva to atone for the crime of Brahma-hatya - the killing of a Brahmin.

The Bengali Krittivasi Ramayana - dated to the early 15th century - documents the worship of the mother goddess, the consort of Ravana's patron god Shiva. She, who is worshipped in spring time, was in for a rude awakening.

The untimely invoking of the goddess has become a tradition among Bengalis and Rama's special offering of a 108 lotuses preserved for posterity.

More intriguing is a little known nugget that goes with it. The Kshatriya prince needed a Brahmin to perform the puja on his behalf. The only one who was qualified was Ravana! Unable to refuse what was for him a sacred duty, Ravana sealed his own fate. Job security once again!

The plot is reused to tell the story of the first saka of Chittorgarh. Sultan Alauddin Khilji, who obsessed with possessing the beautiful Padmini, queen of Chittorgarh, declared himself a brother and came to visit.

The gullible Rajputs not only let him in but also permitted him a glimpse of their queen through an arrangement of mirrors. The rest is history. Chittorgarh was unable to withstand the Islamic attack.

A jauhar took place in which the women and children, led by Padmini, immolated themselves. The defenders of Chittor ate their last beeda together and then dressed in saffron, opened the gates and rushed headlong into the last battle of their lives.

Padmini's palace, the mirrors and the lake that reflected her beauty continue to delight the tourist.

It is a story that draws many parallels with the Ramayana and not surprisingly so for the royal family claims descent from Rama.

Also read - Could women in ancient India really choose their grooms?

A study of history, however, finds no evidence to validate this tale.

The birth and death records of Chittorgarh document no queen or princess who answered to the name of Padmini and lived around the period of Alauddin Khilji. But it is true that the sultan took possession of the celebrated fort and that a great saka and jauhar marked the event.

It was the fourth Rajput fort to fall, Jaisalmer being the first in 1294 AD, Ranthambore in 1301, Asirgarh in 1302 and Chittorgarh in 1303. The sultan was securing the trade route by which caravan loads of goods made their way to the ports of Surat and headed out for sale in the international markets. The Rajputs who conducted lightening raids and disappeared back into the security of their hilltop forts needed to be curbed.³

Not even a vague murmur of romance. History remains as dry as a bone chewed many times over.

Padmini, like Sita, was a creation of the bards striving to soften the blow for the generations to come.

Like the characters in the movie Matrix, modern Indians have had their memories, beliefs and logic tampered with.

And they have always succeeded in making peace with the perceived reality, which changes ever so often.

In the end, it is all maya.

References:

1. Sattar A, The Ramayana, Valmiki, Penguin Books India, 1996

2. Aiyer VVS, Kamba Ramayanam: A Study with Translations in Verse or Poetic Prose of over Four Thousand of the Original Poems, Delhi Tamil Sangam, New Delhi, 1950

3. Bhattacharya M, The Royal Rajputs: Strange Tales Sranger Truths, Rupa & Co, New Delhi, 2008