Download or read book Sita written by Devdutt Pattanaik and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-10-20 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is significant that the only character in Hindu mythology, a king at that, to be given the title of ekam-patni-vrata, devoted to a single wife, is associated with the most unjust act of abandoning her in the forest to protect family reputation. This seems a deliberate souring of the narrative, made even more complex by Ram’s refusal to remarry despite the pressure on royalty to produce an heir. The intention seems to be to provoke thought on notions of fidelity, property and self-image. And so mythologist and illustrator Devdutt Pattanaik narrates the Ramayan, drawing attention to the many oral, visual and written retellings composed in different times by different poets, each one trying to solve the puzzle in their own unique way. This book approaches Ram by speculating on Sita—her childhood with her father, Janak, who hosted sages mentioned in the Upanishads; her stay in the forest with her husband who had to be a celibate ascetic while she was in the prime of her youth; her interactions with the women of Lanka, recipes she exchanged, emotions they shared; her connection with the earth, her mother; her role as the Goddess, the untamed Kali as well as the demure Gauri, in transforming the stoic prince of Ayodhya into God.

Download or read book Sita s Ramayana written by Samhita Arni and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ramayana is an epic poem by the Hindu sage Valmiki, written in ancient Sanskrit sometime after 300 BC. It is an allegorical story that contains important Hindu teachings, and it has had great influence on Indian life and culture over the centuries. Children are often encouraged to emulate the virtues of the two main characters -- Rama and Sita. The Ramayana is frequently performed as theater or dance, and two Indian festivals -- Dussehra and Divali -- celebrate events in the story. This version of The Ramayana is told from the perspective of Sita, the queen. After she, her husband Rama and his brother are exiled from their kingdom, Sita is captured by the proud and arrogant king Ravana and imprisoned in a garden across the ocean. Ravana never stops trying to convince Sita to be his wife, but she steadfastly refuses his advances. Eventually Rama comes to her rescue with the help of the monkey Hanuman and his army. But Rama feels he can't trust Sita again. He forces Sita to undergo an ordeal by fire to prove herself to be true and pure. She is shocked and in grief and anger does so. She emerges unscathed and they return home to their kingdom as king and queen. However, suspicion haunts their relationship, and Sita once more finds herself in the forest, but this time she is pregnant. She has twins and continues to live in the forest with them. The story is exciting and dramatic, with many turns of plot. Magic animals, snakes, divine gods, demons, sorcerers and a vast cast of characters all play a part in the fierce battles fought to win Sita back. And in the process the story explores ideas of right vs. wrong, compassion, loyalty, trust, honor and the terrible price of war.

Download or read book Sita written by Bhanumathi Narasimhan and published by Ebury Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sita by Bhanumathi-ji is deeply stirring and weaves an intricate tapestry of sensitivity with strength and wisdom as the story unfolds

Download or read book The Forest of Enchantments written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2019-01-07 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'One of the most strikingly lyrical voices writing about the lives of Indian women' -- Amitav Ghosh 'Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni turns the Ramayana around by telling it in the voice of Sita ... this inversion is a gift - it presents us a with a way to know an already well-known story better and to love an already beloved story more' -- Arshia Sattar 'This inspired evocation of the goddess Sita is an epic song of strength and solidarity told with joy and intensity. It brings to life the personalities and predicaments of the Ramayana' -- Namita Gokhale 'Among the many, many Ramayanas there are now even - thankfully - some "Sitayanas", but I know of none with the special magic that Chitra Divakaruni ... brings to the telling' -- Philip Lutgendorf 'Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Sita ... is an epitome of courage and self-respect, showing a path for all women. While weaving a familiar story, Chitra provides deep and surprising insights' -- Volga 'An incomparable storyteller' -- Denver Post 'Divakaruni's stories are irresistible' -- The New York Times Book Review 'Divakaruni's storytelling talents put her right up there with the best' -- Miami Herald 'In recasting the Ramayan as a love story Divakaruni accords Sita parity with Ram, revealing her innate strength. By giving primacy to her thoughts and feelings this also becomes the private tale of Shri and Shrimati Ramchandra Raghuvanshi, two wonderful people who loved each other but who broke up. To readers well-acquainted with that tragedy of modern times, the failed marriage, it will appeal. The ending, however, surpasses all expectations.' -- The Sunday Standard 'The success of both The Palace Of Illusions and The Forest Of Enchantments hinges acutely on the skill with which Divakaruni deploys the narratorial voice.' -- Mint 'The Forest of Enchantments is one of the simplest and most beautiful retellings of Sage Valmiki's epic.' -- Jetwings 'Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni does justice to the women of Ramayana ... The Forest of Enchantments is not just a retelling of a much-told epic, rather it is a book that tells it like it is - balanced and non-judgmental.' -- Huffpost 'A work ... of pluralities and possibilities ... This is the Sitayan we will give to our daughters, that they may imbibe Sita's strength, and even more proudly to our sons, who will learn how a woman is to be treated' -- The Wire 'Banerjee is markedly feminist ... Her spin on the most pivotal moment of Sita's life, the agnipariksha episode, is a moment of feminist brilliance. Her Sita answers all the questions we would have had when listening to the Ramayana while leaving us with plenty of food for thought.' -- The New Indian Express 'Divakaruni's retelling reminds her readers that the Ramayana, besides being a morality tale, is a love story at its heart' -- Huffpost 'Divakaruni and her women characters are a formidable pair' -- The Wire The Ramayana, one of the world's greatest epics, is also a tragic love story. In this brilliant retelling, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni places Sita at the centre of the novel: this is Sita's version. The Forest of Enchantments is also a very human story of some of the other women in the epic, often misunderstood and relegated to the margins: Kaikeyi, Surpanakha, Mandodari. A powerful comment on duty, betrayal, infidelity and honour, it is also about women's struggle to retain autonomy in a world that privileges men, as Chitra transforms an ancient story into a gripping, contemporary battle of wills. While the Ramayana resonates even today, she makes it more relevant than ever, in the underlying questions in the novel: How should women be treated by their loved ones? What are their rights in a relationship? When does a woman need to stand up and say, 'Enough!'

Download or read book The Liberation of Sita written by Volga and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 93 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Valmiki's Ramayana is the story of Rama's exile and return to Ayodhya, of a triumphant king who will always do right by his subjects. In Volga's retelling, it is Sita who, after being abandoned by Purushottam Rama, embarks on an arduous journey towards self-realization. Along the way, she meets extraordinary women who have broken free from all that held them back: husbands, sons, and their notions of desire, beauty and chastity. The minor women characters of the epic as we know it -- Surpanakha, Renuka, Urmila and Ahalya -- steer Sita towards an unexpected resolution. Meanwhile, Rama too must reconsider and weigh his roles as the king of Ayodhya and as a man deeply in love with his wife. A powerful subversion of India's most popular tale of morality, choice and sacrifice, The Liberation of Sita opens up new spaces within the old discourse, enabling women to review their lives and experiences afresh. This is Volga at her feminist best.

Download or read book Sita s Choice written by Athena Kashyap and published by Stephen F. Austin University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-20 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Athena Kashyap's newest collection, Sita's Choice, explores issues relating to women, especially in India. Taking off from Sita, the main female character in the Ramayana, explores her decision to leave her husband, Ram, and return to her mother, Earth. These mythical and magical poems examine the duality of nature, the sacrifices women make daily, and the deeper societal ills such as female foeticide, dowry deaths, violence against women, and the role of the media, "Ravan's hundred thousand eyes," in perpetuating this violence. The book also explores motherhood through poems that look at the mother-child bond, "the formless, uncharted shape of love," as well as the pain of childbirth, "It rises--multi-hued, magnificent."

Download or read book Before We Visit the Goddess written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A new novel from the author of Oleander Girl, a novel in stories, built around crucial moments in the lives of 3 generations of women in an Indian/Indian-American Family"--

Download or read book The Book of Ram written by Devdutt Pattanaik and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2015 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He Is Eka-Vachani, A King Who Always Keeps His Word; Eka-Bani, An Archer Who Strikes His Target With The First Arrow; And Eka-Patni, A Husband Who Is Eternally And Absolutely Devoted To A Single Wife. He Is Maryada Purushottam Ram, The Supreme Upholder Of Social Values, The Scion Of The Raghu Clan, Jewel Of The Solar Dynasty, The Seventh Avatar Of Vishnu, God Who Establishes Order In Worldly Life. Hindus Believe That In Stressful And Tumultuous Times Chanting Ram&Rsquo;S Name And Hearing His Tale, The Ramayan, Brings Stability, Hope, Peace And Prosperity. Reviled By Feminists, Appropriated By Politicians, Ram Remains Serene In His Majesty, The Only Hindu Deity To Be Worshipped As A King.

Download or read book Chandrabati s Ramayan written by Chandrabati and published by Zubaan. This book was released on 2020-01-25 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chandrabati, the first woman poet in Bangla, lived in the sixteenth century in Mymensingh district in present day Bangladesh. She was also the first poet in the Bangla language to present a retelling of the Ram story from the point of view of Sita. Idolised as a model of marital obedience and chastity in Valmiki’s Ramayan, Chandrabati’s lyrical retelling of Sita’s story offers us a fresh perspective. Written in order to be sung before a non-courtly audience, mainly of womenfolk of rural Bengal, Chandrabati’s Ramayan adds new characters and situations to the story to provide new interpretations of already known events drawing richly on elements of existing genres. Its location in the tales of everyday life has ensured that Chandrabati’s Ramayan lives on in the hearts of village women of modern-day India.

Download or read book Ramayana The Game of Life The Complete Collection written by Shubha Vilas and published by Jaico Publishing House. This book was released on with total page 1101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Features 6 National Bestsellers Ramayana: The Game of Life – Book 1: Roar with Courage Ramayana: The Game of Life – Book 2: Conquer Change Ramayana: The Game of Life – Book 3: Adopt Patience Ramayana: The Game of Life – Book 4: Stand Strong Ramayana: The Game of Life – Book 5: Radiate Confidence Ramayana: The Game of Life – Book 6: Think Big to Win Authentic narration of the epic with life lessons The RAMAYANA is not a story. It is a way of life. It is THE GAME OF LIFE. A good game is full of twists and turns at every stage and this magical epic arms us with valuable tools to deal with anomalies in our own lives. These quirks turn us into valiant warriors in the face of the most challenging situations.

Download or read book The Ramayana Through Western Eyes written by J. C. Shaw and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sita s Kitchen written by Ramchandra Gandhi and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1992-08-17 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the meaning of a Buddhist story, this book is a testimony of faith in the urgent relevance of India's spiritual traditions to the future of life on Earth, and it is an inquiry into the meaning of some central notions of these traditions. The value of spiritual traditions and of life itself is at stake here. In the Introduction, Ramchandra Gandhi raises the Ayodhya issue to international and universal levels. In the text, he offers a solution on the local and national levels. The temple mound in Ayodhya --the sacred hill on which the present Babri Masjid was built, also known as "Sita's Kitchen"--was originally a sacred place of the Adivasis (the aboriginal inhabitants of the subcontinent). It was sacred to the Goddess, the great nurturing earth, the fecund source of all life, the aboriginal presupposition of all later religions. As an aboriginal place sacred to the Mother Goddess, the hill in Ayodhya brings together all religions. Rather than a source of conflict, Ayodhya should become a meeting ground for the divergent religious traditions of the world to see their ultimate harmony. In the Buddhist story, the principal female character is an adivasi named Ananya ("not other"). The opposing sides come to see their oneness in Ananya. The frame-story is taken from the Vinaya-pitaka of the Pali Canon. It is the Bhaddavaggiyavatthu or "The Story of the Group of Well-Off Ones."

Download or read book Performing the Ramayana Tradition written by Paula Richman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ramayana, one of the two pre-eminent Hindu epics, has played a foundational role in many aspects of India's arts and social norms. For centuries, people learned this narrative by watching, listening, and participating in enactments of it. Although the Ramayana's first extant telling in Sanskrit dates back to ancient times, the story has continued to be retold and rethought through the centuries in many of India's regional languages, such as Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali. The narrative has provided the basis for enactments of its episodes in recitation, musical renditions, dance, and avant-garde performances. This volume introduces non-specialists to the Ramayana's major themes and complexities, as well as to the highly nuanced terms in Indian languages used to represent theater and performance. Two introductions orient readers to the history of Ramayana texts by Tulsidas, Valmiki, Kamban, Sankaradeva, and others, as well as to the dramaturgy and aesthetics of their enactments. The contributed essays provide context-specific analyses of diverse Ramayana performance traditions and the narratives from which they draw. The essays are clustered around the shared themes of the politics of caste and gender; the representation of the anti-hero; contemporary re-interpretations of traditional narratives; and the presence of Ramayana discourse in daily life.

Download or read book Asian Variations in Ramayana written by Kodaganallur R. Srinivasa Iyengar and published by Sahitya Akademi. This book was released on 2005 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Book Consists Of Papers Presented At The International Seminar On ýVariations In Ramayana In Asia: Their Cultural, Social And Anthropological Significance: New Delhi 1981.

Download or read book RAMAYANA The Poisonous Tree written by Ranganayakamma and published by Sweet Home Publications. This book was released on with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the title indicates, this book is a critical study of an Indian epic, ëThe Ramayanaí. It proceeds in the same order as that of Sanskrit original consisting of : Bala kanda, Ayodhya kanda, Aranya kanda, Kishkindha kanda, Sundara kanda, Yuddha kanda and Uttara kanda. While Valmikiís Ramayana is composed of about 24,000 slokas (verses), ëRamayana the Poisonous Treeí consists of 16 stories, long and short, accompanied by 11 ëlinksí (narratives that ëlinkí the stories) and 504 foot-notes that show evidence from the Sanskrit original in support of the critique. Besides the main components of the text, this book has a long ëPrefaceí discussing the social essence of the epic in the context of history of evolution of human society from the ancient times to the modern times. The book also offers a critical review of the works of ësome earlier critics of Ramayanaí. The authoress describes Ramayana as a Poisonous Tree because it defends the autocratic rule of the kings against the people, their imperial expansion by invading other weak kingdoms, exploitation of the poor by the rich, oppression of lower castes by upper castes, aggression of the civilized non-tribal communities against primitive tribal communities, male chauvinism against women, superstitious beliefs against the rational thinking, fathersí domination over sons, elder brothersí superiority over younger brothers and so on. She substantiated her arguments by providing hundreds of foot notes from the Sanskrit original. She characterizes the culture of Ramayana as predominantly ëfeudalí in nature with an admixture of remnants of primitive ëtribalí culture. The book, it is hoped, will be of interest to both academic and non-academic circles. It is relevant to the students, teachers and researchers who are connected with such disciplines as South Asian Studies, Cultural Studies, Comparative Literature, Comparative Religions, Indology, Literary Criticism and so on. It is also relevant to the social and political activists who would like to disseminate ëprogressiveí ideas among the people who are subjected to various forms of inequality: Class, Caste, Gender, Race, Ethnicity. Ranganayakamma (born 1939) is a writer of novels, stories and essays in Telugu. She has published about 60 books.

Download or read book Ramayana Stories in Modern South India written by Paula Richman and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2008-03-06 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fresh perspectives on the classic Indiana epic.

Download or read book In Search Of Sita written by Namita Gokhale and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sita is one of the defining figures of Indian womanhood, yet there is no single version of her story. Different accounts coexist in myth, literature and folktale. Canonical texts deify Sita while regional variations humanize her. Folk songs and ballads connect her timeless predicament to the daily lives of rural women. Modern-day women continue to see themselves reflected in films, serials and soap operas based on Sita’s narrative. Sacrifice, self denial and unquestioning loyalty are some of the ideals associated with popular perceptions of Sita. But the Janaki who symbolized strength, who could lift Shiva’s mighty bow, who courageously chose to accompany Rama into exile and who refused to follow him back after a second trial, is often forgotten. However she is remembered, revered or written about, Sita continues to exert a powerful influence on the collective Indian psyche. In Search of Sita presents essays, conversations and commentaries that explore different aspects of her life. It revisits mythology, reopening the debate on her birth, her days in exile, her abduction, the test by fire, the birth of her sons and, finally, her return to the earth—offering fresh interpretations of this enigmatic figure and her indelible impact on our everyday lives.