Nine Ideal Indian Women: Sita, Promila, and Shankutala
For this week's reading, I decided to explore the works of Sunity Devee. Her book focused on nine ideal Indian women, which included stories about Sita and Ravana's son's wife, Promila. I read the first section, which focused on Sita. I was instantly intrigued by this story because it started off by explaining Sita's birth. It is known that Sita was found in a pitcher in the furrows of Janaka's kingdom. Right after describing Sita's "birth", Devee goes on to describe that a handful of sages gave Ravana's messenger that particular pitcher and told Ravana that "it carries a crushing significance which will end his royal splendor." I really liked how Devee broke up the beginning of the Sita chapter and explained Sita's birth and then simultaneously described Rama's birth and childhood. I enjoyed how she went into great detail about Janaka's test to find Sita's husband. She successfully explained the importance of the bow and how only a man with divine attributes would be able to break the bow. My favorite part of this chapter was how Devee emphasized that Rama and Sita fell in love at first sight and immediately became devoted to one another. Rama was so devoted to his father that, even though he already loved Sita and wanted to marry her, he waited to accept until he received Dasharatha's approval. My favorite part about the Sita chapter is that the author had to incorporate all of Rama's story because Sita is incomplete without Rama.
Bibliography. Nine Ideal Indian Women, Sunity Devee. (1919)
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