Layout 3 - India Foundation for the Arts - IFA

mercy to come and offer protection.
This also would transport the
audience to the universe of devotion.
These musical narrations sang the
glory of Rama. They heaped praises
on him as the ‘Oka mata, oka banamu,
oka pathni viruthuu’ (a man of one
word, one arrow, one wife). Sita was
like a shadow behind Rama, the wife
who walked behind.
There was, however, one Ramayana
public narration where the speaker
chose to elaborate on the agni pariksha
incident. The entire evening changed
with the choice of the subject. There
were more women in the audience
than usual. One could feel an
emotional tension in the air. And as
the speaker began to describe the
details, I saw all around me women in
tears. Some were sobbing openly and
others let the tears flow without
wiping them. It was the first time I
had seen such a public display of
emotion in a Ramayana lecture. The
speaker’s voice broke when Sita asked
Lakshmana to light the pyre. It
seemed as if at that moment all the
women became Sita who was entering
the fire to prove her chastity. It was an
emotion-packed moment that sent a
current through one’s body.
Imagining Rama – C.S. Lakshmi
Except for that one narration there
was a general silence about Sita in the
grand narrations. On one occasion, we
got together for a dance programme.
My dance masters U.S. Krishna Rao
and his wife Chandrabhaga Devi liked
to relax after a programme.
Chandrabhaga Devi’s sister Jayavanti
who was a singer had accompanied us.
We asked her to sing for us. And she
sang a Marathi song ‘Jaa saang
Lakshmana, saang Rama raja la’ from
Geet Ramayan. The song revealed to
us an angry Sita. She tells Lakshmana,
“Please convey my message to King
Ram: I have understood your justice.
You were right there when I proved
my purity by entering the pyre; yet
you have banished me. I am alive
and will continue to be
alive so that Ram’s
generation will be
continued.”
Sita was actually
asking Lakshmana to
go and tell Rama that
she was pregnant;
that otherwise he
would suspect her
for this also. There
was also that gesture
which probably
Jayavanti explained, or