Prof. Dr. Satya Vrat Shastri's Thai Ramayana 44, Taking a break.

 Ram Jethmalani, a senior BJP member, had called his namesake a bad husband. We all know from Valmiki Ramayan that Rama took some controversial decisions, first by asking Sita to prove her chastity by jumping into a pyre. Later he yielded to public sentiments and abandoned Sita to her fate.

As I began reading Thai Ramayana for my blog, I liked the simplicity of the narration and  saw that Rama did not ask Sita to prove her chastity when he rescued her from Ravana. I thought 'This should help clear Rama's name a bit .'  

But the feeling was short lived. Thai Rama sees a picture of Ravana under their bed and in a fit of anger asks his brother to take her to the forest and kill her. I had no idea such punishments were meted out to women those days. It is possible. This was clearly honor killing , still in practice in some parts of our country.

 Luckily, Valmiki's Rama did not resort to it, he just killed Ravana to protect his honor as a husband, but wanted proof that his wife did not stray! His wife passed the test! His demand was justified by claiming that he wanted this proof so as not to upset the norms of the days.

His later action is tougher to accept. There were whispers that by bringing back his wife from the custody of another man, he created a bad precedent and it would encourage others to stray. So he sent her away! No matter she was pregnant and he loved her. A great personal sacrifice he had to make as their king for the common good!

Raghunath said...

There has also been a hesitation to name daughters Sita as despite her assets and high morality no father would like his daughter to have Sita's life. One would have hoped that this would be fiction but in large parts of this country this is a fact! Can we ever live this down?
The Nirbhaya episode is an example of male chauvinism fostered by these practices. Strangely, Mahabharata had powerful women e.g. Draupadi, Gandhari, Kunti etc. Wish we had followed that epic.