Book Review - The Liberation of Sita

This book, I bought it on the suggestion of Nalini Chettur of the famous "Giggles" - The Biggest Little bookshop in Chennai. I have been a regular at her shop and I love buying books from her. I love my interactions with her. She is someone who has details about every book she sells in her finger-tip and can also make some great suggestions according to your reading taste. So when she suggested this one for me, I knew it would not go wrong. Okay, enough of the introduction, now about the book.

Book Title: The Liberation of Sita

Author: Volga
Translated from Telugu by T.VijayaKumar and C.Vijayashree
Publisher: HarperPerennial

This book has been crafted with the woman characters from the epic Valmiki's Ramayana. There are five stories in the book with Sita (Wife of Shri Ramachandra) as the central character. Ramayana is a book that speaks volumes about Lord Rama and his righteousness and up keeping of Arya Dharma. But there are so many minor female characters in the story whose lives are toppled in the journey of Dharma. This book delves into those female characters and weaves a story which speaks the other side of Ramayana - the life and learning of its female characters.

Surpanakha, Ahalya, Renuka and Urmila are the females whose lives change in the course of Dharma as much that of Sita. Sita is abandoned by Rama in the name of a King's Dharma. This and all other painful experiences in Sita's life is dealt with in this book from her perspective. The author takes us through the life of each female character through their conversation with Sita. The injustice meted upon each woman by the men and their journey to empowerment is a lesson to Sita ultimately leading her to self-realization and liberation. There is an amazing sisterhood which is established among these women through these stories. Each story is a beautiful interlock of episodes from Ramayana and the creativity of the Author. The Author being a feminist writer has effectively brought out the female perspective of Ramayana.

This book definitely comes strongly against the male domination and blind propagation of Dharma. It is a perfect take on the inner strength and resilience of women and how they don't always need a man to feel complete. But even when delivering a strong picture of women, this book binds her to an image of sacrifice and withdrawal which has always been expected out of a woman. As a reader, there are few questions that have been playing around in my mind. Why do women always have to choose self-retreat as a glorious option when fighting patriarchy? Even when self-realisation is a great state of mind, why can't we opt for a different ending to each life even in fiction?

This book is a definite read for all those people who believe in fighting back patriarchy and who want to get a feel of an empowered woman. It made me feel liberated. I could relate to various points that are raised by the characters and I think that is why an epic like Ramayana wrote centuries ago is relevant even today.