Ramayana Stories in Modern South India: An Anthology

1. Asking Sita: The Questions Return

1 Asking Sita Vijaya Dabbe (b. 1952) is a scholar, activist, and Kannada poet. Among her Ramayana interests is Nagachandra’s Ramachandra Charita Purana (also known as Pamparamayana), a Jain Ramayana in Kannada about which she has written a monograph. She has also played a leading role in Samata, a Mysore-based organization committed to the empowerment of women. The poem below, from Dabbe’s award-winning collection of poetry, ponders why Sita never wrote her view of events in the Ramayana when she had the resources and time to do so. Source: Vijaya Dabbe, Iti Gitike [Here Are the Songs] (Mysore: Kuvempu Institute of Indian Studies, 1996), p. 51. The Questions Return by vijaya dabbe You had the words Father Janaka taught you, the songs your nursesmaids gave you. Figure 2. Sita sitting beneath the Ashoka tree in the garden outside Ravana’s palace. Images of Sita almost always depict her in the presence of males, usually with Rama, Hanuman, her twin sons, or Ravana. Illustrations of her alone, such as this one, are rare. From C. Ramasvami Sastri’s collection of abridged Ramayana stories in Kannada , Ramayana Kathasangrahavu, published in 1915. 44 Sita in Context Palm leaves lay all about. Sita, why didn’t you speak? The Ashoka tree spread its shade. There was your own brimming sorrow and time enough. What more did you want? Sita, why didn’t you speak? Later, leisure once more yours, Lava and Kusha grown, the ashram full of peace and your whole life flowing past you: Sita, why didn’t you speak? To all my questions, only her silence, heavy as earth. I look up and the feelings flow from her eyes into mine —but wordless. And my own questions come back to me. Translated from Kannada by Shashi Deshpande and Pratibha Nandakumar ...