The Hindu epic Ramayan, meaning the journey of Lord Ram, composed around 2CBC to 2AD by Sage Valmiki, is a legend of Lord Ram of Ayodhya. He was banished from Ayodhya along with Sita and Lakshman for fourteen years at the behest of his stepmother Kaikeyi. As a dutiful son, he spent his banishment days at Panchbati where Sita remains just a shadow to her Lord throughout his adventures outside Ayodhya.
Published in Chapter:
Demystifying Mythology: Deconstructing the Indian Myth Through Modern Mythic Fiction
Charu Ahluwalia (Chitrakoot School of Liberal Arts, Shoolini University, Solan, India) and
Purnima Bali (Chitrakoot School of Liberal Arts, Shoolini University, Solan, India)
Copyright: © 2023
|Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-8093-9.ch007
Abstract
For centuries, classical myths have been celebrated as models of excellence. Initially, the study of myths was undertaken to understand culture by only being mindful of the fixed literal meaning of the text. In this context, the ancient myth of the Ramayan in India stood as a monolithic structure unquestioned since time immemorial. However, in modern times, when the deconstruction philosophy of Derrida rejects the idea of a fixed meaning as conveyed by a text, the latent meaning of the text arises to the surface. With the emergence of feminism, the unheard voices of canonical texts are brought to the limelight through the contemporary mode of mythic fiction. The mythic fictions undertaken for study—The Forest of Enchantments, Sita-Warrior of Mithila, and The Liberation of Sita—highlight myriad ways of deconstructing the character of Sita and other subaltern female characters who were initially construed under the androcentric dictates of the classical literary canon. Hence, feminist deconstruction of mythology by mythic fiction deconstructs age-old cultural axioms.