Delhi: Celebrating Sita and her grace, strength & sacrifice

You can learn and unlearn a lot from Sita. She was never a victim of patriarchal mores. Instead, she could teach you a thing or two about how to be an independent person and stand your ground with grace and dignity, say participants at “Vaidehi: Sita beyond the body”, a seven-day festival being held in Delhi till May 16.
“Sita was not just the wife of Ram, or daughter of King Janak, but was Vaidehi, born outside the womb, a daughter of Nature and an epitome of dignity and grace, strength and sacrifice,” says Savita Jha Khan, head of Centre for Studies of Tradition and Systems (CSTS) that has organised Vaidehi to mark the birth anniversary of Goddess Sita, in collaboration with Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) and Nari Samvaad Prakalp.

“Why don’t we celebrate our daughters, why does it take the world to praise them before we recognise their worth at home?” As an answer to this question, CSTS has organised an international painting exhibition as part of the festival, inviting artists to paint the daughter of Mithila in an ancient art tradition of that region — Mithila art form. Of the entries received, 125 paintings from seven nations have been put on display, all compelling us to rethink who Sita is.
In her painting, artist Supriya Jha, for instance, shows Sita holding her two children, Luv and Kush, but her eyes are full of aakrosh, anger. “Sita’s life was full of sadness, so I have only used black colour over a golden canvas to show her. I, too, have two children and wonder how Sita must have felt giving birth to her children in the jungle, thinking about how to inform her family and bring them up,” says Jha, who has also written a sohar for Sita. Sohar is a song that’s typically sung at the birth of a male child in Bihar.
On the opposite wall, there is a colourful canvas by award-winning artist, Shanti Devi, which shows different phases of Sita’s life — from her birth to her marriage to Prince Ram. “I come from a village near Janakpuri, where Sita was born. While painting her, I try to connect and draw energy from this devi who also manifests as Durga, Parvati, Radha and Kali,” says Devi.
“Vaidehi tries to explore Sita’s inner potential. She goes through all kinds of trial but remains graceful and dignified. She has her own potential, philosophy and her own ways. All the sacrifices she made were to uphold her dignity. You can’t be a weak person to do that,” says Savita Jha Khan.
Sita was also an epitome of selfless love, something that she imbibed from her father. Maninder Nath Thakur, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, says the theme of Vaidehi symbolises the crux of the dialogue between King Janak and sage Ashtavakra, who believed that the practice of unconditional love alone can save humanity. “This dialogue transformed Janak as a ruler. The ruling class today needs to understand this philosophy, which has been imbibed by Sita. Many philosophers today are thinking that unless we transcend modernity into a new form of philosophy that focuses on unconditional love, we will not be able to save humanity, something has been happening in Ukraine, for instance,” Thakur says.
“Gandhiji and Tagore understood this problem of modernity. Gandhi believed that if we are in touch with our feminine side, ours would be a politics of unconditional love. We won’t get offended if someone criticises us or makes a cartoon on us. That is why Sita as a philosophical symbol is so relevant today,” he adds.
Underscoring this, Ram Bahadur Rai, president of IGNCA, quotes from a recent “Speaking Tree” article by Dena Merriam in The Times of India to say that Sita may be a historical character, but she is present in our hearts even today, urging us to go beyond domination mentality, if we are to evolve. He says Vaidehi is a spiritual concept referring to the one who rises above vasanas, desires, attains mukti while being alive, and lives only to accomplish her kartavya karma, duty. And Sita can teach us how to perform our duties diligently.