Wild Yet Demure

Sita Was Not Just A Daughter Or Wife, Princess Or Queen – She Embodied Multiple Roles, With Each Role Representing A Different Facet Of Nature

- Devdutt Pattanaik

When a daughter steps out of her father’s house after marriage, the father is supposed to say, “May you find happiness wherever you go.” But Janaka told Sita something else: “May you bring happiness wherever you go.” Perhaps because Janaka was a good father who had brought up his daughter to be autonomous and responsible for her life and those around her or perhaps because Janaka knew his daughter was a goddess – the earth itself.

The earth can be wild or domesticated. Wild, she is the forest. Domesticated, she is the field. Wild, she is a woman. Domesticated, she is the wife. In Hindu mythology, wild earth is visualised as an unclothed goddess, Kali, fearsome, naked, bloodthirsty, with hair unbound. Domesticated earth is visualised as draped in cloth, Gauri, the goddess of civilisation, gentle, demure, beautiful. Gauri’s cloth represents the rules that turn nature into civilisation – rules such as marital fidelity that ensure that even the weakest of man has conjugal security.