Sita feels Epic

Riddle me this…what do The Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and Sita’s Ramayana all have in common? Give up? Ok…I’ll tell you. They are all epic poems, and before you yell at me and say that “Sita’s Ramayana is a graphic novel, so therefore it can’t be an epic poem”, hear me out. Sita’s Ramayana is indeed a graphic novel, but it is based off of a Sanskirt epic poem from ancient India. The original Ramayana isn’t told from Sita’s point of view (typical) but rather from Rama, her husband. Another thing that The Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and Ramayana and most other epic stories have in common is that up until a certain point, they weren’t written down anywhere. Stories like this were often told and shared in front of audiences, which as you can imagine works like a game of telephone, the story starts out one way and then the longer and more times it is told, the more distorted the take becomes. Scott McCloud brings up a similar point in his book Understanding Comics. McCloud discusses the merits of storytelling through pictures and how these were the early versions of comics. Since there was no written language, early people had to rely on pictures to tell stories, and then these stories could be memorized and then retold for entertainment purposes. There is a chance that the versions of The Odyssey and The Iliad that we are reading today aren’t true to the original.

Regardless of any of this, Sita’s Ramayana is a tale of a heroic war told from a female perspective. The female perspective we are shown is that of Sita, she is a daughter of the Earth and is married to the Prince Rama. Early on in the graphic novel Sita is kidnapped by King Ravana, in retaliation for insulting and disfiguring his sister, Surpanaka. From there Sita is mistreated by just about everyone in her life. She endures being abducted, then rescued after a great war takes place, and many people lose their lives, which is a sticking point for Sita herself. Once the war is won, she returns home with her husband, Rama, who does nothing but doubt her and her virtue. This doubt causes Rama to cast Sita out of the kingdom and out into the forest to fend for herself. This is where Sita essentially comes into her own and breaks free from the oppressive patriarchy that she had always been subject to.

The original epic of Ramayana tells the heroic story of a man and how courageous he is. From all of this I think the overall message that Sita’s Ramayana is trying to convey is one of strength and perseverance, especially since the whole story is told from a woman’s point of view. This story can be told and retold by and to women who might be suffering in some way, and Sita’s resilience could fortify them to not give up. In the end of the graphic novel, Sita is able to escape (in a way) from the world that held her captive, and hopefully live a happier life away from the men who tried to control her and her life.