The Role Of Sita In The Ramayana

The Ramayana is one of the two major epics of modern Hinduism along with the Mahabharata. The Ramayana tells the story of Lord Rama, the seventh avatar of Lord Vishnu. The epic could be thought of as a classic tale of how dharma was restored through a great battle. In the Hindu tradition Vishnu takes form of avatars to restore dharma on Earth. Vishnu takes the form of Rama to defeat the 10 headed demon Ravana. Ravana favored by the heavens was granted a boon and asked for immortality. He can only be killed by a human but not the divine or demons. Rama is borned to the ruling family of Ayodhya but is exiled for 14 years. His brother Lakshman and his wife Sita join him in exile. While living a simple life in the jungle Sita is captured by Ravana and taken to Lanka. Rama with the aid of Lakshman & Hanuman form an army to save Sita. Ravana tries to persuade Sita to marry him but she refuses. Rama’s army in the end defeat Ravana and Rama takes his place as king of Ayodhya. On might consider Rama to be the most important character but Sita is the most crucial character in the story. This paper examines Sita’s role in the epic and how the potter and clay analogy applies to her role in the epic.

The Ramayana focuses on Rama’s journey but Sita is single handedly the most important character in the story. Without Sita, Rama would have never achieved his destiny and thus Vishnu would have not restored dharma to the world. While in exile Sita is kidnapped by Ravana and this event launches the events that follow. Rama forms an army and confronts and defeats Ravana. This the entire reason why Vishnu comes to earth to confront and defeat Ravana. Killing Ravana represent the restoration of dharma. Dharma would have never been restored if the confrontation never happened and this would have never happened if Sita was not