Reclaiming the Feminine: Deconstructing the Representation of Sita and Mother Earth in Select Feminist Retellings of the Ramayana

Abstract

The figure of Sita in the Ramayana tradition embodies one of the most pervasive representations of indigenous Indian womanhood, an image shaped, transmitted and enforced across centuries through classical texts, oral traditions and cultural memory. Rooted in Valmiki's Ramayana, Sita's identity has been largely constructed through patriarchal frameworks that dictate and necessitate silence, sacrifice and submission. This paper examines how two contemporary feminist retellings, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The Forest of Enchantments (2019) and Amit Majmudar's Sitayana (2019), deconstruct and reimagine the dominant representation of Sita. Situating these texts within the intersecting frameworks of ecofeminism and intertextuality, the paper analyses how these authors restore and confer narrative agency on Sita, recover her voice from patriarchal silencing, and reframe her relationship with nature, female solidarity, and her own selfhood. The paper further argues that these retellings participate in a wider cultural project of decolonising indigenous mythological narratives and reconstituting the image of Indian womanhood with resilience, autonomy and dignity.