Sita's World

At a time Lord Ram has dominated the political narrative, it is important for women to seek inspiration from Sita's story and break free from everything that shackles them

- Ashok Kumar Sinha

Sita ke sakala dekhi jakhati jana kari

Si Sita bheli byahana jo gayo hariyargo

Bara bhamanani payela dhanusha ke dela utha gaye ho

Desha hi dhesh ke Ram ni loka ela dhanusha ke chubi chubi jaye ho

Desa baithela Sita dharma pukarti jodhe ji ta to bhaga manayo

When King Janak sees his daughter Sita's face

He realises ruefully that his daughter is of marriageable age

The big palace is being cleaned with green cow dung

And the bow has been kept against the wall

Beautiful people from across kingdoms come, but can only touch the bow

Sita sits and prays, wondering who is fated to be her partner

SHANTI Devi begins the story of Sita insisting that she encompasses the struggles of women and to see her and paint her life is to free themselves from the gaze so omnipresent that one must remind the world that she wasn't just the wife of Ram but a woman in her own right who was also an ecofeminist. Padma Shri Shanti Devi, an expert in Mithila painting and Godna art, hails from Laheriya Ganj in Madhubani, Bihar.

She was at the Bihar Museum as part of a contingent of 30 artists from Bihar who were to paint scenes from Sita's life as part of the Vaidehi Sita art camp cum exhibition held in Patna from July 31 to August 7. In the scene that Shanti Devi was painting, Sita was sitting in Ashok Vatika, amid lush green trees, birds and animals, and Hanuman was giving her a ring.

Shanti Devi wasn't allowed for a long time to paint gods and goddesses as she belongs to the Paswan community, also known as Dusadh a Mahadalit community in Bihar.