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.
This story is from the August 21, 2024 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 21, 2024 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
No Singular Self
Sudarshan Shetty's work questions the singularity of identity
Mass Killing
Genocide or not, stop the massacre of Palestinians
Passing on the Gavel
The higher judiciary must locate its own charter in the Constitution. There should not be any ambiguity
India Reads Korea
Books, comics and webtoons by Korean writers and creators-Indian enthusiasts welcome them all
The K-kraze
A chronology of how the Korean cultural wave(s) managed to sweep global audiences
Tapping Everyday Intimacies
Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo departs from his outsized national cinema with low-budget, chatty dramedies
Tooth and Nail
The influence of Korean cinema on Bollywood aesthetics isn't matched by engagement with its deeper themes as scene after scene of seemingly vacuous violence testify, shorn of their original context
Beyond Enemy Lines
The recent crop of films on North-South Korea relations reflects a deep-seated yearning for the reunification of Korea
Ramyeon Mogole?
How the Korean aesthetic took over the Indian market and mindspace
Old Ties, Modern Dreams
K-culture in Tamil Nadu is a very serious pursuit for many