Against the Current: Sita and Her Foils in - Bad Request

Telugu writers take a figure often identified as an ideal for women and envision how she
would act if she encountered new challenges. All three writers make Sita a full-bodied
character, rather than an abstract exemplar. Readers learn to care about this Sita, watch
her struggle and grow, and view her as a complex woman with choices in her life, rather
than a subservient female by her husband’s side. Kumudini, Ambai, and Chalam depict
Sita in a narrative, rather than iconic, frame.
Furthermore, Sita is portrayed in relationship rather than in isolation. Modern
Tamil and Telugu writers have astutely analyzed Sita’s relationship to Surpanakha and
Ahalya. They take the notion of women’s experience seriously, suggesting bonds of
sympathy between Sita and Surpanakha, a woman usually demonized and scorned, as
well as between Sita and Ahalya, a woman cursed and stigmatized. In their own distinct
ways, Bharathi, Ranganayakamma, and Kavanasarma portray women discovering that, in
relation to men, they share experiences of humiliation.
In turn, Pudumaippittan never portrays Sita as criticizing her husband for his
attitude towards women, but the story does use Ahalya’s anger to place that criticism into
the mouth of Ahalya. Ahalya’s criticism of Rama can be ignored as words of a “fallen”
woman, but nonetheless, it is there, plain and clear. Examining Sita’s relationships with
other women in the short stories also breaks down dichotomies between supposedly
“good” women like Sita and supposedly “bad” women like Surpanakha and Ahalya.
Most of the authors in this essay have won recognition as superb writers.
Historians of literature rank Bharati, Chalam, and Pudumaippittan among the giants of
modern Tamil and Telugu. Ambai and Kavanasarma have won multiple literary awards.
Kumudini has finally begun to receive the critical attention she deserves. 37 These
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