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

worrying about what others may think about her clothes, she considers the practical
function of clothing. For wandering through the rough lands beyond the bounds of
settled life, she requests an outfit that will protect her from thorns and keep her dry
during the rain. The forest allows her to set aside sartorial concerns. Her fourth letter’s
postscript contains what Sita has learned as a new bride, generalizing for others:
P.S. From now on, I don't have to think about the color of saris. Great
peace has been established in my mind. I have realized how excellent
it would be if every woman went to live in the forest. The worries of
life would be reduced by half.
In four short pages of prose, Kumudini has made Sita contemporary to her readers,
imagining her as experiencing pressures that many new brides in the 1930s encountered
Kumudini depicts Sita at a time in her life about which little is recorded: her early
days in her marital joint family. In addition, while the Sita of Valmiki and Tulsidas is
depicted primarily as embodying a static set of ideal characteristics, Kumudini’s Sita
grows and matures; eventually she rejects being treated as a status symbol by her
clothing. Furthermore, Kumudini transforms a section of Ramkatha into a domestic tale,
while simultaneously addressing contemporary political issues about swadeshi goods.
Thus, involvement in Sita’s story becomes a way of thinking not only about ancient times
but also the present.
Ambai on Sita’s Middle Age
Kumudini’s story shares notable features with a more recent story by C.S.
Lakshmi (1944-), a prize-winning Tamil writer and admirer of Kumudini’s work.
Lakshmi, known to readers as “Ambai,” published her first novel in 1967 and has been
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