Testing Sītā: Trials and Transformation of the Heroine in the Rāma Story: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

The Rāma story, made famous by Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa (“the journey or course of Rāma”), has become a beloved tale that follows the hero Rāma and his chaste, devoted wife Sītā in their fight to destroy evil and disorder in the world, establishing righteous, divine order. Rāma is clearly a hero—to many, indeed, a divine one—and his trajectory follows the pattern discussed by Joseph Campbell as the “monomyth”: he leaves the familiar, ventures into the (dangerous) unknown, confronts and overcomes significant challenges, and returns to his society imbued with special power as a result of his heroic journey.