Sītā at the Hands of Premchand’s Rāma: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

Within the long history of literature from South Asia, both Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa, the core of which is dated back to the fifth century BC,1
and the writing of Munshi Premchand (1880-1936) have seminal roles. Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa is considered within Sanskrit literature to be the ādi-kāvya, the first poem. Likewise, Premchand is oft said to be the “father of modern Hindi fiction,” and played a similarly formative role in the development of modern Urdu literature.
The region of Avadha plays a prominent role in both cases. Rāma, the central hero of Rāmāyaṇa, is a prince of Āyodhyā, Avadha’s capital, though he ventures far beyond it. Avadha is also the home of Premchand and the expressed or implicit setting of the greater part of his novels and short stories. Thus, it is not strange that one should find repeated reference to Rāma in Premchand’s works.