Sita and Draupadi: The Unmaking and Remaking of India’s Mythological Heroines
In the comparisons between Sita and Draupadi, Urmi Bhattacheryya argues how the trope of ‘the other woman’ has hurt feminism in Indian mythology.
Poem by Anju Devadas R D: ‘someone once said / the soul is lighter than breath / but the soil keeps secrets / the sky cannot hold.’
Personal Essay by Prachi Sharma: ‘My father pauses in every retelling of this tale. He wants me to see it. A man in the uniform of an Indian working for the English, in a village courtyard in the late 1920s, his face turning to one side from the force of an open palm. The villagers watching. The Daroga’s hand going to his cheek. A pigeon somewhere on the roof, taking off.’
In the comparisons between Sita and Draupadi, Urmi Bhattacheryya argues how the trope of ‘the other woman’ has hurt feminism in Indian mythology.
The problematic representation of women in many recent Telugu blockbusters like Peddi and the Pushpa films have stoked controversy. When mainstream commercial cinema consistently turns the sexualisation of women into entertainment, who should be responsible for the world these images help create? By Sumithra Prasanna