URMILA’S FEMINIST STANCE AGAINST PATRIARCHY IN SITA’S SISTER.

Ours is a country whose value system is largely dominated by the epics. Right from our childhood, our grandparents narrates before us the glorious tales of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Jataka tales to teach us the moral values. As we grow up, our values and mindset develops according to the values taught by these epics. The Ramayana is one of the first two ancient Indian epics which build the foundation of the religious beliefs, cultural system and the moral value system of the Hindus. Today one can find a number of retellings of this ancient epic from the viewpoints of different characters. One such narrative, written by the best-selling author Kavita Kane, recounts this great epic through the eyes of Urmila, usually known as Lakshman’s wife or Sita’s sister. This epic has always been used to focus on the feminine virtues of Sita, i.e. the females should be dutiful daughters and obedient wives, should always be completely devoted to their husbands and should stand by them in every situation. However Kavita Kane’s novel Sita’s Sister gives Urmila a feminist voice allowing the readers to view the epic from a new angle that has never been thought of. This paper aims at exploring the feminist thoughts of Urmila in Sita’s Sister and how she fulfilled all her duties and at the same time took a stance against what she thought was wrong and injustice to women.