The Forest of Enchantments: Book Review

 

“I set my jaw defiantly. I didn’t know how I’d stand up against the enormous might of the asura king. But I knew this much; I was going to resist him with everything I had.”

Chitra Banerjee’s ‘The Forest of Enchantments’ completely succeeds in being the perfect ‘Sitayana’. Why, even Ramayana’s name has a patriarchal touch to it!! Didn’t the story belong as much to Sita as it did to Ram? But surely, they failed to see that!!

Divakaruni beautifully brings out Sita’s story in its truest form as we come to know, in Sita’s own voice, her story- her upbringing, her love for Ram, her trials, the story of her abduction, her fears, her fury and excruciating pain at being rejected by her beloved for no fault of her own, just because of what gossip-mongers had to say!!

We are shown that Sita was strong in her own way. Being strong does not necessarily mean acting masculine or being aggressive or even obstinate. Sita redefined strength. She believed in drawing on to her own inner strength, empowering herself to face and ace every situation, no matter what!!

In “the Forest of Enchantments”, although the focus remains on Sita, we are taken through other women’s lives as well: Sunaina, Urmila, Kaushalya, Kaikeyi, Ahalya, Mandodari , Sarama and Surpanakha, the way they all embodied strength, each in her own different way.

Love forms one of the integral themes of the Sitayana, as we discover the different forms of love, its different facets, the actions it forces people into, the courage that comes from love, and most importantly, the light it brings to life, cutting through the darkest gloom.

Sita has always been somewhat portrayed to be a meek, docile, unrevolting woman. But what if all her actions actually sprang from a courage. The courage to accept, the courage to be strong in the hardest of situations, the courage to let go, the courage to love even after your lover has hurt you the most, the courage to sacrifice all that you hold dearest and most importantly, the courage to forgive.

The Madhubani art cover of the book beautifully traces Sita’s Maithili roots and its gold embossings add on further to its charm. Its flowing style and wonderfully coherent narration are a feather added to the cap.

Lastly the novel succeeds in portraying that, perhaps Sita’s final act was not just a result of her exhaustion with the world and its ways, rather, she intended to give one final lesson to all the women out there. It is ok to forgive, to let go, but there must be a line which even your most loved one must not dare to cross, the time when it is essential to show, “Enough! No more!”