Wife And Queen

This is an excerpt tale from the Ramayana I had retold in 2014, on my Facebook notes page, and hence thought of resharing here with you all, an excerpt close to my heart!

Ram was known for following the rules. Sita, for questioning the age-old traditions. Ram followed Dharma above all, and Sita followed her Heart. They were different. Yet, they were two parts of one soul, destined to be together and apart, like a sea and its shores. It was an age-old tradition to practice polygamy in the Royal Families. Ayodhya was no different. Raja Dasaratha himself had three main queens. Most Kings had many. No one ever questioned it. It was never believed to be wrong for a man to have many wives if he could take responsibility. But Rajkumari Sita was not just anybody. She had questioned him.

The Valmiki Ramayana describes a scene where one morning, when they were sitting in the aangan of the Ranimahal of Ayodhya, feeding her favourite pigeons, Sita, the newly arrived teenage bride, Rama was discovering layer by layer, deeper into her soul, was filled with a lot of questions she sought the answer to as soon as she had entered Ayodhya. She had seen the younger queen Maata Kaikeyi's preferences in the King's life, both inside and outside the inner mahals, even in the political views of the state. She couldn't help but wonder why, while Maata Kausalya cooked and cared for the King, waited for him, and did all that a wife did, he had always preferred the younger one's advice on politics or praised her beauty. Sita, in her innocence, just before the news of his coronation arrived, asks Ram, “Why is Rani Kaikeyi your father’s favourite when Rani Kausalya is his first queen?” She saw him stop feeding the birds, and silence for a moment. Had she hurt him?

“ Maata Kausalya is his wife and Maata Kaikeyi his queen.” Sita stared cluelessly at her husband's answer. He smiled a faint smile, waiting for his wife's eager questions.

“What is the difference between a Wife and a Queen?”

“ A wife is one the King shares his life with, respects her, and gives her every right of an Ardhangini. She who shares the right to sit with him on every puja, be a part of every charity or Punya he does, be a part of his decisions for his personal life, and she who is dedicated to him from the soul. He, in turn, as a husband, may not shower her with materialistic importance but with spiritual and mental equality. A King has only one wife; he can have many Queens. Queens are his consorts who rule with him. They are mothers to his people. The wife is his home. She is the mother of his children. The Queen thinks of the country and a wife for peace at home. A queen can win battles with him, but a wife will always nurse his wounds. Pray for his success and be with him in his toughest decisions.”

Sita smiled, satisfied. “How many queens would you prefer, Dashrath Nandan?” She asked in an innocent folly.

“I am waiting for the day this tradition of Polygamy will end forever.” Ram was calm, holding a white pigeon in his hand.

“That is not the answer I seek, Dasharath Nandan.” She smiled at him. "I am asking what YOU will do as a King?"

“I would never support marriage alliances as a king. Marriage is a sacred bond and not an agreement of politics.” He was clear on his views. Sita smiled happily. He had dared to speak his mind. Was it somewhere her effects on him? He couldn't help but wonder the same.

“ You will always be my only wife and queen. Remember that,” he had made the young bride stare at him like he was a dream, unearthly, just like she thought.

Years later, dates untraced, India follows what they preached and dreamt. Ram and Sita are worshipped for their ideals, hardship and sacrifice, always together, never alone. Because she was his only wife. They were gods by their immortal sacrifices as human beings, all for the sake of their Dharma as the King and Queen to people they considered children. India, and the world now, follows what was once the dream of a young Prince Rama and his teen bride, Sita, who had for the first time raised a question no one bothered to ask.

Maharana Pratap: The Evolution of an Icon

On the occasion of Maharana Pratap's 486th Birth Anniversary, here is an article I have been meaning to write for a long time. While some of it is personal, other parts are researched. Some parts of this article (art subsection) are reproduced from another article written by me for UPAJ India's magazine Manthan in 2022. Ideally, this was supposed to be two parts, but I did not wish to make it so. Cenotaph at Chawand Veer Shiromoni Hinduja Suraj Maharana Pratap Singh Sisodiya, as he is officially called, the thirteenth Custodian of the royal house of Mewar, a land that now lies in the south-western fringes of the Aravallis of Rajasthan, has been, for the longest time in Indian History, regarded as the first freedom fighter. Resisting invasion into his state, holding his post as king, his life and career had been scrutinised time and again, narratives changed according to popularity rather than evidence. His idea of independence inspired many; his strategy of guerrilla warfare wa...

The Timurid Empress

Ruqaiya Sultana Begum was born to Babur's second surviving son, Hindal Mirza, and his wife, Sultanam Begum, in 1542 C.E., merely a few months after Hamida Banu gave birth to the heir Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar. She was well-versed in Persian, Urdu and Arabic and was attracted to poetry and music. Being a proud descendant of the Timurid clan, most of Rukaiya's childhood was spent in Kabul, near the Bagh E Babur, built by Babur himself. From early childhood, she had seen the struggle of her family to regain their lost power in Hind. Miniature of Rukaiya Begum as Empress In 1551 C.E., just after her father died young at a battle for Humayun, leaving her and her mother in the harem of the emperor, it was Hamida Banu who wanted the marriage of Rukaiya to her first cousin, Akbar. Theirs was the first in-house marriage of the Mughals, soon to be followed by many more in the generations to come. At the mere age of nine, she had married the crown prince, and when Humayun won back Lahore...

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The Suta Putra

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