Sita’s Sister

Author: Kavita Kane
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 311
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788129134844

Description

Marriage did not hold much interest for Urmila but it was a social discipline she would have to conform to. She would rather seek knowledge instead of a suitor.

The Ramayana invariably brings to our collective minds the characters of Ram, Sita, Lakshman. Bharat. Kausalya. Ravana, Mandodari—even Kaikeyi and Manthara.

This book is no such reverie… It is the story of Urmila, Sita’s sister, and one of the most overlooked characters in the epic. As Sita prepares to go into exile, her younger sisters stay on in the doomed palace in Ayodhya, their smiles, hopes and joys wiped away in a single stroke. But one woman, of immense strength and conviction, stands out in this tableau of tears and tragedy-Urmila, whose husband, Lakshman, has chosen to accompany his brother, Ram, to the Forest. She could have insisted on joining Lakshman, as did Sita with Ram, but she did not.

Why did she agree to be left behind in the palace, waiting for her husband for fourteen painfully long years? Find out in Sita’s Sister, an utterly absorbing read in which Urmila tells her story.

Contents

Contents

Prologue: The Four Sisters
The Two Princes
The Swayamvar
The Lovers
The Rejection
The Four Weddings
The City Of Ayodhya
The Sisters
The Crown Prince
The Exile
The Farewell
The Despair
The Intrigue
The Mourning
The Meeting
The Separation
The Rivalry
The Waiting
The Abduction
The War
The Return
Epilogue: The Loss

Acknowledgements