Vidyasagar’s ‘Sita’s Banabas’ in the light of uniqueness/ স্বাতন্ত্র্যের আলোকে বিদ্যাসাগরের ‘সীতার বনবাস’

Abstract

The first act of Bhavabhuti’s Uttarramacharita and based on the Uttarakanda of the Ramayana occupy Vidyasagar’s ‘Sita’s Banabas’ (1860) a special place in Bengali literature. In depicting Ramchandra’s life after his conquest of Lanka and the story of Sita’s abandonment, Vidyasagar made necessary additions and subtractions from the original work. Apart from Madhusudan Dutt’s ‘Meghnad Badh Kavya’ (1861), no other book based on the Ramayana has left such a mark on our minds as ‘Sita's Banabas’. Vidyasagar has summarized the events of the first act of the ‘Uttarramcharita’ though he has arranged it in two sections. Bhavabhuti’s solemn and intense phrasing has been simplified by Vidyasagar in Sita’s Banabas. However, the translation has been quite a pleasant read, even if there is some excess of Samas and Sandhi. Vidyasagar follows Valmiki from the third chapter but the artificiality and inertia of literal translation is no where to be found. However, Vidyasagar’s Ram is much more emotional, and gentle as compared to Valmiki’s Ram. Where Vidyasagar’s Ram and Bhavabhuti’s Ram lament that Sita must be sacrificed, Valmiki’s Ram, despite his complete faith in Sita, gives Lakshman a stern command to sacrifice Sita to save himself and the royal family from the censure of the subjects, but does not lament. Tears welled up in his eyes but he restrained himself. While the original Ramayana describes Sita’s entry into the underworld at the end of the book, Bhavabhuti in his ‘Uttarramcharit’ omits this scene altogether and portrays a dramatic scene and shows the reunion of Ram and Sita. But Vidyasagar does not place either of these in his work, ending the Book with the death of Sita. He ignores the miracle of Sita’s entry into the underworld and shows Janak Duhita’s death to the humiliated and bereaved- a testament to modern thought and scientific consciousness.