Sita (The Image of Chastity)

Sita in the epic Ramayana has been the heroine of the story. Various texts narrate different stories about her birth but the most prominent of them had been that she had been found by Janaka while ploughing the field, to appease the god of rains and was subsequently adopted by him as his daughter. In fact she had dominated the entire story of epic, and with her disappearing from the epic, the entire story becomes lusterless.

About the Author

Shantilal Nagar, a graduate of the Punjab University, served in the curatorial capacity in the Central Asian Antiquities Museum, New Delhi, the Archaeological Museum, Nalanda, and Archaeological Section of the Indian Museum, Calcutta for a number of years. He has to his credit the scientific documentation of over fifty thousand antiquities, in these museums, representing the rich cultural heritage of the country and comprising of sculptures, bronzes, terracottas, beads, seals and sealing, ancient Indian numismatics, wood work, miniatures and paintings, textiles and Pearce collection of gems, ranging from the earliest times to the late medieval period. He was awarded, in 1987, a fellowship, for his monograph on the temples of Himachal Pradesh, by the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi. He has authored more than fifty books.