At Punaura Dham In Sitamarhi, Locals Worship Sita And Treat Ram Like Their Son-in-law

In Mithila paintings, although Ram carries a bow, both his and Sita’s faces are expressionless. “The style of Mithila paintings leaves no space for emotions,” says Mithila artist Shalini Karn.

Anoop Maithil, who is agitating for a separate Mit­hila state, says, “Janaki Mata or Sita is the most unique example of women’s empowerment, but she isn’t promoted properly. Instead, she’s depic­ted as weak. Unlike Sita, today’s wom­en are self-­sufficient and educated, but when their husbands abandon them, they demand alimony.”

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“Despite being a princess, she lived in a forest, where she cut wood to feed herself and her child­ren. She made Luv and Kush so adept in war that together, they beat Ram’s army. We want this ima­ge of hers to be promoted and a Central Women’s University est­a­blished in her name,” he says.

Barely 2 km from Punaura Dham is another Sita temple in Sitamarhi’s marketplace, called Jan­aki Mandir. According to mythology, a ritual was performed at this place on the seventh day after Sita’s birth. Here too, there are idols of Ram and Sita, but people come to worship Sita.

It is believed that Birbal Das, an ascetic from Ayodhya, came here on hearing of this temple and stayed back. Mahant Triloki Das of the temple informs, “Janaki Mandir was built during the time of Darb­hanga Maharaj.”

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Uniquely, this temple has a statue of Mahatma Gan­dhi, and unlike the usual iconography, it com­es without his spectacles and stick. Made of white stone, Gandhi is seen sitting with fol­ded han­ds. Below it is written his favourite hymn “Rag­hupati Raghava Raja Ram, Patita Pavana Sita Ram”.

The statue is so unlike the usual ones of Gandhi that many devotees fail to recognise him, making offerings to the idol of flowers and tika on the fore­head. No one is sure why and when the statue was installed.

Politics over Ram

For Bihar, 1990 was a turning point. On October 23, then CM Lalu Prasad Yadav halted the Rath Yatra of BJP leader L.K. Advani—meant to polarise Hindu voters in the name of Ram and the Ram Temple—in Samastipur, and had him arrested.

A year before that, in 1989, Bhagalpur had witne­ssed the worst communal riots in Bihar’s history. It had started with a Ramsheela procession.

In his biography, Gopalganj to Raisina-My Polit­i­cal Journey, Lalu wrote that the Rath Yatra threatened to return Bihar to 1989. Since then, the BJP has been trying to extract votes in Ram’s name. It’s yet to form a government alone, though vote sha­res and seats indicate the party has increased its base with every assembly election.

In 1995, the BJP had just 7.54 per cent vote share in Bihar, which increased to 19.46 per cent in 2020. It indicates that while politics over Ram does imp­r­­ove the BJP’s prospects in Bihar, it’s not as sweeping as in Uttar Pradesh. Analysts believe that in Bihar, caste is still more important than Hindutva.

Chandan, a senior Patna-based journalist, says, “In Bihar, caste is still above religion, especially for the marginalised. Secondly, in UP, the Ram tem­ple movement had a bigger impact on people’s minds as it went on for a long time, unlike in Bih­ar, where the movement almost petered out with the arrest of Advani.”

“Caste consciousness is stronger in Bihar than in UP because of the memories of the 90s, when Bihar faced gruesome caste violence,” he adds.

Perhaps, the BJP’s image in Bihar as an upper caste party is also a factor. “Leaders of OBC and oth­er backward castes have emerged only recen­tly,” he says. “That’s why BJP still needs an ally.”

Interestingly, BJP leaders never promoted Sita in Bihar. They tried to disassociate her from Ram and popularised the Jai Sri Ram slogan. Sitamarhi locals expressed disappointment with the central government for not promoting Sita with the same vigour as it does for Ram. Chandan says, “If the BJP had promoted Sita, they would have got women’s votes easily, because women of Bihar, especia­lly north Bihar, are emotionally attached to Sita.”

Instead, the BJP is seen leveraging caste, hatred aga­inst minorities, and Ram, to increase its vote share. It has started promoting backward community leaders in the state unit, and has rene­wed targeting Muslims in Seemanchal, with Un­i­­on home minister Amit Shah addressing his first rally since the 2020 state assembly polls in Purnia.

The party has also increased its religious activit­ies. Ram Navami is celebrated on a large scale, with an increased presence of swords and other wea­pons. Communal violence, too, has increased. Aro­und 117 incidents of communal riots were reported in Bihar in 2020, the highest among 28 states according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). In 2019, the state had reported 135 such cases. Though the numbers fell by over 50 per cent in 2021, Bihar remains vulnerable to the politics of hate.

“Bihar used to be a land of socialist moveme­nts, with socialist leaders helming the state for over two decades. That’s why communal politics hasn’t yet succeeded in Bihar,” says political anal­yst Mah­endra Suman. “But I’m not sure if this will hold in the coming years. Since 2009-10, the BJP and the RSS have increased their activities in Bihar, and after the BJP’s landslide victory in the 2014 Gen­e­ral Elections, the scenario changed qui­te a lot,” Suman adds.

(This appeared in the print edition as "An Honoured Guest at Sita’s Home")

(Views expressed are personal)

Umesh Kumar Ray is a freelance journalist