Back in the days of Very Long Ago,
a blue baby was born. Her name was Rama, daughter of the Maharajah Dasharatha.
The Maharajah had prayed for a son and made sacrifices and very likely put a
lot of guilt on his four wives…but instead he was finally given a daughter.
The
Maharajah couldn’t have been too upset for long however, because they quickly
figured out that the bright blue baby girl was the Avatar of Vishnu, born to
win a great victory someday and rid the world of a dreadful enemy. So, with
minimal grumbling, the Maharajah raised her with all the education and combat
training that a male heir would have received.
Somewhere
else in the same time zone was born a baby boy named Sita. He too was an
avatar, hosting the goddess Lakshmi. His father, the King Janaka, was a little
more overprotective, and thought no woman would be good enough to marry his
son. When Sita was of age, his father presented a challenge to any eligible
woman for his hand in marriage. There was a divine bow that only Sita could
bend, and if any woman could match his strength and bend the bow, then they
would be married.
Rama,
in all her blue glory, strength, and education, decided to give the competition
a try. She presents herself to King Janaka and his son, picks up the bow, and
steels herself. She begins to bend it as the watching crowd gasps in awe, when
SNAP! The bow breaks cleanly down the middle.
The king
and his son freeze in wonder and incredulity; so far no one had been able to
even bend the bow, and this woman had just broken it with minimal effort.
Nonetheless, the guidelines of the competition were clear, and Rama and Sita
were married soon after, quickly finding themselves in a genuinely happy union. (Who wore the pants at the wedding? We don’t know.
That detail was lost to history.)
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| Rama and Sita's Wedding (Creative Commons) |
Author’s Note: This is a retelling of the traditional story
of Rama and Sita’s marriage, except gender swapped. Why not switch up the
gender roles? The story shows that they were almost equal in strength anyway.
Bibliography: “Rama wins Sita”, from Indian Myth and
Legend by Donald A Mackenzie. Web source.
