Major issues mentioned in Ramayana
The Ramayana is a Sanskrit epic from Ancient India. It is a very important epic of Hinduism. The epic, traditionally ascribed to the Maharishi Valmiki who narrates the life of Rama,prince of Ayodhya.
Valmiki had successfully represented social issues of that time in poetic form in the great epic, Ramayana. Inequality, discrimination, class hierarchy, women status and other rules or regulations of the society are some of the major issues highlighted in Ramayana.
During the time of the Ramayana, India's society was largely patriarchal and women were expected to be perfect wives that were submissive to their fathers, husbands or sons. Sita, a princess, made the decision to leave the palace with her husband but in later events of epic she is being bannned in kingdom by Rama. Also, she had supposed to prove herself to be pure on various times.
Not only Sita, other female characters of Ramayana have to deal with issues created by patriarchal society. For instance, Kakeyi wants to rule the country but she has no access to that and she is supposed to rule through her son.
Sita is the only one who initiated a new approach to righteousness, dignity and unimpeachable noncooperation with patriarchal demands both from Rama and from society of that time by rejecting the proposal of coming back to the kingdom and denied to prove herself pure again and again. She decided to emerge to land by herself rather than living in patriarchal society.
Although Ramayana is primarily a religious text, it also contains many political themes and ideas that continues to be relevant still. There are many political issues related to throne.
One of the central idea is the idea of dharma and duty Rama follows the path of righteousness and justice and Ravana was opposite to him. Ultimately, Rama's committment to dharma enables him to defeat Ravana.
Ramayana also highlights the importance of good governance by portraying the relationship between ruler and the ruled. Rama is portrayed as a benevolent king who cares for his subjects and is willing to make personal sacrifices for their well being.
Consequently, Ramayana teaches lesson of good governance that is essential for the well being of society. According to this, leaders must always act in accordance with moral principles and the rule of law.
