People objected to my name. People objected to my name: Research on Ramayana’s negative female characters, the first girl in the family to do a PhD Achi-News

Education not only improves a person’s personality but also makes him successful. Vaidehi, who lives in Talgajarra village in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, never thought that her studies would make her special among the common man.

She is the first girl from her family to do a PhD. During this time he did research that made him famous. This research was based on the women negative characters of Ramayana, whom Vaidehi described as positive with logic.

Today in ‘Yeh Main Hoon’, meet Dr Vaidehi Hariyani, an Assistant Professor who teaches at Bhavnagar University, Gujarat.

The family always placed importance on education

I come from a family where neither my grandmother nor my mother are educated. But my father was a teacher. My family always valued education and asked me to read and write a lot. Not only my dream but also my family’s dream to do a PhD.

In the society I come from, girls get married early but my family members are open minded.

With his support I am the first girl in my family to do a PhD.

It raised eyebrows when he was doing his PhD

My family and my relatives had no problem with my studies, but where I was doing research, some people used to say in quiet voices that looks, she is single even at this age. Don’t know how much she will study.

To tell the truth, the women with me and around me are married, so they would have been surprised and troubled after seeing me, but I ignored all these things and concentrated on my research.

Research on Ramayana

The famous storyteller Morari Bapu is my uncle. He is also my guru. I grew up listening to Ramayana and it was with her encouragement that I did research on the negative female characters present in Ramayana.

I have done a PhD in English and my research topic was-

A Contemporary Retelling of Ramayana: Searching for a New Cultural Meaning. I stayed focused on the female characters of Ramayana.

Many people expressed opposition to my name

My name ‘Vaidehi’ is derived from Ramayana. When my name was kept, many people objected because my name means Sita. People used to say that no girl should have this name, otherwise those girls have to suffer like Mother Sita. I am very happy in my life and with my name.

I was so moved by what I had been hearing from people since childhood that I wanted to know what my name meant and what Sitaji’s life had been like. When these things were happening in my mind, I also thought that I should focus not only on Sita, but also on other female characters of Ramayana.

Sita was not poor, she was very strong

Mother Sita has a positive character in Ramayana but she was made a poor woman. In my research I found that Sita was a very strong and powerful woman. She may have gone into exile, been imprisoned in Lanka or had to go through the ordeal. He took every decision on his own in every situation.

No one pressured him to accept his decision. A person who makes his own decisions about his life can never be poor.

Surpakha was not bad

Famous poet and writer AO According to Ramanujam, more than 300 versions of Ramayana have been written. I cannot say who is right and who is wrong, but I did academic research on all the books written on Ramayana.

There is a lot of difference between the books written in the Bhakti period and the Ramayana written in the contemporary world. Surapakha was shamed in the programs based on Valmiki Ramayana and till now Ramayana. There is no mention of Surapakha’s husband in Valmiki Ramayana.

But when I read Kavita Kane’s book ‘Lanka Princess’, I found mention of Surapakha’s husband in it.

It is written in it that Surpakha’s name was Meenakshi. Her husband had gone to the forest to hunt. There was a field of huge grass in the forest where no one could see each other.

Coincidentally, Lord Ram had also gone hunting at that time. When they heard movement, they thought it was an animal and fired an arrow which hit Surapakha’s husband. Meenakshi became Surpakha only after this incident. A person becomes negative or positive according to the circumstances.

Similarly, if we talk about Kaikeyi, like every mother, she wanted to ensure the future of her son Bharat. He thought well of his child. If thought from her point of view, it wasn’t bad.

In my research, I referenced many books and described these female villains as positive.

There was a lot of risk in this research

It was very dangerous to portray the characters, who people have considered negative for many years, as positive. This research was also difficult for me because I have always been listening and reading the same Ramayana that everyone has heard. My faith in Ramayana is also unwavering. I had to put my faith aside and do unbiased academic research, so I was afraid that I would mix these two things and my feelings would be reflected in this research.

So I studied many books and gave their references because I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s faith.

I want to do research on Ramayana. Through this I want to promote my Hindu culture and English is the best language for this.