Although separated by centuries, these two epics arrive at the same disturbing question: should the king let his queen burn? It is a dilemma that separates the morality of the husband from the duty of the leader.<\/p>\n
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This article is part of Rethinking the Classics<\/a>. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books and artworks. This is the canon \u2013 with a twist.<\/em><\/p>\n After rescuing Sita and slaying Ravana, Rama initially rejects his wife. However privately certain he is of Sita\u2019s loyalty, as a king, he must reckon with the public morality of his realm. Is a woman who has lived in another man\u2019s captivity fit to be the queen? Furious, Sita demands a test by fire herself. She pleads with the god of fire not to let her burn if she has remained faithful to her husband and walks into the flames unscathed.<\/p>\n Queen Guenever, on the other hand, really is unfaithful to Arthur. As a husband, he has long made peace with her and Lancelot\u2019s relationship, as he loves them both dearly. But when the other knights of Arthur\u2019s court catch them red-handed in adultery, Arthur can no longer look away. As king, he is duty bound to submit to and uphold the public morality of his kingdom. He orders that Guenever be burnt at the stake. What makes the dilemma even greater for both kings is that both are bringers of a moral code to their respective realms. <\/p>\n Arthur dedicates his entire reign to implement his extraordinary political experiment of replacing \u201cmight\u201d with \u201cright\u201d. He replaces brute force with a system of justice that binds even him. To this end, he creates his famous Round Table, recruiting knights who use their valour and strength to help the weak, thus transforming power from an instrument of oppression into that of law and order.<\/p>\n Rama too, is a great political innovator. Upon his ascension to the throne, he establishes Ram-Rajya<\/a> \u2013 a utopian state of righteousness and equality before law.<\/p>\n When faced with the impossible choice between breaking moral codes or letting their queens burn, they decide to uphold the morality of their kingdoms at great personal cost.<\/p>\n It is of little consequence that Lancelot rescues Guenever and that fire itself refuses to burn Sita. Both kings must endure terrible suffering for their choice. T.H White\u2019s Arthur laments: <\/p>\n What is right? [\u2026] What is wrong? If Lancelot does come to rescue her, he may kill those innocent fellows of the guard, which I have sent to burn her. They have trusted me and I have put them there to keep him off, because it is justice. If he saves her, they will be killed. If they are not killed, she will be burned. But burned to death, [\u2026], in horrible burning flames \u2013 and she is my much-loved Gwen.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Valmiki\u2019s Rama is forced by the god of fire to justify himself not just to Sita but to the three worlds of the heavens, the earth and the netherworld. He pleads: <\/p>\n Before the three worlds, Sita needed to be purified. She had dwelt for a long period time in Ravana\u2019s inner quarters. Had she not been purified, virtuous people would have told me that I am foolish and driven by desire. I know that Sita is single-mindedly devoted to me and that her mind is only on me. However, I am devoted to the truth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Ultimately, Arthur\u2019s \u201cright\u201d would have burnt Guenever alive were it not for the \u201cmight\u201d of Lancelot. And it is precisely Rama\u2019s Ram-Rajya that leads to the unfair treatment of Sita. <\/p>\n In both epics, paradoxically, good triumphs only when the prevailing moral order or justice system is defied. It is this inherent and underlying contradiction within both texts that makes them resonate with many of our very contemporary concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Joe Biden granted an \u201cunconditional\u201d presidential pardon<\/a> to his son Hunter Biden for tax and gun-related offences in 2024, critics accused him of abusing public power to protect his own family.<\/p>\n Weeks later, on his first day back in office, Donald Trump granted sweeping clemency<\/a> to nearly 1,600 people charged with or convicted of offences stemming from the January 6 Capitol attack. <\/p>\n The circumstances might be different, but the dilemma is very much the same that we find in Valmiki and T.H White\u2019s texts: do our leaders have the right to a private morality?<\/p>\n It is their capacity to ask such profound and enduring questions that has kept both the Ramayana and the legend of King Arthur alive across centuries. Both stories have and will be retold by each generation and will continue to return as novels<\/a>, films<\/a>, TV series<\/a> and graphic novels<\/a>. <\/p>\n For anyone wishing to enter these wonderful worlds, my recommendation would be to begin with T. H. White\u2019s The Once and Future King<\/a> and Valmiki\u2019s Ramayana<\/a>, available in an excellent English translation by Bibek Debroy. Read together, they show why the epics still matter. They don\u2019t give us easy answers, but they teach us how to ask better questions.<\/p>\n
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When might makes right<\/h2>\n
Beyond the canon<\/h2>\n
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