66 "Presenting" the Past
of bedecked and bejewelled women."^64 Contrary to the religious values
of simplicity, renunciation of materialism, nonattachment, and self-denial,
the serial was what many people called a costume and jewelry show.
Being representative of the new era of modern entrepreneurial middle-
class, the Ramayan was essentially a moneymaking endeavor where both
the spiritual sentiments of all brands and consumerist items of all sorts
were displayed and promoted in a free-market bonanza of TV commer-
cials. The sponsors of the serial, Mafatlal and Colgate-Palmolive, paid
well for it. Sita herself sponsored products such as Khatau, Konark TV,
Himtex, and Nirma washing powder. The serial was one of the biggest
revenue earners for Doordarshan and fetched a sum of Rs. 2.5 million per
week from the commercials.^65
However, there were reports of providing only cheap vegetarian food
under the pretext of shooting the "holy epic," poor living conditions, and
meager wages for the junior artists and the locals of Umargaon, where
the serial was shot. As the serial was a smashing success, even the major
artists who were upcoming put up with the treatment. There were reports
that Sagar had already made Rs. 235 million by mid-1988. All this took
place in the name of promoting moral values. When Sagar was confronted
with the criticism of poor production, he retorted, "What are we trying
to promote? The costumes? The jewellery? The sets? Or the moral values
of Ramayan?"^66 When the saffron-colored Ramayan video was put out, it
also became a compulsory part of the dowry in weddings in North India.
Typifying the ironic values of this ambivalent class that is torn between
tradition and modernity and oscillates between spiritual mores and con-
sumerist core, the Ramayan came to serve as a comfortable double-sided
cloak that they could don and doff as per convenience.
The serial had no politically liberative use of the popular story, but
seemed to have a totally reactionary agenda. First of all, as discussed
earlier, the folk genres were superseded, the diverse traditions were dis-
missed, and the whole serial could be described in two phrases: "singu-
lar Ramayana" and "simply Ram." Sita represented the women's return
to the traditional subordination, submission, resignation, and passivity.
As opposed to Catakantaravana-katai, where Sita, with Rama as her chari-
oteer, combats Ravana and kills him, Sagar's Ramayan depicts the more
"appropriate" image of Sita as a helpless pawn in a few men's game of
righteousness and power.
Men rule, men decide, and men carry out things, and women play the
usual submissive support roles, highlighting the emotional overtones of
different situations by lamenting or laughing. Men are shrewd and hence
in the public realm, but women are gullible and so restricted to the pri-
vate realm. Even the marriages of Rama and his brothers are entirely dis-
cussed and decided by the fathers, and the boys' mothers come to know
of the event much after the actual wedding. Men stand for righteousness