Narrating stories through sarees!

Did you ever occur to you that a saree could help you narrate stories? Well, they actually can! Aavaranaa conducted an event some time back on such sarees. The event was called "Swamy Katha" which means "Stories about the Gods" and was aimed at creating awareness about the concept of story telling through sarees. According to Vijayalakshmi, Managing Partner of Aavaranaa, during the older days, sarees were actually used to narrate stories to young ones! It was a great way of spending quality time with your loved ones. Sadly, our modern lifestyle has changed all that. Now days the only time we gets to spend time together is when dinner is served in front of the telly! Showing their support and promoting the concept of re-instill this old tradition in us was the famous celebrity couple Yugendran & Malini.
Above, is the picture of one of the sarees from the collection. The story described here is 'Sita's Swayamvar' - the ceremony where she choose her husband. I've described the story below. If this interests you, then you may want to step into Aavaranaa and take a look at the whole collection! Aavaranaa is located at 15 ashoka Street, Alwarpet, Chennai. Ph#: +91 44 24988292. You can also check them out at www.aavaranaa.com


Sita's Swayamvar:

One day Vishwamitra, the sage, received an invitation from King Janak, ruler of Janakpur, to attend the Swayamvar (choosing of groom) ceremony of his daughter, Sita. Kings, princes and sages from all over were invited to attend the ceremony to win the hand of the beautiful princess. Vishwamitra asked Rama and Lakshman to accompany him, and so the three set out for Janakpur, stopping on the way to take a dip in the holy river Ganga and finally reached the beautiful kingdom of Janakpur.

King Janak himself welcomed the sage. Vishwamitra introduced Rama and Lakshman to the King as the brave and divine sons of King Dashrath. Later on the brothers set out to visit the kingdom when they chanced upon Sita in a temple. Rama was immediately enraptured by her beauty, and Sita, in turn, fell in love with Rama. She prayed that she be wed to Rama.
Soon, the Swayamvara ceremony was held. A large, heavy bow of Lord Shiva, was placed in the center of the swayamvara hall, and Lord Janak announced that the person who managed to string the bow would win the hand of the fair Sita. The ceremony was open to all, and one by one every man in the room tried his hand at stringing the bow,the princes from various states and kingdom tried their luck in attempting to lift and break the Bow of Shiva. But it was not possible! Even the most powerful amongst all the kings, the great Ravana of Lanka could not even move the bow one inch above the ground!

Then all the kings collectively tried to lift the bow, but they still did not succeed. King Janak was now confronted with the prospect of Sita remaining unmarried, and he was overwhelmed with worry.

Finally, it was Lord Rama's turn. As he walked towards the bow, and Sita's heart sank, sure that if such rugged and brave Kings could not even lift the bow, then the young and slender Rama would surely fail to do so as well. But Rama said a prayer and in one breath lifted the bow, strung it, and broke it into two with a thundering sound. Everyone was astounded and immediately broke into cheers. Sita then walked up to Lord Rama and placed a garland around his neck.

This, however, made King Ravana jealous and insulted, and he vowed to defeat Rama some day if the opportunity arose.

Thus, in a most wonderful setting, the auspicious marriage of Rama and Sita took place. Along with Rama, his three brothers also got married to the three sisters of Sita; and four sons of King Dasharatha married four daughters of King Janaka!