Thoughts about Dr. Doniger's Interview in Outlook

It is interesting to read alternative viewpoints about our epics, and we should be open to insightful ideas and criticisms that scholars of other civilizations may have to make of our own (Indian) civilization, social milieu and other cultural markers. If we become dense and impermeable and refuse to allow fresh breeze to revitalize our society, we may lose a lot and end up as a stale stinking pit - without life and vitality, bound by ropes of social mores that have lost its elasticity.
However, that does not mean that we should refrain from reiterating certain aspects that are likely to be missed out. For example, while the author Dr. Doniger may be correct in criticizing certain aspects of the character of Lord Sri Rama, we should not forget, while reading the criticism, that it demanded a great strength of character, tremendous willingness to undergo physical hardships, strain, and the insecurity he had to face while abandoning the comforts of a royal palace and venturing out into the jungles just for the upliftment of Dharma. He made a great sacrifice for a cause greater than himself. The magnitude of the sacrifice can be grasped if we only consider which modern minister, politician, or leader would be willing to forsake the pleasure of ruling over a dominion. Sri Rama abandoned the throne just as he was about to enjoy the wonderful royal privilege. He did it to ensure that his father did not stray from the path of Dharma, though it caused his father Dasharatha great anguish ultimately resulting in his death. This is a great lesson that we have to learn from this epic, and Sri Rama has provided many other such valuable pointers for good conduct for which he is ardently venerated.
According to Hindu tradition, Sri Rama is a human first, though a divine incarnation. And as a human he is not expected to be perfect as God is supposed to be perfect. He is to have certain imperfections like any human. The tragedy of concentrating on the imperfections is that we may lose sight of the great good qualities with which he was endowed. Yet we must not lose sight of those imperfections, and we must take care to always be very watchful reminding ourselves “I should not be like that”. Well! We may even turn out to be better persons than Sri Rama! Alternatively, it may be quite possible that in Sri Rama’s treatment of Sita there could be great divine principles that we are not aware of as yet.
Just as an aside, I draw an example from Chemistry. A Perfect Gas obeys the mathematical relationship P.V = R.T (P=pressure, V=volume, T= temperature, R=Gas Constant). But in the real world a gas is not perfect- the collisions of the molecules are not perfectly elastic, the molecules occupy space and so on. So the gas equation gets modified to a more complicated (P + a/V^ 2) x (V-b) = R.T.
How much more pretty and simpler an ideal world would have been!