¹Assistant Professor, Department of Sanskrit, Saheed Nurul Islam Mahavidyalaya, Tentulia, North 24 Parganas,West Bengal, India

DOI Link (Crossref) Prefix: https://doi.org/10.63431/AIJITR/3.III.2026.157-165

AIJITR, Volume 3, Issue –III, May - June, 2026, PP.157-165

Received on 31th May, 2026 & Accepted on 10th June, 2026, 

Published: 20th June, 2026.

Women in the Ramayana as moral architects whose choices shape the epic’s ethical, political, and emotional worlds. Moving beyond interpretations that portray female characters mainly as passive victims or symbols of obedience, the study analyses Sita, Kaikeyi, Kausalya, Mandodari, Tara, Shabari, Ahalya, and Surpanakha as fi gures of power, sacrifi ce, judgement, and resistance. Their actions infl uence kingship, family duty, exile, war, loyalty, and the interpretation of dharma. That sacrifi ce in the epic does not always indicate submission; it may also function as conscious agency, moral protest, or strategic intervention. Women support dharma when it protects justice and responsibility, yet they also expose its contradictions when custom produces suff ering or inequality. Through a women-centred reading, the Ramayana emerges as a contested moral narrative rather than a fi xed patriarchal code. Such an approach contributes to contemporary gender studies by recovering female voice, ethical authority, and interpretive complexity.