Deities

This page is a quick guide to the Hindu deities portrayed in Sita Sings The Blues.

Lakshmi, Vishnu, and Brahma

 * Lakshmi is the four-armed goddess who emerges from the water at the very start of the film. She is consort to Vishnu.  Sita is an incarnation of Lakshmi (just as Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu).  She is the goddess of "wealth, prosperity, purity, and generosity; and the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm."


 * Vishnu is the sky-blue god having his leg massaged by Lakshmi early in the film. He, the preserver, is one of the Hindu trinity of Gods (the other two being Brahma: the creator and Shiva: the destroyer). He is the god of "the past, present and future, the creator and destroyer of all existences, one who supports, sustains and governs the Universe".  In the opening of the film, the universe is held up by Vishnu's finger.  Rama is the Seventh Avatar/incarnation of Vishnu.


 * Brahma, the god of creation, is the four-faced, white-bearded god who appears with Lakshmi and Vishnu at the start of the film. Brahma was born "in the lotus flower which grew from the navel of Vishnu at the beginning of the universe."

Shiva, Agni, and Hanuman

 * Shiva, the god of destruction, is one of the supreme Hindu gods, on par with Vishnu and Brahma. In the film he appears in the depiction of Nataraja, the blue four-armed god with snakes in his hair dancing in a circle of fire. The ten-headed demon king Ravana is described as a devout Shiva-worshipper.


 * Hanuman is the ape-like humanoid (vanara) who helps Rama rescue Sita. Hanuman is an incarnation of Shiva: curious, brave, and above all else, devoted to Rama and Sita.  In Hindu mythology, Hanuman is not a 'monkey', per se, but a vanara -- a sort of half-monkey, half-human, with a tail.


 * Agni is the god of fire, and is often depicted riding a ram, carrying a sword and an axe. When Sita goes through the 'trial by fire'(Agni pariksha) to prove her purity, it is Agni who carries her out.  Depending on which Hindu traditions and texts one follows, Agni may actually be an aspect of the god Shiva.