As a common theme in society, politics, and books, gender originates from mythology. Hindu mythology repeatedly reinforces gender in Indian society, where males have something to prove and females are forced to sacrifice their own happiness. In the Ramayana, a ruthless villain Ravan kidnaps Sita. Her husband, Rama, saves her, but then doubts her chastity because she has lived so long with another man. Sita is then forced to prove her innocence. Stories with this same archetype are repeated throughout the Mahabharata, another Hindu mythological text. In this story, the female character, Draupadi, is the common wife of a group called Pandavas. The Pandavas engage her as a prize in a match against a villain named Duryodhana. The Pandavas lose and Duryodhana takes Draupadi prisoner. As a standard feature of Hindu mythology, the female sacrifices herself for the ego of the male. Hindu mythology embodies the roles of males and females, which consequently influences gender in modern society by disadvantaging women. The Ramayana demonstrates Sita's helplessness when she is kidnapped, which, in turn, makes the entire female race seem weak. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The beauty of a woman does not consist in the fineness of her dress, but in the possession of a pure heart. In fact, such was the purity of heart that Sita possessed that it led her to renounce real life and leave for the forest with Rama" (Zechariah). Sita's perseverance despite her husband's doubts made her an idol for all women. First of Sita's process, or 'agnipariksha', society considered women only as objects rather than people of this stereotype of women through Sita's chastity. While the Ramayana demonstrates...... middle of paper.... ..rint.Hess, Linda Rejecting Sita: Indian Responses to the Ideal Man's Cruel Treatment of His Ideal Wife. Vol. 67. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.Leenerts, Cynthia “'How Can We Be Like were we once?': The Sita Collective and the Draupadi Collective in Raja Rao's Kanthapura and Jyotirmoyee Devi's The River Churning." South Asian Review 24.2 (2003): 84-105 in Contemporary Literary Criticism. vol. 255. Detroit : Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. April 21, 2014. Overview: Mahabharata." Epics for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 April 2014.Williams, George M. Handbook of Hindu Mythology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2003. Print.Zacharias, Usha. “Trial by Fire: Gender, Power, and Citizenship in Narratives of the Nation.” Duke University, April 19, 2001. Web April 18. 2014.