Girls in India are often blessed with the adage “Be like Sita-Savitri” by their elders. Sita and Savitri are the “ideal” women of Indian mythology, who have shaped the destinies of Indian girls for centuries.

Sita is the heroine of The Ramayana — one of the two great Indian epics — who followed her husband Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, in his exile. Sita was kidnapped by Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka and was forced to undergo agnipariksha or fire-test to prove her chastity before Rama when he refused to accept her back. Savitri, a character from The Mahabharata — the other great Indian epic — married prince Satyavan, knowing well that he was destined to die within a year. When Yama, the Hindu God of Death, came to carry Satyavan’s soul away, she followed him, and convinced him to give back Satyavan’s life.

In Indian society, the ideals that Sita and Savitri represent — unconditional devotion to their husbands — is the most important criterion for a “good’ girl.” For generations, most Indian girls have been taught to emulate these ideals. From the moment she is born, a girl knows that she is destined to be the loving and devoted wife of a man, who requires her unquestioning, uncomplaining submission to him. She must sacrifice all her wishes and endure her suffering in silence.

India has come a long way from the mythological era and girls now legally share equal rights with men. But the age old saying “Be like Sita-Savitri” has not died out. It still lives in the insecurities that Indian girls suffer from with society frowning down upon them, in the fearful silence of a thousand molested girls, and in the confidence of those men who believe they have a right to use a woman just as they wish. And it will grow in the minds of all those children yet to be born.