Ram’s Search for Sita in the Ramayaṇa: Information Seeking in an Ancient Indian Epic

Abstract

In understanding a person’s information seeking behavior and choice of information sources, it becomes very important to understand the context surrounding the search. This context gives rise to the information need and leads a person to look for information. Research in information seeking behavior, while concentrating on systemand-person centric research, has, so far, left out studying how information seeking behavior was documented in historical and mythological records, in religious and spiritual texts and in major epics of the world. In this theoretical study, frameworks of context and source choice when looking for information will be applied to a detailed examination of Rām’s inquiry on the whereabouts of his missing wife Sītā in the Rāmāyaṇa, an ancient epic dating back to 5-to-4 century B.C. The study should shed light on recorded information seeking behavior in one of the oldest epics of the world, and help towards understanding the historical evolution of information seeking behavior in context.

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