Vaidehi is the name of Sita, Ram's wife in the epic Ramayana. Ram and Sita were very much married ... Sita was first abducted by Ravan ... the first separation ... which led to the fight between Ram and Ravan which Ram won and brought back Sita. At that time, Sita had to go through an Agni Pariksha to prove that she was 'pure' as she was held captive in Lanka for a year ... and ever since then, Agni Pariksha is the name given to any severe test of faith any person has to go through.
They then lived happily and Ram was crowned King of Ayodhya and reigned for several years with Sita as his queen. Then because of people casting aspersions on Sita's character because of the time she spent in Lanka, Ram was forced to exile Sita again to the forest ... their second separation. Sita never came back to Ram in her life ... she gave birth to her children Luv and Kush in the forest, brought them up there, and eventually the sons defeated Ram in battle ... Ram and Sita met again, Ram wanted to take Sita and his sons back but people started talking again and Sita could not bear it any longer - she prayed to her Mother Earth who opened up and took her daughter back into her fold.
Sita has many names - Janki - daughter of Janak, Vaidehi - daughter of Videha- another name for Janak.
(Sita was the adopted daughter of King Janak, she was found by him in a furrow when he was ploughing the earth as part of his ritual for obtaining a child and was thought to be born from Mother Earth)
Maybe the serial makers wanted to call the female protagonist Vaidehi to emphasize that she will go through many trials to prove her innocence, and changed it because Vaidehi is a pretty old-fashioned name. 😃
Edited by DiyaS - 13 years ago