WOMEN IN HINDU MYTHOLOGY
Women in Hindu mythology have mostly been portrayed as or rather thought of as either weak or wicked, but when you dig deeper, you can see that characters like Sita and Savitri had a lot more to them than just being the faithful wives who obeyed their husband’s every command.
When you think of the Ramayana, you think of the hero: Lord Ram, and of the supposed villain: Ravana. Nobody gives a second thought to the woman who is the root of the story to begin with: Surpanaka. She was the one who sang praises about Sita’s beauty and in turn instilled tempting thoughts about her in Ravana’s mind, she was the one who caused an entire war because a man refused her advances and humiliated her. That was her power. The kidnapping of Sita, the murder plots, the war, the death of thousands, and the cursed fate that descended upon the entire kingdom of Lanka, tenfold, were all the result of the plan set into motion by Surpanaka.
The role of women, positive or negative, is often downplayed or even completely ignored in history and mythology. Just because these women didn’t exactly conform to the patriarchal rules of their times, their contributions to the stories were often overlooked or conveniently ignored.
The role of Kunti and Draupadi in the lives of the Pandavas was of a much greater magnitude than what is thought of by people, Before Draupadi was married to the Pandavas, Kunti was the only one who had supreme control over her sons, and the only one, apart from their guru, whom they blindly obeyed. After Draupadi’s rather tendentious marriage to the five brothers, they eventually came to rely on her heavily for her views and opinions on political as well as personal matters. Even after Yudhishthira short-sightedly gambled away his brothers, himself and even Draupadi, even after she endured the Kauravas openly humiliating her in court, She still stood by the Pandavas in every step of their lives.
She made unimaginable sacrifices including her honour and still fulfilled all her duties as a mother. In addition to the fact that she was being “shared” by five different men and had to walk through fire to “purify” herself after her time with each one was over, she survived all of her sons being mercilessly slaughtered by ashwathama, and still forgave him. Draupadi is unarguably one of the most important characters in the Mahabharata and yet her importance is often downplayed, just because she was a woman.
Women in mythological tales are also often wrongly punished or made out to be villains, One example in the Mahabharata that illustrates the unjust treatment of women is the story of Madhavi. Madhavi was the daughter of King Yayati. Sage Galava had asked Yayati for 800 white horses with one of the ears black, and Yayati, upon realizing that such a demand could not be fulfilled by him, Found a “Solution” to his dilemma by instead offering up his daughter Madhavi.
Now, It was preordained that Madhavi would give birth to four kings, So Yayati, being the father every girl dreamed of, offered his daughter up to the sage, who in turn offered her up to sage Vishwamitra who then gave her to three different men who all wished to father kings and When they were done with her, she was sent back to her father, who then asked her to get married. But Madhavi, obviously tired by now, refuses and chooses to live as an ascetic.
decades later, when her father is thrown out of heaven because he didn’t have enough good deeds stored up, Madhavi, being the epitome of grace and righteousness, then goes to her sons to ask them to give their grandfather a part of their good credits so he could go to heaven, the sons refused, owing to the way their grandfather treated their mother like a literal object. But Madhavi then preaches the lesson of benevolence and forgiveness, after which her sons give in to her request, and her father goes to heaven.
The Mahabharata is meant to be a collection of stories that teach and preach the right and moral way to live life, by following one’s dharma and living by the rules. But What does this story teach young women and girls today? That they are the property of their fathers? Of their husbands? A woman who not only fulfilled every demand of her husband but also forgave, after being used was considered the “ideal” wife?
All these stories do is endorse male supremacy and encourage women to be the graciously docile creatures men expect them to be.
While there are multiple stories in Indian mythology that insinuate such messages, There are also stories that illustrate the strength of the female characters in them but have been misrepresented and as a result, have been clustered with the covertly misogynistic ones. One such example is the trivialised character of Sita in the Ramayana. Sita: The Warrior of Mithila, one of my favourite books is a story based on the Ramayana, but with Sita as the main character, It tells her story as a warrior, still devoted to her husband, but not in the way people usually assume she was. She is shown as having her own opinions and not being afraid of asserting them.
We don’t know these scriptures well enough to say with 100% certainty that a particular character was a certain way, there are numerous accounts of the same story, and so, none of the statements made above is truly one hundred per cent accurate, but neither are the scriptures themselves, they’re myths until proven otherwise. But these stories, are nevertheless a part of our culture, a part of the Indian way of life, and they are meant to teach us morals and lessons. This is why is it important to make sure the representation is 100% accurate.
Novels like ‘The Palace of Illusions and ‘Sita: An Illustrated retelling of Ramayana’ are incredibly important in today’s world, because they offer a much better representation of trivialised characters, especially women while maintaining the authenticity of the Story in the first place.
