Valmiki’s Women
The intentionally misinterpreted ‘second sex’ in the celebrated epic.
Myths and epics shape a society. They dictate the ways of the world and influence human behaviours. Since time immemorial, the epics like ‘The Ramayana’ and ‘The Mahabharata’ have moulded Indian culture, customs and rituals. Translated and transliterated, the works have served as reference points for all kinds of communication that revolved around religion and spirituality and in some cases, politics.
Based on the eternal theme of the rise of the good overpowering the evil, ‘The Ramayana’ has been projected as the life history of Rama, the King of Ayodhya. Supporting his feats and enjoying a considerable spotlight in the epic, stands Lakshmana, the highly obedient, self-sacrificing brother of Rama.
“Valmiki’s Women” by Anand Neelakantan was one of my recent insightful reads. Divided into 5 chapters, this book dives into the backstories of the women characters — Bhoomija, Shanta, Manthara, Tataka and Meenakshi, exploring their life journeys and analysing their interests and motivations as characters.
After I finished reading the book, I realised how disturbing and unreal the portrayal of women has been in this epic. The women characters have been categorised either as a ‘damsel in distress’ or as a ‘cunning or manipulating witch’.
Tossed between these two extremes, women have been denied the mere existence of being ‘humans’. While men have been shown as victims of fate, women have been depicted as either good, obedient wives or as selfish witches and maids full of lust for money or power.
Now that I go back to the epic, I can’t help but ask the following questions:
1. Why is Sita represented as the cause of the battle between Rama and Ravana portraying her as the source of all the conflict that plagued the kingdom of Ayodhya?
2. Why does the epic has a limited to no mention of Shanta, the only daughter of King Dasharatha who was later sacrificed in lieu of being the proud parent of four sons?
3. Why was Manthara conceived as an ugly, manipulative maid when all she was doing was protecting the interests of her adopted daughter, Kaikeyi?
4. Why didn’t Tataka receive no recognition for sacrificing her life to protect the forest — her abode where she resided with his husband and sons?
5. How did the epic ignore the love and affection of Meenakshi towards the two brothers of Ayodhya and tranform her into an evil Surpanakha?
Women are misunderstood. In epics and in society.
As much as we hate to see our wishes being trampled upon, our rights being curbed and our voices being unheard; we also don’t want to acquire the stature of the pedestal and be tagged as the ‘Mother’ or the ‘Goddess’.
We are happy in our own skin. We just want to remain human. This mere acknowledgement would be enough!
