Raka Ray, Professor of sociology at UCL, Berkeley says that there is a polarization of the Indian woman. “She is either a victim or a heroine, witch or goddess, housewife or prime minister- these are the dual images that persist in our minds about Indian women”.
The reason I mention and specifically say “Hindu” mythology is because India, being the diverse land it is, has understood basic Hindu texts in its own ways over the years. Hindu mythology becomes more popular and that way, more accessible, to the Indian audience as compared to any other religious or mythological text. The reason for this can be the extensive media coverage Hindu texts have enjoyed since the time of Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana to now when we have shows about almost all Hindu Gods ranging from Lord Shiva to Lord Krishna and from Radha to Santoshi Maa. Another reason can be the fact that Hindu mythology is vast and diverse, with the texts boasting of 33 crore Gods and Goddesses. Other religions don’t have as rich a mythology as they have a history. So, Hindu mythology seems to enter the lives of all Indians, religion no bar, via texts or media or hearsay and thus, it seemed apt to explore the women ofHindu scriptures.
If we trace back the roots of the Indian woman, as described by Ray, we can find an eerie similarity between them and the women of the Hindu mythology. The polarization stems from the fact that women in Hindu texts, be it a goddess or a human character (so to say), have either been the ‘side-characters’ who exists in mythologies to give it shape and definition or they have been the central, action-inducing figures who chart out the course for the said myths.
Where Power Resides
Hillary Rodrigues in her article “Women in the worship of the great goddess” says correctly that in the Puranas, the goddesses have two basic qualities; they are either Shakti (the creative or active) or Prakriti (the material condition). When we talk about the powerful women/goddesses, they are the kind that embody Shakti, which literally translates in Hindi to strength. In these stories, power comes from not being controlled by a Male God(s).
One of the most powerful in Indian goddesses is Durga. Goddesses like Durga are considered dangerous and powerful; they are not controlled by male Gods. The story of how Durga is born is that the gods were defeated and driven out of heaven by the demon king Mahishasura. In desperate need of help, the gods went to the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. This is when Goddess Durga was created, as the supreme powerful being, capable of killing the treacherous Mahishasura.
When we talk of Durga, she is the Goddess above the Gods, the one who was called when nothing else worked. Her power comes from the fact that she kills to relieve Earth of hellish creatures and she destroys to give space for new life to bloom. What is interesting to note is that power resides in the way people visualize and imagine Durga. She has numerous hands, each adorned with a weapon and she rides a lion while killing the demon Mahishasura.
Another important aspect of power is that it comes from not just being above the male counterparts but also by being equal to them. Hanna Hedman says the divine,Ardhanarishvara, is drawn as half man and half woman. The right side is Shiva and the left side is Parvati. The purpose of the drawing is to show that the divine consists of both a male and a female side and that these two are equally important.
Devdutt Pattanaik in a lecture series of Shift India makes a very crucial observation. He brings in the concept of the woman not needing the man, especially in context of the husband-wife relationship. Durga, worshipped with extreme devotion during Pujo, usually has a pandal dedicated to her, in the Bengali culture. The pandal has Maa Durga in the center, with Lakshmi and Saraswati on either sides and her sons, Ganesh and Kartikeya, on her extreme sides. Pattanaik points that the husband, Lord Shiva, is nowhere to be seen in this setting because the culture and history realizes that the husband is not needed. Durga, with some help from the adjacent goddesses, is self-sufficient in operating the household and the universe. However, one will see a small frame of Shiva’s image in the pandal which Pattanaik says is to give rest to doubts regarding the origin of Ganesha and Kartikeya.
Where Power Subsides
Power becomes a very ambiguous term when we consider it in the sense of how to determine its absence.
In ‘Hinduism and Feminism: Some Concerns’, author Sharada Sugirtharajah says that both Sita in the Ramayana and Draupadi in the Mahabharata, figure as devoted wives to their husbands, yet their actions, when wronged by their husbands, challenge conventional patriarchal notions of wifely behavior. What Sharada highlights here is the fact that when scholars or for that matter, people consider certain women in mythology as powerless or weak, it is more of a contextual feminist issue than an actual dearth of some kind of power.
In New English Review, Ankur Betagiri highlights the injustice Sita went through, not once, but twice. First, she is asked to undergo a fire-test or agneepareeksha to prove her chastity and only when the result is positive, she is accepted back as the queen. Soon after, due to doubts of citizens of Ayodhya on their queen’s character, she accepts a banishment from the palace of Ayodhya to spend the rest of her life in exile.
This portion of the epic will always remain perplexing to not just feminists all over the world but also to Indian readers and listeners who never understand why a husband like Ram questions his wife’s character not once, but twice and how Sita- the princess of Janaka- allows this to be done to her. This comes across as a dearth of power in terms of the fact that Sita is never given the respect and treatment she should have, especially when we spent almost a year in abduction. In fact, New English Review go on to title their article as “How the Ideology of Pativrata Sati Destroys Indian Women”.
The Hindu(newspaper) talks about the women of Mahabharata to mention a lesser known female character that is Gandhari. Gandhari is a young bride who is told only moments before she is about to see her husband that he is blind, and so begins her journey with him by covering her eyes. This forced blindness is not because Gandhari wants to show solidarity with her husband; it is a decision borne out of grief and betrayal.
Pratibha Ray in Yajnaseni talks of Draupadi, the woman who is said to have started the war, but raises a different issue. Ray’s interpretation of Draupadi is the struggle of many a woman caught in the stranglehold of a patriarchal system where they are required to conform. Before the insult and cheerharan was the fact that without prior permission or information, Draupadi was married off to five men, having no say in the most preposterous decision to have ever been taken.
The ideal is to be devoted to her husband and unselfish sacrifice for him. Elizabeth Åsa Hole, a cultural anthropologist says that Goddesses like Sita, Sati and Savitri, that fulfil this ideal, are important as role models for Hindu women. Hole also explains that the perfect woman lives for her husband. Examples of that can be found in both Ramayana and Mahabharata, as discussed above.
Where Power is Uncertain
In Hindu mythology, gods and goddesses are not a singular entity. They are different in different situations, different for different people and sometimes, different for the same people.
Devdutt Pattanaik highlights this in the same lecture as cited above. He talks about Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Lakshmi is revered and worshipped with utmost sincerity in the whole of India, especially during Diwali, because Indians realize the power of wealth she possesses. However, she is not just the goddess of wealth but also the wife of Vishnu. In a token pose of Lakshmi-Vishnu, you find her by his feet, massaging them and giving him company.
In his book, Paths to the Divine: Ancient and Indian, writer Vensus A. George writes about Vishnu and Lakshmi and praises the latter for being an obedient wife. It is very interesting to note that when George praises the goddess for being a model Hindu wife, he uses terms like ‘submissiveness’ and ‘social decorum’. Lakshmi reduces her original form in order to seem ‘smaller’ as compared to Vishnu. Thus, some might say this is a kind of removal of the power she possesses. A feminist issue with this is also the fact that a woman solely might be all-powerful but she has to look one notch less when with her husband, thus pointing towards male dominance.
But again, this in no way applies to the fact that Lakshmi has any dearth of power. Individually, she is one of the most powerful goddesses- sometimes worshipped, sometimes feared but always remembered. This becomes an example, like many others, of a situation where the woman of the Hindu mythology is powerful yet there are instances where the power seems to have vanished.
CONCLUSION
As discussed above, there are layers to understanding the women of Hindu mythology. Possibly, the biggest criticism of these mythological stories comes from the fact that at many instances they become biased and sexist which gets highlighted even more in the times of today. The treatment of Draupadi, Sati and Sita becomes harmful when it becomes a base for rendering women of subsequent generations powerless. To say ‘be a wife like Sita’ is almost harmful today because if a woman had to endure what Sita endured then, it would surely make her weak and powerless.
But one thing which remains constant is that the Goddess for once can exist without the God but the other way is not possible. The Ramayana ends when Sita decides to go back to Mother Earth. Durga can end demons and protect the world without Shiva but Shiva needs her to when he wants Mahishasur killed. The war in Mahabharata comes to an end when Draupadi finally bathes in Dushyasan’s blood. An important aspect is that Hindu mythology never has shallow characters. Be it a goddess or a human woman, the individual is always supported by a purpose, a back story and a persona. The women in Hindu mythology might not always possess Shakti aspect of power but they have been instrumental in carrying out narratives solely by themselves.