| dc.description.abstract |
The unique Indic oral tradition documents the narratives
of marginalization while it simultaneously showcases the resistance of
the marginal. The Mahabharata recounts the stories of warrior princesses
like Uloopi, Chitrangada and Hidimba who, despite being achievers,
have been relegated in the background by the chroniclers of the metanarrative.
Castigated for two reasons: one, for being outside of the pale
of the Aryan occupancy, and two, for being the ones who initiated
physical intimacy which was essentially a male prerogative, these three
warrior princesses were representatives of scores of others, like the
women of the Balhikas and the Madrakas, who were sanctioned for
being different. Labelled as fallen women, the Epic has another category
which can be called the ultimate male fantasy in Freudian terms. Ever
youthful, never emotional, these women had to make the ultimate
sacrifice. Menaka had to abandon her infant daughter Shakuntala.
Urvashi had to leave her doting husband Pururava. The raison d’être
of characters like Ghritachi, Jalapadi, Rambha and many others of their
kind was to be pawns in the patriarchal power play. The accounts of
Ahalya and Renuka echo the trope of a woman being either evil or an
object of deliverance. |
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