Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Transliteration
- Introduction
- 1. The Mahabharata and the Making of Modern India
- 2. ‘Epic’ Past, ‘Modern’ Present: The Mahabharata and Modern Nationalism in Colonial Western India
- 3. The Bhagavadgita and the Gandhian Hermeneutic of Non-Violence: Globalizing Selfless Action
- 4. A Nostalgia for Transcendental Closure: The Relationship between the Mahabharata and Notions of Nationalism in the Works of Friedrich Schlegel, Maithilisharan Gupt, and Jawaharlal Nehru
- 5. The Production and Deconstruction of the ‘Ideal Indian Woman’ on the Basis of the Mahabharata in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- 6. Rethinking Transnational Intellectual History and Epic Nationalisms through Lithographic Labour: Persian and Urdu Mahabharatas in India and Iran
- 7. ‘Philosophical Poetry’ or a ‘Failed Beginning’? A Metaphilosophical Enquiry into Wilhelm von Humboldt’s and G. W. F. Hegel’s Perspectives on the Bhagavadgita
- 8. East Asian Uses of Indian Epic Literature: Refractions of the Mahabharata in Japan and China, Late Nineteenth–Early Twentieth Century
- 9. The Reception of the Mahabharata in Siam: Evolving Conceptions of Kingship
- 10. Understanding Global Intellectual Exchanges through Paratexts: Wadiʿ al-Bustani’s Introduction to His Arabic Translation of the Mahabharata
- About the Contributors
- Index
5. - The Production and Deconstruction of the ‘Ideal Indian Woman’ on the Basis of the Mahabharata in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: aN Invalid Date NaN
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Transliteration
- Introduction
- 1. The Mahabharata and the Making of Modern India
- 2. ‘Epic’ Past, ‘Modern’ Present: The Mahabharata and Modern Nationalism in Colonial Western India
- 3. The Bhagavadgita and the Gandhian Hermeneutic of Non-Violence: Globalizing Selfless Action
- 4. A Nostalgia for Transcendental Closure: The Relationship between the Mahabharata and Notions of Nationalism in the Works of Friedrich Schlegel, Maithilisharan Gupt, and Jawaharlal Nehru
- 5. The Production and Deconstruction of the ‘Ideal Indian Woman’ on the Basis of the Mahabharata in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- 6. Rethinking Transnational Intellectual History and Epic Nationalisms through Lithographic Labour: Persian and Urdu Mahabharatas in India and Iran
- 7. ‘Philosophical Poetry’ or a ‘Failed Beginning’? A Metaphilosophical Enquiry into Wilhelm von Humboldt’s and G. W. F. Hegel’s Perspectives on the Bhagavadgita
- 8. East Asian Uses of Indian Epic Literature: Refractions of the Mahabharata in Japan and China, Late Nineteenth–Early Twentieth Century
- 9. The Reception of the Mahabharata in Siam: Evolving Conceptions of Kingship
- 10. Understanding Global Intellectual Exchanges through Paratexts: Wadiʿ al-Bustani’s Introduction to His Arabic Translation of the Mahabharata
- About the Contributors
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The Mahabharata and the Ramayana have significantly shaped South Asian norms of gender roles. The ideals transmitted through them are still often considered the proper mode of conduct by many actors and social groups, especially those influenced by Sanskritic varna–jati (the Indian caste system) norms. While the most popular female prototype among many actors is Sita from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata offers a number of exemplary characters as well. Not only Draupadi but also characters such as Damayanti and Savitri play an important role in shaping the myth of the ideal woman. The French philosopher Roland Barthes explains in his book Mythologies (1957) that myth is born out of history but disconnects from it and evolves into nature. As the content of the myth seems like an eternal truth, its motive appears invisible. The Mahabharata shaped an understanding of women and their role in society, which was accepted for centuries as the natural rule. The gendered basis of this discourse was rarely explicitly questioned until recent times.
This chapter begins by first tracing the origin of how mythological women became the ideal prototype in the nationalist discourse, which will be followed by a focus on M. K. Gandhi's politics regarding women. Traits which most of the epic female characters share are that they suffer silently and resist through loyalty and devotion – characteristics that modern reformers like Gandhi foregrounded in an attempt to mobilize women for the Indian nationalist cause. While his discourse elevated the status of women to a higher position, it came at a cost, and by fortifying the image of the ideal Indian woman, he put them in a gilded cage. The rest of the chapter will focus on feminist revision of myths, necessary to deconstruct the female prototype born out of the epics, based on the theoretical framework offered by Adrienne Rich's ‘When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision’ (1972) and Alicia Ostriker's ‘The Thieves of Language: Women Poets and Revisionist Mythmaking’ (1982). For this, I will take into account several literary texts. Pratibha Ray's (b. 1943) Odia novel Yajnaseni (1984) and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's (b. 1956) novel The Palace of Illusions (2008) are two important landmarks in this paradigm shift.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Mahabharata in Global Political and Social Thought , pp. 137 - 160Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025