LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:4 April 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
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The Royal Clan Vs the Marginalised:
An Analysis of the Lifestyles of Women in Mahasweta Devi’s
Panchakanya (Five Women)

K. R. Athista, M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed. PGDTE & Dr. G. Baskaran, M.A, M.Phil., Ph.D.


Mahasweta Devi

Mahasweta Devi is a contemporary Bengali woman writer and committed social activist working for the welfare of the tribal communities in India. Born in 1926 in a family of writers and culture workers, Devi mixes the high literary style of old Bengali literature with tribal language. She has come to be regarded as one of India’s most radical writers. In newspapers and journals, she has written articles in support of the tribal people and their rights. “I am wary of the West,” (Shands, 19) says Devi in an interview with Gayatri Spivak. She underlines that “the tribal population of India is about one-sixth of the total population of the country (India)” and yet they have not been a part of decolonization, even though “they have paid the price” (Spivak, ix, xi). Debasish Chattoppadhyay, a critic, suggests that Devi’s “voice does not simply ventriloquize the plight of those at the edges of civilization, but goes deeper to analyse and reflect upon how the power structures that engender marginalisation are replicated in the texture of the society of the marginalized.” (Chattoppadhyay, 111).

Keywords:

After Kurukshetra

Devi’s After Kurukshetra translated by Anjum Katyal is a collection of the three stories, namely, “Panchakanya [Five Women]”, “Kunti o Nishadin [Kundi and the Nishadin]” and “Souvali [Souvali]. As a visionary, Devi foresees the aftermath of the dharmayudha (the holy war) of Kurushetra in all her three stories.The dharmayudha takes place in Kurukshetra between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The Indian epic The Mahabharatha documents the war and its after effects. After Kurukshetra narrates the story of the great war in The Mahabharata. Taking the source from the ancient epic, Devi weaves the three stories by looking at the events through the eyes of the marginalized and the disposed women. There are two classes of women in Panchakanya : the rajavrittas and the lokavittas. The rajavrittas are the royal women living in the palace and the lokavrittas belong to the world of the common men. The Rajavrittas enjoy the privileges which are denied to the lokavrittas. The latter belong to the class of the farmers and the hunters. The aim of this paper is to analyse the contrasted lifestyles of the women belonging to the royal clan and the marginalised in Devi’s Panchakanya.

John Keay, a historian, states in India a History, “An Aryanised society may be defined as one in which primacy is accorded to a particular language (Sanskrit) to an authoritative priesthood (Brahmans) and to a hierarchichal social structure (caste)” (Keay, 28). Indian society has a fourfold division: the Brahmans (the priests), the Kshatriyas (the warriors), the Vysyas (the merchants) and the Sudras (the marginalised). The Brahmans occupy the highest position in the social hierarchy and the Sudhras hold the lowest position. Uttara (widow of Abimanyu), Queen Subhadra and Draupadi (mothers – in –law of Uttara), Kunti and Gandhari represent the rajavritta women in Panchakanya. Godhumi, Gomati, Yamuna, Vitasta, Vipasha (the five widowed women of the foot soldiers) and Madraja (the head dasi of the royal women’s quarters) represent the lokavritta women in the story.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

K. R. Athista, M. A., M. Phil., B.Ed., PGDTE
Assistant Professor (Senior Grade) of English
Mepco Schlenk Engineering College (Autonomous)
Sivakasi – 626 123
Tamil Nadu
India
athista21@yahoo.com

Dr. G. Baskaran, M.A, M.Phil, Ph.D.
Dean & Head, Professor of English
Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed University)
Gandhigram – 624 302
Tamil Nadu
India
rgbaskaran@gmail.com

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