Florida State University Libraries
Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations
The Graduate School
2003
The Prolific Goddess: Imagery of the
Goddess within Indian Literature
Marie Hendry
Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected]
THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
THE PROLIFIC GODDESS:
IMAGERY OF THE GODDESS WITHIN INDIAN LITERATURE
By
MARIE HENDRY
A Thesis submitted to the
Department of International Affairs
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
Degree Awarded:
Fall Semester, 2003
The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Marie Hendry on November 7,
2003.
Kathleen Erndl
Professor Directing Thesis
Burton M. Atkins
Committee Member
J. Grant
Committee Member
The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee
members.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ................................................................................................................ iv
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1
1. GODDESS AS RIVER ................................................................................... 8
2. JASMINE AS THE GODDESS ...................................................................... 17
3. YAJNASENI, DRAUPADI, AND KRISHNAA ............................................ 26
4. THE SHORT STORY: GLIMPSES OF THE GODDESS ............................. 34
CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 41
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................. 45
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ................................................................................ 49
iii
ABSTRACT
This thesis is centered around Goddess imagery in literature from Indian women writers.
A feminist approach is used to look at the literature as a form of cultural analysis.
iv
INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND AND FEMINIST APPROACH
Background
Goddess worship within Hinduism has become a major focus of study over recent
years. The Goddess has appeared in many sacred texts over the course of the
development of Hinduism. She has been portrayed as both protector and mother to fierce
and bloody. Within her lie many images or she is portrayed as the one, all encompassing
Goddess. Later in religious history she is the most powerful surrounding force present in
all things. The Goddess has always permeated religious doctrine, and many stories and
myths have grown around her. Modern literature has used traditional Goddess
symbolism as a means of communicating religious experience, feminism and selfexpression. A look at Goddess imagery and its implications within texts by female
authors is the focus of this study. A discussion of feminist approaches to the text and the
parallels between the texts will strengthen the analysis of the Goddess imagery.
Within Hindu religious history the Goddess is imbued with Shakti, or female
power, in many images, and myth and ritual surrounding her expand throughout all areas
of India and other areas where Hinduism is practiced. There are arguments that Goddess
worship existed before, in the esoteric Tantra and exoteric Sakti forms. These forms
became different models for worship within Hinduism, which are broken usually into two
schools, Vedic and Tantric. Though both groups worship similar deities, Tantra is more
heavily weighted in the direction of worshiping the Goddess. To this end many groups
that focus heavily on a Goddess as a focus of their religion within Hinduism are dubbed
academically as Tantric. The numerous groups and the numerous Goddesses worshiped
in Hinduism cause a great deal of diversity within Hinduism. The Goddess is worshiped
in many different aspects. She appears as a fierce Goddess whom becomes inebriated
from drinking blood as Kali. She also reveals herself as protector in the Devi-Mahatmya
(Erndl 1993, 22-30).
The background of the Devi-Mahatmya, written in Sanskrit, is important in this
study for it gives a religious background to the theme of Goddess imagery. The DeviMahatmya is revealed as three stories or truths of the Goddess to two men who have lost
1
their livelihood. The first was a merchant whose children steal his fortune, the second a
king who was dethroned. Both men were sent into the forest, however neither one could
rid himself of worry, the first for his children, the second for his kingdom. They seek a
sage to help them (Coburn 49-84).
The sage relates three stories of the Goddess. The first shows how the Goddess is
in everything and all encompassing. She is personified as sleep and asked to leave
Vishnu’s body by Brahma, who has seen two demons appear from Vishnu’s earwax. He
refers to her as “...the primordial material (prakrti) of everything...”. When she leaves his
body, Vishnu then can slay the demons (Coburn 37).
It is the last story that is of particular importance to this study because the
Goddess is shown in her many forms. When the worlds are terrorized by the demons
Sumbha and Nisumbha, the Gods are helpless and call upon the Goddess to save them.
She is invoked as protectoress; riding a lion she slays her foes in battle. She calls upon
many aspects of herself in this story, such as Kali to lap the blood of the demon
Raktibisha (Blood drop) who regenerates himself as his blood flows to the ground. In the
end the Goddess prevails, calling all the Goddesses into herself, proclaiming “I am one”
when taunted by the demon for having so much help. As she is victorious she is praised
by the Gods and is asked to return when the help is needed. She agrees. After the sage
relates the story, the two men worship the Goddess for all her great deeds, and they are
both granted a boon. The merchant chooses mukti, or liberation, and becomes an
enlightened being. The other becomes a universal ruler (Coburn 49-84).
This imagery is important for it gives a historical and religious background to the
literature that will be discussed in this study. The Devi-Mahatmya is revered as a sacred
text and the Goddess in her splendor is shown.
Literature
Though female writers have surfaced throughout Indian history, more female
writers have emerged within the last century. The past few decades have shown a
resurgence of female Indian writers. Many different issues have been the focus of their
2
literature, such as caste issues in A God of Small Things by Arundhuti Roy to issues of
religious fervor in A River Sutra by Gita Mehta.
Though wide ranging in theme, there appears in much of the literature I surveyed
elements of the Goddess, either symbolized or in direct form. The range of attributes the
Goddess is given throughout the literature is used to invoke fear, passion, and worship.
This study of Goddess imagery will be centered on identity, unity and variation. The
identity of the Goddess and the use of traditional imagery within the literature become
apparent as a common theme. Identifying the Goddess imagery and how it is used, to
covey emotion, as part of the story or as a character is the approach of the research
toward the literature.
Subsequently the unities of that image throughout each book and compared with
the other novels will be employed to dissect the variation of Goddess imagery among the
texts. This is important to see the theme of the Goddess imagery as it emerges in modern
popular literature.
I have used female authors of Indian descent as the focus for the literature
surveyed to perform a female-centered cultural analysis. The Goddess as represented in
these texts is part of the dominant religion in India. This cultural and historical approach
also serves as a backdrop for interpreting the imagery. The texts that will be closely
looked at are A River Sutra by Gita Mehta, Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee and Yajnaseni:
The Story of Draupadi by Pratibha Ray, as well as three short stories.
These novels were picked for their difference in themes, as well as their representations
of different aspects of a character’s experience. Mehta represents the religious and tribal
mentality that surrounds the worship of the Goddess. In Jasmine, Mukherjee explores
the issues of womanhood within a conflict between eastern and western cultures.
Yajnaseni: the Story of Draupadi takes a myth of a particular Goddess and gives her
human attributes. She relates these experiences to everyday life. The Goddess is
transformed into a flawed and complex being. This allows the author to further explore
the feminist questions raised by Draupadi. The short stories mirror daily life for women
in India. They show particular modes and themes, such as small town life and traditional
values that can be found in much of the literature throughout India. How these stories
3
deal with the unique experiences of females is exemplified by the overt Goddess imagery
attached to each character for different reasons.
In A River Sutra Gita Mehta relates different stories of a guesthouse manager on
the banks of the sacred Narmada. His own religious experience goes through different
stages throughout the story. The use of Goddess imagery is invoked as a tonal theme, by
personifying the river Narmada with Sakti. Mehta uses this imagery to show how
religion is perceived from different viewpoints. This analysis brings into question
religious/cultural assumptions and beliefs (Mehta).
In comparison Jasmine tells the sad story of a young girl’s life and the people she
affects. Mukherjee uses the Goddess imagery to enhance her character and denote her
change throughout her life, such as Kali when she became enraged and killed her rapist.
The novel calls into question identity as well as cultural beliefs in India and in the west.
This novel is important for the feminist and religious aspects addressed within the text
(Mukherjee 1989).
The last novel to be looked at is Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi. Here the use
of Goddess imagery enters into a different phase as Gods and Goddesses are the focus of
the story. Ray takes the mythical story of Draupadi and tells the myth from her point of
view. Feminist and religious ideals are addressed throughout the novel, as well as
dissection of the definition of religious precepts, such as divine and holy (Ray 1995).
The use of Draupadi as a female heroine is central to the plot of the story. By
looking at a certain section of the novel, when Draupadi is bartered in a game of dice and
lost by her husband her theme of Draupadi as a heroine emerges. This event, which Alf
Hiltlebeitel terms “The Draupadi Question” has been debated for some time for its prowoman ideals and how they relate to the character of Draupadi (Hiltebeitel 2000, 115).
The dichotomy of chaste and impure also enters the discussion about Draupadi’s
character and style of life. An in depth study will be done of this event and how the
author portrays the characters with feelings and ideas.
Following these studies three short stories will be discussed. These three short
stories will be used as an example of how Goddess imagery is being used in short fiction.
The first to be looked at is “Lata” by Binapani Mohanty. This story imbues the main
4
character, Lata, with Goddess attributes to show her newfound strength, as well as a
protectionist motif toward her child (Mohanty 48).
Next, Mahasveta Devi’s story “The Wet Nurse” uses the Goddess imagery to
typify the woman’s experience as a wet nurse for a large family. However when her
Goddess-hood is taken from her, the feelings of betrayal she goes through as she is dying
are a form of cultural analysis of the Indian family (Devi 30).
The last of the short stories to be reviewed is “Muniyakka” by Lashmi Kannan.
Here too the main character feels betrayed by her family and her youth, where she
performed rituals to give her sons, who now have forgotten about her. Muniyakka uses
Goddess imagery to show her angry feelings toward her situation, as she gives inanimate
objects Goddess names and makes them unwittingly do battle with their surroundings,
such as the trees and the wind (Kannan 139-141).
Feminist Approaches
Finally the aspect of Goddess imagery will be looked at through a feminist lens.
There exists within feminism a resurgence of Goddess traditions. Though primarily in
Western usage, by borrowing powerful Goddess images from around the globe, the
Goddess is shown as a source of empowerment throughout the works mentioned above.
These concepts are important in developing the contemporary use of Goddess imagery
within the novels as a form of cultural analysis.
The analysis of feminist or woman-centered approaches will be focus on several
different feminist theorists. Sneja Gunew’s theory of essentialism creates a female
centered narrative that has been excluded from the male centered literature that has been
the normative (Kemp 237-238). To aid in the discussion of authorship and how feminist
literature should be viewed Rita Felski’s study Literature after Feminism will be used to
show the validity of the feminism within the novels (Felski 58-59).
To this end Shalini Shah’s approach to literature by women as a process of “writing
women into history” will be used to show the importance of the cultural approach of the
novels. Each novel’s theme is centered on women’s experience, or how women affect
5
other’s experience (Shah 3).
These theorists show how the literature is important as a feminist discourse. Each
novel identifies women’s experience and how that experience is affected by religious
imagery. Looking at the literature as a feminist discourse is vital to the transmission of
women’s experience within literature that has been grossly misrepresented, if represented
at all. This approach is used to try to change the perception of female experience.
Carolyn Heilbrun and Catherine Stimpson state, “Women now face, and have long faced,
the same situation, and they must learn to call upon their own experience, and the
experience of women before them; they must learn not to be content to read ‘Keatsian
sonnets about English abbeys’ in the accepted way.” (Donovan 61-62).
In the conclusion a discussion of cross-cultural feminist critique utilizes the
validity of women centered literature. Leslie Bow discusses this in Betrayal and other
Acts of Subversion. She addresses the authority of feminism to reach over regional
boundaries in art and other forms of expression, such as literature. She talks of how to
identify gender specific themes in literature, “...whether to situate women’s alliances with
one another as merely another collective identity open to them or whether in fact gender
difference can itself be read as a means of producing, solidifying, or transforming
territorial, class, ethnic, or racial allegiances.” (Bow 27).
Conclusion
The identity, unity and variation of the Goddess imagery within the literature
mentioned above will help develop a cultural analysis in the context of the stories. This
study will employ this cultural analysis to develop a feminist and religious perspective to
show the development and importance of Goddess imagery within the novels. The
feminist perspective of locating a woman centered history and expression will be shown
through different feminist theorists in the area of arts and philosophy.
6
CHAPTER ONE: GODDESS AS RIVER
The Narmada River, with its banks flooded with religious activity, is the setting
for Gita Mehta’s A River Sutra. Mehta centers her story on a guesthouse manager, who
feeling that he is rather pious in his religious beliefs, is confronted with many stories of
other people’s experience. The manager, throughout the course of the novel, written in
English for a broad audience, undertakes a spiritual journey that does not end where he
wishes. These stories make the manager question his own religious beliefs. The imagery
surfaces in different forms, such as a young girl. Through unfolding the manager’s
religious doubts, the Goddess emerges as a symbol as a form of cultural analysis. Also,
feminist critiques of power struggles and religious symbolism as a form of agency within
literature will be discussed.
River, Story, and Imagery
The Goddess imagery of A River Sutra is complex and permeates the tale. The
story is centered on the banks of the Narmada River, a holy site in India, which many
people claim to be a manifestation of the Goddess. Many rivers in India are imbued with
this aspect. Anne Feldhaus discusses the numerous religious meanings of rivers in Water
and Womanhood. Within her study she identifies festivals and worship, such as
iconography devoted to rivers in India (1995, 51-53).
The Narmada River is the first introduction of Goddess imagery within the novel,
and the river is very significant to the manager. The manager perceives himself to be a
very devout believer in his own faith but has tremendous curiosity about the religious
experiences of those around him. Every morning he meditates looking at the river, which
is very holy to him and has become a cornerstone of his faith. To the Hindus, the river is
considered, and is worshipped, as the daughter of the God Shiva. People who have
searched for the solace of the river or to study it, tell stories to the manager. All of these
stories begin to shape the man’s character and make him question himself to the point of
7
doubt. Stories of desire perplexed the manager as he learned of the story of a young man,
Nitin Bose, who was consumed by passions for one woman who ultimately took his soul.
The manager was asked to care for Bose by the man‘s father, who was a friend of the
manager. He was perplexed by the man’s state. He was crazed and delusional, though he
managed to give the manager an account of what had happened to him (Mehta 109-120).
Though the job Nitin Bose had taken on a tea plantation was well paid, the
location took him far from friends and the city life that he had once enjoyed. Nitin Bose
had grown weary of the consuming lifestyle he had become accustomed to, of drinking
and womanizing. He felt empty and expressed the need for solitude (Mehta 110-125).
Amid these feelings of weariness about his own situation the beginning of many
nightly visits by a young girl occur. She first appears nameless but beautiful, and he
enjoys many nights of carnal pleasure with her. His doubt disappears as he is consumed
by lust for her. Bose becomes happier and no longer has trouble with his work or late
night thoughts of uncertainty. He likens her to the Goddess, for her beauty and his own
desire to make more of their nightly sexual liaisons. He romanticized their relationship,
especially centering himself on his own experience, such as how she bewitched him. She
told him her name was Rima along with folklore from her village. These stories
fascinated him, though he did not take them seriously, or as means of communication. He
felt that she told him these stories for his own amusement alone (Mehta 124-125).
Upon receiving a new assignment away from the plantation he is deeply saddened
about leaving his temptress. When he told her of his news she immediately became
renounced of her Goddess status. She cries and begs to be taken with him. Becoming an
ordinary girl, Bose feels that she has even lost some of her beauty, which had for some
time been the center of his thoughts. The Goddess had been transformed into an ordinary
plantation worker, with her own problems, such as the desire to marry him. He leaves and
is saddened by his unproblematic ability and his own need to leave her (Mehta 126-130).
However, he has slight feelings of shame about the way he left her, without a
farewell. He returns to the plantation in hopes of reaching a resolution with the woman
and relieving his own guilt. To Bose’s approval, she did not return to see him that night.
His feelings toward her as a Goddess temptress had faded, and he felt that there existed
8
some dignity in the way she was handling the situation, showing he still had feelings of
awe about her. He relates her behavior “...which seemed so elegant in someone of her
origins.” (Mehta 132).
The next night was felt by the villagers of the plantation to be an unholy night.
Bose was told to take care for his soul could be taken if he left the safety of his house.
Bose, though many times in the story he tried to reconcile his own religious background
with his modernity, did not believe in the superstitions of the villagers. His purpose was
to the meet the woman and then go on with his life (Mehta 132-137).
It was on this night that he heard a woman calling his name outside. Ignoring the
tribal taboo on leaving his bedroom, he quickly followed the voice into the woods. He ran
fast after the voice until he heard a loud sound, as if two coconut halves had been placed
together quickly and he fell to the ground. He heard the same voice of the woman he had
wronged, but he could not understand what she said (Mehta 132-137). “There was a noise
of something being clapped over something else, like two books slapped together. As I
heard that sound I felt the air being sucked out of my lungs.”(Mehta 133).
Rima had taken his soul and left Bose feeling empty. He returned to his room and
quickly wrote down his experience, so as to explain himself before madness hit him. He
then searched the countryside in hopes of finding a cure of his madness (Mehta 143-148).
Bose learned of the Narmada’s ability to help people who believed in the Goddess, which
brought him to the manager. This touches upon the holiness of the river (Feldhaus 1995,
160-165).
Upon reading the account, the manager was confounded. He did not believe, as
did the tribal communities around him, that a person could be healed in such a way.
However, upon journeying out to the countryside Bose returned with his sanity intact and
thanked the manager for being so understanding. Bose left the manager with doubt about
his own assumptions, for he could not believe the change that had come over Bose.
Confused, he did not know what to believe. However his experiences with Nitin Bose are
set aside when he reconciles his feelings toward the situation. He dismisses the event as
ridiculous. His faith is never reinforced by other’s experiences with the Goddess; he is
only repelled by their lack of self-control. In the case of Bose he negates his story as
9
nonsense, not believing that a shrine to the Goddess on the river saved him, though his
own religious beliefs were centered on the holiness of the river (Mehta 143-148).
Quickly after the manger’s experiences with Bose he meets a young girl at a local
merchant and spiritual area. He is taken aback by her ugliness, especially by his lack of
control of his own disgust. He had prided himself in having more control over his own
emotions. He is fascinated by the girl and provokes her to tell him her story (Mehta 201203).
The woman was raised in the family of a famous musician. Upon realizing that
her ugliness has set her apart from society, her father, who has never taken a student,
teaches his daughter. She excels as a musician. Later her father is propositioned by a
young man to teach him. The father acquiesces, only if the man marries his daughter. He
agrees without meeting her but is soon repelled by her ugliness (Mehta 203-225).
The daughter was wounded by her father’s designs. She had fallen in love with
the musician upon first sight, but because of her ugliness she felt unworthy of his love.
Despite her dejected feelings she began to practice with him and her father daily. They
found solace in each other from her father’s callousness as a teacher. She had always felt
the spirituality attached to the music she played and soon passed these feelings of
reverence to the student. In return she believed that he might have fallen in love with her
(Mehta 220-225).
At a festival to Shiva, the famous musician played for an assembled
audience. However, this year was let his two students play to fulfill his vow of
offering his daughter to music as a bride. The young man and she played together,
and she felt bliss. She felt as if they had transformed into Parvati and Shiva. This
symbolism shows how she had accepted in her heart that he actually would want to
marry her and that they would be happy. It also characterized the feelings of
spirituality that she possessed for her music. Released from his own vow of making
her a bride to music, the musician freed the man of his vow to marry his daughter.
The girl was heartbroken. Though she felt their connection within the music as a
conjoined couple her own feelings of ineptitude, due to her outward appearance,
surfaced. Nevertheless the man left saying that he would return and make her his
10
bride (Mehta 225).
However, this was not to be. He declined their marriage as soon as his
lessons were finished. The daughter no longer wished to play for her heart had
been broken, and she felt as if her father had not protected her. She had been
transformed into a longing Parvati. She longed to be a wife, like Parvati, and to
find love but felt cursed for she had been denied it. The manger was troubled by
this story for he felt such pity for the girl, and she could not find a solution to her
feelings (Mehta 226-228).
Though his faith had been repeatedly called into question throughout the
other stories the musician affected him seriously. He was unsure of feelings,
despite the fact that he knew these feelings were negative. He went to a friend to
try to explain his melancholy and find a reprieve (Mehta 228).
In hopes of showing his friend a more merciful side of life, Tariq Mia
begins to tell the manager of Naga Baba. The importance of the relationship
between the Narmada River with the people who surround the banks is
demonstrated through the story of Naga Baba and his disciple Uma. Having arrived
at a whorehouse for alms on the night of Shiva, Naga Baba, an ascetic and
worshipper of Shiva, found Uma enslaved there at a very young age. Feeling pity
for the girl he instructed the Madame to give her to him, which she did out of fear.
Naga Baba proceeded to raise Uma, whom he named in honor of the Goddess, and
taught her songs to Shiva. He became her guardian and raised her in accordance
with his ascetic lifestyle. He taught her how to read and write. At night he sang to
her songs of the Narmada, which would serve her later in life (Mehta 255-257).
Toward the end of the story the reader discovers the Goddess imagery has
woven itself together to symbolize the characteristics of Uma and the Narmada. It
had been said that the Narmada had been created as an act of Shiva’s penance.
Uma as well was given this meaning for Naga Baba by a temple priest who tells the
story. Uma was given as a form of penance by the head of the whorehouse to Naga
Baba, so as not to incur his wrath. Both Uma and the Narmada are intertwined, due
to Uma’s religious connection to the river. She becomes the embodiment of the
11
Goddess for her faith and her dedication to the river and its traditions. Her songs
and religious reverence of the river begin to symbolize the nature of the river to
those who worship the Narmada. Mehta uses Uma and the Narmada as symbolism
for each other. They are both given attributes of the Goddess, through names,
stories and the amount of worship that they engendered. Though Uma is a
personification of the Goddess, the Goddess is always a living force within the
novel, as the Narmada. Just as Shiva bore the weight of his penance by creating the
Narmada, so does Uma bear the weight of transmitting this religious purpose
(Mehta 257-258)? They become a part of each other. This is symbolized with
Uma’s emersion into the Narmada on her first night with Naga Baba. “Suddenly he
gripped her arms and lowered her into the water. ‘The Narmada claims all girls as
hers. Tonight you become a daughter of the Narmada.’” (Mehta 254). This event
shows the power of the Goddess as a religious entity. She has the power to affiliate
other females to herself, and is perceived as having the agency to do so.
Though Uma represents Naga Baba’s “fruits of austerity”, she also begins to
generate her own holiness. With the songs of tribute she has learned about the Narmada
she becomes a wandering ministerial at its banks when Naga Baba moves on to other
stages of his journey to enlightenment (Mehta 257-258).
The manager was left with renewed faith in his position. The austere lifestyle of
Naga Baba made him feel rejuvenated. He soon began an obsession with Uma. He felt
that his spirituality would be restored if he could hear her songs of the Narmada. Uma
had begun to personify the Goddess to the overseer (Mehta 260).
At the same time an archeologist and his crew overran the bungalow that the
overseer managed. They were doing a study of the spiritual history of the Narmada.
Having attached his ego to the holy Narmada the overseer felt overjoyed by their
enthusiasm for the river. He also began to enjoy their company, realizing that his solitude
had left him lonely. He asked the archaeologist if he had heard of the minstrels that lived
on the banks of the Narmada. He said he had. The overseer asked him to notify him of
their location so he could hear them sing (Mehta 206-261).
The following day a minstrel appears singing devotion to the Narmada. This
12
overjoys the manager, and he feels his faith completely renewed by this holy experience.
It seems as if the Goddess of the river has come to life in her song, and the manager
knows in his heart that he was wrong to doubt his choice in life which is to devote himself
to his worship of the river (Mehta 277-280).
Ripped from his renewed feelings of holiness he hears the archaeologist refer to
the singer as Uma. From their familiarity he begins to be thrust into doubt again. He asks
the archeologist if he was Naga Baba, to which he replied positively. This shatters the
overseer for Naga Baba’s austerity had begun to be a cornerstone of his renewed faith.
The overseer began flooding him with questions. Naga Baba’s answers infuriated the
overseer. He told him that he decided to leave his meditation, but he would not give him
details. The archeologist told him that everyone’s experiences were different and that he
was only sure of his own experiences in life when the overseer asked him what was to
become of himself. Quickly, the archaeologist left the overseer dejected and in perpetual
doubt (Mehta 281-282).
Uma and Naga Baba had replaced the pillars of his faith, especially through
Uma’s representation of the Goddess. Their respect for the River, which the hotel
overseer shared, helped him identify with them. Upon hearing their faith was not what he
had imagined, he was once again cast into doubt, which had been growing since the
beginning of the novel. In the end he is left with his faith close to destroyed. However his
lack of conviction in his own faith of the river and the Goddess seems to be the result of
his lack of spirituality. He needed other people too much, though he was slowly trying to
become a renunciate. As is the goal of most householding men in Indian society, they
plan to devote their later life to religious reflection and seclusion. However, his goal as a
renunciate is marred by his need to have his faith constantly renewed. Without others
around him this would not happen. Mehta uses the overseer to show the frailty of
people’s spirituality and how lack of inner faith can destroy hopes of worship and
austerity (Mehta 269-282).
In the end the Goddess is the driving force throughout the novel, mentioned in
many forms. The manager bases his life around other people’s perceptions of the Goddess
and spirituality. With his faith shattered what will become of him? The end of the novel
13
offers no insight into his future but leaves the reader with the knowledge that people still
worship the river and the Goddess all around him, as he sits dejected by the river, which is
affecting his spirituality once again (Mehta 277-282).
Feminist Critiques
Equally important in the discussion of A River Sutra is the strong female attributes
given to certain characters in the story. The river is personified as female and a source of
immense spiritual power. This power affects everyone in the story (Feldhaus 1995 5153). The characters of Rima and Uma both defy perceptions of femininity, while
simultaneously encapsulating gender roles.
In many ways Rima is shown as a feminist character. Rima is a tribal woman.
Due to this she could be regarded by caste-conscious Hindus to be outside of civilization.
Therefore she is not controlled by patriarchal norms. She takes control of her own
sexuality, initiating sex, which as R.P. Sharma suggests is anti-ethical to the traditional
way women are portrayed in Indian literature (138-139). Subsequently she is not
punished for taking control of her own sexual desires. Instead she is revered and given
Goddess-like qualities. She is even worshiped by her sexual partner. She uses her
sexuality as a means of getting what she desires, instead of being ashamed of it or trying
to conform to traditional modes, as wife and mother. When scorned she does not lay
down and accept her abuse. She resorts to stealing his soul, returning to her Goddess
status by her ability to control Bose (Clinton 100-104). This is symbolized by her
supernatural powers that are accentuated by her ability to use them to get what she desires.
She displays this power as Bose finds her on his return to the plantation. “ ‘You will
never leave me now, no matter how far you go,’ she said triumphantly, waving her trophy
in front of me. It was a coconut... Picking up her lantern she disappeared into the jungle.”
(Mehta 134).
On the other hand Uma though forced to become unchaste at a very young age is
revered for her holiness and is also attributed with Goddess features. Her faith in the river
and her ability to transcend gender roles due to this holiness personifies her as part of the
14
Shakti of the river. She becomes a very powerful symbol who can make her own destiny.
She is not looked down upon for her past as a child prostitute, and she is revered
(Feldhaus 42-47).
Uma’s role as a prostitute can viewed differently through a feminist lens. Shalini
Shah states that femininity is directly affected by how women’s sexuality is socially
perceived (57-58). Though Uma is given a forced sexuality as a child prostitute she is
quickly removed from that environment and placed within a genderless relationship with
an aesthetic. Her prostitution makes her polluted, so she is set a part from society. This
further enables her to enter a religious life with Naga Baba. Thus her forced sexuality can
become her liberation from societal cruelties placed on her due to her gender (54-58).
Again both characters use their abject status to achieve a new identity. The
identity they gain is set apart from normative roles of gender division, such as women
relegated to the home as protector (Bow 42). This identity is perceived through a
religious viewpoint. This viewpoint uses the image of the Goddess to show the
metamorphosis of the characters as well as other characters in the story.
Criticisms
Many authors have written about Mehta’s works. Her work in A River Sutra is
held by many to bring an Indian perspective closer to other countries. Merle Rubin stated
that there is something for everyone, including every religion, in his works (10). C.N.
Ramachandran and A. G. Kahn compare this novel to Canterbury Tales remarking how
each tale goes against others, but how each is meant to teach the reader something, in this
case about religion (1-15). Marlene Fisher feels that it is a good book for everyone to read
due to its dealings with various religions (214). In the end the criticisms denote that the
religious nature of the books enhances the readers experience and knowledge.
Conclusions
In conclusion the use of Goddess imagery with A River Sutra is used as a cultural
agent and as a form of analysis. The spiritual journey of the manager emerges as filled
15
with urgency and doubt. He however continues to be imbued with many visions of the
Goddess that he can not resolve with his growing lack of faith. He reaches this impasse
through other peoples lives, their narratives to him. The Narmada, the main focus of the
Goddess within the story, is the center where many different forms of religious expression
can be scrutinized and called into question. Mehta’s characters, through the Goddess
imagery attached to them, such as Uma and Rima, are given a certain agency that can be
looked at through a feminist lens. Uma and Rima become powerful characters that
transcend normative modes of behavior. When this behavior is changed they are themed
with Goddess imagery, such as power to entice and beauty. Due to these factors the
Goddess imagery within this story helps to illustrate the religious discovery of the
manager.
16
CHAPTER TWO: JASMINE AS THE GODDESS
Though only reaching the age of twenty-four throughout the novel Jasmine by
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine’s life of hardship is distinguished by her strong character and
ability to survive. Goddess imagery is replete throughout the novel. The identity of
Jasmine goes through many changes in the story, which is written in English for a diverse
audience. The Goddess imagery gives her experiences a unique perspective. By
examining the use of Goddess imagery in relation to motifs established throughout the
story Jasmine, the life of the character emerges. This imagery is important to the story for
it shows Jasmine’s relationship with her own culture and how she shapes her identity with
the help of the Goddess in foreign lands. First, a brief discussion of the story, as well as
identifying the Goddess imagery will be discussed. An examination of these phenomena
in a feminist perspective will then add to the meaning of the Goddess imagery within the
story.
Text, Feminism and Symbolism
Aspects of different Goddesses are used to characterize the main character, Jyoti.
She is a woman who goes through many name changes. She is born Jyoti to a once
affluent family. As a result of the changes brought about by Gandhi’s political
movements, and their religious background as Hindus in the new forming Islamic state of
Pakistan, her family is forced to leave their home. Jyoti, however, never enjoyed the
splendor that her family once enjoyed. She grew up poor, but Mukherjee depicts Jyoti,
which means fire, as a girl who is set apart from her surroundings. Her noncompliance is
shown throughout the novel by the description of her behavior. In her early childhood she
wished to rebel against her melancholy future that had been ordained by a soothsayer.
The fortune foretold that she would be a widow by the age of seventeen. Though this
ultimately become reality, Jyoti, strengthened by her personal conviction, told the
17
soothsayer he was wrong. The soothsayer struck her across the face giving her a small
scar for voicing her opinion (Mukherjee, 1989 3-5).
She was also prompted to go to school by her mother and her teacher, a Sikh who
had great faith in her. She further rebelled when her father conceded to the schooling so
that she would become a teller at a bank. She stated that she wished to go to school, but
that she wished to be a doctor instead, infuriating her father and grandmother (Mukherjee,
1989, 50-54).
Though she does continue school for some time, her father dies, and she resigns to
care for her mother. She is soon married, however, and renamed Jasmine by her husband.
She feels that she has found true happiness, but her husband is fueled by a desire not to
follow a traditional lifestyle and to aid this he forces his mindset onto his wife. He
achieves this by making her feel inferior when she wishes to start a family because her
relatives began to talk, for it was only proper for them to start having children (Mukherjee
1989, 20-30).
Despite her husband’s slightly ill temper toward those around him, he attains help
from distant friends and is allowed to go to the United States for school. During their
celebration of this event a bomb, planted by Sikh fundamentalists, kills him in a bazaar.
This so devastates Jasmine that in her growing depression she forces her brothers to help
her illegally immigrate to Florida where she plans to kill herself, through a self-made sati
sacrifice. She plans to throw herself on his burning suit in front of the school that her
husband was going to attend. The image of Sita, the embodiment of the perfect wife, is
shown throughout Jasmine’s life with her husband (Mukherjee 1989, 20-25). The
Goddess Sita is the wife of Rama. Her duty and steadfastness to him are regaled in the
religious doctrine the Ramayana. During that story she joins her husband in his exile in
the woods and is kidnapped. However she never loses faith and devotion to her husband.
Sita is shown as a popular heroine for Indian women and it is considered an honor to be
revered as dutiful as Sita. In this vein Jasmine is exemplified as Sita. Jasmine never
speaks against her husband (Bhattacharyya 104-180).
When forced to change her views, she follows his word, just as Sita followed her
husband and cared for him when he became a renuniciate in the woods. Jasmine also
18
obeys his every wish, though tensions do arise when she wishes to have children. Her
husband feels that she does not really want children, but that she is being pressured by
society. He argues with her to break with her own gender norms, which is difficult for her
to do. He on other hand does not change his traditional views, though he says that he has
(Mukherjee 21-27).
Until this point the character Jasmine has mentioned religion only in passing, but it
is apparent that she subscribes to the cultural and religious customs of her area in India.
Her mother wishes to perform sati at her father’s funeral. The character, Jyoti explains
that it would allow her to become a saint by throwing herself on the funeral pyre, but her
family stops their mother. Though Jasmine does not admit that she wants sainthood, the
life she is forced to live in India is as if she is already dead, sequestered in her family
home with her mother, never allowed marriage again. So deep in despair she wishes to
perform sati in some way to join her husband and finish her time of mourning, though she
knows her husband would not want her to do such a thing given his views on modernity.
The clash between the two in their beliefs had been a source of tension in their marriage
(Mukherjee 1989, 70-100). Jasmine wanted a traditional life in which she had children
and maintained the household. Her husband was always talking down to her, wanting her
to go against what she was taught, but he too was swayed by traditional modes of
behavior. He had a furious temper and wanted Jasmine to gain his approval for every
action, a cultural and traditional view asserted in the laws of Manu. A part of the ancient
laws of Manu is the ideal that a woman cannot act, for any decisions she is to turn in
youth to her father and later to her husband (Manu 50-55). Women were considered
inferior and were treated as such by the community. The laws of Manu show this
inferiority (Hallstrom 57-58). However Jasmine, wanting to go along with most cultural
assumptions, had shown throughout her life that she was her own person and did not like
that the men in her life always wanting to make her decisions for her. This juxtaposition
shows how Jasmine’s views are more progressive than her husband’s are inherently. In
contrast her husband’s views were progressive only on the surface.
When she reaches Florida, she takes a ride with the man who helped bear her
across the sea, who has half of his face missing from an exploding bomb. He drives her to
19
a hotel where he takes advantage of her deplorable state, shames her and then proceeds to
rape her (Mukherjee 1989, 115-120).
This event fuels Jasmine to kill herself in the bathroom. It is here that the Goddess
imagery is transformed. She is no longer a Sita, a good wife, she is shamed and full of
rage. She becomes the Goddess Kali. Instead of cutting her wrists with the small knife
she was given to protect herself with, she cuts her tongue, letting the blood drip down her
face and chin (Kinsley 83-84). This is the brutal image of Kali, her hair disheveled, naked
and blood dripping from her mouth (Mukherjee 1989, 115-120).
In this Goddess like image she kills the rapist as he sleeps, cutting him repeatedly
until he finally collapses. He and the room are covered in blood, as if it were a battlefield.
Sure that the immediate threat of the rapist is repelled, she then proceeds to the bathroom
to try to stop the blood from gushing from the cut in her mouth (Mukherjee, 115-120).
This scene is replete with images of the fierce Goddess. The heroine seems to be
suddenly possessed by Goddess Kali, and instead of killing herself, she is empowered to
kill the rapist. The rapist takes the form of a demon, with his grotesque features and his
war-like behavior towards Jasmine (Kinsley 67-77). The room becomes a battlefield as
Jasmine fights against the “half-faced” demon, drenched in blood from the harrowing
experience. The image of Kali adds to the horrific sense of anger that is started by her
childhood of repression fueled by her husband’s death and exacerbated by her rape. It
also adds to the sense of pollution that Jasmine feels for Kali is usually seen as
menstruating or polluted (Kinsley 83-84).
Distraught, Jasmine wanders about the town, unable to talk due to the gash in her
tongue. Jasmine then finds solace in a woman, Lillian, who takes her in, despite her
illegal status. Here too, Goddess imagery is shown through the motherly aspect of Lillian.
She helps Jasmine and teaches her to blend into American society. Lillian cares for
Jasmine like a mother. Lillian also offers a way to give Jasmine “ordinariness”, realizing
her goal to be able to fit in (Mukherjee 1989, 132-133).
Every Christmas Lillian gave everyone she helped money and socks. In another
way of deifying her Jasmine cherished the gifts as if they were a “saints relics”
(Mukherjee 1989, 136). She is disheartened by the fact that Lillian is charged for
20
exploiting illegal immigrants. Jasmine is not allowed to testify in the hearings, but she
writes letters on her behalf in order to save her own personal Goddess who saved her.
However this is in vain for Lillian goes to jail and dies soon after. This becomes a symbol
of the slaying of the Goddess, which Jasmine seems to feel is happening all around her
due to her inability to find stability and happiness wherever she goes (Mukherjee 1989,
136-140).
Adding to the motherly Goddess image was the character Jasmine herself. She
becomes a nanny in New York and is praised for her motherly attributes. Also, in some
way she fulfills her desire to have children. Until this point she feels that this will be
unrealized, though the reader knows she is pregnant as she tells the story. She also adopts
a boy from a refugee camp in Asia with a banker from Iowa. The boy’s background
remains unclear throughout the story. Though their relationship becomes complicated due
to the fact that she understands the horrors that he has been through. They both did
ghastly things to survive such as kill people. He calls her mom. She also loves him very
deeply and refers to him as her family even when he leaves for California to rejoin his
own family (Mukherjee 1989, 200-225).
It is in New York that Jasmine finds happiness, though not at first. After seeking
refuge with her husband’s former professor, she finds herself in the same abject status that
was given to her in India. Her widowhood becomes the most pronounced part of her
identity, so as not to threaten the new bride of the family. She finds herself in a minute
version of a traditional Indian family household, which holds little meaning for her at this
point n her life. The depression that she cannot escape, exasperated by her rape
overwhelms her, for she feels that she will never escape from the hardships in her life
Mukherjee 1989, 136-140).
This is to change, though, and after fleeing the harsh rules and oppression of her
husband’s life, she begins anew. She enters work at a college and starts to take classes as
well. She finds herself obsessed with materialism, but she is still happy and finds that she
is enjoying her life (Mukherjee 1989, 200-202).
She then takes a job as a nanny for a busy couple. The story unfolds disjointedly,
such as someone reflecting on his or her life. Though she has a separate life in Iowa, her
21
former self in New York slower emerges through her relationship with the family she
works for in New York. She finds herself in love with their life and family. They accept
her for who she is and that she wants to care for their adopted child. Mukherjee’s theme
of culture clash with the West is ideally seen through Jasmine’s exchange with the couple.
They are confused when she wished to sleep in the same room as the child, though this is
the custom that Jasmine grew up with in India (Mukherjee 1989, 120-130).
Surrounded by the family that was denied her by her husband’s death, she finds
true happiness in her role as caregiver. This again invokes the motherly aspects of the
Goddess. However when the couple divorces, Jasmine is shattered, reviving the clash
with the West motif. Jasmine could not understand how the mother of the family could
not be happy. From Jasmine’s point of view there existed no greater happiness than a
family, food, shelter and a comfortable place to live. This ideal is set into contrast to the
hardships she and her family suffered during their relocation from the newly formed state
of Pakistan as well as the hardships she suffered through her entire life (Mukherjee 1989,
114-130).
This motif is revived again when Jasmine becomes astonished about how people in
America do not appreciate the life they are given and yearn for something different. This
is evidenced mostly when she flees to Iowa, due to the coincidence of the murderer of her
husband being in New York, where he terrorizes her briefly. She flees to protect those
that she loves. Her goal is to protect her family that she has formed through her position
as nanny. In Iowa, due to hard times in the economy, many people are unhappy with their
lives. One man, Darrel, falls in love with Jasmine, though he too decides what his own
vision of Jasmine would be. He defines her and makes her his salvation through the
exoticness he has attributed to her. Darrel feels that through her he will find salvation and
be freed from his feelings of self-hatred and his life in Iowa (Mukherjee 1989, 200-202).
Jasmine chooses to go to Iowa, for it is where the child she cared for was
conceived. She feels that good things come from Iowa and perhaps she will find solace
there. She begins work at a bank, where a banker becomes so enamored with her he
leaves his wife. She becomes pregnant with the banker’s child, even though they have to
use artificial means. With her rotund belly Jasmine becomes the fertile image of the Devi
22
(Harper 231-234). When the banker is forced to live in a wheelchair Jasmine takes care of
him. Again she is transformed, for the banker calls her Jane, but she finds herself being
forced to conform to another man’s ideal of her. The banker saw her as Jane, someone
whom he loved for her exoticness, though he tried to tame her with marriage and a family.
She had been Kali for the rapist and devout wife to her husband. She had been given most
aspects of the Goddess but still found no comfort. She had been a wife, a protector, a
killer, and a mother. She had become a full vision of the Goddess (Mukherjee 1989, 197).
The banker and Jane decide to adopt a son from a refuge camp. He is a teenager
and does not know the language. Again the motif for the differences between the cultures
in revived in their relationship. The banker never manages to get close to his adopted son,
for he can not fully accept him. However Jane and the boy, ironically called Yogi for his
adeptness in baseball referring to Yogi Barra, have a special relationship. Though Yogi’s
name ties him to her native India it also portrays him as a symbolism for the east and
Jasmine’s past life. Yogi falls in love with Jane for her motherly attributes, but more for
her commonalities of experience with him. He too places Jasmine in a different context,
giving her protective Goddess qualities, though he never fully trusts anyone. Though she
can never ascertain many details of his hard life, he lets her know that he understands the
hardships she faced, in conjunction with his own. She feels it odd that the Americans
around her have to denote how well Yogi is conforming to life in the United States. She
found that given the horrible life he had to live, through war and famine, that learning to
read and play sports would not be much of a challenge. She found solace in Yogi and
through him she is also given the sense of family that she has felt lacking since she left her
adopted family in New York (Mukherjee 1989, 150-160).
Finally she is awarded the life she wished for. The man she had been the nanny
for in New York returns to her with his daughter, whom she loved as her own. She is
given a new start in California where she can be reunited with her adopted son. She
leaves her Goddess-hood behind in search of happiness with a person who loves her for
who she is, not for aspects that he wanted to see in her. She is also given the child that she
has always wanted. She is no longer a helpless widow, she has saved herself and endured
many hardships. The story ends as she leaves Iowa, “where miracles can still happen”,
23
such as a Goddess given a new start in life (Mukherjee 1989, 211-224).
The use of Goddess imagery has multiple meanings within the context of
feminism. The fierce image of Kali is used as a power symbol, invoking fear in the rapist.
The image relates power to the character of Jasmine, transforming her from her housewife
status, which she had already lost but was holding on to. Rita Das Gupta Sherma writes in
her article, “ ‘Sa Ham- I Am She’: Woman as Goddess”, “...where the identification of the
human woman with the Universal Goddess is most explicit... it traditionally offered
women the maximum opportunity for the fulfillment of their spiritual
potential.”(Hiltebeitel 2000, 47). It is the fierce imagery of Kali, as well as her acceptance
of that symbolism that give her power to move on at the end of the story into a new phase
of life (Mukherjee 1989, 236-241).
In a feminist literary critique Jasmine emerges as a new form of tragic hero.
Carolyn Heilbrun and Catherine Stimpson talk of the male tragic hero as universalized.
Women’s experience is greatly marginalized; therefore the use of a female as a tragic hero
with her own experiences seems to fall into traditional gender norming (67-68). Jasmine
grapples with issues of tradition and her role in society she is plagued by these choices, as
the tragic hero is often portrayed such as in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. However she emerges
as a new tragic hero for she rises above her oppression and hardships to a new life, which
she never thought she would have. Though her experiences of immigration and abject
status may not be universal, her feelings can be seen as thus (Heilbrun 68-69).
Reviews
Critics of Jasmine, such as Gurleen Grewal, find Jasmine is “plagued by
inconsistencies”. She feels, as do others, that Mukherjee marginalizes immigrants
experience in America. This marginalization lacks the ability to show the numerous
hardships immigrants face in America (Islam 133).
However Pushpa N. Parekh sees Jasmine as a way of defining immigrant women’s
experience. Shamsul Islam states of Parekh views, “...techniques are used in delineating
the ‘selving’ process of the immigrant woman” (133). The agency of women’s experience
24
is called into question. However different this view, Mukherjee does have an impact on
how women and immigration issues are addressed.
Conclusions
The transformations that Jasmine goes through in the novel are shown through the
aspects of the Goddess given to her as she tries to make a life for herself, despite her
hardships. The Goddess imagery is the main idea throughout the story, for it ties Jasmine
to past and culture and also shows how she sees herself at those moments, such as when
she is facing her rapist. It also juxtaposes her against her western settings. The use of the
imagery can be seen to give Jasmine strength in a feminist perspective, as well as imbue
her with cultural iconography. Mukherjee uses the Goddess imagery to help identify the
character Jasmine and give her strength and ability.
25
CHAPTER THREE: YAJNASENI, DRAUPADI, AND KRISHNAA
You are the Primal Sakti, Mother Draupadi,
Who came and rose from fire, O mother.
Mother Sakti, Mother Draupadi,
O mother, you who rose, rushing forth
From the sacrificial fire of Pancalan [Draupadi’s father].
Not touchable, mother, you are the fire, mother...
O mother, lady who is there in the universe great and small...
If one sees you in the daytime, you are Parvati.
In the nightime, you have become the stars...1
This incantation to Draupadi, which tells of her birth, is sung in the northern part
of India to revere the Goddess (Hiltlebeitel 1988, 3-12). The heroine Draupadi is ancient
in the Hindu pantheon. Her tale is told throughout the ancient Sanskrit text of the
Mahabharata. Which tells of the Pandava brothers who ultimately marry Draupadi in
order to have her kingdom. Against the Pandavas are the hundred Kauravas who “vie
with each other for the sole right to the central throne.” (Hiltlebeitel 1988, xx) It is in the
Book of the Assemblies, written in Sanskrit, that Draupadi may be best known. In this
chapter the Kauravas play dice with the Pandavas and end up winning Draupadi along
with most everything the Pandavas have. The Kauravas gamble more with the Pandavas
and eventually they go to war where the Bhagavad Gita is revealed and the famous story
of Argun is told. In the novel Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi the author Pratibha Ray,
writing in Oriya, tells the story related in the Mahabharata through Draupadi’s point of
view. The use of the Goddess as a being with feelings, not a non-descript actor, is the
1
Alf Hiltebeitel, The Cult o f Dra upadi: Mythologies: From Gingee to Kuruksetra , vol 1, (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1988) 12.
26
most important aspect of the novel. Through Draupadi’s words a feminist ideal emerges.
Looking at Draupadi’s reaction to being lost at a dice game is the focus of this chapter, as
well as how she develops her character in feminist terms. This is the aspect of Draupadi
that is questioned and debated today, her use as a symbol of empowerment. How this
occurrence is treated in the novel and how Ray uses Draupadi as a character with feelings
will be the focus of this chapter, as well as articulating a feminist critique of the episode.
Draupadi Lost at Dice: The Draupadi Question
As Gita Mehta uses Goddess imagery as a means to develop the characters in A
River Sutra, Ray uses the Goddess as a means of showing a universality that exists in
people’s feelings. Yajnaseni uses the ancient mythological character, Draupadi in this
modern tale to tell of the lives and loves of the woman who is renamed several times in
the story, Krishnaa, Yajnaseni and eventually Draupadi (Ray 5-20).
The many names of Krishnaa, or Draupadi are discussed in Alf Hiltebeitel’s study,
The Ritual of Battle: Krishna in the Mahabharata. In his discussions of the three Krsnas
he talks of Draupadi, which means daughter of King Drupada. When she is given her
birth title Krsna, Krishnaa in the novel, it denotes her dark color or complexion. This
shows a correlation to the Goddess Kali, or fierce aspect of the Goddess. Arjuna in the
novel is also given the title Krsna within the novel but this is to show his connection to
Krishna, the deity. He is also called this in the Mahabharata. There is also a third
character called Krsna in the novel, and in history, who will not be discussed in depth,
however he too is considered to have a dark complexion (1990, 60-63).
The importance of her names is crucial for understanding her character.
Hiltlebeitel suggests that the three characters are all regarded as aspects of Krishna or
linked to him in some way (64-65). Ray uses this in her novel to portray the holiness of
Draupadi, for she is never regarded as an ordinary person. However, Ray does not refer to
her as dark complexioned. Her beauty, which is talked about by all epics, poems writings
and worshippers is comparatively traditional. She is given round eyes and a complexion
that is radiant, not necessarily dark. Ray does not seem to draw on the fierce aspects of
27
the Goddess when describing her, though this could be an assumption of the writer when
using the name Krishnaa (Ray 20).
However, Ray portrays Draupadi in a realm that would seem affected by her fierce
connotations. She is shown as inhabiting the border between chaste and unchaste, fierce
and meek. Her ability to move across these lines gives Draupadi depth as a character (Ray
20).
She is given to Krishna, whom she loves so deeply and spiritually that she swoons
at the appearance of his feet. He in turn gives her to his brother Arjun in marriage for he
is equally suited for Krishnaa. He and Arjun are connected spiritually, and Krishnaa takes
solace in this idea. However, she is given to Arjun and his four brothers as a wife in
circumstances out of her control (Ray 20-25).
Draupadi’s tale of being bartered in a game of dice sacrifices her life long goal of
dharma, that of being an agent for austerity. She and her brother and were created from a
sacrificial altar for this purpose, and both of them are resigned to this fate (Ray 5-10). The
feelings that she goes through at this point are marked with betrayal, as well as a loss of
innocence and fear for the future (Sharma 1995, 175).
When Krishnaa is told by her servant that she had been lost in a game of dice, as
well as being included in all of her husband’s property, she is full of rage. Surprisingly
her status as Queen had quickly been transformed, for her slave, Pratikami was already
treating her with disdain and mocking her fortune. However, she rises from her feelings
of anger and disbelief to demand answers from her husband, the King (Ray 234).
Here, as throughout the entire novel, Krishnaa enters into a debate within herself,
showing the aptitude of the character and her horror at her husband, his gambling, and the
awful thing he has done. She asks within herself, “Has anyone ever done such a
detestable act in the history of the world?” (Ray 234).
Unfortunately, she got her answer when she was paraded in front of her new
owners, and in the presence of her husbands and father-in-law. Calling her slave the men
who won her, tugged at her hair and her clothes, in order to shame her husbands.
Krishnaa is no longer a person but an object of revenge. Here she asks many questions
that Alf Hiltebeitel addresses in his article “The Draupadi Question”. He states,
28
“Draupadi is asking a woman’s question, if not the woman’s question.” (115). Here she is
asking herself, is she his property? Is she to be included in his barter (Ray 235)?
As the men taunt her, she begins to pray to Krishna, for she feels that he is the only
one left who will help her. Here Krishnaa talks of the dangers that faces “man” and
wonders where the courage derives to overtake the fear. She does not know where the
courage comes from but she finds the daring within herself and speaks against her
aggressors (Ray 237). She asks of them if it is not dishonorable to treat her this way in
front of her elders and husbands? The crowd went silent and Krishnaa notes the effect her
question has had on the group for she says that women had never been so demanding in
front of their elders, the term she uses to refer to her husbands (Ray 238).
She is thus ostracized by her question. Because of her gender, she should not have
spoken out. It is mentioned that if she had groveled at their feet they might have taken
pity upon her. However she does not grovel but is impelled to know why she is being
treated this way (Ray 238).
In her defense she says, “I do not beg for anyone’s pity. I demand justice. To
protect the honour of women is the dharma2 of a king.” (Ray 238). This aspect seems to
reflect the shame her husband should be feeling; however it is put onto her. Again she
asks her question, this time to her torturers, does her husband have the right to barter her
(Ray 238)?
They are unsure and refuse to answer her question. With the little that they say she
enters into a debate about the peculiarities of the dice-game, showing how her husband
was taken advantage of in his simple-mindedness. It is here that she shows her knowledge
of dharma and her ability to think on higher levels than her husbands do. Because she is
2
Dharma is as defined by Arvind Sharma in Mo dern Hindu Th ought, “A multivalent word, considered
untranslatable in English, which stands for cosmic order, normative order, law, morality and allied
significations” (364).
29
revealing their plot, the Kauravas, the ones who have instigated the game, silence her
through hurting her physically and attacking her status as a female, which is far below
them. She feels that she is abandoned and has lost all hope (Ray 239).
It is here that Bhim, one of her husbands, speaks out against his brothers. The four
brothers of the king and Draupadi’s other four husbands had been lost in the dice game as
well. However Bhim does not care that he has been bartered and speaks out against his
eldest brother who bartered Draupadi. This does not calm Draupadi for when he speaks
out against his eldest brother, the other brothers say that he can not speak out against him.
Krishnaa is taken aback by their ability to stick to that tradition as they watch as she is
about to be tortured and humiliated. She asks “Well What respect for tradition and
culture Elders must not be spoken ill of...while petty persons are insulting and outraging
his wife...Is this the evidence of the great Bharatan civilization?” (Ray 239).
One of her torturers debates on Draupadi’s side, saying that she is the equal
property of all her husbands, not just the one. However, this is disregarded, and all of her
husbands are stripped of their clothing, except for Yudhishthir who was the king and had
bartered them all. Draupadi is outraged, “Like a tongue of flame my eyes and every pore
of my body were burning. My anger against Yudhishther I poured out on my companion.
I began to make myself firm.” (Ray 236). She begins again speaking out against her
husband and those around her. In this true feminist discourse she questions their validity,
as well as her position as a wife. She talks of the Goddess Sita when she had been
kidnapped. Draupadi wonders if Sita held as much rage as she did against her oppressors.
Her outrage is incomparable to the unconceivable wickedness that has befallen her. Her
lamentation anger the men and they start insulting her chastity at taking five husbands,
ignoring that she had no choice in the matter (Ray 240-241).
It is here that Duhshasan, one of the Kauravas that had won Draupadi, began
pulling at her robes. She tries to stop him but tires. She holds her hands up to the Gods to
give up her body and emotions to them, and she gives them responsibility over her body.
Krishna extends his hand and covers her with cloth. Duhshasan continues to pull until the
room begins to fill with cloth. Surprisingly her new owners further assault her while this
is going on. This angers Bhim, and a fight breaks out. However most around start
30
chanting “Sati” in honor of the God’s work toward Draupadi. This is to give her holiness
(Ray 233-234).
Here her capturers remark of her auspiciousness and ask of her a boon. She asks
for Yudhisthir’s freedom, so that as her son will not be the son of a slave. They grant it
and ask of her another boon. She asks for her other four husbands’ freedom. They grant
it and ask of her another boon, but she refuses saying that women under these
circumstances are only to be granted two boons. They beg for her to have another, so as
to free herself, but she refuses saying that she is already free, due to Yudhisthir’s other
wives and his actions toward her (Ray 245).
Implications of Draupadi’s Question
This scene is recounted many times in myth and is an important part of the story of
Draupadi in the Mahabharata. Ray’s portrayal of Draupadi as a human, with feelings
gives her the opportunity to call into question gender and status disparities that occur to
women. Draupadi is not an ordinary woman, she was created to uphold dharma but no
one takes this into consideration when they decide to insult her. Her insult is a means of
giving her more chastity than before, and she is revered for the way she gave her husbands
freedom by the other characters, though Draupadi’s inner feelings of betrayal and hatred
are not quelled (Ray 247).
In his discussion of Draupadi, Alf Hiltebeitel states, “Draupadi’s question is a
philosophical one about the nature of Self.” (2000, 116). It is because of these questions
of the self, her rights as a woman, that Draupadi poses many feminist questions and
perspectives, knowing that in her heart these men should not have the right to treat her as
they did. However because of her status being ripped from her she is able to speak out
against them and ask them why they have the right to do this to her. Her question is never
answered, nor is it ever put right, though she is given exalted status, not for her own
actions but for what Krishna has done for her.
Therefore Draupadi as a Goddess is an interesting question. She is revered for her
upholding dharma, the right way to live, but it is regarded as unchaste due to her
31
numerous husbands and her being bartered as slave. However, her husbands all have
more than one wife, but their valor as men is never questioned. It is her betrayal by her
husbands that adds to her aura as a Goddess, creating a strange conundrum. She is never
answered, just silenced (Doniger 15-16).
Draupadi as She is Worshipped
Ray gives Draupadi a very human existence. She explores at great length the
feelings that Draupadi goes through in every aspect of her life. She also makes Draupadi
flawed, in that she does what is expected of her, but when the time comes she speaks
against her oppressors. Though this is a part of the Draupadi of the Mahabharata, Ray
adds fiction to the scene by showing her inner emotions. She meant every word she said.
As Ray unfolds the interplay she also shows the cunning of the Goddess and how she is
much smarter than the men who have decided they have rule over her are. Her ability to
not take these things at face value but to question her husbands validity is what makes
Draupadi a powerful Goddess. It is for this reason that she is not looked at as a role
model, especially on the same vein as Sita. Speaking out is not considered a virtue for a
woman. Wendy Doniger talks briefly of Sita in her study Splitting the Difference. Here
she talks at great length at how Sita is revered as a Goddess in the ways that envision a
good wife and everlasting beauty (10-14).
In contrast to Ray’s portrayal of Draupadi is how she is worshipped as a powerful
Goddess. Alf Hiltlebeitel, who has written numerous books on the worship of Draupadi,
talks of this in The Cult of Draupadi Book Two. Here he looks at temples to Draupadi,
their personnel, her worshippers and followers. Draupadi is not looked at as a weak
Goddess nor do people usually attribute her with human beings. She is a Goddess and is
worshipped this way. She is given sprouts at her altar and is revered at festivals and
holidays. This is opposed to Ray, who portrays Draupadi’s feelings about her life as it
unfolds (1988, 69-153).
32
Criticisms
Criticism of Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi, though it must exist, are not easily
found in the United States. Pratibha Ray is a well-respected author, particularly in India,
where many know her by name. This book was written specifically for a Oriya Hindu
population, though it was later translated into English for wide spread audience
throughout India. However, it would be interesting to compare what critics say about her
treatment of Draupadi as a humanistic heroine. Did she do justice to the Goddess?
Nevertheless it should be noted that if she was regarded as treating the Goddess
inaccurately the reception of the novel in India, and its small circulation throughout the
world, would probably not have been as successful.
Conclusions
In summation Ray uses the tale of Draupadi to relate the aspects of a Goddess in
terms of her character and her feelings. Those feelings result in questioning her
surroundings and describing a feminist ideology that debates the validity of men’s status
over women. Though the story is very complex in its emotional scope, Yajnaseni: The
Story of Draupadi shows the life and evolution of a Goddess.
33
CHAPTER FOUR: THE SHORT STORY: GLIMPSES OF THE GODDESS
The short story can be used as an integral tool when expressing feelings for a
topic. Due to the shortness of the story a writer’s theme may be more understandable
because of the accessibility of the entire story. Three stories in particular will be
examined on, for the stories show women in separate times in their lives. In the story
“Lata” by Binapani Mohanty, written in Oriya, the main character is given the
embodiment of the Goddess when she is wronged severely and publicly by her village at a
young age. Mahasveta Devi’s story “The Wet Nurse” tells the life story of a woman,
Jashoda, who after a life of service to a family and her own, is forgotten. In the story
“Muniyakka” by Lashmi Kannan the character is old and forgotten by her family, left
alone with her inner turmoil. These stories deal with gender issues, specifically the status
dilemmas that typify some women’s experience in India. The Goddess imagery is used to
relate these emotions as well as to give the characters symbols of empowerment.
Lata
Out of the many captivating stories in the collection of tales, The Slate of Life, the
story “Lata” stands apart due to its dealings with rape and culture. The theme of “Lata”
and the main character’s circumstances, surrounded by festivals and religious imagery,
show the realities of life for some women and how they cope. Though Lata’s story does
seem hopeless, the reader can feel that Lata has dealt with her unfortunate circumstances
and pain. The story ends with an affirming tone when Lata has come home to work for
her son’s future (Mohanty 48-49).
One of the most important concepts within the writing is gender and how it affects
the life of a woman. Lata returns from her husband’s home after she has been mistreated
by her in-laws (Mohanty 43-44). The story portrays her father’s reaction, his feelings and
his attitudes to this societal embarrassment. Though his feelings may not have been
34
universal, he was shown, as having affection toward his daughter that was strong enough
to still care for her, despite rumors surfacing around town about her past behavior
(Mohanty 49).
Another aspect of gender relations is that of how the village reacts to her before
and after she leaves. Because she has left her husband’s home, she was considered to be
unchaste. Her abject status led her to be sequestered. She is portrayed as feeling solace
for her situation, through her father’s point of view. During the festival of Holi, which
celebrates reversal of roles and transgression of limits, she disappears. She returns several
years later, after her father dies of grief, bearing a young child. The town shuns her for
her unchaste behavior. However, she shames the village by proclaiming the secret that
she was trying to shield them from, which was that she was raped. She can also identify
the numerous attackers, admitting that none of them will ever claim their son. After her
rape, she left town to shield her father from further shame. Again, the common theme of
female gender identity is centered on her sexuality. The emergence of her child and
herself added more shame to the situation by society’s standards, and no action seemed to
be taken against her rapists (Mohanty 47-49).
Alongside the issues of gender are the religious traditions focused on by the
author. Lata is raped on the night of a religious festival. The festival, described as being a
night of strangeness, sets the tone for the story. Though there may exist a correlation
between the rape and this festival, the tone seems more of a means for Lata to leave the
safety of her house and feel comfortable among her fellow villagers (Mohanty 43-45).
Also, the use of Goddess imagery is used to show juxtaposition to the character.
When she is ostracized for her waywardness, her abject status is compared to that of a
deity who does not have the same constraints or concerns. When she is being beaten by a
family member, the ability of a deity to be able to change the situation in any way that the
deity wishes is put against Lata’s inability to change anything about her situation
(Mohanty 44-46).
In retaliation, Lata, whose motivations of wanting to care for her son have not
been revealed as of yet, becomes outraged for the first time in the story. She is given
attributes of the Goddess, her skin changing hues and her hair whipping about her. She is
35
shown as protectoress, with her son placed on her hip. With this power symbol she
proclaims the knowledge of her rapist’s identity, and the villagers disperse and ultimately
leave her alone. She is transformed into a form of the mother Goddess, protecting her
child (Pintchman 49-50). Her goal is to make sure her son grows up and claims his land,
perhaps as a reminder to the villagers who have wronged her so (Mohanty 49).
Gender issues and religious traditions help show Lata’s abject status as an
individual forced to live out certain pre-described roles. The story shows fictitious
character’s reactions to these roles when not abided by. The themes portrayed through the
Goddess imagery and gender issues give reality to the story and make the reader care very
much for Lata (Mohanty 49).
The Wet Nurse
However Devi’s tale, “The Wet Nurse”, portrays Godhood and Goddesses very
differently. The narrative is centered on a small town where the people are very religious
and practice Hinduism. Many villagers’ lives are affected by their religious faith in the
story. One aspect explored is the corruption within the local religious leaders. The theme
of the story is perpetuated through the passing of time and the way that the older traditions
are set aside. As people who were in control die, power begins to shift to the younger
generations. This brings a new set of rules, and through time many of the characters’
positions change due to the changing generations’ mindsets (Devi 5-10).
“The Wet Nurse” tells of the life of Jashoda, forced to be a wet nurse of the Halder
family when her husband is hurt in a car accident. Her husband cannot work, and her
family is become poor and starving. As she is praying to the Goddess for help, she sees a
vision of the Deity. Though she protests the Halder family’s advances for her to work for
them, they persuade her to do so based on her vision, which was the motherly aspect of
the Goddess. Usha Menon speaks of the different visions of the Goddess as protectoress
in her article, “Mahadevi as Mother: The Oriya Hindu Vision of Reality”. Here she
describes the many ways that the Goddess can viewed physically, either as fierce or
protective (Menon 40-41).
36
The tale describes her demise from breast cancer after breastfeeding over fifty
children for the Halder family. When her usefulness is gone she is left with her breasts,
once the objects of envy, filled with disease. This is symbolic for how Jashoda is treated,
as well as traditional family life, which has fallen apart in the village (Devi 30).
In the beginning of the story Jashoda’s husband is injured. She meditates for
several days at a temple to pray for his recovery. It is here that she sees the image of the
Goddess as a nurse, with a bag. She views the image as an omen, and others use it to
manipulate her. The omen is used specifically when she is offered the job as nanny for
the Halder family, which at first she is reluctant to take. The Goddess becomes the
characterization of Jashoda as well as helps advance the plot. Her body and her ability to
nourish all the children are said to be the “great Mother’s will” (Devi 27-30).
Upon accepting the position, Jashoda is applauded for her fertility. She is likened
to a Goddess, focusing on the bounty of her breasts. Her once abject status is replaced by
the image of the Goddess, and she gains respect and is waited on to protect her
endowment of her motherly attributes. People look to her as a blessing for fertility and
everyone seems happy with her relationship within the family (Devi 29-30).
However when her “over-flowing milk bar” begins to dry up and the head of the
Halder household dies she is no longer treated as the “ma incarnate” (Devi 48). She finds
herself struggling to put her life together and is forced to live as a servant to the Halder
family. Having lost her symbols of Goddess-hood, her breasts, people start to treat her
differently. The children that she had once nourished are now treating her rudely, and she
is no longer seen as fertile or a good omen but as an unfortunate (Devi 50).
Her treatment and her cancer are both representations of the theme within the
story. Modes of thought are beginning to change. The Halder family begins to separate,
and fewer children are being born. Jashoda is no longer looked at as the “ma incarnate”
and is regarded as a burden to the family for different reasons. In the beginning she was
used as a bottle and freed the women from hurting themselves through endless breastfeeding of children. There are also not as many children to care for given the breakup of
the central family unit and te choice of the younger generation to have fewer children.
After things change for the worse, Jashoda looses her ability to give milk. Her beauty and
37
fertility is replaced with old age, disease and senility (Devi 48).
In the hospital she dies alone and in a great amount of pain. She is represented as
still carrying the aspects of the Goddesses. She tells of what will happen to her body after
her death, a spiritual attribute. She took upon herself the mantle of godhood, and those
that once expressed loved for her were shunning the end result. Their own feelings of
inferiority, though they gave Jashoda the godly aspects, distanced themselves from her.
Jashoda welcomed this change at first, due to her newfound importance.
Again gender is a major force within the story. Jashoda is forced into her position
due to her status as a woman, for her ability to perform the milk-giving as well as her
husband willing her to do so for his own benefit. She is taken advantage of due to her
poverty and her status as a woman (Devi 10-30). When that status as a woman is gone
and replaced with disease she is treated with disgust, for she becomes useless and in turn
genderless, by losing the symbols of her gender. Feelings of being betrayed by her family
and status are the only accompaniment she has in her death.
Muniyakka
The image of Kali is also employed in the story “Muniyakka“. The servant
woman Muniyakka’s daily activities are told in the tale. She is shown as an old lady and a
very hard worker who cleans many houses and a temple in her neighborhood (Kannan
139-141).
Her dead husband and her sons offered her no solace. Her husband spent her
money frivolously during his life, and her sons did not offer Muniyakka any comfort or
help after her husband died. She is left to live in a hut alone with her fuming hatred
toward her station in life (Kannan 139-145).
During her days of subservience she curses the women at the temple who beat
their heads against a stone statue of a snake in the hope that they will be granted the boons
of sons. Her discontent in her own life reveals to her the foolishness that she had once
exhibited to herself, having performed the ritual to achieve her sons as well. Her sons
have not given her joy that society has promised, and she feels cheated and used (Kannan
38
139-144).
After gorging herself one night in her hut, she waits outside to watch the palms
dance violently in the wind. She relates this to be the dance of the devil and Kali, the
palms symbolizing the Goddess’ wild and loose hair. The ritual feast is a form of selfmade prashad3 to her anger and the Goddess Kali. The representation of the Goddess Kali
signifies her own feelings of hate and unfulfilled longings (Kannan 142-145).
Her frustration of her life as a hard worker with no one to take solace in is
signified by the image of Kali. Muniyakka is approximating the Goddess Kali in that she
speaks her mind and can see the futility of life through other people’s actions. Her
feelings of betrayal by her sons, whom she had once felt were the all-encompassing
people in her life, accentuate this image of Kali budding inside her (Kannan 139-145).
Cross-Cultural Feminist Approach
Each of these stories illustrates the unique female experience in society. The
Goddess imagery is used to enhance the characters’ ties to their religion, as well as to give
the characters aspects of a personality ascribed to the Goddess.
Rita Felski approaches this view when talking of literature and feminism. She
speaks of authorship and how a female perspective implies different things. She
characterizes traditional feminist views, as disseminating traditional plots and summaries.
However, she also shows how literature can be used as “...embellishing, rearranging,
modifying, supplementing, expanding.” (108). These ideas are important in talking of the
Goddess imagery as a feminist discourse. The imagery seems to apply these many
faculties to the plot and characters. The use of the Goddess is fierce and protectoress
3
Prashad is an act of worship to the Godd ess. Foo d is given to th e deity, either through ritual or at an
altar. The food is then dispersed and eaten by believers. The food should never be thrown away, and
particular foo ds can or can not be given to certain Goddesses.
39
aspects “expands” the image of Lata; as well as “modifies” it. The Goddess association
with Jashoda in “The Wet Nurse” expands her character to a level above the others. This
is exemplified by the tragic fall that she has when stripped of her status. Muniyakka is
very much embellished by her fervor against radical forms of worship, though she does
not cease to see the religious aspects of the world around her (Felski 106-108).
Conclusions
Lashmi Kannan also uses these aspects in the short story “Muniyakka” where the
Goddess image of Kali is again used to demonstrate power and resistance to social
pressures. However in the story “The Wet Nurse”, the character is portrayed by her
image, as the Goddess when she is no longer regarded that way. However, inside she still
held her own status of power, which was being denied due to the loss of gender status.
Goddess imagery can be so powerful as a literary device that the importance of the
Goddess as an entity cannot be ignored. The use of the Goddess in the stories only
accentuates the idea of the power of the Goddess. Through the images that are stirred
through her representation many motifs and characters are developed but essentially
homage to the Goddess is played by the fact that she is never negated, but usually only
used a powerful symbol in the stories discussed. Without Goddess imagery the spiritual
and emotional motifs raised in the stories would not have the effectiveness.
40
CONCLUSION: PARALLELS AND CROSS-CULTURAL ASSUMPTIONS
Summary
It is hard to conclude on any one particular story. The use of the Goddess imagery
as either a literary device or as a means to imbue certain characteristics onto an individual
in the stories is important on many levels.
First, the use of the Goddess as a means of transmitting culture is heavily applied,
especially in author’s works that are conscious of cultural submission through literature,
such as Gita Mehta in A River Sutra. This novel and her other works use the Goddess as a
means to portray the intricacies of Indian culture in relation to its female deities.
Strongly used throughout the stories is the Goddess as a power symbol. In
Jasmine, Bharati Mukherjee transforms her characters into aspects of the Goddess, such as
the fierce symbolism of Kali in the character’s killing of her rapist. This story also
explored the cultural meanings of being Indian in the character’s dealings with the West
and the eroticism that is tied to her due to her ethnicity. The use of the Goddess was a
means of tying Jasmine to her culture, for she never had a desire to be an American,
though the characters around her felt that they could other her from her native land.
Jasmine, given the aspect of the Goddess throughout the stages of her life, is shown as
never being separated from her culture.
The short stories “Lata” and “Muniyakka” both used the Goddess as power
symbols. The fierce mother Goddess aspect is shown in “Lata” and in the transmission of
battling objects imbibed with the aspect of Kali and a demon in “Muniyakka”. These
aspects of the story juxtaposed the use of the Goddess as a symbol to stifle a woman in her
career in “The Wet Nurse”. The status associated with the Goddess, as well as the inner
strength that Jashoda afforded herself, in the end kill her family and herself in the
destruction of her Goddess symbol, her breasts.
Many feminist perspectives were generated from these tales. Draupadi’s situation
41
forces her to question her abject status and the right that people have over her. Jasmine
uses her reflections on the western culture of the United States to question how people
interact with other cultures as well as her own former life as a housewife. In the end
Jasmine validates all aspects of her life, with the use of Goddess imagery and by the
character’s own survival instincts that are so central to her.
In the end the use of the Goddess imagery strengthens the stories with regard to
cultural perspective as well as reinforces the characters’ ties with their culture. Giving
these characters power symbols gives the characters aspects that would be hard to discern
without the disheveled hair and bloodied tongue, as in Jasmine. The power the characters
derive from this usage strengthens the stories. Without the use of Goddess imagery the
stories would not carry the cultural link and ideologies that make them so touching and
interesting to read.
Cross-Cultural Assumptions
Many different feminist theorists were examined throughout the study. These
were used to show how feminism can be used as a vehicle to look at literature as a unique
female experience, as well as adding strength to the arguments that the Goddess imagery
as it exists in these stories is a form of feminist approach. Rita Felski in her study
Literature After Feminism, approaches literature as having gone through a change due to
feminism. She argues that male voices are no longer the norm, and that women centered
literature can be used as a versatile form of self-expression (100-108).
However, there exist some assumptions within the study of the imagery through a
feminist perspective. Feminisms have evolved differently throughout the world. Though
connected regionally women have not gone through the same experiences crossnationally. Women in India received the vote decades before women in France for
instance. Therefore the struggles have not been the same. Oppression, except for a few
small instances seems to be universal. It is because of this that literature can be viewed as
a canon onto itself in this study.
I felt very comfortable using feminism as an over-arching term in this study for the
42
theorists all used similar arguments when looking at literature as a phenomenon.
Bishnupriya Ghosh gives a critique of feminist approaches within literature in
regards to other cultures. She attempts to give a history to the feminist movement in
India, exploring nationalism and other themes important to women in India. To do this
she talks of the importance of literature to help show the views of the people of the time,
as well as their experience (136).
Many others share her view. Leslie Bow, who studies Asian American women,
talks of the importance of literature in her studies (43). Rita Felski also shares this view,
her entire study Literature after Feminism revolved around this theme.
Also Carolyn Heilbrun and Catherine Stimpson in their dialogue of feminist
literary expression discuss the many arguments that permeate the discourse. Such as
many authors speak out against female expression. Though Heilbrun and Stimpson take
these arguments seriously, they however disseminate these views through women’s
history and literature. Both authors feel that women’s expression can be looked at as
unique and a part of understanding oppression as a whole (68-70).
Religious Expression and My Own Thoughts
With this in mind the religious expression that is the focus of the literature is used
to give the stories culture and distinctiveness. The use of the Goddess is intriguing for
many audiences do not see these aspects, especially non-Hindus that are unfamiliar with
the culture and religions of India. Even I, who has been studying India and Hinduism for
quite some time, feel that I may have missed some of the intricacies of the religious
expression in the novels.
Perhaps an even more formidable obstacle was the language barrier. However, it
is likely that the English translations of the novels, for the ones not written in English,
were extremely accurate due to the widespread use of English in India. Therefore, I
believe that my study was not hindered by loss in translation, only the lack of translated
secondary sources.
One way to resolve the lack of cultural experience is through extensive research,
43
but this can only take a person so far. I can only wish that I have done the work justice.
My hope in this study is that it has awakened a perspective toward literature. This
perspective I hope is rich in self-expression, feminism, culture which is permeated by
religious experience.
44
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Benstock, Shari. (Ed.). Feminist Issues in Literary Scholarship. Indiana: Indiana
University Press, 1987.
Bernard, Elisabeth and Beverly Moon. (Eds.). Goddesses Who Rule. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000.
Billington, Sandra and Miranda Green. (Eds.). The Concept of the Goddess. London:
Routledge, 1996.
Bow, Leslie. Betrayal and Other acts of Subversion: Feminism, SexualPolitics,
Asian American Women Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2001.
Burton, Antoinette. (Ed.). Gender, Sexuality and Colonial Modernities. London:
Routledge, 1999.
Butalia, Urvashi and Rita Menon. (Eds.). In Other Words: New Writing by Indian
Women. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994.
Carmody, Denise Lardner. Women and World Religions. New Jersey: Prentice Hall,
1989.
Carroll, Theodora Foster. Women Religion, and Development in the Third World. New
York: Praeger Publishers, 1983.
Coburn, Thomas B. Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi-Mahatmya
and a Study of its Interpretation. New York: State University of New York
Press, 1991.
Devi, Mahasveta. 1986. “The Wet Nurse” Truth Tales: Contemporary Stories by
Women Writers of India. Edited by Kali for Women. New York: The Feminist
Press at The City University of New York, 1986.
Doniger, Wendy. Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece andIndia.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999.
Erndl, Kathleen M. Victory to the Mother: The Hindu Goddess of Northwest India in
Myth, Ritual, and Symbol. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Feldhaus, Anne. Water and Womanhood: Religious Meanings of Rivers in Maharashtra.
45
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Feldhous, Anne. (Ed.). Images of Women in Maharashtrian Literature and Religion.
New York, State University of New York Press, 1996.
Felski, Rita. Literature after Feminism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Fisher, Jerilyn and Ellen S. Silber. Analyzing the Different Voice: Feminist
Psychological Theory and Literary Texts. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield
Publishers, Inc., 1998.
Fisher, Marlene. Review of A River Sutra by Gita Mehta. World Literature Today 68, no.
1, 1994: 214.
Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco,
1989.
Ghosh, Bishnupriya and Brinda Bose, eds. Interventions: Feminist Dialogues on Third
World Women’s Literature and Film. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997.
Hallam, Elizabeth. (Ed.). Gods and Goddesses. New York: Macmillan, 1996.
Hallstrom, Lisa Lassell. Mother of Bliss. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Harper, Katherine Anne and Robert L. Brown. The Roots of Tantra. New York: State
University of New York Press, 2002.
Heine, Susanne. Matriarchs, Goddesses, and Images of God: A Critique of a Feminist
Theology. Minneapolis: SCM Press, 1989.
Helibrun, Carolyn and Catherine Stimpson. “Theories of Feminist Criticism”. Feminist
Literary Criticism: Explorations in Theory. Josephine Donovan, ed. Lexington:
The University Press of Kentucky, 1989.
Hiltebeitel, Alf. The Cult of Draupadi: Myth
ologies: From Gingee to Kuruksetra,
vol 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
Hiltebeitel, Alf and Kathleen M. Erndl. (Eds.). Is the Goddess a Feminist?: The Politics
of South Asian Goddesses. New York: New York University Press, 2000.
Jung, Patricia Beattie, Mary E. Hunt and Radhika Balakrishnan. (Eds.). Good Sex:
Feminist Perspectives from the World’s Religions. New Jersey: Rutgers
University Press, 2001.
46
Kali For Women. (Eds.). Truth Tales: Contemporary Stories by Women Writers ofIndia.
New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1986.
Kannan, Lashmi. 1986. “Muniyakka”. Truth Tales: Contemporary Stories by Women
Writers of India. Edited by Kali for Women. New York: The Feminist Press at
The City University of New York, 1986.
Kemp, Sandra and Judith Squires, eds. Feminisms. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1997.
Kinsley, David. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu
Religious Tradition. Berkley: University of California Press, 1986.
Kinsley, David. Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas.
Berkley: University of California Press, 1997.
Manu. The Laws of Manu. New York : Penguin Books, 1991. Translated by Wendy
Doniger and Brian K. Smith.
Mehta, Gita. A River Sutra. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.
Menon, Usha. “Mahadevi as Mother: The Oriya Hindu Vision of Reality”. Seeking
Mahadevi: Constructing the Identities of the Hindu Great Goddess.
Tracy Pintchman, ed. New York: State University of New York Press, 2001.
Mohanty, Binapani. 1986. “Lata” Truth Tales: Contemporary Stories by Women
Writers of India. Edited by Feminist Press. New York: The Feminist Press at
The City University of New York, 1986.
Mookerjee, Ajit. Kali: The Feminine Force. New York: Destiny Books, 1998.
Mukherjee, Bharati. Jasmine. New York: Grove Press, 1989.
Mukherjee, Prabhita. Hindu Women: Normative Models. Bombay, Orient
Longman, 1978.
Peach, Lucinda Joy. (Eds.). Women and World Religions. New Jersey, Prentice Hall,
2002.
Pintchman, Tracy. (Ed.). Seeking Mahadevi: Constructing the Identities of the Hindu
Great Goddess. New York: State University of New York Press, 2001.
Ramachandra, C.N. and A.G. Kahn. “Gita Mehta’s A River Sutra: Two Views.”
Literary Criterion 29, no. 3 (1994): 1-15.
47
Ray, Pratibha. Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi. New Delhi: Rupa & Co, 1995.
Ray, Sangeeta. Engendering India: Woman and Nation in Colonial and Postcolonial
Narratives. Durham: Duke University Press, 2000.
Robinson, Catherine A. Tradition and Liberation: The Hindu Tradition in the Indian
Women’s Movement. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New York: Harper Collins, 1997.
Rubin, Merle. A Review of A River Sutra by Gita Mehta. Christian Science Monitor 85,
no. 152, July 1993:10.
Seely, Clinton B. (Ed.). Women Politics, and Literature in Bengal. Michigan, Asian
Studies Center Michigan State University, 1981.
Shah, Shalini. The Making of Womanhood: Gender Relations in the Mhahabharata.
New Delhi: Molohar Publishers, 1995.
Sharma, Arvind and Katherine K. Young. (Eds.). Feminism and World Religions.
New York: State University of New York Press, 1999.
Sharma, Arvind. Modern Hindu Thought: The Essential Texts. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2002.
Sharma, R.P. Woman in Hindu Literature. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 1995.
Tharu, Susie and K. Lalita. (Eds.). Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to Present,
Volume Two: The Twentieth Century. New York: The Feminist Press at the City
University of New York, 1993.
Wolff, Janet. Feminine Sentences: Essays on Women and Culture. Berkley: University
of California Press, 1990.
Yegenoglu, Meyda. Colonial Fantasies: Towards a Feminist reading of Orientalism.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
48
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Marie Hendry was born in Gainesville Florida on October second 1980. She
attended Manatee Community college where she received a degree in film and media
studies, graduating magna cum laude. She then attended University of South Florida
graduating magna cum laude with a degree in Women Studies. Her past career includes
directing television shows as well as producing documentaries. This thesis is in
concordance with her master of arts degree in International Affairs at Florida State
University.
49