portrayal of women in literature

PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN THE LITERATURE OF WESTERN REGIONAL INDIAN LANGUAGES-
Dr suvarna nalapat
www.nalapat.com

INTRODUCTION:
One of my colleagues once asked:”Suvarna,How old are you? I said,may be 6000 years or may be older.When I think and involve in the intellectual pursuits of research into the human history,I am ageless,timeless.When I give a lecture or a speech , I am 60 years (chronological age)and when I play with infants and children I am their age,and when I enjoy music I am seventeen”.In short , I do “live in the present”.Because of this ,my language with different people appears different.But yet I am a total ,complete human being with my own visions,experiences,missions in life and cognitive ,emotive functions wellbalanced.If I talk as a pathologist/astronomer/philosopher to this gathering or to my grandchild my language becomes unintelligible to the audience.This makes a gap or a distancing due to lack of communications

.Who is the woman in literature?The Poet/novelist/shortstorywriter/activist turned autobiographist/prose writer/social critic/university research scholars who produce a high quantity of serious writing ??And which are the western regional languages of India?Should not we include kannada and Tamil and Punjabi ,Malayalam and Hindi as well since these are also spoken in the western coastal belt and the konkan coast?And finally have I got any contact with the literature of the last two decades in Gujrati,konkani,marathi and sindhi,the four languages selected for the seminar?When I asked these questions to myself,I had a surprising answer.Among all these insufficiencies there is a thread of unity ,flowing from the rich traditions of India,of which I am a part and parcel and it is with this feeling that I stand before you to deliver the presidential address..


:”A culture’s selfawareness in terms of its law,medicine and grammer is an important precondition for awareness of its aesthetics.The knowledge of medicine ,a system of management of pain ,of anaesthetics,of births and deaths ,is interrelated to poetry ,a system of management of pleasure ,of aesthetics and of creation”(1)Thus wrote G.N.Devy in AFTER AMNESIA.
As a medical professional and an advocate of music as the panacea for all human ailments and for holistic development of an integrated personality,in an aesthetically anaesthetic medium of alleviation of pain and suffering of humanity, I can vouchsafe that life becomes beautiful and artistic with literature and music ,but communicating this new idea to the already prejudiced society was not that easy or artistic..In 1991 when yamuna,a student of mine , and me planned the calicut medical college magazine,we had planned it with a humanistic and a womanoriented approach,( we elected universal ideas,valuebased education,management of medicine and of human life,the Gandhian ideals ,women in Malayalam literature and in science subjects especially in medicine)and the magazine began with the quote from Koran,”I was as a germ concealed,Me Thy burning ray revealed”,and ended with the famous nationalistic quote of Tagore,praying for awakening of our country into the heaven of freedom (2).Every human being has a dream.When we think of our dreams,and communicate them to the outside world,the dreams come true .To think and communicate is to create.The modern Indian women are thinking,creating,and are actively participating in every field where their male counterparts are active ,yet they remain the marginalized.How does this happen ?The reason probably is that we are separated by our concepts of different classes,races,languages,cults and religions etc.Of these ,the language is one of the barriers that keeps the Indians apart..As Herodotus(3) said,the determinant of Greek identity is the Greek language,and he calls the foreigners barbaroi(the babble of foreign speech)The Arab dictionary also speaks of the nonarab speaking foreigners ae-je-ma(barbarian).The polish people laugh at chechs saying that they speak polish as spoken by a 5 year old boy or as if there is a potato in the mouth.Multilingualism of Mithradates and Cleopatra(they knew 25 languages)is awed,respected and at the same time feared by the foreign invaders like Romans.India being a land of many languages ,a trilingual pattern with the regional language,Hindi and English as the communication languages and Sanskrith and Tamil as the oldest languages for study of culture and heritage would be of use for meaningful communication . Women’s world ,a global free speech network of women writers formed in 1994,has a 10 language research project with Asmita the purpose of which is to identify how genderfaced censorship in a range of social and cultural mechanism that invalidate women’s experience and exclude them from political discourse ,is far more pervasive and far more difficult to control than official suppression.The silencing of women ,the use of systematic force to ensure silence ,is probably for maintaining patriarchal power ,according to the five women who lead the research(4)
Krishna /devi cults (sociopolitical/spiritual implications)
Uma chakravarthy (Ref :5 pge 45)has conflicting opinions when she says that the real fall of Indian women came with the growth of the Krishna cult and yet narrates the contributions of saraladebi in Bengal and of Pandita Ramabhai of Maharashtra ,to the contemporary society(the former called Kaali since she was a challenge to males and the latter saraswathy because of her scholarship ),both were highly religious and spiritually inclined.The bhakthy traditions bring out the inner woman in Vaishnav traditions as we will illustrate with Mirabai and Bahinabai.The 5 types of yogins (Prathamakalpika,madhubhoomika,pragnajyothy,athikranthabhavaneeya and chithavimukthy)and the different stages of right cognition (yathamaana,vyathiraka,ekendriya,vaseekara,aparavairagya and paravairagya)are comparable according to yoga philosophy(6 .chap 4. )and Meera practicing layayoga through musical/lyrical creativity and naadalayayoga in onepointed ekagratha of dhyaana was an advaithin,a yogin par excellance.Therefore,the status of Meera did not fall,but arose with Krishna cult.This is true of many a woman in India practicing vaishnav raagaanuga bakthy.
The Amma or Matha cult is very popular in India.Even during the nationalist times there are several instances of the divine hand intervening in the nationalist projects.The Devi movement in 1922 in Gujrat and the ADIVASI upsurge following it is one example.The adivasis listened to the devi(salahbai),even went into a trance,and followed each of the devi’s commands.The main commands were abstain from meat and alcohol,take bath daily,clean with water after defecating,release goats and chicken kept for sacrificial killing,boycott liquor dealers and landlords.The devi asked them to take the vows in Gandhi’s name ,to wear khadi cloths and to attend schools.The collector of Surat district A.M.Macmillan noted that the impact of the Devi continued and because they stopped the alcoholism there was marked improvement in their economical status and the epidemic was controlled..He could close 13 liquor shops in Mandvi Taluka and one in Bardoli and one in Valod Mahal.The Devi movement in South Gujrat had many features in common with the other parts of India during late 19th and 20th century.If we take up the social,economic,and political background of such movements the meaning and significance of the reform programme and the educational importance of it In 1922 the Mangala koli fisherfolk had a smallpox epidemic and women of the tribe used to get possessed by the Goddess with healing properties.These women possessed of the devi were called salah(advice)bhai(women of God).Knowing this,the political worker,the lady who was a Gandhian freedom worker ,and nationalist either acted as a medium who raised the collective grievances of an ethnic community ,enriching the consciousness of the individual and the group as Richard Lannoy remarked and it was not a mere chaotic hysteria.(7).Or it may be that she didn’t act but the ethnic custom of the adivasis naturally took her to be a salahbai.Almost similar feelings of the people are being used by religious sects and business oriented people at present (even in Kerala),and the value of it has to be judged very carefully ,weighing the pros and cons of such movements ,the sociopolitical and economic implications and the intellectual background etc.Are these movements expressions of group solidarity and social cohesion and have acted as unifying forces for groups under conditions of social disorganization?Are they representing a serious attempt to establish a new moral order where the old one is destroyed or is unsatisfactory?Have they acted as mediators between the greater and little traditions of India as catalysts? Are they advocating unity and advaitha of people through love and mutual understanding through a peaceful,universal language or inculcating separatism and dwaitha and making enmity between people,quarrels and wars? Are they functioning for monetary purposes or for spiritual and sociopolitical and intellectual awakening of the people?
Is it a resistive revitalization where synthesis of dominant and subordinate cultures is poorly worked out,there are serious barriers against integration,and movement develop into a state of violent resistance?or is it an emulative revitalization where the synthesis is better worked out,barriers to integraton are weak,or nonexistent,and the movements are peaceful?Devi movement of Gujrat in 1922 was of the emulative type. Any Godman/Godwoman cult of India/or the world has to be studied in this way,by the intelle tuals and sociopolitical activists.A serious and analytical study of such movements in this light,is good so that both the movement(if the movement is good and worthy and emulative )and the society will gain in the end.,by such impersonal ,intellectual studies.Creativity is not restricted to literature alone,but to life,society,building of a great nation,preservation of worldpeace and culture etc.As a woman concerned with such thoughts ,I stand before you and speak.
Role of Academi in creativity and communication
K.R.Srinivasa iyengar wrote:It is not academis nor trusts nor charters that can ensure the creation of great literature.An authentic work of literature is a man speaking to other men.It is an exchange of pulses ,an unfreezing of our petrified selves so that soul may commune with soul and diverse minds can flow together.The quality of literature must thus ultimately depend on the quality of the individual writer.The more men have the courage to be lonely in their minds ,the more writers cultivate the strength to withstand the pressures of politics,patronage and propaganda or the lure of novelty and the gymnastics of mere techniques ,the more are they likely to succeed in transmuting their ambroisial visions into abiding art.”(8)I believe that when a writer creates a work(which is a great thought )the academis should be able to understand the merit of the work and to communicate it to other national languages so that national and international integration should happen.Translation into English/other regional languages will promote such communication and academi can thus recreate the great work for communication .Communication is a means of promotion of tolerance .Tolerance comes as a natural byproduct of communication.Tolerant citizens with unrestricted flow of thoughts are the foundations of a stable ,adaptable,robust and interesting society according to Malini .S.Bhattacharya.(9)I would add “to a mentally,intellectually and spiritually healthy society”
The works of saratchandrachatterjjee,Bankim chandra ,V.s Khandekar and of Ashapoornadevi are well known to the readers of Malayalam through translations.I must especially speak of the three novels of Ashapoornadevi(prathamaprathisruthy,suvarnalatha and the story of Bakul)which represents the precolonial,colonial and postcolonial status and aspirations of women in India.
Gujrati is spoken in Gujrat,sourashtra and Kutch.Derived from Sanskrit,it has intermediary stages of souraseni prakrith and apabramsa.Kutch or Bhrigukutch of ancient Bharath is connected to the bhriguvansa to which Parasurama belongs and Viswamithra related..And it is the land of Krishna,(the archetypal personality embedded in the human psyche,) where he built the Dwarakapuri.If we use the research method of Bharatha ,with the triad of sruthy-thanthrayukthy,and anubhoothy and replace the constrictive Hegelian dialectics thesis –antithesis –and use the protovedic bharatheeya continuity theory ,(10)we will find that the Chera kings belonging to the Karthaveerya dynasty are the 49th generation from the dwaraka kings (as in the Pathittupathu). The 15th century Bhakthi poet Mirabai ,singing the krishnageethis and padams thus is a part of us too.Why was Meera delineated from her husband’s household while they themselves were Krishna devotees and were well into the Krishna tradition which is thousands of years old in India?It was her inlaws who first compiled ashtapadi as Rasikapriya which means they didn’t have any objection to Krishna and his devotion which is in the Indian archetypal psyche. But The sociopolitical reasons were many.The attitude of Meera ,questioning the traditional widow customs and refusing to act as a widow,the acceptance of Raidas,the leather worker,an untouchable as her Guru,and the relation with the Mughal emperor and his court singer Tansen,are all sociopolitical reasons which we can clearly understand.The fact that she refused to call srivallabha acharya as her Guru and as an avathar of Vishnu was the reason for the Vallabha sect to denounce her as a vaishnavi,three times in a row..That was religious patriarchy.And the fact that she told the Goswamins that there is only one purush ,and that is Krishna ,also was intolerable to the other men(though goswamy could understand her)and all these factors have made Meera powerful,and popular and a legend,and that is why the observation of Uma chakravarthy ,that women of India had downfall with Krishna cult is not acceptable.Moreover Meera refused to behave as a young Rajput widow is supposed to behave,claiming that her husband is not Bhoja but the everpresent evergreen hero,Krishna.The revolt of Meera was sweet and nonaggressive,emulative like the Devi movement of Gujrat during the Gandhi era,and hence peaceful and good for the society.There are still Meerabais inIndia(,10 ,11)and their life and work is studied and appreciated by the foreign writers like steven Rosen and selina Theilman.(western scholars).Indian Academies can do their share to do research on such women who are different from the mainstream political activists of feminist movement and have a discourse of their own.and their effect on the society in which they live and communicate.
Kavisammelans and Mushairas are fairly popular in Gujrati literature.The poems are written in the style of urdu ghazhals and recited at mushairas.Ghazhal means talking to the beloved.The theme is love,either spiritual or erotic.The rekthy or raagabhaava to titillate the males in the kothas,was a later development .Mushaira being an integral part of the ghazal universe is an interactive space where orality and texuality are interspersed with musicality.The padams of Meerabhai have a feminine idiom of spiritual love while the Umrao Jan by Mirza Ruswa (first published in 1905)is that of the Tawaif of the Lucknow courtesan’s erotic love .Amina Yaquin (the beloved re-presented.16th European conference on modern south Asian studies dept of sociology.Edinburg uty.)observes that 90 years later women poets continue to be haunted by the success of Umrao Jan brought closer to public memory by Bollywood’s cinematic adaptation.The visibility of women writers exploded with the progressive writer’s movement and prose queens rose to the top she observes.(13).The aesthetics versus political feminism ,art vs science/logic is finding it difficult to come to terms with such conflicts .
In the same conference Lalita du perron’s paper on Thumri observes the equal devotional and erotic component in the Thumri Thumri also is a courtesan’s music .It uses the Braj bhasha,the dialect spoken by Krishna and the gopis in the vrajbhoomi,and hence has the ubiquitous presence of Krishna ,the lover,employment of themes and imagery are familiar from early Bhakthy poetry and the devotional element persists and survives to the modern age.In it I can find a combination of chaayavada and pragathivaada in equal doses.(Indian romanticism with aesthetics and Indian progressive thought with concern for the socially oppressed.Chayavada is a cross between early romanticism and vedanthic synthesis.Pragahyvaada between late romanticism and Marxian dialectics)
The whore-virgin stereotypes as Lucy Rosenstein speaks of the conflict between the erotic/devotional emotions ,questions even the idealized form of the naayikaabhava (shringar)tradition,because hard core feminists cant accept that .The romanticized view of woman in a man’s home and heart in the poetic canon does not appeal to the hardcore political activist.Yet,the shringar has the most aesthetic quality and one who is wellversed in aesthetics would definitely apprecite the value of it in literature and music.Ghazhal and romantic music is a very private emotion in a universalized style and all devotional literature and music is divine in this universalized sense.They cam e from the countryside folk traditions(subaltern)and became urbanized during the Mughal period ,found a place in the Guru hymns of the Sikhs and sufi colonial postcolonial poetry in Punjab and is very popular during the modern period of globalisation.The association of the bhakthy musical/lyrical traditions with subnational ethnicity,nationalism ,and global awakening gives it a special place in literature in modern times. The socalled”Literature of knowledge” in Gujarati,is very valuable.The gujrat vidyasabha,Maharaja sayajirao uty ,chunilal Gandhi research institute,bharatiyavidyabhavan ,Forbes gujrati sabha have brought out authoritative texts of old manuscripts. The new modern humanistic movements of search of personality found in the journal Pratika(allahabad 1946)and the parimala group of writers brought out the prayogavaada or experimentalism. (14)And in the modern times university educated scholarly women are definitely experimenting with life and society and finding out answers to their individual and collective problems and to the problems of society and the world.

The marathi literature is rich in the saint poet traditions.Gnaneswar,Namdeo,eknath,Tukaram,Ramdas,Muktheswa r came in a row enriching the tradition.The common man sought the heroic ballads and the erotic lavani (like the puram and akam in Tamil)17TH century vaishnavite Bahinabhai lead an ordinary life of a housewife,involved with her household duties,and Mary Gee(15) calls it the ordinary life of an exceptional woman ,or the exceptional life of an ordinary woman,both terms appear to be apt for many of us.As far as I am concerned,a simple ordinary life and the exceptional intellectual,mental(cognitive,emotional)pursuits and the spiritual awakening makes us valuable citizens of the world.Only such people can save the world from disaster,in the present condition.Bahinabhai did not discard her clothes like the Virsaiva saint Akka Mahadevi.She did not merge with God as Aandaal (Tamil )or Meera(Gujarat)She did not announce that Giridhar is her true husband unlike Meerabhai.Not renouncing marriage or motherhood,not discarding the duties (karma)of the ordinary life,she composed autobiographical/devotional hymns revealing her anguish and uncertainty regarding her duties as a wife,and her devotion to her Guru and to God.The abhangaas in her early period of life are showing this dilemma very clearly.Thus Mary finds out that the most honoured woman saint of Maharashtra was a victim of domestic violence in her early life.How she dealt with such conflicts and how her spirituality and theological imagination allowed her to survive ,Mary looks into the religious ,sociopolitical context of Bahinabai’s life.Her dream vision of Tukaram at the age of eleven and the recognition of her as a saint by Jayaram goswami and the insults she had to suffer for it from her husband etc are described in the Book vaishnavi,edited by Steven Rosen(11).Sudra saint Tukharam as sadguru,vitthal as God,her compositions have strong advaithic streaks For her ,sadguru and God is one and vitthal as Hari is her brother,sahodara.While her husband had a very structured patriarchal upbringing,she was influenced both from the teachings of Marathy bhakthy literature and the teachings of advaitha and this lead to the different responses to the domestic crisis in their life.
I think ,the life of Bahinabhai teaches us that worldly life and spiritual life can go together ,without conflict.Indifference to worldly life does not mean withdrawal from it,but a honest ,good,exemplary living within the world.Drawing strength from one’s spiritual knowledge is different from escaping into religion ,which implies weakness.Woman is sakthi,and she need not become weak and immerse in religion,but can draw her strength from cognitive,emotive functions dormant in her spiritiual life ,and that was done by Gargi,Maithreyi and ubhayabharathy.But where are these great women’s works ?Did they ever produce any great work?or even if they produced ,did those oral traditions not preserved,or got suppressed due to the fact that they didn’t have any good disciples/or because they were women?We don’t have answers. And my work on Prasthaanathraya is the view of a woman,a working woman,leading a very ordinary domestic life and a with a highly aesthetic flavour for a richly musical premabhakthy traditions of India ,and gurubhakthy,vishnubhakthy and upanishada combined (given in my spiritual autobiography-patheya). The sufi literature of Punjab is rich in jelal(power or sakthy),jemal(beauty or soundarya)and kemal (wisdom or shivam)The village life,the rustic language of love and wisdom flowing from the sufi is rich in sidhabhasha or sandhyabhasha of the sidhayogins of the vraj and is comparable to the premabhakthy of Indian musical traditions.

•The silent strong asserive and accomodative aesthetic musical language of Meerabai and Bahinabhai,of andaal and of the other vaishnavi women has to be viewed in this new light,applicable to the 21st century women who have developed both cognitive and emotive functions equally,and who have a university education and means of livelihood of their own and a freedom to choose what she wants.,and what she can contribute to the society and to the world.Education need not always be equated with culture since all educated people are not cultured..Modern Woman is not a traditional passive sufferer who needs sympathy,but a cognitive,emotive human being,who can give love and compassion and wisdom and knowledge and save the society and the world from disaster..
•According to Bertrand Russel three passions that make human life meaningful are, overwhelmingly strong longing for everlasting love,search for absolute wisdom,compassion for the suffering world”-(premabhakthy,gnaana and karuna)All these are combined in Indian cultural heritage,and the scientific /intellectual acumen of a Gargi,the Nonattachment and thirst for knowledge of a Maithreyi and Manimekhala,the virakthy and love for Guru and God of the different saints,are all to be viewed by the academics of the modern universities in a different light,instead of repeating the same old pallavi that it is brahmanical and conservative.The fact is ,it is not at all brahmanical or conservative,but very practical and for the common man,and for everyone who wants to live a fruitful happy life in society.,serving their fellow beings.


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In later Marathi literature Even the puritans/nationalists leaned on the romantic for gratification and allegory.Ravikiran mandal .a group of poets allowed love to bloom into a domestic virtue Ramabhai Ranade’s autobiography provides a portrait of her husband M.G Ranade Mrs Malathy Bedekar (intimate truths of the woes of the awakened woman)Mrs Geeta Sane ,ms mukthabai dixit,kamalabai tilak (stories of middleclass homes)kusumavathi deshpande (poetic and critically balanced sketches)are other women who came out with autobiographies.
Konkani literature
Konkana,the name of Renuka ,wife of jmadagni and mother of parasurama is given to the konkan coast and to the language spoken by a few and the written traditions of konkani is still very young though the oral tradition is as old as the western coast and the Bhaarath itself.
Renuka was a princess married to a very angry ,saintly husband and had a suppressed emotional life because of which she was attracted to the erotic emotive plays of the royal yaadava prince kaarthaveerya and for which she was killed by her husband and a dutiful son.Though she was given a second life,and given the status of the mother of the entire Bhrigu/naaga dynasty ,the fact remains that she was a victim of domestic assault .The story is a eyeopener to us that behind every devi figure and cult is a woman who has suffered a lot in life.since Renuka belonged to the Goudadesha and her husband Jamadagni to the saraswathidesha the konkan coast is also the Goudasaraswathadesa.The coastal region of the Bhaarathdesa.It is as old as the oral traditions of India.
And for sindhi,I have to make a comment about the captions of my major works-sudhasindhu ,brahmasindhu and padmasindhu.Sindhu is ocean .Bhaarath was called sindhuhimachaladesa or sindhudesa by foreigners and Heradotus calls the soft linen from sind as sindhon.It was Sindhu which became Hindu (sindhia-India)by the peculiar pronounciation of the foreign traders of the west.The great traditions and dravida civilizations that existed in Harappa,Mohenjodaro and Lothal are the relics of the cultural heritage of the whole of India.
We need better communications for better understanding of each other for better international and national integration and if the academies can take up translations of worthy works (which will promote culture and goodwill,national and international integration)it would be welcome to all.And I thank the sahityaacademi and the Kochin university for giving me this opportunity to raise my thought processes in front of an august gathering of fellow women writers.
References
1.G.N.Devy:AFTER AMNESIA .Orient longman,1995,pg 64-65.
2.Calicut medical college magazine 1991
3. Globalisation and gender.Development perspectives and intervention :prepared for women in development and gender equity division ,policy branch of Canadian International development agency byAngela keller –Herzog.discussion paper 3 by Thomas Harrison (UTY College London .Herodotus conception of foreign languages)
4.Women’s world –A global free speech network of women writers (1994)The gender and censorship project in India .A ten-language research project with ASMITHA
5.uma chakrobarthy :Whatever happened to the vedic dasi?orientalism,nationalism and a script for the past. Pge 45 .-Recasting women .Essays in colonial history.ed Kumkum sanghari and sudesh vaid.
6.cultural heritage of India.Sriramakrishna math publication.
7.Adivasi assertion in South Gujrath:the Devi movement of 1922-23,David Hardiman:subaltern studies 3 .writings on south Asian History and society(3).ed Ranajit Guha.oxford India paperbacks.
8.Indian writing in English.Sreenivasa Iyengar Contemporary Indian literature,a symposium .Sahitya academy New Delhi1957.
9.Freedom of speech in cyberspace in India:Malini S.Bhattacharya:http://cseser.eng.scu.edu/student/webpages.
10Protovedic .Bharatheeya continuity theory of languages,S.Kalyanaraman & Mayuresh Kelkar.Thursday.Nov 3.2005.http://protovedic.blogspot.com/2005/10/protovedic continuity.
11 Vaishnavi:women and the worship of Krishna,ed by steven j.rosen.Motilal Banarasi das publishers.
12.The spirituality of music,Selina Theilman.A.P.H.Publishing corporation.2001.

13 The beloved(Re)visited:16th European conference on modern south Asian studies.Dept of sociology.Edinburgh uty.Amina Yaquin.
14.Prayogavaada.http://languages.iloveindia.com/hindi/html.;also ref no:8,pge 87(Hindi literature,S.H.Vatsyayanan)
15.Bahinabai,the ordinary life of an exceptional woman or,the exceptional life of an ordinary woman of Columbia uty and the director of the Hinduja Indic research center..,Mary Mc Gee (Ref no.11)