satya

i finally finished 'satya', a counterpart to the hindu myth of savitri - it's posted on the radical dreamers tales blog.

savitri is a tale  that is a bit less repugnant to many than sita's story in the ramayana. on first glance it can pass off as a soft and charming love story. a woman so deeply in love with her partner that she brings him back from the dead.  also a woman whose wit can trick yama - rather cool.

what harm can this myth do?

but another glance will reveal how its been appropriated and used by the patriarchy to define a repressive role for women...

any intelligent person i think might see many different paths that this myth might have taken in hindu culture. it might have served as a reminder of the power of love or of the power of intelligent women. it might have even been used to tell men that if they were really lucky they might find such a woman who would love them even after death. it might have led to a ritual of young men praying to find spouses like savitri.

instead its been used to show yet another version of the the ideal, virtuous hindu woman. its led to rituals that force a young girl to fast for her future husband, pray for his life, serve him and his family like a slave and finally, in the most perverted form, sit on his funeral pyre and burn. for once he is gone what use is she?

a conversation with my daughter led us to talk about how there are no such lessons for men in hindu myths.

i don't really like the idea that roles be reversed and little boys be made to fast for their future wives. or that men be pushed into a subservient role to women. but what if instead of savitri we had a satya myth? and it was interpreted to suggest that boys pray daily for and later die with their wives? would we be a different land now?

what if both these stories were told together and analysed together? could we learn something from them that might help us change our culture? and how can we re-write the stories and our culture?