33. Dr. Soma Mukherjee

33. Dr. Soma Mukherjee

Reinterpretation of Myth in Indian Literature: A Voice of Dissent.

Abstract

Ramayana and its retellings are one of the most interesting literary trends in twentieth century India. Time and again there are examples from several Bhasha languages, such as Nabanita Dev Sen’s Bengali short story “Mul Ramayana”(Original Ramayana), “Rajkumari Kamaballi” (Princess Kamaballi) ; Ambai’s Tamil short story “Forest”, Volga’s Telegu short story “Reunion” , Pudumaippittan’s Tamil short story “Deliverance from the Curse”, K.B. Sreedevi’s  Malayalam short story “Woman of Stone” etc. All these short stories are varied examples of different point of views where question of class, caste and gender became prominent and in turn all these interpretations and reinterpretations constitute an alternative space where epic narrative and its grand characters were questioned and  were presented in a new manner. 

All these retellings portray known, familiar characters in new ways, but  they also bring in fresh innovations to characters which were seen as marginal or demons. Demon characters like Ravana, Surpanakha, controversial characters like Shambuka (the shudra ascetic), Ahalya (the fallen woman) were depicted in a more alluring manner where they are not prototypes of evil. Rather they constitute a world where instead of idealization of ‘good’, the sympathetic portrayal of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ were rendered. Because epic characters like Rama, Sita, Lakshmana are models of certain moralistic values, such as honesty, loyalty, responsibility, chastity etc, that’s why the binary opposites of them, i.e Ravana, Shurpanakha through their type representation in the epic narratives, become catalysts who established and enhanced the greatness of Rama or Sita. But in contemporary time the literary trend of reinterpretations actually creates a space where Shurpanakha or Ravana turned out to be  main protagonists. Sensitive portrayals of these characters make them iconic idols in the realm of Modern Indian Literatures. Simultaneously all these characters turn out to be voices of dissent as well as tool of subversion.

In this paper I would like to do a comparative analysis of certain short stories where Shurpanakha’s portrayals became voices of dissent and protest. They are Nabanita Dev Sen’s Bangla short story “Rajkumari Kamaballi”, Amit Chaudhuri’s English short story “An Infatuation”, Sara Joseph’s Malayalam short story “Mother Clan" and Volga’s Telegu short story “Reunion”. In this paper my endeavour would be to apply comparative literary method to these short stories and simultaneously I would also like to analyse the importance and relevance of this particular literary trend (i.e Reinterpretation of myth) in Modern Indian Literatures.