#aaoll

[avani008]

The Alphabet Aesthetic Challenge (Again)

Below the cut is a listing of the alphabet. Please send me a letter of the alphabet that hasn’t been chosen yet and a female character from Indian mythology or epics (the obscure the better, whether from this list or your own knowledge) whose name starts with that letter, and I’ll make an graphic (+/- brief fic) celebrating her!

If possible, please put your requests in the comments to this post, so everyone can (hopefully) see it--but this is all very informal, so even if there are duplicate letters, that’s fine. There’s a list of already completed ladies at the bottom of this, that can also be browsed HERE!

A-

B-

C-

D-

E-

F-

G- Ganga

H-

I-

J-

K-

L-

M-

N-

O-

P-

Q-

R- Rambha

S-

T-

U-

V-

W-

X-

Y-

Z-

Already done: Anasuya, Bhanumati, Chaaya, Devayani, Ekaparana/Mena, Friend of Shakuntala/Priyamvada, Gargi,  Holika, Ila, Jara, Kripi, Lakshmanaa (Wife of Krishna), Mitravinda, Nagnajiti, Prameela/Sulochana, Queen of Mathura/Kamsa’s mother, Revati, Sharmistha, Tara (Ramayana), Ushas,  Vishpala, Woman of Vidarbha, Yamuna/Kalindi, Zailaputri/ Shailaputri, Brihannala, Bhaargavi, Devika, Dhumavati, Gandhari, Yashoda, Kavyamata Usha, Manasa, Lopamudra, Padmini, Ruma, Sukanya, Sandili, Charumati, Tulsi, Varuni, Aranyani, Adi-Shakti, Urvashi.

[avani008]

An Alphabet of Legendary Ladies - अ for अरण्यानी/Aranyani, for Anonymous!

Hers is the realm of silence, green and glowing; follow in the goddess’ footsteps upon the grass and wait for the echo of her anklet-bells. Spread sunlight upon your shoulders, and forsake your cares. 

But beware, traveler, who thinks to slight her: silence, after all, can be a gift of Aranyani’s grace--or the pause of a predator awaiting its prey. 

[avani008]

An Alphabet of Legendary Ladies - त for तुलसी/Tulsi, for @chaanv and @medhasree!

Take the leaf, my child, and taste it on your tongue. Sweet at first, but then bitter: such was Vrinda of old, before her vows were betrayed, before her prayers turned to dust in her mouth. The Lord Himself is stone at her command, and she the living leaf that wraps around it; such shall be her legacy.

[avani008]

An Alphabet of Legendary Ladies - य for बृहान्नला/Yashoda, for @chaanv!

Yashoda might not be the most beautiful bride in the Vraj, or the richest, or even the most talented; but without question she is the happiest, and that is what draws young Nanda, weary from infinite responsibilities even at his age, to her. She gathers flowers about her carelessly; she whoops at the sight of the wood meant to be carved into her bridal bed. Never, Nanda thinks dazedly, has anyone known such joy.

“Oh, best prepare your heart to hold more; I imagine you’ll need it,” Yashoda counters when he shares this thought with her, and laughs once more. “When we’ve children of our own, that is.”

Nanda, still conscious of the eyes watching them, might not laugh as she does, but still he smiles, broad and surprisingly bold. “Then,” he says gravely, “may that day soon dawn.”

“Not so soon,” she muses, “that the night have no chance to linger. No, I suspect I’ll need time to grow into motherhood--or least time enough that all Gokul will have forgotten their memories of me, when I was young.”

[avani008]

An Alphabet of Legendary Ladies - प for  पद्मिनी/Padmini for @worddiva179!

The wood on the pyre grows, day by day, so that it casts its shadow over all Chittor, and Padmini is glad of it. 

If she closes her eyes, and holds her breath, she might yet be in the depths of Sinhala; and the whispers around her the echo of the waves upon the beach rather than the rumors that fly here and there about her. She might yet be safe from all those who mean to drag her forward into the light, claiming one after another to be in love with her: first there was Ratansen, who crossed the seas on the word of a parrot; next, Alauddin the Emperor, who crushed a country for the claims of a disgruntled pandit; and then Devpal, who courted danger by coveting his neighbor’s wife. But yet none of them realize that she has no desire to display her so-called beauty, even before a looking-glass; none of them will stop the bards from singing or the legends from growing up about her.

They cannot hurt her no longer, however. Soon the fire will be before her, and though that might mean an instant of terrible heat and light, it will be followed by an eternity of peace and quiet and blessed darkness at last.

Oh, how Padmini longs for it!

[avani008]

An Alphabet of Legendary Ladies - उ for उर्वशी/Urvashi, for @allegoriesinmediasres!

Here is what men have said about Urvashi: that she is impure, unchaste, a faithless wife; that she was conjured only to torment men and lure them from their salvation; that she deserved to spend years curled up as a creeper in a sacred grove for her petulance. 

This is what Urvashi knows of herself: that she is immortal, unknown, unknowable; that she, unlike her sisters, was born from the body of Narayana himself; and that no part of the divine is meant to be bound and trapped by the dullness of mortal things, whatever her former husband might claim. 

[avani008]

An Alphabet of Legendary Ladies - आ for आदि पराशक्ति/Aadi Parashakti, for Anon!

The world trembles, and the goddess laughs.

There are weapons all about her; a great golden lion beside; and a buffalo demon contorted at her feet, moments from his end. 

(”Let me die only at the hands of a woman,” Mahishasura had scoffed; “for what harm can a lone woman do me?”

The goddess had laughed then, too, but no one had heard her.

Now they do.)

[avani008]

An Alphabet of Legendary Ladies - ध for धूमावती/Dhumavati, for @chaanv!

There is no dearth of deities to fill the roles of guardian to light and life; nurture hope and happiness; but when it must be decided who shall be the overseer of smoke and sadness--

Well.

That is quite another question altogether. 

In the end, it is the Goddess herself who speaks out, who knows all too well what it is to be broken and bereft, who--if she can do nothing else--will at least never let her children alone. 

“So shall it be,” she whispers, as wisps of incense hide her face.