OwnVoices: Including Hindu elements in a fantasy world
@alyssavelaryons said:
Hi! I'm Maharashtian, and I wanted to write a fantasy world with faeries where the water kingdom is heavily based on Maharashtrian culture. I wanted to include the chandrakor (a crescent shaped bindi maharashtrian women wear), however I'm feeling a bit hesitant on whether I should include it considering it represents the sixth chakra in hinduism, and hinduism doesn't exist in my fantasy world. What are your thoughts?
This is your culture, and I encourage you to embrace that fact. Compared to many non-Maharashtrian writers, you are in a much better position to decide how to best represent aspects of your culture in your work. Speaking as a terrible Hindu, regardless of your religious background, the fact that you are Maharashtrian means that Hinduism has shaped the culture of your region to a certain extent. Whatever you do will be fine!
I repeat: Whatever you do will be fine!
Given that Hinduism doesn’t exist in your world, and Hinduism is not widely written about by insiders in fantasy stories, I do think you have an opportunity to introduce some Hindu-coding into your world-building in a way that would be both interesting to non-Hindus but also compelling to Hindu readers. Jaya and I have written about the mismatch in motivations and behaviors between mythical creatures in Hinduism versus Celtic mythology (see here), so it would be interesting to see how you resolve any contradictions should you choose to do so. That said, you could certainly just make the chandrakor a purely aesthetic thing, but wouldn’t it be fun if there was some kind of significance attached? This meaning might not necessarily have anything to do with chakras or Hindu principles in general, but even something as minor as a marking on the forehead turning into a tiara during a transformation sequence (Yes, I’m talking about Sailor Moon) can be a fun way to reference religious/ cultural stuff in non-religious ways.
- Marika.
