#ramayana

[dazaicoree]

Ram aayenge toh angana sajaungi

Deep jalake diwali main manaungi✨🪔🌸

[jareckiworld]

Dance Mask of Demoness Taraka from the Ramayana [workshop of Sri Kajal Datta, papier mâché, clay, fibre and silk, 1994]

[h0bg0blin-meat]

Dear Indian animation studios,

PLEASE work on something other than adapting the Mahabharata or the Ramayana. It's getting too redundant, especially when Indian animation is once again on the rise now and popping off.

Imagine the amount of impactful stories we can have with the current talent and technology instead of getting the same adaptations of just these two epics.

Like cmon yall.

[haanhaanmiracle]

someday I would like to have a movie whose plot covers one specific saga from the ramayana: the ahalya saga and I want it to be adapted the way it has been written in the srimad valmiki ramayana, a version that, for some reason, no TV serial or movie has touched with a ten foot pole.

now, the version of the tale that has been fed to the general public through media for decades, and has been the subject of much discourse is this one:

- indra desires ahalya who is married to sage gautama

- he assumes gautama's disguise and tricks the unassuming ahalya into sleeping with him

- gautama finds out, gets angry and curses ahalya to turn into a stone statue and she is later freed when ram visits the hermitage and touches her

this version has two men - one a rapist and the other a petty, unsympathetic husband who punished his wife unfairly - and a woman who has no role of her own save for being the victim of two men and be rescued by another.

now, the version that valmiki wrote is different in the following ways:

- indra does disguise himself as gautama but ahalya sees through the disguise. she knew who he exactly was before laying with him. she wasn't violated.

- ahalya enjoyed having sex with indra and told him to leave quickly before gautama arrived.

this isn't a clueless, hapless victim but a woman who knowingly commits infidelity.

- then you have the curses that the two of them receive when gautama discovers what happened. the harsher punishment is meted out to indra who had intended to trick ahalya and he loses his testicles.

- as for ahalya, contrary to what the popular version peddles, she isn't literally turned into a stone statue and but cursed to remain alone in the hermitage and perform penance.

- also, here, ram doesn't touch her statue with his feet. rather both he and lakshman, upon arriving at the hermitage, come face to face with her and touch her feet instead.

then she receives them, provides them with hospitality and reunites with gautama.

so, what do we have in valmiki ramayana?

a god who seeks to abuse his authority unaware that his desire is reciprocated, a betrayed husband who has valid reasons to be upset and angry but, even then, doesn't go overboard and a woman who had a mind of her own, who had desires, who made mistakes and the mistake in question was not that she sought pleasure but because she betrayed someone, who atones for the said mistake and emerges so glorious that divinity itself has to bow down before her.

valmiki treats ahalya as a person, a human, and not as a plot device. the same goes for gautama here where you may not support his action but you do understand where his feelings of hurt were coming from.

this tale has been out there for years and, yet, people have collectively gaslit themselves into believing that other version. I wonder why? is it perhaps that valmiki gives ahalya a personality with thoughts and desires of her own, as well as enough to agency to decide her course of action, even if it results in a mistake, because, guess what? humans make mistakes. or is it that this woman who makes a mistake isn't doomed for eternity or punished excessively but attempts to rectify it and is lauded by the narrative for it instead of being demonized?

for years I've been hearing how the mahabharata has 'grey' characters whereas the ramayana is boring with the cookie cutter good and bad people. my dearies, how will you even notice the different shades of the characters when every popular reimagining has stripped them of their humanity and edges altogether? and you've got to be tolerant enough to accept what valmiki himself wrote even if it challenges your narrow minded outlook about what a 'good' or 'bad' woman should be.

[ritish16]

Happy Ramanavami - Rama, Hanuman. 😇🙏

[yoursdrs]

MISOGYNY IN MAHABHARAT

I've been an ardent fan of Mahabharata, but now that I think about it, except for Draupadi, Amba etc. getting their rightful revenge, it actually normalises rape and materialising women during several instances... Here are a few I remember:

Sage Parashara sleeps with Satyavati, in spite of her unwillingness, his only assurance to her that she will go back to being a virgin after giving birth to his child and she gets a “divine fragrance” (because apparently trauma is fine if you get perfume out of it; wth?)

Bheeshma "ACQUIRING" Ambika and Ambalika from their swayamvar for Vichitravirya....

Salva refusing to marry Amba, because he got defeated by Bheeshma.

Satyavati later calls on Vyasa to impregnate her daughters-in-law (who are clearly repulsed by him) by something called "niyoga", which does not make the term rape better in any way. And mind you, they were not even asked for consent. It is nauseating to think that Satyavati, herself, who went through something similar, did this. Oh, also after, Ambika, one of the victims, sends her maid to Vyasa, when he comes to impregnate her again... Ik it was a desperate move, Ambika, but way to go👏

Kunti accidentally calls upon Surya to test her powers, when she's still a child, and poor Lord Surya, bound by his duty, rapes her and leaves her to have his kid.

Pandu having no issue with the fact that multiple gods are sleeping with his wives, just so that he can have a son, which is obv not his.

Dhritarashtra impregnating Sugadha, Gandhari's maid, because Gandhari did not deliver her child past usual due... Apparently, being desperate for a child (i mean, a SON), is a valid reason to rape a maid

And yes, Draupadi is powerful. She questions the court. She refuses silence. But she and Bhanumati are both gambled away like property before anyone suddenly remembers morality exists.

Basically, Lineage > women. Sons > consent. Dynasty > dignity.

Both the epics show constant sexualisation of women and submissiveness.... Although they give valuable lessons and ALSO PROMOTE FEMALE EMPOWERMENT, you cannot ignore the crude misogyny baked into it.

[sambhavami]

Rama see brother. Rama pat pat.

Reference:

Courtesy: @questionableresponses