It's open season for fatuous opinions about women. If someone suggests that they perform their duty towards the nation by producing more progeny, others want them to dress appropriately for their own good. This is all part of a continuing narrative: If a woman achieves something, she is lauded for being a woman achiever; a man becomes a success story against all odds. She makes a mark in careers otherwise considered a male bastion and all the debate is centred on whether she can have it all.
Every man has an opinion and the right to voice it. And he has been doing so for ages. Mythological narratives, epic literature and scriptural treatises are being commonly cited as authoritative sources for enforcing a code, of sorts, for a "good" woman. Gandhari mothered 100 Kaurava sons and Kunti sought divine intervention to provide Pandava heirs to her husband. For many, a good woman was synonymous with an assembly line of sons, and their followers insist that she must fulfil her duty towards her religion and country by producing at least four or five if not 100. But this is a puerile debate.
What does mythology tell us about the woman? What is her identity? Before we delve into antiquity for some answers, there are two points that need attention: first, myths do not speak in one voice and, secondly, the goddess in myth is very different from the epic heroines. The goddess is feared for her strength, her wilful and destructive nature and her wild and carefree ways. In the Devi Bhagavatam, (The Devi Bhagavatam Retold by Ramesh Menon) the Devi is invisible and the gods seek her out in moments of crisis. Brahma runs to her for protection; Vishnu is in her thrall and does her bidding. She is the word and the primordial sound that engulfed the universe before it was formed.
The goddess is both formless and formidable. Neith, the great mother in Egyptian mythology, wreaks war and havoc on those who do not follow her advice. Hera in Greek myths is vengeful. She is also a creator, like Nu Gua, the Chinese goddess with a serpent body who created human beings from mud. And she holds a dual identity; she can be protector and destroyer. Hathor and Sekhmet in Egyptian mythology and Kali and Durga from the Indian pantheon are some similar examples.
But the heroine of myth is no goddess and any duality in her character leads to ruin not reverence. Ferocity has to be tamed and arrogance subdued. In the Tamil folk renditions of the Mahabharata, queen Alli, daughter of goddess Meenakshi, runs a kingdom of women. Arjuna is mesmerised by her beauty but is unable to befriend her until he takes the form of a snake and hypnotises her and then rapes her. Alli is tamed and becomes one of Arjuna's many wives in some versions of the epic and, in others, she raises his child. Rape was a legitimate form of dealing with women, not just in myths of the subcontinent but also in Greek and Egyptian myths.
Women were property that men could trade in. Draupadi, for instance, is gambled away by Yudhishthira who, as dharma (good conduct) personified, remains above reproof. But he is censured for lying, which was considered a bigger crime than wagering away his wife. And Rama may have sent a pregnant Sita into the forest but he was still an ideal king. Penelope was faithful to her husband, Odysseus, despite his multiple affairs. Fidelity, fertility and obedience were the hallmarks of a good woman; sex, procreation and religion made for a potent mix when it came to pinning a frame on the ideal woman.
Women got short shrift perhaps because men were the main storytellers and laid down the rules of the gender equation. Or, because society considered physical prowess to be the mark of the superior gender. Or because of the contradictory roles a woman played in the lives of men: she's the vessel for his seed but also the conduit for sin (Eve, according to the Abrahamic religions). As theologist-author Karen Armstrong writes, "The women thing is a problem worldwide. One of the hallmarks of modernity has been the emancipation of women. And so when people are angry about modernity and modernisation they go back."* If our quest is to re-create the glorious past, it may be desirable to go back to a formless Devi who does not need a priest, a sadhu or a prophet to spread her word.
* www.nieuwwij.nl/english/karen-armstrong-nothing-islam-violent-christianity
