Over four million views on YouTube, a rash of opinions and articles and near-star status for the actor—for a woman who spent most of her life transfixed into stone, Ahalya seems to be more alive than she ever was, eons after her story made it to the pages of the Ramayana.What is it about her story that has caught the fancy of so many, many who are probably encountering her for the first time in this 14-minute eponymous film sponsored by a popular liquor brand and made by Sujoy Ghosh.
The story of Ahalya is well known. Exquisitely beautiful, she was married off to Gautam, an ill-tempered old sage who had also brought her up;she was seduced by Indra and then turned to stone when her husband walked in on the act. Rama rescued Ahalya by placing his foot on her. Indra was punished by having a 100 vulvas stuck on to his body which he later managed to convert into a 100 eyes (well, the way myths go, the metaphors can sometimes trip over each other to concoct an undecipherable puzzle). This is the narrative that Ghosh’s film twists to present Ahalya, Indra and Gautam in their modern avatars.
But there is a larger story that Ahalya is a part of—it is the story of how women in epic and in mythology were used to convey a popular cultural and moral social framework. For instance, Valmiki’s Ahalya is a warning for adulterous women. She willingly indulges Indra because she is curious (and not because she is unable to see through his disguise as later versions indicate) and pays for her dalliance with the god with lifelong purgatory. Her transformation into stone is not just physical but also psychological, engulfed by guilt she is unable to have any relationship – not only with another man but also with her son who abandons her in the forest.Her transformation over the years from a woman who makes an independent choice to one who was tricked into an affair and then to one who was soiled even for no fault of hers is the result of changing social mores and a strong male backlash.In sharp contrast, in the same epic,is Sita. Devoted to her husband Rama despite his many faults, Sita was seen as the ideal woman of that time. Even Rama was projected as the ideal husband because he was ekpatnivrata or devoted to one wife (unlike heroes in the Mahabharata and even his father). And never mind the contradictions in his behaviour, who sees no fault in Ahalya but sends his wife packing because she lived in the palace of Ravana.
Stable marital relationships were desired and adultery was to be shunned, that was one of the messages that the epic wished to drive home. Even the Greek myths do the same with Penelope who is projected as the ideal wife because she is intelligent and chaste. She waited 20 years for Odysseus, rejecting the hordes of suitors at her door during his long absence after the Trojan War. Odysseus however was not bound by any such rules of fidelity.
The morality play that Ramayana serves up, however, is a far cry from that which Ahalya may have been a part of in her original avatar, a hint of which can be detectedin a Sanskrit couplet:
Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara, Mandodaritatha/
Panchakanyasmarennityammahapatakanashaka//
(AhinikSutravali)
Ahalya,
Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari
Invoking daily the virgins five
Destroys the greatest failings
Ahalya, Tara and Mandodari are from the Ramayana while Draupadi and Kunti are from the Mahabharata. Neither is a virgin in the true sense of the word, but they are all assertive and confident women. Ahalya, scholars say shows curiosity — she is neither coerced by Indra, nor does she lead Indra to his downfall; just like the other kanya in the couple, Kunti. Her first born is a result of her curiosity too. The name Ahalya also offers up a clue as to why she is an eternal virgin. It means flawless and also un-ploughed.
Ancient society, not just in the Indian subcontinent, was not comfortable with such women. The sexually independent woman is an aberration to norms and even dangerous. Amazonian women in most folktales and legends are fierce warriors but their battles end in either marriage that tames them, or death. The stories told by these societies reveal their anxieties, desires and concerns. So as we retell the Ahalya story today, we must also examine what we see her as. Is she an independent woman exercising her choice or is she a siren from Greek myths, luring sailors to their death?
This article first appeared in the Business Standard (Mythic Mantra by Arundhuti Dasgupta) in August 2015
(https://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/inside-ahalya-s-lair-115080701562_1.html)
