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Representation of Women in Indian Literature with special reference to NagaMandala (Play with a Cobra) by Girish Karnad In the context of the old family based mode of production In India, although they were definitely oppressed by men - women were not conscious of the limits imposed on their individual development and even less of the limits imposed on their fundamental social rights. They are physically abused, insulted and are not respected by men. They have to bear the unfair treatment meted out to them by men. The women are expected to maintain their chastity by the society while the men are not confined into the subject of maintaining their chastity. The women are born to the world first as a daughter, later as a wife and mother, a woman would spend her life within the confines of the home and the only society that she actually knew was that of the family basis. Women then begin to acquire a consciousness that pushes them to seek to defend their interests and begin to see that they are discriminated against. They become aware of the fact that they have fewer rights than men. This is what has been displayed by Girish Karnad in his paly Naga-Mandala. The women hardly experience the joy and fun of growing up with friends and games of childhood and adolescence: An Indian girl is usually married during early adolescence, between the ages of twelve and thirteen; the average of a Hindu bride is fifteen to sixteen If married at eleven or twelve, the girl remains in her parents home for another three or four years before moving away to live with her husband. In any case, when she joins her husbands family, she is still a young adolescent and vulnerable to the universal psychological problems of this age. (Kakar pg.71) The same context is seen in the play: Rani continued to live with her parents until she reached womanhood. Soon, her husband came and took her with him to his village.(Karnad pg. 6). The solitary confinement of Rani by Appanna in the house symbolizes the chastity belt of the Middle Ages, the reduction of womens talents to housework and the exclusion of women from enlightenment and enjoyment. Gender discrimination is the

basis of all kinds of domination and subjugation amongst the sexes. The marginal position of women in the Indian society as a result has become an integral part of the socio-cultural identity of the country. A woman has no identity of her own, a victim of incompleteness she craves for completeness in her relations, in love but usually finds none. She cannot even question the behaviour of her husband. A result of years of conditioning that a girl goes through right from birth, Rani also accepts her subjugation submissively. When she does try to plead with Appanna, his response is obviously one of irritation and disregard. Look, I dont like idle chatter. Do as you are told, you understand? (Karnad pg.7). A dutiful wife as she has been conditioned to be, Rani obeys the dictates of her tyrant husband without a word, but her true feelings find an expression in her dreams wherein she imagines herself being locked up by a demon (Karnad pg.14). Ranis dreams show the inner workings of her psyche, they are an expression of her inner most desires and yearnings suppressed in her unconscious. Rani couldnt sleep at night as she said: I am so frightened at night, I cant sleep a wink. At home, I sleep between Father and Mother. But here, alone (Karnad pg.11). She is mentally a child craving for parental affection. She yearns for the sense of security she feels when she is at her parents house this is shown by her sleep-talk: She falls asleep. Moans Oh, Mother! Father in her sleep. (Karnad pg.7). Rani feels lonely and miserable as Appanna hardly spend time with her instead he comes just for lunch and locks her in and goes to his concubine. Appanna treats her as if she is a non-human without any feeling. It is clear that Appanna does not want Rani to come into contact with other people and to know more. While he enjoys extra-marital affair, he does not allow her to enjoy even the affection of others. He mercilessly keeps her starved of affection and love which are indispensable for growth and sustenance of human mind. Appanna even slapped her for not responding to his summon. The narrator of the play said: There is not a trace of anger in anything he does. Just cold contempt (Karnad pg.17). Rani do not deserve this cold treatment of contempt when she did not do anything wrong to offend him psychologically or physically. She was mercilessly made to suffer at the hands of Appanna, her tyrant and unfaithful husband. She was abused verbally and physically and she always the fear that she had done something wrong even if she did the right thing. Rani as a typical wife does not want any harm to come to her husband even though Appanna never cared for her. She throws away the away the potion she made with the roots when it turned red and looked different from the previous one. In Naga-Mandala, Karnad not only exposes male chauvinism, the oppression of women, the great injustice done to them by the patriarchal culture and men, but also overtly deflates the concept of chastity that under girds the patriarchal mythic imagination across religion and language. Ranis story questions the patriarchal moral code that demands the faithfulness of a man to his wife, and evocatively foregrounds the emotional and psychological anxieties that women face during the socialization processes of childhood, marriage and motherhood. The story of Ranis domestic and

marital troubles allows for an explicit undermining of social double standards with regard to sexual desire: while Appanna can sleep with another woman in complete public knowledge, Ranis single alleged act of adultery has the entire village up in indignation, fury and retribution. This also devotes space to womens misery within an unconsummated marriage, and Karnad compounds our sympathy for Rani by allowing us to witness her incomprehension and longing for a fantasy world where she rules and is a Rani if all. The split in the male figure between the sullen husband by day and the passionate lover by night is a comment on how women perceive their partners in a cloistered system of unequal marriage. It also displays men as a person who only wants to have their sexual hunger to be fulfilled by the women and after that, they go back to their sullen and cold contempt against the women. The patriarchal society does a lot of harm to the women and is a setback for their mental growth and expansion of their outlook: The internalization of low self esteem also presupposes that girls and women have no sphere of their own, no independent livelihood and activity, no area of family and community responsibility and dominance, no living space apart from that of the men, within which to create and manifest those aspects of feminine identity that derive from intimacy and collaboration with other women. And, in fact, these two circumstances exist in India, to mitigate the discriminations and inequalities of patriarchal institutions. (Kakar pg.60). The incompleteness experienced by every woman forms an integral part of Ranis psyche contributing to her fractured and ill-formed self identity. Hypocrisy underlines the dictates of a patriarchal society that is partial towards men and unduly harsh and cruel to the women. Appanna can beat his wife, lock her up and accuse her of adultery while his own character and adulterous relations are not to be put up for questioning by society. The women cannot speak out their rights and is rebuked when they do so. The need for the story to escape illustrates the paradoxical nature of women wanting to escape from the patriarchal social norms as it is harsh on them and is unjust. Appanna poses Rani as an adulterous woman whereas he himself has an illicit relationship with a concubine. He and his hypocritical society questions Ranis chastity and sidesteps the validity of Appannas principles. This is just a miniscule cross-section of the patriarchal society that we live in: Chastity is such a value invented by patriarchal culture and accepted by women. It is one of the most powerful yet invisible cultural fetters that have enslaved women for ages since the dawn of patriarchy The concept of chastity goes with, and gets its indispensable support, from another morbid concept that sex is mean and sinful Many women lose their lives to protect their chastity and many

other women bear in silence all the oppression and violence of their sadistic husbands. (Dhawan pg.67). In Indian myth, a miracle has been mandatory to establish the purity of woman, while a mans man word is taken for truth. Ranis faithfulness or chastity is questioned by the patriarchal society when she became pregnant and has to undergo the snake ordeal to prove her innocence. Rani must have underwent a lot of psychological pain and had to muster enough courage to do such a stunt: Rani: No. I want the ordeal by the cobra. (Goes to the ant-hill, plunges her hand into it and pulls the Cobra out)(Karnad pg.39). Naga-Mandala questions the patriarchal moral code which demands the faithfulness of a woman to her husband but not the faithfulness of a man to his wife. Appanna openly and unashamedly commits adultery but nobody objects to it. The Village Elders who are supposed to give justice to the people do not find fault in men (Appanna) but only find fault on women, Rani in this case. Nobody believes the innocence of Rani because she is a woman living in a patriarchal society. She sleeps with Naga without knowing that it is not her husband as Naga came in the guise of Appanna. If she knew that Naga is not her husband Appanna, she would not allow him to enter her bedroom. As a typical woman, she is frigid and despises sex. She only craves for affection which she gets from Naga and nothing more than that. Thus, women are represented as simple, innocent, hard-working, faithful, submissive and ignorant through the character of Rani. Rani embodies the ideal wife, patient, faithful and ready to submit and sacrifice herself to do all the commands of Appanna and even to the extent of maintaining the morality of the family by going through the snake ordeal. A victim of gender discrimination, a woman has to undergo trial for an offence she is not guilty of, while the men go scot-free even after committing a dozen crimes openly. Women are depicted as better than men in waging non-violent passive resistance because they have greater capacity for self-sacrifice and endurance and are less self seeking and have moral courage. The key role women played in literature and life in the past and present in both parts of the globe is equally significant. In ancient Vedic literature, women were elevated to Devis (goddesses); they were turned into myths and legends. This is what we see in the play: Elder II: She is not a woman. She is a Divine Being! Elder III: Indeed, a Goddess ! (Karnad pg.39) Rani is elevated to the level of a goddess. The success of Rani, her social and divine elevation, fulfils the reversal-function. However, unlike the past patriarchal Appanna, never orders him; she request him if she needs a favour from him. References: 1. 2. 3.

Karnad Girish, Naga-Mandala : New Delhi : Oxford University Press : 1990 Dhawan R.K., Indian Literature Today,vol I : New Delhi : Prestige Books : 1994 Kakar Sudhir, The Indian Psyche : New Delhi : Oxford University Press : 1996