feminism has an amazing place in Hindu religious narrative. while returning from Bangalore the other day, i happened to glance through the in-flight magazine. it had a piece on West Bengal as a tourist destination. Bengal and Assam are really the places where the female elements in Hindu religious tradition, are most developed and popularly accepted.

the most striking narrative is that of Durga. as the story goes, there was this demon, Mahishasur (mahish = buffalo, asur = demon), who had, as a culmination of extreme penance, obtained a boon of immortality from Brahma - "no man or god can kill you...". Mahishasur dominated over earth and heavens, and cast the gods out of heaven. the balance of good and evil was upset by the practices of the followers of the demon king.

exasperated, the gods got together in the standard delegation and sought relief from Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma's boon was unassailable. however, there was a flaw in the boon, and the female element creeps in here. Durga was a woman, and Mahishasur was immune only to man and god.

Durga was blessed with the pick of godly weapons. i remember only some - Kubera's club, Indra's thunderbolt, Vayu's arrow. i think Himalayas gifted her the lion, which serves as her vehicle. there were other gifts to her - her garland of serpents, et al. she was stronger than
any god - even Shiva could not match her powers because she had concentrated the collective powers of all gods.

note the contradictions. women are associated with weakness and fragility (abala in Hindi = lacking strength, is a synonym of woman) - Durga was the greatest power the universe had seen. women are associated with beauty. Durga was hideous, even grotesque. it is said
that brave warriors could not even survive looking at her form. women are associated with compliance, discipline, and control - Durga was the antithesis of all these qualities - she was uncontrolled and audaciously reckless.

it is very striking how this narrative contrasts with the Ramayana treatment of women. repeatedly in Rama's narrative, we see women in subservient and helpless positions - almost possessions of the men they are associated with. we see paramount purity in Sita's role. we see their association with earth or nature, but we do not see displays of power or independence. what we see in Ramayama is more or less the archetypal image of women in early modern India.

ps: by "early modern India", above, i mean the India that existed before the advent of TV, IT jobs, and other such stuff, which are rapidly transforming India into just another "developed nation state" - lacking in any form of social character. i like to call this degraded India a junk-country, like junk food. i dislike this degradation, though i can't reverse it. indeed, i do a lot of things that typical folks in junk-countries do. i just have one peevish protest - i don't watch cable TV.