Rewriting Ahalya: Subversion of the Myth in Selected Modern Renditions

Abstract

Myths are powerful tools of perpetuating and reinforcing certain ideologies in a culture specific. But its patriarchal narrative that dismisses women's autonomy and experience remains a subject of feminist studies. This paper explores a few of such contemporary literary and visual texts which reimagine the myth of Ahalya and challenge the traditional patriarchal narratives of sin, purity, and redemption embedded in it. They register voices of protest against patriarchal marks stamped in it, reclaiming her agency and reconstructing the myth for modern audiences. The modern renditions unravel Ahalya as an epitome of patriarchal hypocrisy, its double standards and unjust treatment inflicted upon women. While there are many versions of Ahalya’s tale with a multitude of variations and casted in a variety of art forms, the paper focuses on three short, apt and thought-provoking renditions that turns all the classic tropes on their head and register their resistance in their unique re-appropriation of the myth. The study includes a short story titled “Shilpe-rupini” or “The Stone Woman” (1990) by K B Sreedevi, a prominent Malayalam short story writer and novelist, a short film Ahalya (2015) by Director Sujoy Ghosh and “Ahalya’s Waiting” (2022), a poem by the progressive modern poetess Professor Nandini Sahu. These modern renditions subvert the traditional narrative surrounding the myth and bring forth the rebellious voices of varying intensity against the classical trope of Ahalya: the purity turned polluted – damned to punishment and redeemed only through the severe penance for the sin.