Kumidini’s A Woman’s View of Raghukul Politics  Paula Richman

for a large and orthodox joint family, well.2 She experimented with a cooking which left her little time to continue stove that allowed air in on all four her studies in a formal way. sides in order to reduce the amount aganayaki Thatham made Nonetheless, she continued to read of fuel used. She designed a skirt and Tamil readers think in new avidly in her free moments, supplied top that looked like a traditional Rways about Puranic stories. by her father with novels and by her nine-yard sari but required Unfortunately, much of her work has husband with books he borrowed far less cloth and published a been nearly forgotten today in from the library at the college he pamphlet about it called “Nine Yards Tamil Nadu and her writing has been attended. Made Easy.” She also developed a virtually unknown outside of Raganayaki and her husband recipe to make eggless cakes that Tamilnadu. In her account of selected soon became admirers of Mohandas were both economical and nutritious, incidents from the Ramayana, certain Gandhi and, in 1922, she began to wear invented an ice cream made from local characters take on a remarkable colour khadi (homespun cloth) exclusively, plantains. She also helped to found and life. Her telling of the story of a practice that she continued an influential social service and foregrounds the throughout her life. Her commitment organization in the area, and engaged domestic lives of women, while to Gandhian self-sufficiency in constant useful activity such as simultaneously highlighting a manifested itself in other ways as crocheting and knitting — in addition Gandhian ideology of simplicity and non-attachment. Her telling deserves our attention not only to see the particular genius of the author but also to appreciate yet another facet of a Ramayana, a story that, like a crystal, has many facets. Ranganayaki Thatham was born in 1905 into a distinguished and learned Brahmin family in Srirangam.1 After studying in school for three years, she received home tutoring along with her three younger sisters in Sanskrit, English, Hindi, and French. Her parents arranged her marriage with her cousin, a member of the Thathachariya family of Srirangam, when Ranganayaki was ten years old. At thirteen, when she moved to her husband’s joint-family home, she immediately began helping Kumudini after receiving the Bharati Award with the cooking and housekeeping

22 MANUSHI to raising four children and helping reveals the strengths of “domestic The term cankati can mean (1) to care for her grandchildren and the virtues,” but also critiques them, some piece of news or affair of note; children of other kin. ultimately pointing to the need to (2) a particular matter or fact; or (3) a Although she began to lose her transcend the petty and superficial set of connections or relations. (4) In hearing soon after the birth of her nature of much that falls under the musical discourse, the term refers to third son and her deafness increased category of domestic life. a short flourish introduced into a over time, she still knew everything Trifling Matters melody. All four senses of cankati that took place in the household and Sita’s story was reprinted a aptly apply to Kumudini’s book. Her developed a reputation as a superb decade later in a collection of stories of women’s daily lives concern storyteller. Kumudini’s short stories that bears a bits of news, small matters to which Her narrative talents, energy, and suggestive and multivocal title: they need pay attention, and interests also led Ranganayaki to a Cillaraic Cankatikal, Limitet. connections created by living with secret career as a writer. Early in her Cillarai’s range of meanings are many kin in a joint family. These writing career, she became fascinated linked to the idea of something paltry stories also provide a little flourish in with the work of Rabindranath Tagore or insignificant. If things lie scattered an otherwise familiar melody, the and translated one of his works into song of daily life.5 Tamil, working from a Hindi To the end of her book’s title, translation of the Bengali original. In Kumudini appends the term Limitet, fact, the pen-name, Kumudini, under the Tamil transliteration of “Limited.” which she wrote to preserve her When it appears at the end of the anonymity, was drawn from a name of a company, such as Chettiyar character in a Tagore novel.3 During and Sons, Ltd., “limited” indicates the 1930s, she published many short that each partner’s liability in the stories and columns for two Tamil company is limited to the amount of magazines, as well as a host of investment contributed. In occasional pieces for other Kumudini’s pun, she suggests the newsletters and magazines. Since she matters that fill her stories are limited wrote her stories in the early hours of in their liability and reach; that is, the morning before anyone else in the they are trifling, rather than family had awakened, her Priya Kuriyan comprehensive, grand, or conservative mother-in-law remained here and there in small quantities, momentous. unaware of her increasing success as such as a set of little wooden toys Yet the seeming humility in the a writer. With Kumudini’s father belonging to a child, people refer to choice of the book’s title belies the acting as an informal contact between them as cillarai. If you purchase fact that the stories within its covers her and the literary world, she something in a shop and the total bill contain much substance and depth. published an impressive number of amounts to five rupees and four paisa, Among the several sections which short stories and essays. that four paisa would be considered deal with apparently trivial things yet Among the little-known and most cillarai, a term equivalent to the are concerned with matters of creative of Kumudini’s written work English “small change.” In Tamil Nadu significant marital and political import from the 1930s are a set of stories people often call a store that sells is “Mail (tabal) from the inner palace based on the lives of female “notions” (small things from barettes (antapuram).” Here Kumudini characters in the epics and to rubber bands) a cillarai store; imagines that selected female that appeared in Ananda Vigadan, peasants with small agricultural characters depicted in ancient one of the most successful and long- holdings are said to own cillarai religious texts could depend upon running Tamil periodicals. One of lands; one makes fun of people who regular postal service and these stories is an epistolary account say foolish things by identifying corresponded on a periodic basis with of Sita’s experiences as she adapts to them as having a mind (putti) that is their relatives. the circumstances of joint family life, cillarai. This wide semantic range Letters to Mithilas’s Queen after marrying Rama and moving into occurs because Tamil speakers use The epistolary story of Sita his parents’ household in the royal the adjective cillarai to describe a contains four letters that she palace in .4 Although the variety of objects or activities, when supposedly wrote to the Chief Queen story begins in a disarmingly simple they are understood to be trifling, of Mithila, between her arrival in way, as it progresses Kumudini petty, or inconsequential. Ayodhya after marriage and her

No.148 23 departure for the forest. The epistles by defining unsuitable behaviour loses out to her younger reflect the challenges Sita faces in within the family as dangerous. and more attractive opponent: adapting to the demands of a new The joint family into which Sita My Revered Father-in-Law spends household, playing the roles of marries furnishes lots of juicy all his time in the palace of the obedient daughter-in-law, loyal wife, domestic conflict, starring ’s Mother-in-Law of , and respectful sister-in-law. All the devious maidservant’s plotting to Kaikeyi . My Mother-in-Law letters concern events in the women’s raise her fortunes and those of her is terribly angry. To keep her anger quarters of the palace, reporting even mistress; foolish old Dasaratha so from showing, she busies herself on events of dynastic succession smitten with the charms of his newest with performing pujas and feeding and governmental policy in terms of wife that he causes his own ruin; and . So I must arise at the how they affect women living in the Kaikeyi as a mother so ambitious for break of day, have my bath, and inner palace. her own son that she destroys family help her. I work all day long. I don’t The letters are extraordinarily unity. The first of Sita’s letters holds get even the slightest bit of rest. brief. In the equivalent of four While Sita’s mother-in- printed pages — with large law Kausalya envies spaces between each line — Kaikeyi, she knows that it is Kumudini presents the major unbecoming for a dignified events of the Ayodhyakanda, senior queen to express the section of the Ramayana envy. To distract herself that deals with the events that from her unhappy situation transpire after Rama marries and win moral prestige, she Sita. The first and longest letter performs elaborate rituals (one and a half pages) tells of thought to bring good her new life in Rama’s home. fortune to her family. Thus, The second, tersely even if she has lost the king’s constructed in just eight affections, she gains the sentences, relates to the upper hand in public upcoming holiday of Deepavali. estimation, because she The third briefly relates the rises above her own feelings consequences of Dasaratha’s and attains ritual merit desire to crown Rama. The beneficial to the welfare of fourth, almost telegraphic in its her husband and sons.6 compactness, tells of her Watching these high-born imminent departure for the women wrestle with the forest with her husband. complications of joint family Domestic Perspective life, one can also learn from

Yet, these four short pieces of Priya Kuriyan Kausalya’s strategy to mail reveal a fresh perspective maintain her high status among peers. the reader’s attention at least partly on Sita’s life because they present the Kumudini juxtaposes Sita’s because the royal household Ramayana narrative from a domestic account of the king’s lack of self- turns out to be such a hornet’s perspective. Sita’s letters present the control with Sita’s utterly proper personal affairs of the Dasaratha nest of intrigue. Consider, for management of deferential language. household from an insider’s example, the depth of unspoken Note how the new bride refers perspective. Vicariously entering into jealousy between Dasaratha’s eldest respectfully to her in-laws in the conflicts of another household and youngest co-wives. Eldest elaborately circumlocutory ways. In through reading is one of the most wife Kausalya, mother of Rama the household into which she has just enthralling human pastimes, namely and mother-in-law to Sita, finds married, she ranks fairly low on the conversing about the personal affairs it belittling to compete for kingly status hierarchy. A recently arrived of others, or, put less politely, attention with the king’s youngest daughter-in-law demonstrates her gossiping. Gossip also provides an wife, Kaikeyi, mother of good upbringing by carefully opportunity to emphasize the and mother-in-law to Mandavi. Sita’s observing the rituals of address and necessity for appropriate behaviour, letter recounts to her mother how comportment, always deferring to her

24 MANUSHI mother-in-law, father-in-law, father. Travel outside the and other elders. Some of the inner palace is the affair of humour in Kumudini’s account men, and Sita quietly comes from the gap between acquiesces to their Sita’s highly respectful decisions. language and those to whom Matters of Anxiety she applies it. The man she If Kumudini has hitherto calls “Revered Father-in-Law” portrayed Sita as carefully is the infatuated King conforming to the proper Dasaratha, who is so behavior and comportment enamoured with Kaikeyi that expected of a new bride, the he ignores the needs of his tone of the story now starts kingdom. to shift. Indirectly Kumudini Well-bred Sita performs her starts to suggest that some duty not only in word but in of the pressures upon a new deeds, by conscientiously Priya Kuriyan bride are excessive and that assisting her mother-in-law Sita’s concern with proper with elaborate pujas. It is one thing has gone to visit their uncle, however, appearance should not be overdone. for an elderly mother-in-law to Rama decides that Sita and Rama Furthermore, we watch Sita find ways undertake such rituals voluntarily, cannot leave the palace until their to take some control over her life. after her sons have married and return. So Sita sadly informs her Indeed, Deepavali offers her a chance brought daughters-in-law into the mother she will not be home for the to help resolve one of her major household to perform most of the holidays: problems at present, her low social domestic chores. It is another thing The messenger conveyed your prestige. for a new bride from a kingly family, request that all of us come to Cosmopolitan Ayodhya bustles in which she was pampered and Mithila for Deepavali. If you knew with the commercial activity of a major adored, to rise at the break of dawn, everything that is happening here, city on the north Indian trade route, help her mother-in-law carry out you would understand how where merchants arrive regularly with numerous ablutions, and cook difficult it would be for us to come luxurious bundles of cloth, elegant special food for Brahmins. Indeed, as you have requested . . . As soon women’s wear, and the latest fashions. after all this work, she must still as we returned from the wedding, In contrast, Mithila, northwest of perform her usual daily chores in the Bharata’s uncle came and fetched Ayodhya (in today’s northern Bihar joint household, which begin before his nephew for a visit. . . . After they near the Indian border with Nepal), is the day’s first meal and do not cease return, even if we all received far from the beaten track, and favours until after she has cleaned up the last permission and set out for Mithila, clothing styles that have remained dirty vessel when everyone has eaten it seems doubtful that we could fairly conservative. Sita arrived at her their final meal at night. Sita does not arrive there in time for Deepavali. husband’s home with a trousseau full After thinking it all over, your Son- explicitly criticize either mother-in-law of beautiful saris that her mother had in-Law has resolved that it is best or father-in-law. Sita merely conveys painstakingly got woven by fine to spend Deepavali here in to her mother that she is exhausted. artisans in Mithila, but all of those Ayodhya. A letter about this will The message, however, comes saris are adorned with broad borders. arrive soon for Father from my Current fashion in Ayodhya calls for through clearly: she would love to Revered Father-in-Law. narrow-bordered saris: return home and receive some tender That Sita employs the elaborate Here in Ayodhya, everyone wears loving care from her parents. euphemism of referring to her extremely sophisticated clothing. In Tamil Nadu, in many jatis one husband in terms of his relationship They say the cloth comes from customarily visits one’s natal family to Sita’s mother as “your Son-in- foreign merchants. The cloth is on holidays such as Pongal and Law” shows her deference to husband very finely woven and the borders Deepavali. Since Kumudini imagines and elders, in her natal as well as are elegantly thin. My husband’s that Sita lives as her readers live, marital home. Furthermore, it is her elder sister wears one in a Deepavali provides a perfect husband who decides if she may visit sky-blue color. I want one like it. occasion for Sita to return home and her parental home and Rama’s father All the saris that you presented to relax. Since Rama’s brother Bharata who conveys the choice to Sita’s me at the time of my wedding have

No.148 25 very wide borders. I am ashamed to wear them now. Everyone makes fun of me. Don’t send that kind. Give my greetings to Venerable Father. Kumudini portrays Sita as experiencing a major problem for new brides, sartorial peer pressure. She tries to mobilize aid from her mother in order to improve her social standing. This excerpt from Sita’s letter suggests both how vulnerable a new daughter-in-law remains to criticism, but also how she can count on her natal family to improve her position in Rama’s family. Because other Priya Kuriyan women have disparaged her old- Rshyasringa a new kind of bangle. Kumudini’s sympathetic account fashioned clothes, she feels It is excellent. Make and send one reveals the stresses a new wife can embarrassed for herself and her family just like it for your elder Son-in-Law. experience in attempts to negotiate name. Since on Deepavali it is Perhaps I will find and send a between the expectations of her new customary to bestow new clothes on craftsman who knows this type of in-laws and her parents. She must one’s children, Sita’s mother will send work with the servant who brought insure that her parents do not bestow gifts to Ayodhya for the holiday even your message to me. No one must any gifts that would evoke disdain if her daughter is unable to visit. So know that I have written to you from her marital family. In envisioning Sita specifies exactly what she wants about this matter. Sita’s situation, Kumudini to receive, after carefully observing Sita wants Rama to receive a piece incorporates a critique of some what Shanta, Rama’s elder sister, of jewelry precisely as costly, contemporary social behaviour that wears.7 Shanta, wife to Rsyasringa attractive, and au courant as the gift created extreme anxiety for new brides. and a daughter in the Ayodhya that Dasaratha has bestowed upon household and therefore of higher A Gandhian Sita Rsyasringa, Shanta’s husband. Since status than Sita, receives the special Kumudini’s ideologicalcommi- the artisans in provincial Mithila do tments become more explicit in Sita’s treatment in the Ayodhya palace that not know how to produce the new- second letter, which alludes to the Sita can find only in her Mithila home. fangled man’s bangle, Sita proposes superiority of swadeshi cloth over Shanta has been wearing a gorgeous to send an artisan from Ayodhya to sari in the sky-blue colour at the oversee secretly the crafting of the foreign cloth. The author, who height of current fashion, so Sita asks bangle. shocked certain members of her family for one like it. It is crucial to Sita’s position that by refusing to wear anything but Feminine Strategies for Status her mother not mention that her khadi even at orthodox family Sita enlists her mother’s aid not daughter has suggested such a plan; weddings shapes her plot to provide only because she wants to appear Sita would not want to give the a cautionary lesson about the in fashion. She also must help her impression that her in-laws put dangers of craving new material parents develop a reputation for pressure on her to obtain expensive possessions simply because others generosity and good taste in their post-wedding gifts as a kind of acquire them. Kumudini fashions gifts to their daughter and their son- continued dowry. Furthermore, only this second letter to imply that desire in-law’s family at holiday time. So Sita crude in-laws would ask outright for for exotic objects arises from carefully informs her parents of her a particular gift, so there should be ignorance: desire depends on the in-laws’ expectations by sending no suggestion that Sita is relaying false notion that new items are precise information about the recent any explicit request from her in-laws. necessarily more valuable than precedents in gift-giving: Instead, it should look as if the familiar ones. Thus Kumudini depicts For Deepavali here, they have royalty of Mithila just happened to Sita’s rapid disillusionment with the made for our Brother-in-Law pick the perfect gift for Prince Rama. foreign-made sari:

26 MANUSHI After I wrote the letter to you, I saw The queen must be dressed in my husband’s elder sister, Shanta. auspicious clothing and ornaments, People are saying that the sky-blue since she now represents , shade is not permanent. It comes the goddess of prosperity, for the out in the wash. Therefore, I do not whole kingdom. Sita therefore want cloth of that colour. Send only requests a very fine and elegant sari a vermillion-coloured sari of the with her mother’s blessings so that type that you intended at first. everyone will think that Sita looks the This brief comment recounts Sita’s part she has suddenly called upon to loss of interest in her sister-in-law’s play. She has become so anxious sari as soon as she discovers the about wearing the correct thing that impermanence of its foreign dye. her desire for attractive material Kumudini believed in buying only possessions has driven her to the swadeshi items, those that are “made point of distraction. Kumudini here in one’s own country” throughout Priya Kuriyan her life, as did many participants in ridicules the excessive attention to external appearance, showing how Gandhian resistance to colonialism. she confess her worry: she needs to pressures about expensive In this letter Kumudini deftly wear the proper thing at the adornments undermine Sita’s transforms a seemingly trivial story coronation but is uncertain about equanimity of mind. of sartorial choices into a political what that might be: lesson about the flaws of craving I must wear a sari with your Transcending Matters foreign (yavana) goods over familiar blessings on the [coronation] Sita’s fourth and last letter, one locally-made items that one has platform. What kind are you going with an entirely different tone from 8 always used. Buying Indian-made to send? Would the new jasmine the three preceding it, indicates how items, rather than those imported from color be right? For wearing on the Sita has banished anxious thoughts Britain, functioned both economically platform, it must be right. Can saris and regained her peace of mind. In and symbolically to indicate Indian made with the spotted deer border this hurried epistle, she writes tersely freedom from dependence upon be woven quickly?10 Or if I were to to her mother: England. The enthralling new non- wear the kind we discussed earlier, I do not want you to send a sari. colorfast dye acts as an emblem of would that be available [quickly Everything is over. We are going consumer desires for colonial goods to live in the forest. . . The only that, according to Gandhian enough]? . . . I don’t know what to thing for me to wear is bark-cloth. economic theory, undermined the do. Since I keep thinking and If you consider how much it rains economic wellbeing of the thinking about these saris, my mind in the forest, you will realize that subcontinent. Shanta may own such has become confused. I am not nothing else is appropriate. a sari, but it is not colourfast. able to come to a decision. Send Therefore, if you can arrange it, Kumudini refers to what the sari help. send bark-cloth clothing. . . . We lacks: stiramaka, the firmness of mind Your beloved, Sita are going to Chitrakuta. No one that a highly disciplined person gains P.S. Or, combining the Deepavali from cultivating detachment from sari and the coronation sari, send must know this. Hurry. material possessions. me a truly grand sari. Without explaining all the events Image Conscious Sita For the coronation ceremony, Sita that had led to her departure for the forest, Sita merely tells her mother, Kumudini’s critique of material will be on view before the entire with a passing reference to the woods desires develops even more fully in kingdom. She worries that she does Sita’s third letter, which shows her in not possess the finery appropriate for of Chitrakuta, that the time for saris a total panic over that familiar this once-in-a-lifetime ritual that will is over for her. Anyone even vaguely question, “What should I wear?”9 elevate her from a relatively low- familiar with the Ramayana narrative When Sita learns that Dasaratha has status new bride to queen of would of course know the context: suddenly decided to retire and crown Ayodhya. Elaborate adornment plays Kaikeyi forced the king to halt the Rama his successor as king, she must a crucial role in royal ritual because planned coronation of Rama, banish immediately begin to prepare for the the grandeur of the participants him to the forest, and install her son coronation. Only to her mother dare symbolizes the wellbeing of the land. on the throne instead. In that

No.148 27 situation, Sita could easily have remained in the luxury of the palace until Rama’s eventual return but she insisted on accompanying him, even when he pointed out the harsh conditions that she would encounter. In keeping with the pattern established in the story, Kumudini has Sita ask her mother — one last time — to send appropriate sartorial furnishings for an imminent event. Yet the request indicates that Sita has achieved a major conceptual breakthrough. Instead of worrying about what other people will think about what she is wearing, she Priya Kuriyan considers the practical function of certainty that when one’s life becomes the kinds of problems that many clothing. As Sita sets out for a life of overwhelming one can count on one’s young brides may face as they wandering through the rough and mother to send a gift. negotiate the economic pressures of rainy lands beyond the bounds of Moral of the Story the move from natal to marital settled life, she hardly needs a large Like many Indian didactic tales, household. Kumudini turns the story wardrobe. An outfit of bark cloth will Kumudini’s piece includes a concise of Sita and Rama into something protect her body from thorny final comment. In it she links these short decidedly domestic by depicting Sita’s branches, keep her dry in the rain, letters to the larger questions of what everyday chores and interactions in represent her as modest and — in ultimate terms — is meaningful the inner palace: rituals, gossip, disciplined, and help her negotiate yet and what is mere trifle. Sita voices this clothing dilemmas. Kumudini another transition in her married life. distinction in her final postscript: addresses contemporary political By donning bark-cloth, Sita will P.S. From now on, I don’t have to concerns by alluding to the evils of represent herself in the raiment of think about the color of saris. Great dowry demands, the dangers of in- renouncers. Since there are no annual peace has been established in my laws’ excessive expectations for gifts, fashions in bark-cloth styles, Sita no mind. I have realized how excellent and the need to purchase only goods longer need worry about dressing au it would be if every woman went to made in one’s own country. Thus, the courant. Kumudini also gently hints live in the forest. The worries of life Ramayana becomes a way of thinking at the similarities between bark-cloth would be reduced by half. not just about dutiful actions in and khadi, a cloth that may be rough Kumudini leaves us with an government and ancient times, but but is also simple and suited to a explicit moral for this story. People also about domestic life and the strenuous, rather than luxurious, life. should not devote excessive attention present.12 Sita’s decision to accompany her to clothing or make it the source of husband to the forest provides her Note stress for new brides. Desire for with the opportunity to emerge from 1. This brief account of Ranganayaki material possessions clouds the mind Thatham’s life is drawn from a series of absorption in what turns out to have and distracts one from attention to interviews with members of her family, been, ultimately, trifling matters. more significant things such as including Nandakumar (son), Prema This brief last letter, a response to Nandakumar (daughter-in-law), Devaki one of the most prominent and finding peace of mind and achieving (daughter), Jagannathan (nephew) lengthily described events in literary equanimity in life. Sita had to learn this conducted in Srirangam in December 1996 ,11 brings together various the hard way, by embarking on a harsh and 1998. Translations of Kumudini’s journey to the forest, but readers might short story appeared in the Literary themes introduced in Sita’s earlier Review, The Hindu April 03, 2005. correspondence: the heightening be able to learn from her example. www.hinduonnet.com/ir/2005/04/03/ tension between Dasaratha’s co- In a mere four pages of pointed stories. wives, the power of the male head of prose, Kumudini has managed to retell 2. In these activities, Ranganayaki was the household to make decisions a familiar story in a way that makes it following the path of Mohandas Gandhi, vividly contemporary and grippingly which extended in ways not fully realized about where others in the family will by most people today. Gandhi took a keen go, the need for clothing that suits the realistic. Although Sita is a princess interest in nutrition, cooking, and the demands of the situation, and the in a grand palace, she too encounters reduction of domestic drudgery. During

28 MANUSHI years spent in his ashrams, he undertook husband is neglecting her or mistreating of British colonial merchants referred to a series of experiments with different her can get the moral upper hand by as those who provide clothing that is not modes of cooking (including boiling, performing pious acts believed to accrue produced locally. steaming, and baking) and neglected religious merit for her family. 9. For a history of the urgency of this sources of protein and vitamins (soybeans, 7. Scholars have written about the question in colonial and modern India, see orange peel jams), and with sensible home complex and often contradictory Emma Tarlo, Clothing Matters: Dress and economics. For an overview of these information given about Shanta in various Identity in India (Chicago: University of experiments, see Madhu Kishwar, Gandhi recensions of ’s Ramayana and Chicago Press, 1996) pp. 1-21, esp. pp. and Women (New Delhi: Manushi other tellings. In some stories, Shanta was 15-20. Prakashan, 1986), pp. 38-40. adopted by Lopamudra and in others by 10. Note the foreshadowing here. Sita 3. Kumudini also wrote a novel titled Dasaratha. For a discussion of the textual wonders whether it might be possible for Tivan Makal [The Divan’s Daughter] complexities, see Asoke Chatterjee, “The her mother to get her a sari decorated (Mylapore: Kalaimakal Kariyalayam, Problem of Santa’s Parentage as Affecting with the deer pattern. It was her 1942). the Text of the Ramayana” Our Heritage, fondness for deer that led her to send 4. The Sita story first appeared in 2:2 (1954), pp. 353-74, as well as his Rama after the golden deer, leaving her Ananta Vigatan 9:36 (9 September 1934), “Santa’s Parentage,” Indian Historical alone to be abducted by , king of pp. 65-73. It was later reprinted as “Lady Quarterly 33 (1957), pp. 146-151. In a the demons. Sita” in the section called “Mail from the number of women’s tellings, however, it is 11. For example, in Valmiki’s telling, Inner Palace” in Cillaraic Cankatikal, simply taken for granted that she is part the story takes up more than 830 Limitet (Tricchi: Natesan Books Limited, of Rama’s joint family and she plays the verses; in Kamban 416 verses are 1948). Like most books of the time, its role of the traditional elder sister to him. devoted to this section of the story. Of title page also lists the printer, Cauveri For example, see Velcheru Narayana Rao, course, what each author emphasizes Colour Press in Kumbakonam. At “A Ramayana of Their Own: Women’s varies. publication time, the book sold for one Oral Tradition in Telugu,” pp. 114-136 in 12. See A.K. Ramanujan, “Two Realms of rupee. Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Kannada Folklore, in Another Harmony: 5. This discussion draws upon the Narrative Tradition in South Asia, edited New Essays on the Folklore of India, edited meanings provided in the Tamil Lexicon. by Paula Richman (Berkeley: University by Stuart H. Blackburn and A.K. Ramanujan Cankati appears in vol. 3., p. 1222, of California Press, 1991), p. 118, 129. (Berkeley: University of California Press, cillarai, vol. 3, p. 1432. 8. The word Kumudini uses for “foreign” 1986), pp. 64-67, for a discussion of how 6. In her essay, “Yes to Sita, No to Ram: here is yavana. Originally, the word epic narratives have been localized and The Continuing Hold of Sita on Popular appeared in Sanskrit texts to refer to contemporized in Kannada folktales. outsiders who came to India, such as the Some of these same patterns appear in Imagination in India,” pp. 285-308 in  Questioning Ramayanas, edited by Paula Greeks or the traders who came to the Kumudini’s short stories. Richman (New Delhi: Oxford University southeastern coast of India by ship with Press and Berkeley: University of the monsoon winds. Over time the word’s The author is a professor of south Asian California Press, 2000), Madhu Kishwar meaning broadened to outsiders in general, Religions, Department of Religion, Oberlin notes how the wife who feels that her so it fits equally well as a veiled description College, USA. 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