International Journal of Research ISSN NO:2236-6124 The Demonic Body: An Evaluation in the light of Gender and Sexuality Ms. Neethu S, Assistant Professor in English, Department of Taxation, Bharata Mata College,Thrikkakara. Email: [email protected] Abstract Myths and legends have influenced human beings from times immemorial. They serve as the backbone of any culture. Hindu civilization is mainly renowned for its myriad myths and legends. Puranas like Ramayana and Bhagavatha serve as an eye opener to our cultural heritage. It serves as an answer to all kinds of dilemma faced by people even today. The role of puranas is thus significant in layman’s life as he/she takes it as an authentic record of his/her cultural past. The paper intends to analyse the treatment of certain women who are characterised as demonesses in Puranas who are categorized so just because they are the desiring subjects, throwing light on two mythical characters Shoorpanakha (from Ramayana) and Poothana (from Bhagavatha) who are portrayed as evil in the Puranas as they express overtly their repressed desires. Keywords: sexuality, female body, desire. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramayana, the story of Srirama, has been among one of the favourites of people belonging to almost all age categories. It tells the story of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, his wife Sita, daughter of king Janaka and Ravana the king of Lanka. The story of Ramayana has been thus told innumerable times. The enthralling story of Rama, the incarnation of lord Vishnu, who slew Ravana, the evil demon of darkness, is known to every Indian. In the pages of history, as always, it is the version told by the ones who hold the weight of victory. In this postmodern era a time has arrived where Ravana is no more portrayed an evil or a demon but someone who is a devout disciple of Lord Shiva and one who captures Sita in order to worship her. Counter- histories have been written in order to reconstruct many mythical characters who were initially portrayed in a dark light so as to bring them to the limelight as it is the need of the hour as we live in a postmodern world that accepts the multiplicity of truths. This has increased peoples’ concern for characters like Ravana and Karna . Women being the subjects of desire can complicate the smooth running of a patriarchal society, and in order to get back the poise of such a society, there arises a need to suppress the voice of such a category of women. This is done through a series of strategies. Here arises the need to analyse the body of a woman. The female body is a place where all kinds of paraphernalias conjoin. Desire is essentially human and social. It is relational. It is part of a two-fold platform because where desire exists, there always co-exist an object of desire. Expressed through language and cultural symbols, desire is culturally and communally determined. Desire is, thus, inseparable from the social influences that give it shape and meaning. For women, as well as for men, desire tells a cultural and gendered story. Volume 7, Issue XII, December/2018 Page No:2066 International Journal of Research ISSN NO:2236-6124 Although many women writers have tried to bring out an expression of female desire as a liberating experience, most of them have failed to do so falling into the old pattern of conceiving female sexuality and the female body as subservient to, or depending upon male desire. It is mainly because they are not liberated from the patriarchal discourse mainly because they succumb to guilt. This guilt originates in the split experienced by the female subject, torn between patriarchal traditions and the desire for self-fulfilment. It includes social, psychological, intellectual and sexual fulfilment. Women, at a time, has to confront her own erotic desire as well as the expectations of the society on her. In “The Laugh of the Medusa,” Helene Cixous proposes l’ecriture feminine as a model that allows feminine desire, the language of the body, to reconstitute expression as a revolutionary movement against the masculine rhetorical structure that has defined language over time. By employing the medusa image, Cixous deconstructs Jacques Lacan’s phallocentrism and Sigmund Freud’s misogynist psychoanalytic closure of women. She counters Freud’s model of passivity for women with one that offers uninhibited freedom through the body and the mind. As per Valmiki's Ramayana, Shoorpanaka was an ugly woman (gora mukhi), pot bellied and cross- eyed. She has thin, brown hair and a grating voice that is harsh on the ears. She had oversized breasts, which can be translated to mean a heart full of wickedness. The concept of docile body can be a solution to the aporia of the identity of Shoorpanaka. According to Foucault, as mentioned earlier body is a paraphernalia where all cultural ideologies conjoin. The body of Shoorpanaka thus becomes a site where one can explore the traits of racial, sexual, patriarchal as well cultural ideologies. Most of the versions of Ramayana portrays Shoorpanaka as a demoness who tries to woo Rama and as a result gets mutilated. The reason for such a portrayal needs attention. Shoorpanaka belongs to the asura clan, and is considered to be Ravana’s sister and demoness Thataka’s grand daughter. This gives an idea of the situation that she is part of an evil lineage. This estranges our sympathy for her. She makes advances of love to Rama. The story takes a major turn here. Shoorpanaka is characterised as an evil as she, being a woman, made romantic advances towards an Aryan, a member of the elite class. Rama and lakshmana after making fun of her, decides to amputate her senses. Her nose is stripped of by Lakshmana. In the Kamban version of Ramayana, Shoorpanaka’s breasts are also mutilated. Mutilation of breasts and nose has a greater implication in this research. Breast, often considered to be the symbol of femininity is a major element in studies regarding female body. It is portrayed as stupendous and over-sized. This actually implies the concept of beauty surmounting femininity. Beauty is a major yardstick that helps to assess the quality of the female body. The juxtaposition of Shoorpanaka with Sita makes clear to the reader the disparity between the good and the evil. The reason behind the portrayal of Shoorpanaka as evil is her desire to become a subject. Race as well as patriarchy never allowed females to advocate their desires as they feared the empowerment of the former. She becomes a demoness like Medusa whose sexuality frightens even the warriors. Portraying women who wish to become desiring subjects as monstrous will enable the patriarchal society to condition the thoughts and perspectives of the layman as it always conveys the false message that such women do not fit in an ordinary patriarchal society. Combining Foucault’s theory of the body with the theories of Cixous and de Beauvoir, the female body is inscripted with the patriarchal and cultural ideologies as a means of suppression. Volume 7, Issue XII, December/2018 Page No:2067 International Journal of Research ISSN NO:2236-6124 At the end of Shoorpanaka’s story, she gets a chance to become the wife of Lord Krishna, but even then, she seems to be disfigured. She has her rebirth as Kubja, the hunch-backed wife of Lord Krishna. No matter whoever a woman is, she is not assigned the permission to desire for something disapproved by the males of the society. If at all she expresses her desire, she becomes a monster or is portrayed as grotesque, causing havoc in a normal society. By removing Shoorpanaka from the trajectory of the epic, a deliberate attempt is made to throw her into oblivion from the human minds. Even now, when people read about her, she exists in their mind as the demoness who was instrumental in the cause of Rama-Ravana war. Leaving aside the patriarchal readings of Ramayana, Shoorpanaka ,the woman, though marginalized, could be seen as a major character of the epic without whom, Ramayana would not have had such an ending. This also gives a proper backdrop to the story of Poothana. Poothana, considered to be a noble lady during the period of the reign of King Bali, condescended to the position of a demoness during the incarnation of Krishna. In Hindu mythology, Poothana is a demoness, who is killed by the infant-god Krishna. Poothana is also considered as a foster-mother of Krishna as she breast-fed him, though it was with the motive of killing Krishna by poisoned milk. By offering her milk, Poothana had performed the supreme act of maternal devotion in the shadow of her evil motives. The myth is told and retold in Hindu scriptures and some Indian books, which portray her variously as an evil hag or a demoness who surrendered herself to Krishna, though she initially came with evil motives. Poothana is also interpreted as an infantile disease or bird, symbolizing danger to an infant or desire respectively, and even as a symbolic bad mother. She is included in a group of malevolent Hindu mother goddesses called the Matrikas and also in the group of Yoginis and Grahinis (Seizers). Ancient Indian medical texts prescribe her worship to protect children from diseases. The legend of Poothana and Krishna is narrated in many Hindu texts like Bhagavata Purana, Harivamsa (part of Mahabharata), Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Vishnu Purana, Garga Samhita and Prem Sagar. Poothana, the "killer of infants", was sent by Krishna's evil uncle Kamsa to kill Krishna.