00:00 I am Rakhi Bose, Assistant Editor with Outlook and I bring to you excerpts from our latest
00:05 issue Women of the World Unite.
00:08 In Ravana's world, author Devdutt Pattanaik asks why does Hindutva only see women as Sita
00:14 or Surpanakha and not talk about the warrior women of Ramayana at the receiving end of
00:20 violence.
00:21 The Hindutva brigade keeps insisting it is the sole representative of Hinduism in the
00:25 world while it keeps promoting only Hindi, a North Indian language.
00:30 Hence a bill that aims to enable the equality of women in Indian politics is given a Hindi
00:35 name, the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam or the Women's Reservation Bill 2023.
00:41 But typically it becomes patronising as the bill is presented as an obeisance or vandan
00:47 to women's power which is Nari Shakti.
00:49 That this obeisance will be given a few years later, not immediately, reveals the cynical
00:55 nature of the bill.
00:57 Those promoting this bill are Hindi speaking men who joyfully heckle Tamil female parliamentarians
01:03 on camera.
01:04 This draws attention to an old divide amplified since the 19th century.
01:09 North Indian men are seen as followers of the Aryan Ram and South Indian women are seen
01:14 as the Dravidian King Ravana's women.
01:16 Sanatani Hindutva's Ram is always visualised alone, as a warrior, never as husband or lover,
01:23 father, son or father.
01:25 Hindutva's Hanuman, Krishna and Shiva are also visualised alone, in an aggressive stance.
01:31 Women are shown as Durga, again a warrior, again alone.
01:35 Bharat Mata is also alone, with a lion and weapons.
01:39 God is male here and if not male, certainly violent.
01:43 To justify the violence, the victims have to be evil or unjust or barbaric.
01:48 It's the job of the media to project all victims as villains deserving of violence.
01:53 Ravana is then seen as a villain, but the problem is that he is also a Brahmin and since
01:59 the 19th century, a Dravidian and he is surrounded by women who fight for him.
02:05 Hindutva considers the Ramayana as its holiest book and tries hard to project this as the
02:10 Hindu Bible, though it often concedes to the Bhagavad Gita.
02:15 The Gita is a prelude to a battle between men, the Pandavas and the Kauravas.
02:19 The Ramayana is also projected as a battle between men, Ram and Ravana.
02:25 Women here play a subordinate role, the victim, Sita of the Ramayana, Draupadi of the Mahabharata.
02:31 It's the role that women are relegated to in the Hindutva version of the Ramayana.
02:35 In doing so, we forget the other warrior women we encounter in the epic, at least four of
02:41 them, who are on Ravana's side, defending him.
02:44 The first is Tadaka or Tattaka.
02:47 When Ram is a student, he is invited to the forest by Vishwamitra to protect the sages
02:52 from savages who inhabit the woods.
02:55 Here Ram encounters a female warrior called Tadaka and is asked by his teacher to shoot
03:00 her down.
03:01 He hesitates because killing a woman is considered the worst of crimes, as bad as killing a Brahmin,
03:07 but the teacher says that at this point, she is the enemy, a predator and her gender should
03:12 not be considered.
03:14 Later in the epic, Hanuman is flying over the sea to Lanka in search of Sita.
03:19 His path is blocked by three warrior women.
03:21 The first is Surasa, a monster who demands that Hanuman enter her mouth if he wishes
03:27 to pass by her.
03:28 Hanuman increases his size so that Surasa has to widen her jaw and then suddenly, in
03:33 a flash, he transforms into a tiny fly and moves in and out of Surasa's mouth before
03:38 she can snap it shut.
03:40 He thus fulfills her condition, outwits her and moves on, winning her admiration.
03:46 Hanuman then encounters Simhika who captures him by his shadow and swallows him, but then
03:52 Hanuman rips her stomach apart and comes out.
03:55 And finally on the shores of Lanka, he encounters Lankini, the goddess who guards the city of
04:01 Lanka.
04:02 A great fight follows in which Lankini is defeated.
04:05 And thus, we see Hanuman triumphing over three female spirits, Surasa, Simhika and Lankini
04:13 in order to enter Ravan's domain.
04:16 These three are the female guardians of Lanka.
04:19 In other Southeast Asian Ramayanas, we encounter other women who fight on behalf of Ravan.
04:25 There is Benjikaya, a sorceress who pretends to be Sita's corpse and seeks to demotivate
04:30 Ram.
04:31 But Hanuman throws her in the fire and she reveals her true self.
04:34 There is also Suvarna Matsya, a mermaid who tries to break Ram's bridge.
04:40 Hanuman enchants the mermaid.
04:42 Hanuman of Southeast Asia is not a Brahmachari and convinces her to support Ram.
04:47 In art, Hanuman is often shown trampling a woman, holding her hair.
04:51 The woman is described as Panoti or the malevolent astrological force associated with misfortune,
04:58 delay and procrastination.
05:01 Violence against women is a recurring theme in the Ramayana.
05:04 We can argue these women are evil, adharmic, monstrous or simply savage to justify this
05:10 violence.
05:11 But the story could have been told by making them all male.
05:15 Why were they made females specifically?
05:17 Was it to show the triumphal march of Aryan patriarchy?
05:21 The Vedic hymns were primarily chanted by men for male gods and transmitted from father
05:26 to son.
05:27 Examples of female rishis and female deities in Vedic literature are more of an exception
05:32 than the rule.
05:33 In fact, the earliest references to a man killing a female demon comes from the late
05:38 Vedic literature where Indra's friend Kutsa sexually enchants and enables the killing
05:43 of Dhrigajivi, the long-tongued one, who licks the pot of soma reserved for the gods.
05:49 In the Adbhut Ramayana, composed about 500 years ago, we hear the story of how Ayodhya
05:54 is attacked by a demon with a thousand heads.
05:57 Sita takes the form of Kali and defeats this demon and then declares that she could have
06:02 killed Ravana of her own accord but allowed Ram to do so to proclaim the glory of Ram.
06:08 She let him take charge.
06:10 She is as powerful and does not need protection.
06:13 Is the offering of Vandan then a patriarchal apology?
06:17 We never hear Hindutva paraphrase what Sulabha told Janaka in the Mahabharata, "The soul
06:22 is genderless and only the flesh has gender."
06:26 To read the full story and other stories from this issue, log on to www.outlook.com.
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