Impact of Socio-Cultural Factors on Feminist Mythological Revisionism in India

Abstract

India is one of the oldest surviving civilizations in the world. The religious lessons, literature, art and philosophies of this country are strongly linked and integrated into its culture, psychology and education system. Specifically, stories from Indian mythology represents country’s belief system, cultural construct and socio-cultural understanding that binds its people together. Notably, there is a resurgence in retelling of ancient myths from new perspectives in Modern and Postmodern India. It becomes important to explore the contemporary structure of revisionary myths, to understand the socio-cultural construct of contemporary India. Thus, the paper explores revisionary method employed by Indian mythologists to retell and reinterpret old myths from woman’s perspective. Four well-known retellings of Indian myths: Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi (1984) by Pratibha Ray, Karna’s Wife: The Outcast Queen (2013) by Kavita Kane, The Liberation of Sita (2016) by Volga and The Forest Enchantments (2019) by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni have been analyzed to form a viable revisionist frame, which significantly explores the genre of mythological retellings in general, and rewriting of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata from woman’s perspective in particular. It is a qualitative research which follows the exploratory research design. MLA seventh edition style has been used for referencing and citation.