Amidst War and Peace An Exploration of Female Voices in Revisionist Versions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata

Abstract

The doctoral thesis captures the essence of an indigenous definition of feminism from an Indo-centric perspective. This is a unique endeavour to analyse and examine protagonists from selected texts in order to understand the pluralities that exist in defining feminism. The present study explores revisionist works based on the twin epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata newlineand examines the voices of women protagonists in order to identify and define feminism from an Indo-centric dimension as being distinct from the Eurocentric notions of feminism. Feminism and its growth are usually attributed to newlineWestern influence. However, in recent times, there has been an increase in newlineworks and voices which look at exploring an indigenous theoretical framework that is different from the Euro-centric notions of feminism. One such important work is Chandra Talpade Mohanty s Under Western eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses which offers a written critique newlineof the hegemonic feminist discourse of the West from a non-European perspective. Mohanty challenges the binary positioning of women of the Third world against women in the West. Against this background, an exploration of an indigenous and Indo-centric theory of feminism, from a non- Western perspective gains ground. newline