Exploring the Concept of Womanhood in India as Reflected in Devdutt Pattanaik s SITA and JAYA

Abstract

Woman plays numerous roles to shape a progressive society which makes her status a significant subject to study. The concept of womanhood with reference to woman s socio-cultural position, advancement, rights, struggle and restrictions has been different in each period of Indian history. There exists a strong correlation between literature and society. Out of all literary genres, myths are believed to be the core element of belief systems and cultural understanding. The study of myths of any region will give a better understanding of that region s cultural beliefs and social structure. For that reason, the researcher has considered Indian myths and its various revisionary forms to explore the socio-cultural status of Indian womanhood from Vedic period to Present age. Indian mythological stories have continued to fascinate and inspire Indian Literature since ages. Interestingly, the trend of mythological retellings, reinterpretations and recreation has profoundly influenced writers of all time. The research theoretically explores the changing status of Indian woman in Devdutt Pattanaik s mythological revisionist writing. In Jaya and Sita, Devdutt does not merely retells the story to explore and represent womanhood, in fact his revision examines each and every character of the entire story. Devdutt Pattanaik made an effort to contemporize these women characters according to their significance in contemporary socio-cultural framework. newlineThis study is focused on the women characters of the path-breaking book Jaya and Sita which recreates the socio-cultural representation of these mythological women characters as presented in various versions of Ramayana and Mahabharata and how differently they are portrayed from time to time to match up with the needs of that particular society. The entire thesis is divided into six chapters which are followed by bibliography at the end of this study. The first chapter of this study is entitled The Socio- Cultural Status of Woman in India .