How India’s ancient myths are being rewritten

How India’s ancient myths are being rewritten British Museum Indian myths Modern writers are retelling India’s legendary Hindu tales – often through a feminist lens. British Museum This scene from the Ramayana depicts Sita undergoing the ordeal by fire to test her chastity Take, for instance, the Panchakanya or ‘Five Virgins’ – five iconic heroines from mythology who are enshrined in a Sanskrit verse that reads: “Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara, Mandodari tatha / Panchakanya smaren nityam, mahapatak naashaka.” Roughly translated, it reads: “Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari / Invoking daily the virgins five / Destroys the greatest sins.” Of the five virgins, Kunti and Draupadi are characters from the Mahabharata, and Ahalya, Tara, and Mandodari are from the Ramayana. It is no surprise that modern retellings of stories from the Ramayana are told from Sita’s point of view The ultimate bar for the ‘good housewife’ in the Indian Hindu context remains Sita – the subservient wife of Rama who follows him into exile in the jungle. But, as Linda Hess points out in Rejecting Sita: Indian Responses to the Ideal Man's Cruel Treatment of His Ideal Wife, there are great differences in the bars set for these characters: “ the end of the great war between and the demons, must undergo a test of chastity that requires her to throw herself into a blazing fire.” Most popular versions of the Ramayana, Hess points out, omit these stories altogether, ending instead with Rama and Sita in the golden age of Rama’s rule in Ayodhya.