A feminist lens on our mythology

Devdutt Pattanaik is one of the best known mythologists, and to his credit he has about 50 books and hundreds of articles on various topics. In "Sati Savitri", Devdutt, to begin with, divides women from the times of the Puranas to the present day into different categories and makes thought provoking observations about many practices that we have imposed on women in the name of tradition and culture. "Wives Who Rescue, Demanding Daughters, Commanding Wives, Autonomous Homemakers and Ambitious Brides" are some of the titles in the 12 chapter book that are self-explanatory.

Chastity, fidelity, and faithfulness are the three terms that per-vade and reverberate in the first chapter," Wives Who Rescue'. Devdutt with deep understanding goes on explaining how the concept of 'Sati' prevailed in those days. He chooses the title wisely and eventually gives the impression that our Puranas im-plicitly insist on both man and woman possessing the three vir-tues.

In the second chapter titled, "Damsels Who Get Bored", Devdutt talks at length about women who deserted their hus-bands and children and went where their hearts took them to. He skillfully brings out the difference between an Apsara and a Sati. While an Apsara is a woman who is attached to many men, and a'Sati' is a woman attached to only one man, a nun is a woman who is attached to no man.

In "Wrapped in Female Flesh", Devdutt talks about the origin of the institutions of nuns according to Hindu, Buddha, and Jain lore. He also talks about some societies in the past where men didn't allow women become nuns because they needed more women to produce children and survive their tribes. Here the author tells us some fascinating stories about women poet-saints between the sixth and the twelfth centuries who had re-jected the household and sought soothing and selfless shelter in the divine.

This informative and inspiring book, published by Penguin this year, is a result of Devdutt's meticulous study of books and re-search papers brought out especially by Western authors and scholars (listed in the bibliography). However he might be the first Indian author to see the lives of our fabled women through the prism of feminism. A must read for all those who want to know and understand the mythical lives in our Vedic times.

–M Somasekhar Prasad, Hyderabad