Reading Chicklet’s review on Jaya[Link] sparked this thought in me.
There is an interesting observation I notice in all these puranas. Let’s take the example of Panchali‘s earlier life. The sage is uhm insatiable and he makes love to her in many “different” ways. What exactly does “different” mean here? I let my mind wander and see that what is probably considered as an unacceptable act, or viewed as a perversion by the society need not be deviant in the first place, or may be I am reading too much into the word. Even to the dhoti clad pundits eh.
Getting back to the story, One fine day this dude wants to renounce the world and when she disagrees, he curses “her” for her insatiable lust. I think its totally unfair and shows how much of a “man” based establishment we are and have been. In my opinion, he has no single right to a decision unless its “theirs” to make together.
Now coming to the life that Panchali lived. So the living arrangement goes like this, each pandava spends an year with her while the rest of the brothers would view her as their sister-in-law for that period. As much as I force myself to be non-judgemental, I am quite astonished by this arrangement. Meanwhile, a sage “blesses” Panchali that with every year her virginity would be restored and she would not remember what happened the previous year. Well, I don’t really understand how this could have helped Panchali’s case at best? (Chitra talks about this in her novel). And how on Earth would she not remember her past year every time she looks at one of “their” kids? How on Earth do the rest of the brothers not think about what happened in the earlier years? Why is virginity so divine? How does restoring the virginity really help Panchali?
So all I can conclude from this is, We have been and are one hell of a horny nation. Let’s understand and accept this. If you disagree, please explain how we have a billion people on this planet, the count keeps increasing every damn moment and the grandparents always seem insatiable with the number of grand kids they have. The men’s libido are so suppressed until they can unleash their fury the moment they can. The women tend to stay repressed before and after marriages. As pointed out by SOJ [Link] in an earlier column , the parents seem to be obsessed with raising the ideal daughter (read as “Sita“) or finding the right one. And, what does all this lead to? A happy unit called Family. Well, Fuck that then!
References: I would like to thank Pattanaik’s “The goddess in India: the five faces of the eternal feminine” and Chitra’s “The Palace of Illusions” for some of these stories and for firing my gray cells that had been dormant for a long time now.
Pah, I’ve always hated Indians’ obsession with “virginity”. I mean, most modern women end up tearing their hymen through normal activities like sports well before they are married. And what does “virginity” mean anyway when you’re not straight?’
Personally I believe in India it isn’t all that easy to change mind set. Mind set of billions, divided by religion, further divided by sub-religion and then there is the big economic divide.
So to hope for a ideal scenario would be stupidity. Best approach is to educate those around us, and hope they would pass it forward.
On a slightly tangent note; more than virginity I think we are simply possessive by nature. 😀
I agree that we are a horny nation. Perhaps at time we thought that sexuality was natural and somehow over a period of time it became a taboo.
i blame it on the british!! india was never as homophobic or quite AS reluctant to discuss sex according to some of the historical literature
We’re horny. Its true.
We’re possessive. Its true.
We’re hypocrites. Its also true!
I think this reluctance to speak or discuss sexuality in India adds to the queer struggle – It isn’t merely the act that is taboo. The voices fighting for rights automatically become taboo as well.
This is the murky area of article 377 – it underlined the sexual act as if being consensual between adults, it was legal. The legality of sexual practices legitimizes the existence of queer individuals – when in truth, we aren’t defined by whether or not we have sex, have had sex or plan to have sex.
Its not a Arrangement, it was a real life that happened, you dont worry about the concept of virginity which was happened in that incident, those guys used to have powers, (as how we have powers now to communicate to anyone at any place) anyhow you dont understand the meaning of it.
There are somethings which has to be believed as proof will not be there for each and everything, you feel pain when somebody hurts you or beat you, can you show me that pain…..
Dont conclude anything on your own. Conclusion should come from realisation, try to know about your self first, who are you? why you are on this earth? what is your duty?
That will give you all the answers.