VEDA’S JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JOELL)
An International Peer Reviewed (Refereed) Journal
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REPRESENTATION OF STATUS OF WOMEN IN MADHAVA KANDALI’S RAMAYANA

Dr. Nibedita Phukan

(Associate Professor of English,Namrup College (Affiliated to Dibrugarh University))

e-mail: nibeditap18@gmail.com

doi: https://doi.org/10.33329/joell.61.56

ABSTRACT

                  The Ramayana is a social document. It records and depicts the time and society of contemporary Indian civilization. The epic has a universal representation of women’s position irrespective of temporal and spatial boundaries. The paper tries to explore the hegemony of women constructed by the social structure. The women in the great epic are in the marginalized position in society. The fire test of Sita and the humiliation of Surpanakha are the outcome of the racial and the gender politics. The situation of Sita under the captivity in Ashokabana marginalizes woman’s position in society. The very moment also exposes the fear of physical assault and humiliation from the opposite sex. To understand the mental agony that a woman undergoes in such a situation needs lots of sensibilities. The projection of women as stereotyping of female as unchaste women, virgins and prostitutes is a patriarchal domination over women. The typecast of women as ‘Mother Nature’ reduces the role and status of women to the perpetual ‘giver’. Religious doctrines aid the representation of women as Mother Earth and Mother Nature, who is only the giver. An analytical interpretation of the undertaken project tries to make a comparative study between the Ramayana age and the present time. Uncovering of women’s position beyond temporal and spatial boundaries in the Ramayana and present society leads to the theorization that women’s so called positions in society is still a myth. Objectification and commoditifying of women in present time degrades their status in society leads to disastrous consequences. The paper tries to uncover women’s positions and issues from socialism and Marxist Feminist perspectives.

Keywords:  Social Document, Humiliation, Commoditifying of Women, Gender-Parity.

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