Defeating Patriarchy on Its Own Terms: The Paradox of Female Chastity in Krittivasa’s Ramayana

This essay attempts to analyze the role of women in the Bengali Ramayana of Krittivasa, a regional version of the original Sanskrit epic composed by Valmiki. It does so from the perspective of the strict code of female chastity enshrined in a patriarchal society and enforced upon its women by their male guardians within and beyond the home. While on the one hand, it is an instrument of female subjugation, this essay make an attempt to analyze how the strict observance of this code by the women in the epic, makes it a weapon of female empowerment across the different strata of society through which the text operates. The powerful spiritual energy generated in the process by these women can threaten even the most powerful of patriarchs including the epic hero Rama himself.

omnipotent spiritual energy and the Kshatriya, invincible through his claims to monopoly over weaponry. The hierarchical discourse also extends across the god-human-demon categorization and the human-animal (monkey) one. These in turn have their own individual hierarchical structures, contributing to the multiplicity of levels on which the epic operates while patriarchy and its sternly entrenched value-system control all. The question whether Rama as the ideal man and the Visnu avatar, can and should be challenged for some of his actions, as has been done in both Ramayana studies and the multiple media in which the Rama story has been told, is an issue discussed at length by many critics. Paula Richman in her introductory article in "Questioning Ramayanas" refers to A. K.
Ramanujan's argument quoted at the beginning of this essay: "The 'Many-Ramayanas' model assumes that each telling of Rama's story is valid in its own right. … Ramanujan's model emphasizes the many different tellings of Rama's story-oral and written, read and performed, recited and depicted in visual forms-without representing each one primarily in terms of its relationship to Valmiki's telling (Richman, 2001, p. 4). My attempt in this essay will be to look at Krittivasa's text from the subaltern's perspective, not necessarily by subverting the dominant discourse but by trying to show how the patriarchal value system operating at all the levels discussed above, has ironically empowered with its own weapons of control the very women it has sought to subjugate. In so doing I will however, draw upon Valmiki too to highlight the alternative perspective offered by Krittivasa.

Women as Cause of Epic Action
The focus of Krittivasa does indeed remain the epic war between the ideal man and the demon king, ironically rendered invincible by the boon of the very gods whom he defeats and dethrones. But whereas Valmiki in his classical version of the epic attributes the war mostly to divine decree and pre-ordinance, it will be the purpose of the first part of this paper to show how Krittivasa highlights the role of three women who were instrumental in their own way in precipitating this archetypal conflict.
The first of these as in most versions of the epic is of course Kaikeyi, Rama's stepmother who together with her evil female mentor Manthara, deprives Rama of his rightful claim to the throne and sends him to forest exile and thus brings about his encounter with the demons following the abduction of his wife Sita. Then there is Surpanakha, Ravana's widowed sister, who lusts after Rama and Lakshmana in the forest, is mutilated by them and incites her brother to war to seek revenge, thus bringing about the ultimate downfall of the demon dynasty in Lanka. As Krittivasa says: Bidhatar maya bolo ke bujhite pare Surpanakha kandilo Ravan bodhibare (Krittivasa, 1957, p. 139) (Who can understand the ways of the divine Surpanakha's tears brought about the death of Ravana) And finally there is the matchless Sita herself (also called Janaki), who follows her husband into exile like the dutiful and self-sacrificing wife patriarchy expects her to be, leading to her abduction by "Throughout the literature, images appear that obviously in some earlier, pre-patriarchal context, must have pointed to initiations received by the male from the female side; but their accent is always so displaced that they appear in first glance-though not, indeed, on second-to support the patriarchal notion of virtue, arete, which they actually, in some measure, refute" (Campbell,p. 158).
This partial shift of causality from the male to the female in Krittivasa has a strong foundation in the goddess cults of the Sakta tradition of Bengal reflected in its culture, religion and religious literature. This is seen both in the mainstream and the folk traditions; from the Mangal Kavyas promoting goddess cults from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries to the Ramayana of Candravati focused entirely on Sita's story and even the work songs of the village women in Bengal, the last two devaluing the heroism of the hero by projecting the feminine perspective.
Questioning the notion of Rama as an ideal man and king, an infallible Visnu-avatar or of his rule as translation of Candravati's text, calls this part of a trend that had entered into the Ramayanas of eastern India after Krittivasa. She says that this signals "the beginning of a tradition of looking at the epic from below, from the viewpoint of the victim rather than that of the victor" (Bose, 2013, p. 4).
Bengali literature in fact, has a rich tradition of powerful women characters. It holds as its positive female archetypes such characters as Behula (Manasa Mangal Kavya), Savitri (Mahabharata) and Sita.
All three are ideal prototypes of the patriarchal code of satitwa (female chastity/sexual purity) required of the pativrata or the chastity and selfless devotion expected of a Hindu wife. The first two however are more pro-active in fulfilling the wifely duty required of them. When their husbands succumb to untimely deaths, they react not by dying alongside their dead husbands as social custom requires, but by challenging the gods responsible for those deaths. In embarking on a lone journey to bring her husband back to life and placating an assembly of gods through dance, Behula defies patriarchal codes, just as Savitri does in outwitting Yama, the god of death in a battle of wits. Patriarchy puts dangerous labels on such independent, self-willed women, even chaste ones. The question of how far Sita goes in challenging the patriarchal judgment will be dealt with during the course of this paper. The word sita comes from a Sanskrit word meaning "furrow", indicating the finding of the infant Sita by King Janaka when the Earth was being ploughed, since she is the daughter of Earth in her present incarnation.

Concept of "Satitwa/Female Chastity" and Application in the Epic
While satitwa and pativratya in patriarchal Hindu society are ethical codes forcibly imposed upon women, it will be my purpose in the next part of this paper to show how strict following of these codes empowers a woman not only against violation or rape by the demonic, but against dishonor and injustice by the heroic as well, thus defeating the archetypes of patriarchy on their own grounds.
Chastity, which might be termed the arete of these women, is therefore a double-edged weapon. Thus while a Kshatriya warrior is empowered by his weaponry won from the gods through severe penance, a woman is empowered by the sheer spiritual energy gained through strict observance of these ethical codes which arms her with the power to annihilate its violators through a curse as powerful as that wielded by the Brahmin ascetic. Valmiki speaks of "rakshitam sven tejasa" on several occasions and from her using available forest resources like the water of the Phalgu river and the sand of its banks as seen in the text. The poet adds that the touch of her feet purify Mother Earth herself, whose daughter she is. As the pregnant Sita is banished to the forest by King Rama to placate his subjects, Krittivasa says that darkness envelops the earth, the tree drops its fruit, leading to a reversal of the fertility symbol.
Her virtue is therefore chastening and chastising-chastening for the women who will listen to her tale hereafter and chastising for those who attempt to violate a woman's chastity, thus lending a salvific dimension to the myth. In the last part of the epic, the Uttara-kanda, when Rama once again exposes her to a test of her chastity before the assembled court, Sita, in an act of protest against the insult and humiliation to which she has been repeatedly exposed, re-enters the womb of the Earth, which parts to admit her. Rama's desperate act is that of pulling her by the hair to prevent her descent.

Female Chastity VS. Female Sexuality in the Epic
It is important to notice however that male control over female sexuality is totally for the purpose of procreation and dynastic propagation, establishing its own definitions of chastity and wantonness.
Recalling Campbell's words earlier quoted, patriarchy uses gender stereotyping in its assessment of -and judgment over-its women. Uncontrolled female sexuality is a danger to the stability of the kingdom, the dynasty and ultimately the cosmos itself, as repeatedly underscored in the epic. In this context, it may be relevant to quote Karen Jo Torjeson who, while talking of the women surrounding Jesus, says, "The whore is an important symbol whose negative stereotype functions to underscore the values associated with female chastity" (Corley, 2002, p. 95).
Patriarchy's definition of a whore is associated with the loosening of male control over female sexuality and ultimately of a woman's exertion of her independence and will power. Rama's stepmother Kaikeyi is projected almost universally as the negative stereotype because of her strong hold over her husband King Dasaratha which leads to the banishment of Rama and his father's death of grief. From another perspective she is a pro-active woman who initially saves the life of her husband on two occasions by her powers as a medicine woman. While Valmiki underplays this aspect of her potential, Krittivasa elaborates upon her superiority over the other queens in the palace, leading to Rama's chastisement of his own mother for her passivity in her role as chief consort. However Dasaratha's obsession with Kaikeyi (an old man's for a beautiful young wife), brings sorrow and suffering to his subjects. Whereas a pativrata's role is therapeutic as shown in the saintly Anusuya's ability to divert the course of the Ganges to mitigate the effects of a ten-year period of drought through her spiritual energy, a woman's unleashed sexuality brings death and disaster in its wake. Kaikeyi plays upon the politics of the inner chambers to secure succession rights for her son Bharat, denying the laws of primogeniture. Thus in the patriarchal value system enshrined in the epic, Kaikeyi must be rejected as a chandal-hridaya (a woman with the lowly heart of a "chandal" or the lowest caste), a bhujangini (a female serpent) who holds her husband in her deadly embrace. Thus in the same epic, another female character Ahalya the sage's wife, must be turned to stone for her sexual intercourse with the god Indra who came to her in the guise of her husband. Thus the widowed demon Surpanakha must be facially Kshatriya warrior to protect his own wife? Or is it simply to fulfill what has been divinely pre-ordained for the destruction of the demon dynasty and the establishment of Rama-rajya (the rule of the ideal king)? Finally, what is the subaltern's perspective of the Ksahtriya code of honor and justice, the punishment for its violation and the means adopted thereof? These are questions raised by the women in Krittivasa's epic which challenge the andocentric value system. The last part of this paper will attempt to analyze the alternative viewpoint.
Questioning the basic tenets of a patrilinear system, Queen Kausalya, Rama's mother asks him whose command is absolute for him, that of his father the king as social law dictates, or of his mother who bore him in her womb and nursed him at her breast (Valmiki,p. 265)? Does the king his father still retain the ability to command his unquestioning obedience even in his senility, servile as he is to his obsessive passion for Kaikeyi? Goldman says of this, "Mother Kausalya thrusts herself into the debate.
She urges Rama not to abandon her and to ignore the unrighteous (adharmya) orders of Kaikeyi. She then seeks to wrest the dharmic high ground from Rama by urging a version of filial piety gendered differently from the one that is motivating her son" (Goldman,p. 25 kidnaps Rama and Lakshman intending to offer them as sacrifice to her but they are rescued by Hanuman. Also in this text appears a unique instance of a woman warrior, the demon Mahi-Ravana's wife taking up arms against her husband's killers with her pregnancy heavy upon her and giving birth in the thick of battle.

Conclusion
By offering the subaltern a voice within an epic tradition that is essentially a glorification of male valor and prowess and a reinstatement of a patriarchal value system, the Medieval Bengali poet Krittivasa therefore corresponds to the tradition of valorization of the feminine in the literature of Bengal through the ages also seen in the Mangal Kavyas, in the Ramayana of Candravati and in the depiction of Radha as a social rebel in Vaisnava poetry. As in the numerous regional and folk variants of the epic, Krittivasa too describes in detail the rituals associated with a woman's life (as in the baromasya form of narration in many oral narratives). These include those associated with puberty, marriage and pregnancy, the issues of a woman's passage from the loving care of the post-natal home to the uncertain domain of the marital, the many alliances and conflicts that build up within the politics of the inner chambers of the palace, all of which reflect the position of women in the society of Bengal of his day. In the process, these women are seen to question and challenge the prevalent social and cultural practices and the peripheries they define, and their voices echo beyond the inner chambers of the home to which they are confined.