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A common feature shared byall the five panchkanyas is“motherlessness.” The

births of Ahalya, Tara, Mandodariand Draupadi are unnatural; nonehave a mother. Satyavati is born ofan apsara Adrika who is turned intoa fish by a curse. In emerging fromthe elements, Tara, Ahalya,Mandodari and Draupadi resemblethe ocean-born apsaras. We knownothing of Pritha-Kunti’s mother.Motherless Gandhakali-Satyavatiand Pritha are given away by theirfathers Uparichara Vasu and Shurain childhood. Kunti finds no foster-mother and her only succour is anold midwife. Matsyagandha-Satyavati does not even have that.As adolescents, both are left by theirfoster-fathers, the Dasa chief andKuntibhoja, to the mercies of twoeccentric sages and become unwedmothers with no option but to discardtheir first-borns.

If Draupadi had hoped to find hermissing mother in her mother-in-law,she is tragically deceived, as Kuntithrusts her into a polyandrousmarriage that exposes her tosalacious gossip reaching ahorrendous climax in Karna declaringher a whore whose being clothed ornaked is immaterial. As if that werenot enough, Kunti urges her to takespecial care of her fifth husband,Sahadeva, as a mother! No otherwoman has had to face this peculiarpredicament of dealing with fivehusbands now as spouse, then aselder or younger brother-in-law (tobe treated like a father or as a sonrespectively) in an endless cycle.

Draupadi’s motherlessness seemsto be carried forward into her ownlack of maternal feelings. Her fivesons are not even nurtured by her.She sends them to Panchala andfollows her husbands into exile toensure that the wounds of injusticeand insult inflicted upon them andherself remain ever fresh.

Indeed, scholars beginning withBankimchandra over a hundred yearsago, have questioned the very factof her maternity since, unlike theother Pandava progeny—Hidmimba’s Ghatotkacha, Subhadra’sAbhimanyu, Ulupi’s Iravan and

Chitrangada’s Babhruvahana—Draupadi’s five sons are nothing morethan names and might have beeninterpolated. The South IndianDraupadi cult specifically states thather sons were not products of coitusbut were born from drops of bloodthat fell when, in her terrifying Kaliform, her nails pierced Bhima’s hand.1

Draupadi is a sterile Shri, likeJyeshtha or Alakshmi. Hersolitariness as a kanya is stressedexplicitly after the war whenYudhishthira tells Gandhari that thePanchalas are exterminated, leavingonly a kanya as their remainder:“pancalah subhrisham kshinahkanyamatra vasheshitah”.2

Ahalya and Satyavati are also notknown for maternal qualities. Valmikihas not a word to say about themother-son relationship betweenAhalya and Shatananda. Ahalya’sson abandons her and livescomfortably in Janaka’s court,expressing relief that she is finallyacceptable in society followingRama’s visit. Vyasa is abandoned by

In the earlier instalments we have, first, considered the three kanyasof the Ramayana—Ahalya, Tara and Mandodari—followed, in thesecond instalment, by Satyavati who shares many features thatdistinguish her grand daughter-in-law Kunti whose remarkablecharacter and deeds were examined in the third part. In the lastissue we looked at Kunti’s daughter-in-law, Draupadi. In thisconcluding piece we seek to find answers to the question withwhich we began: why are these five women termed ‘Kanyas’“(virgins)” and what is the secret of their being celebrated as havingredemptive qualities.

Living by Their Own NormsUnique Powers of the Panchkanyas

� Pradip Bhattacharya

Ahalya with Ram

Part V: Five Holy Virgins, Five Sacred Myths

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both parents and attributes hissurvival to chance (see issue 143).These kanyas remainquintessentially virgins and, exceptfor Kunti, hardly ever assume thepersona of mother.

This feature of being rejected-and-rejecting-in-turn that is arecurring leit motif with the kanya isnot just of antiquary interest. Itrecurs in one of the most significantexplorations of the Bengali woman’sstruggle to step into the modern ageby experimenting with new ways ofmotherhood: Ashapurna Debi’strilogy Pratham Pratisruti,Subarnalata and Bakul Katha. Theheroine, significantly namedSatyabati, is “abandoned” by herfather who gives her away in child-marriage at the age of eight. Whenshe gives birth to her son, shesimultaneously receives news of hermother’s death. She struggles toeducate her children in a new urbanmilieu of a nuclear family. In herabsence, her daughter Subarna isalso married off at the age of eight.Thereupon Satyabati physicallyturns away from the wedding,abandoning her daughter on thethreshold of motherhood, repeatingthe desertion she herself hadexperienced. The pattern repeatsitself when Subarna, receiving newsof her mother’s death, finds herselfunable to think of her own daughter.It is a patriarchal society’s traditionof enforced motherlessness that thenovels seek to challenge at the costof the heroines being regarded asaberrant mothers. Ashapurna Debiquestions the traditional concept ofmotherhood which confines womanto the role of a biological parent withno hand in shaping the future of thegirl child. This is precisely what wenotice in the case of the five kanyas.3

Theme of LossThe theme of loss is common to

all the five kanyas. Ahalya has noparents, loses both husband and son

and is a social outcast. Kunti losesher parents and then her husbandtwice over (first to Madri and thenwhen he dies in Madri’s arms).Satyavati is abandoned by Parasharaafter he has enjoyed her, loses herhusband Shantanu, both royal sonsand one grandson (Pandu), whileanother is blind and the third cannotbe king because her daughter-in-lawAmbika deceived her and sent in herlow-caste maid to Vyasa. Thekingdom, for which she manoeuvredDevavrata into becoming Bhishma,slips through her fingers like sand.Seeing her great grandchildren ateach other’s throats, she realises thegrim truth of Vyasa’s warning, “thegreen years of the earth are gone”and leaves for the forest, so as not towitness the suicide of her race(I.128.6, 9). Strangely, her son Vyasatells us nothing of her end.

Mandodari loses husband, sons,kith and kin in the great war withRama. Tara loses her husband Bali toRama’s arrow shot from hiding. Bothhave to marry their younger brothers-in-law who are responsible for theirhusbands’ deaths (see issue 141).Draupadi finds her five husbandsdiscarding her repeatedly. Each takes

at least one more wife. She never hasArjuna for herself, as he marriesUlupi, Chitrangada and has Subhadraas his favourite. Yudhishthira pledgesher like chattel at dice. Finally, theyleave her to die alone on themountainside at the mercy of wildbeasts, like a pauper, utterly rikta,drained in every sense.4

In her long poem “Kurukshetra”Amreeta Syam conveys the angst ofPanchali, born unasked for, bereft offather, brothers, sons and her belovedsakha Krishna:

“Draupadi has five husbands—butshe has none—She had five sons—and was never amother…The Pandavas have givenDraupadi…No joy, no sense of victoryNo honour as wifeNo respect as mother —Only the status of a Queen…But they have all goneAnd I’m left with a lifeless jewelAnd an empty crown…my baffled motherhoodWrings its hands and strives toweep.”5

The Unique AhalyaAmong the five, Ahalya remains

unique because of the nature of herdaring and its consequence. Hersingle transgression, for having donewhat her femininity demanded, callsdown an awful curse. Because of herunflinching acceptance of thesentence, both Vishvamitra andValmiki glorify her. Chandra Rajan,another sensitive poet of today,catches the psychological nuances:

“Gautama cursed his impotence andraged…she stood petrifieduncomprehendingin stony silencewithdrawn into the secret caveof her inviolate inner self…she had her sheltersanctuary

Sivadas of Kalamandalam enactingthe role of Draupadi

No.145 32

benedictionwithin, perfect, inviolatein the one-ness of spiritwith rock rain and windwith flowing treeand ripening fruitand seed that falls silentlyin its timeinto the rich dark earth.”6

A very different evocation ofAhalya was done by RabindranathTagore in a lovely poem7:

“What were your dreams, Ahalya,when you passedLong years as stone, rooted in earth,prayerAnd ritual gone, sacred fire extinctIn the dark, abandoned forest-ashram? …Today you shineLike a newly woken princess, calmand pure.You stare amazed at the dawn world.…You gaze; your heart swings backfrom the far past,Traces its lost steps. In a suddenrush,All round, your former knowledge oflife returns…Like firstCreated dawn, you slowly rise fromthe blueSea of forgetfulness. You stareentranced;The world, too, is speechless; faceto faceBeside a sea of mystery none cancrossYou know afresh what you havealways known.”

Symbols of ReselienceNone of these maidens breaks

down in the face of personaltragedy. Each continues to liveout her life with head held high.This is one of the characteristicsthat set the kanya apart from otherwomen.

There is an aspect ofexploitation that we notice in the

agree that, like this passionateheroine of the Mahabharata, millionsof women are publicly humiliated andeven raped as a punishment forchallenging the male will or for‘talking back’ at a man. Many menare known to use violence againstwives merely because they ‘back-answer’!”15 Draupadi made theunforgivable ‘mistake’ of publiclyrefusing to accept Karna as a suitorand of laughing at Duryodhana (ashe laments to his father Dhritarashtra)when he made a fool of himself inIndraprastha’s magical palace,capping this with refusing to obeyDuryodhana’s summons to appear inthe dice-game assembly unless herquestion was answered. She had tobe taught a lesson.

Patriarchal Myth MakingA telling example of patriarchal re-

writing occurs in Kashiram Das’ early18th century version of the epic inBengali rhyme.16 During the forestexile Draupadi prides herself on herfame as a sati exceeding that of anyruler. Krishna crushes her pride bycreating an unseasonal mango thatshe craves for and has Arjuna pluckfor her. Krishna warns that this is theonly food of a terrible ascetic, whoseanger will turn all of them into ashes,and that only if they confess theirsecret desires will the mango be re-fixed to its branch. The mango almosttouches the tree as the brothers statewhat obsesses each of them, but fallsdown when Draupadi states thatrevenge is her sole desire. Arjuna

threatens to kill her, and then shehas to confess that having Karnaas her sixth husband has been hersecret wish. Bhima—herinvariable rescuer—upbraids herunmercifully for her evil nature.

Here we have evidence of amale backlash expressed throughinventive myth-making. Thisattitude is well reflected in a reportin the newspaper The Hindu of adiscourse by a lady, Jaya

ways the kanyas are treated. Sugrivahides behind Tara and uses her tocalm the raging Lakshmana.Kuntibhoja uses Kunti to pleaseDurvasa. Draupadi is used first byDrupada to take revenge on Dronaby securing the alliance of thePandavas, and then by Kunti and thePandavas to win their kingdom thriceover (through marriage; in the firstdice game; and as their incessantgoad on the path to victory).8

Unknown to her, even sakha Krishnathrows her in as the ultimatetemptation in Karna’s way, assuringhim that Draupadi will come to him inthe sixth part of the day, shashthe catam tatha kaledraupadyupagamisyati.9 This isfollowed by Kunti urging Karna toenjoy (bhunkshva) Yudhishthira’sShri (another name for Draupadi) thatwas acquired by Arjuna.10 There isan unmistakable harking back toKunti’s command to her sons toenjoy (bhunkteti) what they hadbrought together when Bhima andArjuna had announced their arrivalwith Draupadi as alms. No wonderDraupadi laments that she has noneto call her own, when even her sakhaunhesitatingly uses her as bait! Wecannot but agree with Naomi Wolf’scondemnation of masculine culture’sefforts to “punish the slut” in oneway or another, the sexuallyindependent woman who crosses theambiguous lakshmana-rekhaseparating “good” from “bad”.11

Vimla Patil, editor of Femina,writes, “Most Indian women would

Tara in stone carving from Kurudmale temple

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Srinivasan, echoing the patriarchalresponse12:

“It is indeed extremely difficult tocontrol the mind as reflected in allscriptural texts. Even sensoryorgans may be kept quiet for sometime, but not the mind. It is in thisbackground that the Ahalyaepisode in the Ramayana shouldbe viewed. Born in a family ofculture and having married a sageof distinction, her mind faltered fora moment and she committed agrave sin and incurred a curse.Why should she commit thismistake? There lie the lessons forothers. However on expressing herregret over the fault, the curse waslifted when the dust particles fromthe feet of Rama fell on her. Themessage from her life gives usgreat hope to secure His grace ifonly we hold on to the feet of theLord… What Ahalya did wasunpardonable and Sage Gautama,naturally enraged at hermisconduct, condemned her.”(Emphasis in the original)

Cults of DraupadiThere is, however, a feature that

sets Draupadi quite apart from herfellow kanyas. Between the 12th and15th centuries she became the centralfigure in a number of bardic epics.Draupadi is the only kanya to whoma living cult is dedicated, withtemples dotting the Gingee-Pondicherry area of Tamil Nadu andstreet plays held annually celebratingher greatness. By reincarnating asBela in the Rajasthani Alha, andsubsequently as Yakajoti, the Rani ofRaja Desing in the south, shecompletes her cycle of seven birthsas sati. In Yakajoti’s story, Hiltebeitelpoints out, we encounter war criesinvoking Allah, Hari and Govindaalong with wedding chants calling onAllah and Radha, showing theHindu-Islamic syncretism that haddeveloped by then. These oral epicscelebrate Dalit and Muslim

protectors of the protagonists, givinga new currency to the Sanskrit epiclore.13

Intriguingly, where the so-called“Dravidian” political backlashagainst “Aryan” hegemony targetedtraditional icons like Rama and Sitaand even burnt copies of theRamayana, not a word was said orwritten against Draupadi and hertemples. Analysing the reasons, theeminent scholar Dr. PremaNandakumar draws a perceptivedistinction between the two greatepic heroines:

“Sita is the patient compassionatemother whose fire remains veiledby her soft approach, but Draupadiis quite different. Whereas Sita isgenerally associated with theupper caste (Aryan) hegemony,Draupadi has always been thegoddess of the common people. Arecent parallel would be the wayMeera’s bhajans are sung by themarginalized and lower castes inRajasthan. The Dropadai AmmanFestivals are quite well known andthere are night-long dramas (theru-koothu) on the Mahabharata. Thepolitical leaders knew this social

reality, I think, so they did not dareto say anything against her or burnthe Mahabharata or write nastilyabout her. For the marginalizedwould have protested in a bigway…Even after becominglegends, it is Draupadi who remainsa threat to the political animal andso he will not touch even the fringeof her pallu, as he knows whathappened when Duhshasana roseto disrobe Draupadi! Not so Sita. Either the legend will not fight backor it is so compassionate thepolitical animal can get away withits desecration and be forgiventoo.”19

Contrast with SitaCuriously, it is women scholars

who cannot seem to agree on this.This insight from a Tamil scholar iscontradicted by Dr. Nabaneeta DevSen from Bengal. Studying the folksongs of Telugu, Tamil, Maithili andBengali on Sita, she states,

“No, a revengeful woman cannotwin…Draupadi is too dramatic tobe a role model for the weak andthe exploited. Women cannotidentify with Draupadi, with all herfive husbands, and with LordKrishna for a personal friend. Withher unconventional lifestyle andthirst for vengeance, Draupadiinspires awe. Sita is a figure closerhome…she is not part of theelite…she laments but does notchallenge Rama in the songs…Sitais the one with infinite forbearanceand thus a winner even when sheloses.”20

Dev Sen appears to be ignorantof the popularity of the Mahabharatastreet plays, theru-koothu, and theDraupadi Cult celebrated exclusivelyby villagers. And, as Dr. PremaNandakumar points out aproposDraupadi being too dramatic:

“any woman whom a huge hulk ofa fellow tries to disrobe in publicwhile the entire Pandava-Kaurava‘heroes’ look on (perhaps

Kichaka and Draupadi: Ravi Varma

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leeringly?) doing nothing willscream throughout her life and willnot speak in ambassadorialaccents across the table. The realtruth about the matter is that weare both (Sita and Draupadi), weneed both, we identify with bothas the circumstances demand ofus.”21

Draupadi is also the only kanyato have become a symbol of theoppressed and grossly humiliatedIndian nation. While watching anight long street play in the DraupadiAmman Festival,the great Tamil poetSubramania Bharati was struck by thepowerful appeal she had for commonfolk and penned an epyllion,Draupadi Sapatham (“Draupadi’sVow”) depicting her as the wrongedprincess, the nation-in-shackles, asymbol of perfect surrender to theDivine and the representative ofwomanhood subjugated formillennia.22

An outstanding instance of howDraupadi’s character speakspowerfully to oppressed womanhoodtoday is vividly brought alive inMahasweta Devi’s remarkable shortstory, “Dopdi” in which this name isgiven to a tribal woman who refusesto succumb despite gang-rape andtorture.

The Cross of LonlinessThe kanya, despite having

husband and children, remains aloneto the last. This is the loneliness atthe top that great leaders bear as theircross. The absence of a mother’snurturing, love, a mother who modelsand hands down tradition, leaves thekanya free to experiment, unboundby shackles of taught norms, tomould herself according to her innerlight, to express and fulfil herfemininity, achieving self-actualisation on her own terms. Oneis tempted to use a modern cliché todescribe her: a woman of substance.23

An invaluable insight into what is sovery special in being a woman—

virgin, wife and mother—is found inwhat an Abyssinian woman toldFrobenius. In her words we find thereason for our kanyas remaining suchan enigma to men throughout theages:

“How can a man know what awoman’s life is?…He is the samebefore he has sought out a womanfor the first time and afterwards. Butthe day when a woman enjoys herfirst love cuts her in two…The manspends a night by a woman and goesaway. His life and body are alwaysthe same…He does not know thedifference before love and after love,before motherhood and aftermotherhood…Only a woman canknow that and speak of that. That is

why we won’t be told what to do byour husbands. A woman can only doone thing…She must always be asher nature is. She must always bemaiden and always be mother. Beforeevery love she is a maiden, after everylove she is a mother.”24 (emphasismine)

We have only to recall theencounters of Surya, Dharma, Vayu,Indra and Pandu with Kunti, ofParashara and Shantanu withGandhakali, of Draupadi with herhusbands, of Ulupi with Arjuna, ofIndra with Ahalya, to realise theprofundity of this utterance.

Autonomy Inspires AweC.G. Jung, while discussing the

phenomenon of the maiden describesher “as not altogether human in theusual sense; she is either ofunknown or peculiar origin, or shelooks strange or undergoes strangeexperiences”.25 This fits the kanyasas a group. So long as a woman iscontent to be just a man’s woman,she is devoid of individuality andacts as a willing vessel for masculineprojections. On the other hand, themaiden uses the Anima of man to gainher natural ends (Bernard Shawcalled it the Life Force). Amply dowe see in the cases of these maidensthat, “The Anima lives beyond allcategories, and can therefore

Ganga with Shantanu

Draupadi being kicked by Kichaka in Virata’s court : painting by Ravi Varma

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dispense with blame as well as withpraise.”14 The Anima is characterisedby “a secret knowledge, a hiddenwisdom…something like a hiddenpurpose, a superior knowledge of life’laws”15 which we see in this group ofepic women. That is why Shantanu,Bhishma, Dhritarashtra, Pandu, theKaunteyas, Sugriva can never quitecome to grips with Satyavati, Kunti,Draupadi and Tara and are ever in aweof them.

Each kanya’s unique feature is thatshe, as much as the sati, has the powerto pronounce a curse. Devayanicurses Kacha that he will be unable touse the mantra he has learnt from herfather Shukracharya by her favour.Urvashi curses Arjuna to lose hisvirility because he refuses to respondto her advances. Rambha, anotherapsara, curses Ravana with deathshould he rape any female in future.Vedavati curses Ravana that she willbe the cause of his death. Amba turnsherself into Bhishma’s nemesis.Ganga, turned down by Pratipa,enchants his son Shantanu:

“He stood there,Entranced,All his bodyIn horripilation.With both eyesHe drank in her beautyAnd wantedTo drink more.”17

Jung pinpoints thedesymbolised world we live innow, in which man struggles torelate to his Anima “outside”himself by projecting her onnumerous women although,paradoxically, she is the psychewithin that he must communewith. That, perhaps, is themessage hidden behind the hintto keep ever fresh the memory ofthe five maidens so that webecome conscious of the Anima-projection.

Sati Versus ShaktiIn this context, the mystic and

poet Nolini Kanta Gupta’s study ofthese maidens tallies quite remarkablywith the Jungian insight into themeaning of being a virgin. He pointsout, “In these five maidens we get ahint or a shade of the truth that womanis not merely sati but predominantlyand fundamentally she is Shakti”.18

He notes how the epics had to labourat establishing their greatness in theteeth of the prejudice that woman mustnever be independent, but always bea sati, known for her absolute,unquestioning devotion to herhusband. This he describes as thesubjugation of Prakriti to Purusha,typical of the Middle Ages. The mostancient relationship, he says, was theconverse: Shiva under the feet of hisgoddess-consort.

In the Mahabharata we findconfirmation of this paradigm shift. Inthe course of his pilgrimage, Balaramacomes to the Plaksha Prasravanateertha where a brahmacharini, acelibate female ascetic, obtained thehighest heaven and the supreme yogaas well as the fruit of a horse sacrifice.

However, Balarama also visits theVriddhakanya teertha celebrated foran old spinster who had to learn that,unless she married she could not, as amere brahmacharini, attain heaven!19

The Age of FreedomIn Mahabharata, we find

evidence of the freedom enjoyed bywomen in the past. In the Adi ParvaPandu tells Kunti:

“in the past, womenwere not restricted to the house,dependent on family members;they moved about freely,they enjoyed themselves freely.They slept with any men they likedfrom the age of puberty;they were unfaithful to theirhusbands,and yet not held sinful…the greatest rishis have praisedthis tradition-based custom;…the northern Kurus still practise it…the new custom is very recent.”20

Pandu narrates the story ofUddalaka explaining to his outragedson Shvetaketu, when a Brahmin takeshis mother away in their presence,

“This is the Sanatana Dharma.All women of the four castesare free to have relationswith any man. And the men,well, they are like bulls.”21

Ulupi and Urvashi’sbehaviour with Arjuna andGanga’s with Pratipa andShantanu—all approaching themen with frank sexualdemands—are instances of thetype of freedom characterisingthe kanya’s nature. In thesekanyas, we find the validation ofNaomi Wolf ’s celebration ofwomen as “sexually powerfulmagical beings”.22 By the time ofPandu, however, the Aryanssettled around the Sarasvati-Yamuna region had startedlooking down upon theirNorthern brethren and evenclassed them—such as the

Draupdi with Sairandhri

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Madras—with Mlecchas, non-Aryans. When Karna lashes back atShalya for abusing him, he criticisesthe loose morals of Madra womenbecause they enjoy themselves withfish, beef and wine, express theiremotions uninhibitedly and mix freelywith men.23

Mode of ElementsOne interpretation of why the

epithet kanya is applied to thesewomen is because they were notengendered in the usual way “butwere created from various elementswhich compose the universe therebyestablishing that their sanctity andchastity is not bound by physicalbodies…Ahalya, Sita, Draupadi, Taraand Mandodari are the epitome ofchastity and purity but werepunished for no fault of theirs. Giventhe precarious situations they werein, these women still came outunscathed and set examples of beingideal women.”24 Vimla Patil, formereditor of Femina, links each kanyato one of the elements:

“Are you an ‘earth’ woman? Doyou feel an affinity to the elementof ‘fire’ because of your passionatenature? Do you flow serenelythrough life like “water’? Is yourspirit free and elusive like the‘wind’? Or do you dream of beinglight as air and vast like ‘space’?As an Indian woman, it is likely thatyou have a little of all theseelements in you and that youcombine all qualities of the fiveelements. If this is so, you shouldnot be surprised, for…all Indianwomen carry the legacy of theiricons, the most celebratedpanchkanyas of mythology …Infact, the five women have such apowerful hold over the hearts ofmillions of Indians that they arecalled the panchkanyas (fivewomen) whose very names ensuresalvation and freedom from all evil.It is not uncommon for devoutHindus to recite their names each

morning in a Sanskrit shloka toremind them of the power theysymbolised because of their spiritualstrength…in truth, every Indianwoman has shades of all thepanchkanyas within her soul!”25

This is a modern restatement of atraditional belief that is part of theMahari dance tradition in which theOriya verse goes:26

Pancha bhuta khiti op tejo marutabyomoPancha sati nirjyasa gyani bodhogomyoAhalya Draupadi Kunti TaraMandodari tothaPancha kanya...Five elements, earth, water, fire, wind,etherAre in essence the five satis. This thewise knowAhalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara andMandodariFive virgins…

Ahalya personifies water,Draupadi represents fire, Kuntisymbolises mother earth, Tarapersonifies wind and Mandodariether. However, Dr.Ratna Roy, leadingexponent of the Panchakanya Maharidance, feels that this equation of eachelement representing one of thesewomen cannot be substantiated. Forher the emphasis is on the purity ofthese women because they did notbreak any humanistic codes, only the

strictures of their orthodox patriarchalsociety that undermines women suchas the Maharis.27

On the other hand, for Vimla PatilDraupadi’s personality personifiesfire, while Sita (whom sheincongruously includes in the groupinstead of Kunti) is the daughter ofthe earth. Ahalya “for her forbearanceis likened to the freshness and activenature of the wind”; Tara (all the threewomen of that name, that is,Harishchandra’s queen, Vali’s wifeand Brihaspati’s wife who isChandra’s beloved) is associated“with space and has the quality ofintelligence, compassion and large-heartedness”; Mandodari “with theelement of water, turbulent on thesurface yet deep and silent in herspiritual quest.” Pointing out that thePancha Kanya are living role modelsfor Indian women, she writes,

“Like their icons, they have dualpersonalities. They are bound bythe strictest norms of society, on theone hand; yet, on the other hand,they are left free to prolifically usethe chinks in the armour of socialand traditional laws made by astaunchly male-oriented peckingorder. Within the scope of socialboundaries, they can still expresstheir personalities and design theirown life-graphs…The life-graph ofeach of these women is somehowreplicated in the lives of millions ofIndian women even today... Thepanchkanya theme has inspiredIndian women for eons… MostIndian women believe that theytolerate and accept the worst kindof injustice like Sita and remainsteadfast in their duty and devotionto their husbands and families. Yet,surprisingly, like Draupadi, they alsohide storms of anguish anger andrevenge in their hearts. They believethat the curse of a virtuous, strongwoman can ruin the most powerfulof men. Like Mandodari, they live alife of duality, with the turbulence

Queen Draupadi by Aditi

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of varied experiences on the surfaceand a deep, silent core in their souls,where wisdom originates. LikeMandodari, they have an inherentgift of distinguishing between rightand wrong. In a crisis, they knowhow to insist on doing what theyconsider right. Like Ahilya, (sic.)they have a dormant power burieddeep down in their psyches. Theyhave the strength to move like thewind and the compassion to forgivewrongs done to them. Like Tara,they seek a special lustre of theirown. They seek a sacred place—which is their right—in the vastnessof space. From this niche, theyspread their compassion andtenderness. It is for every womanto study the life-graphs andpersonalities of the panchkanyasand decide which element theyempathise with.”28

Attempts at SanitisationNolini Kanta Gupta makes an

extremely perceptive comment on howthe patriarchal system has sought tosanitise the kanyas’ dangerousindependence by projecting them assatis instead:

“We moderns also, instead oflooking upon the five maidens asmaidens, have tried with somemanipulation to remember them assati. We cannot easily admit that therewas or could be any other standard ofwoman’s greatness besidechastity…Their souls did neitheraccept the human idea of that time orthereafter as unique, nor admit thedharma-adharma of human ethics asthe absolute provision of life. Theirbeings were glorified with a greaterand higher capacity. Matrimonialsincerity or adultery became irrelevantin that glory…Woman will take resortto man not for chastity but for thetouch and manifestation of the gods,to have offspring born under divineinfluence… a person used to followthe law of one’s own being, one’s ownpath of truth and establish a freer and

wider relation with another.”29

It is the ability to distinguish themasculine power of logos, the powerof words, of thought, of will and ofacting in the outside world, that makesthe kanyas so significant to womentoday. From their lives we can learnhow to integrate successfully themasculine in the feminine, without oneoverwhelming the other. Each of themis a telling example of this, perhapsKunti most of all. We have seen it inher ability to take the toughestdecisions, her using the story ofVidula, her building a specialrelationship with Vidura and, aboveall, in her farewell, “calm of mind, allpassion spent” for, “The Animuspower…makes possible thedevelopment of a spiritual attitudewhich sets us free from the limitationand imprisonment of narrowlypersonal standpoint.”30

Emma Jung sums up the crucialimportance of integrating the feminineand the masculine that the five kanyasrepresent uniquely: “In our time, whensuch threatening forces of cleavage areat work, splitting peoples, individuals,and atoms, it is doubly necessary thatthose which unite and hold togethershould become effective; for life isfounded on the harmonious interplayof masculine and feminine forces,within the individual human being aswell as without.”31 That is why theexhortation to recall the five virginmaidens is so relevant now. The pastdoes indeed hold the future in its womb. �

Endnotes1 A. Hiltebeitel Cult of Draupadi, Universityof Chicago Press, 1988, vol. I, p. 293.2 Mahabharata, 15.44.32.3Indira Chowdhury: “RethinkingMotherhood, Reclaiming a Politics”,Economic & Political Weekly, XXXIII.44,31.10.1998, pp. WS-47 to 52.4 Shaonli Mitra has Bhima come up to herat the end and ask, “Are you in much pain,Panchali?” She answers, “In the next birth,be mine alone, Bhima, so that I may rest alittle, my head in your lap.” NathabotiAnathabot M.C. Sirkar & Sons, Calcutta,1990, p.69.

5 Amreeta Syam: Kurukshetra (WritersWorkshop, Calcutta, 1991, pp. 38-9).Other notable interpretations of Draupadi’slot are Dr. Pratibha Ray’s Oriya novelYajnaseni(Englished by PradipBhattacharya, Rupa, 1995), Dr. ChitraChaturvedi’s Hindi novel Mahabharati(Jnanpith Prakashan, 1986) and Dr. DipakChandra’s Bengali novel DraupadiChirontoni (Dey Books, Kolkata).6 Chandra Rajan: Re-visions (WritersWorkshop, Calcutta, 1987, p. 12).7 Ahalya http://www.kundu.u-net.com/radice1.htm by Rabindranath Tagoretranslated by William Radice.8 The Bengali tele-serial Draupadi dwells uponthis issue.9 Udyoga Parva, 134.16 (pointed out by Dr.Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri in “Draupadi”,Barttaman, annual number1396 B.S.).10 ibid. 135.8.11 Naomi Wolf, best-selling feminist authorand advisor to the American President andVice-President, in Promiscuities quoted inTIME, 8.11.1999, p. 25.12 The Hindu(www.hinduonnet.com/2002/09/30/stories/2002093003240900.htm)Sept. 30, 2003.13 Alf Hiltebeitel: Rethinking India’s Oraland Classical Epics University of ChicagoPress, 1999.14 C.G. Jung: The Archetypes and theCollective Unconscious, Routledge, p. 28-29.15 ibid. p. 31.16 http://www.iskcon.org/gallery/002/006.htm painting by Puskar Das (MatthewGoldman)17 Ibid. 1.97.28.18 Mother India, June 1995, pp. 439-443.19 Mahabharata IX.53.4-8 and 50.51-24quoted in A. Hiltebeitel, Rethinking theMahabharata, University of Chicago Press,2001, p.145.20 Mahabharata 1.122.4-8.21 Ibid.1.122.13-14.22 Gupta op.cit.23 Mahabharata, Karna Parva, 26-28, 37 42:“Women mix freely with men known andunknown…They eat fish, beef, drink wine,cry, laugh, sing and talk wildly and indulgein promiscuity.”24 Deccan Herald, 27.4.2003, “Panchakanyaballet today” referring to danseuse VaniGanapathy’s performance.25 The Tribune online edition 27.10.2002,www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20021027/herworld.htm#126 Dr. Ratna Roy, personal communication.27 Personal communication. Also seew w w . o l y w a . n e t / r a t n a - d a v i dpanchakanya.htm28 Vimla Patil op.cit.29 Gupta op.cit.30 Ibid. p.40.31 ibid. �