MYTHS AND MYTHICAL NARRATIVES BASED ON INDIAN EPICS
THE RAMAYANA AND THE MAHABHARATA: A STUDY THROUGH THE REVISIONIST TEXTS
Noopur Srivastava1, Dr. Payel Dutta Chowdhury2
1 (Research Scholar (Ph.D.), School of Arts & Humanities, REVA University, Bengaluru, India)
2 (Professor & Director, School of Arts & Humanities, REVA University, Bengaluru, India)
Noopur.amk@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Bharat (INDIA) is an elite country with its valuable epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Our country is very prosperous and colorful with its various myths and mythical narratives. They are so scintillating that modern iconic writers are fascinated with the Indian myths and present their work with the usage of various hues of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. These
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In the era of political correctness, the erstwhile colonies demand equal status for the beliefs….In his incarnation as Rama, Vishnu embodies all that is virtuous in Hinduism: discipline, detachment, obedience, selflessness, faithfulness, fairness, poise, and dignity. His story is told in the epic Ramayana. When the epic is treated as a quasi-historical document, Rama loses his mythic power as the symbol of perfection and becomes a mere king. When the epic is seen as literature, Rama becomes a figment of poetic imagination and loses his spiritual splendor. The tension between Rama the historical personality and Rama the sacred symbol has come to the fore in recent times, as Rama has become part of the nationalist Hindu political rhetoric.” (Pattanaik …show more content…
It depends on the mood of the sage or God. Any God or superpower-holder Rishi (Sage) can do this miracle. As reflected in popular mythological tales, curses signify an appeal to some supernatural power to inflict evil on some other person or some group. They are the most undesirable things or situations that one is bound to suffer mostly because of a mistake he or she made or a crime that he or she committed. Seen from this perspective, boon then is just the opposite of curse and it means something extremely useful, helpful, desirable or beneficial – that which is asked for or granted – a benefit, a favor, a gift, a benefaction, or a blessing. Life-changing boons are not simple things; they “…require enough power from the power house of one’s penance…Someone, mostly, sages or gods, become happy because of the penance or good deeds of their devotees and give the boons. When boons are given Gods don’t discriminate….” (Swaminathan 2010)The epic Mahabharataabounds with instances of curses and boons. Interestingly, sometimes, a boon is converted into a curse, and a curse becomes a boon or a blessing in
Siddhartha and Luke Skywalker Hero's Journey Comparison Every hero has a story. Whether it be rescuing the damsel in distress, or saving a quaint town from the destruction of neighboring village, each hero embarks on a specific path. This path is what seemingly separates each individual hero from another, but underneath the surface, the journey each hero embarks on is nearly the same no matter what the circumstance.
The most important way to think about myths is that they are symbolic stories that attempt to answer difficult human questions about the universe. For instance, where did we and the world come from? And what is the meaning of life?. “We all want to know where we came from, but because our earliest beginnings are lost in the mists of prehistory, we have created myths about our forefathers that are not historical but help to explain current attitudes about our environment, neighbors and customs” (6). Myth functions as a guidance that explains everything that we come into contact with in the universe.
A myth is “extra-literary”, meaning that the charm and power of a myth come from its story rather than the words that are used. Lewis explains that the pleasure of a myth does not depend on suspense or knowing the ending of the story. A true myth makes us think of the spiritual realm and reminds us that there is more to life than just ‘us’. The ideas that a myth provides do not fade and are intended to provide an impact long after one knows the story. Lewis explains that we do not “project ourselves at all strongly into the characters”.
Cole and Ortega’s The Thinking Past is a book that covers the history of humans and civilization. Within the book the authors cover the transition of humans from a hunter-gatherer life into a more sedentary life: forming the civilizations we know today. This transition can be witnessed through the character of Enkidu’s in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Enkidu—a glorified forager—is forced into civilization, we watch him transform from a wild beast into a civilized person.
Life will always have its setbacks, but it is those unfortunate circumstances which will build up a human 's character and disposition; “What doesn 't kill you makes you stronger.” - Kelly Clarkson. Roman poet Horace wrote, “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” I completely agree with Horace’s perspective of the way people operate, adversity can be beneficial in the development of a person 's character. Difficult situations can draw out people’s hidden aptitude in which under normal situations they would have remained undercover.
It is reflected in the concept of chastity, a patriarchal value. It is one of the most powerful yet invisible cultural fetters that have enslaved female for ages. There has been enough literature, both oral and written, glorifying this enslaving value and deifying the female characters who observed it faithfully. The Ramayana in which Sita undergoes the fire ordeal to prove her chastity to Rama has been the cultural guide to Indians for more than two thousand years. The ethos of the Indian society does not permit women, to violate the norms of patriarchy in their pre or post-marital phases.