Abstract:

Myths have always been taken as paradigms of social construction as these are used to delineate gender relations in the light of the socio-cultural scenario of the Indian family structure. A myth is a story that usually passes through from one generation to another in the form of a verbal anecdote. The hegemony of male discourse is enforced to establish man’s superiority over woman across ages and myths do take a subtle role to play in the perception behind it. Indian writers have incorporated mythical elements into their respective works to uphold various aspects of cultural conventions and traditional beliefs. In ‘The Thousand Faces of Night', Githa Hariharan blends mythical folklores to the main plot to posit the practice of both female subordination and self- realization of the protagonist, Devi. In this paper, an attempt has been made to interrogate the relevance of myths in a novel of post-colonial epoch and also it aims to explore the comprehension of the central character Devi's journey towards self-discovery. The paper analyses how Devi takes the final call of her life after getting inspired by the avenging deities as depicted in the great epics i.e., the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The comprehensive use of myths is conducive to understanding Devi's decision-making process after her subjugation in the patriarchal social structure.

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India is a country of diverse cultures and traditions that have been presented in literary works of Indian authors through an assortment of techniques. Sporadically, Indian writers have delved deep into the age-old traditions of Indian myths, folklores, fables, and so on. In this novel, Githa Hariharan critiques the position of women across different ages through the deft use of myths. During the post-independence era, a cluster of women writers started writing about women who are confined in the enclosed domestic sphere. Githa Hariharan is a writer of much critical acclaim who talks about feminine subjectivity and their prescribed role as decreed by a male-dominated society. Hariharan parallels the tales of mythical women to the lives of real characters in the novel and in this way she can aver the strong message of women’s emancipation to all the readers. While Devi's grandmother used to tell stories from great epics such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Devi's father-in-law preached tales from Sanskrit literature about the duties of an ideal wife and daughter-in-law.

The novel narrates the tale of three women of three successive generations who become the victims of oppression under the brutal wheels of patriarchal hegemonic discourse. The women characters i.e., Devi, Sita, and Mayamma- all face the same humiliations about their identities and self-assertions. Their reactions vary based on their sensibilities and inner strengths. Mayamma cannot do anything but to endure all the sufferings without uttering a single word. Sita opts for the role of a traditional Indian housewife sacrificing all her desires and passions. Devi decides to take a strong stand which would assert her individuality amidst all odds in life. Devi used to listen to the mythical tales from her grandmother in her childhood. Thus, the perfect blending of myths to reality creates an ingenious way of post coloniality.

At the beginning of the novel, Devi comes back to her hometown Madras after completing her post-graduation in the US. She comes back to be with her mother because her 'Amma's letters brought with them an unspoken message of loneliness, poignant in its quiet dignity’ (16). Like a good mother, Sita arranges for a swayamvara for her. So Devi faces the terrible system of arranged marriage scenario which most of the girls of traditional Indian society go through. In this context, Devi is reminded of the tale of princess Damayanti's ‘swayamvara’ which was told to her by her grandmother. Damayanti chose Nala, the Prince of Nishadas over all the kings. She could identify King Nala amidst the chaos created by the other kings. She made up her mind that she would garland King Nala long ago. But she had to pretend that she had selected King Nala based on the skills which the kings displayed at that time. So Devi asked, “But why did she pretend to listen to the other kings?” (20) Her grandmother replies, “Because a woman gets her heart's desire by great cunning” (20).

Here it is to be noted that Damayanti did get the man of her choice only by pretending that she did not recognize him earlier. Devi also makes it a point that she too will have to take the path of subtleness to achieve something unconventional. Devi draws an analogy between Amba, the princess, and her cousin Uma's real life. Uma is married off to a drunken man, who along with his lecherous father, misbehaves with her. The torture goes to such a limit that she is forced to leave the house. Paralleling this reality, Devi is reminded of the mythical tale of princess Amba.The three princesses Amba, Ambika and Ambalika were abducted by Bheesma for his brother Vichitravirya. Later, Bheesma came to know that Amba was secretly engaged to Salva, King of Saubala. So he sent her back to King Salva, but Salva refused to accept her as her wife. On being asked the reason for his rejection, he said, “Do you think I feast on leftovers? I am a king. I do not touch what another man has won in battle. Go to Bheesma. He won you when his arrow struck my eager hands on your luckless garland. He is your husband. What have you to do with me?” (37). Being rejected, Amba asked Bheesma to marry her only to be snubbed by him. Amba could not go back to her father's house because “A woman without a husband has no home” (38). As a result of this humiliation, Amba took a vow to avenge Bheesma and was reborn as Shikandi to King Drupada. Finally, she attained her much-awaited revenge on Bheesma in the battle of Kurukshetra.

Though there is an affinity between the lives of Amba and Uma, the latter does not have the strength to take revenge on her tormentors. Instead, she comes back home leaving her in-laws' house forever. These kinds of mythical stories leave a lasting impression on Devi's mind. Through the help of these myths and her imaginative power, Devi begins to imagine herself as a woman who has tremendous physical strength and extreme vigour. She feels that she is no less than a goddess who can destroy all evil forces prevailing in the world. This idea is apparent when she says, “I lived a secret life of my own: I became a woman warrior, a heroine. I was Devi. I rode a tiger, cut off evil, magical demons' heads” (41).

The reference of Gandhari to Devi's mother, Sita life is yet another facet mingling the myth and reality. In childhood, during her stay at her grandmother's house, Devi finds a photograph of Sita holding a Veena. She is quite surprised because she does not know this aspect of her mother's nature. Her grandmother starts explaining this fact by saying, “Listen; listen and you will learn what it is to be a real woman” (28). She tells Devi the tale of Gandhari. No sooner did Gandhari get to know about her husband's blindness, than she tore off her piece of cloth and blindfolded herself for her entire life. She took a vow that she would never see the world again. This act is considered a sacrifice on the part of Gandhari until today. She is regarded as the epitome of sacrificing and devoted wife. But Devi's grandmother thinks that she did it out of anger and pride. She sacrificed her vision as a penance for being married to a blind man. Similarly, Sita relinquished her passion of playing Veena when her father-in-law scolded her for neglecting some of the household chores. Devi's grandmother says, “Sita hung her head over the Veena for a minute that seemed to stretch for ages, enveloping us in unbearable silence. Then she reached for the strings of her precious Veena and pulled them out of the wooden base. They came apart with a discordant twang of protest” (30).

Sita wants to mould herself in the role of a dedicated housewife by sacrificing all her desires for the welfare of her family. The similarity between Gandhari and Sita's character is that both the characters do not utter a single word of indignation but aver their disapprobation in their preferred way. Devi's grandmother wants Devi to comprehend the true essence of being a woman. She accomplishes the concept of real womanhood.

Devi's grandmother narrates the story of a beautiful woman who got married to a snake and she did it out of her own choice. The purpose of telling this story is to establish a link between the individual choice of the mythical woman and her maidservant Gauri's way of living life independently. Gauri takes a decision on her own which does not depend on the conventional rules of traditional society. In the mythical tale, the beautiful woman agreed to marry the “venom-tongued snake” (33). No one in the family forced her to take such a drastic step. She said, “A girl is given only once in marriage” (33). She became a devoted wife to the snake offering him all the pleasures and to her surprise, one fine morning, the snake turned into a young and handsome man. In Gauri's case, she leaves her bestial husband and elopes with her brother-in-law. She finds her happiness by breaking the barriers of conventional society. Sometimes, women do get an opportunity to make a difference in life which they should opt for. If they do not take a bold step towards their own subjectivity at one point of time in life, nothing would change, and they would be immersed in the darkness forever. This idea is well expressed through the delineation of this story.

Devi’s grandmother tells her another mythical story which would be conducive in understanding motherhood and its implications in the life of women as a whole. While walking beside the bank of Ganges, King Shantanu came across the beautiful lady, Ganga. He immediately fell in love with her and gave her the proposal to marry him. Ganga agreed to marry him but she put forth a condition that King Shantanu could never question her about anything. The king accepted it and they got married. To his utter surprise, King Shantanu saw that Ganga killed seven children by drowning in the river, but he could not prevent her from doing so because of the vows which he took at the time of their marriage. When Ganga was about to kill her eighth child, King Shantanu could not help but to prevent her from drowning the child. Ganga left him by saying, “Then take him, take him and be father and mother to him. I shall not free him from life” (88). Thus, she punished the king for breaking the promise by deserting him along with the child. Devi reminds this story when she is about to decide to become a mother immediately after marriage.

Devi gets married to Mahesh, a regional manager in a multinational company, who remains busy in his business tours most of the time. Gradually, Devi feels extreme loneliness and alienation from her married life. Her sudden exit from carefree American life, marriage to a stranger, her husband's long absence from home, and her utter uselessness in the house make her feel dejected and frustrated. Devi seems to have some comfort in the companionship of father-in-law and his tales from classical language. In the new house on Jacaranda Road, Devi tries to find solace in the stories taken from Sanskrit literature. She expresses her desire to learn Sanskrit only to understand Baba's quotations better. But this urge is severely rejected by Mahesh which puts Devi in severe depression.

Mahesh does not possess the sensibility to understand the desires and needs of a woman like Devi. In traditional male chauvinistic society, marriage is just like a necessity like any other thing. Mahesh too believes in the same old conventional societal structure. All Devi wants from Mahesh is his time and companionship but she does not get any. When she requests Mahesh to postpone his upcoming business trip, her plea is harshly reprimanded by him. ‘Why don’t I pray to be born a woman in my next birth', he says. Further, he adds, “Then I won't have to make a living at all” (54).

It flabbergasts Devi when she learns this kind of rude and disrespectful enunciation from Mahesh. She is shocked to find how Mahesh could easily berate her so blatantly. This kind of behavioural pattern poses an obstacle in their relationship paving its way for further estrangement. Devi's emotional emptiness in her conjugal life knows no bounds. Devi feels that she is no longer able to bear the drudgery of her married life anymore. Devi tries to take the gear of her life when she expresses her desire to work as a research assistant but this endeavour to assert her individuality gets completely rejected by Mahesh. He does not hesitate to say, “You need at least one more degree for that,’ he adds again, “And what will you do when the baby comes?” (65). In traditional Indian society, motherhood is considered to be the sole purpose of a woman’s existence. She cannot prioritize her work or career over motherhood. In these challenging times, Devi finds some solace in the companionship of her father-in-law and his stories. He thinks that a woman should serve her husband with complete dedication. According to him, this is the only way to attain salvation which would help her to reach heaven and a woman should have all the qualities to be a perfect housewife.

Devi's father-in-law's stories of Jeyadeva, Purandara Dasa, and Narayana Tirtha provide psychological insight to her. The main objective behind these stories of Baba is to reflect the message that women should limit their possibilities to the domestic sphere only. He believes that women should adjust themselves and endure all the hardships for the sake of her family. Hariharan's women face a dilemma between tradition and modernity which constructs substantial obstacles in their way of finding self-identity. Both the grandmother's and father-in-law’s stories inculcate a certain kind of empathy in Devi. She begins to relate herself with all the mythical women as narrated to her. The companionship of her Baba is snatched away from her when a Baba goes off to New York to stay with his daughter. Devi feels helpless and unable to cope with “this yawning emptiness” (68). While battling with severe loneliness in her married life, Devi is reminded of the image of Kritya in her inner psyche. She bears bitter feelings of resentment towards her meaningless married life.

Hariharan portrays another side of exploitation of women through the delineation of Mayamma's character. Devi meets her for the first time when she comes to her in-laws' house after marriage. She embodies the first generation of women's representation where she has no option but to tolerate the atrocities thrust on her. Mayamma faces torture not only by her mother-in-law but also by her gambler husband. She has to tolerate extreme humiliation for being a barren woman. After several years of suffering, she gives birth to a son who turns out to be the replica of his worthless father. When her son dies, 'She wept for her youth, her husband, the culmination of a life's handiwork: now all these had been snatched from her' (82). She gets rid of her tormentors after several years and finds shelter in Parvatiamma' i.e., Devi's mother-in-law’s home. Devi comes to know about her mother-in-law, Parvatiamma's choice of leaving home in search of spiritual enlightenment.

In the novel, later Devi realises that she is not able to produce children and she attributes this to herloveless marriage with Mahesh. A feeling of revenge circumscribes Devi which forces her to think in a new light. Mahesh has always neglected her desires. He has refused to accept her individuality each time she has tried to assert her self-worth. So she can easily avenge the humiliation she has faced for his attributes towards her. Devi decides to leave Mahesh for Gopal, a classical singer in her neighbourhood. She finds hope in Gopal that she will find herself individually in this relationship. Unfortunately, she gets disenchanted with Gopal's true nature soon. She realizes that she would remain nonentity to all the men in her life. Gopal loves to engross himself in his musical career leaving no emotional space for Devi to survive. Her ordeal in the eternal quest for love and care endsand she takes the final call to start living all by herself. In her own words, “Devi knew the time was right; if she did not act now, she would be forever condemned to drift between worlds, a floating island detached from the solidity of the mainland”(138).

Devi consolidates her thoughts that she will no longer share her emotional space with her male counterparts and attempts to restart her life along with her mother. When she comes back home at the end of the novel, she hears ‘the faint sounds of a Veena, hesitant and childlike, inviting her into the house' (139). Devi is successful in subverting the hegemonic patriarchal societal norms and makes her path to attain salvation. Hariharan has addressed several issues about gender discrimination by exploring her women characters’ quest for freedom of expression. It is important to note that Sita in the Ramayana also comes back to her mother earth. Likewise, Devi too takes the first step towards her emancipation by coming back to her mother. Sita too searches for her inner self by returning to her passion for playing Veena. Thus, both mother and daughter take refuge in each other’s company after their respective ordeal in their pursuit of achieving the ideal. Vijayasree substantiates this aspect,

The mothers of Devi’s rebirth are, thus, manifold. Besides her mentors, there are many other women whose lives offer new and useful lessons to Devi. She draws on her biological matrilineage as well as spiritual and mythical heritage. The invisible energies of the ancient goddesses – Devi, Kali, and Saraswati among others- as well as genetic inheritance from all women who lived in the past ages and experiential wisdom of her own contemporaries- all these contribute to the eventual psycho-spiritual growth of the protagonist’ (181).

Women are made to believe that ideal womanhood is respected in high esteem by society at large. Years of suppression and humiliation are shrouded under the guise of sacrifice. It is high time that women should recognize their potential and exert their powers to demonstrate self-assertion. The novel delves deep into the inner psyche of women. The archetypes of women are reconsidered to defeat the male supremacy. Hariharan does this not only by revisiting the myths but by reconstructing them to assert women's subjectivity. C. Vijayasree opines,

This commonplace story of marital discord and woman's quest for identity outside marriage is turned into a remarkable rendering of the collective struggle of women for self-liberation through the author's play with narrative structures- framing texts within texts, with texts overlapping in curious ways; her carnivalesque accumulation of interests ranging from the tales from the Mahabharata to folk stories and her deft interweaving of these with the lives of real women. Hariharan's narrative voices strike a powerful chord in contemporary literature returning to the multi-dimensional vibration of voices unfolding within a vast mythic social time space. (177).

If a woman tries to change the course of existence from the normative model of womanhood, it takes no time for the society to ostracize her. Devi achieves autonomy when she recognizes her authentic self through her real-life experiences. She gets fulfilment and acknowledgment by exhibiting her free will and true feminine autonomy. Devi seeks liberation not only for herself but for the whole community of women. Her futile attempts to find her own space in the companionship of her partners end and she finds a room of her own to write her own story. This novel can be termed as a gynocentric version of Mahabharata because it advocates incontrovertibly the perspective of female characters, and also mythical women from the epic provides the necessary insight to the protagonist, Devi's development during the progression of several incidents in her life. The significance of the myths lies in the fact that Devi learns her first lesson of rebellion from the acts of Amba, Kritya, and Ganga, the less prominent characters from Mahabharata. She refuses to play the subaltern who cannot speak. She emerges as a New Woman who elevates herself from the status of victimization to an empowered woman. Hariharan has created a new order where women can acquire equipoise by dint of their determination and perseverance. Devi can come out by overpowering dominant patriarchal ideology. In the novel, the beauty of the myths lies in the fact that Devi contextualizes it and finds an unfathomable connection between the lived experiences of women around her with that of mythical women's tales. Arpita Chattaraj Mukhopadhyay observes in this regard,

The Thousand Faces of Nightis on the surface the story of Devi – a young, educated girl battling with a failed marriage and failed relationship, striving to find her identity from the maze of identities and roles imposed on her is a kaleidoscopic/ variegated amalgam of multi-layered discourses. It is made up of 'stories' old and new, mythical and scriptural, the interlocutor of all the stories however remaining constant”(152-153).

The novel starts with the perspective of revisiting and reinterpreting the myths and eventually ends with a vision of reconsidering myths for feminist concerns. Through the help of these mythical stories, Hariharan interrogates the tapestries of male hegemony and in this way, she brings forth strategies to rename and reaffirm women's identity in the postmodern era.

Works Cited:

Hariharan, Githa. The Thousand Faces of Night.New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1992. Print.

Mukhopadhyay, Arpita Chattaraj. “The Thousand Faces of Night: A ‘Story’ of 'Storytelling.'” Studies in Women Writers in English. Ed. Mohit K. Ray & Ramakundu. New Delhi: Atlanta Publishers, 2005. Print.

Vijayasree, C. “Re-visionist Myth Making: A Reading of Githa Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night.” The Postmodern Indian English Novel: Interrogating the 1980s  and 1990s. Ed. Viney Kirbal. Bombay: Allied Publishers, 1996. Print.