Voicing the Unheard: Exploring the Marginalised Female Character of Surpanakha in Lanka’s Princess

Abstract

Women’s tales were primarily told from the perspective of males. Male writers have set few societal mores of womanhood on which their female characters are put forth. But in recent times, Indian feminist writers like their counterparts in the rest of the world, by putting aside androcentric narratives strive to rewrite mythologies that are already written by male writers. Indian mythologies are an indispensable part of Indian culture, and Indian writers have cultivated the rich tradition of Indian mythology through their literary works. However, critics and writers from a feminist perspective have started to challenge the notion of universal adoration of these epics, pointing out that they imply the supremacy of males in mythological writing. The main aim behind retelling and revisiting Indian mythologies is to break the traditional belief about women and womanhood and to examine things through female perspectives. These writers have brought a new kind of literature of retelling mythologies in vogue written on the basis of female experiences. This literature focuses on the mythological women characters whose voice is not recognised and recorded in patriarchal narratives. These writers give befitting expressions to the marginalised and lesser-known women characters whose voice is lost in male writings. Kavita Kane’s retellings primarily focus on the unheard voices of females in the great Indian epics: the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Her writing has provided insights into the diverse issues faced by female mythological characters. The female protagonists of her novels take us into a different world where women are not at the margins but are bold enough to shape the situation according to their will. This paper attempts to articulate the problematic position of Surpanakha which has been unfairly presented as a disfigured, monstrous, ugly, and adulterous character with demonic expertise in various mainstream versions of the Ramayana. In her Ramayana-based fiction, Lanka’s Princess, Kavita Kane becomes a decisive voice and gives an expanded canvas for self-expression to the sidelined mythological female character of Surpanakha.