At Louvre Art Gallery in Paris, this is an art of Botticelli . According to Heidi Harley, an Associate professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona, one of these lovely young ladies in the art would represent Grammar.

The Historic Role of Gender in Language

In her book The Myth of Mars and Venus, Deborah Cameron, a professor of Language and Communication at Worcester College of the University of Oxford and a leading expert in the field of language and gender studies, describes the ‘men are from Mars, women are from Venus’ position.

Every language reflects the prejudices of the society in which it evolved and as the patriarchal control over the society prevailed for a long time, the language has also been organized with male-centric views. So, in many languages, we find there are multi-gender systems similar to biological differences of nature. In most of the languages (except Japanese), the nouns and pronouns either have ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ gender. In English, there is also a third gender known as ‘neuter.’ But in Hebrew, Greek, German, Spanish, French, and Portuguese and in Indian languages like Hindi, there are only two genders and the prepositions or verbs have been modified according to the gender of the subject.

In comparison to these languages, my own language, Oriya, has gender-neutral characteristics. Though like English, in my language, there are three genders, but the variation is that our pronouns have no gender and unlike Hindi, our verbs and prepositions are not modified according to the subject. Many Indian languages besides Oriya like Tamil, Assamese and Bengali have also gender-free pronouns.

This type of characteristic can also be seen in Persian, Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Basque, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Quechuan, Filipino, and Tagalog. In some way, Chinese language can be marked as gender-neutral unless it contains a root for "man" or "woman."

For example, the word for ‘doctor’ is ‘yīshēng’ and can only be made gender-specific by adding the root for "male" or "female" to the front of it. Thus, to specify a male doctor, one would need to say nányīshēng. Under normal circumstances both male and female doctors would simply be referred to as yīshēng.

The Pronoun Problem

In English, if the gender of a subject is not known, then often, the ‘masculine gender’ is used. For example: When a student comes into the room, he should pick up a handout. Here ‘student is a gender-neutral subject but a masculine gender ‘he’ is used for the pronouns. Like in Hindi, if anyone is coming, they say: Koi ata hai. Here the verb ‘ata hai’ is modified according to masculine gender whereas the gender of the subject (Koi: Anyone) is not known. In Oriya, we have no such baffle situation. Here Kehi asuchhi does not cite the gender of the subject. But in most of language, this gives feminist a good reason to think that this ‘male dominance’ contributes to making women invisible from grammar. The generic use of masculine pronouns, in referring to persons of unspecified gender is also termed by the feminist thinkers as ‘sexist’ norm of language.

In English the pronouns are highly gender-concerned. But how will they be treated when the gender of the pronoun is not known? Feminists have advised us to use singular ‘they’ instead of using ‘he’ or ‘she.’ For example , we can say , When a student comes into the room, they should pick up a handout. The Chicago Manual of Style (abbreviated in writing as CMS or CMOS, or verbally as Chicago) is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. The CMS, in its 13th edition, strongly reviewed this attempt of using singular ‘they’ and wrote: “Nontraditional gimmicks to avoid the generic masculine (by using he/she or s/he, for example) or to use they as a kind of singular pronoun. Either way, credibility is lost with some readers.” But later in its 14th edition, the manual revised its stance and recommended: "The 'revival' of the singular use of ‘they’ and ‘their,’ citing...its venerable use by such writers as Addison, Austin, Chesterfield, Fielding, Ruskin, Scott, and Shakespeare." 15th Edition §5.204 deals specifically with gender bias and nowhere does it mention the writers stuff. So they changed it again -- proves it’s a hot topic!

The Gendered Nouns Problem

Some feminists also find the use of some terms like Chairman, Fireman, Policeman, Mailman, Fisherman, Businessman, Milkman, Spokesman, Gunman, Mankind, and Brotherhood objectionable as the words reinforce the idea that men are more powerful and have higher priority over women. A women's femininity becomes invisible when they accept being categorized in male gender-biased terms. It also means that women are only being recognized when classified in a masculine group. During the 19th century, attempts were made to make a feminine term for these masculine job-specific terms. This produced words like ‘doctress’ and ‘professoress,’ and even ‘lawyeress,’ all of which have fallen out of use; though waitress, stewardess, and actress are in contemporary use for some speakers.

Janice Moulton first marked her objection on the use of ‘Lady Doctor’, ‘Lady Typist’, ‘Lady Supervisor’ as these jobs are meant for men, whose use has been extended to cover both men and women. She thinks that these norms are highly insulting for a woman and a number of new words are also recommended such as: chairperson, spokesperson, firefighter, mailcarrier, etc., as substitutes for the "sexist" words in common use. [See: Moulton, J., 1981, “The Myth of the Neutral ‘Man’”, in Sexist Language, M. Vetterling-Braggin (ed.), Totowa. NJ: Littlefield and Adams: 100–115].

Another common gendered expression, found particularly in informal speech and writing, is "you guys." This expression is used to refer to groups of men, groups of women, and groups that include both men and women. But "a guy" (singular) is definitely a man, not a woman, and that most men would not feel included in the expression "you gals" or "you girls." Similarly, the way the words Mr., Miss, and Mrs. are used also make the feminists annoyed because "Mr." can refer to any man, regardless of his marital status while women are defined by their relationship to men (by whether they are married or not). A feminists solution to this problem is to use "Ms." (which doesn't indicate marital status) to refer to women.

Feminists hope that by means of such reforms in the universities, the language of all society might gradually will be reformed, and that by means of such a reform in the language, the consciousness of people would be rendered more favorable to feminist ideas. But they oppose the job-specific terms when used to define the gender-specific status of the job holder. In India, nobody would ever call Mrs. Indira Gandhi as “Lady Prime Minister” or Ms. Pratibha Patil as “Lady President.” But these words in Hindi or other languages have been treated as ‘masculine.’ Still now in India, these maleness of norms are not being identified by neither any feminists nor any intellectual.

But in Western linguistics, the scholars and feminists are more concerned about these ‘maleness’ of language. Increasing numbers of women are calling themselves actors rather than actresses, especially in the live theatre. The Screen Actors Guild of America (SAG) annually gives out awards for "Best Male Actor" and "Best Female Actor."

When my first novel was translated into Bengali and was published from Bangladesh, the Pratham Alo, a leading daily of that country, reviewed that novel. The reviewer of that book cited me as a ‘Lekhika’ (woman writer) in his review and to that, the translator of that book, Morshed Shafiul Hassan, got irritated with the use of such a gender -biased term for me.


The Patriarchal Problem in the Bible


Though Semitic religions are more male-centric (here God is always masculine), it is in the liberal Christian mind that attempts have been made by the churches to make a non-sexist, generic, and gender-neutral version of the Bible. The earliest example of such an effort was the Inclusive Language Lectionary published by the National Council of Churches in 1983. This new Bible excluded 1 Corinthians 11:3-16, 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, Ephesians 5:22-24, Colossians 3:18, 1 Timothy 2:11-15, and 1 Peter 3:1-6. In 1990, the excluded portions were also adapted into the new version of that Bible. It did not, however, substitute gender-neutral language in reference to God, and it did not incorporate many of the misinterpretations proposed by feminists. And in doing so, it did not satisfy many liberals.

The American Bible Society published an abridged version of the New Testament in 1991 and then a complete version of the Bible in 1995. In that edition, while they did not use gender-neutral language for God, in Genesis 2:18, Eve is called not a "helper" but a "partner" of Adam.

In another example, the Greek text of Matthew 16:24 is literally, “If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” The Contemporary English Version shifts to a form which is still accurate and at the same time, more effective in English: “If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me.”

Later in 1994, a group of liberal Roman Catholics published The Inclusive New Testament and the next year liberal Protestants published a similar version of The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version. Both these versions featured gender-neutral language for God along with many other politically-correct alterations designed to combat racism, homophobia, and ageism, etc. The liberties taken with the text of Scripture in these versions were however so blatant, that they were met with resistance in the popular press.

Up until 2004, 18 versions of the Bible had been published in non-sexist, gender-neutral generic language. [See: The Gender-Neutral Language Controversy by Michael D. Marl owe, 2001, (revised January 2005)]

Solving the Problem

In 1999, The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) issued guidelines for eliminating sexist stereotypes and language in common writing. This can be downloaded from HERE.
Gender-neutral language has gained support from most major textbook publishers and from professional and academic groups such as the American Psychological Association and the Associated Press. Today, many law journals, psychology journals, and literature journals do not print articles or papers that use gender-inclusive language.

But in India, there is no debate so far insisting on gender-neutral language. This is due to lack of gender discrimination consciousness and awareness. So while some progress has been made, there remains much room for improvement and development.

{Two women, side by side, one nude, the other in a red gown, by Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918). The art was drawn in 1916. Gustav was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau (Vienna Secession) movement.}

Indian Feminism and Sexual Discourse

1901
She was born into a Christian family in Bastar (now Chhatisgarh) in 1901 when her father, a doctor by profession, stayed away in Burma (now Myanmar). Later she studied medicine at Cuttack Medical School where she earned her LMP (the degree for Medical Practitioner during British Colonial times) in 1921 and started her career as the superintendent of the Cuttack Red Cross. During this time, she got involved with a fatherly person and was caught red handed by his wife. They had physical relations, but her lover cum mentor wholeheartedly wished her marriage with a suitable person.

The period between 1921 and 1927 was also a productive phase of her literary life. She wrote several volumes of poems like Anjali and Archana, and novels on social issues like Bharati and Parasmani in Oriya. Through her writing, she protested against purdah, child marriage, caste system, untouchability, discrimination against women. And she advocated women's rights, steps towards their empowerment, and widow remarriage.

While working with Red Cross and also while in a relationship with her mentor lover, she got herself involved with a barefoot doctor and imposter who settled in Delhi. Her mentor was against her marriage with that unknown person, but she resigned from her service and became an Aryasamajis. She got married to that stranger and left for Delhi and opened a clinic in Chandinichowk.

She began to write in Hindi while continuing her writing in Oriya. She came out with a volume of Hindi poems entitled Baramala. She also became an influential editor of several Hindi periodicals such as Mahabir, Jeevan and Nari Bharati. Kuntala Kumari was invited to deliver the convocation addresses at Allahabad University and at Benaras Hindu University. That was a mark of rare recognition accorded to a woman of those days.

But her marital life was not happy and her husband exploited her as a source of income to which she wanted to resist. She died at only her 37 years of age with illness and mental trauma. Eminent Hindi novelist Jainendra Kumar’s novel Kalyani was based on her struggle and her pathetic life.

She was Kuntala Kumari Sabat, the veteran feminist poetess and writer of Oriya Literature. Though her pre- and post-marital life were not so peaceful and her life was dangling between love, sex, oppression, and harassment by the male-dominated mentality of feudal India, we never find any sexual agony or find any of her own saga of life in her poems, rather than she always tried to hide her sexual expression with a coated version of mysticism in the form of Sufi ideology. This trend was prevailed for many years and even after few decades in the beginning of post colonial. where era we can see the poetess expressed their love feelings as a form of Bhakti poems.

1914
In 1930, a Romanian young boy met a 16-year-old Indian girl and both fell in love. The boy had come to India to study Indian Philosophy and the girl was his teacher’s daughter. They couldn’t hide this affair and were soon caught by the mentor. The boy was asked to leave the mentor’s residence and never to contact the girl again.

Later, the boy became a world famous philosopher and wrote a semi-autobiographical novel first published in Romania in 1933. It was written specifically for a literary prize and sold very well in Romania, garnering both fame and money. The novel was translated into Italian in 1945, into German in 1948, into French in 1950, and into Spanish in 1952.

The girl was married at the age of twenty and had two children. She engaged herself in writing and published volumes of poetry and prose, wrote many books on Tagore, but was not famous until 1974.

However, the girl was not aware of that Romanian novel until she heard about it from her father who had visited Europe in 1938 or 1939. She also came to know that the book was also dedicated to her. But it was not until 1972, when a close Romanian friend of the author came to Kolkata, and she finally understood that the author had described a sexual relationship between them in his book. She subsequently had a friend who translated the novel for her from the French and she was shaken by his depictions. In 1973, when she went to America to attend a seminar on Tagore. She met the author again after 43 years and talked personally to him. She also warned the him that she would sue if his book ever came out in English. The author assured her that he wouldn’t publish the English version of his novel. But perhaps she didn’t believe the author and she herself couldn’t check her agony -- the agony of her love being misrepresented. So she wrote a novel.

Later after her death, in 1974, the University of Chicago Press published the English translation of both the Romanian and Indian novels both as companion volumes depicting two sides of a romance. In her novel, she wanted to paint how an Indian girl fell in love with a western boy, depicting the whole thing as being more concerned with emotion rather than to physical co adherence.

The Romanian author was Mircea Eliade and the Indian girl was Maitreyi Devi. The English translation of the Romanian novel is entitled The Bengal Nights while the English translation of the Indian novel is entitled It Does Not Die.

1919
After six years of dating incidents of Maiytreyi, a young poetess of Punjab married an editor of a literary magazine to whom she was engaged in early childhood and changed her name. Later she became the author of 70 works, which included novels, short stories, and poems. She was elected a fellow of the Sahitya Akadmi, in India, as one of the 21 immortals of literature. She was honored with the Padma Vibhushan, the Jnanpith Award and the Padma Shree. She also received three D Lit degrees from Delhi, Jabalpur, and Vishva Bharti Universities.

She was born in 1919 in Gujranwala, now in Pakistan, the only child of a school teacher, a poet and an editor of a literary journal. When she was 40 years old, she got herself involved with an Urdu poet and left her husband, but that Urdu poet did not prepare to marry her as he had a new woman in his life. Later, she became involved with another painter and lived the last 40 years of her life with that artist, who also designed most of her book covers. For the rest of her life, she maintained her two lovers with equal potency of love and without any confrontation.

The author was Amrita Pritam, who died on October 31, 2005 and her two lovers were Imroz and Sahir Ludhianvi. Penguin India has published a book entitled Amrita-Imroz: A Love Story (ISBN: 0143100440) by Uma Trilok.

1934
In 1934, after four years of romance of Maitreyi-Eliade, a Keralite girl was born and spent her childhood in that city. She began writing at the age of 17 in both Malayalam and English. At the age of 15, she got married to a man 15 years elder to her and their first son was born after only one year of their marriage.

In her writing, she soon got involved in controversy as her writings were a type of confession where she did not hide her sufferings and her traumas that started from her teenage years and then went on and on. She was the first woman writer to write and discuss about her sexual desires in her writings. She did not hide in her writings either her lesbian relationships or her husband’s homosexual tendencies, nor did she hide her extra-marital relationships. But strangely enough, her husband always supported her writings.

In Chapter 27 of her most discussed and controversial autobiographical book My Story , she writes, “During my nervous breakdown, there developed between myself and my husband an intimacy which was purely physical … after bathing me in warm water and dressing me in men’s clothes, my husband bade me sit on his lap, fondling me and calling me his little darling boy….I was by nature shy… but during my illness, I shed my shyness and for the first time in my life learned to surrender totally in bed with my pride intact and blazing.”

Though in numerous interviews, she praised her husband for showing his support for her writings, in her book My Story, she told that her husband supported her writings because her writings were a source of income for him. However, her husband died after a long illness. She later tried her luck in politics and failed.

At the age of 65, she converted herself to Muslim to marry a young man. After converting herself to Islam, she argued that Purdah in Islam is the most wonderful dress for women in the world. And she had always loved to wear the purdah as it gives women a sense of security. Only Islam gives protection to women. About her conversion to Islam, she told that she had been lonely all through her life. At night, she used to sleep by embracing a pillow. But she was no longer a loner. Islam was her company. According to her, Islam is the only religion in the world that gives love and protection to women. But in 2006, she issued a statement at a book release ceremony organized by Kairali Books in Kochi that she deeply regretted converting to Islam and was disillusioned with the treacherous behavior of her Muslim friends. She claimed that all her wealth amounting to several lakhs, gold ornaments, books and other valuables had been looted by Muslims.

She was Kamala Das or Madhavikutty or Kamala Surraiyah. She had been shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for literature in 1984 along with Marguerite Yourcenar, Doris Lessing, and Nadine Gordimer. Apart from that, she received many awards for her literary contributions like the Asian Poetry Prize, Kent Award for English Writing from Asian Countries, Asian World Prize, Sahitya Academy Award and Kerala Sahitya Academy Award etc. She passed away on 31 May 2009 in Pune at the age of 75.

The Role of Sexuality From a Colonial Perspective

These four feminist writers of the last century, opposite to each other’s character, tried to raise women’s voices, which apparently may seem very contradictory, confusing and even delineating different values for feminine aspects. Following the work these feminists, anyone can argue that womanhood is, as a whole, a paradigmatic myth, which incorporates multiple myths of the woman in a mystic form. We have no way to oppose this parenthesis. But as a female (please note that I am not saying the word ‘feminist’), I can feel every situation was true for me if any day I would be either Maitreyi or Kamala or Amrita or Kuntala. It is a very vague argument why Maitreyi was not like Kamala or Amrita was not like Kuntala. Maitryi could admit her relationship with Eliade as Kamala did. Why didn’t Amrita bore all her pathos as Kuntala did? These are vague arguments.

I think the transformation of a woman’s heart from Kuntala to Kamala must be possible due to the development of feminism in India. The reason and development of feminism in India is different from that of the Western world. The pre-colonial social structure and the role of women reveal in them was theorised into feminism. It was more a social than any individual matter. Female mass was considered equal to male mass but the status of the individual female body remained as puritan as it was in feudalistic patriarchal society. In pre-colonial India, we see that plural marriage was allowed for males and even we find our male intellectuals, writers, politicians were able to get married to another woman in the case of the death of their first wife.
It is also ironically true that the female mortality rate was considerably higher in comparison with males due to lack of proper nutrition. But we never find a single instance of any woman remarrying after became a widow in those days, though the marriage of widows was legalized from the early days of British rule.

Women were taught to act as a goddess of sacrifice and as Simone told us in her The Second Sex, the women were trapped into an impossible ideal (the myth of the mother, the virgin, the motherland, nature, etc) by denying the individuality and situation of all different kinds of women. So we find when our pre-colonial feminists used to write essays, they often chose the titles like “Women’s Duty for Household” or “The Legendary Female Figures in Indian Myths,” where the patriarchal tone was still there. So an attempt to reconstruct Indian womanhood as the essence of Indian Culture through the Nationalist movement could be seen where the individual feminism was deliberately denied. Kuntala and Maitreyi were products of these pre-colonial societies.

The largest and the most mainstream women's organisation in India at this time was the All-India Women's Conference. A wing of Indian National Congress, it was founded in 1927, was many-layered, and always attempted to reflect the regional diversity of the movement. Within one year of Maitreyi- Elliad’s meeting at Kolkata, the Indian National Congress passed the Karachi Resolution in 1931 where 'swaraj' or 'self rule' in free India was declared, but the gender issue was still marginalised as evidenced by the fact that only one of the resolutions expressly mentions protecting women's rights (as part of workers' rights).

Undoubtedly, post-colonial India was different from that of pre-colonial India and women’s education was flourishing. And the age-old binaries that had characterised dominant philosophical and political thinking on gender were reconstructed with an array of oppressive patriarchal family structures: age, ordinal status, relationship to men through family of origin, marriage, and procreation, as well as patriarchal attributes: dowry, siring sons, etc., kinship, caste, community, village, market, and the state were put into questionable range. Along with these questions, ‘rights of women’s bodies’ are also seen as antithetical to these patriarchal milieus.

I have to write this article in support of Kamala Das or Amrita Pritam because some of our scholars always try to carve a separate identity for sexuality other than feminism. They define feminism in order to avoid the uncritically following as the protest for male hegemony and in their conception; sexuality has no role to protest such hegemony. If feminist writing during twentieth century colonial India was characterised by societal hierarchies and a need to demarcate an Indian identity, feminist debates in post-colonial India dealt with ways in which feminist sexualities were practiced. This is why the whole country mourns the demise of Amrita and Kamala.

(A Pattachitra painting of Sri Chaitanya Dev)

Lonely in the crowd

The Bhakti movement in Indian literature focused on singular devotion, mystical love for God, and had a particular focus on a personal relationship with the Divine. Given their belief in the centrality of personal devotion, poet-saints were highly critical of ritual observances as maintained and fostered by the Brahmin priesthood. Though the Bhakti movement had its genesis in southern India in the 6th century AD, it didn’t gain momentum until the 12th century in the central western regions of India. It then moved northward, coming to an end roughly in the 17th century.

But strangely enough, if we compare the gender basis participation ratio of saint-poets, we find the inclusion of women in this movement was tempered. It is also true that there is little evidence to support any type of revolt against the patriarchal norms of the time. Women bhaktas (disciples) were simply staying largely within the patriarchal ideology that upheld the chaste and dutiful wife as ideal. These women transferred the object of their devotion and their duties as the “lovers” or “wives” to their Divine Lover or Husband. Nonetheless, that their poetry became an integral aspect of the Bhakti movement at large is highly significant and inspirational for many who look to these extraordinary women as ideal examples of lives intoxicated by love for the Divine.

Andal Thiruppavai (a 10th century Tamil poetess), Akka Mahadevi (a 12th century Kannad poetess), Janabai (a 13th century Marathi poetess), Meera Bai of 16th century in Hindi and Madhavi Dasi in that century in Oriya literature were some poetesses who wrote exquisite poetry that has been passed on through bards and singers throughout India. But strangely enough, they had to face the challenge from the patriarchal society, whereas no male poets of their time had to encounter such bitter experiences. These female poets were often blamed by their husbands for acting opposite to marital practices while no evidence was found that the wives of the male poet-saints raised voices against the divine love affairs of their husbands.

Akka Mahadevi accepted her God as her husband as well as Meera. There were some poet-saints who were devotees to the Goddess ‘Shakti; or Kali, but for these saints, the Goddess appeared to them as a mother rather than a wife. The ‘Kali- Sadhaka-Poets’ of Eastern India always painted Goddess Kali as their mother but not as their wives.

But Sri Chaitanya Dev, in 15th century, started a ‘Raganuga bhakti marga’ in which the God -- Krishna-- remained male and the disciples loved him with a ‘sakhi bhava.’ In Sanskrit, ‘sakhi’ means ‘girl friend.’ As most of the disciples of Sri Chaitanya Dev were males, the male disciples had to assume themselves as a ‘female’ one and as a ‘sweetheart of the God, and strangly enough to mark that this identity, crossing and trouping of the sexual self did not touch gendering. And out of 191 devotees listed in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, a biographical reference book of Chaitanya cult, only 17 were women; five of them were members of Chaitanya's direct family.

Abhimanyu Samanta Singhar, a remarkable Oriya poet and follower of Sri Chaitanya, wrote in his poems that “whenever Goddess Radha call me, I will respond to her call as a sincere maid.” But they had patriarchal misogynist values in spite of the exalted place that it gives to a female deity, Radha, and to the feminine virtues and in spite of the fact that these disciples were highly inclined towards the feminine soul lying within them to feel themselves as “Radha’, the lover of Lord Krishna.

The Chaitanya Charitamrita, the highly Holy book of the Chaitanya Cult, which stresses the universality of devotion and deny any disqualifications based on birth, sex, or caste, seemed not to have had any influence on the status of women. The book depicts a strong belief that the role of women continues to be a supporting one and subordinate to that of men. In case of sexuality, though it denied any active association of a feminine world, it created a cultural set back in 16th century of Orissa, as the this state was the centre for such movement with Royal support. Vaishnavism started Mundane sex among the disciples of Sri Chaitanya Dev in form of both heterosexuality and homosexuality.

Madhavi Dasi was one of few woman disciples of Sri Chaitanyya Dev and remained in direct contact with the saint. She was an Oriya poet who used to write her poems both in Oriya and Braja-boli. The author Haridas Das has mentioned in his book Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana (published in 1964, from Haribol Kutir, Nabadwip) that Madhavi Dasi composed a Sanskrit play about Lord Jagannath, PuruSottama-deva-Natakam. If this is true, she is a single exception as the first female playwright of India and also only female author of a Sanskrit text in the Bhakti movement tradition. Madhavi Dasi was the sister of Sikhi Mohanty, a close associate of Sri Chaitanya Dev, and was a member of Chaitanya's most exclusive inner circle. According to Chaitanya Charitamrita, as described by Krishna Das Kaviraj, Madhavi was in love with another disciple by name of Junior Haridas and they both were punished by Sri Chaitanya Dev for their activities.

Though the Chaitanya cult possessed misogynist ideas, the life of Chaitanya was far from misogynic. Sri Chaitanya was twice married and had a good relationship with the wives of his disciples. These females were devotees of Sri Chaitanya rather than Krishna and their high status in the hierarchy of Chaitanya's associates is due primarily to the relation which they had to him. They are considered to be eternal associates who descended with him to participate in his ‘lila’, the so-called divine play by the mentor.

Chaitanya Charitamrita, the biography of the Vaishnavite saint, described how the Mahaprabhu (as the saint was called by his disciples) overwhelmed emotionally upon hearing verses from the Gita Govinda being sung by a woman. He rushed to embrace the singer, oblivious to her sex. Only when he was tackled by his servant Govinda Das he came to his senses and realised the magnitude of what he had been about to do.

I am sure that if Madhavi Dasi have had any relationship with Sri Chaitanya, then we would find the tone of Chaitanya Charitamrita would have been changed and despite of being described Madhavi as an infidel woman, she has been described as a glorious holy woman.

Religious morality often becomes a patriarchal misogyny, where society wants to see a woman as a passive sex receptacle rather than an equal sex partner and always demands that she should not use her body for her own pleasure instead of preserving it for her husband, mentor or master. There’s a reason they use the word ‘purity’ to describe women’s virginity. What about the mentor or social guru, when he doesn’t control his own sexuality? Often, his activities are glamourised with a divine description rather than being condemned as they would be with a woman.

I think misogyny is a critical part of sexism and is always used with religion, culture, and morality, having a double standard, where the same rules have never been applied for masculine subjects.

Madhavi Dasi was a victim of patriarchal Vaishnavism. She was a victim of Sri Chaitanya Dev’s misogyny. She was also victim of her time. But very few lines have been written in support of Madhavi Dasi after hundreds of years of those events. And no feminist critic has come in support of that great writer except the one-line citation about Madhavi Dasi in Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s essay Moving Devi.

In this article I want to attribute my support for the struggle Madhavi Dasi had to face a few centuries ago to prove her right over her own body. She was truly...lonely in the crowd.

(CLICK THE PICTURE TO SEE THE SPINNING DANCER. The Ambiguities of Feminine Identity can be symbolized from the image. It is a kinetic, bi-stable optical illusion resembling a pirouetting female dancer. Some observers initially see the figure as spinning clockwise and some counterclockwise. If the foot touching the ground is perceived to be the left foot, the dancer appears to be spinning clockwise (if seen from above); if it is taken to be the right foot, then she appears to be spinning counterclockwise. Additionally, some may see the figure suddenly spin in the opposite direction. The illusion derives from an inherent ambiguity from the lack of visual cues for depth. There are other optical illusions that originate from the same or similar kind of visual ambiguity, such as the Necker cube.)
(Source: Wikipedia)

The Ambiguities of Feminine Identity

A love affair between two poets belonging to two different languages in the early twentieth century in India is very little known. Even I found many Bengali readers and writers to also be unaware about this fact. The true love story was discovered with major Oriya poet Kabibara Radhanath Roy and Bengali poetess Nagendra Bala Ray.
This depicts the sexual politics of the nineteenth century’s patriarchal milieu.

Kabibar Radhanath Ray, the prime figure of Oriya Literature, who freed the poetry from medieval clasp and with the influence of Romantic English poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge and Keats, he designed Oriya poetry by introducing new forms, new topics, a new approach and greater freedom. Among the many new things which he brought into Oriya poetry, there were blank-verse, pictorial, musical but direct and unambiguous language following Scott and Wordsworth, satire in the manner of Dryden and Pope, denunciation of despots, tyrants and oppressors, concern with social problems, a spirit of protest against conventional morality, a disbelief in the power of gods and goddesses, and patriotic sentiments, which last brought him trouble from his employers. He was viewed as a national poet of the first order in Orissa.

Radhanath was born on 28 September 1848, at Kedarpur village in Balasore district and in his early life, he composed in both Bengali and Oriya languages but later he shifted his writings in Oriya only. He started his carrier as a teacher in Balasore Zilla School and later was promoted to Inspector of Schools. In January 1900, he was transferred to Burdwan , a semi-urban town of Bengal and there he met Nagendra Bala.

Nagendra Bala was married to a Sub Registrar of Jamalpur and besides her two poetry books Marma Gatha and Prem Gatha, she authored a prose book on taboos for females, where she wrote about the do’s and don’ts for the fairer sex. When she met Radhanath , he was 53 and she was 25; they both fell in love. Bala was so impressed by Radhanath’s poetry and she learnt Oriya to read his poems in original form. Dhabaleswar, one of her poetry books, was even dedicated to ‘motherly Ms.Parashmani Devi, the wife of veteran Oriya poet Radhanath Roy.’

Nagendra Bala became impressed with one of Radhanath’s poems, which was written much before of her birth and in which the he wrote “I want to bow my head to the feet of Nagendra Bala.” Actually the word ‘Nagendra Bala’ is a synonym for ‘mountain,’ but it impressed Nagendra Bala, the poet, more and she romantically began to think that Radhanath had been waiting for her since before her birth.

Bala died at the age of 28 in 1906. After her death, Radhanath suffered mental trauma and he wanted to confess his sin for involving himself with his extramarital affairs. He wrote a confessional letter, printed it, and circulated it among all the editors, writers, poets, and readers of Oriya and Bengali literature with a request to make the copies of this mail and to forward to as many people as possible.

In his personal social prejudices, Radhanath was as misogynistic as any man of his time and held traditional , stereotypical, and patriarchal views of women, which he sometimes explicitly committed to writing in letters and notebooks. But his writings often portrayed female characters in his long poems (in Oriya they are called ‘Kavyas’) as pro-female and during his time he was criticised by the critics for dealing with sexuality in his poems such as in Jajati,Nandikeswari and Parvati

These contradictions were prevailing in society of that time and we found many of our writers and intellectuals of that time had more than one wife during their life span. But it was hoped that after the death of a husband, that a female should maintain her life without marrying others.

There was another very reputed personality of Orissa, Esteemed Gopal Chandra Praharaj. He authored the first and largest ever Oriya dictionary cum linguistic encyclopedia which was a magnum opus. Keeping his wife in a remote village, he used to live with his sister-in-law Pitambari Devi at his residence in Cuttack. He was in love with his sister-in-law but to prove himself socially monogamous, he did not marry her. When one day he found out that his wife was involved with a love affair with one of their servants in the village, he rushed there and called his son and wife and confronted them for social justice. When I read these events from the biography of Pitambari Devi, I couldn’t help but shiver at the thought that these social milieus in my beloved country was passed its glorious days.

I have no less respect for these two authors now. In fact, I bow my head to them and feel intensely grateful to them because if they had not been there, I would not have found my language and literature in as such a prestigious spot as it currently is in the Indian subcontinent.

What irritates me, though, is the social system of that time. Either consciously or unconsciously, that social system had oppressed women, allowing them little or no voice in the political, social, or economic issues of that time. And now I think we are miles away from these milieus and I am thankful for my predecessor feminists who fought their best to change the destiny of women.

I don’t find anything wrong with Nagendra Bala and with the legal wife of Esteemed G.C.Praharaj. Rather, I consider their male partners as pseudo and virtual. In my country, I have noted that the eminent personalities here have a tendency to create a self-image of sainthood to the public as the masses also search for sainthood among public figures. This is the main difference between India and the West.

Here, Italian Sonia Gandhi has to veil her head to prove that she has turned herself into the typical ideal Indian woman, whereas in America, nobody cares about the sexy dresses of Michelle Obama. It doesn’t mean that the American society is totally getting rid of patriarchal attitudes. In some ways in fact, the United States is more patriarchal than puritanical. But in India, the attitude of the masculine world for a state of sexual promiscuity in a particular order remains for the moment, while opposing that status for female world remains without a satisfactory answer.

Once the writer George Elliot (1819-1880 ) wrote in her novel Felix Hold that a woman can hardly ever choose… she is dependent on what happens to her. She must take meaner things, because only meaner things are within her reach. George Elliot was somehow a contemporary to Radhanath but lived in the other part of the Globe. But her assumption on female destiny was not more different from that of Indian women of the time. When we think about the destiny of Nagendra Bala or Praharaj’s wife, a question may arise:
Why have these complaints appeared just two or three centuries ago? And why don’t more echoes of the feminine revolt and oppressive situation exist?

In both parts of the globe, women were criticized and repudiated for their sexuality by a male-dominated society. The social gurus always have treated the question of women's liberation and sexual freedom only from the negative point of view. They have never tried to compare the question with the status of the male. Sex-positive women were not simply misinformed, or priggish or neurotic. Rather, they were often rationally responding to their material reality. Their orgasm was denied and only two choices had been left for them: 1) passive and usually pleasure-less submission, with the high risk of undesirable consequences or 2) rebellious refusal.

This is what happened with Nagendra bala and Mrs. Praharaj. After his confession regarding his ‘sinful affair’ with a married lady, the image of Radhanath was enhanced in the society of that time. He was regarded as a ‘saint of saints’ for the courage to confess his sins. Nagendra Bala, on the other hand, was painted as a sexist woman who was responsible for the said affair and some critics have also found out the evil intention of that lady may have been to trap a ‘saintly’ personality.

One thing more, though it will pronounce vaguer, nobody has ever asked how Nagendra Bala was crossed if Radhanath had no willingness to cross her.
I am interested in searching for other aspects of the affair with a view to male sexual politics, and in particular, to discover if there is another tradition running alongside moral conservation and social purity in which men tried to assert the possibilities of a different kind of sexual life for them; one that didn't involve their systematic subordination.

If there is such an aspect of our history, a collective effort on the part of women worldwide to develop a language and politics of sexual pleasure as well as sexual protection is greatly needed to adhere with our feminist thoughts. Who wants to join me in this effort?

Beyond Misogyny

It is ironic that in India, the premier persons who came forward to claim ‘women’s rights’ were not women but were men. Balaram Das, a sixteenth century poet, very well known inside Orissa but lesser known to out side world, is considered as the premier of feminism. As feminism developed in Western countries around the seventeenth century, it is to be noted that Balaram Das pointed out the male hegemony of patriarchal society in his poems much before it began in the Europe.

In 1617, John Swetnam's misogynist pamphlet “The Arraignment of Women” (1615) induced English women to enter the debate on the woman question that had been boiling on the continent for two centuries. Rachel Speght, who was the first English woman to protest Mr. Swetnam with almost the same line of argument, directly claimed that women are not inferior to men in intellectual ability.

In 1673, François Poulain de La Barre, a disciple of Descartes published a book entitled Essays Concerning the Equality of Men and Women, where he straightforwardly pointed out that women are, by nature, no less intelligent than men, and that they would be able to engage in both creative and intellectual vocations if they were provided with the opportunity to study at educational institutions as men were. He further insists that the view of females as socially and intellectually defective is derived from the blind acceptance of the comments of various classical philosophers about women.

It is not a mere coincidence that strong defenses of women's abilities appeared in two different countries in the seventeenth century. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, in their book The Madwoman in the Attic [ See: Gilbert, Sandra and Gubar,Susan: The Madwoman in the Attic; Publisher: Yale University Press; 2 Sub edition (July 11, 2000) , (ISBN-10: 0300084587, ISBN-13: 978-0300084580], tended to examine Victorian literature from a feminist perspective also quote and admit the role of Milton’s Paradise Lost in these feminist terminologies.

John Milton (born in 1608) was the English poet, best known for his epic Paradise Lost. Milton was writing at a time of religious and political instability in England. His poetry and prose reflected deep convictions, often reacting to contemporary circumstances; but it is not always easy to locate the writer in an obvious religious category, although his views may be described as broadly Protestant. He was an accomplished, scholarly man of letters, a polemical writer, and an official in the government of Oliver Cromwell.

On the other hand, the reputed medieval saint poet of 16th century, Balaram Das, one of the five poet companions revivalists of Vaishnavism , popularly known as Panchasakha, has significant affect on Oriya Literature. His Laksmi Purana provided the other pillar on which subsequent literature was to thrive and was considered as the first manifesto of Women’s Liberation and Feminism in Indian Literature. But it was written to promote a Hindu ritual ‘Vrat/Brat.’ (Vrat or Brat are the Hindu rituals of fasting or Upavas, mainly observed by the women, to please a particular God or Goddesses on a particular day. when devotees refrain themselves from food or water.Every Vrat/Brat has its own ‘puranas’ or legend describe in mythical poem form, which were to be recited at the rituals)

The tragedy of Adam and Eve is the central theme of Paradise Lost. It contains two arcs: one of Satan (Lucifer) and another of Adam and Eve. The story of Satan continues the epic convention of large-scale warfare. It begins after Satan and the other rebel angels have been defeated and cast down by God into Hell.

The story of Adam and Eve's temptation and fall is a fundamentally different, new kind of epic: a domestic one. Adam and Eve are presented for the first time in Christian literature as having a functional relationship while still without sin. They have passions, personalities, and sex. Satan successfully tempts Eve by preying on her vanity and tricking her with rhetoric, and Adam, seeing Eve has sinned, knowingly commits the same sin by also eating of the fruit. In this manner, Milton portrays Adam as a heroic figure but also as a deeper sinner than Eve. After eating the fruit, they have lustful sex. Both experience new and negative emotions, particularly the powerful pair of guilt and shame, and engage in mutual recrimination. However, Eve's pleas to Adam reconcile them somewhat. More importantly, her encouragement enables Adam and Eve both to approach God, to "bow and sue for grace with suppliant knee," to receive grace from God. Adam goes on a vision journey with an angel where he witnesses the errors of man and the Great Flood, and he is saddened by the sin that they have released through the consumption of the fruit. However, he is also shown hope – the possibility of redemption – through a vision of Jesus Christ. They are then cast out of Eden and the archangel Michael says that Adam may find "A paradise within thee, happier far." They now have a more distant relationship with God, who is omnipresent but invisible (unlike the previous tangible Father in the Garden of Eden).

Laksmi Purana is also a popular poem in Orissa and it has a great religious ritualistic value as the female masses of Orissa celebrates a ‘brata. Every Thursday in the Margasira month of Hindu Calendar, they recite the poem as a ritual during their worship to Laksmi, the goddess of wealth. The Laksmi Purana is also translated in to English, in prosaic form, by Dr. Jagannath Prasad Das ( See: Das, Jagannath Prasad: English Version of Lakshmi purana: Manushi; No.73, November-December 1992) and also available online at Oriya Nari Website.

In Balaram Das’s Laksmi Purana, critics find a typical patriarchal dilemma and though he was a supporter of feminism, he couldn’t ideologically place himself above the patriarchal moral values about the female masses. In the beginning of the Laksmi Purana, he describes the “do’s and don’ts” of a woman.

. “Many things are taboo for women during this period: giving Mahalakshmi’s Prasad to outsiders, even to the married daughter; beating the children; not cleaning the cooking vessels till all the black is gone; spreading the bed crooked; disobeying the in-laws; sleeping naked; applying oils; and so on. If it happens to be the last day of the dark fortnight on Thursday, a woman should not wash the mouth after meals; face south or west while eating; tie and dress hair in the evening; eat in a dark room; apply oil on the body after bath; be angry with or disobey the husband. Lakshmi does not leave the house of the woman who treats her husband as god, is of clean habits, and shares her husband’s happiness and sorrow. Lakshmi shuns the house of the woman who is adulterous, lazy, dirty, quarrelsome and disrespectful to the husband. The married woman has no future without her husband. If she does vain vrats leaving aside service to her husband, she is destined to be reborn as a child widow.” (Translated into English by Dr. Jagannath Prasad Das in prose form) .

But the later part of Laksmi Purana reveals another story. The so-called ‘devoted wife” moral value supporter Goddes Laksmi had to face a set back from her husband Lord Jagannath and her husband’s elder brother Lord Balaram. Seeing her as a member of a low caste from Chandal’s house, the elder brother of Lord Jagannath became enraged and asked his brother, Lord Jagannath, to ‘drive her out.’ According to Lord Balaram, “A wife is like a pair of sandals. If you have your brother, you can have ten million wives. If you still feel for your wife, go and build a palace in the Chandala Street (the street where untouchables reside: my addition to the text); don’t come back to my great temple.” (Translated text in prose form by Dr. Jagannath Prasad Das)

Lakshmi said, “You want to throw me out since I stayed a while in the house of an untouchable. You talk of caste and since you are gods, everything is excused. What about your own caste? You lived in a cowherd’s house. You ate in Nima’s house; you ate leftover fruits from Jara. Both you brothers are therefore low caste, no less. If the wife makes a mistake, the husband must bear it. For one transgression, the master does not remove his servant.” (Translated text from above prose form)

The following text describes how Laksmi, being driven away from her in-law’s house, established herself by making a palace and the Goddess then summoned the eight Vetalas and asked them to ransack the kitchen and pantry in the temple and bring everything to her. The story later tells how the two Gods Lord Jagannath and Lord Balaram decided to go out begging. Wearing torn clothes, sacred thread on the shoulder and a broken umbrella in hand, the brothers now looking like Brahmin beggars, went round asking for water to drink. Lakshmi then called Saraswati and asked her to go to every house and ask the householders not to give food and water to Jagannath. So wherever the two gods went, they were taken to be thieves and driven out. At last, the two brothers had to surrender to Goddess Laksmi and agreed that she could live wherever she wanted and the two gods would never again try to forbid her.

Balaram Das never tried to raise his tone directly on the moral values of patriarchal society. But very tactfully, he raised his voice against the Hindu Patriarchal system. Similarly, Milton had never raised his voice against Christianity but he raised his voice in support of sexuality. Balaram Das skipped the topic of sexuality but placed himself, instead, as a supporter of feminism within the limitations of a marriage.

The relationship between Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost is one of “. . . mutual dependence, not a relation of domination or hierarchy." Hermine Van Nuis clarifies that although there is a sense of stringency associated with the specified roles of the male and the female. Each unreservedly accepts the designated role because it is viewed as an asset. (Van Nuis, H (May 2000), "Animated Eve Confronting Her Animus: A Jungian Approach to the Division of Labor Debate in Paradise Lost", Milton Quarterly 34 (2): 48-56)

But in Laxmi Purana, we find that the husband Lord Jagannath is more inclined to the patriarchal values and his relationship with Laksmi overstates the independence of the characters’ stances and therefore, misses the way in which Adam and Eve are entwined with each other.” On the other hand, Goddess Laksmi asserts her independence while recalling her marriage days, while questioning the gods about their view of the caste system and when wanting to live separately from her husband the Lord Jagannath. Attitudes in the Purana show Lakshmi to be of a strong personality to protest chauvinistic and incorrect male perspectives. Thus a positive outlook in Laksmi’s character on feminist ideology can be witnessed in the Laksmi Purana. But in comparison to Laksmi, Eve was a weak character. Though in the beginning, Eve displays her independence while gazing into a pool and seeing her own image.

Though Milton appeared as a pro feminist in his free verse epic Paradise Lost, critics blame him for his misogynist attitude (See: Gallagher, Philip J: Milton, the Bible, and Misogyny; Publisher: Univ of Missouri Pr (April 1990), ISBN-10: 0826207359; ISBN-13: 978-0826207357) whereas there was no evidence of misogynist nature of Balaram Das. The sexual right is the main topic for Eve in Paradise Lost.Though Balaram Das wants to skip the sexual topics, still both the poets have made their stand nearer to the social right and social freedom of the feminine masses.It is also an amazing fact to mark that the pro-feminist voice was raised in Eastern world at least hundred years before the Western could think over it.

[ Ishtar: the goddess of love and war in Akkadian (Babylonian) Civilization ].

Mythical Sexual Politics

As the term myth may suggest, it is something which is absurd or fictional. Or is it?
While these beliefs and stories need not be a literal account of actual events, they may yet express ideas that are perceived by some people and cultures to be truths at a deeper or more symbolic level. The word myth comes from the Greek word "mythos." The Greek Lexicon Liddell and Scott defines "mythos" as: word and speech. 1

In his essay “Did the Greeks Believe Their Myths?” Paul Veyne writes: "Myth is truthful, but figuratively so. It is not historical truth mixed with lies; it is a high philosophical teaching that is entirely true, on the condition that, instead of taking it literally, one sees in it an allegory." 2

In The Golden Bough (1890), Sir James George Frazer writes that all myths were originally connected with the idea of fertility in nature, with the birth, death, and resurrection of vegetation as a constantly recurring motif. 3

It is very interesting to note that though Mesopotamian, Greek and Hindu civilizations, religions and cultures existed in different parts of the world and were separated by great distances and time, but there are some amazing similarities between their fables and myths. The concept of goddess always lies with sexuality and we find great similarities in all the myths of goddesses in worldwide. In Sumer, the goddess was known as Inanna, and in Babylon and Assyria, was known as Ishtar. She was Aphrodite for the Greeks. The Egyptians called her Hathor, Quaddesha and Aset. To the Phoenicians, she was Astarte. To the Hebrews, she was Ashtoreth and Ashera. And to the Philistines, she was Atergatis.

Though in all these cultures, sex is so suppressed in social conversation that if any one tries to have a conversation about sex or sexuality, some may think of it as "dirty" or "perverted." But in case of myths (if we consider myths as tales of the people), we find a fascination towards sexual orientation has made these myths more attached to sexual fantasies than to other aspects of life. In his book Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe, Christopher Penczak, an author in the fields of paganism and magic, has elaborately discussed some gods and goddesses created by these myths with the sexual fantasies. For instance, the Greek king Oedipus unwittingly married his mother after killing his father, putting out his eyes when he discovered their identity. The Candomble deity Orungan ravished his mother, Yemanja, who then gave birth to a dozen children as well as the sun and the moon. In one version of the Aztec myth about their mother goddess, Coatlique’s husband physically abused her until one of her several hundred sons took action, killing his father and becoming his mother’s lover. The South American Panare mythology contains an example of father-daughter incest: Whenever the Sun and his daughter the Moon have intercourse, there is a total eclipse. Zeus, who occasionally dallied with handsome human males, was so sexually voracious that he would be positioned near the boiling center of the circle or in other words, at the torrid “heat” of sexual passion. Poseidon, the Greek god of the seas, was not far behind Zeus in his sexual proclivities. He ravished numerous women including the goddess Demeter. He raped Amphitrite, although he latter married her.

In mythology, the gods are often transsexual or can switch sexes in an instant. For example, there is the Balinese god, Syng Hyang Toenggal; a Hindu equivalent would be Indra, the transgendered sky god; and the Nordic equivalent would be the two-gendered Ymir, whose sacrifice was necessary for the creation of the Earth. Quan Yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion, is often pictured with Buddha. She is seen as beyond human conceptions of male or female, and can change her gender at will, as the occasion demands. Hermaphroditus, the son of Aphrodite and Hermes, is a hermaphrodite, giving his name to those whose physiology incorporates both a penis and female breasts. The concept of Ardhanariswara, the “ambisexual” creator god in Hindu mythology, is also compared with the Aztec god Ometecuhtli, who could give birth to the deities of the four directions. Candomble, an African-Brazilian religion, venerates Oxala, the “ambisexual” god of purity and wisdom. Baron Samedi, the Vodoun deity both of death and sexuality, typically is portrayed wearing both male and female garments, and is often pictured inviting men to engage in anal intercourse with him. Another “ambisexual” Vodoun deity is Damballah, the god of rainbows, peace, and prosperity. 4

In the northern area of Sumeria known as Akkadia, later called Babylonia, women were not confined to the home but instead had a role to play in public life. This was especially true of the priestesses, who owned property and transacted business. Property from family estates was inherited equally by sisters and brothers. A daughter, when she married, was given a dowry that she was allowed to keep in the event of a divorce. Sometime around 2300 BC, all this began to change. The patriarchal form of society began to empower more and the masculine world took a more authoritarian role. A woman might still own property but it was no longer hers to dispose of freely. Now she must first consult her husband and obtain his permission. When Hammurabi formulated his code known as Code of Hammurabi in around 1760 BC , the position of women had obviously been greatly eroded. Sarah Dening 5, the noted dream expert of noted Kingdom, tries to shape sexual roles in different social sequences cited above through myths in her much acclaimed book The Mythology of Sex. 6

Dening pointed her finger to the Sumerian myth of Inanna. She was the goddess of love and procreation, similar to the Hindu goddess Rati Devi; Anath of Canaan, Isis of Egypt, and the Babylonian goddess, Ishtar. All these goddesses were rejoiced in their sexuality. Inanna is often depicted resting her foot on the back of a lion, offering the king the symbolic objects indicating his ruling power. Lions, when associated with feminine deities, represent the other side of their character manifesting undomesticated, fierce, aggressive aspect of the female like the Hindu deity Durga.

Although Inanna was the goddess of love and sexuality, she was also called Mother of Harlots and the Great Whore of Babylon, and she declared of herself as a prostitute. Her holy city of Erech was known as "the town of the sacred courtesans." In no way, therefore, was prostitution in the Babylonian era considered a shameful profession. On the contrary, temples to Ishtar were inhabited by sacred prostitutes or priestesses known as Ishtartu or Joy-Maidens, dedicated to the service of the goddess. Their sexuality was seen as belonging to her, to be used therefore only in the sacred rites undertaken in her worship. Indeed, the original meaning of the word "prostitute" was "to stand on behalf of," that is, to represent, the power of the goddess .7 Curiously perhaps, from a contemporary standpoint, Ishtar was often referred to as "Virgin," implying that her creativity and power were self-engendered and not dependent upon masculine power.

Unlike to the Devdasi system among ancient Hindus where the unmarried maid disciples got married to the gods, in Babylonian culture, the priestesses would undertake the sacred marriage with any male worshipper who wanted union with the goddess. The man, whom the priestess had not met before and would not meet again, spent the night with her in the temple precincts. Their intercourse would put him in contact with the rejuvenating energy of the Goddess, mediated through her priestess who would bestow on him an ecstatic experience. For the priestess, the sexual act represented a ritual offering to the goddess. A very real benefit was therefore enjoyed by all concerned, not least the temple itself which could expect to earn considerable income from such worshippers. Apart from their sexual and commercial activities, temple prostitutes demonstrated considerable gifts in other areas. Because their natural secretions were considered to have a beneficial effect, they were greatly respected as healers of the sick. One clay tablet dating from this era tells us that diseases of the eye can be cured by a harlot's spittle. These women also acted as seers and were skilled in sorcery and prophecy. 8

As a result, priestesses often engaged in commerce and might be involved in import and export, land management, and other profitable endeavors. The modern brothel of our own culture, with its "madam," might perhaps be seen as a somewhat pale reflection of the temple of Ishtar.

According to author Sarah Dening, the myths of Inanna were created when patriarchal milieus had not been in dominant form.

After Hammurabi, comes another myth, the Sumero-Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. Enkidu and Gilgamesh were two friends having a homosexual relationship. Later they meet the goddess Ishtar, who offers to marry Gilgamesh, promising him untold delights. He, however, preferring his friend Enkidu, rejects her advances in a deeply insulting way, referring to her in derogatory terms:

“Listen to me while I tell the tale of your lovers. There was Tammuz, the lover of your youth. For him you decreed wailing, year after year. You loved the many-coloured roller, but still you struck and broke his wing. You have loved the lion tremendous in strength: seven pits you dug for him, and seven . You have loved the stallion magnificent in battle, and for him, you decreed the whip and spur and a thong. You have loved the shepherd of the flock; he made meal-cake for you day after day and he killed kids for your sake. You struck and turned him into a wolf; now his own herd-boys chase him away. His own hounds worry his flanks." 9

Enraged, Ishtar asks her father to create a heavenly bull to destroy the insolent hero. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the bull and Enkidu throws its organs into Ishtar's face. This is too much for the assembly of the gods, who decide that Enkidu must die. This will be the punishment that Gilgamesh must bear. Later, Enkidu is allowed to emerge from the underworld for a visit and Gilgamesh begs him to reveal what death is like.

Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty and was famous for her erotic nature. When we compare Ishtar with Aphrodite, we find the former is more free to her will than the later. For example, Ishtar was never forced to sleep with any one against her will, but in case of Aphrodite, we find she had to sleep with many gods even against her will. Ironically, Aphrodite was wed to Hephaestus, who was lame and considered to be the most unattractive of all the gods. This marriage was through no choice of her own, but instead, was arranged by Zeus in order to keep Aphrodite out of trouble. The goddess of love did not take her wedding vows very seriously and was accustomed to having many affairs involving both gods and men. She had constant relations with Mars. Her children by Mars were Harmonia, Deimos (Fear) and Phobos (Panic). She was also the mother of Hermaphroditus with Mercury (Hermes), Priapus with Dionysus (Bacchus), and Beroe (after whom the city Berytus in Lebanon was named) with Adonis. Aphrodite was also the mother of Eryx and Rhodes by Poseidon, Aeneas and Lyrus with Anchises (a mortal king killed by Zeus for drunkenly telling of his affair with Venus), Astynois with Phaethon (a beautiful young boy whom Venus ravished), Eryx with Butes (of Jason and the Argonauts), and Eros (Cupid) and Anteros (the avenging spirit of spurned love) by unknown fathers.

Referring to the transformation of ethical values of myths with the change of milieus in society, Dening writes “Given that myths tend to reflect aspects of the culture prevalent at the time, we may surmise that intimate relationships between men were not considered unusual. This could perhaps be expected in a society where archaeological evidence has shown that women had, by now, a very inferior role. Dual standards existed for married life, where a wife might be put to death for adultery, while a husband was free to enjoy as many women as he chose, provided he did not seduce the wife of another man.” 10

If the myths are in any way to be considered as the reflection of ‘social ideas’ of any group or society, then we can say that with the development of patriarchal control over feminine civil rights, the sexual freedom described in those myths was cut down from the women’s world and transferred to the men’s world with anti-feminist moral milieus which gradually made the female a sex object, however powerful they might be in their goddess perspectives. This is a strapping point, I believe, that the sex negative feminists have to think of before raising their voice against the sex role attitudes of the female.

Bibliography:

1. Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon is the world's most authoritative dictionary of ancient Greek. Indispensable for biblical and classical studies alike, the world's most comprehensive and authentic word list.
(An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon,( 7th edition), published by Oxford University Press, USA; (December 31, 1945), ISBN-13: 978-0199102068.

2. Veyne, Paul (1988). Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths? An Essay on Constitutive Imagination. (translated by Paula Wissing). University of Chicago. ISBN 0-226-85434-5.


3. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer. The book was originally published in two volumes in 1890.Now it is available with Touchstone , published in December 1, 1995, ISBN-13: 978-0684826301.

4. Penczak , Christopher : Gay witchcraft: Empowering the tribe, published by Red Wheel/Weiser, Boston, 2003, ISBN-13: 9781578632817

5. Sarah Dening, a psycho therapist of UK, began her career by studying for a degree in Philosophy at London University and subsequently went on to work in film production, PR and then to run an art gallery. In the early 1980's, she set up the first public floatation tank facility in the UK whilst working towards becoming a Jungian psychotherapist. Many people had extraordinary experiences whilst floating including being reunited with a long-dead father and meeting an angel! For the last eighteen years she had been busy developing therapy practices in London and York. Dream work is an important aspect of Jungian therapy and she had worked with hundreds of clients, helping them to understand how their dreams can further their personal development. For nine years she had written a weekly national newspaper column interpreting readers' dreams in the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and, latterly, in the Daily Mirror. She died in August 2007 with cancer.she wrote several books like Healing Dreams, The Everyday I Ching, Dreams made Easy, The Mythology of Sex etc.

6. Dening, Sarah: The Mythology of Sex, Publisher: Batsford Ltd (5 Nov 1996), ISBN-13: 978-0713481112

7. Sandars, N. K. ( Translators): The Epic of Gilgamesh, published by Penguin, 1960,. ISBN-13: 9780140441000

8. Marling, Roderick W: VAMACARA TANTRA, KamaKala Publications, Portland , Oregon , 1997

9. Sandars, N. K. ( Translators) : The Epic of Gilgamesh, published by Penguin, 1960,. ISBN-13: 9780140441000, p. 86

10. Dening, Sarah: The Mythology of Sex, Publisher: Batsford Ltd (5 Nov 1996), ISBN-13: 978-0713481112

(A scene from Wilde Irish Production's dramatic representation of Ulysses on Bloomsday )

The Myriad of Molly Blooms

At the very beginning of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Molly Bloom, the cuckolding wife of Leopold Bloom, appears to the readers as a common Irish lady of the twentieth century. But in the 60 pages of scandalous, scatological, sarcastic and disturbingly profound monologue that follow, she appears as a sex monster, a lusty, lewd, outspoken, witty, and self-aware woman, seducing young boys even though she is a married woman.

Molly’s frustration is being a married woman in a marriage that lacks the sexual freedom she needs. Molly fantasizes about her sexual desires and dreams because it is a human quality that she is not willing to suppress. And she makes no apologies for it. Some critics appreciate Joyce’s characterization of Molly as a step forward to paint a free woman in Western Literature

Joyce and Feminism

Richard Brown, the author of James Joyce and Sexuality writes: “Joyce constructed out of his own version of feminist literary tradition and its obtrusive sexual dimorphism is conceived as a vindication of, rather than an attack on, femininity” (Brown, 1985, p. 101). Brown found “obscured the relationship between contemporary feminism and his success (p91).” Brown added an interesting discussion of “sexual dimorphism (p96-97).” In support of his idea, he stated that for Bloom, the world is “full of analogies to sexual difference (97).” Brown sees Joyce as depending heavily upon a “strong sense” of difference between the sexes, using “Penelope” as an example of Joyce creating the “separate female character (98).” He does not see Joyce's portrayal of Molly and other female characters through the eyes of men as misogynistic, since many of the male characters “suffer the same fate” when seen through women's eyes, such as Bloom and Boylan. Brown concluded his discussion with a confirmatory tone that Joyce constructed Molly out of his “own version of feminist literary tradition and its obtrusive sexual dimorphism is conceived as a vindication of, rather than attack on, femininity (p101).”

Declan Kiberd writes in his Introduction to the 1992 Penguin edition of Ulysses, that Joyce ponders a life spent fitting pins into hair and clothing, or making adjustments to disorderly skirts under the protective coverage of a friend in the street. His fellow-feeling for women in the momentous labour of childbirth is accompanied by a similar empathy with the woman suddenly being taken short in a city whose lavatories, like its pubs, were notoriously built for men only. This empathy is nowhere more clear than in Bloom’s attitude to women who are caught in moments of disadvantage (Kiberd, 1992, pp. iii-iv).

Can Joyce be reclaimed for feminism? Suzette Henke tries to find psychoanalytical answers with the ideas of Freud, Lacan, and Kristeva. Henke argues that Joyce invokes gender stereotypes in order to “mock and subvert traditional notions” of gender, focusing on constructions of the “gendered subject” and touching on ideas of androgyny, bisexual fantasy, and motherhood. Discusses Molly's monologue as “steeped” in the languages of Edwardian pornography and “Victorian sentimental fiction.”

No doubt, Joyce was the prime figure to bring erotic sexuality to English Literature, and his experiments were not with writings, but with lives and people as well. His constant visits to prostitutes, his experiments with verbal sex, and persuasion to Nora for her active participations are the example how Joyce put importance of sexuality in his life and writings.

Brenda Maddox writes in her book Nora: A Biography of Nora Joyce that Joyce was amazed at female sexuality when on his first date with Nora, she “unbuttoned his trousers, slipped in her hand, pushed his shirt aside and, acting with some skill (according to his later account), made him a man (Maddox, 1988, p. 42).”

Nora: A Biography of Nora Joyce (1988) tells us that Joyce made Molly Bloom as the prototype of his wife Nora . A reporter once asked Nora if she was actually Molly Bloom from Ulysses. She replied, “I'm not -- she was much fatter.”

Nora : A Woman //A Character

Nora Barnacle met Joyce on June 10, 1904, but it was not until June 16, 1904 that they had their first romantic liaison. After only three months dating, they flew away to Trieste (at that time in Austria-Hungary) but they did not marry. Meanwhile, Nora gave birth to her first son Giorgio on June 27, 1905 and later to a daughter, Lucia, in July 26. A miscarriage in 1908 coincided with the beginning of a series of difficulties for Nora, which placed strain on her relationship with Joyce and made it increasingly conflicted. After 27 years of living together relationship, at last, they got married in 1931.

Nora and Joyce did not have a very happy life. Though at the beginning, they at least had very sensual romantic lives, later on, they remained in tension and Nora was often complaining about Joyce as a weak man and a neurotic artist. In her letters to her sister, Nora accuses Joyce of ruining her life and that of their children. She says he drinks too much and wastes too much money. As for his literary activity, she laments the fact that his writings are obscure and lacking in sense. She hates attending his meetings with other artists and admits she would have preferred him had he been a musician rather than a writer. Their marital life became hell when their daughter Lucia went mad and son Giorgio left for America after marrying an American lady.

Before Joyce, Nora had only three affairs in her teenage years. She fell in love with a teenager named Michael Feeney, who died soon after of typhoid and pneumonia. In a dramatic but unrelated coincidence, her second lover died in 1900, garnering her the name of "man-killer" from her friends. It was rumored that she sought solace from her friend, budding English theatre starlet, Laura London, who also introduced her to a Protestant named Willie Mulvagh. In 1903, she was sent away after her uncle learned of the affair and dubious friendship. In a later period, besides Joyce, Nora had no other relationship as Molly Bloom had, but Joyce was always suspicious with the thought that Nora might have been unfaithful to him. Joyce thus had in his mind a strong link between Nora’s sexual allure and death (because two of her teenage fiancés’ death ), and he focused on this morbid love theme in poems such as “She Weeps over Rahoon” and his best-known short story from the Dubliners, “The Dead.”

So, we don’t find any similarities in Molly Bloom with Nora if we overrule the three of teenage love relations she had. It may be fact that Nora became pregnant with Joyce at her first dating, but that was not a proof of her infidelities.

Is Molly a free woman ?

Molly is a woman who knows what drives a man crazy and how to seduce him at the drop of a hat. Even though she is a married woman, she does not forget how to seduce men because she has the frustration of being a married woman in a marriage that lacks the sexual connection she wants. Molly not only does it but needs the art of fantasy because it is a human quality that she is not willing to suppress. Molly fantasizes and makes no apologies for it. It shows that Molly is a rebellious by nature. But is she a free woman actually?

If Molly were truly sexually free, she would not go to church for confession of her guilt. She feels regrets about her infidelities and blames Leopold. “Its his own fault if I am an adulteress,” she says. If Molly were a free woman, she would not give Leopold the credit for turning her in to an "adulteress,” nor would she use the word “adulteress” because that word has a very negative connotation which implies guilt and shame. If Molly were a free woman, she would not feel terrible about the infidelity and the betrayal to her husband. Molly invokes God for creating Eve as the first sin of the Creator. By invoking that religious belief, she subconsciously proves the classic notion of patriarchal ideas that women are sinful by nature. If Molly had been guilt-free of affairs, she would have invoked poetry, pagan goddesses, humanly body pleasure, but not the creation of woman by God.

Molly also refers to one of Leopold’s pen pals as a “little bitch.” Molly Bloom’s jealousy of her husband’s infidelities and her anger toward Leopold are also indications that she is deeply hurt by their failing relationship and lack of sex.

Actually, Molly represents the common European female characteristics of that time, which the contemporary writings lack. As a very common woman, Molly is also tied down to the fears of aging and loosing her sex appeal, which she manifests in her fantasies about seducing Stephen. Molly is not actually after the sex, but rather, an emotional bonding. “I wish somebody would write me a love letter” she cries, showing her desperation for a lover who will fulfill her emotional needs.

Was Nora really Molly Bloom?

It is difficult to say whether or not Nora was the Molly Bloom of Ulysses because except the three premature affairs as a teenager, Nora sticks to her relationship with Joyce. But Joyce had a double-standard on women’s sexuality. Joyce was traditionally masculine in terms of sexual jealousy, possessiveness, and stereotyping of his ‘love.’ Joyce was extremely jealous of Nora’s fondness for anyone but himself, including her own father and children. As Maddox puts it, Joyce “could tolerate no thought of a rival for Nora’s affections” (Maddox, 1988, p. 23) and he felt irrationally betrayed that her cousins could co-exist with her love for him.

When courting Nora the summer of 1904, Joyce began to become possessive, and his jealousy revealed his insecurity. According to Maddox, “As the summer wore on, and he became more and more attached to Nora. Joyce showed the first signs of suspiciousness. She had three free evenings in a row that he could not account for (Maddox, 1988, p. 47).” Sexually, Joyce held Nora to a double standard; though he had consorted with prostitutes and had at least one “bout of venereal disease” (Maddox, 1988, p. 48) prior to meeting Nora, “doubt continued to torment Joyce" (Maddox, 1988, p. 70) about whether Nora had been a virgin or not before having sexual intercourse with him. He could not stand the thought of her having been with another man, even before she met him. As Maddox states, “Joyce never conquered his fear of Nora’s old loves (Maddox, 1988, p. 131),” which is why her old Galway beaus, such as Willie Mulvagh, had their names and/or actions immortalised in the obsessiveness of Joyce’s writing.

Mays relates how while visiting Dublin without Nora in 1909, Joyce “became obsessed with the thought that Nora might have been unfaithful to him" (Poems and Exiles, Ed. J. Mays, London, Penguin Books., p. xxxvi)” with Vincent Cosgrave.

This obsession made its way into Joyce’s poetry, his play Exiles, and Ulysses, not to mention some raving and accusatorial letters to Nora. Joyce was quick to believe Cosgrave’s words about his sexual relations with Nora before even hearing Nora’s version of events, and it took the word of two males, Joyce’s friend J. F. Byrne (the model for Cranly in “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”) and his brother Stanislaus, to convince him that Cosgrave had lied to him about Nora (Maddox, 1988, p. 125).
Even so, he remained so suspicious and bitterly jealous of Cosgrave, his former friend and possible precursor of Nora’s affections, that he lampooned and abused him as Lynch in Ulysses and enjoyed hearing about his early demise and unsuccessful career (Maddox, 1988, pp. 320-1). None of this is the behaviour of a man who really believes in free love and open relationships. Nora’s experimental enthusiasm for sex and, as Brenda Maddox’s book explains, the fact “that Nora could release such fervour only three weeks after initiation left him with a lasting sense of awe at the banked fires of female desire (Maddox, 1988, p. 79).”

Why did Joyce metamorphose Nora in to Molly Bloom ?

Art is not what you see but what you make others see. What is important is how one views life as a whole and hence, the reader's psyche has indeed a lot to do with how the work is interpreted. I don’t blame Joyce, as some feminist critics did, for being unjust to Nora. Writing is a total difficult and complex process. An author has to make himself/herself a multi-winged personality -- one goes above the surroundings and canvas so that the author him/herself could observe everything with full objectivity. Another enters into the character. And the third one assimilates an author’s self with the character.

So, when Joyce tries to paint Molly in Ulysses and Bertha in Exiles, we find not the Nora, but the Joyce with his ‘manly woman’ personality. As Richard Brown explains about Molly, she “surely does represent a new kind of fictional woman: massive, potent and self-possessed. Though few modern feminists have wished to avail themselves of that image of femininity, it was evidently one which Joyce constructed out of his own version of feminist literary tradition, and its obtrusive sexual dimorphism is conceived as a vindication of, rather than an attack on, femininity (Brown, 1985, p. 101).”

I have no allegation on Joyce. Above all, I appreciate his feelings, as I am not only a feminist but a writer in my soul, always.