Monday, March 21, 2016

George Eliot and Virginia Woolf are more courageous than their women characters

By Madhurantakam Narendra | THE HANS INDIA | Mar 20, 2016
But there are some
Vasanthasena in ‘Mrichakatika’ may be arguably the first woman with a strong backbone and her precarious condition of being a harlot that cornered her pitilessly and forced her to be a rebel reflects another vicious dimension of the patriarchy.
But there are some courageous women in the epics of the yore and the most striking among them is Savitri, who was chosen by Sri Aurobindo as a legend and symbol for his mystical epic. The worship of Shakti, the invincible feminine power from whom the entire creation originated has been one of the oldest traditions of India, but it is not powerful enough to provide a prestigious position to the women as patriarchy has been in vogue in every part of the world.
Helen, Cleopatra, Penelope and scores of such strong women of the western classics dominated their male counterparts but they simply exploited some weaknesses of the patriarchy though they could never break the shackles of the tradition. John Ruskin opines that Shakespeare has only heroines but no heroes, but it is true of only his comedies.
The heroines of his comedies, Portia, Viola, Olivia, and Rosalind are undoubtedly charming, however, vital and vibrant they may be when compared with the heroes of his tragedies like Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear they become less archetypal and individualistic. History of mankind consists of many strong women like Razia Sultana, Rudramadevi, Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher of the recent times proved that they were iron women. George Eliot and Virginia Woolf are more courageous than their women characters. 
A writer who could create a woman like Mrs Dalloway, an animated mirror of the contemporary times who feels immensely happy when Septimus Warren Smith, a neurotic who can’t tolerate the hypocrisy of the people, commits suicide because he could do something, which she couldn’t do. George Eliot rebelled against the traditional and religious patriarchy and lived on her terms.

Many women characters of modern Telugu literature are conventional and stereotypes and only a few of them are distinguished because of their strong character. Madhuravani in ‘Kanyasulkam’ is a full blooded vital character and as the victim of the hypocritical patriarchy, a nautch girl, a kept woman, she handles all men, who come in contact with her efficiently and judiciously. 
Many of the women of Chalam’s fiction are strong but they are all more like ideas or personified abstractions. Buchibabu created many memorable woman characters among whom Moona in ‘Arakuloyalo Koolina Shikharam’ exhibits extraordinary courage and it obviously reflects the prestige that the woman has in the tribal societies. 
Vaddera Chandidas’ Githa Devi in ‘Hima jwala’ seems to have emulated the example set by George Eliot but she too becomes an idea, a symbol of the anarchic streak in the human being that craves to violate the laws of the society to fulfill his/her guanine. Moreover like Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina she too gets crushed under the burden of invincible forces. 

Oct 14, 2011 - Sri Aurobindo and the Mother said that the primary cause is not the ... A woman can even become a prostitute as a result of the influence of ...

Sri Aurobindo' book, Savitri. ... Sri Aurobindo SAVITRI Book Two THE BOOK OF THE TRAVELLER ..... As might a harlot empress in a bouge, Nude, unashamed ...

savitri.in/library/sri-aurobindo/letters-on-savitri
Nov 21, 2013 - Sri Aurobindo's Savitri Sri Aurobindo's Letters on Savitri. ... "A harlot empress in a bouge"—somewhat after the manner of Eliot and Ezra Pound.

https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=8170586127
Sri Aurobindo - 2000 - ‎Bhagavadgītā Sri Aurobindo ... is without difficulty visible in the sage and the saint, how shall he be easily visible to us in the sinner, the criminal, the harlot and the outcaste?

www.motherservice.org/.../Changing%20Dimensions%20of%20Conscio...
She then understood that Sri Aurobindo was in that terrible state all the time while he was alive but .... Sri Aurobindo adores the feet of the criminal and harlot.

www.trivenijournalindia.com/harindranathchatopadhyayajul90.htm
Sri Aurobindo hailed him as “the future poet of India” and in his review of the book commented: “Here perhaps are the .... to suit the public's harlot needs.”.

inpr.odisha.gov.in/Download/index-or.pdf
Jan 27, 1992 - Devadasi and the Harlot : A Sociological Endeavour. Bimal Chandra ....Sri Aurobindo - The Seer of Swadeshi and Swaraja. Saroj Kumar ...

themotherindia.com/2012/06/11/apsara-woman-in-mythology-by/
Jun 11, 2012 - The Apsaras are the most beautiful and romantic conception on the ....P.S: This essay is taken from Sri Aurobindo's Harmony of Virtue- Vol-3.

www.aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/37_05/0152_e.htm
Sri Aurobindo. Translations. CWSA.- Volume 5. Part One. Translations from Sanskrit Section Four. Bhartrihari. The Century of Life. Miscellaneous Verses.

www.kheper.net/topics/Aurobindo/Osho_on_Aurobindo.html
Apr 10, 1999 - Osho, Sri Aurobindo, and Immortality. Note, the following two posts (here combined in a single page), are taken from the auroconf mail list, and ... from Prem:
Mother and Sri Aurobindo never said that they were working on physical immortality. They said they were working on the next evolutionary step, the triple transformation: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 

Located in Viluppuram district near Puducherry, 'Auroville'- the City of Dawn is meant to be a universal town people from all countries live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creed, all politics and all nationalities. Its purpose is to realize human unity. It was founded on 28th February 1968, by Mirra Alfassa as a project of Sri Aurobindo Society.

www.aurovilleradio.org/the-integral-paradigm-day1-part-2/
21 hours ago - Program by : Philippe-Dionne
A seminar on the integration of the SENSES, the FACULTIES, the individual, universal, and transcendent SELF, and the Approches and Disciplines of Knowledge – SEEING, HEARING, SPEAKING, THINKING.

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