Representation of the Queer in the Retellings of Indian Mythology

Abstract

India is the land where clouds have ever since rained stories knitted in and around myths. While exploring all sorts of dispositions, the Indian folklore has also been infused with a plethora of characters displaying queerness, which suggests a society accepting of gender differences. What then led to the reduction of these same characters with a sense of dignity and significance being reduced to stock mediums of cheap humour? And what again is leading the academic fraternity obsessed with mythology to recreate characters openly asserting their identities no matter how much the stigmatization?

The proposed paper herein attempts to investigate such questions and chalk out a parallel between the representation of transgender and other queer identities in the old Indian mythopoeia (particularly from Hindu scriptures), and the retellings of the same myths in contemporary times which has brought with it the possibilities of voicing the perspective of the marginalized as much as the privileged. The theories of scholars like Ruth Vanita and others will be cited with the aim of deriving a conclusion about how the telling of myths affected or was affected by the psyche of ancient Indian society, versus how the retelling shapes or is shaped by the mental conditioning of the present society. I shall also refer to the retellings of Devdutt Pattanaik and compare and contrast them with the narratives in the epic Mahabharata. The study will be made with the aid of the figures of Shikhandi and Brihannala.