Chapter Critique 4 – INDIAN LITERATURE
By
Harlem Jude P. Ferolino
The
Societal Norms, Mythology, and Romance in Mahamaya, Selected Stories from
Panchatantra and Selected poems from Gitanjali:
I.
Mahamaya
A.
Societal Norms
Mahamaya presents
the societal norms of marriage in India. Arranged marriages are preponderant. These
are caused by the parents’ decision for their children. Because of the marriage
customs in India, the parents could only arrange marriages with families of the
same social status as theirs. Indian culture has this social stratification
called the Caste System that
distinguishes the higher and lower classes. This comprises the groups, Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaisyas, Shudras, and Dalit or Untouchables. A woman in a
Brahman caste, for example, could not be married to a man in the Kshatriya or
to any other caste outside their own, and vice versa. Marrying from a different
caste is frowned upon especially in the higher caste. This norm somehow
differentiates the concept of Love and Marriage. In Mahamaya by Tagore, Mahamaya, a woman from the Brahman caste, has a
romantic connection with Rajeev, a man from the lower caste. Unfortunately,
there is a difficulty in finding Mahamaya a groom from the same caste as hers
for no particular reason. When Rajeev proposed for a wedding to Mahamaya, she
could only refuse to him because of the difference in their social status.
Later came her brother, Bhavanicharan, and Mahamaya just followed him without a
word. He handed down a red wedding sari to
Mahamaya. She put it on as instructed by her brother because later on, we learn
that her brother arranged her to an old Brahmin biding for death, to prevent
the future humiliation to their family in case Mahamaya and Rajeev will decide
for an inter-caste marriage. Mahamaya and the old man got married that night,
but the next day Mahamaya became a widow. This shows how marriages are arranged
in India in the time of Tagore. To date, reports claim that inter-caste
marriages are now rising up in urban India, “because of female literacy and
education, women at work, urbanization, need for two-income families, and
influences from the media” (Wikipedia).
