Mahabharata – 168
by
Sankar Mukherjee
and
Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
Aadivamsavatarana Parva
Story of Dirghatama continued
Dirghatama was the son of Mamata. He was born blind.
He was married to a woman and ironically enough it was the woman who was the bread earner for Dirghatama. She however one day told her
husband that she would not look after him -- her husband any more.
Dirghatama was blind. So it was difficult for him to earn and maintain his family. When his wife said that she would not look after him any more Dirghatama was broken hearted. Angrily he said to his wife-- I lay down from this day a rule that every woman shall have to follow. A woman can have only one husband. And he will be the all in all for that woman. She must not have any extra marital relation. In case her husband dies she cannot marry again. And she who has extra marital affair shall certainly be regarded as fallen. And even if she inherits wealth from her deceased husband she shall not be able to enjoy that wealth. Hearing these words of Dirghatama, his wife commanded her sons in rage-- Throw him into the river Ganga!
The episode is very significant. Dirghatama’s curse shows that earlier women could co habit with males other than their husband. And of course widow marriage was there. But Dirghatama made them illegal. Even though widow marriage is legitimate now a days, thanks to Vidyasagara of Bengal in the nineteenth century and thanks to British legislation, widow marriage is not as yet acknowledged among the masses of India.
It is left for a few rich women who belong to the elite class. May be the law makers who came after Dirghatama emphasized that the husband is the only god for woman. With the English poet John Milton the husband was the god for the wife and God the Father was the god of the
husband. Such a decree is not invariably pleasant for the woman kind.
But our Indian women, who are not that enlightened do believe that husbands are the gods with them and Dirghatama’s legislation is still in vogue. Though the judiciary might not stand in the way of extramarital affairs among adults, thanks to the late verdict of the Supreme Court, the common people look upon the participants in extra marital affairs as fallen. They are looked down upon by the society of ours or the society of the reactionary and the unenlightened. Any average woman would protest against Dirghatama’s ruling and no wonder that Dirghatama’s wife was afire with anger. And she at once commanded her children to throw Dirghatama her husband into the waters. But be that as it may, let women and feminism grumble, the patriarchal system to which Dirghatama put the coping stone still continues in India.
by
Sankar Mukherjee
and
Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
Aadivamsavatarana Parva
Story of Dirghatama continued
Dirghatama was the son of Mamata. He was born blind.
He was married to a woman and ironically enough it was the woman who was the bread earner for Dirghatama. She however one day told her
husband that she would not look after him -- her husband any more.
Dirghatama was blind. So it was difficult for him to earn and maintain his family. When his wife said that she would not look after him any more Dirghatama was broken hearted. Angrily he said to his wife-- I lay down from this day a rule that every woman shall have to follow. A woman can have only one husband. And he will be the all in all for that woman. She must not have any extra marital relation. In case her husband dies she cannot marry again. And she who has extra marital affair shall certainly be regarded as fallen. And even if she inherits wealth from her deceased husband she shall not be able to enjoy that wealth. Hearing these words of Dirghatama, his wife commanded her sons in rage-- Throw him into the river Ganga!
The episode is very significant. Dirghatama’s curse shows that earlier women could co habit with males other than their husband. And of course widow marriage was there. But Dirghatama made them illegal. Even though widow marriage is legitimate now a days, thanks to Vidyasagara of Bengal in the nineteenth century and thanks to British legislation, widow marriage is not as yet acknowledged among the masses of India.
It is left for a few rich women who belong to the elite class. May be the law makers who came after Dirghatama emphasized that the husband is the only god for woman. With the English poet John Milton the husband was the god for the wife and God the Father was the god of the
husband. Such a decree is not invariably pleasant for the woman kind.
But our Indian women, who are not that enlightened do believe that husbands are the gods with them and Dirghatama’s legislation is still in vogue. Though the judiciary might not stand in the way of extramarital affairs among adults, thanks to the late verdict of the Supreme Court, the common people look upon the participants in extra marital affairs as fallen. They are looked down upon by the society of ours or the society of the reactionary and the unenlightened. Any average woman would protest against Dirghatama’s ruling and no wonder that Dirghatama’s wife was afire with anger. And she at once commanded her children to throw Dirghatama her husband into the waters. But be that as it may, let women and feminism grumble, the patriarchal system to which Dirghatama put the coping stone still continues in India.
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