Archetypal Representation in Kavita Kane’s Menaka’s Choice
Abstract:
The purpose of the study is to highlight the concept of Archetype in Menaka’s Choice by Kavita Kane. The story of Menaka is unimagined because of her heroic deeds. It has been said that Apsaras are the being made to complete the task of seduction and lust of men at heaven and destroy the sages from the path. This is a myth about Menaka who has seduced the great sage Vishwamistra and had a child and left him. Nevertheless, this is not only a story of seduction and lust but more than that. Kavita Kane has aptly presented Menaka though who was in task of the seduction of Viswamistra, she falls in love with him and leaves him for his good. Vishwamitra wants to be a Brahmarishi like Vashith, and for this dream to come true, she has sacrificed her love, abandoned her daughter. Menaka's heroic deeds and Vishwamitra's meditation and power symbolize the power of meditation, sacrifice and reverence. There are many descriptions of the bad condition of Women i.g. Rambha, Menaka, and Urvashi; An arrogant nature of Indra and his animosity and insecurities towards Vishwavasu and Vishwamitra spreads evilness on earth and heaven.
Keywords: Archetypes, Myth, Sacrifice, Love, Meditation, Heaven and Earth
Introduction: -
There are various myths available which define a representation of symbols, themes, images in every culture and land. A variety of theories has been applied to define these myths. One of them is archetypal criticism, which begins with James Frozer and applied by Carl Jung as ‘collective unconsciousness’ and Northrop Frye has developed this theory in his book Anatomy of Criticism (1957). The whole concept is based on myths and psychic presentation. There are various types to myth-like myths of God, celestial body, a great sage, influential king or emperor to present the example of sacrifice, value and absolute righteous path to follow.
The word Archetype was first used by Carl Jung as a collective unconscious. Everything has two-layer, which gives the actual meaning of the action. Myths are the parts of Archetypes, and it has various definitions; which defines myth as a universal representation of symbols, themes and images. M. H. Abrams also defines archetypes in his book A glossary of literary terms,
Archetype denotes narrative design, patterns of action, character types, themes, and images that recur in a wide variety of works of literature, as well as in myths, dreams, and even in social rituals’ (Abrams 18)
Archetypes Practitioners along with James Frozer, Curl Jung these authors have also developed the theory of Archetypes, Claude Levi-Strauss, Northrop Frye, Maud Bodkin, G. Wilson Knight, Northrop Frye, Maud Bodkin, and G. Wilson Knight.
Myths are being told to lead the path of Dharma. It has to say that human beings believe more in culture, tradition and myths. Values and morals lie in the stories which have been told by the ancestors or mythologies. There are many books that have been written in mythology. Re-telling of mythology is the present trend in the literary genre. In the present situation, many writers have written the books on Mahabharata, Ramayana and Puranas i.g. Kavita Kane, Anand Neelakantan, Ashwin Sanghi, and Devdutt Patnaik.
Kavita Kane has left her profession as a journalist and joined as a full-time author for her mythological fiction writing. She has written six books on minor characters from Mahabharat and Ramayana, i.g Karna’s Wife: the outcaste Queen, Sita’s Sister, Menaka’s Choice, Lanka’s Princess, The Fisher Queen’s Dynasty, Ahalya’s Awakening (“Kavita Kane”)
The Present study will go to disperse the archetype aspect of the novel. The Story of Menaka has been defamed as for lust and who has destroyed the meditation of Vishwamitra. However, Kavita Kane has portrayed her as a sacrificial soul, being an apsara she has to seduce and move on. There are several restrictions for Apsara at heaven, and one of them was that apsaras can love but cannot marry and not beget a child. Indra was envious of Vishwavasu because he loved Menaka. Menaka broke the rules and married Vishwavasu, king of Gandharva, and beget a child. This action punished Vasu and Menaka both, a child was abandoned from heaven, and Vasu was falsely charged by Rambha for drunk and debauch and cursed to be a monster and banished from heaven. Menaka did not accept this injustice and fiercely refused to serve in heaven for a long time. Indra was insecure about his position due to Vishwamitra's meditation and power to create another heaven on earth. Due to this insecurity, he sent Menaka on task with the help of Kama to seduce Vishwamitra. Nevertheless, a cunning and insecure Indra has the order to use the love arrow to Menaka and makes her fall in love with Vishwamitra to complete his vengeance to Vasu for his Gandharva marriage with Menaka. Indra was indeed successful in his plan. Menaka and Vishwamitra were deep in love that he forgot his meditation and power. However, after one decade Indra summoned Menaka for return to heaven, but Menaka refused his order and decided to live happily with her husband and child. After a long time, Menaka realized that Vishwamitra had lost everything because of her and her guilt and genuine love for him makes her leave him for his good. The whole plan was exposed in front of Vishwamitra and cursed her that they will meet again in their life. Nevertheless, this anger and hatred lead him to the knowledge of the ultimate reality of the soul and self-realization. In the end, Vishwamitra is known as Brahmarishi like Vashishth and other Satprishish. This knowledge also gives him the actual motto of Menaka after leaving him and his family.
Menaka as Archetype Hero:
As Northrop Frye has mentioned in his Myth, Fiction and Displacement (Frye) that, Hero has some power rather than other humanity. However, here it is to mention that a hero has no gender; it can be women or men. A hero must have to undergo some difficult situations and escape by air. Menaka is aptly portrayed as the true Hero of this novel.
There are varying difficulties where she answers very cunningly to Indra. Menaka has an adorable appearance and brain. Everyone has an eye on her. Nevertheless, Menaka falls in love with Vishwavasu, king of Gandharva. Though there was a restriction of marriage and she married Vishwavasu, Gandharva Marriage. This marriage insults Indra and his pride in selecting or wooing Vishwavasu instead of him. When she begets a child, it becomes a horrific action for Indra. He abandoned the child and Vasu agreed to leave the child on earth without a single glance of Menaka. As a hunted mother, she has accused Indra. Raised a voice for her right as being a mother “You gave me all the weapons of love, sex and desire but disarmed me of my capability of conscious choice and decision. Why? I can be a woman, but never a wife or a mother. Just a sexual slave. A whore. (Kane 47)
Indra made a plan to banish Vasu from heaven. In the absence of Menaka, he falsely charged Vasu for being drunk and debauch. He banished Vasu from heaven. Menaka fiercely rejected her role, "I am ready for that…. I shall readily leave Amravati. But I shall not entertain anymore in this court, till Vasu returns" (Kane 79) and rigorously refused to perform her role as Apsara,
I shall be right here; you can see me but never touch me, you can hear me but never listen to me singing. You cannot have me…you will pine for me every single morning and evening, each time during the dance performances, visualizing my moves, fantasizing about me, wanting me but never having me! I will be there, but I will not be dancing in front of you…We were a team, we were lovers. I shall never make you forget that you will miss me. (Kane 81-82)
Universally acknowledged that a mother could do anything for her child. In every culture and literature, it is witnessed that a mother always fights for their children, whether they won or lost. The motherhood also can be seen in Manaka, while her first daughter Pramadvara is bitten by a snake and it becomes fatal for her. Yama, the God of death, has arrived to receive the soul of Pramadvara, Menaka fights for her to grant some year of life to her. She requested to Yuma,
'I am immortal… I cannot be subjected to death, but I have enough years of my life to donate to my daughter, whom I bore from Vasu, an immortal as well' (Kane 91). Menaka doesn't make only for her one daughter, but she also guides Shakuntala, a daughter from Vishwamitra, When Shakuntala had a Gandharva marriage with Dushyanta in the absence of saint Kanav, and Dushyant doesn't return to take Shakuntala back to his kingdom, and Shukuntla begets his child. Menaka supports her decision to nurture the child alone. “Your decision is momentous and exceptional …..Yours will take enormous, uncommon courage, as you will be taking on the world, Shakuntala. No woman has dared to do this before. You would be the first mother to single-handedly bring up her child on her own.” (Kane 257)
Menaka is self-reliant and a great mother for her children, but also, she is an eminent admirer of Vishwavasu and Vishwamitra. She fought for Vasu’s injustice and left Vishwamitra, sacrificing her happiness for his dream to come true, a dream of Brahmarishi.
She was a great scholar who has learnt Natyashastra, philosophy and other all arts. She was a beauty with a brain. Nothing is impossible for her to change. She can motivate and guide to the righteous path to whether there is Vishwamitra, Urvashi or Rambha. When she realized that Vishwamitra had lost the reverence and power, she encouraged him to get back to his meditation and go in search of ultimate reality and go back to the way of Brahmarishi. She said,
You proved that man could do anything if he had the will. You, a mortal, defied the devas. You wiped out their arrogance, their divine power by usurping their heaven. You threatened them with the prospect that man might not need Deva anymore. You proved man could make his own heaven. (Kane 167)
She also highlights the caste discrimination issues. There is no connection between work and birth. She helps Vishwamitra to find his actual motto of birth.
You were to be the liberated being aware of his brahman, the infinite Atma, his true inner self. Vishwamitra, are the only man, the only Rishi, who got elevated to the position. You rose by merit to prove that brahmin status can be earned and is not entitled, to tell the world that it’s not births but worth which determines the outcome of one’s life. (Kane 168)
When the time came to leave Vishwamitra, she created a situation for him to make her hate and disgust. She bluntly expresses, “You are not the man I once admired, the one who aspired to be a Brahmarishi cannot claim to be even a simple rishi any more. He does not teach, learn or educate the world as he is supposed to. He is a husband, a father, a lover.” (Kane 184)
It is to say that as you sow, so you shall reap, it same happened with Rambha, who helped Indra to manipulate the position of Vasu, and now she is being raped by Ravan. She requests all to save her from Ravan, but no one has dared to fight against him. But when Menaka came to know about the situation, she fiercely tried to convince Rambha that she should not help Indra, for another task of seduce Vishwamita. He will not spare any more now; he may curse her.
Indra is the one who supposed to protect you against Ravana, he was the one who should have punished Ravan, but he was allowed to walk free, remorseless. You are colluding with this man who was too much of a coward to fight your offender. He is our king, Rambha, it his duty is to defend us! (Kane 236)
At the end of the story, Menaka has the last chance to see Vishwmita, but being cursed as they will never meet again, she refuses to take an opportunity to have a last glance of Vishwamitra. It is her divine love and respect represents here “There are certain episodes in our lives that give you so much happiness, but which go bad for some reason or the other and yet we don’t get over them’... possibly that’s why we tend to obsess over unfinished relationships!” (Kane 285) Menaka is Self-reliant, great mother, a true eminent admirer and a great scholar who rendered service for the betterment of society.
Archetypes surrounding Menaka:
Vishwamitra
Aristotle said about the plot that in the story there is beginning, middle and end. Every character played a vital role to suffice the motto of the concerned subject. Here not only Menaka but some other characters played a vital role to succeed the plot. An archetypal characteristic also can be seen in Vishwamitra, who was born as Kshitrya king, Kaushik and achieved the title as Vishwamitra by his meditation.
Indra’s arrogance and saint Vashisth’s power develops a sense of revenge in the mind of Vishwamitra though become a Brahmarishi. Here through this journey, Vishwamitra undergoes many difficult situations and mental trauma. He creates heaven on earth to give justice to immortals. “Your indralok is biased, segregating on the basis of caste, colour and country. My Pratishristi- this nee universe-will be just and egalitarian, welcoming all, respecting all, promising salvation to all. Merit, not an entitlement, will be considered.” (Kane 85)
He challenges Indra for his arrogance, and he challenges Vashisth for his power and position as Brahmarishi. Vashisth refused to give a calf to him for his desires. King Kaushi decided to be a Brahmarishi like Vashisth. He does much meditation that he entitled as Vishwamitra by Brahma. He also stopped the sacrifice of animals or human being; which was done to make devas happy. This position of Vishwamitra had insecure Indra and sent Menka to seduce him. This Sedacation has changed everything; both were deep in love and had a great family life. This happiness was not permanent. When they beget a child, Menak reveals the truth of her togetherness and false love for him. After this reality, Vishwamitra goes back to his meditation and also tests King Harishchandra's honesty and truthfulness.
It was not hated or anger, but it was remorse and regret…In Harishchandra, he had seen Menaka, forsaking him and their child for a greater cause-his goal which he had forgotten to follow, his target he had lost sight of. It was Menaka who had forced him to see the truth. (Kane 220)
When Indra came to destroy him, he replied in a peaceful manner. He has achieved what he wanted, 'he felt strong, enormous power flow through him as he realized that he was finally in complete control of himself.' (Kane 265). At last, he asks forgiveness to saint Vashisth, and he got entitled,
You battled. You won some, you lost a lot, but you never give up. This determination was powered by a will to succeed and through it arose the wisdom you were lacking. You have it now, Vishwamitra. You have it all. ….. You are now a Brahmarishi, the wisest and the most powerful to all. (Kane 274)
Prediction of Birth and Rebirth:
In every myth, you will find birth, death and rebirth of a saint or as a monster or incarnation of God on earth. Here some characters are introduced who are being cursed and destined to reborn as a great emperor or a monster. Vishwamitra was born as Kshatriya, he was known as King Kaushik, but his prophecy has made him a great sage.
Vishwavasu was cursed by Indra, and he became a Kabandh monster on earth. With this incarnation of God Vishnu as Rama also mentioned in it and he will relieve Vasu from his curse. When Vishwamitra and Menaka abandon their daughter, he gives a blessing to her daughter that, she is my princess. "But she will be a queen, destined to be the mother of the greatest emperor whose name the country will bear." (Kane 177). The birth of Sita is also the rebirth of Vedavati, who has jumped in fire due to Ravan's lousy eye on her. And she cursed him that she will be reborn, and will be responsible for his death.
Conclusion:
Myths are not about the representation of the past but representation of present and future. Each and every aspect of this novel will teach you something which relates to you somewhere. Menaka has done far away from her duties. She was an exceptional character who taught us true love and sacrifices for one's wellbeing. Love is nothing like to make yours and have a family and happiness but to help out to find out your goal, and self -realization. Menaka is a real example of a mother, lover and scholar. She has all the qualities which make her a great personality. She has been representing women for many years.
Works cited: