Saachi Saraogi

1637243
4MENG
Abstract Submission

Menaka’s Choice: A Feminist Narrative

Hindu mythology is abundant with female goddesses and apsaras who are the epitome of physical
beauty. An apsara is a celestial woman who is typically defined as a seductress whose main role is to
seduce the kings and break their penance apart from being beautiful dancers and entertainers. In
Menaka’s Choice by Kavita Kane, Menaka defies the set notions of being an apsara when she falls
in love and unsettles the entire construction of her kind. She fights for her rights as a woman and
asserts her opinions which shakes Indra’s heavenly abode. This paper will look at the construction of
‘self’ and the ‘other', whereby Menaka resists against her identity as the ‘other’ and threatens to over
throw the stereotypical beliefs embedded in her and the other apsaras. Menaka is sexually objectified
and she is made to use her body to seduce a great king but an emotion like ‘love’ is denied to her. But
she goes against her basic nature to assert her rights as a woman. The main objective of this paper
will be to look at the reversal of power relations as a woman voices her opinions and breaks the sexual
hegemony. The paper will look at how apsaras in Hindu mythology are treated as objects of pleasure
and voyeurism, much like how the modern day women are also objectified. It will study how one
woman’s voice is enough to question the foundation of being categorised as a sexual object. This
paper begins with an understanding of the roles of an apsara, the other and will proceed to see how
Menaka rebels against them.

Keywords: female, self, other, sexuality, stereotypes