Feminist Revisioning of Indian Mythology: Limning of Kavita Kane's Uruvi in Karna's Wife: The Outcast's Queen

Myths play a crucial role in the establishment of patriarchal ideologies which in turn relegate women to an inferior position. To overturn the conventional androcentric ideology and provide a new female point of view, the feminist revisionists recreate myths. These revisionists examine how patriarchy, through the use of myths, contrives to neglect female characters in the cultural texts. Through "revision of the patriarchal myths" (Wilcox, 10) the image of powerful and intelligent women is created and the female voice is asserted. The retelling of myths from female standpoint began in the west with the revision, reframing, and re-visiting of western canonical texts that subjugated women. For instance, Anita Diamant's The Red Tent and India Edghill's Queenmaker recreate the stories of Dinah and Michal from the Bible. Among contemporary Indian writers whose work aligns with such a revisionist tradition is Kavita Kane; and she re-tells one of the lesser known stories from the Mahabharata in her novel, Karna's Wife: The Outcast's Queen (2013). The essay sets out to analyse Kane's novel's revisionist reading which recreates the story of Karna of the Mahabharata, from perspectives of Uruvi, his second wife. In the novel, the author re-examines the myth to present the perspective of an ignored female character; and she does this through depicting the traditionally neglected character of Uruvi as proficient and efficacious, thus, contributing to the inception of female ideology.