CREATIVE EMPLOYMENT OF HINDU MYTHS IN SELECT WRITINGS OF PATTANAIK

Abstract

The present thesis entitled Creative Employment of Hindu Myths in Select Writings of Pattanaik focuses on the ways in which stereotypical cultural imagery of Hindu myths has been challenged and creatively employed in the writings of Devdutt Pattanaik (b. 1970). Pattanaik is one of the emerging authors in Indian writing in English who can be credited with creative and fruitful employment of Hindu myths in writing. He is an author and a mythologist who believes that Hindu myths should be studied through the lenses and in the light of post-post modernist discourse. For long, ‘myths’ continued to be associated with figment of imagination or unfounded fancy of primitive, savage or pre-industrial uncivilized races or at best they had been ignored. Towards the end of 19th century, however, on account renwed interest in myths after the publication of academic works like Frazer’s The Golden Bough and Tylor’s Primitive Culture, writers and scholars like T.S.Eliot and James Joyce elevated myths as a popular and significant literary device. The present thesis attempts an analysis of Devdutt Pattanaik’s works including Jaya (2010), Sita (2013) Shikhandi (2014) and Culture (2017) (A culture of essays) among others. With the help of an elaborate discussion of the mythological characters like Sita, Draupadi, Pandavas, Kauravas and Shikhandi, an attempt has been made to reevaluate the established cultural models in the light of what Devdutt Pattanaik terms as post-post modernism. The research methodology involves both inductive and reductive reasoning of Hindu myths in general and Pattanaik’s writing in particular. The literature review involves studies of literary works on myths by Frazer, Tylor, Eliot, Joyce, Scott, Segal, Nady and Pattanaik. The thesis contains six chapters entitled: i) Introduction ii) From Margin to Center: Hindu Myths in Pattanaik’s Writings iii) Nation and Narration in the Writings of Pattanaik iv) Androgyny in Pattaniak’s Writings v) “The Woman Question” in Pattanaik’s Writings vi) Conclusion