Parenting experts, feminists, celebrities and regular people all seem to be having a field day declaring their views on Ketan and Siya. Some opinions put the blame squarely on her family and ‘defend’ her as a helpless girl. Aren’t they forgetting that Siya allegedly made a conscious choice, helped by a man, her boyfriend Chetan? Some appalling posts by women even said that Ketan deserved it. This attitude does not help the cause of women in India. It only makes any number of men close ranks. There are already several videos out there by outraged men, condemning ‘feminists’.
But can we deny there are men and women who seem born with ‘asuric’ natures, who take naturally to deceit and do not think things through? Who possess a destructive combination of guile and stupidity? Have we not seen both nice people and wicked people in the same family? It is normal to express shock and horror about such gruesome events, and introspection about society is healthy. But to generalise wildly and shame a family before the courts can review the facts and pass a reasoned judgement seems like trial by media and social media. I am uncomfortable with it.
If we would like a bit of perspective, perhaps we could cast our minds back to seventh-century India. Human nature seems unchanged, as many modern incidents attest, from the days of the Dasha Kumara Charita or the Adventures of Ten Princes. It is a Sanskrit storybook by one Dandin, with several English translations. Unlike other ancient books focusing on gods and kings, Dandin’s work realistically depicts the lives of ordinary men and women in ancient India. The supernatural plays only an occasional part—but consider that the ‘supernatural’ remains an element of the natural order of things even today.
There are stories in Dasha Kumara Charita about good and bad people, both men and women. The female characters fall into several categories rather than simple binaries of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. The stories paint women across a spectrum of morality, from devoted heroines to scheming tricksters. This includes tales of wives who deceive, betray or conspire against their husbands, plotting to do away with their spouses for illicit lovers.
In particular, the tale of Dhumini is considered an extremely dark story about human proclivities and their consequences. It is told by a demon to prince Mitragupta to prove a cynical point about human nature. In passing, ‘Dhumini’ means ‘dark smoke’, an appropriate choice of name for a frightening character in a stark story.
The demon catches Mitragupta and discusses existential questions, like the Yaksha in the Mahabharata. The Q&A goes: What is wicked? A woman’s heart (this view is in this story, there are other stories about decent and wise women). What enables the welfare of a householder? A wife’s good qualities. What is love? Imagination. What helps in accomplishing difficult things? Wisdom. The illustrative tales follow.
Dhumini’s tale goes that in Trigarta, a Himalayan kingdom, there lived three brothers named Dhanaka, Dhaanyaka and Dhanyaka. When a terrible famine fell on them, they first devoured grain and cattle. To Dhanyaka’s horror, his two older brothers then ate their own wives. When they turned to eat Dhumini, the wife of Dhanyaka, he escaped with her to the forest from these humans-turned-cannibals.
Out there, they found the badly mutilated victim of a crime with missing limbs, ears, and nose. Dhanyaka fed him berries and applied medicinal herbs on his wounds, before going in search of food. Left alone with the cripple, Dhumini was overcome by desire for him. She forced the disabled man to satisfy her. When Dhanyaka returned, she pretended she had a headache and asked him to fetch water. When he went to a well some distance away, she followed him to push him in, and ran away to Avanti in the plains, carrying the cripple. Everyone thought the cripple was her husband and that she was a noble pativrata selflessly taking care of him. Touched by her seeming plight, the king of Avanti gave her money. Meanwhile, Dhumini’s husband was rescued by some passers-by and chanced upon his way to Avanti, where he went around begging for alms. Catching sight of him, Dhumini raised an outcry that Dhanyaka was the one who had crippled her ‘husband’.
Dhanyaka was declared guilty and sentenced to death. When the executioners marched him to the gallows, he pleaded, “Gentlemen, I beg of you! Please ask that handicapped man just once, if it was indeed I who cut off his limbs. If he says yes, then certainly hang me.” Mercifully, they agreed. The cripple, a sorry survivor who was not evil at heart, revealed how Dhanyaka had saved him from death and cared for him with kindness by giving him food and herbal medicines. He also disclosed Dhumini's vileness and that he had felt too helpless to combat it. When the king got to know of these sordid facts, he was rightly enraged. He ordered that Dhanyaka be freed and Dhumini be mutilated for her crimes. She fled the city after her punishment, howling in disgrace. In reparation, the king bestowed land and money on Dhanyaka, who began a new life in Avanti.
This unlovely story did not lose its impact when retold down the ages in other languages. Don’t you think the Dasha Kumara Charita is worth a look even today for the hard reality check it offers on the dark side of human nature, irrespective of gender?
Renuka Narayanan | FAITHLINE | Senior journalist
(Views are personal)
(shebaba09@gmail.com)