A STUDY OF VEDIC WOMEN WITH REFERENCE TO THE CHARACTERS FROM GITHA HARIHARAN’S THE THOUSAND FACES OF NIGHT

Abstract

According to the myth of creation a woman created by God, for man as one who would serve him
all his life and devote her entire life for her husband and the family. This paradox of her presence
as a multi tasker and subjugated, gives Indian women a complex disposition as a writer and a
character in various literary works. The women have started to become stronger and their skills
as writers have reflected variously on the gender issues through their powerful portrayal of manwoman relationships in their writing to bring out the discriminations, dominations that are faced
by the women since ancient times. Women in society have a strong reference with the women
characters from myths. Hence women novelists emerged and started embracing the changed values
and created the new paradigms. They started portraying women by creating a space of their own,
the space that had been occupied for centuries and giving voice to the voiceless. Gifted with a
capacity to make free choice, Indian women writers did not depend on the choice of the male
writers, in fact they have changed the face of Indian English novel with their innovative styles and
techniques. Githa Hariharan is one of India's top female authors, creating novels and short storeys
on women and society issues. In 1993 for her first book, The Thousand Faces of Night Githa
Harijaran won the Common wealth Writers Award (1992). Hariharan combines myth and tales
from mythology and narrates the women stories concerning the feminist issues adding a realistic
touch to her novels and short stories. These women characters are strong and independent who
challenge the common conventional curves of the society and orthodoxies of the patriarchal family
system; the appearance of these characters sometimes also occurs in the shape of the shadow image
from the Indian mythology.