E is for the Epic of Manasa (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

I know I know, this is a cheap shot for E, but if you have seen how much reshuffling I did with this list, you'd appreciate the effort.

The Triumph of the Snake Goddess
Bengal

First off, the introductory study in the book was titled "Sympathy for the Devi" and I applaud that. (It talks about the origins of serpent worship in India, and especially the role snakes play in the Mahabharata.)

The devi in question is Manasa (also called Padma, Padmavati, or Kamala), a serpent goddess who appears in folk tradition all over the subcontinent, but is especially revered in Bengal. The epics about her emerged from indigenous Bengali oral tradition, and the first recorded versions are from the 15th century. They represent a "snake-eye view" of Hindu mythology, telling popular myths from the perspective of Manasa and her nagas, and their struggle for recognition. Because of this living folk aspect, the gods are also less mighty in these stories - there is a lot of humor, trickery, and imperfection involved in their characters, often bordering on folktale tropes (e.g. evil stepmother). Manasa is worshiped to this day, has her own altars and festivals, and the epics are still performed in her honor.

The book itself is an interesting take on publishing a folk epic: the translator took several versions collected from the oral tradition, and pieced together the various episodes into a cohesive, compound version. The introduction calls it an "uncritical edition" (as opposed to critical editions trying to zero in on one "original" layer of a story). The Manasa epics slightly differ in North, West, and East Bengal, so the translator decided to include some from each region, making the story more detailed.

What is it about?

TL;DR: Manasa is a serpent goddess accidentally born to Shiva. She spends the epic fighting to gain respect and recognizion as a goddess, first among the gods, and then among mortals.

CW: Mentions of sexual abuse.

The epic has two parts: the first takes place in the divine realm, and the second among mortals. 

DIVINE REALM

The divine half begins with creation, and tells the origins of Shiva, his marriage to Chandi and Ganga, and the birth of his sons. It also tells of the origin of snakes, and their emnity against the Garuda bird. Eventually we get to the birth of Manasa (see below). She is raised in the underworld by the sage Kasyapa and hailed as the goddess and queen of all serpents.

Eventually she sets out to meet her father Shiva. At first he doesn't believe she is his daughter, and tries to force her - so Manasa kills him with her venomous gaze. And then brings him back to life. Shiva reconsiders, and brings her home, but in secret, fearing his wives would get jealous. And they do. When he leaves, they discover the girl, and Chandi gets so angry that she beats Manasa senseless and gouges out one of her eyes (she has been one-eyed ever since). Even though Shiva manages to calm her down (after Manasa kills Chandi too, and then brings her back), eventually Chandi insists they should exile Manasa into the wilderness. Shiva does so, but from his tears he creates a sister for Manasa: the clever and loyal Neta. From this point on through the epic, Neta is Manasa's brains, conscience, and PR advisor.

Manasa makes her home on Mount Sijuya, creates a splendid city filled with all kinds of people from all castes, as well as all serpents, and lives her best life. She marries a sage on her father's insistence, but he flees from her on their wedding night, so she raises her son Astika alone. Astika later stops a horrible massacre of snakes in a ritual sacrifice.

During the churning of the ocean of milk (a famous episode in Hindu mythology), Shiva sacrifices himself by drinking the deadly kalkuta poison that emerges from the milk. Manasa shows up to bring him back to life, and the gods entrust her with the poison, since she is the only one powerful enough to handle it. She distributes it among her snakes, and keeps some in her eye.

MORTAL REALM

Manasa eventually decides she wants to be worshiped by mortals, so she descends to the human realm. Neta advises her that if she manages to convert a merchant king named Chand, the rest of mortals will follow. However, Chand just happens to be the most stubborn follower of Shiva, and he absolutely refuses to sacrifice to Manasa. The second half of the epic is a string of disasters and tricks Manasa and Neta devise to make Chand change his mind - by offering boons, by disguise, by converting his wife, by killing his sons and promising to bring them back, etc.

Chand has a secret mantra that keeps him safe and revive the dead. Manasa visits him in disguise, seduces him, and steals this power, making him defenseless. Still, he holds out, regularly calling her a "one-eyed bitch" and taking swings at her with a stick. He hires famous sorcerers who can fight snakes (ojha), but Manasa manages to trick and kill all of them (and then she revives them and adds them to her own household).

It all culminates in the story of Behula and Lakshmindar, an epic within an epic that is still very popular in Bengal. Manasa exiles a heavenly couple to earth to enact Neta's plan. One of them is incarnated as Chand's new son, the other as the princess Behula. Before the baby is born, Manasa tricks Chand into going on a trading mission to Lanka, and puts him through an odyssey for several years, concluding in sinking all of his ships. Chand comes home as a broken beggar, but he still refuses to bow to Manasa.

Meanwhile, Lakshmindar grows up, but he doesn't marry because prophecy says he will die of snakebite on his weddnig night. Manasa then puts him in a positon where he grows infatuated with his aunt, and he assaults the woman. His parents, finding out what he did, decide to get him a wife after all - in the person of 12-year-old Princess Behula. (They don't actually consummate the marriage). On the wedding night they lock the couple in a steel panic room, but a snake still gets in and kills Lakshmindar.

When Lakshmindar's body is set on a raft on the river (as they do to snake bite victims), Behula decides to accompany him, and travel on the raft until she finds a way to bring him back to life. Thus begins her own epic of many encounters and adventures (inlcuding finding out about her husband raping his aunt), until, after 6 months, she convinces Manasa to let her ascend to heaven and dance for the gods. With her dance, she wins a boon, and Manasa brings Lakshmindar back to life. And his brothers, and the ships, etc.

Chand, relieved, finally makes a sacrifice to Manasa, and the epic concludes on a happy note.

The highlights

The introductory study mentioned the fascinating concept of dvesha-bhakti, or devotion through hatred, represented by Chand. The idea is that any strong emotion directed towards a deity is a form of connection with them.

The birth of Manasa is one of the most convoluted I have ever seen in mythology. Basically, Shiva gets aroused by seeing some breast-shaped fruit and has a wet dream, during which he ejaculates. His sperm ends up on a lotus leaf, and a bird eats it, but it burns, so the bird drinks water and throws it up. It then falls onto another lotus, turns into an egg, and from the egg hatches Manasa.

I loved Manasa's personality, because it made for a fascinating story. She is extremely powerful, loves trickery, tends to be quick to anger and holds grudges (Neta often has to hold her back from going from zero to murder immediately). But she can also be convinced to change her mind, she is kind to her followers, and she enjoys life as a goddess very much. I also loved her physical descriptions throughout the epic: she wore a deadly snake as a necklace, rattlesnakes as anklets, snakes in her hair "for a novel coiffure" etc. She decks herself out like this for her wedding night, for example, which is why her husband flees. She doesn't mind.

I also enjoyed Manasa and Neta's duo, and the way they worked together. Manasa was all anger and power, and trickery when needed, but Neta was the one who knew where to topple a domino to get results down the line. At one point, Manasa called her sister "a wonderful scriptwriter". She really was.

Another fascinating character in the epic is Behula herself. At first glance she seems like a meek girl who wants to be "the perfect wife". But she does defend her husband from snakes with a machete on the wedding night - successfully, until she falls asleep. And she goes through a lot of harrowing experiences on the river. She comes back a mature and experienced (and somewhat disillusioned) woman. Also, before the wedding, she obtains the secret mantra from Manasa to bring her husband back from the dead three times - Lakshmindar just wastes all three of them by repeatedly getting heart attacks during the ceremony because he is paranoid and sees snakes everywhere.

One of my favorite moments of humor in the epic was the story of Hussain and Hassan, two Muslim rulers who destroyed Manasa's altars. Manasa sent an army of snakes against them. Defeated, Hassan fled into a haystack, and there he came face to face with a chameleon that just shook its head in a judgmental way. That was the last straw that broke Hassan's pride. (Introduction noted that epic-tellers don't include this episode in the epic anymore, because it would be seen as an attack on the Muslim community) (I just liked the judgmental chameleon).

Another favorite scene was where Manasa sent a cobra to kill Chand's six sons. The ("somewhat matronly female") cobra, however, found all six of them engaged in activities - one was playing board games, one was having sex with his wife, etc. - and felt so sorry for them that she let them live. Eventually, Manasa found another way to kill them, with poisoned food. (The snake she sends before the cobra is "easy-going" and friendly, but manages to bungle the mission by being dumb, and she takes his venom as punishment).

Possibly my favorite episode of the whole epic was the battle between Manasa and Yama. Manasa declared that people killed by snake bite should belong to her, infringing on the territory of the god of the Underworld. When she also claimed two heavenly dancers for her plan, Yama summoned his infernal army to put her in her place - and she responded in kind, with an army of serpents. It is an awesome, epic scene, that concludes with Manasa's victory over death.

The best part about Chand's odyssey was the series of attacks his ships endured from various water creatures - consecutive armies of leeches, cowries, prawns, etc. Another amusing episode was the part where he bartered with the king of Lanka, and introduced him to coconuts for the first time. On the way back Manasa sent Hanuman the monkey king to sink the ships, but Chand had a magic boon that no ship he travels on could be sunk. So, Hanuman got him on a technicality: he knocked him off he ship and then sank it. Another amusing scene ensued here, as Chandi (who took Chand's side, obviously) kept bringing up the ships, and Manasa kept sinking them again. The two women went on like this for a while until Shiva intervened.

I was fascinated by the descriptions of rituals that accompanied pregnancies throughout the epic. At five months pregnant, women were ritually fed five sweet things (yoghurt, milk, ghee, sugar, honey), and at nine months "they went through the ritual of eating whatever they craved." Children were ritually introduced to solid foods at the age of 7 months.

I liked it that characters throughout the epic actually called each other out on a lot of questions that I myself had: "If Manasa is so powerful, why doesn't she cure her own eye?" (Chand, obviously). "What will people think if you keep abandoning the ones that worship you the most?" (Chandi to Shiva).

The intro calls this epic "a rollicking, violent, emotionally charged tale full of utterly unbelievable things and yet making complete sense." It really was.

What do you think of the concept of "uncritical editions"?

StorySpotting: "This b*** I've never heard about before" (Canada's Drag Race)

StorySpotting is a weekly or kinda-weekly series about folktales, tropes, references, and story motifs that pop up in popular media, from TV shows to video games. Topics are random, depending on what I have watched/played/read recently. Also, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. Be warned!

Yeah, I watch Drag Race sometimes, when my overworked brain needs the mental equivalent of a chewing gum. I am fascinated by the makeup and the sewing challenges. 

One thing I learned is that these shows are usually hilariously off the mark whenever it comes to geek culture... or mythology. And then recently I saw one thing I needed to blog about.

Where was the story spotted?

Canada's Drag Race, season 3, episode 2 (The Who-Knows)

What happens?

The runway theme for this episode was Goddesses of the Ancient World. All of the contestants would be worth a post... but I'll focus on one: Kimmy Couture, who walked the runway in a Vegas showgirl-esque orange dress and headpiece. During the critique round, this conversation happened between the judges and Kimmy:

"Tell us about your goddess."

"So, I went on Google, and I searched it, and then I found this b*tch that I've never heard before... I just really wanted to show some sun because I feel like, I'm like a ball of fire."

"Well, you nailed it. It all worked out."

Kimmy went on to win this episode.

What's the story?

Okay, yeah, it irked me that someone on TV would refer to a mythical character in this manner, and lack of attention to... basic facts, like her name. Because Kimmy herself could not tell us who the goddess was, I became curious to see if she'd just made up a generic sun deity for fun. After some searching, I found a post on her Instagam, and was surprised that she named the goddess there: her name was Alectrona or Elektryone.

So, here is what Kimmy didn't tell you:

Elektryone belongs to the Greek pantheon. She was a demigoddess venerated on the island of Rhodes, as the daughter of the sun god Helios and the island's own patron goddess Rhode (whom the locals worshiped as an aspect of Athena). Rhode herself was a sea nymph, the daughter of Poseidon. So Elektryone belonged to not one, but two illustrious divine families: that of the ocean, and that of the sun. Very fitting for an island deity. She had seven brothers, all kings of Rhodes.

According to some sources, Elektryone was the (demi)goddess of the sunrise. Her name is related to the Greek word for amber, which was always associated with the sun for its color, and its ability to create sparks. Elektryone was also a personification of youth, since according to myth she died a virgin, before she became elevated to the rank of a local deity. Youth and the sunrise go hand in hand.

By the way, the whole myth about Helios' family on Rhodes is pretty interesting. According to one story when the Greek gods divided up the world among themselves, Helios was not present, because, well, he was doing sun things in the sky at the time. So, they conveniently forgot about him, and gave him no realm. However, just at that time the island of Rhodes rose up from the sea, and Helios made his claim of that new piece of land. Other sources say Helios himself raised the island from the sea, after falling in love with Rhode.

You can read more about Rhode here, and Helios' family in Rhodes here.

Conclusion

I have a soft spot for Helios' family in mythology (going all the way back to Kerényi Károly's mythology books, and, most recently, Circe). That look Kimmy served did not read Greek, or mythical, to me at all - but then again, I'm not a fashion expert. I am happy for the chance to introduce some lesser known deities in this post, though. So... yay?