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In
all patriarchal societies norms for control of male sexuality are not rigid.
Men have always enjoyed the right to be polygamous or to seek sexual partners
other than the wife. Prostitution is a patriarchal social institution which has
usually men as buyers of sexual services from women. The abhorrence with which prostitutes are
treated highlights the double standards of the pervasive patriarchal sexual
morality all over the world. In
her short story Padmavati, the Harlot , Kamala Das has interrogated the
institutionalization of prostitution which reduces the prostitute to a mere defiled body bereft of a pure heart and soul.
When the story opens it is dusk. Padmavati, the
middle-aged prostitute had from morning walked all the way to reach the hilltop
shrine she had yearned to visit for the past thirty-three years. She had been
selling her body all these years for taking care of her ailing mother,
educating her brothers and making money to marry off her sister. Now, her
mother who had been disgusted with her profession, is dead and her employed
brothers and married sister have forsaken her. When Padmavathi frantically
climbs up the steps to reach the temple some young loafers identifying her
profession from her bearing, pass lewd comments and ask her to spend the night
with them. They even snatch away the fruits she had brought as offerings for
the Lord. When Padmavati reaches the temple she finds that it has already
closed for the night. In sheer desperation she knocks on the heavy door.
Miraculously, the door opens and she sees the Lord of the shrine. She falls at
the feet of her Lord, praying, “Help me, O Lord, I am only a poor harlot…I have
always wanted to see you but until today I did not get a chance. I was busy
looking after my family, lending my body to strangers who hated me and then
hated themselves” (25). She has nothing to offer the Lord but her ageing body
and this is accepted by the Lord. At dawn when Padmavati comes down the steps
blushing like a bride after a night of love, the same loafers who had accosted
her now bow worshipfully before her seeking her blessings.
In this story,, Kamala Das displays a genuine
sympathy for the plight of women who are forced into prostitution to satisfy
the insatiable lust of man. It might have been her life in metropolitan cities
of India like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata that made her curious about the life
of those engaged in the flesh trade. Of all the Indian English women short
story writers none has delved so deep into the sad lives of these dregs of
society. In story after story, Kamala Das exposes the hypocrisy and callousness
of the male who dehumanizes woman by exploiting her body and then turns round
to point an accusing finger at her.
No
woman chooses prostitution out of her own free will but becomes one due to
circumstances in a patriarchal society. Padmavati becomes a harlot for steering
her family to secure shores. Padmavati’s life had been one long sacrifice for
her mother and siblings. Sacrifice and suffering are said to lead to salvation
or sainthood. Her body might have been impure if judged by patriarchal
standards, but her mind was pure and ready for unconditional surrender to the
Lord. And it is this heartfelt, absolute bhakti
of the harlot that the Lord graciously acknowledges. In connection with this
T.Sarada comments that “the story is a supreme instance to prove the fact that
the sole concern of the Almighty is man’s soul. It is an undefiled soul alone
that can attain His eternal abode. ‘Purity’ and ‘impurity’ are the states of
spirit rather than that of body.” (25)
Sarada. T. “Women in Kamala Das.” College English Review1:4 (1997): 21-26
Bhadra S
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