মহাভারতের মান্ধাতা উপাখ্যান ও সৈয়দ ওয়ালীউল্লাহ্‌র ‘স্তন’ ছোটগল্পে নারীদেহ ও মাতৃত্ব : ওর্টনারের ‘প্রকৃতি-সংস্কৃতি’ ধারণার আলোকে একটি তুলনামূলক পাঠ/ The Female Body and Motherhood in the *Mahabharata*’s Legend of Mandhata and Syed Waliullah’s Short Story ‘

Abstract

This article offers a comparative reading of the Mandhātā episode in the Mahābhārata and Syed Waliullah’s short story ‘Stan’ (‘The Breast’) through the concept of Sherry B. Ortner’s ‘nature–culture’ paradigm. It examines how the female body, motherhood, childbirth, and breastfeeding are culturally constructed and represented across two distinct literary and historical contexts. Employing a qualitative, interpretive methodology based on close textual analysis, the study argues that although the Mandhātā episode presents the extraordinary motif of male pregnancy, it ultimately reaffirms the indispensability of the female body in nurturing and sustaining human life through breastfeeding. In contrast, ‘Stan’ depicts motherhood as a complex socio-cultural and psychological experience shaped by poverty, class inequality, grief, and gendered expectations. Drawing on Ortner’s argument that women are symbolically associated with nature through their reproductive and maternal roles while simultaneously serving as agents of cultural reproduction, the article demonstrates that motherhood extends beyond biological function to become a site of social regulation, symbolic meaning, and power. The comparative analysis further reveals a remarkable continuity in the cultural meanings attached to the female body and motherhood, suggesting that despite the historical distance between ancient myth and modern fiction, patriarchal constructions of maternal identity and the female body remain deeply embedded in cultural consciousness.