The Manasamangal Kavya from the feminine psychological perspective (In respect of the co-wife problems, self-establishment, condemnations for husbands, Baromasya and taking disguises/ নারীমনস্তত্ত্বের আলোকে মনসামঙ্গল কাব্য : প্রসঙ্গ – সতীন সমস্যা, আত্মপ্র

Abstract

In our society women have been defined with certain words and terms which are used as the opposites to that of the men. A woman resides as a daughter, wife and mother, completely unaware of her own individuality. A society where woman is not allowed to know her own personality, it is quite normal that her deep feelings, her emotions are made to remain veiled forever. Moreover the patriarchy has termed her enchantress (‘Mayabini’, ‘kuhokini’) to avoid any reflection on the hidden core of her heart. Women have failed to transform their thoughts into works unlike men. But the condition of women was not the same right from the beginning in our Indian society. In the Vedic era women like Gargi, Maitreyee were ranked with the greatest of the menfolk in society. Towards the end of the Vedic period, in the age of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata women were allowed to exercise their freedom in selecting their husbands which was called the ‘Swayambar Pratha,’ and had their chances in widow remarriage. But the system changed with time. Women have lost their freedom and the perversion of men has made them to turn into their property. Society has not lend its ear to the heart- touching stories of these women. But in literature the poets despite being male, have always come out of their society defined roles and as human beings they have sung the minds of women. Later these hidden aspects of the minds of the female characters have come to be interpreted as feminine psychology. The poets of the medieval Bengali literature are not an exception. The works of the medieval Bengali literature especially the Mangalkavyas are the soulful accounts which are like the undercurrents in the main narratives of self establishment of the Gods and Goddesses. The hidden aspects of women psychology and the conflicts of their minds have been centered round the co-wife problems due to the polygamy system and their establishment of ‘self’. The poets have opened up the complex sides of the feminine psychology in themes of ‘Baromasya’, the narration of twelve months and the condemnations for their husbands. This article tries to analyse how the poets of the Manasamangal Kavya have depicted the thoughts and the inner conflicts of the feminine psychology through various activities of the female characters.