The Double Standards of Patriarchy and Its Sanction of Inhuman

Practices against Women in M.K. Indira's Phaniyamma

In a religiously bound country like India, the life of individuals is controlled by
the dos and donts of religion. Hinduism is a way of life which is based on patriarchy,
male-domination and subordination of women. These perpetuated by religious ethics and
codes of conduct which restrained women and forced them to accept a subordinate
position. Dorraine Jacobson in Women in India: Two Perspectives says,
Women are active religious practitioners but they have little religious
right- legitimate textually sanctioned religious power- which is limited to
small group of men.(Jacobson and Wadley126)
In the ancient times women were not treated as badly as they are now. Conversely
they were honored, treated with self- esteem and enjoyed an equal position with their
male counterparts. Kamaladevi Chattopadhayay in Indian Womens Battle for Freedom
writes:
Scholarly studies by researchers tell us that the women in the ancient
times, from Vedic period, that is, 2500 B.C. to 1500 B.C., enjoyed equal
status with men in every field such as political, social, economic and
religious. They were treated with dignity and respect. Womens
education was then a routine part of their daily life, marked by Upanayana,
which literally means taking a pupil to the teacher or initiation into
learning. There are verses in the Atharva Veda to be recited while offering
a libation at the initiation of a woman into Vedic studies. One of the
Grihasutras describes the actual initiation ceremony where she is
addressed as Yagnopavitini. (Chattopadhayay 9)

Hindu rituals are based on Vedic rituals, which are reserved for male. In early
history of man, we observe that women were excluded from religious services because
men considered them as unclean and impure at the time of menstruation and even at the
time of child birth. Manu prescribed a codes of conduct for women and made them
subordinate to father, husband and son in the course of their life and serving them was
considered equivalent to all religious rituals for the women. It was The Laws of Manu or
Varnashastras that brought the caste system and patriarchy. The marrying of non-Aryan
women into Aryan families was towards enslaving them as they were low-caste and
hence they could not be initiated through Upanayana and Vedic education. To quote
Chattopadhayay:
The obvious purpose of excluding women from this initiation was clearly
to debar them as servile nonentities an extension of what was
called religion began to cover social usages, the freedom enjoyed by
women began to contract and ancient texts came to be tortured out of their
original context to support the new social pattern now forced into use.
Many perverse customs were thus introduced into society by interpolating
whole new passages into the original shastric texts and epics, posed as
emanating from learned, respected leaders or rishis. This helped them to
get religious sanction for degrading womens status, reducing them to
being unwanted progeny and finally having to mount the funeral pyre of
the husband. Marriage was to be their only vocation, with no existence
outside of it. (Chattopadhayay 18)
As a result women had always played a submissive role in the Indian sociocultural contexts and been subservient, to their male counterparts. The status of women
during the Vedic age, in the course of the Aryan invasion and beginning of Hinduism
leading to the pre and post independence eras would be essential to study the plight of
women. M. K. Indiras, Phaniyamma undoubtedly portrays the double standards of
patriarchy and its sanction of inhuman practices against women in the name of tradition.

The nineteenth century evolutionists view that religion will die away in the
emerging of scientific, industrial society. On the other hand, the religion has managed not
only to survive but also continues to be a force to think within the new millennium. As
religion adapts to the new conditions, it also influences society in diverse ways. When
religious extremists turn into cultural regulators, culture suffers and when culture
becomes constricted, it is the women who suffer the most. The religious forces postulate
the position of women in all walks of life and deny her an identity, reducing her merely a
tool in the hands of men for the fulfillment of the values of dharma, artha, karma and
moksha. Her fulfillment was seen in the implementation of values of obedience,
subservience, service, sacrifice and tolerance.
Phaniyamma presents a microscopic view of a society, riddled with silly rules and
regulations which were created by the patriarchal society, caste system and prejudice and
questions the hypocrisy and cruel tradition of the society endorsed on women, in a very
delicate but significant way and does bring about a subtle, but a vital message. M.K.
Indira's novel Phaniyamma is a true story. It is the story of a relative of the author. This
Kannada novel was published by Kali for Women in 1990 with Tejaswini Niranjana as
the translator. Phaniyamma was awarded the State Sahitya Akademi prize in 1976-77.
M.K.Indiras Phaniyamma is a book about the very inhuman way the society in
India treats its women especially widows, those very women who are extremely helpless
and who need all the sympathy and understanding one can show towards them.
Phaniyammas story is a rediscovery within a fictional frame work of a Bhramin childwidows fate at that time and it raises questions highlighting the marginal gendered
position. It is also a book about how humanity can still sparkle in a person who is
unjustly treated in the name of tradition and religion.
Set in the mid-nineteenth century, the story starts with the birth of Phaniyamma in
1844 in a village near Tirthahali named Hebbalige, the region in interior Karnataka. It
was a big joint family; there was no count of how many people lived in the house. In
those days it was a sin and a crime to count how many people or children there were.
Apart from the land that the family owned, the men also were responsible for the
distribution of letters come by post at that time. This occupation had earned the family
3

the name, 'AncheMane' - Post house. Postal services commenced in Mysore State (the
old name for today's Karnataka state) around 1838. There were only five Brahmin
households there, which were governed by the matha of Sringeri. The Brahmin lords
temple school was the only school that was also meant only for the boys. The life was
slow paced, the nature was fertile and green; it was almost like a paradise.
But life was hard especially for women: in medieval times women were almost
like domesticated pets caged in the house, they were always kept in total ignorance so
they did not know the world outside. Their world revolved only around their husband and
his family. A woman was recognized as a person only when she was with her husband.
They were not allowed to act on their own or even to think on their own. The women
always had to depend on the males of their family. Their entire life was spent in the
kitchen, always cleaning, cooking, preparing for weddings, pregnancies, births, shaving
their heads as soon their husbands died and so on. They really had a tough time and had
to perform all duties, work hard even when they were pregnant. Generally this was the
plight of women during that period.
Day and night women must be kept in dependence by the male of the
families, and if they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must
be kept under ones control
Her father protects her in childhood, her husband protects her in youth,
and sons protect her in old age: a woman is never fit for independence
(Manu ix, 2, 3.)
The worst affected among all women were one class of people - the widows,
because the society had defined inane and inhuman rules for widows. The widows were
looked upon with at most scorn and were even believed that the widowhood was
considered to be a punishment for a horrible crime committed by the women in their
former existence upon earth. Abbe Dubois in Hindu Manners, Customs and History in
India: Collected Papers, mentions those inhuman rules and regulations which was
endorsed on widows in the following way,
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A widow has to be in mourning till her death. The sign of mourning are as
follows: she is expected to have her head shorn once a month,she is not
allowed to chew betel, she is no longer permitted to wear jewels, with the
exception of one very plain ornament round her neck ,she must wear
coloured clothes no longer, only pure white ones, she must not put saffron
on her face or body in any amusement or to attend family festivities, such
as marriage feasts, the ceremony of upanayana and others, for her
presence would be considered an evil omen . (Dubois352-53)
Apart from these conventions the widows were thrust with many other policies
like, she should eat only once a day, stay away from others and practice the madi - the act
of purification in daily work. In addition, a widow must work day in and out till her dying
day. Widows had no alternatives; they ought to subject themselves to excommunication
and to social suppression as long as they lived for which sati could be a better choice.
Uma Chakravarti in her, Widows in India: Social Neglect and Public Action comes out
with the same view
The widow was conscious of the miseries to which she would be subjected
now that she had survived her husband. The momentary agony of
suffocation in the flames was nothing compared to her lot as a widow.
(Chakravarti 285)
If this was plight of married widows, no doubt that the fates of child widows were
even worse, for their whole future is marred, especially as some of them were very little
girls. They are debarred from any festivities, celebrations, denied good clothes or
ornaments and their head had to be tonsured. Further, they were considered inauspicious,
unlucky to even look at, so they had to hide themselves, make themselves look ugly,
surrender themselves to a whole lot of humiliation and dishonour.

At her birth it was predicted that Phaniyamma would live a long life, an
auspicious death as a married woman and would marry a rich man and even give birth to
eight children. Phaniyamma grew up in the big family, her infancy and childhood passed
with a kind of innocence. She, like all other girls in the house hold learnt all the things
that a young girl was supposed to learn and also the concept of madi barely at the age of
two. When she was nine years old, search for a bridegroom for Phaniyamma began
because it was a customary practice at that time .In those days boys wore the sacred
thread at the age of five and girls were to be married off between seven and nine, ten
years was considered to be too old for a girl. Moreover the daughter was described as a
trust of the father, later to become the property of the husband. Thus Child marriage
was compulsory for girls
Every parent was obliged to marry its child within the limit of the age and
within its own caste, be it a fit or unfit match. (Chakravarti 106)
The earlier the act of giving the daughter in marriage, the greater is the
merit, for thereby the parents are entitled to rich rewards in heaven.
(Ramabai 29)
So horoscopes were compared, and a match was settled: Phaniyamma was
married off to fifteen year old Nanjunda. During that time no one asked the bride or the
groom whether they agreed for the wedding. Besides, they were children, and their elders
did everything good for them.

During that period the poor innocent children got

married without even knowing what marriage was. To them it was fun and enjoyment.
Pandita Ramabai talks about child marriage in The High Caste Hindu Woman:
Children enjoy it most of all. There are gorgeous dress, bright clothes,
beautiful decorations, music songs, fun, fruits, flowers, sweets, and the
whole house is illuminated with many lamps. What can be more tempting
to a childs mind than these..? (Ramabai 41)

It was the custom at that time that soon after the marriage the husband would go
to his village and the bride would remain with her parents and the couple would be united
only after when the bride attained puberty. So the bridegroom went to his village and
Phaniyamma stayed back with her parents. But just a few months later, Nanjunda died,
bitten by a cobra. The couple had met only during their wedding. Most probably they had
not even dared to look at one another at that time. But now Phaniyamma had become a
widow and had to pay for it for all her life. The writer says,
Not knowing what to do, not shedding a tear, Phaniyamma sat quietly. Her
husband was dead; he died like every one did. She hadnt even seen his
face while walking around the sacred fire; she had held his hand by the
finger tips .she hadnt felt anything for him and now she did not weep.
(Indira 45)
And now the family had a lot to do. In view of the fact that Phaniyamma was a
child and she had not attained puberty, she couldnt be treated like all other widows. So
the customary ceremonies were not performed to Phaniyamma. The AncheMane family
had many widow, but this kind of a problem had not been faced by them and even by any
house hold in that province, till then. So the grandfather, the patriarch of the house hold,
along with other old men decided that everything must be taken care by the tenth day,
meantime person went to the Sringeri to find out what was to to be done to the poor
child. The messenger carried the unequivocal message from Sringeri, which pronounced
the fate of Phaniyamma: Since the girl is still a child, remove the sings of marriage on
the eleventh day and have her wear a white sari. Dont touch her hair .she shouldnt show
her face to anyone until she menstruates. Nor can she perform any madi task. The fourth
day after she menstruates, her hair must be shaved off and she must be made to take up
madi for the rest of her life. If these instructions are not followed the entire household
will be excommunicated.
The patriarchal hegemony left no choice for the family so they reduced her to the
status of a child-widow. Finally poor Phaniyamma, in that highly prejudicial and rule
7

based society had to confront all the brutal and unpardonable rituals which were directed
by the swami of Sringeri. The first things that were done to her was to break the glass
bangles that she was wearing, to tear off the mangalya (the special chain a woman wears
as a sign of being married) and to wipe off the kumkum on her forehead. From then on
she wore only white saris .Phaniyamma's head was shaved off on the fourth day after she
started menstruating and after that she began to practice madi. Events happened in quick
succession that made Phaniyamma speechless and she endured all the rituals passively
without any protest. And Phaniyamma was victimized by the patriarchal system, without
giving her any choice in the matter of widowhood .The writer say,
On the eleventh day the old men and women of the village mercilessly
broke the bangle.Phaniyamma cried a little, only because her beautiful
new bangles from the fair were destroyed. (Indira 47)
The women of the house hold surrounded the barber..shaved her head
absolutely smooth. Phaniyamma bent her head like lamb and wept.
(Indira 49)
The most pitiable part of it was that Phaniyamma was astounded with all those
thing that were happening around her and the poor child was trying to understand her
widowhood, even before she knew herself as a woman. . And during her widowhood
once a girl turned out to be a woman, the people around her made sure that she looked as
ugly as she could. Pandita Ramabai mentions it in The High Caste Hindu Woman
The purpose of disfiguring her by shaving her head, by not allowing her to
put ornaments, bright and beautiful garments, is to render her less
attractive to a mans eye. (Ramabai 84)
With the arrival of puberty, the young widow Phaniyamma had to confront the
grim reality of widowhood. As she had joined the group of madi women, she had to begin
her work form dawn and would have no rest until midnight. Like all other madi women,
she ate one meal a day around three or four in the afternoon and in due course, assisted
8

innumerable marriages, child births, festivals and feasts celebrated in their household.
From then on, Phaniyamma had to drudge the household like all other widows and for her
life was a long tale of constant toil and suffering as it was for all widows.
While Phaniyamma grew older, she began to grow in experience too and created
an identity for herself in spite of her misfortune. Phaniyamma lived for 108 years,
spending her life in one or the other relative's house. She was shown love and affection
by her big family. She was respected, maybe for the reason that Phaniyamma was ever
ready with her helping hand. Never talked badly of any body, never hurt anybody. Gentle
by nature, she even shared her meager evening snack with the children of the house and
lived an extremely austere life.
As years rolled on, Phaniyamma became an observer of the never-ending affairs
of life in her ancestral home of which she was not a participant. Numerous things which
she saw happening around her in the house hold disgusted her. One was the illicit affair
between her younger cousin Subi, who was sent back by her husband on the charges of
barrenness and Putta Joyisa, her relative who was married too. She was shocked into an
awareness of the shameful behaviour of men and women, the idea of child birth and the
meaninglessness in those rites and rituals. She was very much disturbed by the thought
and called out the names of the Gods and was unable to sleep that whole night;
Phaniyamma thought:
I suppose all the children of the house hold are born like this.how
disgusting! marriage, menstruation, child birth, family life, Puja and
prayers, madiall rubbishIm glad my husbands dead. Otherwise
the same fate would have been in store for me.. (Indira 61-62)
Another incident which disappointed Phaniyamma was the illicit affair of
Subbaraya, one of her relatives with untouchable women, because his wife was pregnant
then. Through these incidents she understood the hypocritical double standards for the
moral behaviour of men and women. Phaniyamma was taken aback by the mystery of
9

creation and the strange customs of the society. She was unable to comprehend the rule
that the elders had formulated.
When her own blood flowed every month a woman was defiled. She had
to sit outside the house for three days. On the fourth day she was purified,
and could then become madi. Many women in Phaniyammas family
continued to menstruate after the fourth day, but they were still considered
madi. Those widows who were touched by barbers were still madi but
those widows who had full head of hair were considered impure even
though they had never been touched by a man. (Indira 91)
So, Phaniyamma decided not to sit in front of the barber and offer her head to him
every few months and be defiled. She smeared her head with the umatthana fruits juice,
she had heard it caused hair fall, the next day all her hair fell off releasing her from the
need of facing the barber.
Phaniyamma had accepted that she had no right to show or to have any desire, any
ambition, any worldly thought, and she did not make any attempt to take life in her own
hands. But this didnt mean that she was not critical of the society which victimized her.
Yet she grew inwardly and silently questioned the blind beliefs, ruthless religious
practices that were carried out on women and the hypocrisy of the male society, which
imposed restriction only on women in the name of morality and purity while keeping
themselves out of it. Though silenced and relegated by the repressive society, finally
Phaniyamma grew into a person of great moral strength and created an identity for
herself.
Phaniyamma a victim of social prejudice and hollow rules never protested at any
point of time. She did not perhaps think of what was right, what was wrong, nor of how
to atone the wrong. She just behaved in way that she considered to be the human way.
Phaniyammas compassion towards all the people, invariable of caste and religion and
disbelief in purity and puja was revealed with these two incidents:
10

The first incident was, when she helped an untouchable woman during her child
birth consciously not bothered about punya obtained through Kashi Yathra which she
under took at the age of eighty-two .
The other incident was, when Phaniyammas beautiful sixteen year old niece
Daksayani lost her husband. Pressure was put on her to have her head shaven and to take
up madi and so on. Daksayani refused to do so and at that time it only Phaniyamma who
argued in her support and pleaded for at least a delay in shaving the young girls head.
Why do you bring up the practices of my time?.........times have changed
so much. This is a girl who should eat well and live well. Can she bear it if
you make her take on madi at this age? (Indira 106-107.)
Phaniyamma also portrays the vulnerability of young widows to ill-treatment as
they constantly face the fear of sexual harrassment. It shows how the upper caste
patriarchy expects the widows on one hand to lead a saintly life renouncing all pleasures
and on the other hand sexually exploits the young widows. Women who are castled as the
custodians of tradition are exploited by the same patriarchal system. This is obviously
seen through the life of Paniyammas niece, Daksayani. This young sixteen year old
widow, who was forced to take widowhood, conceived a child through her brother-in
-law. Initially everybody laughed at her and even the people of the house decided to
excommunicate her, but finally Daksayani had succeeded in turning the social weapon of
excommunication against her oppressors.
M.K.Indira brings about Phaniyamma as a woman who stuck to the rules laid out
by society and lead them without questioning them. As a devout woman, her life was of
peace and brining about help and peace in household, a respected woman, Phaniyamma is
the moral example of a woman not questioning the society, and fulfilling lifes
obligations and also critical about the society . In recreating the history of Phaniyamma,
the novelist represents both her heroines conformity in the given circumstances and also
her silent resistance, which is the result of her instinctive awareness of the plight of
women in general.
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Widows of the Brahmin families in India have been treated like this for centuries.
In this aspect, the Brahmin traditions must be one of the most inhuman ones all over the
world. The social fabric was being progressively tied up in these so called religious coils
by interested social tyrants clad in religious apparel. It is evident that in the early times
Hindu society was guided by customary rules of conduct, interpreted by people as the
needs of the times required. Sumith Sarkar in his Women and social reform in modern
India: a reader says,
The problem of widow-especially of child widows-was largely a
prerogative of the higher Hindu castes among whom child marriage was
practiced and remarriage was prohibited... On the other hand, the
lower castes who represented approximately 80 per cent of the Hindu
population-neither practiced child marriage nor prohibited the remarriage
of widows. (Sarkar 79)
But with the spread of education and especially the awareness during India's
freedom struggle, there was a national awareness regarding the condition of women.
Many widows took active part in constructive programs laid down by Gandhi and were
forefront leaders. After independence of India (in 1947) and the subsequent reforms that
followed, the dress-code for widows became less rigorous and has disappeared. In cities,
at least among middle class, no child-widows are seen. However, widow remarriages are
not common.
Widows in modern India may no longer be required to shave their hair off. But the
mindset that sees a woman's identity only vis--vis the males around her has not really
changed. As Meera Kumar, a women's activist who has written extensively on the subject
of widowhood says, "The traditional Hindu blessing for a married woman is Sadaa
Sowbhagyawati Bhavaa, thereby implying that marriage is the only desirable state for a
woman." No wonder the widow is marginalised and reduced to a social non-entity and

12

widowhood is still considered as a curse and the family support to a widow is missing at
times.
In any case, widows are pressurised to observe restrictive codes of dress and
behaviour. They are excluded from religious and social life. They are physically and
sexually abused. And they are done out of their property. Though the Hindu widows are
empowered to share their husbands property, it exists only in theory and are often
violated in practice .Apart from the economic problems; widows even in educated,
middle class families continue to be placed under immense psychological and social
pressures. Martha Alter Chen's extensive survey of widows across seven states reveals
that even today widows are accused of being 'responsible' for their husband's death.
However, the most disheartening thing is that, even now widows from West
Bengal, the northeastern states and Bangladesh still make their way to the ashrams of
Vrindavan, Mathura and Varanasi, in the hope that in the holy cities, God will not allow
anyone to starve .Life in Vrindavan, though distressed, seemed to hold a sense a dignity
and freedom to them than the marginalised existence in their families. And young
widows are still being brought in by sex traffickers and sold into prostitution. The
sevadasi system, in which the 'service' done to rich and powerful pilgrims is seen as an
act of piety, is still prevalent. Sexual exploitation still exists at the bhajanashrams.
The plight of widows cannot be improved without substantial social reform. The
denigration of the upper caste widow can be rejuvenated only through social vehicles and
literary efforts. Many women reformers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have
voiced against the ill-treatment thrusted upon on the widows. Essays of Rakhmabai,
Tarabai Shindes work Stri-Purusha Tulana, Kashibai Kanitkars essay on Women? Past
and Present highlight the plight of Hindu widows of the nineteenth century and that is
the period that M.K.Indira deals in Phaniyamma where the upper caste widow was
considered a social exile and a domestic grudge.

13

Pandita Ramabai draws attention to the abuse and social suppression of child
widows whom she sympathizes with as she believes that child widows are the badly
affected among the marginalized widows. Ramabai in her The High Caste Hindu Woman
she critiques the Brahmanical practices of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with
special reference to widowhood of Brahmin women. Rakhmabai, a victim of child
marriage appeals to the government that any marriage performed without its sanction
should be null and void (Chakravarti 256). Because women have not intervened in the
public debate of widowhood, especially child widows, their silence cannot and should not
be read as assent or infer from it that women do not suffer as a consequence of the evil
customs.
Deepa Mehta, an Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter directed the
film Water in in 2005 .This film examines the plight of a group of widows forced into
poverty at a temple in the holy city of Varanasi .later Bapsi Sidwa wrote the book Water
with Deepa Mehtas film script on request by a Canadian publisher in 2006. It was
primarily written for the western especially American audiences of Mehtas movie Water
before the films release to establish the context of the movie. It is important to take note
of the issues highlighted by Deepa Mehta and Bapsi Sidwa in Water to shift the focus of
our attention from knowledge of widowhood to the experiences of widowhood. The
opposition that Water encountered sprung from the Hindu patriarchal set up as Deepa
Mehtas venture represented the views and experiences of the marginalised widows from
a womans point of view
resisting the limitations of the ideologies to lay bare the full range of
oppressive practices imposed upon all women, but particularly upon
widow.(Chakravarti 248)
Therefore, Hindu patriarchy has infused the public sphere in India so much so that
the oppression of the widows never is revealed in the modern reformatory agenda for
women. It is necessary that scholars and women reform movement organizations should

14

involve seriously in reconstructing the ideologies perpetrated and popularized by the

patriarchal set up.

Work cited
Chakravarti, Uma. , Widows in India: Social Neglect and Public Action. ed. Martha Alter
Chen. New Delhi: Sage Publications. 1999.
Chakravarti, Uma., Rewriting History. Second edition. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
2006.
Chattopadhayay, Kamaladevi., Indian Womens Battle for Freedom. Delhi: Abhinav
Publications. 1983.
Doniger, Wendy, Trans. The Laws of Manu. New Delhi: Penguin Books. 2000.
Dubois, Abbe, Hindu Manners, Customs and History in India: Collected Papers,
Oxford University press, 1990.
Indira, M.K, Paniyamma, Trans. Tejeswini Niranjana. New Delhi: Kali for Women.1989.
Jacobson ,Dorraine and Wadley, Susan, Women in India: Two Perspectives, New
Delhi:Manohar book Service,1986.
OHanlon, Rosalind. Trans. & Ed. A Comparison Between Men and Women,
Tarabai Shinde and the Critique of Gender Relations in Colonial
India. Madras: OUP. 1994. (Stri-Purusha Tulana)
Rakhmabai. Letter to the Times, 9 April 1887. Womens Voices: Selections
from Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Indian Writing in
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English. eds. Eunice de Souza and Lindsay Periera. New Delhi: OUP.
2002. 105 110.
Ramabai Saraswati, Pandita. The High Caste Hindu Woman. Philadelphia. 1894.
Sarkar, Sumit and Sarkar, Tanika, Women and social reform in modern India: a reader,
Indiana university press, Bloomington and Indianapolis 2008
Sidwa, Bapsi. Water. New Delhi: Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd... 2006

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