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Myths have not only survived science and technology but will continue to

fascinate creative minds who find in them the threads to weave their own

narratives that reflect the traumatic times they live in.

THE term “myth” is not used here exclusively or chiefly in the extended sense in which

Roland Barthes uses it in his Mythologies to denote certain semiotic constructions of

ideological intent; nor as it is used in common sense discourse meaning just a superstition or

a lie widely elieved in and accepted as truth! However" the meaning of myth in the context

of these delierations does not rule out these possiilities of elaoration since it has a

 profound relationship with the concepts of truth and untruth and the mechanisms of truth

 production with which modern thin#ers such as $iet%sche" Barthes and &oucault are

concerned with!

 $o account of the relation etween myth and literature can proceed without defining the term

myth" and this is the very suject of myth studies! 'n the one hand" there is the (uestion as towhat myths actually refer to" since they have come to mean many different things from

 primitive and sacred rituals to propaganda and ideological statements! 'n the other" there is a

lot of confusion and conflicting argument over how to define the significance of myth! There

seem to e only two ways of ma#ing sense of either of these (uestions of reference and

significance! )e can argue historically following the development and functioning of myths

and their passage into mythology" or we can concentrate on the nature of the mythic" or

mythicity" rather than on certain myths! Here" we can even ecome concerned with the

ontological status of myth as part of a general theory of human expression!

The paradox of myths is that they are factually false" not true in that form at least; ut they

have a power that transcends their inaccuracy" even depends on it! *yths are elieved" ut notin the same way history is! Those who suscrie to a myth may assert its “truth” y which

they often imply a valuale meaning! History is what myth is not; history will lose its value if 

it is not factually true! But myths help us as# even more asic (uestions aout human

meaning" and this is what gives them continued relevance in the successive ages of man!

*arx was wrong in supposing in Grundrisse that myths would not survive science+ they still

charm us" involve us" move us" encourage us to intervene in history" positively or negatively"

leading us ac#ward or forward spea#ing often as they do of utopias in the future or golden

ages in the past! ,)e may recall how the myth of Rama" of his mythical irthplace -yodhya

and the Ram .ethu he is supposed to have uilt with the help of Hanuman" led to major

 political controversies in the recent past! Read this with the recent statements" prompted y

faith rather than science" on the epics y /!.! Rao" the newly anointed 0hairperson of the1ndian 0ouncil for Historical Research!2 The meaning of myth has een historically evo#ed

through many versions of its main themes+ myth as the source of history ,“euhemerism”2 or

as religion" morality or an expression of psychological origins! There is mythic form in which

the structural significance of myth is said to e in its metaphorical word play as pointed out

 y 3ico" *ueller and .chlegel or in its symolic consciousness as demonstrated y 4ung and

Ernest 0assirer! These arguments are closely lin#ed to theories of the function of myth as

ritual" speculation or wish fulfilment and even as primitive science!

Mythopoeic imagination

-ll aspects of the thematic" formalist and functionalist arguments aout myth seem to e

relevant to literary studies! *ythological references in literature estalish our psychological

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origins or the structure of our collective unconscious+ we all #now how a single reference to a

character or situation in an episode of the Ramayana or the *ahaharata suddenly illuminates

a whole personal or social context and unleashes a flood of associations in the readers or

listeners! $ames such as Rama" 5a#shmana" Bharata" 6umha#arna" .ita" 6ai#eyi" 7rmila"

Ravana" .oorpana#ha" Hanuman" .amoo#a" .aari" Bali or .ugreeva in the Ramayana" or

6rishna" -rjuna" 6arna" E#alavya" 8rona" 8hritarashtra or 8raupadi in the *ahaharata areused in daily conversation in 1ndia to invo#e specific associations; this is also true of certain

episodes in these epics! They reveal the inary structures of thought or fantasy dislocation or

 prolem reflection! They may ironically prefigure literary meaning or act as the primary

language of experience! 1n addition to these thematic variations" literary myth studies from

those of the 9erman Romantics to Barthes have argued for the importance of mythopoesis: 

the mythopoeic imagination as the source of the power of oth myth and the est of literature!

This is close to &ran# 6ermodes well<#nown idea that myth “short<circuits the intellect and

lierates the imagination”" or $orthrop &ryes view of literature as “displaced mythology” or

4ohn 3ic#erys argument that &rasers The Golden Bough has propelled the modern ,)estern2

imagination along an important mythopoeic course!

*yth today is so encyclopaedic a term that it means everything or nothing! )e can find in it

whatever we want to say is essential aout the way humans try to interpret their place on

earth! *yth is a synthesis of values which uni(uely manages to mean most things to most

men! 1t is “allegory and tautology" reason and unreason" logic and fantasy" wa#ing thought

and dream" atavism and the perennial" archetype and metaphor" origin and end”" to (uote Eric

9ould , Mythical Intentions in Modern Indian Literature2! Thematics and the search for the

 powerful motif have given rise to unearned optimism" efuddlement" revolutionary

suversion and even fascism as in the case of the $a%is who nourished the myth of “-ryan”

superiority or the champions of what *!$! .rinivas would call “.ans#ritisation” in 1ndia!

)hatever the ideological use to which it is put" somehow myth has proven itself essential or

very close to essential" within the cultural and social scheme of things! *yths apparently

derive their universal significance from the way in which they try to reconstitute an original

event or explain some fact aout human nature and its worldly or cosmic contents!

Multiple interpretations

-ll myths seem to have an ontological gap etween event and meaning! - myth intends to e

an ade(uate symolic representation y closing that gap; yet its meaning is perpetually open

and universal only ecause once the asence of the final meaning is recognised" the gap itself

demands interpretation" which in turn must go on and on" for language is nothing if it is not a

system of open meaning! - myth may deal with ultimate (uestions" ut its repeatedexploitation of the fact that its (uestions have no answers leads to a linguistic crisis" to the

inade(uacy of human language" or a need to resort to trans<linguistic facts such as 9od or

nature+ we realise that our aility to interpret our place in the world is distinctly limited y the

nature of language! )e are aware of the arguments of the trans<rationality of myth from the

traditional 4ungian perspective! The prolem lies in determining the extent of that unreason!

The mystery of the origin of myth most often finds its place in versions of 4ungs theory of

collective unconscious! 0assirer and 5anger also suggest that the gap in myth etween event

and meaning re(uires the veralisation of some “motor expression” or states of feeling to

replace the motor expression of the “holy”" as proposed y myth critics li#e *ircea Eliade or

Rudolph 'tto! There is one line of critics from 3ico to *alinows#y" 8ur#heim" *auss and

5evi<.trauss who have tried to ridge this gap through positivistic and rationalist approach"aligning myth with rationality; another line aligns myth with the evolution of consciousness

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as is done y Herder who treats myths as allegories" or *ax *ueller who considers myth a

“linguistic disease”" while a third group of eminent modernists" including 4ean =iaget and

Barthes consider myth to e superior reason! Existentialists such as 6ier#egaard" 4aspers and

Heidegger associate myth with the asic (uestions of eing" encompassing and nothingness;

structuralists such as =ropp" 5evi<.trauss" Todorov and 6risteva try to offer a poetics for

mythic form" and post<structuralists such as 8errida loo# at the institutionalisation of themythic discourse as a linguistic phenomenon! 1n short" there are ways and ways of loo#ing at

myth and its relationship to literature and life!

1n some sense" literary modernisms seem to egin with the deployment of myths in an

attempt to articulate the complexity of the contemporary human predicament" thus innovating

the tradition and putting it in the service of the individual genius of the writer" the genius of

the specific language" and the modern situation! *yths had een employed during the

freedom struggle" too" ut chiefly to arouse national pride and invite people to join the anti<

colonial struggle! 5ater" it came to e used to comment on the new" postcolonial" situation

with its dout" despair and dilemma as in 8harmveer Bharatis Andhayug " 9irish 6arnads

Yayati" -run 6olat#ars Jejuri" .itanshu /ashaschandras Jatayu" Balamani -mmasViswamitra" -yyappa =ani#ers Kurukshetram" $!$! 6a##ads Vajrakundalam or .ita#ant

*ahapatras Yashoda!s "olilo#uy" and =ratiha .atpathys "ha$ari!

.ituations and characters in the major epics were ta#en up again and again for the

interpretation of the new social" political and mental states and structures! *ahaharata" with

its polyphony and its almost inexhaustile hermeneutic potential" inspired several novels such

as .hivaji .avants Mrityunjay" 3!.! 6hande#ars Yayati ,oth *arathi2" =ratiha Rays

Yajnaseni Haladhar $ags Achia ,The 7ntouchale" a 8alit novel that uses the .aari story2"

 oth 'diya" 3asudev *ohis %kala&ya ,.indhi2" .!5! Bhyrappas 'ar&a -nupama

 $iranjanas Madha&i" oth 6annada" 7day Bhemres Karna(ar&a ,6on#ani2" *!T!

3asudevan $airs )andamoo*ham ,The .econd Turn2" =!6! Bala#rishnans Ini +jaan

,rangatte ,5et *e .leep $ow2" and 3!T! $anda#umars Karnan ,all the three *alayalam2"

and .hashi Tharoors The Great Indian +o&el  and =! 5als The Maha$harat o- Vyas ,oth

English2! 0!$! .ree#antan $airs drama trilogy" Kanchana "ita "aketam and Lankalakshmi 

and .ara 4osephs series of short stories ased on Ramayana in *alayalam ,some of which

are collected in )etelling the )amayana. Voices -rom Kerala ,'7=" >??@2" 6uvempus play"

"hudra Ta(aswi in 6annada" Bhisham .ahnis Madha&iin Hindi" and *ahasweta 8evis

 /rau(adi in Bengali" are some examples of the suversion of myths through ethicalApolitical

interrogation! The -halya myth in Ramayana has een interpreted variously y Tamil writers

such as .uradha" $a! =ichamurthy" *urugasundaram" 4nani and =udumaipithan ,rememer

his famous story" "aa$ha&imochanam or 8eliverance2! 1f 3iswanatha .atyanarayana wrote )amayana Kal(a&rikshamuwhich is “pro<myth” ,reaffirming the hegemonic reading2"

*uppalla Ranganaya#amma wrote )amayana Visha&riksham that is “anti<myth”

,interrogating and suverting the hegemonic interpretation2! "hudra Ta(aswi a radical

retelling of the .amoo#a episode in the Ramayana" is an indictment of the caste system

while the other two reassert the plurality of the 1ndian philosophical traditions and seem to

adopt a Buddhist view of life where everything is self<moulded" momentary and empty!

.! 6ana#araj" while examining the transformation of myth in 9irish 6arnads plays"

 0aya&adana and The 1ire and the )ain share with the wor#s of )illiam &aul#ner" Roert

=en )arren" .aul Bellow" T!.! Eliot" 4ohn Barth and 0hinua -chee an attitude to myths

where myths serve as the literary tools for reviewing postmodern life situations! *u#undRaos Rama in the English story )ama )e&isited " 7!R! -nanthamurthys 4arta#aru in the

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6annada story of that name" and 9irish 6arnads 3a#ratund and Hayagriva in the 6annada

 play" 0aya&adana and /ava#ri in The 1ire and the )ain also turn into metaphors for certain

conditions of existence! =aul acharia" .ara 4oseph and -nand in *alayalam have made

radical use of the Bile for criti(uing evil and violence! Thus" myths have een employed at

times to reinforce the status #uo and more often to loo# at nature" society and relationships

from fresh and often radical points of view! The irreverent iconoclasm exploding mythic paradigms rea#s the shac#les of ideological conditioning and gives voice to the long<

suppressed aspirations of the marginalised majority silently clamouring for truth and ethics!

-t least since the CD?s" our literatures seem to have entered a phase of revisionist myth<

ma#ing where myths are re<visioned and reinterpreted from original perspectives! The

feminist" trial and 8alit discourses have een particularly productive in their retellings+

marginalised or oppressed characters such as .amoo#a of the Ramayana slain y Rama for

doing penance" a right denied to the sudras" or E#alavya of the *ahaharata disempowered

 y the Brahmin 8rona who as#ed for E#alavyas thum as his teachers fee as the disciple" ana&arna<outcaste" had secretly learnt what he was not authorised to learn" have appeared in

trial and 8alit literatures as protagonists and symols of oppression! 0haracters such as .ita"

*andodari" *anthara" .oorpana#ha and the wife of .amoo#a have een portrayed y .ara

4oseph as victims" often resisting victims" of patriarchal oppression and Ravana appears

morally superior to Rama in her narratives! .uch suversive interpretations often persuade us

to interrogate our status<(uoist notions of dharma from the point of view of the victims of the

discriminatory social order+ women" 8alits" trials" ethnic" religious and sexual minorities"

thus employing myth in the service of democracy" human rights and social justice!

=aula Richmans anthology" )amayana "tories in Modern "outh India ,1ndiana 7niversity

=ress" >??F2" carries several excellent samples of the free re<readings and counter<readings of

episodes from the Ramayana y creative writers from the four major south 1ndian languages!

)endy 8oniger in her two oo#s on Hinduism has also interpreted a lot of 1ndian myths in

the light of modern psychoanalysis! $o wonder the champions of a synthetic" monolithic

Hindu religion ,which never existed in history2 inspired y the colonial perceptions of

)estern 'rientalism" the 4udaic concepts of religion and the $a%i deployment of traditional

myths and symols find such re<readings hurtful!

)e may here recall how an exhiition organised in $ew 8elhi y .ahmat on the Ramayana

tradition which showcased the diversity of the interpretations of the epic story as well as an

exhiition of *!&! Husains paintings ased on the Ramayana and other mythical tales werevandalised y Hindu %ealots! The same forces had also pressured 8elhi 7niversity to ta#e

-!6! Ramanujans scholarly essay" “Three Hundred Ramayanas” off the syllaus! -ll these

go to show how myths continue to impact our lives and our imagination and how the

defenders of the status #uo are prone to fight every new use to which myths are put except

their own political use of it!

Myth and literature

*yth was literature until recently when we egan to elieve that literary texts have an

epistemological potential and can reveal the truth! 5ater myth came to e increasingly

replaced y history as stories that really happened! This coincided with the irth of the“author” who is supposed to e lessed with special insights into the order of superior reality!

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Even then myth continued to define and shape literature prominently! By the second half of

the CFth century" countries in )estern Europe egan to develop a national consciousness that

compelled them to construct histories and lineages for themselves!

*yth was now eing used in literature to serve the hegemonic political entity! &iction writers

such as )alter .cott and -rthur 0onan 8oyle in Britain helped project the nation as anunprolematic and unro#en entity that continues into the future! This construction of the

 $ation happened also in 1ndia! - serious and recognisaly modern use of myth in literature

ta#es the shape of an existential exploration of either a putative past from the present or the

 present from the past! R! .hasidhar in an essay ,“5iterature and $ew *yths” in Myth in

2ontem(orary Indian Literature" .ahitya -#ademi" 8elhi2 demonstrates this with the

6annada wor#s of =! 5an#esh" 9irish 6arnad and H!.! .hivapra#ash" who have all drawn

from the history and myth of the 3eerashaiva movement of the C>th century in order to

explore the existential traumas of our times!

*yth ecomes especially powerful when it is seen in an ahistorical" universal frame as is

done y '!3! 3ijayan in his "aga o- /harma(uri! 3ishvanath 6haire has attempted arationally consistent understanding of the mythological material in the 3edas" Brahmanas and

epics! )ith plenty of examples" he proves that the metaphors and narratives in them are

replete with reflections of the social structure and class dominance in 1ndian society across

ages! .ans#rit mythology" the scholar says" was created y memers of the priestly class who

were themselves spea#ers of 1ndian fol# tongues! 1ndian mythology has to e studied in the

multicultural setting of a sucontinent in space and five millennia in time ,,nderstanding

 Indian Mythology; iid2!

Speakerly texts

4ain poets such as =ampa and 6umaravyasa in 6annada found it difficult to accept the

Brahmin ideology underlying the epics; so they had to interpret them afresh! 6uvempu" too"

exposes the cruelty and asurdity of the 6uru#shetra war in the play "mashana

 Kurukshetram and turns .amoo#a into a hero in "hudra Ta(aswi! &ol# and trial epics also

re<vision traditional legends and fol# myths!

*ahasweta 8evi mediates etween two worlds separated y thousands of years in stories

such as “8raupadi”" “.hishu”" “Bichchan” and “.esh .amman” and yet seem to live side y

side! .he creates a new language" a “third term” stemming out of the two distinct worlds with

their distinct languages that she negotiates! This" as .uha 0ha#raorty 8asgupta says

,“0ontesting =olarities" 0reating .paces+ *yth in *ahasweta 8evis .tories”; iid2" isfashioned out of oral as well as written traditions leading to a “spea#erly” text! 1t is with the

dynamism of these “spea#erly” texts that myths receive form and functionality in the modern

context! Bhalchandra $emades nativist use of myth in his *arathi novels Kosla and Bidhar  

helps him counter the modernist onslaught of excessive individualism while 3ilas .arangs

use of myth in %nkichya )ajyat  typifies the opposite" what =!9! 8eshpande calls “the avant<

garde swell of excessive individualism”! The retellings of the kissa ,tale2 of =ooran Bhagat in

modern =unjai literature move from the spiritual to the sualtern! The expansive amiguity

of the story allows for re<inscriptions! -uthors such as .hiv 6umar Batalvi" -tamjit" -jmer

.ingh -ulu#h and 1(al Ramoowalia represent a gradual displacement of the original story

that rings in new significations!

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*yths have not only survived science and technology ut will continue to fascinate creative

minds who find in them the threads to weave their own narratives that reflect the traumatic

times they live in" despite the threats from the revivalists and the proscriptions of the status<

(uoists!