He has been writing a blog, 'This is Utkarsh Speaking' for close to six years now, and is a founder member of 'Talking Myths Project', an online archive of traditional tales from the Indian subcontinent. She, who was known as Ahalya since birth, became unploughable only after the curse… In the early cantos of the Ramayana, Valmiki says: possessed by sensual passion Ahalya has surrendered herself to Indra consciously.
You will start receiving our emails very soon. Ahalya is never asked to give her side of the story, nor does she make any effort to explain. Where does Ahalya fit in? Wasn’t the sage’s curse for Ahalya to become a stone ironic in itself? She, who was known as Ahalya since birth, became unploughable only after the curse! If that was so, was Ahalya happy? Lord Indra, believing that all beautiful things on earth are meant for him, resents Ahalya's marriage to the forest-dwelling ascetic. Sign up to get the best stories from HuffPost India in your inbox every day. At the prime of her youth, she had to live with an old man whose attention was elsewhere. She was cursed to be barren and lifeless like a stone only after she felt the most fertile in her life. Scriptures say that gods do not have form but a heavenly aroma, which should have been the other indicator that this wasn't her husband. Ahalya knew her husband's daily routine and for him to crave bodily pleasure at the brahma-muhurta when the union of a man and woman is forbidden was out of character, and a woman who had spent a lifetime with a person ought to have known that.
Did she really not know that the man in front of her wasn't her husband? On his way out, he meets the sage who had sensed something was amiss and returned early. How was the inertness different after the curse, since prior to that she was no more than a living stone? She, who was known as Ahalya since birth, became unploughable only after the curse! The narrative in the Ramcharitmanas was notably inspired by the Adhyatma Ramayana, which is a part of the Brahmanda Purana. In Hindu mythology, Ahalya (Sanskrit: अहल्या, IAST Ahalyā), also known as Ahilya, is the wife of the sage Gautama Maharishi.Many Hindu scriptures say that she was seduced by Indra (the king of the gods), cursed by her husband for infidelity, and liberated from the curse by Rama (an avatar of the god Vishnu).. This article first appeared on Bonobology.com. When the sage returns Ahalya, Brahma, impressed by the sage's sexual restraint and asceticism, bestows her upon the sage himself. Man has a responsibility towards his wife during the householder stage and it's his duty to keep his wife and family happy. His curse was to carry a thousand vulvae in his entire body. Didn't the Supreme Creator find it necessary to ask her if she wanted a husband who had been a father figure?

But she doesn't question and gives in. She was cursed to be barren and lifeless like a stone only after she felt the most fertile in her life. When Ahalya herself deems such a curse to be beneficial for her, there is no need to raise the hype and fight for non-existent and moot beliefs based on incoherent studies of the texts. Once when Rishi Gautam leaves for his morning ablutions, Indra comes in his guise and has sex with Ahalya. One day, years after Ram liberates her from the curse, Ahalya finds a worried Sita in her ashram, looking for her young boys. Kané's Ahalya submits herself to her stone-like existence. She maintains a stony silence.

The gods intervened and Indra's 1,000 marks are converted into eyes, sahasra-aksha. All rights reserved. He cursed the moon, his wife and Indra for the sinful act.

Could a man for whom the act of sex was nothing but a ritual, satisfy the cravings of a youthful maiden? Scriptures say that man has duties and responsibilities at every stage of his life. He is a professor of Comparative Mythology at Mumbai University. When the owner of the flower neglected its bloom, wasn't it obvious that bees would swoon over this beautiful flower? Next was the turn of Indra.

Then Brahma places her in the care of Rishi Gautam until she reaches puberty. His body was covered with 1000 vaginas and he secluded himself from the entire world. Ahalya too would be redeemed when Vishnu visits her as Lord Rama. And, as the woman who couldn't distinguish the touch of her husband, curses Ahalya to turn into stone. Utkarsh Patel is a corporate-professional-turned-mythologist and now the author of 'Shakuntala – The Woman Wronged,' published by Rupa Publications, and 'Satyavati,' a mobile book readable through Readify. Ahalya is created by Lord Brahma out of water as the most beautiful woman in order to break the pride of Urvashi, the foremost celestial nymph. When the owner of the flower neglected its bloom, wasn't it obvious that bees would swoon over this beautiful flower? Wasn't the sage's curse for Ahalya to become a stone ironic in itself? He cursed Ahalya to become invisible and exist in the air. Ahalya knew her husband's daily routine and for him to crave bodily pleasure at the brahma-muhurta when the union of a man and woman is forbidden was out of character. Ahalya became a stone and Indra was turned into a eunuch.