Prabha Shankar Dwivedi1 and Priyanka Tripathi2
1Assistant Professor of English, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati. prabhas.dwivedi@iittp.ac.in
2Associate Professor of English, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Patna. priyankatripathi@iitp.ac.in
Volume 12, Number 4, July-September, 2020 I Full Text PDF
DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n4.17c
Abstract
Gender Bias is a phenomenon that strengthens in India as a result of personal values and perception, traditionally assigned roles on the basis of sex and regressive ideologies deeply entrenched in patriarchy. Vasantasen? is the protagonist of the M?cchaka?ika of ??draka, a classical Indian masterpiece written in c. 350 BCE which was later adapted into a Hindi film–Utsav (1985) written and directed by Girish Karnad. Despite being an adaptation, in its filmy avatar, Karnad denies Vasantasen? love and respect due to her profession and resorts to endorsing the conventional whereas in the original text she is a respectable woman. The article offers a comparative study of the treatment given to courtesans in general and reflects upon their complex realities by comparing the treatment of an Indian courtesan of two historically apart periods.
Keywords: Gender Bias; Courtesan; Film Adaptation; Patriarchy; Culture