Do women get to make choices ?
They do have choices, but not meant to choose what they need. Women are expected to be selfless, beautiful, obedient and choose what's good for everyone around them but themselves. And if they choose otherwise, they are faced with severe consequences.
And it applies for the celestial nymph, Menaka. She is the most beautiful seductress who was envied by all the other Apsaras, including the queen of Apsaras, Rambha. She is not just beautiful but also intelligent being the daughter of Lord Brahma.
Menaka had everything a women ever wanted. She lives in Paradise as Indra's favorite Apsara; She stays young all her lifetime; she is talented. But she can't have one thing she longed for, a family.
However, her life take a toll when she made a choice. A choice to fall in love and marry the king of Gandharvas (celestial musicians), Vishwavasu. An Apsara is allowed to marry or have a family by the rules of Paradise. Indra who got jealous of any other man who even laid eyes on Menaka got furious on knowing about their marriage wanted to punish them both. As a result, he cursed Vishwavasu to roam as a monster on Earth and Menaka felt guilty about it.
Though Indra wanted to punish Menaka, he had other plans included. On Earth, the great sage Vishwamitra challenges Devas and Gods by creating a new universe, a new paradise. Threatened by this, Indra used the punishment of Menaka as a diversion for Vishwamitra. Indra banished Menaka from paradise and orders her to seduce Vishwamitra.
Menaka did succeed in the given task with the help of Kama, God of Love. She stayed with Vishwamitra and had a daughter named Shakuntala in a few years, thus completing Indra's order. After which she was asked to go back to paradise and she realises that she was in love with Vishwamitra. But she didn't do the mistake of making a choice again. She left Vishwamitra as ordered and went back.
Menaka's wish was to marry the person she loved and have a family of her own. But her choice was to abandon the man she loved and their daughter and return back to heaven.
Rambha wanted to get married to Nalakuber, son of Kubera but chose to sacrifice herself for saving other Apsaras from Indra's folly games.
Shakuntala fell in love with an ambitious King, Dhushyant who returned to his kingdom with no intentions of coming back. She gave birth to his child in his absence and when confronted after a few years have completely forgotten about her. Yet she chose to marry him for her child's future even he abandoned her with fake promises.
A woman, be it in mythology, fiction, or in real life was (is and will be) made to face consequences for the choices she make for herself. At last we have to choose what everyone else accepts rather whatever we want.
Kavita Kane have become one of my favorite authors. Being an Indian Mythology fanatic, I love her books very much. It is not the story I've heard from my childhood. The female mythological characters, she written about were one of the forgotten or the least noticed ones. To read a story in their point of view is amusing.
