Rings of Rejection and Recognition in Ancient India 1
Rings of Rejection and Recognition in Ancient India 1
This chapter examines three separate but related bodies of mythology in classical Sanskrit literature, each of which deals with the theme of sexual rejection and recognition. In all three cycles, a ring or a necklace, sometimes a bracelet or an anklet—plays a central role. The first cycle is about a clever wife who is rejected by her husband before she is able to get pregnant. The second tells the story of a woman who is impregnated before a public marriage has taken place and is then denied by her husband. The third is about a woman who disguises herself as a non-wife and is identified as a legal wife by her necklace. In each of these cycles, circular jewelry resolves the paradox of marital sexual rejection whereby the husband desires both an erotic encounter and a legitimate child, but not from the same woman. The chapter shows that the ring or necklace is a bi-polar, ambivalent object that signifies two opposite things at the same time.
Keywords: mythology, Sanskrit literature, sexual rejection, ring, necklace, wife, husband, marriage, circular jewelry
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