From Selfless Mothers to Beloved Sisters: Historical Memory and Ideals of Femininity in Bengali Bratakathas

Bratakathas or narratives that form part of a set of mostly feminine rituals in Bengal have been the subject of scholarly interest for over a century. By the end of the 19th century, they had come to be seen as portals to a deep history of women by Abanindranath Tagore and others. In more recent decades, feminist scholars like Jasodhara Bagchi have tended to see them as technologies for patriarchic indoctrination. Both strands of scholarship confirm that these bratakathas present an idealised image of femininity. What this article does is explore the question of the historicity of these ideals. More specifically, it pursues two lines of enquiry. One looks at the ways in which ‘historical memory’ is evoked in narrativising these ideals of femininity. The second looks at how the ideals themselves change over time.