It is a cruel and difficult thing this monogamy and I think male chauvinists of present age agree with me. Flash back to late 1800 where a wife is namesake. The prime minister of a certain country flings with various women on his visit to various cities. The news about extra marital affairs were indeed public but divorce had not settled into the society. The mother educates her daughter about the importance of being patient and her need to please the husband. Extra marital affairs in western countries were mostly limited to men who could woo or force women into bed ergo the rich or the rich and powerful. Virtually every rich and powerful, young, married man would have slept with more than 3 women to say the very least. It is sad that the wives were merely legitimate child bearing, society pawns!
Across the seas in India, rich men did exactly what their contemporaries did on the other side of the world. Here I think, it is safe to include moderate to poor men too who, under the curtain of having a male successor, would easily be a part time husband to a second wife. Now if you remember Ashutosh Gowariker's previous movie Jodha Akbar, it was widely promoted as a love story untold or something on the lines of a love story. The magic of the movie per se the story failed to touch me then and it fails to do so now. The movie really pushes the envelope of love for me. Was the story of Akbar's low-on-life love for Jodha really a thing to be heralded? Was it not clear for Ashu the number of women Akbar had had "fun" (and I quote that from the cast) with? He should really have said that story..'the flings that Akbar had and how it affect Jodha'! But I sympathize with Ashu..as a director he would have gone for 'easy, no controversy, space for creativity, mass appealing' fake love story. If somebody scripts a story about Krishna (now that Ramayan is underway) may I suggest that it be 'Krishna and his gopika strees' or 'Radha, Rukmini and Satyabhama: how to cope with the mistresses'...still fail to understand Hindus worshipping deities who practice/practiced polygamy...here's hoping I dont the attract Shiv Sena!
Move over to the 21st century and I read that a certain MP, defamed, quit his post over his alleged affair with another woman. Now what exactly is it with men and monogamy? Why is it that men find it difficult to contain their feelings for one woman at a particular time? I dont read/hear about women having affairs as such. Is it because we still live in a male dominated society or is it because one single woman is physically less eloquent? or could it be both?
2 comments:
A simple and plausible explanation is India's male dominated society...elsewhere having multiple extra 'relationship' affairs is the mainstay of females as per current surveys.
Lord Krishna is not a polygamist, but he was a sampoorna avatara or complete incarntion of God. Being infinite he was many and one at the same time. He was the indvidual husband of each of his wives. There is a story from the Srimad Bhagavatha where the Sage Narada comes to Dwaraka. There he sees Lord Krishna in every house he visits. There is also a story where he revives the stillborn Parikshit by declaring himself the eternal celibate
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