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What Does Ahalya Represent

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The story of Ahalya is an illustrated chapter in Indian mythology. Dr. Pratibha Ray, the Jnanapitha award winner in literature has elaborated her story in Odia language, making her a woman for all ages, where a woman’s experience of childhood, marriage and motherhood’s pleasure, turbulence created by the society and struggle for love and recognition as an individual has been wonderfully illustrated/described.

I had the honor of translating the novel into English for the dissemination of her bright mind and empathy with the women of the world to a wider audience, who are not familiar with the languages such as Odia or a few others in which this has been already translated. All attempts have been made to preserve Pratibha’s thoughts and characters even though it is very difficult to express cultural norms and understandings due to the inherent meaning and attribute of words in a language cannot be properly transported to another.

Prologue
Ahalya. She is not a character but a symbol. When a symbol is analyzed then it becomes a character. A character unfolds to reveal its hidden reality. One of the best examples of this is the story of Ahalya. In the story of Ahalya, every character represents a symbol. Ahalya is the symbol of beauty. Indra is the symbol of indulgence. Gautama is the symbol of ego and Rama is the symbol of renunciation and spirit. `
Beauty is not only visual but also a realization. It could be superficial but also has a finer and deeper meaning. When the essence of beauty is not realized, both beauty and its observation are incomplete.
Beauty creates as well as destroys delusion. Indra created delusion in Ahalya while Rama destroyed it. In the rise and fall of delusion, the narcissist Ahalya became its root cause as well as its target. Delusion for Indra moved Ahalya towards sin, while the feeling for Rama moved her towards salvation. On the path from sin to salvation Gautama was a punitive administrator.
The transformation of Ahalya’s mortal love to divine love towards Rama was possible through her penance. Even though he was the ultimate fulfillment, both Gautama and Indra also contributed. In the gross vision of Gautama, Ahalya was a sinner. In the divine vision of Rama she was the

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