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Superstitions and Excommunicated Woman in "Bayen" by Mahasweta Devi

Article · December 2016

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 Devanga Arts College Manas Vol. 8, No.1, December 2016
(A Multidisciplinary Research Journal)

SUPERSTITIONS AND EXCOMMUNICATED WOMAN IN “BAYEN”

BY MAHASWETA DEVI

B. CHARANYA

Womanhood has two different images in the society. She is equated with “Shakthi”,
the goddess Durga and Kali. On the other hand, she is forced to be a dependent, under the
male governed & defined social tradition and culture and she is looked upon as a sexual
object or a property to be possessed and passed on from one to the other. These are the
traditional images of women in the society. We can see an entirely new face and portrayal of
woman in the play “Bayen”. The readers can see a different facet of male dominance and
depiction of a woman as “Bayen” to be restricted from entering into the mainstream of the
society. “Bayen” is the play written by Mahasweta Devi. She is a writer from her young age
itself and she has written several stories and has contributed to literary magazine. She has a
deep and keen interest in literature from her childhood. Mahasweta Devi is a social activist
and reformist who wants to bring reformations in the male governed and defined social
culture and tradition for the welfare of the country. She has associated herself with many
social movements that revolt against the landlords, zamindars, moneylenders and the people
of high caste or creed to acquire an equal status for the tribal, peasants, untouchables and
marginalised people.
In the play “Bayen”, Mahasweta Devi attempts to focus on the superstitious beliefs
that the rural people have and how it has affected the lives of many individuals in a severe
manner. The protagonist of the play is Chandidasi Gangadasi. She is labelled as a “Bayen” by
the village people and confined to the graveyard where she has to work. She is not permitted
to see, talk or come into the inhabitance of the village people because Mahasweta Devi
throws light on the universal mother hood. The play is concerned with a mother who is forced
to be laid by her profession in graveyard and because of the work, she is labelled as a witch
practising sorcery or necromancy by the village people. The protagonist of the play is
Chandidasi and she is excommunicated from her family as well as from village because of
her conventional profession. She is excommunicated from her own son and husband. She is
not only denied of her right to enjoy and experience the motherhood and her role as a wife to
her husband Malindar but also she is not supposed even to look at her son or at anybody for
that matter. In this matter not only Chandidasi, but her son Bhagirath is also restricted from
enjoying motherly affection. He is deceived with a fact that his mother is dead already.
Chandidasi is pushed forcibly away from her family and relations and she is able to
discern the human values to a greater extent in her isolation. Generally the people of urban
areas and all over the world have a common notion that the village people are innocent,
generous and are of a high status because of the agriculture. Mahasweta Devi aims to throw
light on the hard realities behind that respectable existence. Such hard realities are the male
domination used by men as well as ignorant women to make people believe the superstitious

Assistant Professor of English, Fatima College (Autonomous), Madurai

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 Devanga Arts College Manas Vol. 8, No.1, December 2016
(A Multidisciplinary Research Journal)

facts. In the play we can see Chandidasi who is born in a very great family being labelled as a
“Bayen” and reduced to the level of a beast or an animal that loves to eat human flesh. It is all
because of her “grave” job. The playwright portrays the impacts and serious effects that the
rural people superstitious have on the poor innocent people. Though science advancements
take place on one side, there are people who are not able to go with such scientific
knowledge. They cling on to their age old superstitious belief and ignorance. Though the
humans have crossed the ancient modern era and reached post modern age, there do still
people believe in witchcraft or sorcery. Some of the superstitious beliefs based on witchcraft
is that women having got possessed by the evil spirits. The necromancy or witchcraft was
started in Europe at the close of the middle ages. In India, witch hunting is prevalent in the
Santhal areas of Bengal. Witch-hunting is a social evil that has got a tight hold on many
regions of India and it is used as an anti-social element to will the innocent people and grab
their properties. Women in the male dominated Indian society are not aware of the profound
and stringent changes brought by the various social movements in the society because of the
anguish and suppression they face frequently. With the frequent practise of stress and
domination they make women not to realise the crushed personal freedom. Their freedom is
crushed mercilessly for the gratification of the oppressors in the guise of zamindars,
landlords, and moneylenders. In the play “Bayen” Chandidasi is a loving mother and
sensitive wife. Mahasweta Devi‟s another play that gives important to motherhood is
“Mother of 1084” and the name of the mother character is Sujatha. Chandidasi is
intellectually inferior to Sujatha. Both the women belong to entirely different worlds.
Mahasweta Devi has depicted the mother characters in a sharp contrast. Sujatha is an
educated, working in the bank Chandidasi is an uneducated and her work is to bury the dead
children and guard the graves as her forefathers did in their times. Chandidasi is labelled as a
“Witch” and “Bayen” just because she does the job in the graveyard and so she has the evil
power within her. Actually Chandidasi is born in a great family in which one of the ancestors
has helped the great honest king Harish Chandra when he came to the streets as a beggar
having lost his kingdom with his family. The king has rewarded them with a permanent
entrusted work in the cremation grounds all over the world. Chandidasi‟s conventional
profession that leads to her to the excommunication from the society has a very interesting
and strong background and it also has sacredness. Malindar, who is Chandidasi‟s husband
recalls the magnanimity of her forefathers in giving timely help to the king. He says,
Yes, that's how it happened, Bhagirath....The Brahmans, the sadhus, the sanyasis get
cattle, land and gold, and we get all the cremation grounds of the world. All the cremataion
grounds of the world for us, for us, for us, for us only. Your mother was a descendant of Kalu
Dome. Her name was Chandidasi Gangadasi, she used to bury children. (Bayen 79). The
work in the graveyard needs some bravery and courage to do it at any time of a day
Chandidasi has got it and she is able to do it without any sense of fear or hesitation, though
the job does not suit a woman. Chandidasi deem it a privilege and pride to do the job and she
considers it as an equal to rendering service to god the destroyer i.e. Lord Shiva. She derives
pleasure in doing that job because she works for the sake of the others. Chandidasi as a
spinster does not have any inner conflicts or confusions within her in doing the job as a

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 Devanga Arts College Manas Vol. 8, No.1, December 2016
(A Multidisciplinary Research Journal)

gravedigger. Rather she feels happy & proud of her social status as a burialdigger. When she
meets Malindar for the first time, she has immense pride to say.
I'm Chandidasi Gangadasi. My father, the late Patitpaban Gangadhar. I bury dead
children and guard the graves ...Kalu Dome's my forefather. I'm at the top of the Domes here.
(80). Chandidasi is a tribal as well as typical Indian woman by character. She is blessed with
intense love and she shows sympathy towards the suffering humanity. She is fated to marry
Malindar who is an employee in the mortuary. He is an insensitive man and is the
representative of the typical modern men who is ready to abide by the male defined social
culture and lead a compromising life. Chandidasi‟s sympathising nature makes her getting the
label as “Bayen” that is well versed in practising necromancy. She is not happy with the work
she does. She feels insulted and hurt when people give an opinion as she has an evil eye
which will cause ruin to the persons or objects that she perceives. The conventional
profession that Chandidasi does make her feel proud once and now she hates the job because
her social status as well as her personal freedom is getting affected. If any infant dies over
there, the parents start to blame Chandidasi by misunderstanding that it all happens because
of her necromantic powers and she is a “Bayen” whereas the infants die of any dieseases. She
could not spend time with her baby boy because of the work to be done at unexpected times.
So she asks her husband to take her away from the place so that they can lead a peaceful and
happy life. But he is indifferent and insensitive to her feelings and thoughts like a typical
Indian man.
It hurts to do the job these days, the job handed down to me by my ancestors, my
hands rebel and yet I have to go on doing it....They say I have the evil eye. The little ones die
of summer heat, winter's cold, and small pox, don't they? And is it any fault of mine?....Why
can't you see it, Gangaputta, why I think of throwing up the job again and again? When I
guard the graves through the night, my breasts bursting with milk ache for my Bhagirath back
home, all by himself. I can't, can't stay away from him. (82)
She feels that as a woman, she doesn‟t fit to do the job of a gravedigger as a mother of
a sucking son. The dead infants that are buried by her seem to be her own son‟s image is an
illusion. So she does not want to inspire of her husband encouraging her to do that job
Malindar feels that nobody can keep the dead infants with themselves after they die. They
should be buried and that useful job is done by his wife and she should be happy about her
job. Malindar fails to empathise with his wife as a mother which shows his lack of
attentiveness, care and responsibility as a husband.
While Chandidasi is in such a conflict with her husband, she is called to perform her
duty for the dead infant Tukhi, her sister-in-law‟s daughter. As she has the illusionary image
of her son in the faces of dead infant, she remains near the grave with the thought that she is
with her son. This is the apt point where she has got the label as „Bayen‟ by the people as
well as by her husband. From there onwards, she is totally excommunicated from the society
with the blame that she has an evil eye and she has got used to practice sorcery which has led
to the death of many infants. But actually the infants die because of the sudden climate
changes and the diseases that spread at that time as fever, small pox etc., It is their
superstitious beliefs in this advanced and post modern scientific world have made Chandidasi

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(A Multidisciplinary Research Journal)

excommunicated, banished and restricted from enjoying her motherhood. Because her
excommunication, Bhagirath is also fated not to enjoy the motherly love and affection and he
is not even allowed to look at her because she has an evil eye and the most pitiable thing is
that Bhagirath is told that his mother is dead when she is alive. Margaret Atwood, the
Canadian novelist has provided a feminist ideology in her Survival Thesis. She says that is a
reflection of the violation of women rights and it includes:
Any act, omission or conduct be means of which physical, sexual or mental suffering
is inflicted, directly or indirectly, through deceit, seduction, threat, [harassment, coercion, or
any means, on any woman with the purpose of effect of intimidating, punishing or
humiliating her or of maintain her in sex- stereotyped roles, or of denying her human dignity,
sexual self-determination, physical, mental and moral integrity or of undermining the security
of her person, her self-respect, or personality, or of diminishing her physical or mental
capabilities. (qtd Prabhakar. M 12)
The play is in four scenes. The readers can see Malindar‟s divulgence of his past
happy life with his lovable wife Chandidasi and their son Bhagirath. He discloses the reasons
for the excommunication of his wife to this son. The play has a very simple narration and
there is no complexity in the narrative technique of the drama. The only thing is that the play
moves freely from the present to the past and past to the present in order to recall the past
events and connect it with the present. The play has a beginning a middle and an end.
Malindarr‟s meeting with Bayen and his disclosure to Bhagirath forms the beginning of the
play. The events that has led to the banishment of Chandidasi as a bayen form the middle of
the play and Bhagirath‟s defence and confession of Bayen as his mother in public without
any hesitation but with a sense of pride and love is the end of the play. One can see the
unique motherhood features in the character of Chandidasi and Sujatha in Mother of 1084.
Chandidasi is a woman of integrity. It is evident when her son has come and tried to meet her
in personal. She is not even ready to show her face to him or talk to him. Though she is
banished because of blind superstitious, she wants to abide by the restriction laid to her by the
people. We can find the greatness, bravery and courage of Chandidasi when she runs towards
the moving train in order to avoid a major accident that is about to be caused by the robbers
to rob in the train. This is the nature of a typical Indian woman. At critical situations, women
never think about themselves rather about the around her and are even ready to sacrifice
themselves for the sake of others. The railway Guard comments her great sacrifice thus,
“She‟s been brave. A brave woman. A brave deed. The Railways are sure to award her a
medal, posthumous of course and a cash reward too” (Bayen 91). When Bhagirath sees his
mother lying dead, he confesses with pride and love for his mother in front of the Railway
officer who wants to reward the bravery of the woman posthumously. Bhagirath Says,
My name Bhagirath Gangaputta ...... My Father the revered Malindar Gangaputta .....
residence Domtoli, village daharhati .... My mother ...... my Mother, the late Chandidasi
Gangadasi (suddenly breaks in to loud weeping) ... my mother the late Chandidasi Gangadasi,
Sir. Not a bayan. She was never a bayen, my mother. (91). Chandidasi is a brave women
moving among the graves and chasing the vicious jackals. But she becomes weak and has no
power to protect herself from the male chauvinism in the form of superstitious beliefs. Her

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(A Multidisciplinary Research Journal)

grievances remain unheard. Even in her life of solitude. She leads a life of living dead and
finally she has killed herself in order to save the lives of the passengers in the train. Her
transformation from a mother to witch mother or bayen is again transformed to a state of
divinity and Chandidasi can be rightly called as a „holy mother‟ because of her selfless
sacrifice. Simon de Beauvoir rightly observes, „„the women of today are in a fair way to
dethrone the myth of femininity; they are beginning to affirm their independence in concrete
ways, but they do not succeed in living completely the life of a human being.‟‟
(The Second Sex, p.30)

References
1. Devi, Mahasweta. „Anthology of Five Plays, Mother of 1084‟, Seagull Books Pvt Ltd,
Calcutta, 1997.
2. Prabhakar. M. Feminism/Postmodernism Margaret Atwood‟s Fiction. Creative Books,
Naraina, New Delhi. 1999.
3. Simone de Beauvoir, Introduction to book two, the second Sex Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1979.

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