Apsaras, the immortal seductresses, celestial nymphs, forever young and beguilingly beautiful, the courtesans at Indra’s court are the most mysterious and alluring character of Hindu Mythology. There are many references of these celestial beings in Hindu Mythology as the ones sent by Indra, the king of devas, to seduce and distract anyone whose achievements threaten his position. The first mention of these supernatural female entities was found in the Rig Veda. Later epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas mentioned their contribution in several affairs of devas and asuras. The legendary Kalidasa, in Vikramorvasiyam, mentioned the love of the Apsara Urvashi and the mortal king Pururav who were deceived and separated by the devas. Abhijnanashakuntalam, another legendary work of Kalidasa, having Shakuntala as the heroine has a major apsara in the back story. Shakuntala, though raised by Rishi Kanva, is the daughter of the legendary kshatriya-turned-brahmin Kaushik, better known as Vishwamitra, and the bewitching Menaka. Menaka’s choice is the story of Menaka, the most beautiful of the ten daivikas with quick intelligence and innate talent who craves for the one thing that she can never have-a family.
“She arose diaphanously from the Ocean of Milk.” The book starts with Menaka emerging on the last day from the zephyr of the heavenly life to face a ‘tall, chiselled-face man’, Indra. She knew Indra for what he was, an arrogant and spoilt king who cared only for this power and supremacy and loathed him. The story revolves around Menaka, her craving to have a family, and urge to go through any hardships to have a life of her own. Apsaras were trained to be heartless and were meant for quick pleasures. Menaka, however, questioned this when she fell for Vishwavasu, better known as Vasu, the king of Gandharvas. Menaka and Vasu defied Indra and married breaking the ‘so called’ law in heaven. However, they were not allowed to keep their child when they had one and the baby was sent to a Rishi to foster her. But Indra was yet not done with his games. He took the chance of Menaka’s absence, accused Vasu of a serious crime and cursed him to roam as a headless demon, the kabandha, on prithivilok. This left Menaka heartbroken and she finally confronted Indra and decided to fight for her rights.
“You gave me all the weapons of love, sex and desire but disarmed me of my capability of conscious choice and decision. Why? I can be a woman, but never a wife.”
Indra, finally defeated by the witty Menaka, promises her that Vasu will be lifted from his cursed body by an avatar of Vishnu who is to be born soon. Thus, started the endless wait of Menaka for her Vasu.
She started looking for ways to escape her sad destiny. Parallel to all this is running the story of King Kaushik, now Vishwamitra, which is about to intersect with that of Menaka. “Menaka seduced Vishwamitra, distracted him from his goal of becoming a Rajrishi, had a child with him and then returned to heaven after dumping them” is all that we have heard from the epics. But it’s not the whole thing.
The chance to break out from heaven comes when Indra asked Menaka to seduce Vishwamitra and put a stop to his ambitious plans as his growing powers became a threat to Indra’s supremacy. Menaka agrees to this and visits Vishwamitra who gets intoxicated by just a single glance at her. Thus, started their story of love, lies, crime, and confession. Eventually, Menaka falls for Kaushik, they marry and have a child. After some time, it dawns on her that she succeeded in doing what she came for. She, then, argues and accuses him, saying she loved and respected him because he was the famous Vishwamitra and now he is nothing but ‘the lover of an apsara’.
“I can never be Vashishtha’s Arundhati or Kashyap’s Aditi, just a Menaka who seduced a great rishi” said Menaka, her voice hollow.
To this Vishwamitra replied with a desperation in his voice, “Don’t you get it, Menaka? I love you. I don’t aspire for the world because you are my world.”
She, then, knew she had to be hard on him for his own good. She left him and their daughter and returned to heaven.
Like all her other tales, Kavita Kane has given a touch of feminity here as well. Menaka asks questions and answers them herself. She questions her existence and purpose. She questions why she has to live a life deprived of all choices, why she can’t have a family, a husband and a baby. This book makes us question if what we know or have read about a lesser-known character is all monochrome like this or are there any circumstances which made them choose the path they did.
Menaka made certain choices and suffered. She won some, lost a lot but at the end she had no regrets.
This book definitely held my interest and almost kept me bound in that world for the whole time. It was not a difficult read but surely was engrossing and provoking. I would recommend it to almost anyone because there is a lot to learn from ‘Menaka’s Choice’.
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