The spotted goddess: The Dalit woman in classical Brahminic literature, and in modern fiction, memoirs and songs from Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh

The Dalit woman is of the lowest rank among the outcaste in India, who has traditionally been despised as the evil and polluted being. Her image, however, has transformed through the ages from the polluted Other to the pure caste woman, in the Hindu epics, to the courageous figure who arises above her victimization in modern writings by both Non-Dalits and Dalits. The Dalit woman has traditionally expressed her sense of pride in her culture, and a strong sense of connection with her community. She is heard and seen today outside her own community as a courageous woman within her own depiction of her ambiguous existence as the polluted but pure, victimized but powerful, demonized but divine. The Dalit woman is now rearticulating and redefining her life, defying religious claims on her mind and body.; Chapter 1 considers the traditional depiction of the outcaste woman in specific episodes of the Hindu epics of Ramayana, and Mahabharata, and in the tenets of The Laws of Manu. Some theories that surround the Aryan---Dravidian conflict and the origin of caste is discussed to draw parallels to the "Fierce Untouchable woman" in The Laws of Manu and the Dravidian woman in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Chapter 2 discusses Dalit women characters in the modern fiction of non-Dalit writers from Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. The changing phase of the depiction of Dalit women and the visibility of Dalit women in mainstream writing is presented. Chapter 3 is a discussion of an oral narrative of a Dalit woman, Viramma: Life of an Untouchable (1997) as a simple but realistic self-portrayal in relation to the role of the community in the narrator's life and revelations of Dalit cultural strengths in the process of her narration. Chapter 4 explores the traditional songs of Dalit women in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh in relation to the Dalit woman's sense of vibrancy and celebration of life. Chapter 5 involves an engagement with two writers, Bama from Tamilnadu and Namboori Paripooma from Andhra Pradesh, who are formally educated Dalit women who question, redefine, and rearticulate their role in society.