Week 3 Story: How Wives Become Warriors

It was cold.
Always too cold.
What had it been like...to be...what was it? Too hard to remember. Too hard.
Then suddenly, light.

As the stone crumbled away from Ahalya's form, everything came rushing back. She had been tricked, then punished. Now a beautiful man was talking to her, and old habits kicked in, stretching her lips into a courteous, humble smile even as her hands curled into fists.
"May you seek and join your revered husband, and live in his service again. Let not your heart be burdened with what is past and gone." Rama was saying, and then he was walking away. Even before he had left, though, Ahalya had decided for herself that she would not be going back until she was ready.
Ready to make him pay.

That had been a year ago. Every night she woke from that nightmare again and again. She had found out by asking around that Indra's sentence had been lessened, which only fueled her more. It fueled her as she learned to aim throwing stars, holding them like she once held lotuses; as she lifted weights instead of lifting kohl liner to her eyes. It fueled her as she prepared day after day, never slowing down to adjust to the new world she awoke in.

She wondered, sometimes, as she lay awake trying to forget her night terrors, if Rama had told Gautama that she had been freed from the prison he trapped her in. She wondered if Gautama felt any remorse, or he was simply fool enough to believe that he really had done what was right. 

Ten years after she had emerged from that stone, Ahalya finally felt ready enough to begin her hunt for Indra. He was now the god of a thousand eyes, or some such nonsense, so Ahalya dressed in her fighting clothes, then wrapped old robes around herself, applying makeup to her face so she looked like an old woman. She would seek him, as if she were a worshiper, then she would destroy him. Then she would return to her "husband," and make him repent as well.

Author's Note: This story is adapted from Narayan's Ramayana, changing and elaborating upon the story of Ahalya, which felt unfair. Ahalya was tricked into sleeping with Indra, because he came to her in the guise of her husband. When her husband found them, he punished her first, then Indra. When Indra complained about his sentence, it was lessened. Ahalya, however, was trapped in stone until Rama happened to pass by her. It is hard to believe that anyone would suffer this injustice lightly. Rama's quote is taken directly from Narayan's work.

Photo: Woman and Grief by x1klima

Bibliography: Narayan, R. K., The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Version of the Indian Epic. (Reading Guide)