ABSTRACT
With reference to some iconic texts by Mahasweta Devi, including “Draupadi”, “Water,” and Aranyer Adhikar, this essay argues that nature forms a major theme in her work, representing a powerful blend of myth and history. Mythic elements such as concepts of the noble savage, a lost golden age, and Nature as a mother figure are not presented as timeless and unchangeable but connected with ideas of resistance and struggle. Through the working of a modern consciousness, myth becomes an aspect of history in Mahasweta Devi’s fiction. In some texts, the narrative shows how history interferes in the ancient, mythic harmony between man and nature, while in others, nature functions as resistance, acquiring Paradisiac elements beyond the limits of history. As a result of the combination of history and myth, rising above the fictional characters’ defeats and the futility of their existence, there emerges a new mythology of successive rebirths and renewal of life, investing these figures with a vastness of stature.
