More than just a love triangle

The Wife and the Dancing Girl by Anuja Chandramouli is an exploration of almost every aspect of womanhood.

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The woman is portrayed as a daughter, a wife, a danseuse, a lover and a mother.

Chandramouli has also examined their counterpart, the males. Each species has been portrayed in her novel as flawed in unique ways. The author has firmly established herself in the genre of Indian mythological literature with titles like Shakti, Ganga, Mohini and so on. This time she has chosen to reinterpret the ancient Tamil epic Cilappatikaram.

She has done away with the original title, which translates to "The Tale of the Anklet" which focused on the role of fate just like any other epic-instead she has chosen to emphasise the two women protagonists who suffered the loss of their beloved.

The novel explores the nuances of love. The love between a husband and a wife and the love between a courtesan and her lover. Love proves fatal for both women. The wife loses everything for the sake of her love for her husband.

The danseuse loses the only man she had ever truly felt for. The man adores his wife but falls for the charms of the dancing girl. He loses everything out of the goodness of his heart and is disillusioned about his affection for the courtesan while recognising the steadfast devotion of his wife. In this love triangle, each one is a victim. The wife (Kannagi) suffers for her blind adherence to customs and her intense love for her husband. The courtesan (Madhavi) suffers as she is in a dilemma.