An Analysis Of Devadatta's 'Padmini'

Does she really not see? Or is she deliberately playing the game with him? Kapila was never the sort to blush. But now, he only has to see her and he begins to wag his tail. Sits up on his hind legs as though he were afraid to let her words fall to the ground. And that pleading in his eyes—can’t she really see that?44
Though Devadatta provides intellectual companionship, Padmini is drawn unconsciously to stray on Kapila’s muscular body. After realizing the nature of the relationship Padmini and Kapila are heading towards, Devadatta decides to remove himself from the scene rather than make the painful choice of sharing Padmini with Kapila.
However, Padmini cannot rest satisfied by the fruit of knowledge and learning alone. The urge to have
She wants Devadatta’s mind and Kapila’s body and dreams of a ‘complete’ man. She aspires to have a ‘perfect man’ who possesses both these aspects of human personality. So far she had no courage to express her desire to have Kapila due to the fear of society or morality. It is for the first time, in front of the goddess Kali, Padmini accepts her love for Kapila. She could have lived the life even with Kapila, had the goddess saved him. But the burden of the social stigma, censure and charges of adultery haunt her mind. Now she gets a chance to express her innermost desires or subconscious desires; she makes her choice by selecting Devadatta’s head and Kapila’s body, which will perhaps give her a sense of fulfilment. She liberates her ‘woman’ from social restrains and becomes the maker of her fate, when Devadatta and Kapila offer their heads before goddess Kali. She exchanges the heads and thus, gets Devadatta with Kapila’s body. Padmini commits a postmodern transgression in fixing the heads of Devadatta and Kapila. Padmini is exited, for having obtained a complete man with profound intellect and strong body together for which she longed for. Having Devadatta’s head synonymous with social prestige and status of a wedded wife, and Kapila’s body—that she desperately desired, Padmini now has a complete man. Padmini has full admiration for Devadatta
Padmini’s consistent existence depends on the presence of both for her satisfaction. Eventually, she finds herself in intense euphoria when she combines the head of Devadatta and the body of Kapila, thereby according herself a high degree of sexual freedom. According to Vanishree Tripathi, the portrayal of Padmini is “sexually explicit and evokes a representational mode of projecting female body as a sexualised object.”49 After the exchange of heads, Padmini, who felt that she had the best of both men, gets slowly disillusioned. Padmini is apparently unhappy with her husband who has lost vigour in his body. She craves for the ‘strong male smell’ of Kapila and loves Kapila unconsciously. There is an urge in her to accept ‘Kapila—the –person’. Padmini, ‘the female principle,’ more bold, more frank in demanding what will fulfill her—‘selfish’ in the eyes of Kali—in a daring endeavor tries to get the best of both. But it is clear that Padmini’s extra-marital relationship with Kapila or her accepting Kapila as a second husband will threaten the ‘order’ in the society. In her dream she sees a man, but not her husband. He has a labourer’s face, but a nice body. Her desire to see Kapila increases and she manages to send Devadutta to