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2. Personal information
Name - Hina Parmar
Roll No - 10
Sem - 3
Enrollment no - 4069206420220021
Email - hinaparmar612@gmail.com
Subject - Ecofeminism in the Myth of Manasa Devi in Amitav Ghosh’s ‘Gun Island’
Paper no - 207
Paper code - 22414
Paper - Contemporary Literatures in English
Submitted to - Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar
University

3. Points to Ponder
1. Author’s Introduction
2. About novel from original text
3. What is Ecofeminism ?
4. Ecofeminism in in the myth of Manasa Devi in ‘Gun
Island’
5. Comparison of Manasa devi and Black Madonna
6. Deconstructed myth of Manasa Devi
7. Conclusion
8. Resources

4. Author’s Introduction
● “Amitav Ghosh was born in 1956 Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka.
● He studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria and is the author of ‘The Circle of
Reason’, ‘The Shadow Lines’, ‘In An Antique Land’, ‘Dancing in Cambodia’, ‘The
Calcutta Chromosome’, ‘The Glass Palace’, ‘The Hungry Tide’, and ‘The Ibis
Trilogy’, ‘consisting of Sea of Poppies’, ‘River of Smoke’ and ‘Flood of Fire’. His
most recent book, ‘The Great Derangement’; Climate Change and the Unthinkable,
a work of nonfiction, appeared in 2016.
● In 2007 he was awarded the Padma Shri. In 2010 he was a joint winner, along with
Margaret Atwood of a Dan David prize, and 2011 he was awarded the Grand Prix of
the Blue Metropolis festival in Montreal. In 2018 the Jnanpith Award, India’s
highest literary honor, was conferred on Amitav Ghosh. He was the first English-
language writer to receive the award. Amitav Ghosh was awarded the Erasmus
Prize in 2024.(Ghosh)

5. About novel from original text
➔ Amitav Ghosh Drawing inspiration from a myth involving the snake goddess
Manasa Devi, Ghosh wrote Gun Island (2019), about a rare-book dealer who
undertakes a journey in which he must face issues of his past as well as
climate change.
➔ On a visit to his birthplace, Kolkata, a Brooklyn-based dealer in rare books
finds his life becoming entangled with an ancient legend about the goddess
of snakes Manasa Devi. While visiting the temple, deep within the vast
mangrove forest of Bengal, he has a disturbing encounter with the most
feared, and revered, of Indian snacks, King cobra. This is followed by a series
of increasingly uncanny episodes that seem to dissolve the borders of the
human and non-human.
➔ Peopled with a diverse cast of characters, and set in places that range from
the Sundarbans to Los Angeles and Venice, this is a story about a world in
which creatures and beings of every kind have been torn loose from their
accustomed homes by the catastrophic processes of displacement that are
now unfolding across the Earth, at and ever-increasing pace. It is a story
about a man whose faith in the world is restored by two remarkable women.
(Ghosh)

6. What is Ecofeminism ?
❖ Ecofeminism emerged as a literary movement during the early 1970s.
❖ Ecofeminism refers to feminist theory and activism informed by
ecology. Ecofeminism is concerned with connections between the
domination of women and the domination of nature.
❖ Rosemary Radford Ruether, an ecofeminist theologian, features the
interplay of feminism and ecology in her definition of ecofeminism:
“Ecofeminism brings together these two explorations of ecology and
feminism, in their full, or deep forms, and explores how male
domination of women and domination of nature are interconnected,
both in cultural ideology and in social structures”.
❖ Janis Birkeland, an ecofeminist environmental planner, sees
ecofeminism as the logical conclusion of feminism that “theorizes the
interrelations among self, societies, and nature”. (Howell)

7. Ecofeminism in in the myth of Manasa Devi in ‘Gun Island’
❏ Amitav Ghosh’s last novel, Gun Island, is a modern-day parable, woven
around the legend of the snake goddess, Manasa. It is a story of travel and
migration laced with myth and folktales and depicts the crisis of climate
change.
❏ In the legend, Manasa Devi represents the natural world or ecological
concerns. Being a goddess, she is also the embodiment of mother nature. So,
the destructions of natural resources by human beings with profit-making
motives are against the interest of the goddess. Like the original myth of
Chand Sadagar, the Gun Merchant thought himself rich and clever enough
not to defer to the goddess of snakes. To establish her rule, Monosha Devi
needed the homage of both humans and animals (snakes). She had to plead,
cajole, and persuade him to let him do her bidding. In order to run away from
the persecution of the goddess Manasa Devi, patron of snakes, and all
venomous creatures, he had to travel across lands and oceans and
encountered endless trouble. (Ferdous)

8. Continue…..
➢ Amitav Ghosh reinforces the myth of Manasa Devi through the shrine’s architecture, built
in the 17th century around the same period as the Little Ice age. He traces the path of the
merchant in hot pursuit, through its symbols, friezes and panels. The physical appearance
of the king cobra establishes the connection between the myth and belief systems. The
king cobra follows Deen but does not attack him as if in acknowledgement of his
unthreatening intervention into its domain. But it attacks Tipu as it feels threatened. Tipu
pays a price for his pride and insensitivity.
➢ Rafi grandfather notes in the Gun Island, “If a cobra puts something in you, you can never
be rid of it.” (Gun Island,78). In other words, once Nature is harmed there is no reversing it.
Her bleeding presence will forever haunt. In Tipu, Manasa Devi has now got a medium
where she can make her presence felt, reminding man of the folly of his actions and their
irreversible consequences. The role of Manasa Devi as the eco feminine protector and
avenger gets emphasised.
➢ The myth of Manasa Devi is an eco feminist challenge against the corporate patriarchal
system. Deen realises the tender nature of the pursuit when he sees it “from the
perspective of… the goddess herself. And then the pursuit no longer seemed to be a story of
an almost incomprehensible vindictiveness but something more fraught, and even tender, a
search driven by fear and desperation.” (Menon)

9. ● The power of the myth is doubly confirmed when Tipu tips Piya from the impending
beaching of Dolphins in the Sundarbans, bringing the species to near extinction. All this is
mysteriously connected with the movement of the gun merchant. The catastrophe which
ensues, Cinta argues, has rational explanations in global warming, changing habitats,
increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and other greenhouse gases
too.(Menon)

10. Comparison of Manasa devi and Black Madonna
● Beliefs, faith, customs are permanent, universal. Just as the rural folk
revered Manasa Devi as their protector, the pious Venetians also believed in
Black Madonna.
● During the pandemic in Europe, when a quarter of the City’s population
perished and thousands of people died in no time the little alley named Corte
Nova remained unaffected as a little girl living on the alley painted Black
Madonna and hung the picture at the entrance. The little girl believed that
Madonna would protect people and plague would not enter their part of the
city. Her trust in Madonna won over the horrible realities of the pandemic.
Madonna protected the people who trusted her just like Goddess Manasa
who also saved her children during a natural calamity. Like Goddess Manasa,
Madonna also acts as a Mediator. Both of the deities from two different
cultures stand between the people and the earth with their blessings and
furies. Interesting enough is the fact that the image of Black Madonna of La
Salute carved in the Byzantine style evokes connotations of the A-sa-sa-ra-
me or the Minoan goddess of snakes. (Jana)

11. Deconstructed myth of Manasa Devi
● The myth that steers the narrative of Gun Island (2019) is based on the
popular folk legend and pertains to the wrath of Manasa Devi. Ghosh uses
history as a way to develop the mythical narrative and exploratory journey
of protagonist, Deen. There are two important components of natural
force, wind and the most powerful and dangerous species, snake.
● Deen stats that “I learnt that massive wildfire had been raging around Los
Angeles for several days. Thousands of acres of Land had been incinerated
and tens of thousands of people had been moved to safety”
● There is a myth that Manasa Devi sends scorching winds for gun merchant
and captain and the dry wind burns their houses. There is another
deconstruction of mythical development that Devi burns their houses
which is very fantastical and fictional aspect. Actually, climate change is
responsible for dryness and massive fire.These dried seasons increased
moisture strain in vegetation and, therefore, have caused forests more
susceptible to severe fires.
● The myth blames that the unfortunate traveler is the cause of the fire. It
deconstructs here that not Manasa Devi but climate change is the main
reason for destruction. (Syed)

12. Conclusion
● Ghosh presents the cult of Manasa who survives as a ‘fighting spirit’ and
commanding authority of feminine spirit and energy. She is the relentless
ecofeminist who pursues the merchant tirelessly and ferrets him out of any corner
of the globe, he chooses to hide from her wrath. Manasa’s power has a sharp,
vindictive edge. Her prowess subjugates patriarchal concepts and she breathes the
eco feminine strength of courage and compassion, of patience and endurance, of
optimism and opportunity.
● Like Deen, the reader is left with “an overwhelming gratitude -towards the gun
merchant, to his story, to Manasa Devi and even to the king cobra. It was as if they
had broken a spell of bewilderment and set free.”
● Ghosh persuades the readers to believe that as long as these feminine and
mysterious, natural force move the world, there will be “the wide-open sea, the
horizon, the bright moonlight, leaping dolphins and also the outpouring hope,
goodness, love, charity and generosity.”(Menon)

13. Ferdous, M. "Ecofeminism during Pandemic: A Study of Amitav Ghosh’s Sundarbans Trilogy." European Journal of
English Language and Literature Studies, vol. 10, no. 8, 2022, pp. 33-41.
Ghosh, Amitav. "Biography." Amitav Ghosh's Website, https://amitavghosh.com/about/biography/.
Ghosh, Amitav. Gun Island. Penguin Random House India Pvt. Limited, 2019.
Howell, Nancy R. "Ecofeminism: What one needs to know." Zygon® 32.2 (1997): 231-241.
Jana, Aditi. “Interrogating Folklore and Transculturalism in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island.” Vidyasagar University
Publication Division, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, vol. 17, no. -, 2024, p. 10.
Menon, Pushpa R. “ECOFEMINISM IN THE MYTH OF MANASA DEVI IN AMITAV GHOSH’S GUN ISLAND.”
International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT), vol. 9, no. 3, 2021, p. 6.
Syed, Bushra, Farheen Akhtar Qadri, and Jawaria Sajid. "Devastation of Nature and Exploitation of Indigenous
People: Postcolonial Ecocritical Study of Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh." Harf-o-Sukhan 7.2 (2023): 22-29.
Resources

14. Thank You