Anantya Tantrist, the emphatic tantric detective, is back in the recently launched novel The Matsya Curse . The novel is second in the bestselling series The Cult of Chaos by Shweta Taneja. It combines an illegal tantric, lost figures from Indian mythology and scary villains, all battling it out in the Capital. Talking about foraying into Indian mythology, Shweta says that she wanted to weave a world with stories she heard as a child. “I not only dug my hands into the organised mythology structure from the scriptures but also travelled around and collected folklore and songs to find out about local supernatural creatures to incorporate them into the novel.” The novel is full of such creatures such as nishadas, danavas, rakshasas, etc.
The different supernatural creatures are not the only thing unusual about the novel, the protagonist of the novel also happens to be a tantrik. When asked about her decision to situate her world in the Indian occult, Shweta said that she was fascinated with the variation in the philosophical base and how different it was from popular representation. “I wanted to base something in the Indian occult because our first impression of it is black magic and human sacrifice or we are reminded of the B Grade movies starring Amrish Puri as the evil tantrik. When I read more about it, I realised it was extremely different from popular perception.” According to her, this demonisation of tantrik philosophy stemmed from its difference from mainstream Vedic philosophy. “Unlike Vedic, it was democratic and open to all, which were unusual ideas at that point of time.”
Strong willed
Anantya is also an illegal tantrik since the philosophy was open only to men. This was a deliberate move on Shweta’s part who wished to make a potent argument for gender equality. “The tantric system is extremely patriarchal, and I wanted Anantya’s character to be the subaltern.” Her characterisation also stemmed from the fact, that most detective figures in popular fiction are men. She modelled Anantya on these detectives, making smart comments, facing danger, roaming around on the streets at night and having casual sex. “She is very strong willed herself and since she can also do magic, she is an independent person. She is brash to the point of being ruthless and is unapologetic about herself.”
Shweta uses many gender fluid characters in her novel as well as inverts traditional gender roles. “It was fun creating a gender inversion, on one hand while Anantya is strong and a fighter, Shukra looks like a macho but is an emotional individual. I wanted to bring in different gender roles.” Shweta does not believe that gender should be boxed in definite categories and that this is a construct forwarded by society. On the lack of strong women characters in mythology, she believes, that is due to male authors. “I think in a lot of stories, women are there in the side lines and we just have to make an effort to find them, we unfortunately live in a patriarchal society and we have to work harder to locate them.” According to her, creating the character of Anantya was also an emancipatory activity on her part, “Through Anantya, I could now walk on those roads at night which were restricted to me in the city.”
