Somadeva 5/26/13

In Somadeva, Devasmita and her husband, Guhasena, are to be separated while he handles business abroad. Both of them are concerned about each others' faithfulness during their separation, and they are each granted a red lotus that will wilt if the other is unfaithful. Guhasena makes the mistake of telling some of the other merchants about this arrangement, and it follows that these men take it upon themselves to render Devasmita unfaithful.

In this story, Devasmita is presented as the heroine. She is cunning and logical and is able to determine exactly how these events play out. Throughout the story, she wears disguises to allow the men to believe she is playing into their hands. In reality, they are playing into hers. Devasmita's ability to use the intentions of the men against them with a simple disguise is clever and creative. In this story, the way in which Devasmita is able to correctly assume the steps in which the situation took place is an insight into the relationships of men and women. She tells her servants, secretly, “I am sure that some merchant's sons have seen the never-fading lotus which my husband carries in his hand, and out of curiosity they have asked him about it when he was drinking. Now the scoundrels have come here from their island to seduce me and have engaged that depraved nun as their go-between” (Somadeva 1277). With this statement, she has assumed every detail of the plot against herself and Guhasena exactly. Guhasena is the one who reveals the situation to others, undermining the agreement that the two of them had. Devasmita, on the other hand, is not only able to keep their secret but is able to know exactly what her husband's actions would be, showing her devotion to him. She then uses the disguises in order to keep her faithfulness and also to expose the men who were trying to gain her interest. Her disguises, then, become a way of keeping the relationship strong between Guhasena and Devasmita as well as a way to reunite them later in the story. Her intentions throughout the story are merely to maintain the relationship between the two of them and to keep it strong.

Works Cited

Somadeva. “The Red Lotus of Chastity.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Shorter 3^rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 2013.1274-1279. Print.