Bibliography: Narayan's Ramayana. Story: "Ahalya's Story" (Link is for web research of the story, I am reading form a paper book)
Notes: When I was reading through part A of the Ramayana, this story elicited by far the most emotional reaction in me. I have to admit, it wasn't a good one. Although this story proclaims to be "Ahalya's Story," she seems to be a side character to her own tale. Things are done to her, and not by her. Not only that, but she is judged for the things that she does as though she were the primary actor in these plots. There is a lot of victim blaming that happens, and I thought it was a particular sting that Gautama lessens Indra's curse before Ahalya's curse is reversed, even though Indra (at least in this version) is the real "villain' here.
What really gets me about this story though is that Ahalya is essentially creased to be this completely perfect and irresistible being, but she is then punished for being so. She has no real control over her own narrative, as she is both created and (in a sense) trained to be who she is. This leads to another off-putting part of the narrative, which is that Gautama raises her, and then she is given to him as his wife. I can understand, however, that this may simply be a cultural difference that I am reacting to.
I think it woudl be interesting to do a re-telling in which we see Ahalya take more control. It would be my guess that she didn't want to be married to someone over which she had no control. Some versions of the story have Ahalya be aware that she is having relations with someone who is not her husband, and I think expanding on that narrative (letting a young woman who was designed to be a object of infatuation actually explore her sexual identity) would be interesting.
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