We are taught from the very first breath that women and men hold an equal status in this society. But will a society ever accept a woman who gives birth to a child before marriage? Or a woman who is considered unwanted by her own husband?
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In Slavic folklore, Rusalka was a water nymph emerging out of the lakes as fertility wights that passed water to the crops and fields to nourish them. This benevolent portrayal changed in the 19th century, when the myth changed to reflect a more cynical, malevolent world view: the Rusalka of this time was thought to be ‘unclean’ by definition, thought to have arisen by a woman drowning in a body of water, either by way of suicide as bearing a child before marriage or murdered by her own husband. However, the duality of the historical event turned her into a ‘spirit of death.’ In this form, she lives in the depths of the lake, only emerging to drag men to their deaths.
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Photography and editing- Eeshwa Jiwan
The art of Bagru
