Fathers and daughters in a south Indian goddess myth: Cultural ambivalence and the dynamics of desire

Abstract

Desire in kinship creates ambivalences which the kinship system itself does not resolve, and while this has been understood—especially with reference to the mother-son relationship in South Asia—little attention has focused on the relationship between father and daughter. The Jalari (a Telugu fishing caste) myth of the seven goddesses turns on the relationship between Shiva and his daughters. Alternately impeding and assisting each other, Shiva and his daughters represent, in their relationship, one of the central paradoxes of south Indian kinship: How can fathers and daughters love but relinquish each other, given the exigencies of development, and especially marriage? The myth presents a solution by transforming daughters into goddesses, preserving the father—daughter bond, and making marriage contingent on cooperation among women, not men. It is argued that ambivalence is central to south Indian kinship, and the fons et origo of an important regional mythical system.