Devi

by Sanjana Agarwal

Growing up as a woman in India I have come across women from different paths of life who have suffered more hardships than people can dare to imagine.

Dedicated to all Women of the World

Life of a woman in India doesn’t get much better if they make it out of the womb alive. If they’re not brutalised and are fortunate enough to be born into a family that actually cherishes them, they have to prepare themselves for a biased society that blames them for everything.

Women are paid less, They are given less respect and are expected to be more sacrificing. Despite the many tumours of misogyny in Hinduism, there’s also a strong tradition of goddess worship like Durga and Lakshmi and have been inspired by women in Indian Folk Tales.

Well into the twentieth century, women in India have been burnt alive, beaten, imprisoned, starved, raped and generally treated despicably for generations. They’ve been socialised into accepting they should be submissive, unthreatening, serene; they shouldn’t pick fights; they should be invisible and if visible, they must be perfect. In Hinduism, men refer the women in their house as a goddess but at the same time make their life miserable. The photographs in this book captures various themes and strong rendition of women inspired by indian mythology and how they are treated by the society.

Devi All rights reserved Copyright Š 2018 Sanjana Agarwal, Singapore Self Published Photobook on Maple Snow 150gsm No parts of this photobook may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

This book is a project to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent reade. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.

This is a work of fiction and the themes are inspired by Indian Mythology. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.

Art Direction Sanjana Agarwal Verses Abhilasha Agarwal Model Nishtha Khurana