Concept of Virangana existed in India from ancient times. The women with tremendous courage who were ready to take on the enormous might of men, were referred to as Viranganas. While Rajput legend and in due course the Nautanki theatre enshrined the sati, the virtuous wife who dies in the fires of self-sacrifice, North Indian history also affords examples of women attuned to a greater glory - serving the homeland. Women such as Razia Sultana, Kurma Devi, Durgavati, Tarabai, Ahalyabai, and Lakshmi Bai - the Rani of Jhansi chose to forego the path of sati and assumed power as queen-regents. Living in various periods and parts of the country, they shared certain experiences. Often they were tutored by their fathers, being educated in the arts of war and the skills of reading, writing, and administration; they rose to power at the death of a male kinsman, usually a husband. Once on the throne, they were reputed to be wise, just, and generous rulers.
They attired themselves in masculine costume, adopted the perquisites of royal office, and exhibited military leadership and bravery in battle. Usually they died while defending the kingdom against an invader. These queens are known to Indian popular culture as Viranganas, "warrior women," and they are celebrated in folk songs and legends, modern novels and poems, comic books and films. In popular iconography, they are usually depicted riding on horseback, wearing a turban and tunic with flowing trousers, and brandishing a sword high above their heads.
If the ideology of sati sanctions destruction of the female body and exalts passive suffering, the Virangana ideal commends physical training and active deployment of the body in combat. The strength and efficacy of the Virangana are in many respects similar to those of the warring Goddess Durga or Goddess Kali, her defeat of threatening enemies corresponding to the goddess`s punishment of evil demons. What is remarkable in the Virangana concept is the different interpretation of "truth" (sat) in contrast to the sati`s "truth."
The Virarigana`s status is not defined by her relationship to a man as wife, widow, or paramour but is consequent upon her valorous deeds. As her virtue is not reducible to the sexual transactions of the female body, physical relations cannot impugn her truth. The Virangana thus conjoins physical prowess, moral strength, and sexual freedom in a startling counter paradigm of Indian womanhood.
The historical evidence for the Virangana is supplied by queenly figures from the past. There are fictional Nautanki characters who illustrate the ideal. There is a larger logic to the advent of the Virangana on the Nautanki stage that connects this phantasm of female power with an enduring history of womanly fortitude. The Virangana arrives not simply when force is required but when moral order needs to be restored. Like the great goddess, she manifests her creative energy to return the world to righteousness. The Virangana`s appropriation of masculine signs thus encodes the crossover from the confines of female morality with its emphasis on chastity and chattel Dom (women`s conventional "truth") to the more spacious morality allowed to males, that is, justice.
