The serial in context In order to answer the second research question, concerning how the serial’s relation

5 The serial in context In order to answer the second research question, concerning how the serial’s relation

to the hagiographical tradition can be understood within its wider contexts, this chapter discusses the findings of the previous chapter in relation to two such contexts: Firstly, in relation to the serial’s genre as a TV series, and secondly, in relation to the wider trends of the TV entertainment industry of India at the time it was broadcast, with a special emphasis on what Munshi (2012, p. 244) calls “The Balika Vadhu effect”.

5.1. The serial and its genre

It has already been noted (in chapter 2) that the serial proceeds according to a particular, narrative frame, presenting its overarching narrative through a series of weekly histories that revolve around conflicts introduced in the Monday episode and resolved in the episode on the following Friday, all the while pushing the main story of Mīrā’s life slightly forward. This is in line with what is stated by Shailja Kejriwal, creative head of several soap operas on Indian television, to Munshi: “An important ingredient was building on characters and not the story. […] The idea is to build small plots in a concept serial to build on the characters” (Munshi 2010, p. 121). This emphasis on characters over story can be recognized in how the Mīrā serial, as detailed in the previous chapters, repeatedly presents variations over the same theme, most frequently concerning Mīrā’s faith and her relationship with the mūrti. Moreover, the recurring focus on the mūrti as an object of veneration, such as in the frequent sequences of Mīrā beholding it as bhajans are performed, chimes with what Munshi (ibid., pp. 11-12) refers to as the “secondary subtext” of the soaps defining modern Indian television, where the traditional epics are visually referenced through It has already been noted (in chapter 2) that the serial proceeds according to a particular, narrative frame, presenting its overarching narrative through a series of weekly histories that revolve around conflicts introduced in the Monday episode and resolved in the episode on the following Friday, all the while pushing the main story of Mīrā’s life slightly forward. This is in line with what is stated by Shailja Kejriwal, creative head of several soap operas on Indian television, to Munshi: “An important ingredient was building on characters and not the story. […] The idea is to build small plots in a concept serial to build on the characters” (Munshi 2010, p. 121). This emphasis on characters over story can be recognized in how the Mīrā serial, as detailed in the previous chapters, repeatedly presents variations over the same theme, most frequently concerning Mīrā’s faith and her relationship with the mūrti. Moreover, the recurring focus on the mūrti as an object of veneration, such as in the frequent sequences of Mīrā beholding it as bhajans are performed, chimes with what Munshi (ibid., pp. 11-12) refers to as the “secondary subtext” of the soaps defining modern Indian television, where the traditional epics are visually referenced through

4, move the serial in the direction of devotional cinema, since they occur together with images of Mīrā in a devotional mood. As such, the extended focus on Mīrā’s childhood in the serial, which was explored in the previous chapter, not only serves to underline how the serial adheres to the TV series genre, but also to situate the hagiographical tradition firmly within that genre. At the same time, its use of Mīrā’s relationship with the mūrti also serves as a nexus through which the framework of this tradition may be applied to the contemporary genre. In other words, the serial represents both an example of hagiography as a TV series, and also of TV entertainment as hagiography.

5.2. The Balika Vadhu effect

The series Balika Vadhu 14 , launched in 2008, was an instant success and remained among the ten most watched TV series in India for at least four years (Munshi 2012,

pp. 244-248). The series chronicles the life of a child bride in contemporary, rural Rajasthan, and thus touches upon what Munshi (ibid., p. 246) refers to as a “burning social issue”. The background for the series was its writer, Purnendu Shekhar, wanting to raise awareness around child marriage practices and the position of women in this area, but it attracted viewers from the entire country, to the extent that entire families are said to have remained indoors when the daily episodes were screened (ibid., pp. 262, 245). On this background, the 2009 Mīrā serial’s emphasis on Mīrā’s childhood, and especially on her arranged marriage with Bhoj, can be understood in a broader context. For instance, in the sequence in E2, referenced in the preceding

14 ”Child Bride”.

chapter, where Mīrā’s tāī suggests to her parents that Mīrā should marry for real, Mīrā’s mother says that her daughter is still just nine years old; the tāī replies that she herself was married at the age of twelve, and references the practice throughout the kingdom of marrying off girls of similar age (E2). This sequence, and others like it, takes on a particular significance when seen in light of the popularity of Balika Vadhu; within its hagiographical template, the serial engages with a social issue that was in the centre of the most popular TV series of that time.

By focusing on Mīrā’s childhood in more detail than earlier retellings of the story in the modern media, the framework of the hagiographical tradition is transposed into a context where it is able to reference the social issue of child marriage, while focusing on detailing the events of the familiar story. In this we find the answer to the second research question: the serial’s innovation within its tradition is its heavy emphasis on Mīrā being married away as a child, and this innovation also mirrors the serial’s wider context. Applying its social and generic contexts to the hagiographical frame, the serial remains a both a product of these contexts and a part of the hagiographical tradition.

5.3. Summary

This chapter discussed the findings of chapter 4 in relation to the serial’s context, both within its genre and in light of one of the most popular examples of that genre at the time of the serial’s production. It argued that the present dissertation’s second research question could be answered by understanding the serial’s emphasis on Mīrā’s childhood on the background of the popularity of the series Balika Vadhu. In the following chapter, the various strands of arguments developed so far will gathered in

a conclusion.