> Reading the story at face-value, it might be interpreted simply as an illustration of how a potentially dangerous feminine threat is defused and how the magical powers associated with it are patriarchally appropriated.

But the text shows that it is hiDimbA who falls in love with bhIma:

दृष्ट्वैव भीमसेनं सा शालस्कन्धमिवोद्गतम् | राक्षसी कामयामास रूपेणाप्रतिमं भुवि ||१३|| अयं श्यामो महाबाहुः सिंहस्कन्धो महाद्युतिः | कम्बुग्रीवः पुष्कराक्षो भर्ता युक्तो भवेन्मम ||१४|| नाहं भ्रातृवचो जातु कुर्यां क्रूरोपसंहितम् | पतिस्नेहोऽतिबलवान्न तथा भ्रातृसौहृदम् ||१५||

Bhima's response to her is

मातरं भ्रातरं ज्येष्ठं कनिष्ठानपरानिमान् | परित्यजेत को न्वद्य प्रभवन्निव राक्षसि ||२७|| को हि सुप्तानिमान्भ्रातृन्दत्त्वा राक्षसभोजनम् | मातरं च नरो गच्छेत्कामार्त इव मद्विधः ||२८||

Where is the 'potentially dangerous feminine threat' here ? When there is no threat, wherefrom comes the 'patriarchal appropriation' ?

On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 3:15 PM, Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi@gmail.com> wrote:

rAkshasI is not a witch, though the feature of having magical powers and being evil may appear common between the two. Do witches have male members of their family who are monstrous in size, power and attitude? If hiDimbA is a witch what is the witch-culture-equivalent of hiDimbAsura?

On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 11:55 AM, Alex Watson via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear All

Any responses to the question below – about whether any parts of the Mahābhārata imply a rereading or reevaluation of the Hidimbi/Hidimbā story – would be gratefully received. It is from a Professor in the English department at Ashoka: Jonathan Gil Harris.

"I am writing a book on Indian “masala” adaptations of Shakespeare, and I am currently puzzling through the ways in which Shakespeare’s use of the device of the play-within-a-play — particularly in The Taming of the Shrew — resonates for many Indian readers with the Mahabharata’s nesting of stories-within-stories. I am particularly interested in how this device allows readers to shift perspective on a tale, and reread (or doubly read) a tale-within-a-tale or its framing tale. I am focusing for now on the episode in the Mahabharata (9th sub-parva of the Adi Parva) where Bhima meets and marries the rakshasa forest-dweller Hidimbi, a witch or “chudail” in modern Hindi; her magic passes on to their son Ghatotkacha, who fights for the Pandavas. Reading the story at face-value, it might be interpreted simply as an illustration of how a potentially dangerous feminine threat is defused and how the magical powers associated with it are patriarchally appropriated. But how might the Mahabharata’s readers RE-read the story in light of the subsequent stories-within-stories? Is there anything else in the Mahabharata that allows us to retrospectively re-interpret Hidimbi, her dangerous magical powers, and Bhima’s/the Pandavas’ appropriation of these? (I’m thinking here of parallels with the tale of Medea in Book 4 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where an interpretive metamorphosis is enabled by its tales-within-tales — she is first presented as a dangerous, murderous black witch who submits in love to Jason, but she is subsequently seen more sympathetically as a woman wronged by a greedy man.)"

--
Alex Watson
Professor of Indian Philosophy
Ashoka University
https://ashokauniversity.academia.edu/AlexWatson

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Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of Liberal Education,

(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )

Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of Liberal Education,

(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )