THE MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN: SALEEM, SHIVA, AND PARVATI’S SIMILARITIES IN HINDU MYTHOLOGY

Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, published in 1981, is one of the profound works that sheds light on the history of India and Pakistan. Through the body and narration of the main character Saleem Sinai, the reader witnesses the events that took place in the history of India. Saleem Sinai and other midnight children, born on the night of India’s declaration of independence, correspond to the multicultural nature and polyphony of India. The polyphony which is frequently emphasized in the work, are presented to the reader with various narrative strategies such as magical realism and historical metafiction. In an extraordinary expression of truth, Midnight’s Children also touches upon the mythology of Hindu culture. The most significant names of the Midnight children, Saleem, Shiva, and Parvati are equivalent to the three most peculiar deities of Hindu mythology, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. The existence of these deities is interdependent. In the absence of one, the others cannot exist. Just like Saleem’s wisdom, Shiva’s warrior personality and Parvati’s magic talent complement each other. Within this framework, the study aims to examine the similarity of Saleem, Shiva, and Parvati with Hindu gods and goddesses Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Parvati.