Her decision to yield to sexual curiosity was an assertion of her femininity, a threat to the patriarchal double standards where the co-offender male gets away with minor punishment and the woman is punished for eons. Scriptures say that gods do not have form but a heavenly aroma, which should have been the other indicator that this wasn't her husband.
This article first appeared on Bonobology.com. When the sage returns Ahalya, Brahma, impressed by the sage's sexual restraint and asceticism, bestows her upon the sage himself. Scriptures say that man has duties and responsibilities at every stage of his life. Ahalya is created by Lord Brahma out of water as the most beautiful woman in order to break the pride of Urvashi, the foremost celestial nymph. How was the inertness different after the curse, since prior to that she was no more than a living stone? But she doesn't question and gives in. She maintains a stony silence. Didn't the Supreme Creator find it necessary to ask her if she wanted a husband who had been a father figure? Ahalya was punished by a man because she exercised her individuality. Ahalya is never asked to give her side of the story, nor does she make any effort to explain. A pain that could only be felt by someone bearing the burden of divine beauty, who had the blood of youth running in her veins and who was aware that she deserved pleasures designed by the selfsame Creator! He is a professor of Comparative Mythology at Mumbai University. Ahalya was punished in the form of stone.

Ahalya is never asked to give her side of the story, nor does she make any effort to explain. Ahalya too would be redeemed when Vishnu visits her as Lord Rama. Did she really not know that the man in front of her wasn't her husband? In the early cantos of the Ramayana, Valmiki says: possessed by sensual passion Ahalya has surrendered herself to Indra consciously. You will start receiving our emails very soon. Ahalya knew her husband's daily routine and for him to crave bodily pleasure at the brahma-muhurta when the union of a man and woman is forbidden was out of character, and a woman who had spent a lifetime with a person ought to have known that. Or should the question be, was she guilty at all? Could a man for whom the act of sex was nothing but a ritual, satisfy the cravings of a youthful maiden? The narrative in the Ramcharitmanas was notably inspired by the Adhyatma Ramayana, which is a part of the Brahmanda Purana. A perfidious woman, abandoned by her husband and children, and subjected to the jibes of society, she falls into deep meditation, turning her thoughts inwards.