Ecofeminism in Graphic Narratives: Exploring the Works of Amruta Patil

Abstract

This paper explores how Amruta Patil’s graphic novels Kari (2008), Adi Parva: Churning of the Ocean (2012), and Aranyaka: Book of the Forest (2019, with Devdutt Pattanaik), develop a unique ecofeminist vision in Indian literature. Moving from the polluted cityscapes of Kari to the mythological waters of Adi Parva and finally to the forest-centered wisdom of Aranyaka, Patil’s work traces an expanding ecological consciousness. The analysis highlights how her stories connect gender, sexuality, and environment, showing that social marginalization and ecological harm are deeply linked. Patil’s visual choices of shifting color palettes, fluid boundaries between bodies and landscapes, and recurring images of water create a distinctly ecofeminist aesthetic that emphasizes interdependence over separation. The collaboration with Pattanaik in Aranyaka brings mythological scholarship into dialogue with Patil’s visual feminism, producing both tensions and possibilities. Together, these texts suggest that graphic narratives can do more than retell myths: they can help us imagine new, embodied ways of relating to nature in an era of climate crisis.