Role models for all time
PREMA NANDAKUMAR
THE WOMEN OF THE MAHABHARATA — The Question of Truth: Chaturvedi Badrinath; Orient Longman Private Limited, 3-6-752, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029. Rs. 395.
They have never been far away from us, Savitri, Draupadi, Damayanti and others of their kind. Of course, a veil had fallen between them and the English-educated Indian for a while. Fortunately, before any lasting damage was done, the Indian intellectual went back to the sources and helped the coming generations draw close to the classical heroines. Romesh Chunder Dutt, Subramania Bharati, T.P.Kailasam; by now Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings had also begun to tease the imagination of writers all over India.
After the 1950s the ‘new’ critics took over and feminists bent their eye-brows in irritation at the “Sita-Savitri syndrome” that was keeping Indian womanhood in thrall. No seminar on feminism was free of hot exchanges over the “lakshman rekha” and Indian patriarchy.
Change in perception
As the 20th century was drawing to a close, once again there was a change in perception. With the complete text of the two epics available in literal translations, getting back to the original brought innumerable surprises. Well, Savitri never “tricked” Yama; there was no “rekha” drawn by Lakshmana in the Ramayana; nor was there any ring in the tale of Shakuntala. As early as 1899, Sri Aurobindo found that basically the Hindu myths were “straight and sheer.”
It is by reading them in the original setting that we can draw strength from the manner in which Damayanti announced a ruse-swayamvara, the calm with which Savitri questioned Yama, and the derisive way Shakuntala firmly rejected Dushyanta. Critics are increasingly realising that these heroines raise us to higher planes of consciousness. Chaturvedi Badrinath’s 12 women prove that one can live in truth with complete dignity and become a role model for all time.
Badrinath has already traversed Vyasa’s epic for clues regarding the human condition, and sought other pointers in Vatsyayana, Jesus and Swami Vivekananda. The Women of the Mahabharata is a breezy retelling of the original tales of the heroines with critical insights sprinkled as obiter dicta.
Shakuntala’s story for instance. She had berated Dushyanta for denying their union and said that if he continued to do so, his head would break into hundreds of pieces: “There is no known case in man’s history when a liar’s head physically broke into a hundred pieces. Neither was she saying that. Shakuntala was saying, metaphorically, but what is manifestly true, that when one takes to untruth and lies, one disintegrates as a person in a hundred ways.”
Retelling
Such linkages make the volume eminently readable. Anamika proves that being an ideal housewife is also tapasya; Urvashi and Devayani belong to an age which did not consider a woman seeking a man’s attention to be evil; Suvarchala calmly discourses on semiotics with Shvetaketu; Sulabha ties up King Janaka in epistemological knots; Uttara Disha silently teaches Ashtavakra the impermanence of physical beauty; Madhavi turns away from human suitors with a rare resolution (M.V. Venkatram’s brilliant Tamil novel, Nithyakanni, on her tragic life remains unsurpassed) and we have the dove-couple who sacrificed themselves to uphold “athithi-dharma”.
Draupadi is a test case. Her story calls for retelling the complete epic. Since her life touches almost all the major characters, how was Badrinath going to select events? The emphasis placed on Draupadi’s refusal to accept Karna as a suitor is well done. Yudhistira does look out of place in the heroic age. No more than a pompous Professor Yudhistira, though Badrinath hastens to add: “I mean no disrespect to professors.” The court scene comes through very well and the tragic end: “with husbands, yet destitute.”
These great women are the reality and hence a happy “swagatham” to Badrinath’s “Dwadasa Devi Upakhyanamala.”
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