Sons of Gods: The Mahabharata

Last week I wrote about the role of women  in the Mahabharata. Today I'd like to go a bit deeper into that theme--and discuss Draupadi. One day, after I had readjust about every available version of the Mahabharata and written my own in frustration, a book by  Chitra Banerjee Divakaruna  fell into my hands: The Palace of Illusions.  A whole book told from the point of view of Draupadi: at first I was delighted. Then I had second thoughts For those new to the story, some information: Draupadi is not born as other mortals. She is the result of the overwhelming desire of her father, the King Drupada, to have a daughter to marry the hero Arjuna. He undergoes a strict penance in order to do this, and one day he is rewarded: at the culminating religious ceremony, a glorious woman, surpassing all others in beauty and character, steps out of the sacrificial fire, along with her brother, Drishtaumnya. They are the fire-born twins, superior in every way. In ...

A few days ago, Hindu Blog posted an interview with me on Sons of Gods. A couple of the questions concerned a subject I was planning to write about in the near future, so let’s see  what I said there: Who do you think is the most tragic woman character in the Mahabharata?  The Mahabharata is a book about men, yet the few female characters are powerful indeed: the goddess Ganga, the Pandava’s mother Kunti, the Princess Amba, and of course the Pandavas common wife, Draupadi. Of them all, I find Amba the most tragic, as well as the most interesting, and I tend to identify with her. As a woman, how do you see the treatment of women in Mahabharat? Is your view reflected in the book? When we consider the women in the Mahabharata and their treatment,  it’s important not to see them through the prism of Western feminism. This is a story set in an age and a place far removed from our own world. Different standards were valid in that age, and it wouldn’t be fair to ...