Book Review: After Kurukshetra by Mahasweta Devi

Title: After Kurukshetra
Author: Mahasweta Devi (translated by Anjum Katyal)

Publisher: Seagull Books
Pages: 49
Price: 120
Genre: Fiction / Mythology / Women's studies
Rating: 8/10

Format: Paperback

‘After Kurukshetra’ is a collection of three short stories, originally written in Bengali by Mahasweta Devi and translated by Anjum Katyal. All of 49 pages, though a short read yet this book attempts to explore the impact of the epic war on common women. When we talk about Mahabharata, the narrative is usually about the men and women of the Kuru clan and people directly related to them; but this book actually makes us sit up and acknowledge what it meant to the common folk. Was it really a war for justice? Was this inevitable? Did this war justify the deaths of so many people, many of whom couldn’t even choose whether they wanted a war or not.

These stories are the offshoots of the main story of Mahabharata. They are born out of the author’s imagination. All the three stories are about women. Each story has ordinary women standing up to the royalty for what they think is fair and justified. All these women have been wronged in the hands of the royal folks. They felt used by them for their own greed and selfishness, in one way or another.

The first story is about five ordinary women, also widowed in the war, who have been brought into the palace to keep the pregnant and widowed Uttara (Abhimanyu’s wife) company. The story depicts the contrast in which women of royalty and common women are expected to deal with the loss of their husbands. Common womenfolk have more freedom, they will remarry and have children because that’s what nature expects of them; while royal widows will live a life of rules and regulations, there life will be spent in shadows, inside the corners of the women quarters.

These women are not of the rajavritta, women of royalty, nor are they servants or attendants. These women are from the families of the hundreds of foot soldiers – padatiks – from various other little kingdoms. They had been slaughtered every day, in their thousands, their function being to protect the chariot – mounted heroes. They were issued no armour. So they died in large numbers.

The women make no bones about questioning the need for war. When the head dasi (servant) of the royal women quarters call the war a ‘disaster’, they argue:

 ‘Disaster? What disaster? Huh, old woman? Was this some natural calamity? So many great kings join in a war between brothers. Some chose one side, some cross over to the other. It wasn’t just brother slaughtering brother. We know of quarrels – jealousies – rivalries too. But such a war for just a throne? This, a holy war?! A righteous war?! Just call it a war of greed!’

The war meant nothing to the common folks but there wasn’t a way to get away from the war. They had no choice. If they were called, they had to go.

‘This was not our dharmayuddha. Brother kills brother, uncle kills nephew, shishya kills guru. It may be your idea of dharma, it’s not ours.

It implores us to reflect on what true victory is. Was it truly a victory for Yudhishthir? The war sacrificed so many people and cost so much in terms of people and matter. The dead included farmers and traders. Their pyres burnt for several days, from which arose a sickening stench. The city was covered in gloom because of so many deaths. Who was happy? Even Pandavas lost all their children. None was left except Uttara’s unborn child.

Subhadra can’t hold back her tears. Slapping her forehead she laments, the sons are dead, their fathers are alive. Daughters-in-law have lost their husbands, while their mothers-in-law are still married.

 “So many hundreds of widows! So many homes in which mothers have lost their sons!

The second story is about Kunti. After the war, Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti retreated into the forest. Karna’s death intensified Kunti’s guilt of abandonment. It gnawed at her during her last days and made her restless.   

What irony! What irony! Not one of the five Pandavas is sired by Pandu! Yet they are Pandavas. And Karna? A carpenter’s (sic) son.

While she mourned how she always failed her firstborn, a Nishadin (tribal woman) accosted her in the forest to remind about her gravest sin which she never acknowledged. She accused Kunti of abetting the deaths of a Nishadin and her five sons for her selfish interests; and that it was typical of the royalty to think nothing of the lives of common folks.

You couldn’t even remember this sin. Causing six innocent forest tribals to be burnt to death to serve your own interests. That was not even a crime in your book.

This story touches upon the conflict between the people from the royalty and common folks (specifically the tribals, in this case); what was the attitude of the kings towards ordinary people and how they only looked at them as means to their ends. The people from royalty certainly considered themselves as superior and therefore thought nothing of the sacrifice.

The third story is about a woman called Souvali, a vaishya (trader) woman, who was brought in the palace to serve Dhritarashtra while Gandhari was pregnant. She bore a son called Yuyutsu (or Souvalya). She was never accorded the respect and dignity fit for the mother of a king’s son and her son was also always considered and treated like a ‘dasiputra’ (son of a servant). And yet he was the one who did the final rites of his father Dhritarashtra as his only surviving son.

Never went near him, never called him ‘father’, and today I did the tarpan for him.

In this story also, a common woman of vaishya (trader) community, Souvali, was embittered by the injustice meted out to her and her son. She felt used and never acknowledged. She thought her son was foolish to behave like the men of royalty inspite of being the son of a common woman. She herself is not disillusioned to follow the rituals expected of the royalty.

She thinks to herself, if you must learn, learn from your mother. I was nothing but a dasi in the royal household but here, amongst the common people, I’m a free woman.

Though quite a thin book, it sparks a lot of thoughts. For a book that has to offer interesting facets of the war, the editing was a dampener. I have already written a lot about the stories. I do think that reading the original would make a bigger impact, so if you know Bengali, please read the original.  

Undoubtedly, it is a must-read for Mahabharata enthusiasts.

Check out my compilation of Books on Mahabharata here.  

Text in italics have been quoted from the book. 
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Book Review: Kaurava by Krishna Udayasankar

Title: Kaurava

Author: Krishna Udayasankar

Publisher: Hachette India

Pages: 384
Price: Rs 350

Genre: Fiction / Indian mythology / Alternative history

Rating: 7/10

Format: Paperback

About the book [from the Blurb]

Nothing left to fight for is nothing left to lose...

Emperor Dharma Yudhisthir of the Kauravas and Empress Panchali Draupadi rule over the unified realm of Aryavarta, an empire built for them by Govinda Shauri with the blessings of the Firstborn and by the might of those whom everyone believes long gone – the Firewrights.

Now the Firewrights rise from the ashes of the past, divided as before in purpose and allegiance, and no one, it seems, can stand in the way of the chaos about to be unleashed on the land – not the Firstborn, not the kings of Aryavarta, and not Govinda Shauri.

As sinister plans are put in play and treacherous alliances emerge, Aryavarta transforms into its own worst enemy. Dharma Yudhisthir gambles away his empire, the tormented empress is forced into a terrifying exile and the many nations of the realm begin to take up arms in a bid to fight, conquer and destroy each other.

His every dream shattered, Govinda is left a broken man. The only way he can protect Aryavarta and the woman in whose trusted hands he had left it is by playing a dangerous game. But can he bring himself to reveal the terrible secrets that the Vyasa has protected all his life – secrets that may well destroy the Firstborn, and the Firewrights with them? 

My thoughts:

I felt I was at a little disadvantage in reading this book before reading the Aryavarta Chronicles: Govinda [Book 1] because sometimes Firewright - Firstborn thing would be baffling. Nevertheless, the good thing is that we all know the basic Mahabharata so over all I enjoyed this book.

The story in this book begins at the time when Dharma Yudhisthir is the emperor of Indraprastha while Govinda Shauri [Krishna] has been shunned from the empire. In the turn of events, Dharma, his brothers and Panchali are invited by Syoddhan [Duryodhan] to Hastinapur, where he [Dharma] gets into a game of dice. This legendary game of dice is the one in which he loses everything including himself, his brothers and Panchali. The book ends with the promise of impending war in the third part of the series, aptly titled ‘Kurukshetra’.

Mahabharata, as we have known it, has been a story of larger-than-life men and women, and difficult-to-believe sequences. Now the unique aspect of this book is that it explains everything logically, and does not demonize anybody unnecessarily. In author’s own words, through this series, she attempts to offer “a plausible narrative with reasonable internal logical consistency. Something that could well have been history, something that stands firm not just on faith but also on logic and science.” She has imagined several new angles to the original story without compromising on what is widely known. Her research work has been meticulous and extensive, and therefore what you get is a book [and probably the series] which is compelling and very contemporary in its appeal. The author has spent sufficient time in building up characters like Shikhandi, Ashvatthama or Sanjay.

There are so many characters that the relationship chart in ‘the Dynasties of Aryavarta’ is not just a luxury but a necessity. ‘The Cast of Characters’, also provided in the beginning, tells us about the main characters in this book. The author has intentionally used alternate names so that the characters don’t have to carry the unnecessary baggage of their fame / notoriety. So, Krishna is Govinda Shauri while Duryodhan is Syoddhan Kauravya. It took me a while to understand that Vasusena is Karna. A reader well-versed with Mahabharata will find several characters in a different light. For example, Syoddhan is a largely positive or at most a grey character here while Dharma is too smug.

I loved the cover page. It reminded me of Hachette India’s another fabulous series Empire of the Mughal. The narrative is largely fast-paced barring a few times when certain things have been described in too much detail. I also found use of swear words funny like “Who in the name of an elephant’s backside are you talking about?”

I will certainly recommend it to readers who love exploring different facets of the epic tale ‘Mahabharata’. But you must have an open mind towards the author’s imagination. Meanwhile, I eagerly look forward to the next book in the series ‘Kurukshetra’. 

If you are yet to read the series, I suggest you begin with the first one: The Aryavarta Chronicles: Govinda (Book - 1)

Review Book courtesy: Hachette India 

Image source: Hachette India

Book List Oct-Dec 2011

I wanted to put up the list of books which I recently acquired in last 3 months. I have been caught up in the new responsibilities of taking care of a baby but that did not deter me from attending the Book Sale by Goa-Based Broadway Book Centre and the Landmark Book Sale, while also buying several books from Flipkart and Indiaplaza.

Here is the list:

From the Broadway Book Sale: Each one bought for Rs 50. The price was a major deciding factor. I would not have bought even single one of these, if it had been for anything more. I felt this Book Sale was more suited for the college crowd. There was nothing from Indian Publishers and nothing in Non Fiction.

1. Nanny Returns by Nicole Karus and Emma Mclaughlin: I had earlier bought ‘The Nanny Diaries’ from a similar Sale at Rs 50 (the hardbound edition), so when I saw this one, I got it. I am not too fond of such books but they are fine for general time pass reading, you know, immediately after you have read some heavy-duty stuff.  

I have read ‘Inconceivable’ by Ben Elton and it was quite funny, so I bought both the books listed below:

2. Dead Famous by Ben Elton

3. Past Mortem by Ben Elton

4. From Here to Maternity by Sinead Moriarty: Bought this one for the obvious reasons. I remember reading another book called ‘I don’t know how she does it’ and it was hilarious. Hope this one is on similar lines. Yet another general time pass stuff.

5. Monster by Allan Hall: I am sometimes drawn to real life crime stories. I have read ‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote and look forward to reading more on true crime.

6. The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam: I have heard a lot about “Maps for Lost Lovers” and have it too. I have not read it yet. This one is also from the same author.

From Landmark Book Sale: The discounts at Book stores are not really great. Great discounts would only be on a handful books but that’s about it. So I looked for getting something on the “3 for 2” offer. And this offer also works for you only if all the books are of similar price. I usually end up buying several magazines on my visits, I prefer buying books online. Nevertheless, after a lot of research, I got the following books. First three are on the offer, rest as indicated.

I read these 2 books long back, and I wanted them for my collection:

7. India Unbound by Gurucharan Das

8. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

9. The Pregnant King by Devdutt Pattnaik: It is related to Mahabharata and I had been thinking of getting this for quite sometime now.

10. Don’t go Away, We’ll be right back by Indu Balachandran (on a special price of Rs 99)

11. Byline by M.J.Akbar (at 10% discount on the cover price)

I was heartbroken to see ‘First Day First Show’ for Rs 99. I recently bought it for Rs 374! But that is something which you cannot plan.

I bought the following from Flipkart and Indiaplaza:

12. Dr Spocks Baby And Child Care by Robert Needlman, Benjamin Spock: Smita told me it is a good reference book on Child Care. So how could I not have it J

13. Sita's Ramayana by Samhita Arni, Moyna Chitrakar: After collecting several perspectives on Mahabharata, I have started expanding my ‘Ramayana’ collection. It also happens to be my first Graphic Novel.

14. The Best Of Quest by Laeeq Futehally, Achal Prabhala, Arshia Sattar: I first read about the book in Pune Mirror. I have bought books on Eunice De Souza’s recommendation earlier also, like ‘the Locust and the Bird’. Later on, I read a lot about 'the Best of Quest' in many articles and magazines.

15. Lucknow Boy by Vinod Mehta: Since I follow Outlook and the book is a memoir of its editor, I kept finding more and more about the book through his column on the last page. I found it fascinating enough. Memoirs are interesting only when they are honest and provide new revelations. There’s nothing exciting about sugar candy talk and reading something which is already a public knowledge. This issue of Outlook even featured excerpts from the book. The book sounds salacious!

Following 2 had been recommended by a friend who has studied psychology. I was discussing about reading on child psychology.

16. Developmental Psychology by Elizabeth Hurlock

17. Child Development 6ed by Elizabeth Hurlock

18. Half The Sky - How To Change The World by Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl Wudunn: I had my eyes on this one for a long time but only imported editions were available which were quite expensive. I recently bought it for a good price.

Some more additions for my ‘Ramayana’ collection. These have interesting perspectives on Sita and Ram, which reminds me of a superb animation film 'Sita Sings the Blues'.

19. In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology by NamitaGokhale, Malashri Lal

20. Lost Loves by Arshia Sattar

Following are supposed to be from Ravana’s perspective.

21. Ravanayan (Issue 1) by Vijayendra Mohanty, Vivek Goel

22. Ravanayan (Issue 2) by Vijayendra Mohanty, Vivek Goel

23. Ravanayan (Issue 3) by Vijayendra Mohanty, Vivek Goel

24. We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver: I discovered this book while reading an article on parenting. I found this highly recommended for all parents:

The above listed books have been bought only between October and December, and December is not over yet! One of these days, I would like to put up the list of my entire collection. I recently categorized and re-organized them.


Image Source: http://www.dailyclipart.net

Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattanaik

Title: Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

Author: Devdutt Pattanaik

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Pages: 372

Genre: Mythology

Given my penchant for hoarding books inspired by Mahabharata, I had this one too lying on my book-shelf for months now. After finishing Badrinath Chaturvedi’s ‘The Women of the Mahabharata’ (which by the way is another good book on the subject), I picked this up for reading.

I have read about 10 books on Mahabharata, and if I were to suggest one book that you should read on the subject, I would highly recommend this book. It amazingly captures everything I have read in those 10 books (in just 372 pages with illustrated drawings also for better understanding). The flow is smooth, the language is lucid and it goes much beyond than merely telling a unidimensional story. After every chapter, the author tries to explain the practical aspects behind the stories that we have heard, so that there is better clarity, for e.g., birth of 100 kauravas, birth of 5 pandavas, and several other things. It is perhaps the best thing that the author has done. Otherwise whenever we read such stories we are left wondering how this or that could actually happen, because there is way too much exaggeration.

It is for the first time, I came to know about the story of Shakuni, which I also found on Wikipedia later. The only things I found missing in this book, as also in any other book on Mahabharata that I have read, are a little more perspective on Duryodhan, and a little more about the ‘danveer’ aspect of Karna. Duryodhan has been known to be a good king, while Karna’s danveer nature has been known to all. Otherwise, I found this book perfect.

A few questions which I found myself pondering about, after reading this book were:

• Mahabharata is said to be a war for ‘dharma’ but actually if you see, Pandavas (with help from Krishna) flouted more rules to kill their enemies than Kauravas. The only time Kauravas overlooked the rules was when Abhimanyu was killed in Chakravyuha, and when Ashmathhama lights a fire in Pandava’s camp and also kills Dhrishtadyumna and all five sons of Draupadi. On the other side, Pandavas killed Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Duryodhana and even Jayadratha by folly.
• If you look at it, Pandavas might not have won, had it not been for Krishna
• The irony of Mahabharata was that while the Kauravas were killed and went to heaven, Pandavas were left to rule a kingdom of corpses, widows and orphans.
• Kauravas and Pandavas were fighting for the right to the throne, but the truth was that neither of them were from the true lineage of the Kuru dynasty
• Yudhishthir, in all the books that I have read, comes across as a weak character. He loses everything in the game of dice, even his wife; and when Draupadi gets their freedom back from Dhritarashtra, he again loses his right on the kingdom and gets for Pandavas and their wife thirteen years of exile. What a man!
• How can Yudhishthir be forgiven of the adharma of manipulating his mother’s words to marry his younger brother’s wife!
• There are 2 things which I have never been able to comprehend. First, just because Kunti asked the brothers to share the alms, how can they share a wife! Secondly, why nobody objected to Draupadi’s humiliation in the court. Which dharma allows it?
• Frankly, this so-called dharma elaborated in such detail in the epics have all been written by men and they have some really weird perspectives on what a woman should do.

Well, anyways, this book in undoubtedly fabulous. Go for it. 

Check out my compilation of Books on Mahabharata here.    

Image courtesy: http://devdutt.com

Reading: Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari

I have been reading this book, since couple of days now. It is supposed to be the basic translation of original Mahabharata, with a lot of teachings and learnings. It also raises a lot of questions, since I have read other books on Mahabharata as well; so some incidents do not match. I will post a review in a couple of days, and by the way, I have been successful in getting 2 more books - "After Kurukshetra' and 'And now, let me sleep'. I have also been able to locate 'Second Turn' and 'Mrityunjaya'.

Yajnaseni by Pratibha Ray

I finished reading ‘Yajnaseni’ by Pratibha Ray, sometime back. I even scribbled some thoughts immediately after finishing the book. ‘Yajnaseni’ is an attempt by acclaimed writer Pratibha Ray, to understand the psyche of Draupadi who has ever been gibed as a woman with many husbands or who has been always referred to in a derogatory sense.

Simply put, ‘Yajnaseni’ is ‘Mahabharata re-told in the words of Draupadi’. Most of us know the basic story of Mahabharata, so there is no revelation as such; but there are enough re-interpretations of the events, which will hold your interest till the end. 

The story begins from the end - it starts from the last journey of Pandavas and Draupadi in the Himalayas. While walking on the rough terrain, she falls down and she is shocked at the callousness of her husbands, none of whom turns back to help her. She is aghast at the treatment meted out to her. Yudhishthir accuses her of loving Arjun more than her other husbands.

‘Yajnaseni’ has been presented as a letter by Draupadi to her sakha, Krishnaa, who was always her closest. She narrates the entire story chronologically; the difficult situations she faced; the turmoils, the insults hurled at her every now and then. She asks Krishna, where was she wrong.

It is interesting to read about her spiritual relationship with Krishna and a strange interplay of attraction and insult between Karna and Draupadi; besides of course her love for Arjuna. When her father tells her that it is only Krishna who could be a suitable match for the perfect woman Krishnaa, she starts dreaming about him; but when Krishna tells her that Arjuna is actually the perfect man for her, she becomes totally devoted to Arjuna. The book tells us, how she had already dedicated herself to Arjuna, much before he won her in the Swayamvar (which anyways could not have been won by anyone else, except Karna). When Arjuna was taking her to his mother, those moments she considers as the most beautiful time of her life, because after that her life changed forever as the wife of five husbands.

Draupadi comes across as an extremely learned and almost super-human in her qualities. Draupadi has always been insinuated as the woman because of whom the battle of Kurukshetra took place, but actually it was she who had to bear the consequences of the actions of her husbands on several occasions.  The game of dice is one such example, where even after getting insulted in front of elders and her husbands; she wins them back by her wisdom.

It is absolutely must-read for any enthusiast of – if I might say - the greatest epic of all times, Mahabharata. I have already done quite some research and found that actually there is lots of good literature on the subject, floating around. I’m listing all the books I know of, below:

1. Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari – I’m reading it right now (it is the basis of most of the other books) > Buy from Crossword @ Rs 100

2. Yajnaseni by Pratibha Ray (original in Oriya) – already read > Buy from Rediff Books @ Rs 292 

3. Yuganta by Irawati Karve – already read > Buy from Rediff Books @ Rs 124

4. And Now Let Me Sleep by P.K. Balakrishnan – have ordered for it > Buy from A1Books India @ Rs 100

5. After Kurukshetra by Mahasweta Devi – have ordered for it > Buy from Indiaplaza @ Rs 100

6. Mrityunjaya, the death conqueror: The story of Karna by Sivaji Savanta (original in Marathi) – not able to get English version, will have to go for Hindi > Buy from A1Books India @ Rs 400

7. The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – bought recently > Buy from Indiaplaza @ Rs 411

8. The cult of Draupadi Vol I by Alf Hiltebeitel > Buy from A1 Books India @ Rs 180

9. The cult of Draupadi Vol II by Alf Hiltebeitel 

10. The Second Turn by M.T.Vasudevan Nair (original in Malyalam) – not able to find

11. Yudhishthir and Draupadi by Pavan K. Varma 

12. The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor – got it > Buy from Indiaplaza @ Rs 245

13. Rethinking the Mahabharata by Alf Hiltebeitel> Buy from A1 Books India @ Rs 645

14. The Mahabharata by Meera Uberoi > Buy from Indiaplaza @ Rs 287

15. The book of Yudhishthir

It is sad that most of the above have gone ‘out-of-print’. But, of course, no matter what I’m definitely going to hunt those down. It will be interesting to read so many versions of Mahabharata. 

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