JDH-004-2016 WOMEN OF MAHABHARATA IN PLAY OF POWER AND POLITICS: SUBLIMATION FROM DEPRIVATION TO EMPOWERMENT Dr.Baisakhi Ghosh, Assistant Professor in Sanskrit, Bijoy Krishna Girls' College, Howrah, West Bengal, India Email.ID: baisakhi_ghosh2002@yahoo.co.in Abstract The purpose of the paper is to explore how the women of Mahabharata empowered themselves from deprivation in the form of sublimation. The classic language Sanskrit is no longer very popular in the modern world. But through this scientific language our ancient sages told us a lot of modern thoughts which are very much relevant for our modern world. But the people of today s world don't have any idea about this precious world of knowledge. So the scholars of this subject have the responsibility to bring those thoughts in the enlightenment of the world. Keywords: Mahabharata, Women, Deprivation, Sublimation, Empowerment. Introduction: Mahabharata is one of the most popular epic in the world. Various female characters find in this epic were highly deprived in their family life. Even they were deprived by their own parents. The composer of this great epic, Vyasadeva often failed to get them justice but they sublimated themselves from their deprivation through the power. They utilized the power not only for their betterment but also for the sake of the power. Often to achieve the custody of the throne they involved themselves in the dirty game of power. Few such empowered women were Satyavati, Sarmistha, Devayani & Kunti. Methodology: The study is based on secondary sources which include various eminent scholars innovative research based books and articles. Information is also taken from different websites and from the original text. Though there is a long debate between the two great epic of India - The Ramayana and The Mahabharata, which one is earlier, besides that the historian said that the writing of Mahabharata much older than the Ramayana so it may be said 25
that the writing of Mahabharata started before than the Ramayana but ended up along with all of its extensions (praskhiptas) before the Mahabharata. So this paper tried to be explored that how the women of Mahabharata empowered themselves from deprivation and established their rights in front of the society through power and politics. A comparative study of the two epic is also given to make the study complete[1-5]. Objectives This study focused on the utilisation of power by the women of Mahabharata. How and why did a few women of Mahabharata evolve themselves in that power play - this study is mainly based on it and tries to explore their deprivation? Mahabharata basically is a true teller of life. It never hides the ugly truth of life. Often it becomes mirror of human being to evaluate themselves. Now besides worshiping the great epic let we try to learn essential lessons of life from it. So that we can say after Dr Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyaya, an eminent Linguistic that India's great epic Ramayana and Mahabharata are a "must study" of all. According to him these two epic also belong to the best of ten epic of the world. 1 Materials Story of few Women of Mahabharata; From Analytical Perspectives: Some eminent women of Mahabharata played a great role to establish their rites in the game of throne through power. They are Satyavati, Kunti,, Amba, Ambika, Devjani and Sarmistha and many others. The stories of these above mentioned women are narrated here for the purpose of the study. Satyavati: Satyavati was a boat woman who earned money to carry people across the river by rowing the boat. She was adopted by the fisherman chief named Dasaraja because of her stinking odour of fish. Though Satyavati was beautiful, endowed and many other good qualities but due to odour of the fish from her body she never been respected like other beautiful ladies. Once she met eminent scholar sage Parasara who was attracted to see Satyavati on the boat. Seeing her sweet smiling face the sage expressed his desire to unite with her. But being a virgin girl Satyavati disagreed to unite in front of both bank sides standing people. Then the sage created fog around all with his penance power. Lastly Satyavati united with the sage after being assured by the sage that her odour of fish transformed into beautiful fragrance spreading up to eight miles with his penance powered boon. She also blessed by the sage Parasara that she will not lose her virginity becoming mother of a scholar son who will be brought up by his father and after conceiving immediately she delivered a son and regains her virginity[6-9]. After being the fragrant a dynamic change occurred in Satyavati 's life. The old king of Hastinapur dynasty Santanu fell in love with her. But the fisherman chief Dasaraja wanted sulka (purchasing) for her daughter instead of the kingship of his grandson after passing his father. Devabrata (the elder son of Santanu) accepted the proposal and Satyavati became Queen of the Hastinapur dynasty after her marriage with Santanu. After few days living together Santanu passed away 26
and Satyavati's elder son became the king of Hastinapur. But within few days he died in the battle field. Then the younger one Vicitrabīrja became the king of Hastinapur but after getting marriage with two beautiful women Ambika and Ambalika Vicitrabirja also passed away for unusual sex. Now the Hastinapur dynasty again became king less. Then Satyavati engaged her maiden son from Parasara, Vyasadeva for procreating sons form the beautiful young widows of Vicitravirja to continue the family tree. Thus Dritarastra, Panda, Vidura were born. This is the story of Satyavati in brief [10-14]. Now if we go through the story of Satyavati line by line we can found a very deprived woman inside this character. She was the daughter of Uparicarabasu a Gandharva king but born from a fish belly. Uparicarabasu father of Satyavati refused her to take away lastly she had been adopted by the fisherman chief Dasa - from here her deprivation started. She used to row the boat at Yamuna to across the river where she met Parasara by pleasing his desire she became transformed from Matsyagandha to Yojanagandha (odour of fish to fragrance). Here actually she used her womanhood for being accepted by the people of the society. But her sexual desire became unsaid. Later when she married with the old king she also there treated as property by using the term 'sulka' (purchasing) from her adopted father. But this treatment gives her power. After being marriage with Santanu Satyavati became the Queen of Hastinapur. But after Santanu's passing away the till young Satyavati having two little sons instructed Bhisma to conduct the administration of Hastinapur. Her first meeting partner left her after uniting and the second one also passed away from this material world. The original mistress of Hastinapur dynasty's every personal unfulfilled desire turned into dark when she saw her young full of youth sons died in front of him. She knew that she wills never ever being able to meet with her partners so she standing upon the entire power of Hastinapur dynasty kept her every desire inside of her. Her step son Bhisma always obeyed her and did everything after being permitted by her. Therfore she told everything of her pre marital life to Bhisma and called Vyasadeva for procreating sons from her widow daughter - in- laws without asking them anything. Thus Satyavati left away her entire personal desire by power and empowered herself. Her personal desire transformed into power playing and selection of the king. Kunti: In Mahabharata Kunti was known as a woman of sacrifice and pain. She was daughter of Sura named then Pritha but she was adopted by the king Kuntibhoja as the king Sura promised to give his first child to the king Kuntibhoja. The little girl Kunti was brought up in the palace of Bhojaraja. In her maidenhood she served sage Durvasa. After being served by the beautiful girl Durvasa was very impressed and boned Kunti that she could call invoke any God. Whichever God she called by this mantra has to be in her command. Willing or unwilling that God cannot go against her wishes. Called by this Avartha mantra any God will be brought to her and will give her a son. Knowing the future Durvasa gave Kunti such a boon. After 27
Durvasa's left Kunti once called Surya Deva (God of Sun) to examine the power of that mantra and as per the boon Surya Deva came to her and united with her and took possession of her. After Surya Deva's left Kunti became pregnant. She gave birth of a son like his father Surya Deva with armour and golden earrings. As soon as the child born Kunti having consulted her nurse put him in a basket at midnight before waking of her father floated her baby son in the river, Asvanadi. As she knew that in maiden should not conceive so she kept this big truth inside of her and attended her Swamvara as it was arranged by her father Kuntibhoja. There Kunti chose Pandu of the Kuru family. Similarly Bhisma paid a huge amount to the king Madra for her sister Madri for her incomparable beauty. Pandu's marriage with Madri was highly celebrated. After marriage Kunti and Madri stayed together amicably but Kunti always felt that Madri was dearer to the king due to her beauty. Similarly Madri thought Kunti was the chief Queen though she deserved the same and more superior than her. After passing few days with two beautiful women Pandu the king was cursed by sage Kikindam that he would meet death in time of his union with his dear one. Having cursed this way Pandu got upset. Then Kunti said to Pandu about her boon by Durvasa but she didn't tell him that the power of that mantra was examined by her. Then Pandu after knowing about this mantra asked her for calling God of Righteous (Dharma) and Kunti became the mother of the son of Righteous, Judhisthira. In this way Kunti gave birth of her other two sons Bhima and Arjuna by respectively the God of Wind and king of all God Indra. But poor Madri could not be able to conceive due to the curse of the sage to Pandu. So she cried for a child then Pandu asked Kunti to teach the mantra to Madri. Kunti did so and Madri called the twin God of medicine, Asvinikumaradvaya. Madri delivered twin son Nakula and Sahadeva. After few days Pandu having five sons wants another son from Madri and thus he requested Kunti to teach her Avartha mantra as she forgot that. Then Kunti refused to teach Madri because Madri utilised it in wrong way. She was so clever that she called twin God brother at a time and enjoyed the same and became mother of twin child at a time. After passing away of Pandu and Madri Kunti returned to Hastinapur and started living with her five sons and rest of the family of Kuru and faced ups and downs of life with her sons. She spent rest of her life with Kuru family. Now the point is how the composer did pictured Kunti as a noble mother or a woman of sacrifice and pain? Here also found a deprived woman who wanted to be powerful through her sons. Kunti was a princess; there she was under her father Kuntibhoja. There she floated her baby son due to fear of her father's fame. After being marriage with Pandu she became the chief Queen of the Hastinapur dynasty but still she always felt she was not so dearer to his husband Pandu. So she realised that without power she will be turned away like a toned leaf. So in time of her forest living when she came to know about her 28
husband's blight she told her husband about her boon of Durvasa because at Hastinapur Gandhari, the sister in law of Pandu conceived so Kunti thought if Gandhari's son would be elder than her son she would lose her crown. She never had been respected as before and also as she never been beloved by Pandu like Madri if she would not be a Queen Mother she will lose her all glory. After Pandu's early death the incidents faced by Pandavas prove the picture. Kunti also sacrificed a lot for her sons, getting back the dynasty of Hastinapur. Devayani & Sarmistha : Devayani was the daughter of Sukracharya who was Brahmana by caste but lived with Asuras (demons) and saved their life after their death. When as an intense rivalry between Gods and Demons for the supremacy of the three world - Heaven, Earth and Lower regions then son of Vrihaspati, Kaca was hastened by Gods to impress Sukracharya and got the knowledge of science for restoring life after death for Gods. After blessing by the Gods Kaca came to the kingdom of Vrisaparva, the king of Demons. There he met with Devayani and seeing beautiful sweet spoken young brahmin Devayani, he fallen in love. Knowing Kaca as a spy of God the demons killed him but every time Kaca got rebirth by the help of his father's great knowledge of science. Once the demons killed Kaca and mixed up his ashes in the wine of Sukracharya to drink. Knowing this Devayani cried with grief that she could not live without Kaca. Seeing dear daughter's grief Sukracharya revived Kaca's life again. Kaca tearing the belly of Sukra came out after learning the knowledge of restoring life inside the belly of Sukra and gave Sukracharya rebirth with the help of his learnt knowledge. After knowing the science Kaca wished to go back to the Heaven at that time Devayani told Kaca to marry her with proper rites. Then Kaca refused Devayani to tell her as he was the disciple of her father and stayed in his belly so Devayani became her sister by code. After insisting a lot when Kaca till denied her to marry Devayani gave blight to him that his learning will not be fruitful, listening this Kaca also cursed her she will never get married with any brahmin or sage. Saying Kaca left Devayani forever. Once love ended with great hatreds. Devayani s failure pressed Indra happy. One day while roaming in a forest Indra saw Devayani and her friends were sporting. He changed their clothes among themselves. After having bath Devayani saw Sarmistha the daughter of demon king Vrisaparva wore her clothings. Seeing this Devayani became angry and in a tremendous quarrelling Sarmistha insulted Devayani and threw her into a well. After that very incident King Yayati saved Devayani ' s life and rescued her from the well. Being insulted this way Devayani wanted to leave Vrisaparva's Kingdom. But the king Vrisaparva then apologised to Devayani and wanted to give her as per her wish, and then Devayani wanted Sarmistha as her maid among thousands of her maid. Few years later king Yayati again came to that forest. At that time he saw Sarmistha and pressed by her beauty but Devayani married the king with her father's interference. Sukracharya alerted 29
the king not to unite with Sarmistha as she was a maid of her daughter. But due to basic instinct after being the father of Devayani's son the king Yayati united with Sarmistha and out of that union Sarmistha became mother of Yayati's son. Devayani understood everything and the king Yayati was cursed by Sukracharya. In brief this was the story of two unfortunate women who became victimised for the intense rivalry between Gods and Demons. The surprising thing is both the women are highly deprived in their sexual life. Her love of life departed from her with great agony. She would never get him back in her life again. Her deprivation and depression turned her towards power. As she was blighted by her dearer Kaca that she would not be married by any sage or brahmana and insulted by the king's daughter therefore she being from brahmin family wanted to marry with a king to be more powerful. Though she was always utilised her father's power to get back her love s life now she wanted to utilise the power being a Queen. Her father's power could not be able to get back her love of life but as a Queen she became supreme. Her failure in love made her such a power mongering lady. Amba : Amba, Ambika and Ambalika were the three daughters of Kasikosala. Bhisma was taking away these princesses forcibly from their Swayamvara for his brother Vicitravirja. After reaching at Hastinapur the Queen Mother Satyavati blessed Bhisma for his bravery and a grand pompous marriage ceremony began. Then Amba the eldest of the three came forward and told Bhisma about her love with Salva and she wanted to garland him in the Swayamvara. Listening this and having consultation with Satyavati and distinguished Brahmanas, Bhisma sent her to Salva. But Salva refused her to marry as she was carried by Bhisma forcibly. Hearing this Amba solicited and tried to persuade Salva by explaining the situation but Salva refused her with arrogance. Thus condemned by Salva, Amba came to Bhisma weeping. She requested Bhisma to marry her but Bhisma for his vow did not accept her. Then she went to Parasurama, Guru (teacher) of Bhisma and insisted him to kill Bhisma after stating her ordeal. Then Parasurama asked Bhisma to marry Amba which Bhisma declined resulted to a dreadful war between them which lasted for twenty three days continuously and at the end Bhisma defeated Parasurama and was blessed by Gods. Knowing Bhisma unconquered and considering him as the root of her misfortune she entered into the forest and started severe austerities. Her misfortune and rejection from love changed the motto of her life. After passing twelve years in severe penance Amba got boon from the Lord Shiva that she would be able to destroy Bhisma in her next birth. Then Amba prepared her pyre at the bank of Yamuna River announcing with great anger that was for Bhisma's death and entered in it. Amba took her rebirth in the palace of king Drupada in form of Sikhandi but the king announced that a son was born. But after marriage with the daughter of kingdom Dasarna the truth came out. Drupada thus exposed as a culprit narrated his chief Queen, mother of Sikhandi. Hearing the conversation of her parents 30
Sikhandi left the palace with grief and entered into dense forest and exchanged her sex with a Yakhsa. At the battle field of Kurukhsetra Sikhandi stood in front of Arjuna and Arjuna pierced the body of Bhisma with his arrows till Bhisma fell down on the bed of arrows. Thus Amba in the form of Sikhandi killed Bhisma and fulfilled her resolve of revenge. The daughter of Kasikosala, Amba might be said a Revenge personality for her drastic efforts to fulfill her revenge. But above all she was highly sexually deprived. She was rejected by her love of life in her maiden and due to this she could not be able to come back to her father's palace. On the other hand Amba's life is to be pitied for her wrong use of qualities. Amba's penance and efforts are commendable but her aim is damnable. Whatever she did was just for the rejection and insult. She considered Bhisma for her misfortune so she wanted to destroy Bhisma, for that she moved from door to door of different hermitage and the way she was insisted Parasurama for killing Bhisma was highly remarkable. Her unfulfilled desire turned herself towards revenge though she had no power to kill or destroy Bhisma so she moved from one hermitage to another first but at last she realised that no one could help her to kill Bhisma. Her severe penance was actually her worshiping for power to kill Bhisma. Her boon by Lord Shiva was the achievement of power. Using this power she reached at the summit of her revenge. Killing Bhisma was an establishment of power for fulfilling her unsaid sexual desire. Thus Amba sublimated herself from tremendous deprivation towards power. Findings: Author's Column: The article stands on five corners of life - 1. Power 2. Politics 3. Deprivation 4. Sublimation 5. Empowerment These are the five corners by which the women of Mahabharata can be addressed. Among them the first one is power. The entire Mahabharata stands on the play of power. So this is quite obvious that women of Mahabharata were also involved in this power play. Now the point comes what is the definition of power for them? Where the then society could not allow women to take independent decision without their guardian, there where is the scope of power for them. They were under the guidance of father in their maidenhood, after marriage husband, and at old age son. So how could they become powerful in this system? But if we can study thoroughly, find their power. They got this through their father, husband or son. As an example Devajani the daughter of Sukracharya utilised the power of her father in every course of her life. Being a daughter of a sage she wanted Sarmistha, the daughter of king Brisaparva as her maid and we find that Sukracharya always entered in the problems raised in her daughter ' s life. On the other hand Devajani was highly deprived in her love life as she was not accepted by Kaca, the love of her life. Therefore her failure in love or to get back her love she used her father's power. Her depression for failure 31
pulled her towards power. That's why she got married with a king and became a powerful Queen. Most of the eminent women of Mahabharata referred here are highly deprived in their conjugal life so they turned around towards power from deprivation. Thus they reached in the summit of the power and suppressed their every emotion under power. Here Satyavati was an example. She achieved at the summit of power instead of her suppression of unfulfilled desire. After this discussion we may told that those women are referred here very much deprived in their sexual or conjugal life, so they suppressed their desires under the play of power and involved themselves in the politics. They did it behind the certain. But their attitude and every footsteps towards power bring us in front of a great question can we consider those women as an empowered personality? From the modern perspective the definition and explanation of Empowerment could not match with those personality but in the time of Mahabharata when most of the women of the society treated as a property of their respective owners like father in maiden, husband after marriage and son at old age, there among them few of upper class family created a position for themselves. Though most of the time they utilised the power for shake of the establishment of their rites and became Mistress. Such as Satyavati, a widow of late king Santanu used to give instructions to her step son Bhisma for conducting administration of Hastinapur. Bhisma had enough intelligence for smooth running of the administration of Hastinapur till he never crossed Satyavati and always did everything under his step mother's consent. On the other side Satyavati always consulted with Bhisma but took decisions by herself. Above all she chooses Pandu as a king of Kuru family instead of Dhritarastra, the elder son of the family. The same thing goes for Kunti also. She was also supremo, centre of power for her family. After Pandu's early death she became the guardian of her sons and she said the last word for them. Devajani & Sarmistha also played their power in every small aspect of their lives. From their point of deprivation they tried to establish their rites or opinions by using the power of politics. Standing from that point it may be said that those women became powerful by using the parameter made by the society for them and cited a new definition of empowerment through their lives. Scope of the Study It may be said that a number of women in the Mahabharata were mostly sexually deprived in their pre and post marital life. They started empowering themselves through their sons as they thought that their unfulfilled desire could be fulfilled by their respective sons so they wanted to be the mother of the would-bekings. Conclusion In comparison to Ramayana for procreating family tree polygamy was accepted for all classes of people but in Ramayana it was only accepted for men. That's why Kaikeyi s boon by Dasaratha and conditions for marriage didn't highlight. If Kaikeyi got power like Satyavati the whole story of Ramayana became changed and should be written in 32
new way. But to build the society such barriers were incorporated neither families after families would be ruined; another destruction of human resources could be occurred like Mahabharata. So the rites, power and position of women being degraded day by day after the age of Mahabharata. Above all in Mahabharata due to some upwards attitude towards life find some very powerful women characters who are the assets of the epic - Mahabharata. References 1. All the story narrowed here are taken from the original text of Mahabharata; edited by Haridas Siddhantavagish. 2. Ganguly Kanailal (1961), Translationof Faust,Calcutta:General Printers and Publishers, V I, p 2-3. 3. Ahamed, Shamim (2nd Edition: January, 2014),Mahabharate Jaunata (Bengali), Gangchil. 4. Bhaduri,Nrisingha Prasad (1998), Krishna, Kunti Ebong Kaunteyo (Bengali), Ananda Publishers. 5. Bhaduri, Nrisingha Prasad (2013),Mahabharater Ostadasi (Bengali), Ananda Publishers. 8. Bhawalkar,Vanamala(2002),Eminent Women in the Mahabharata, V I & V II, Sharada Publishing House, Delhi. 9. Datta, Amaresh (1st January, 2006), The Encyclopedia of Indian Literature, V I & V II, Devajani &Jyoti. 10. Sen, Amartya(2005),The Argumentative Indian: Writings of Indian Culture, History and Identity, Penguin Press, London. 11. Sharma, T.R.S (June, 2000),Ancient Indian Literature: An Anthology, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. 12. Winternitz, Maurice (Edition: 2009), A History of Indian Literature, V I, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 13. Dr.R.Kausalya, Journal of Innovative Research and Solutions (JIRAS) A unit of UIIRS Print ISSN: 2320 1932 / Online ISSN 2348 3636 Volume No.1, Issue No.1. PP: 20-25, JULY- 2015. 14. Dr. Kavita S. Kusugal, Journal of Innovative Research and Solutions (JIRAS) Print ISSN: 2320 1932 / Online ISSN 2348 3636 Volume No.1, Issue No.1, PP: 33-44, JULY 2015. 6. Bhaduri,Nrisingha Prasad (2013), Mystery Plays in Sanskrit, Progressive Publisher. 7. Bhaduri, Nrisingha Prasad(2014),Katha Amritosoman, Deys Publishers. 33