The first image that comes to mind when the Mahabharata is mentioned is that of a battlefield, or of the Kauravas and Pandavas caught in verbal duels and games of dice. But it’s the seldom spoken-of women who really tie the story together. In Song Of Draupadi – her first mythological novel – author Ira Mukhoty gives a voice to these women, focusing on the epic from their points of view. From Gandhari’s decision to blindfold herself so she can join her husband in eternal darkness to Amba’s refusal to marry a Kuru prince, each woman speaks of her choices. Here, Ira Mukhoty explains why Draupadi is a role model.
Song Of Draupadi was the first manuscript you wrote but it’s your fourth published book. How did this come to be?
This was a completed manuscript when I wrote it around eight years ago. It was my first fully-written work. When my publisher David Davidar saw it, he said ‘I love what you’ve written – the setting, the research you’ve put in. Why don’t you consider writing historicals?’ So he put me on the track of writing history, after which I wrote Heroines, Daughters Of The Sun and Akbar The Great Mughal, and put this on the back burner. It was only recently that we decided to revisit and publish it. I hardly reworked anything; the book was completely ready.
Any challenges you had to overcome writing your first work of mythological fiction?
{{/usCountry}}Any challenges you had to overcome writing your first work of mythological fiction?
{{/usCountry}}At the time the idea came to me, my daughters were quite young. I used to take them to watch Ramayana productions in Delhi every year. The scene where it ends in popular representation – where Sita is happily enthroned next to Ram – always bothered me. I wondered how I would tell my daughters that this woman – the perfect, loyal, submissive wife who truly loved her husband – was berated by those around her including Ram, the perfect man. She was humiliated and sent into the forest. How could I explain this level of perfection in a woman to my kids? This was a challenge for me on a personal level. Around the same time, the horrific Nirbhaya incident took place. I thought then, no matter how perfect a woman, the patriarchy of Indian society doesn’t allow space for her. She’s humiliated, tortured and can even be killed. I looked around for sources that present complex and nuanced images of women – and the Mahabharata does that.
I wanted to look at the epic through the eyes of the women, so I left out the wars and fighting, and only follow the women’s lives and how they’re shaped in a deeply patriarchal society. The idea was to present a different ideal from the perfect image of Sita that we’re always given. I wanted readers to see how women were able to shape their destinies even 2500 years ago. This was the challenge – to make it accessible to the girls and women of today.
How important are the other women’s voices in shaping the story?
What stands out about all of them is their will and the force of their ambition. Being openly ambitious, to openly set out to get what you want is not encouraged in women even today. Satyavati, for example, knows what she wants. When King Shantanu wants to marry her, she says I’ll do so only if my sons become king – that’s a huge thing for a poor fisherwoman to ask of a ruler. The way she’s able to articulate her ambitions and desires is extremely inspiring. When destiny works against her and her sons die, she sends Bheeshma to abduct the princesses of Kashi and gets her son from Parashar, Vyasa, to impregnate them. She knows that it is in the birth of sons that one can have real power, so she accepts her role within this patriarchal system, and wields this power to shape her destiny. Kunti also does so similarly. Her will is to keep the Pandavas together to regain their lands and she’s also able to influence the way the epic unfolds. She’s the only one apart from Draupadi to call Yudhishthir a eunuch and make him go to battle.
Since you referred to The Critical Edition of the Mahabharata, popular incidents such as Krishna coming to Draupadi’s aid during her disrobing are deleted in your version. Why did you choose not to go with the widely-known stories?
In the 1930s, a group of scholars worked for almost 30 years to study the sources and find commonalities in the various versions of the epic written over the centuries. A lot of the divine moments, the theorising by pandits, were added to the texts much later. A lot of that is left out in the Critical Edition. It gives you the core of a human story, of two sets of cousins who are fighting over a piece of land. I wanted a story that readers could credibly believe can happen without divine interventions. The Draupadi scene was important to show that despite having five husbands, she was actually alone. It was a dreadful situation to be in for a woman in Vedic times. In the sabha where she is humiliated, she stands up and fights for herself. It’s an extraordinary thing – a woman on her period with clothes full of blood, being insulted in front of her husbands, in-laws and the full sabha, is able to say “How dare you treat me like this?” I wanted this to be a moment Draupadi takes ownership of, one where she doesn’t need divine intervention. In fact, Krishna is a bit in the background all through. I wanted to leave out all divine involvement so the women could take ownership of their actions.
Why does Draupadi appeal to us? What does your book do differently?
Draupadi appeals to us because she’s the voice of female anger, which is rare in Indian society. Even now, most of us are told to control our anger, to watch the way we speak to men and elders. It’s rare to find a woman who is vocal, and Draupadi says such extreme things – even today one is shocked when she calls her husbands eunuchs. That, combined with her human qualities, her passion, her reactions – the way she gets Keechaka murdered or pushes Jayadratha away – make her real. A lot of us need to amplify the anger we feel for our daughters, mothers, and other women. We are not able to give a voice to these feelings but through Draupadi, we can. I think that’s what makes her popular, even though she’s not offered as a role model like Sita. Draupadi is vulnerable, passionate, has angry outbursts – people can relate to her.
I have focused not only on Draupadi, but most of the ladies of the Mahabharata. She’s got a place in this sea of women including Kunti, Ambalika, Ambika and Gandhari. Their actions shape the course of the narrative – without them, there would be no Mahabharata. All these women are extraordinary, but their voices have disappeared in the louder cacophony of the men’s wars and the narrative time they get compared to the women. To my knowledge, this book puts the women firmly in the limelight for the first time.
Huzan Tata is an independent journalist based in Mumbai. She writes on arts, culture, books, lifestyle and travel.