“Make women beautiful but don’t make men so lustful.”

Ray, P. (1995). Yajnaseni (15 ed.). (P. Bhattacharya, Trans.) New Delhi: Rupa Publications India Pvt . Ltd.

Pratibha Ray’s Yajnaseni ― an epistolary novel, beginning at the end and ending at the beginning ― tells the tale of the most complex epic of all times by turning the victim into a survivor, by bringing the marginal woman to the centre. Draupadi is perhaps a character who has carried the weight of every single patriarchal injustice towards women. The beautiful dark-skinned princess born from a sacrificial fire with the purpose of establishing dharma on Earth had been a victim of male gaze, lust, arrogance and ego, beginning from the Kauravas to Pandavas. “Despite someone else being the root of all causes, they emptied the entire cup of blame on my head and went away – leaving me thus at death’s door. (2)”

Yajnaseni, retells the Mahabharata from the perspective of Krishnaa. It is her story of womanhood, for she follows every act of Dharma - of being a wife divided between five husbands, a daughter-in-law, and a mother. Amidst her social roles, her mind is constantly conflicted by what is expected of a woman and what a woman truly desires. She questions the oppression of women in society while thoughtfully following the social rules of womanhood. “Tolerance is the ornament of women. But to bear injustice with bowed head is not the dharma of women. (251)” As a character from the Indian mythology that has been looked down upon, ridiculed with her chastity at question, Pratibha Ray touches the very nuances of being a woman, not only in the Dvaparyug but also in Kaliyug.

One of the interesting features of Ray’s story is Krishnaa’s unnamed earthy relationship with Krishna. The story of rational Krishnaa revolves around this relationship, which is quite conveniently accepted in the Dvaparyuga because Krishna is god incarnated. This relationship perhaps reinforces certain patriarchal ideas such as a man has to be the savior of honour of women which Krishnaa validates again and again. As much as Krishna is glorified by each character in the story, Ray also provides a criticism towards the lifestyle of Krishna in the background voice of Draupadi’s sakhi Nitambini. Also, certain ideas of beauty, motherhood, shame and embarrassment validated by Draupadi can be problematized in the present-day scenario.

The recurring use of “being born to uphold dharma” as the only purpose of the birth of Draupadi reminds me of the concept of savior baby in which a child is born to donate organs or cells to another (most likely, sibling) suffering from an incurable or fatal disease.  The entire life of such a person is spent serving the one in need while losing the freedom and control of his/her own life. Keeping this in mind, Draupadi can be seen as the saviour child born to uphold social dharma at the expense of her personal happiness and freedom to abolish the disease that the entire humankind was suffering from, adharma.

The great war of Kurukshetra is perceived to be fought for this woman was in its truest sense a war to establish overall justice. It was not a war fought by the Pandavs to avenge Draupadi. Having read a few retellings of Indian mythologies, I have noticed that men of these epics perform dharma towards their parents, elders, young ones and to their subjects or people. Nowhere is there a mention of dharma of a man towards his wife whereas the life of a woman has been defined only by her dharma towards her husband. A woman is merely seen as an object and in relation to men. As in Yajnaseni, Karna tells Krishna, “… I am only sorry that not knowing that devi Draupadi was the wife of my younger brothers, I insulted her in many ways. As the wife of my younger brothers, she is like my daughter-in-law. And yet, I led the onslaught on her modesty and honour! For that I beg forgiveness from you. (351)” This statement, even though might have melted Draupadi’s heart, pains me. It shows that men can respect women only when these women are related to them, implying, there would be no remorse in a man as honorable as Karna to publicly shame or rape a woman who is not related to him.

When Indian mythology is filled with tales of such manliness, how will the there be any kind of dharma towards humanity? Women were seen as objects, possessions, conquests of men and the situation has only gotten worse today. In such times, mythological retellings become important because they humanize the so-called object, woman. Such retellings have become a literary trend in the last few years. A couple of them like, Volga’s The Liberation of Sita and Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan’s The One Who Swam with the Fishes take a step forward and build a feminist fiction around these victims of patriarchy from our mythologies. Originally written in 1984 in Odia and translated in 1995, this lesser known novel forms a great foundation for the present-day retellings.

The translation by Pradip Bhattacharya captures the spirit of a conflicted Krishnaa but at times fails by translating words quite literally, such as Chakravyuh as discus formation. The only con of this translated text is its editing which hasn’t been done thoroughly and hence might be a dilemma for an immersed reader.

Although Yajnaseni is the tale of a woman of Dvaparyuga, it is written by a twentieth century woman which can be seen in the words of Draupadi’s prayers for future. Of all the things that she wishes for, “Make women beautiful but don’t make men so lustful (396)” stands out because in this twenty first century the evil of men is still at large put on the beauty of women without men’s lust in question. All I can say is that, this book should be read by all, men - to understand a woman’s mind which they so often have ridiculed in their social gatherings quite conveniently staying away from even trying to understand it, women who follow the social conventions – to find their divided selves mirrored in this book and help themselves fight patriarchy, and the ones who have broken away from such conventions – to know that even though they were once as conflicted as Krishnaa, now they are fighting their own war without waiting for the men to do it for them. And, that is exactly what a woman like Draupadi would do if she were born today.