Feminism in Mahabharata

"Mother, today god has been great and I have won a wonderful prize.” “Divide it among your four brothers equally.”

Does this ring a bell? Yes, that was what Arjun, the Mahabharata's unquestioned hero, had to say to his mother Kunti after gaining Draupadi's hand in the Swayambar. Most of us are familiar with the story of Arjun going home and telling Kunti that he had won a reward, and Kunti, unaware that the treasure was her daughter-in-law, asked the Pandavas to divide it evenly among themselves.

So, when you hear the Mahabharata, what comes to mind? Do you believe it is an epic tale of the Pandavas’ heroisms? I recently had the idea of viewing the Mahabharata in the light of Feminism. When we think about feminism and the Mahabharata, the first name that comes to mind is Draupadi.

To what extent do you believe it is fair to conceive  a woman as a prize? True, many of us consider love to be a gift, and we may consider ourselves exceedingly fortunate to be with the person we love. But what about a prize? When we hear the term reward, what is the first thing that springs to mind? Perhaps a trophy or some other prized possession? So, if a man regards his wife as a treasure, he may see her as his possession in one way or another.

Do you know what the term trophy wife means? Trophy wife refers to a young, attractive woman who is married to a man who is more attached to her so that he can display her as a status symbol and impress others. Is it really that important what other people think of your spouse as long as you’re in a relationship built on mutual trust and love?

Draupadi was forced to marry the five Pandavas in the Mahabharata because they couldn’t go against their mother Kunti’s wishes. She felt sorry that she had said anything without realising that Arjun was talking about his wife and not some other prize, but she couldn’t take back her words. Five brothers fighting for a wife! Physically and psychologically. Throughout the Mahabharata, Draupadi is shown to have always preferred Arjun above the other four Pandavas. She was initially robbed of heaven for her sin during the Pandavas’ Mahaprasthana yatra.

Is it possible to blame her? During her swayamvar, she had fallen in love with Arjun, whom she had grown to regard as her husband. She was also forced to marry his four brothers due to the irony of fate. Isn’t it pure injustice from  21st century perspective?

But wait, there’s more! Most of us have seen the Mahabharata on television and recall the infamous moment in which Dusshasana tries to undress Draupadi in front of all five Pandavas and other elders in a crowded courtroom. Yudhishtir had lost all of his possessions in a gaming match and became a slave of Duryodhana, the Mahabharata’s former villain. Yudhishtir had decided to bet their wife Draupadi after losing all of his castles and empires, wealth and power, and even his own brothers. Duryodhana summoned Draupadi to the trial after he had also lost her. She didn’t believe it at first, and had sent a messenger to her own husbands, claiming that since Yudhishtir had pledged himself first in the game, he had no authority over her because he was already a slave, and that how could a wife ever be a simple possession of her husband?

So we all know how Dusshasana tried to strip her of her clothes and how Lord Krishna stopped her, but it makes us wonder why Draupadi, the wife of the Pandavas, the Mahabharata’s strong heroes with unmatched strength, had to suffer this humiliation. When the elders in the courtroom heard Draupadi being talked of as a possession, they expressed their displeasure, indicating that it was not common practise in those days to believe that husbands owned their wives. Despite this, no one intervened to stop Draupadi from being mistreated.

Are there any parallels between our current society and the story of Draupadi? The underlying assumption in today’s situations of violence and injustice against women that we frequently hear about appears to be that a woman is a commodity at the disposal and mercy of males. There have been various feminist readings of the Mahabharata, such as Chitra Banerjee Divakurni’s "The Palace of Illusions" and writer Devdutt Pattnaik’s studies on Draupadi. For a change, what the Mahabharata has to give to modern-day women and men sounds intriguing. It’s past time for us to begin reading our mythology in ways other than the traditional ones.