Between the Lines: Re-reading the Indian Epics
The ancient Indian epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata were retold in myriads of literary works including languages prevailing outside India. The conventional storylines of these epics have been modified in multitudes of ways that sometimes we wonder, “Was that what happened?”, even with the sheer askance about its reality. No matter what happened actually, the geographical descriptions were surprisingly in agreement with the current cartography. Although spirituality is an important aspect, I consider Ramayana and Mahabharata as the epitome of our literary traditions.
How does an average Indian get familiarized with the epics? We use frequent terms like Lakshman Rekha in our daily conversations or sometimes lend the same name to a commercial product such as cockroach killing chalk! Thus, living in India will teach you about the epics even if you are not consciously doing it. People remember the epics differently based on what they hear around them; the variations are often contributed by factors such as academic curriculum, oral stories from oldsters, media, or regional differences. For me, a serious look into the epics happened in school, where we were taught the excerpts of epics in regional language and asked to learn about the entire narrative from books. Then I grew up, exposing myself to the stories that had been never told to me by oldsters, television, or any of those classroom textbooks.
For most of us, the epics had singular forms. To begin with, the average storyline of Ramayana goes like,
“Ram, the righteous prince of Ayodhya went in exile along with his brother Lakshman and wife Sita. Sita was abducted by Ravan, the Rakshasa king of Lanka. Ram, Lakshman, Hanuman, and Vanarsena went in search of Sita towards Lanka. In a battle, Ram defeated Ravana and reunited with Sita.” That was how the epic described the victory of righteousness over wrongdoing in Treta Yuga. Then comes the epilogue, Uthara Kanda which described, Ram’s coronation as the king of Ayodhya, abandoning Sita in the jungle, returning of the twin sons of Ram and Sita — Luv and Kush — to Ayodhya, Sita’s exit to the earthly fissure and Ram’s entry to heaven through river Sarayu.
In the wake of a later Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, the glorious victory of righteousness was narrated in Mahabharata where the average storyline of the most emphasized part goes like,
“Sons of Kuru clan brothers Pandu and Dhritarashtra — the five Pandavas and a hundred Kauravas respectively — are rivals since the time they were young. In a series of events that happened in Hastinapur, the capital city of Kuru kingdom, the cousins developed a cumulative enmity towards each other. Later, Yudhishtir, the eldest of Pandavas, was crowned in Indraprastha, a city built in the outskirts of the Kuru kingdom. There were tales of politics and tactics until the Pandavas got exiled to the forest leaving Indraprastha to the administration of Kauravas. After twelve years in exile and one year in incognito, the Pandavas reclaimed the throne by emissaries including Krishna. The Kauravas were reluctant to give up and hence they battled against Pandavas at Kurukshetra. The battle had given birth to the Gita, the wisdom shared by Krishna to Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. The Pandavas won the war, yet they suffered huge casualties.” The epilogue of the story has a comparable narrative to that of Ramayana, “After Yudhishtir became the king of Hastinapura, the Pandavas ruled the kingdom for several years until they renounced. The Pandavas set out a journey to heaven along with their wife Draupadi. In heaven, the Pandavas reunited with the Kauravas in a passionate reunion which was free from hostility.”
Well, those were the most common stories we were familiar with for years. Now, how about narrating the stories from a different perspective? Many authors have done this in books of various languages. Often, the epics are oversimplified into the paeans of righteousness, which involved battles of protagonists and antagonists. What decides the righteousness? A careful examination would reveal that the decisions were constantly made and imposed by societal rules or laws prevailing at the time of incidents. We presume, the contents of Ramayana to be Ram vs Ravan and Mahabharata to be Pandavas vs Kauravas. We were told that the protagonists had been right and antagonists did wrongdoings. We believed that the remaining characters existed only to pave the way to the ultimate destiny, hiding under the curtains of time. But, there was more to it. Some of those characters were not properly interpreted for the very intrinsic craft they behold. While reading the epics, their stories got trapped between the superficial mesh of poetic lines. In a bigger picture, all these characters made sense, and their existence was relevant in terms of conveying the greatest message.
Talking about Ramayana, the retold stories were several including The Ramchandra Series by Amish Tripathi and Asura, the Tale of Vanquished by Anand Neelakantan. The book, Asura lead me to change my looking glasses in favor of Ravan. You would see a contrasting Ravan there; the one who lived for his family, the one who fathered Sita, a venerable king to his subjects, a genuine Shiva devotee, and the one who got bravely martyred in the battlefield. The story was the same, but you might feel the little sympathy towards the destiny of a virtuous Ravan. We can’t be prejudiced. In a parallel universe, in a different frame of reference, Ravan might be as righteous as a Ram known to us. In general, some of the major characters got interpretations in many literary works including Hanuman and Sita. Then there were some subtle, yet strong female characters who attracted the attention of several interpreters, such as Urmila, the sister of Sita and wife of Lakshman; Mandodari, the wife of Ravan; and Surpanakha, the sister of Ravan and Lankan princess. Sometimes, we may not need an author for interpretation, but we can presume to be those characters who are humanly and emotional. Who knows, we might discover the story that we would like to reflect on them! In the book My Gita by Devdutt Pattanaik, he describes an interpretation of the Gita that he felt like his own version. He reminds the reader that people perceive the Gita differently; My Gita may be different from Your Gita. This often applies to various literature works, maybe, even in case of epics.
In the case of Mahabharata, the interpretations were massive owing to the diversity of its characters. The summary of the story was mostly the same, but the changes incorporated in smaller fables and characteristic emotions had drastically differentiated the perceptions from the conventional narrative. Some of my favorite interpretations include The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Randamoozham (Malayalam) by M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Ini Njan Urangatte (Malayalam) by P. K. Balakrishnan and Draupadi (translated version from Odia) by Pratibha Ray. In all these books, the narrator is generally Draupadi except in Randamoozham in which it is Bhim. The plot of Ini Njan Urangatte (literally translated as And Now Let Me Sleep), though narrated by Draupadi was centered on a virtuous Karna. Karna grew up as a charioteer’s son, ignorant about his biological mother Kunti. Despite Karna’s brilliancy in archery and warfare, he has been constantly insulted by the royal Pandavas, whose eldest biological brother was none other than Karna himself. The Kauravas befriended Karna who fought against his own brothers in the battle of Kurukshetra. The life of Karna was arduous, right from birth to the valiant death by his younger brother. The Palace of Illusions and Draupadi eloquently described the emotions of Draupadi, the beautiful daughter of king Drupada. Although officially married to Arjun, she partnered with the five Pandavas, just because mother Kunti made a misjudged statement. The life of Draupadi was extremely difficult and absurd. These books of Draupadi’s Mahabharata had stood up to her reasons. Among all these books, the most enjoyable journey was delivered by Randamoozham (literally translated as The Second Chance), the Bhim’s Mahabharata. In a story narrated by Bhim, the author presents an exceptional Bhim who was underestimated in the conventional epic. In this book, Bhim was portrayed as a valiant Pandava who intensely loved Draupadi, even if her attitude never returned the same. He condemned Yudhishtir for his folly in the name of Dharma. He criticized everything that went wrong; after all, what he had was a second chance on the say. Bhim remained as big character as he had always been until the way to heaven in the Himalayas where he guarded Draupadi as she succumbed into the death.
Some interesting characters of Mahabharata have not yet been vividly explored. Yuyutsu, the son of Dhritarashtra and a maid, shared biological brotherhood with Kauravas. But Yuyutsu believed that the Pandavas were virtuous and stayed their side in the battle. He battled against his own brothers, just like Karna, showing the ultimate tenacity. He was the only son of Dhritarashtra who survived the war and assumed the throne of Indraprastha post-war. Some of the other notable characters include Gandhari, the blindfolded wife of Dhritarashtra; Abhimanyu, the brave son of Arjuna; Dussala, the sole sister of Kauravas; and Shikhandi, the warrior and queer sibling of Draupadi.
It feels that there is no absolute version of the story. We read and we decide the version. Occasionally, try reading between the lines. Who knows, you may discover the updated version!
