While India has long been known for gender bias,
female
feticide, and other gender related issues, it is interesting
to note that women played an important, indeed a dominant
role, in ancient India. This is amply reflected in Indian
mythology, Vedas, and epics. From Lopamudra and Maitreyi in
Rig Veda to
Sita in
Ramayana, and Draupadi, Kunti, and
Gandhari in
Mahabharata: the females of ancient India have
been portrayed as intelligent, sensitive, kind, headstrong,
decisive, and venerable, the very qualities that define
today's women!
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MAHABHARATA - THE GREAT INDIAN
EPIC
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Mahabharata, one of the longest epic poems ever written,
offers great insight not only into the great war that took
place in Kurukshetra between the Pandava and Kaurava princes
some five thousand years ago and the events leading up to it,
it also gives one a sneak peek into the Vedic society and the
role women played in it.
Let's take a look at the two matriarchs of Mahabharata: Kunti
and Gandhari, two powerful women who influenced the turn of
events in the epic.
Kunti
A devoted and impulsive young girl
Kunti, daughter of King Sura and adopted by king Kuntibhoja,
was
Krishna's paternal aunt. A young girl; devoted to the
service of
gods, sages, and guests, Kunti so pleased the sage
Durvasa that he taught her a mantra that enabled her to invoke
any god of her choice and have a son born out of him. Though
still unwed, a curious Kunti could not resist the temptation
to try out her newly learned mantra, and invoked Surya - the
Sun God, and lo and behold, Surya appeared and blessed her
with a son, Karna. Now, this illegitimate child was
embarrassing for Kunti as she was not married yet and she took
the heartbreaking, yet bold decision to set her newborn afloat
in a basket in a river. Not even in her wildest dreams could
Kunti have imagined then that her first born, left to fend for
himself at birth, will one day become the arch enemy of her
other sons that she so loved!
A faithful consort
Soon, Kunti's father held a swayamvar for her where she chose
the King of Hastinapur, Pandu, as her husband. Sometime later,
Pandu married the extremely attractive Madri. Kunti may not
have liked this turn of events, but she and Madri soon became
best of friends not knowing that very soon Kunti would have to
bring up Madri's sons as her own. One day Pandu shot an arrow
at the couple sage Kindana and his wife while hunting, taking
them to be a deer due to their copulating forms and the dying
sage cursed Pandu that he would die as soon as he tried to
make
love with either of his wives - Kunti or Madri. This
curse so affected an as yet childless Pandu that he decided to
go off to the forest to serve penance leaving the kingdom in
care of his blind elder brother Dhritrashtra. While in the
forest, Pandu became worried and depressed about dying without
leaving any son to take forward his name and shared his
despair with his wife Kunti, who along with Madri, had
accompanied Pandu to the forest. At this point, Kunti was
reminded of the mantra taught to her by Sage Durvasa and she
used it reluctantly to invoke Dharma, Vayu and Indra gods who
gave her three sons Yudhisthir, Bheem and Arjun respectively.
Kunti then taught the mantra to Madri who invoked the
celestial physician brothers Ashwini Kumaras who blessed her
with two sons Nakul and Sehdev.
Some time later, Pandu died as a result of the curse as he was
unable to resist himself from approaching Madri and a guilt
laden Madri gave her life by jumping in her husband's funeral
pyre. Kunti wished to do the same; however, she was advised by
the sages to carry out her maternal responsibility of bringing
up the five Pandava princes who were very young at the time.
This marked the beginning of a lifelong duty that Kunti
fulfilled with all her heart, leaving no stone unturned to
ensure the princes got the right education, learnt the right
values, and got their due as the rightful heirs to the throne
of Hastinapur. Of course, the journey was a long and painful
one that saw the mother and her sons living in the shadow of
the caretaker turned king Dhritrashtra and his wife Gandhari
and their hundred willful and bullying sons. Kunti, advised by
the wise Vidur, understood the need to stay calm and humble
while her children were growing up and wait for the right time
before bringing up the issue of the future king of Hastinapur
and the inheritance of her children. These years were
bittersweet for the Pandava family as while on one hand they
were marked by the love, generosity and guidance shown to them
by Bhishma, the great grandfather of the princes, on the other
hand they were marred by the small injustices of Dhritrashtra
and the jealousy and dangerous pranks of Kaurava princes. And
throughout this period, the person who stood out for her
patience and perseverance was the widowed Kunti who single
mindedly brought up her sons in a manner befitting Kshatriya
dharma.
The years in exile - a shrewd mother
Soon, the princes were young and the eldest of the Kaurava
princes, Duryodhana, started getting worried about the rising
popularity of the Pandava princes' valor, kindness and wisdom.
Yudhisthir, the eldest of the Pandavas was a wise and just
prince and was accepted by both the palace elders and the
people of Hastinapur as the king-in-waiting. Duryodhana
resented this fact and kept up the emotional blackmail to his
blind father for overlooking his own son and preferring his
cousin for the throne while at the same time, he plotted with
his maternal uncle Shakuni to kill the Pandavas. His constant
efforts to his corrupt his father, who secretly loved his son
the most and wanted him to become the king, came to fruition
when Dhritrashtra agreed to send the Pandava brothers to
Varnavata till they were called back by him. Duryodhan got a
palace made of lac, a highly flammable material, for the
Pandavas and hatched a plan to set fire to it when the
Pandavas would be sleeping. Fortunately, Vidur came to know of
the plan and warned the brothers of the danger and made sure
that while the palace was burning, Kunti and the brothers made
their escape through an underground tunnel.
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THE BIRTH OF PANDAVAS AND
DRAUPADI'S SWAYAMVARA - (STORIES FROM INDIAN
MYTHOLOGY)
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This was the first exile of Pandavas in the forest where they
stayed, without revealing their identity or announcing their
escape to the world, till Draupadi's swayamvar. On hearing the
news of swayamvar based on an archery contest, Arjun who was
an ace archer participated in the contest and won Draupadi's
hand in marriage. When Arjun and the brothers, who were living
as hermits, took Draupadi to meet Kunti announcing they have
something they want to show her, Kunti, who was busy with some
work unknowingly said, “Whatever it is, divide it amongst
yourself”. And the brothers, used to obeying their mother's
every word decided to share Draupadi amongst them, and as
such, each of the five princes married Draupadi who ended up
with five husbands. This was one of the most controversial
decisions taken by Kunti and Pandavas and many accuse Kunti of
not apologizing and taking back her words when she finally
came to know about the princess Draupadi. Then there are
others who believe that Kunti did it to bind her five sons
together even more firmly as she was wise enough to foresee
the impending war and the need for all Pandavas to stay
together to fight the enemy.
A doting and fair mother-in-law
While the beginning of the relationship between the two
headstrong women - Kunti and Draupadi, may have been a bit
awkward, to put it mildly, due to Kunti's insistence on
getting Draupadi married to all her sons and not just Arjun,
once the issue was settled and accepted by all to a certain
degree, they lived with peace and understanding during the
many years they spent together in exile in forest and later in
Hastinapur and Indraprastha. They had many similarities in
their character and which is probably why Kunti doted on her
beautiful and wise-beyond-her-years daughter-in-law and
Draupadi, in her turn, loved and respected her mother-in-law
very much.
Kunti wasn't much aggrieved at the loss of Indraprastha and
the magical palace, that Maya built for their family, in
gambling but her anguish and empathy at Draupadi's insult by
Duryodhan and his brother Duhshasan led her to provoke her
sons to fight for justice and revenge and claim their rightful
inheritance even if it meant declaring war on close family and
friends. A self-respecting women herself, the shaming of her
daughter-in-law in full public view was something she could
not forgive.
A gross injustice
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VEER KARNA - THE VALIANT SON OF
KUNTI
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The all-consuming love that Kunti had for her sons, the five
Pandavas, made her blind to the totally unfair treatment that
she meted out to her first-born Karna. While one does
understand her reasons for giving up a son born out of
wedlock, given the social stigma it carried, it is difficult
to understand or justify her meeting Karna, on the eve of the
great war to divulge the secret of his birth and when he
refused to move to the Pandava army, to extract the promise of
not killing the Pandava brothers. Karna promised to do so with
the exception of sparing the life of Arjuna and asked Kunti to
keep the secret intact until the end of the war.
A righteous and sacrificing woman
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SRI KRISHNA IN HIS ROLE AS ENVOY
OF PANDAVAS TO THE KAURAVA COURT
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Like every wife and mother, Kunti wanted her brave husband's
name and glory to be preserved and her sons to get their due.
It pained her to see her sons and daughter-in-law living the
life of hermits in forests and begging for alms when they were
capable of doing so much more. While she did all she possibly
could to convince Dhritrashtra and his sons to peacefully
settle the matter, going to the extent of sending Krishna as
Pandava's emissary to buy peace by accepting just five
villages and foregoing the rest of the kingdom, it was not to
be. This is when she asked her sons to prepare for war and
fulfill their Kshatriya Dharma.
However, when after the all-destroying war that lasted 18 days
and killed all of the Kaurava princes and all sons of Pandavas
leaving behind just twelve warriors from both sides, a
grieving Kunti decided to accompany Dhritrashtra and Gandhari
to forest sacrificing the comforts of the palace. When she was
questioned by her sons on her decision, she explained that the
war was fought to get them justice but now she needed to serve
penance for all the violence leading to the deaths of so many
kinsmen and thousands of others.
Gandhari
A stubborn young woman and a faithful wife
Gandhari, the princess of Gandhar and a reincarnation of Mati
- the
Goddess of intelligence, was engaged to be married to
Dhritrashtra, the eldest prince of Hastinapur. While Shakuni,
her brother, was not pleased at the prospect of her sister
being married to a blind prince who would not even be
considered as the heir to the throne, the beautiful princess
had her own notions of respect and loyalty to her future
husband and when she came to know that he was blind by birth,
she took a vow to blindfold herself for the rest of her life
in order to show her empathy to him. While her action had a
noble intent, many would argue that she would have been more
useful to her husband if she had chosen to be his eyes instead
of a blind companion.
A determined mother
Gandhari's life could not have been easy, what with being
married to a blind, insecure, and depressed prince. On top of
that, Gandhari's only hope of ever getting her due by
producing an heir to the throne was not materializing as per
plans. With Pandu, Kunti and Madri in the forest, Gandhari and
her husband wanted to have a son who would be the eldest of
the Kuru princes and thus, eligible to become the king of
Hastinapur. However, she had a prolonged pregnancy and in the
mean time, Kunti and Madri begot sons through Durvasa's
mantra. This event so upset Gandhari that she made her maids
hit her stomach with an iron rod. This resulted in a lifeless
ball of flesh coming out of her womb, which was later divided
by Vyasa into hundred pieces and incubated in pots of ghee for
two years to produce Gandhari's hundred sons and a daughter.
A righteous woman
Gandhari was a righteous woman who, despite knowing that her
sons were weaker than her cousins, the Pandavas, and may not
get the chance to rule the kingdom, never actively encouraged
them to rile the Pandava brothers. On the contrary, she was
wary of Duryodhana's constant endeavor to create trouble for
Pandavas and hatch plots, along with his uncle Shakuni, to
kill them. But her efforts to teach the right values to her
sons were all in vain and she was well aware of her failure
and rued it.
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ARJUNA FIGHTS BHISHMA IN THE
BATTLE OF KURUKSHETRA
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The fact that she stuck to the virtue of righteousness is
evident from the blessing that she gave her son Duryodhana
before and during the Great War. Knowing well that dharma was
on the side of Pandavas, she always told Duryodhana that may
the victory be with those who are righteous! This does not
take away anything from Gandhari, the mother, who opened her
blindfold just once in her life to bestow a naked Duryodhana
with an iron-body that could not be destroyed by any weapon.
While on one hand she tried to save Duryodhana by giving her
sound advice to call off the war and give half of the kingdom
to the Pandavas and later by protecting him from harm through
her powers, on the other she stayed true to herself and her
righteous
nature by wishing the victory for those who fought
for truth.
Even after the war, she forgave the Pandavas for killing her
sons as she knew that they had tried their best to avoid the
war and Duryodhan had tempted fate by insulting Krishna when
he came to Hastinapur as an emissary of Pandavas.
Relationship between Kunti and Gandhari
The relationship between these two matriarchs of the Kuru clan
can at best be described as uneasy. While neither of them went
out of her way to be mean or unpleasant to each other, their
ever changing life situations did put them in awkward
positions with regards to each other. To begin with, Gandhari
was married to the older, yet blind prince who had no
prospects to ever become a king. Kunti being married to Pandu,
the king of Hastinapur naturally was in a more powerful
position and had more say in palace and family matters, though
she never put Gandhari down or took undue advantage of this
fact.
The tables turned when Pandu decided to leave for forest
accompanied by his wives, leaving the reins of Hastinapur in
the hands of Dhritrashtra for the duration. Gandhari became
the queen and enjoyed, finally, an elevated position in the
household. She also started nurturing a hope to produce an
heir before Kunti did to ensure that her family's position of
importance was maintained. When a widowed Kunti came back from
the forest with her five sons, Gandhari was happy to show off
her good fortune but bore her no ill will. On her part, Kunti
had a huge task; that of bringing up her five children alone,
in an environment made hostile by Gandhari's sons and brother
and Dhritrashtra's hidden resentment. She concentrated on the
same with advice and blessings from Bhishma and Vidur, without
getting into the politics of the palace. In a way, she was a
shrewd and far-thinking woman who knew that there is a time
and a place for everything.
After the war, Kunti was in a position of power again,
however; she had no interest left in enjoying either her
position or her power. She empathized with Gandhari who had
lost all her sons and grieved alongside her for her own son
Karna, whom she did not acknowledge for so long and did so in
the end only to lose him to the war.
When after fifteen years of the end of war, Dhritrashtra and
Gandhari decided to leave for the forest to serve penance for
not raising their children right and not doing enough to
prevent the war that caused such a huge loss of lives, Kunti
decided to accompany them. She wanted to serve them and take
care of them and repent for her inability to forgive the
Kauravas for their misdeeds which made her provoke her sons to
wage the all-destructive war against their own kin.
Comparing Kunti and Gandhari
Both Kunti and Gandhari, in their own way, were women of
substance. They were willing to undergo pain, sacrifice
comfort and happiness, and stand up for what they felt was
right. However, both of them were stubborn and impulsive and
made certain decisions when young that they must have
regretted in the later part of their lives. Kunti's biggest
blunder was her immaculate conception of Karna out of wedlock
and her subsequent decision to disown him and set him afloat.
Later, keeping it a secret for too long and sharing it with
Karna only at the last moment only worsened the situation. If
she had revealed the truth earlier, Karna could have been
convinced to exert influence on his friend Duryodhan and the
war could have been averted.
As for Gandhari, blindfolding herself was a total lack of
farsightedness, pun intended. If she had been able to see what
was happening around her and how her brother was poisoning the
minds of her sons, she could have put a stop to it and
instilled better values in them.
Kunti and Gandhari set many examples of righteousness, whether
it was following the destiny of their husbands, showing the
right path to their children (though too late in Gandhari's
case), or in their behavior at the end of the war while they
stayed together first in Hastinapur, and later in the forest.
However, they were human and had their weaknesses. They proved
the saying hell hath no fury as a woman scorned true.
Kunti led a checkered life and saw many ups and downs but the
humiliation of her daughter-in-law Draupadi at the hands of
cheating Kaurava brothers and in the presence of so-called
keepers of dharma filled her with such wrath and a burning
fire for revenge that she ensured her sons avenged her insult.
Gandhari, while acknowledging the sins and fate of her sons,
was so upset at the loss of their lives that she cursed
Krishna with all her heart and power to certain doom along
with his whole clan for using all tactics possible, and even
deceit, to win the war.
The two women were constantly aware of the right from wrong
and always endeavored to follow the path of dharma, however;
they were trapped in their life situations and had no choice
but to live their destinies. And they did so with grace,
dignity and showing unusual strength of character.
