Women in Mahabharatha

Guest Contribution by

Raman Kolluri

Women in played a pivotal role in the Epic Mahabharatha. In each and every event in Mahabharata, from the beginning of the Kuru Clan to the final battle of Mahabharata, women not only influenced the direction of the events but in some cases, became the cause of the eventual result. Women of Mahabharata had wisdom, courage, and sagacity. They took keen and lively interest in the events occurring around them and played their part in the management of events surrounding them. They had a strong sense of duty in shaping the events of their time.

I will describe nine of the women who shaped the Mahabharata story and the extraordinarily powerful roles they have played. Over thousands of years, facts and fictions have been muddled to such an extent, that it is difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction about some of the characters.

However, the lessons we can learn from them are real.

1. Satyavati

Satyavati was responsible for the progress of the entire Kuru dynasty. She practically directed the happenings from the very beginning. She was the daughter of Dasa Raja the chieftain of fishermen. She was ferrying people across the river. Sage Parasara, while crossing the river fell in love with her. She bore him a son, Vyasa, who became a sage himself. He promised his mother that he would help her if needed.  Later, Emperor Santanu fell in love with her. She, through her father imposed the condition that only her children should succeed to the Kuru throne.

This is the first important event in the history of Kuru dynasty. Santanu’s older son, the crown prince Bhishma, took an oath that he would remain a bachelor so that Satyavati's child can ascend the throne. Satyavati had two sons both died young. The first was unmarried and the second had two wives Ambika and Ambalika. Neither of them could produce a son to ascend the throne. This crisis had again to be solved by Satyavati. She requested her son Vyasa to father a child with each of the widows. Vyasa agreed and Pandu was born to Ambika and Dhritarashtra was born to Ambalika. The sons of these two were Pandavas and Kauravas who fought the Mahabharata war. Satyavati foresaw the animosity between the sons of Pandu and the sons of Dhritarashtra. 

One can easily see the major role played by Satyavati in the progress of the Kuru dynasty.  What is more surprising was that she was not even a Royal decedent and yet controlled the destiny of the entire Kuru Dynasty. 

 
2. Gandhari

She is another important female character in the Kuru Dynasty. Gandhari was the daughter of the mighty King Subala, ruler of an area west of the river Sindhu. Bhishma sent a proposal seeking her marriage to Dhritarashtra. Gandhari and her father knew that Dhritarashtra was blind. But they knew the importance of being the queen of the Kuru Kingdom and agreed for the marriage. This indicate her shrewd judgement in grabbing the opportunity to play a major role in the rule by Dhritarashtra and later her sons. Further, she exhibited her mental strength and a spirit of personal sacrifice, by voluntarily foregoing her eye sight and tied a scarf over both her eyes as long as she was the queen!

By blessings of Lord Shiva, she had one hundred children and Duryodhana, her eldest son was the crown prince. Gandhari noticed the animosity between her children and Pandavas even while they were young and brought it to the attention of Dhritarashtra on many occasions. But when the war became inevitable and Duryodhana came for her blessings, she said ' Let victory be on the side of Dharma'. This is an extraordinary thing for a mother to emphasize on dharma over her own children's victory.

However, she was unhappy that Krishna did not stop the war, which caused the death of all her children. She put a curse on him that the entire Yadava dynasty will perish in a great deluge. Here is a woman who could put a curse on Krishna himself!

3. Kunti

Kunti was the daughter of King Surasena, father of Vasudeva, Krishna’s father. Thus she is the aunt of Krishna. She was married to Dritrashtra's brother Pandu. King Pandu was afflicted with an incurable decease and hence she had given birth to the three eldest Pandavas from Devas. The last two, Nakula and Sahadeva were her sister's sons. Kunti is well known for her impartiality and extraordinary kindness. She treated her step sons and her own sons with equal affection. In fact, when Arjuna won the hand of Draupadi in Swayamvara, not knowing that it is a girl he had won, she said that, all of them should share the prize equally. That is how Draupadi became the wife all the five Pandavas. During the period of exile, Pandavas were given shelter by a poor Brahmin's family. An evil demon was demanding human flesh for his consumption. Kunti came to know of this when she overheard a conversation between her host and his wife. She showed her gratitude to them and the town people, by making her son to fight and kill Bakasura. 

Her relationship with her eldest son Karna was extremely painful to her as he was born out of wedlock and she could not reveal the same to him until the Mahabharata Battle began. She then revealed to him that he was her son and hence he has to join the Pandavas in the fight. Karna being the man of the greatest principles refused and fought on the side of Duryodhana who made him the king.

4. Draupadi

Perhaps the most dominant female character of Mahabharata is Draupadi. She is considered as the mysterious, fiery and yet compassionate queen of the five Pandava brothers. She is also considered as the sole reason behind the great Mahabharata war. She was the daughter of King Drupada, ruler of Panchala kingdom. She was born along with her brother, Drustahdumya, from the sacrifice their father performed for a child who can kill Acharya Drona who had insulted him. She became the wife of all the Pandavas at on the order of Kunti.

There is an interesting story about her that, she in fact wanted twelve husbands each with a great but with different quality! After praying to Lord Shiva, he granted her a boon that she will marry five persons with all the qualities she desired! 

Draupadi was a fearless woman. When she was lost by Dharmaraja in the game of dice, she asked all the great leaders in the Durbar, whether her husband lost her after he lost himself or before he lost himself. This is a big legal question which could not be answered by anyone including the elders in the Durbar.

Similarly, she demanded justice from king Virata, when she was insulted by his brother-in-law Keechaka. She even condemned her own husbands and elders like Bhishma, Drona and Kripacharya for not saving her from the humiliation in the Kaurava Durbar. She is such a strong willed person that she took an oath after humiliation by Sindhava that she will not comb her hair until he is killed and she could put his blood on her hair. There is popular belief in South India that Draupadi was an incarnation of Goddess Kali, who was born to assist Lord Krishna to destroy all the arrogant Kings.

Draupadi had an amazing sense of compassion also. Aswatthama, the son of Drona, had killed all her five sons who were sleeping, mistaking them to be Pandavas. He was captured and brought before her. Even though Krishna told her that it is not a sin to kill such a murderer, she decided to pardon him. 

5. Amba

Although Amba only has a small part in Mahabharata story, she was directly responsible for the death of Bhishma, the greatest warier in the battle. Amba was the eldest daughter of the king of Kashi. She had two younger sisters Ambika and Ambalika. Amba was in secretly in love with king Salva who promised to marry her. But Bhishma wanted all the three sisters to be married to his step bother Vichitraveerya. Being a great warier, nobody could stop him.

Having come to know about Amba's love for Salva, Vichitraveerya refused to marry her. Salva also refused to marry her as she was abducted by Bhishma. Amba went to Bhishma and requested him to marry her as he was responsible for all her miseries. When Bhishma refused, she took an oath that she will be responsible for his death. She sacrificed herself in fire and was reborn as 'Sikhandi' who is a transgender. In the Kurukshetra battle, no one could defeat Bhishma.

Finally, on his own advice, Arjuna kept Sikhandi in the Chariot and fought with Bhishma. Since Bhishma would not fight with either a female or one who has been a female, he drops his weapons and Sikhandi killed Bhishma, thus taking his/her revenge.

6. Urvashi

As mentioned earlier, in this story of Urvashi, a celestial Apsara, reality and fiction gets intermingled. But what it resulted in, is real within the context of the story.

Arjuna who had powers to go to heavenly places, went to Indra's abode and there he met Urvashi. She fell in love with him and requested him to marry her. Arjuna refused to marry her. In anger, she cursed him to turn into an eunuch. Indra, who is Arjuna's father, consoled him and assured him that he would be an eunuch for just one year, that too at a time of his own choosing.

This became a blessing to him, when he and his brothers had to spend one year in hiding. He then transformed himself into an eunuch and served king Virata's court as Brihannala, the dance master. Thus Urvashi became a savior to Pandavas at the time of their need.

7. Ganga

Ganga is considered by Hindus as the holiest river in India. She is also personified as a chaste women in many Indian mythologies.

In one of such episodes in Mahabharata, she became the mother of Bhishma, the elderly statesman and the greatest warier of Mahabharata. There were eight sages called Vasus who were cursed. They turned to Ganga to deliver them from a curse they had incurred. She agreed to help them. When King Santanu fell in love with her, she agreed to marry him with one condition that he should not question any of her actions.

He agrees and marries her. At the birth of each son, she took them and threw them in the river. In fact, there were the sages who were born as her children. Shantanu could not tolerate this and stopped her after the birth of eighth son. She said to him that since he objected to her actions, she is leaving. However, she gave a boon to Shantanu that her eighth son will become the greatest warrior in Kuru Dynasty. He was Bhishma who is one of the major character in Mahabharata.

8. Chitrangada

Chitrangada is an unsung hero in Mahabharata. She was not only a great warrior herself, but also taught her son to be as great as her. In ancient times, only male heirs could rule the kingdom.

But Manipur king had only a daughter. In defiance to tradition, he raised his daughter like a son, the future heiress of the kingdom. Chitrangada was trained in all types of martial arts. At a very young age, she became one of the greatest kings of the land. When she met Arjuna, she fell in love with him and wanted him to marry her. But she was worried that she lacked the beauty and tenderness to impress Arjuna.

However, due to a divine intervention, she became a beautiful woman and Arjuna married her. She had a son Babhruvahana with him. She trained her son to be a great warrior. As she herself was a great warrior, she taught him all aspects of war. Babhruvahana fought alongside Pandavas, in the war.

9.  Hidimbi

Hidimbi was Bhīma's wife before he and the other Pandavas married Draupadi. Hidimbi lived in a forest. When Pandavas were passing through the forest, Hidimb, the brother of Hidimba had planned on killing them. However, Bhīma being a powerful warrior defeated and killed him. Hidimba fell in love with Bhīma and expressed the desire to marry him. Kunti being a shrewd woman, saw the possibility of Hidimbi's progeny as strong future allies, allowed Bhīma to marry her. Hidimbi bore Bhīma a powerful son named Ghatotgaja who proved to be a great warrior in the war of Kurukshetra and destroyed a large portion of the enemies. Bhīma forgot all about her until Krishna reminded him about her. Thus, Hidimbi, though being the first daughter-in-law of the entire Kuru family, remained unrecognized because of the sheer disadvantage of being a woman of lesser pedigree.

 
She was left to fend for herself by a husband who never remembered or returned to her. It must have been agonizing to know that her husband never even remembered her. Later, she lost her only son also in the war.  While Mahabharata is supposed to be based on the principles of Dharma and justice, Hidimbi was deprived of both.

 

Summary

These stories of great women of Mahabharata showed how women shaped the destinies of the entire kingdom. Their roles were crucial for both how the epic unfolded as well as critical decisions that influenced the shape of the events and lessons learned from the epic.