The Gender Roles In Mahabharata

By Srishti Singh

INTRODUCTION
The Mahabharata is an important source of information on the
development of Hinduism between 400 BCE and 200 CE and
is regarded by Hindus as both a text about Dharma and a
history (itihasa, literally “that’s what happened”).
Although it is unlikely that any single person wrote the poem,
its authorship is traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa, who
appears in the work as the grandfather of the Kauravas and the
Pandavas.
The Mahabharata is a central and sacred Hindu text that
claims to be the library from which all stories current in the
world have emerged, It is generally presented as a complex
variety of material focused around tales of male warfare.
The five Pandava brothers, aided by Lord Krishna, a fight
with their evil Kaurava cousins in the horrific Kurukshetra
war. This patriarchal religious myth of God intervening in the
world and using the masculine power of war to redeem the
earth from evil is just one of the many layers of this enormous
text. Although this patriarchal view presents itself as the most
authoritative it does not reflect the immense and fascinating
material about women within the Mahabharata.
The idea of an ideal women

Wives of the Brahmanical period were supposed to follow

pativrata, which means taking a vow to her husband. This
vow signified that the wife would live and die for her
husband, and whose husband was her entire world.

A fine example of Pativrata is Gandhari, who follows her

husband, Dhritarashtra into the life of blindness and
undergoes the sacrifice of sight by tying a silk cloth over her
eyes. These roles of the common women are restrictive in the
sense that women were represented by their men, in terms of
social and all other aspects.

Before the marriage of Krishna’s sister Satyabhama, Krishna

gives her some last words of advice before her marriage. He
told Satymabhama to forget all about her family, including her
mother and father, for her husband alone will now be her
family. He said to her that a husband alone is a woman’s
wealth and that a woman’s religious duty and chief austerity
was devoted to her husband.
It was important to forget one’s family and never return to a
girl’s father’s house.

Both Draupadi and Kunti both have characteristics of the ideal

females. Draupadi especially is extremely faithful to all of her
five husbands. Scholars describe Draupadi as the perfect wife
who is demure, chaste and faithful to the Pandavas .

This is seen during the conversation between Draupadi and

Krishna’s sister Satyabhama.
Satyabhama asks Draupadi how she managed to gain a strong
control over her husbands and how the Pandavas were never
angered by her actions.

Draupadi responds by saying that it is a result of religious

observations and vows (vrata), the practice of austerities
(tapas), bathing is sacred waters (snanam), reciting mantras
and spells, using the power of knowledge(vidyaviryam), japa
recitations, offerings to the fire (homa), reciting the tantric
described texts (amagah).

Drinking the water used to wash a husband’s feet as an

alternative to bathing the the sacred place, she says. Draupadi
tells Satyabhama that the control she has over her husbands is
a result of her attentiveness, her aeternal readiness to serve
and her devoted services to her elders.

The Mother
Mother is a multidimensional concept in Hindu consciousness
and one that is dealt with extensively In the Mahabharata. A
woman's view presents the mother as the heart of religion
because life, birth, consciousness and the possibility of
liberation flow through women.

Birth is essential for salvation and women are constantly

offering liberation by welcoming and harbouring each new
life form and giving it the optimum opportunity for
development.

Children bring happiness to women and they often escape

from male social and sexual expectations into the world of
domesticity and children. The process of birth brings women a
sense of status and power.

Daughters are welcomed into the women's realm and there are
stories of women who long for daughters. Gandnari had one
hundred sons but longed for a daughter and when Duhsala
was born she became Gandhari's favourite child. 18 .
Daughters-in-law are also loved and Kunti admits to loving
Draupadi more than she loves her sons.

Divine mothers like Ganga show their tender concern for their
children by assisting them to enlightenment. Ganga drowned
seven of her eight children as they had requested her to do so
in a previous life. They were Vasus who did not wish to
undergo the sufferings of a human incarnation. Ganga
understood the revolutions of fate that transcend individual
existence and complied with their wishes.

The mother has a central place in the Mahabharata , and is

shown to be one with power, when Arjun had came back after
Draupadi ‘s swayamvar he took her to maa Kunti who was at
that time doing some work. He went to her and said “Maate, I
have brought something”. On hearing him Maa kunti without
listening to him completely, unknowingly said to divide it
between all the five brothers, and when she turned to see, she
saw Draupadi and even though she takes her words Arjun
believes that it was his duty to obey his mother and so he will
do the same.

The Third Gender

Through the Mahabharata, gender roles are highly

contradictory as they are rigid but we see exception is some of
the primary characters of the epic. Gender bending characters
challenge the normative behaviour of each gender.

The gender of a character is determined at the time of birth

and had customary expectations with relation to the each
gender.

Having said this, the Mahabharata showcases many instances

of transsexualism, more commonly a man turns into a woman.
These sex changing episodes show the fluidity of gender and
its transgression from the traditional roles but playful enough
to hold on to the esxisting order simultaneously.

The two prominent sex changes in this epic is that of Arjuna

and the other being Sikhandi. The epic seems to allow for
multiple identities and different sides of personality that
results in gender bending. Through the symbolism that we see
in the epic, emergence of cultural themes, ritual practices,
social norms and myths are observed.

The third sex can be divided into two categories.

The first one is the residual, more permanent characters. From

the perspective of society, these characters are considered
both biologically and culturally different. An important
example from the epic is Sikhandi who is reborn a male in
order to take revenge.
From this we infer that in the ancient time, a woman had to
give up womanhood in order to kill or harm her enemy.
Sikhandi’s gender change was a result of a boon achieved
through deep meditation that allowed her to be reborn as a
male.

The second type of classification is that of temporary gender

change. These characters are usually associated with eunuchs.

An example of this type occurs during the Pandavas’ final

year of exile, they disguise themselves and work in the
kingdom of Virat.

In order to do this, Arjun disguises himself as a eunuch dance

instructor. He was able to do this due to a curse from the
apsara Urvashi stated that Arjun would lose his male organs
for a year that was convenient for him.

Thus we see symbolically, the virile masculinity of Arjun is

replaced with sexual abstinence. However, scholars justify
this gender change as an invocation of Lord Shiva.

In this period of the Mahabharata , we see a reversal of gender

roles between Draupadi and Arjuna which prove to be of
ambiguous nature.
Draupadi is portrayed as impatient, dynamic, aggressive and
even manipulative with Kichaka in the kingdom of Virat.
Meanwhile, Arjun is passive, enduring with a gentle nature of
his effeminate character.

This not only questions sexual characteristics, but the

psychology and behaviour as well while Arjun wears a skirt
and Draupadi wears the proverbial pants.

Conclusion

To conclude, Mahabharata is a narrative of an epic within a

religious context of the society of ancient India. The text
clearly highlights the support and a larger sexual identity. The
epic is a literary work with hundreds of tales depicting both
rigid as well as contradicting gender roles in a way that
moralizes sexuality. The narration is used as a tool to
perpetuate religious and cultural biases about gender through
the Mahabharata. For the most part, it is safe to say that the
approach towards gender in the Mahabharata is misogynist as
put forward by scholars. There are of course exceptions to the
rule who defy gender roles in both the masculine and feminine
context. Through the epic, we can make inferences regarding
each gender’s role, virtues, abilities and sexuality.