Book review: Song of Draupadi

The Mahabharata teems with female characters, but in most versions, the women are portrayed either passive victims or as the cause of strife. In all of them, the practice of niyoga is sanitised, with conception happening either through a meeting or eyes, or a single sexual encounter. Song of Draupadi is different. Women are depicted as human beings with a very human desire for revenge, vengeance, curiosity, anger or self survival.

The limited agency that women enjoy comes through in each of the stories, as also the determination of the women to make the most of what they can control. Gandhari tying a blindfold, for instance, is normally shown as an act of supreme sacrifice. Mokhoty (like Karve), depicts it as vengeance against the system that tricked her into marrying a blind prince with only a tenuous claim to the throne.

The Draupadi Vastraharan scene is particularly well depicted. There are no divine miracles, no long winding speeches. It is a woman fighting against being humiliated in public, without losing her dignity even when the length of cloth she is draped in starts slipping off.

The friendship between Draupadi and Krishna is legendary. Here too, they call each other Sakha and Sakhi, but Draupadi is able to see the mechanisations by which he connives to ensure that a Yadava king is eventually put on the throne.

There are many retellings of the Mahabharata, including a few others which are written from a feminist perspective. What makes Mukhoty’s book different is the mode of storytelling. She paints people and places with quick brushstrokes- giving details, yet leaving scope for you to put in your own. Though a faithful retelling, Song of Draupadi is written with such lyricism, it could pass off as a novel.