Indulata Das belongs to those sentinels of traditions of excellence who are at the vanguard of defending the quintessential aspects of the great Indian culture against the growing influence of alien culture.
The recent interview of Jnan Peeth Award winner Odia author Pratibha Ray for her book Yajnaseni in this newspaper has provoked Dr Indulata Das to a considerable degree as she thinks that the book has unleashed an apple of discord among the protagonists of our culture. In an interview to The Pioneer’s Sugyan Choudhury and with charity to all and malice to none, she spoke about her views on Yajnaseni and Indian culture. Dr Das is the Director, Academy of Yoga and Oriental Studies, Bhubaneswar.
What according to you are the culture shocks in some of the literary writings of todayIJ
Among the huge gamut of literary works, Mahabharata is a unique work conferred with the status of Dharmashastra or a moral code of conduct because of the high moral characters portrayed in it and the moral teachings imparted through it.
Ironically enough, these charters which are the embodiments of virtues are being portrayed very abominably by many writers in the modern Sanskrit and other literatures. They are also encouraged by many private and Government institutions by bestowing awards and honours on such works and patronising them otherwise. What is more shocking is that the same act of character assassination is receiving active encouragement from very unusual quarters including connoisseurs of art and culture.
In the recent past, Yajnaseni was translated into Sanskrit from Odia and published by none other than the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan. This is a novel based on the Mahabharata. But the story is so distorted and twisted with untruths and unethical non-facts that the heroes of the story have been degraded to the level of villains and the heroine is degraded to an unstable minded morally bankrupt character.
The love and respect of the Pandavas towards their faithful wife Draupadi has been substituted by wild imaginations and blasphemous exploitation of Draupadi’s character by her husband of which there is no trace in the Mahabharata. The book tries its best to misrepresent facts and mislead the readers and poison their minds. The book has tried its best to blacken every noble character of the Mahabharata. Among all the distorted characters, that of Draupadi is greatly maligned.
It is no exaggeration that the character of Draupadi in the original Mahabharata is an embodiment of goodness, morality and unusual strength of mind. Draupadi has no pre-martial liking for any man and she obeyed the decision of her Swayamvara in spirit. Her decision to deprive Karna of his candidature in the Swayamvara came under a princess’s discretionary right of discarding someone accepting as her husband. Moral corruption in the character of Draupaid either in her pre-marital or post-marital life is beyond the ambit of all imagination. Draupadi’s pre-marital life is as clean and pure as a crystal. But Yajnaseni begins with a portrayal of Draupadi’s pre-marital love towards Sri Krishna. When Krishna denies marrying her and suggests the name of Arjuna and then Draupadi of Pratibha Ray switches over to Arjuna. The Mahabharata, which s a code of moral conduct, can never portray its heroine having love for one and marrying the other. But Draupadi in Yajnaseni has no moral compunction and commitment and does not mind shifting her heart from one person to another in no time and is ready to marry a third person when the then second one (Arjuna) is reportedly dead. The cultured Draupadi of Vyasa’s original Mahabharata well-imbued with decency, morality and Dharma or the law of Piety has no disregard or aversion either to the five brothers (the Pandavas) or the mother at the decision of marrying all the five.
But the modern feminist Draupadi in Yajnaseni is aflame with anger and is upset beyond limit at the proposal of marrying all the bothers. She smells a rat in Yudhisthira’s standing outside and shouting to the mother that they have brought unique alms with them. (Although poor Yudhisthira has no role to play in the announcement of Draupadi’s arrival in the original story because he is inside the hut by that time and it is Arjuna and Bhima who come with Draupadi and announce that they have come with a unique alms). She has no doubt what the five brothers are doing to enjoy her body. Her mind is filled with despise for the lustful brothers. She crosses every limit of an Indian woman and wishes to turn into a conflagration and burn the “idiot bothers” (here would be husbands) to ashes.
According to your considered opinion, which seminal quality of Indian womanhood is vitiated in Yajnaseni that hurts Indian sentimentIJ
Draupadi in Vyasa’s Mahabharata is a righteous woman, an epitome of moral virtues. Discovering dross in the lily white character of Draupadi is as impossible as finding a black feather in a swan. As an ideal Indian woman, she is committed to her husbands in her mind, body and speech. Draupadi is like a jewel that adorns the crown of Indian womanhood. In a faithful wife’s heart, her husband occupies a place higher than that of God. Irrespective of his status and nature, the departing words of Kanva to Sakuntala in Kalidas’ writing also preserve a vivid picture of duty of an Indian woman to her husband. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana also hold the same view. The Mahabharata portrays Draupadi as the ideal character with lofty values. Although the princess of a kingdom like Panchala she undergoes the sufferings of living in dense forest with her exiled husbands, extending company to them and unstinted cooperation. But look at the distorted character of Draupadi of Pratibha Ray. Although in the whole Mahabharata there is not a single occasion when Draupaid has a dialogue with Karna, in her self-written Mahabharata, Pratibha Ray has created situations every now and then for an audience or a dialogue between Karna and Draupadi. Out of her wanton imaginations, the writer even creates situation for Karna’s physical touch with Draupadi.
The total book may be said to be a story of illicit infatuation of Draupadi for Karna. It is no exaggeration to say the hero of Yajnaseni is Karna and the heroine is Draupadi.
Although in the Mahabharata Draupaid herself refuses even the candidature of Karna in the Swayamvara, Yajnaseni has deliberately deviated from the original story (according to the story of Pratibha Ray Draupadi’s brother Dhristadyumna debars accommodating the immoral longings of ‘her Draupadi’ towards Karna. Throughout the whole story, the Draupadi of Pratibha Ray laments every now and then about the wrong declaration of her brother. At one point of time she says with great lamentation that Karna would have been her most suitable husband had her brother not resisted Karna’s hitting the bull’s eye. She admits openly that her mind is attracted towards Karna and justifies her immoral wish by saying “who in this world can keep his mind under control”.
The Draupadi of Pratibha Ray is overwhelmed with delight when Karna holds a blue rose in his hand to present it to her. “Till now my husbands do not k now that I am fond of blue rose’ she resents. People with a little sense of morality and understanding of Indian culture can realise that this is the immoral thought of a sinful mind. Can it be the thinking of Draupadi, the embodiment of morality and righteousness, the crowning glory of quintessential Indian womanhoodIJ
When Arjuna is out in a time-bound exile for twelve years and marries again, the Draupadi of Pratibha Ray is so upset that she goes out for a water sport (swimming) in the Yamuna. In course of swimming she is taken away by the current of the river and rescued by Karna. When lifted by Karna she enjoys the embrace of Karna to her heart’s content. This is another fantasy of Pratibha Ray to destroy Draupadi’s character.
When she is in Indraprastha, Karna comes as a guest and Pratibha Ray’s Draupadi, at the behest of Kunti, cooks food for Karna and takes it to the guesthouse for him.
What an abominable imagination of the writer! Princess of Panchala and the queen of Indraprastha is carrying food for an alien (Parapurusa) to his room and standing outside! What is the motive of such an undignified imagination which has no trace in the MahabharataIJ Draupadi’s infatuation towards Karna is further understood when Karna abuses and Draupadi shamelessly tolerates all the insults when Krana denies food from Draupadi since she is like a harlot. And surprisingly this insolence does not arouse Draupadi’s anger for Karna but her heart is filled with hatred for her own husbands.
Thus, Yajnaseni is nothing but character assassination of Draupadi onlyIJ
It is not the character of Draupadi alone which has received the clobber of irresponsible imagination of the writer, but almost all the ideal characters of the Mahabharata have been distorted, trivialised, demeaned and demolished in the book. The book depicts Dharmaraja Yudhisthira as a conspirator; sage Parasara as a rapist; Bhima as cruelty personified, selfish, self-centered glutton; Arjuna as jealous and heartless; Kunti as characterless and liar.
lord Krishan plays the pivotal role in the whole Mahabharata to establish preserve, protect and defend Dhamma, His relation with Draupadi is sacred and immaculate. But in Pratibha Ray’s Mahabharata the Draupadi-Krishna relation also suffers atrophy. As mentioned above, the pre-marital moral sanctity of Draupadi is polluted by the writer with the blasphemous introduction of her madding love for Krisna. Although it is not fulfilled and Draupadi is married to another man, her love (a human love for the mortal Krishna) does not cease and she is equally attracted to Krishna even after marriage. There are many expressions of Draupadi which exceed the limits of morality of a married woman. On one occasion when she is waiting for Arjuna at night, she is asking to herself whether she is waiting for Arjuna or Krishna. On another occasion, she stands by the side of Krishna’a bed when the latter is in Indraprastha. There are many inducement jokes made by Krishna (as written by Pratibha Ray) which violate the norms of morality as prescribed by Rishis of our immortal culture.
The writer in her introduction of the book claims that the love of Draupadi for Krishna depicted in the novel is a spiritual love. But does the writer know that Draupadi does not come under the group of devotees who consider the lord as their husband or lover or an extramarital loverIJ But Draupadi comes under that category of women for whom husband occupies the place of God and not vice-versa. Draupadi’s character is an established one and hence a writer has no freedom to redesign it or play with the same. A writer’s imagination may contribute to enhance the beauty of the already beautiful character of Draupadi. In the name of imagination no writer can disfigure and blacken the characters which are the sources of moral inspiration for the righteous and dutiful mass of this land.
Do you want to put the writer of Yajnaseni in the dock alone003F
The Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan has probably committed a mistake in choosing the book for translation. It owes many answers to the culture-loving people of this country as to why it chose such a book for translation. Is there a death of good books in this country of Vyasa, Valmiki and KalidasaIJ Is the Sansthan selecting only such books in which there is character assassination of the lofty personalities of our cultureIJ Has the Sansthan adopted it as a policyIJ Has it selected only blasphemous books from other languages alsoIJ Is it meant to please those people who are delighted whenever the grand culture of this country is belittled or made dwarfedIJ It is left only to the thinking community of our civilisation and culture to answer!
