Patriarchy and Virginity Myth in the Mahābhārata

Introduction

‘Whether we realise it or not, it remains a fact that we in India still stand under the spell of the Mahābhārata’. ¹

The Mahābhārata plays an important role in shaping the consciousness and world view of the Indian people. During the course of its development, it had given space to different; at a time contradictory perspectives on life, resulting in a ‘…a confused assemblage of heterogeneous matter originating from different hands and belonging to different strata’. ² The opinion differs about the period of the development of the epic, but 400 bc to 400 ad seems to be the most-acceptable. ³ It encapsulates the changes that came in the society over a period about moral standards. The didactic portion, which is many times dichotomous with the narrative one, appears to be a superimposition to set exemplary moral standards. Many characters in the epic eulogies Dharma, ⁴ but their behaviour does not subscribe to the moral standard they preach. Sukthankar observed that the epical characters are not real heroes, with pure white shining souls, but they are whitewashed by interested poets. ⁵

The dichotomy in the text concerning man–woman relationships indicates that during its development, the text had undergone significant alterations/interpolations under the patriarchal influence. Its obsession with virginity flows from the patriarchal anxiety to establish control over women. Principal women characters like Kuntī and Draupadī having more than one man in their lives pose challenges to the image of monogamous women idealised by the patriarchy, and by restoring their virginity, the epic restores the honour of the men related to them, that is, protector and owner of their body. It ensures that every man in their lives is the owner of the ‘unsoiled chastity’ of the women; at least in the text and imagination.

Satyavatī

The story of Satyavatī’s pre-marital sexual encounter with sage Parāśara, the birth of Vyāsa and the restoration of her virginity is narrated by Vaiśaṃpāna, one of the narrators of the epic in the presence of Vyāsa. ⁶ She was an adopted daughter of the king of fishermen and ferried people on the river Yamunā. Once she was ferrying sage Parāśara, and being alone with the youthful Satyavatī, the sage was smitten by cupid and approached her for lovemaking. The text mentions him as a ‘bull’ ⁷ that was ‘bent on his task’. But Satyavatī objects that people are standing on the river banks. The sage uses his mystic power to create a fog that covers the region with darkness. Now Satyavatī seems to be ready to negotiate her virginity as the text describes her as smilingly putting forward the next excuse that if she loses her virginity, she will not be able to go home. But her excuse appears to be faint as she puts the ball in the seer’s court, ‘Think upon it, my lord, and then do what needs to be done’. ⁸

Satyavatī’s statement reduces her to a passive agent of the patriarchy, as she says that it will be difficult for her to go home and meet her father if she loses her virginity. The subtle message is that it is her father who is supposed to be a protector of her virginity till the time he gives her in marriage to someone. The seer resolves this hurdle by promising to make her virgin again after she had given him pleasure. Addressing her as ‘bashful, blushing and sweet smiling girl’, ⁹ he also asks her to take a boon from him. She chooses a boon that her body should always smell delicious. Now she becomes the willing partner in the act, ‘And much pleased, her wish granted, the girl bejeweled with all a woman’s charms lay with the wonder-working seer’. ¹⁰

The same story is also narrated by Satyavatī later to Bhīṣhma, but with some alterations. ¹¹ She says that when she was ferrying the sage, he became possessed by love, came to her and spoke to her many sweet things with gentleness. She was fearful of his curse and also of her father. But the seer was luring her with the boons. She admits her partial consent to the act as she says, ‘…showered with boons that are not easily come by, I could not reject him’. ¹²

In line with the patriarchal image of a docile girl, she further adds, ‘He overpowered and mastered me with his virility, right there in the boat’. ¹³ Overpowering a girl and having a physical relationship with her will amount to rape by today’s standard! The general tone of the description seems to be celebrating the virility of the sage, and Satyavatī projects herself as passive, helpless, who had no option but to give in. The seer appears to be like an infatuated, clever sexual predator, who coaxes and lures the young, shy maiden.

In the first narration, which is narrated by Vaiśaṃpāna, Satyavatī comes out as a willing partner in the act after she gets two promises. In the second narration, which is narrated by Satyavatī herself, she seems to be trying to shift the blame of transgression on the sage and projects herself as a victim of the circumstances. Though Parāśara was an ascetic and, ideally speaking, should have mastered his instincts, his virility is praised. The epic very often subtly portrays the dichotomy between ideal and real.

When these events about the pre-marital sexual encounter about Satyavatī were narrated by Vaiśaṃpāna; Sage Vyāsa, the legendary composer of the epic, was present. Sage Parāśara and Satyavatī are never condemned; neither Vyāsa is stigmatised for his birth. It is from him that the linage of Kaurava continues, and he is mentioned as the greatest sage in the Bhagavadgītā. ¹⁴ This indicates that when the epic was in its initial stages of development, the attitude towards sexuality was not as rigid as it became later. As the social norms changed, the text was altered and a myth about the restoration of Satyavatī’s virginity was created. This had redeemed the sexual transgression of sage Parāśara, who took advantage of his superior position to seduce the maiden. King Śaṃtanu, who later marries Satyavatī, also gets an ‘unsoiled’ girl as she became supposedly ‘pure’ again. It had also erased the blemish on her father, who is supposed to be responsible for protecting the ‘honour’ of his daughter. The important excuse put forward by Satyavatī to avoid the union with the sage is concerning her father, ‘Sir, you know that I am a virgin and in my father’s keeping. If I consort with you, blameless lord, I shall lose my virginity. And when my virginity is lost, how shall I be able to go home, good Brahmin?’ ¹⁵ She does not say that there is anything immoral in the act itself, but it is for the honour of her father that she should not lose her virginity! Thus strengthening patriarchal perceptions that women by themselves are not capable of maintaining moral standards independently, and it is always concerning men in their life that they shall remain moral.

Kuntī

The episode of Kuntī’s pre-marital relation and her subsequent restoration of virginity also come at two places. A shortened version appears in Book 1, The Book of the Beginning ¹⁶ and the longer version in The Book of the Forest, the third book of the epic. ¹⁷ She was the daughter of Śūra, the chief of Yadu and in the house of her foster father, king Kuntībhoja, she was given the responsibility of honouring guests. Once she was given the responsibility of looking after the Brahmin sage. When the story is narrated in the Book of the Forest, the Brahmin is described as, ‘…a brahmin of fierce luster, most luminous, wearing a beard, staff, and hair tuft, handsome and flawlessly built, as though ablaze with splendour. His skin was honey-coloured, his words honeyed’. ¹⁸

The Brahmin demands that no one shall slight him in bed and seat. ¹⁹ The king instructs Kuntī that whatever the Brahmin asks, she should give him ungrudgingly and also tells the Brahmin that his daughter knew how to gratify a Brahmin. ²⁰ Kuntī devoted herself completely to the appeasement of the Brahmin and tried to satisfy him like a God. ²¹ Her hospitality to him with food and the like, as well as attendance on ‘bed’ and seat, increased by the day and by her efforts, ‘the blameless girl kindled the affection of the eminent Brahmin’. ²² The text also tries to desexualise the situation by mentioning that Kuntī served him like a pupil, or a son or a sister. ²³ Was it a later attempt to whitewashing the exploitation? What does the attendance on ‘bed’ hints at?

The Brahmin stayed with Kuntībhoja for a year, and pleased with her service, gave her a boon. ‘Whichever God you call with this spell shall have to fall under your power, … and controlled by your spell, to bow to your word like a servant’. ²⁴ The boon does not specifically mention that the God that will be called by Kuntī will give her a son. Kuntī was curious about the boon and after seeing the sun in the sky, calls him. The sun comes, and his complexion is described as ‘honey-yellow’. ²⁵ Earlier, the complexion of the Brahmin was also described as ‘honey-coloured’. The sun, who came on the earth, spoke coaxingly and sweetly to Kuntī. The Brahmin is also mentioned as someone whose ‘words were honeyed’. Frightened, Kuntī asks the Sun God to go back. But God says that Kuntī intended to have a son from the Sun God. He also threatens her that if he is not allowed to lay with her, he will burn her father and also the Brahmin, who gave her boon. Kuntī pleads that she is only a child, and it is her parents who have the right to give her away. ²⁶ Her situation is now similar to Satyavatī. As Satyavatī was afraid of the sage Parāśara and also of her father, Kuntī is now afraid of the curse of God and also afraid of her relatives. But she is also described as ‘smiling’. ²⁷ Probably, this is a residual of the original story, which gives a subtle hint about her anticipation of pleasure. Now she tells the Sun God if she lay with him, the good name of her family will perish. But she is willing to give herself away if she remains ‘virtuous’. The Sun God, however, justifies the pre-marital union, ‘…a free girl is on earth called kanyā … because she desires them all’. ²⁸

Just before calling the Sun God, Kuntī also notices that her period had come, and she was ashamed that she is still a spinster. ²⁹ The epic at another place suggests that if a girl had achieved puberty, she can wait for three years and in the fourth year she can look for a husband herself. The offspring of such a girl is not tinted, nor is the intercourse with her condemned. ³⁰ Probably, there was a period/region where the premarital sexual relations and childbirth for unmarried post-puberty girls was not completely forbidden. The promiscuous behaviour was not unusual as the Sun God tried to convince Kuntī, ‘All women are untrammeled, as are men, fair girl, this is the nature of people; anything different is known as perverse’. ³¹ He also promises that having lain with him; she shall be a virgin again. ³²

Now Kuntī seems to be ready to lay with him and demands that the son she receives from him should be ‘… ringed and armored, a hero of strong arms and great strength!’ ³³ The Sun God promises this and also says that his earrings and armour will be made of elixir. This seems to have fascinated young Kuntī and, in contrast to her earlier argument, she exclaims, ‘If my son’s earrings and superb armor will be made from the Elixir, then father him on me! I shall lie with thee, God’. ³⁴ The text describes that after this the Sun entered Kuntī in his yogic person without ‘spoiling’ her, ‘But the day star did not despoil her at all, and the young woman again returned to her senses’. ³⁵

The text earlier mentions that Kuntī satisfied the eccentric sage with all her efforts! Did it include a sexual favour as well? We have an earlier example of sage Parāśara soliciting sexual favour from an unmarried girl, Satyavatī. The Brahmin ascetics demanding sexual favour seems to be not uncommon. Karve wrote that as Kuntī was put in the ‘service’ of the sage, and here the service means also sharing his bed. Referring to Satyavatī’s producing a son from an ascetic, she said that as Kuntī was serving the Brahmin, her having a son from him was not an extraordinary occurrence. ³⁶ Dange also postulated that it was the Brahmin sage, whom people knew as ‘Durvāsa’ was the biological father of the pre-marital child of Kuntī. ³⁷ The prevalence of pre-marital sexual relations and its social acceptance without stigma is not uncommon among some tribes in the modern period; even pre-marital pregnancy is not considered to be very horrific. ³⁸

As Kuntī was to become a queen and queen mother of the Pāṇḍavā heroes, it became necessary that her honour (virginity) is restored and her pre-marital sexual partner is divinised. This had restored the honour of men in her life; her father, husband and her sons. Divinisation is often used in the epic to bring sanctity to the sexual relations that stand contrary to the ideal of a monogamous woman. Kuntī’s later sexual partners in three Nīyoga ³⁹ were also divinised as Dharma, Vāyu and Indra. ⁴⁰

According to the boon given to Kuntī, the God that she calls should be under her control, but the Sun God threatening her to destroy her family contradicts this. There are many hurried, dichotomous alterations/interpolations in the epic.

Draupadī

Draupadī’s unusual polyandry stands in contrast to the monogamous woman idealised by patriarchy and seems to be a residue of the remote past. ⁴¹ The text struggles to justify this unusual marriage through different myths. Sage Vyāsa narrated a story to Kuntī and the Pāṇḍavās about the beautiful daughter of a seer, who placates God Śaṃkara with the intention of getting a virtuous husband. ⁴² On seeing God, the girl asks for a husband a number of times and God gives her a boon that in the next life she will have five husbands. The girl now protests that she wants only one husband, but God insists on her having five, and that also in the next birth! The same girl is born as Draupadī and is destined to be a wife of five Pāṇḍavās. The discrepancy of a girl demanding a husband in this life and God granting her five husbands in the next life seems to be a result of anxious, hurried interpolations at the hands of the people who attempted to whitewash this episode.

The epic also mentions that all the five Pāṇḍavās were lusting for beautiful Draupadī and to avoid any conflict over her, it was decided that they all should marry her. At the time of Svyaṃvara, when the Pāṇḍavās saw Draupadī the first time, they felt immense attraction. ‘They all kept looking at Draupadī, they were all struck by the arrows of love’. ⁴³ The similar infatuation of five brothers for Draupadī is mentioned later when she was taken to the place where the five brothers were staying with their mother. ‘They all stared at glorious Kṛṣṇa who stood there and sat looking at one another, holding her in their hearts. And as all these boundlessly lustrous men gazed at Draupadī, their love became evident, churning their senses’. ⁴⁴

There are a lot of discrepancies in the narration of the events leading to this marriage. All the Pāṇḍavas were present at the Svyaṃvara in the beginning, but Yudhiṣṭhira and twins (Nakula and Sahdeva) hasten back to Kuntī immediately after the competition was won by Arjuna. But later on, when Arjuna comes to Kuntī along with Draupadī and asks his mother to look at what he has got, Kuntī pretends to be unaware of what has transpired and asks him to share the prize with his brothers. ⁴⁵ After this, Kuntī regrets her mistake and there is a long debate about resolving the dilemma of obeying the mother’s command and maintaining the bride’s virtue. ⁴⁶ Yudhiṣṭhira suddenly remembers the story narrated by Vyāsa. He also understands the desires of all brothers and to avoid breach among them says, ‘The lovely Draupadī shall be the wife of all of us!’ ⁴⁷ The intention to avoid breach among the brothers appears to be the only rational reason, as Draupadī’s beauty might have created a conflict among the brothers.

Among the five, Arjuna and Yudhiṣṭhira were the strongest contenders for Draupadī. Arjuna won her by his skilled archery, and Yudhiṣṭhira was the eldest. According to Dharma, it is the eldest brother who should marry first. ⁴⁸ Arti Dhand argued that the rule of elder to marry first is designed to ensure that the younger can safely enjoy his wife, without fear of rousing the elder’s lust or envy. The younger daughter-in-law’s sexual safety is constantly at risk as long as an unmarried elder brother-in-law lurks in the background. ⁴⁹ Thus, Arjuna staying with all his brothers and having a beautiful wife was a risky situation. But the conviction of younger brother not marrying before the elder was not followed in case of the alliance of Bhīma and Hiḍimbā, as the situation was different. Bhīma and Hiḍimbā did not stay with the rest of the Pāṇḍavas. Bhīma alone stayed with her for a few days and then left her in the forest. This is also another example of the flexibility about the convictions regulating marriages.

Women own by the valour of Kṣatriya were considered as a treasure as Yudhiṣṭhira’s says, ‘We have a covenant that we share together every treasure’. ⁵⁰ Draupadī’s body, beauty and feminine qualities being treated like a treasure are also reflected during the dice game when Yudhiṣṭhira describes her while she was staked,

…not too short or too tall, nor too black or too red, …Her sweaty lotuslike face shine like a lotus. Her waist shaped like an altar, hair long, eyes the color of copper, not too much body hair… ⁵¹

The discussion about the propriety of the marriage with five brothers goes on without Draupadī taking any part in it. When Draupada raises an objection that traditionally, a man can have many wives, but it never happened that a woman can have many men and as Yudhiṣṭhira is law-minded he should not perpetrate such a breach of the law. ⁵² Yudhiṣṭhira hides behind the argument that ‘law is subtle’. ⁵³ This sentence is very often used in the epic to escape from the situation of a moral dilemma. Bhīṣhma uses a similar argument when he evades Draupadī’s question in the Sabhāparvan (The Book of the Assembly Hall). ⁵⁴

Yudhiṣṭhira is also convinced that he is not suggesting anything wrong, ‘My voice does not tell a lie, nor does my mind dwell on lawlessness! Thus has our mother spoken, and this is my own desire’. ⁵⁵ His anxiety to share Draupadī was obvious as his pompous statement ‘My voice does not tell a lie, nor does my mind dwells on lawlessness!’ is repeated twice in the same conversation. ⁵⁶ He also gives an example of earlier polyandry as he says, ‘We hear in the ancient Lore that a Gautamǐ by the name of Jaṭilā lay with the Seven Seers’. ⁵⁷ He justifies the suitability of marriage by putting forward varied arguments like a mother is the first guru and guru’s word is law. ⁵⁸ Kuntī also puts forward the argument that if Draupadī is not shared by the five brothers, she will become a liar as what she uttered will not come true. When this debate was on, Vyāsa is suddenly brought in. He intervenes and says that Kuntī will escape the lie and, taking king Draupada aside, narrates another story. ⁵⁹ According to this version, the Pāṇḍavas are five Indras born as mortals due to the curse of Śiva, and Lakṣmĭ is born as Draupadī. The Indras were cursed for insulting Śiva, but the fault of Lakṣmĭ is not mentioned! Lakṣmĭ, the consort of God Viṣṇu becoming a common wife of five Indras is also unusual. Vyāsa also gives the king divine vision and with that divine vision, king Draupada sees the Pāṇḍavās and Draupadī in their divine forms. The story of a maiden who repeatedly asks for a husband to God Śiva is also repeated here. ⁶⁰

Draupadī being an incarnation of Śrī or Lakṣmĭ also legitimises the special attachment that she had with Kṛṣṇa, the incarnation of Viṣṇu. Śrī being fickle-minded and probably having more than one partner is mentioned in other Sanskrit literature as well. ⁶¹ With these multiple mythologisations, the mortals involved escape all the blame and the divine was made responsible. Draupada says, ‘As Śaṃkara has ordained it so, whether lawful or lawless, I bear no guilt’. ⁶² To redeem the guilt further, Vyāsa also gives the unasked boon that Draupadī will become a virgin every time when she is married to five different brothers. ⁶³

Singh postulated that probably in the original story, the priest of the Pāṇḍavās, Dhaumya, performed the nuptial rites which supposedly restored Draupadī’s virginity after each marriage and its consummation, and later the symbolic ritual got altered. ⁶⁴

The text does not generally censor Draupadī for her unusual marriage (except her tormentors like Duryodhana and Karṇa). Dhṛtarāṣţra calls Draupadī as his best daughter-in-law and law-abiding. ⁶⁵ There appears to be acceptance of polyandrous tendencies, as Karṇa says about Draupadī, ‘Women think it is a desirable virtue to have more than one husband’. ⁶⁶ Women having more than one loving husband was probably not unusual, is obvious from Karṇa’s sentence. ‘…men who are in love with the same wife are not split’. ⁶⁷ Instead of a bone of contention, Draupadī becomes a cementing factor among the brothers. Karṇa, however, later calls Draupadī a ‘whore’ for being a wife of more than one man. ⁶⁸ Dhṛtarāṣţra calling Draupadī as ‘law-abiding’ and Karṇa mentioning about the difficulty of separating the men who are in love with the same wife and then calling her as a whore for being a wife of more than one man gives a conflicting, probably diverse opinion about the practice of polyandry and the changes that were coming in the society about it.

According to Singh, this episode and its laboured justification are indicative of the period of social and moral transition, when polyandry was going out of fashion and in its original form, the story of Draupadī’s marriage must have been a straightforward account with no traces of ethical opprobrium for polyandry. ⁶⁹ Later, when this polyandrous marriage became a source of discomfort, different myths were interpolated to sooth it.

Mādhavĭ

The story of Mādhavĭ comes in the fifth book ‘Udogparva, the Book of the Effort’ of the Mahābhārata. ⁷⁰ Sage Viśvāmitra asked his disciple Gālava to give him gurudakṣiṇā ⁷¹ of ‘Eight hundred moon-white horses with a black ear each!’ ⁷² Worried over this difficult demand of his guru, Gālava goes to different places. Finally, he goes to king Yāyati and requests for help. Yāyati says that he does not have adequate money to give him for purchasing 800 such horses, but he gives his beautiful daughter Mādhavĭ to him. ⁷³ Mādhavĭ herself reveals that she has a boon of becoming a virgin every time after giving birth to a child. ⁷⁴

Gālava takes Mādhavĭ to three different kings. She stays with each of them for a year and gives birth to three sons from three of them. The text also mentions the kings ‘enjoying’ her. ⁷⁵ In return for this favour, each king gives 200 horses to Gālava. Thus, he collects 600 horses, but he could not find the remaining 200, and finally goes to Sage Viśvāmitra and requests him to take 600 horses and also take Mādhavĭ. He also tells the sage that three kings have already produced three sons on her, and the sage can also produce one more. The sage looks at Mādhavĭ, who is now described as a ‘full hipped’, a characteristic believed to be associated with fertility and says, ‘Galva, why did you not give this woman to me, to begin with? I would have had four sons to prosper my line’. ⁷⁶

After this, the sage accepts Mādhavĭ and produces one son on her and also accepts 600 horses. Gālava now takes Mādhavĭ back to her father Yāyati, who now organises a Svyaṃvara ⁷⁷ for her. Many people, including kings, come as suitors. Mādhavĭ, however, selects forest as her consort. The text further describes that Mādhavĭ entered the forest, practised austerity and was decked with chastity. ⁷⁸

The anxiety of contemporary society to produce sons is obvious in the narration. King after king, and sage Viśvāmitra accept Mādhavĭ, even though she had already given birth to a child from someone else. Even after Mādhavĭ had given birth to four children from four different men, her father organises a Svyaṃvara for her, and it attracts many suitors. This indicates that in that particular poetic tradition from where this story has entered the epic, the virginity of a woman was not given undue importance, as it had acquired later on. The story had gone through a lot of alteration and the myth of restoration of virginity is added to bring Mādhavĭ in line with the patriarchal perception of a ‘virgin bride’. After all, it only needs a boon!

Why Mādhavĭ finally selects the forest as her consort and turns away from the world of man? Was she so disgusted with men, who one after another made use of her for sensual pleasure and for begetting sons, that she finally thought the life of celibacy will be better than a life of domestic bliss? Throughout the episode, Mādhavĭ speaks only once, and that to support her repeated pimping by Gālava. Women’s voices are used to strengthen the patriarchal bonds, but at the same time, the sensitive mind of the poet seems to be giving some space to Mādhavĭ to express her anguish in the form of a silent protest by rejecting all the suitors.

Fear of Woman’s Sexuality

‘When there is intercourse between a woman and a man, who feels the greater pleasure from this?’ ⁷⁹ The question was asked by Yudhiṣṭhira to Bhīṣhma, who was on the bed of arrows waiting for the suitable time to leave this mortal world. Though the grandfather is portrayed as an uncompromising bachelor throughout his long life, he strangely speaks about female sexuality. He narrates a story of king Bhaṅgāsvana, who due to the curse of God Indra turns into a woman. Later, the God is pleased and is willing to make him a man again, but the king wants to remain as a woman. He/she says that in the act of intercourse, the pleasure obtained by a woman is greater than that obtained by a man. He/she also says that she loves those children more that were born to her as a woman than those that were born to him/her as a man. ⁸⁰

Narratives about the insatiable sexual desire of women are scattered in the epic. A rich old lady solicits intercourse from the young sage, Ashṭāvakra. He refuses and there follows a dialogue between the two. In the dialogue, the woman says, ‘For a woman, there is no task that is superior to that of having intercourse with a man’. ⁸¹ She further articulates,

Women are addicted to sexual desire. Among thousands of women, even among hundreds of thousands, there will perhaps be only one who is devoted to her husband. They do not care for the father, the linage, the mother, the brother, the husband, the son or the husband’s younger brother. ⁸²

In the conversation, Ashṭāvakra replies that he is only interested in offspring for the sake of pursuing Dharma and Artha. ⁸³ The lady assumes the form of a young maiden and now though the sage is attracted to her, with fortitude he controls himself. The lady finally reveals herself as Northern Direction, congratulates the sage for having conquered his desire, and says that she was testing him. She also blesses him with the son. ⁸⁴

The story seems to be communicating the message that though women have insatiable sexual desire, it is the men who should show fortitude and control their instinct. The fear of a woman’s sexuality is expressed when the Northern Direction says, ‘In the pursuit of pleasure, they destroy the family, just as a great river destroys its bank’. ⁸⁵ It may be out of that fear of the perceived hypersexuality of women that patriarchy felt it necessary to rein in and put control over women’s sexuality, or probably women are deliberately portrayed as hypersexual to justify the patriarchal control. Though it is a female character that speaks about women’s sexuality, the text is a creation of men.

The belief about the insatiability of women, however, continues to prevail among some tribal populations of India. ⁸⁶ A woman deriving more pleasure in intercourse is also asserted by the western feminist, arguing that women’s multi-orgasmic capability affords them a richer and more varied heritage of sexual enjoyment than men. ⁸⁷

As a counterbalance to this fear of women’s sexuality, the religious text is often used to systematically condition women’s minds to remain Pativratā, that is, devoted to her husband. She was convinced to save her virginity for a man whom she eventually marries, and also not to deviate after the marriage. In the epic, many women characters speak about the Dharma and thus the text seems to be putting a lot of responsibility on women’s shoulders and expects them to be guardians and practitioners of morality. Draupadī portrays an ideal picture of Pativratā dharma, that is, duties of the married woman in ‘the Book of the Forest’, as she says that she should not think about anybody else other than her husband, ‘No other man could please me, be he a God, man, Gandharva, a well-groomed youth, rich or handsome’. ⁸⁸ Elevating husband to the level of God, she tells Kṛṣṇa’s wife Satyabhāmā, ‘There is no such deity, Satyā, here in all worlds with all their divinities like a husband’. ⁸⁹ She further advises Satyabhāmā that she should wash her husband’s feet when he comes home. She should not even secretly attend to her sons and not to lose her patience if the husband comes home drunk. ⁹⁰

Our perception of the ‘self’ is greatly shaped by the narratives that we are exposed to. Women due to the psychological conditioning that they receive since childhood become agencies through which patriarchal perception is reinforced. They ensure that the young girls remain a virgin and also take pride in their subjugation to male hegemony,

Because they have internalized their subordination, they no longer experience it as oppression by an external force but as a strong internal shield. Women who have mastered the survival strategies derive a certain pride from living this way. They are like prisoners suffering from Stockholm syndrome, in which hostages fall in love with the hostage-takers and establish a deep, intimate contact with them. But it is an unhealthy intimacy, comparable to slaves who are subordinate not only in body, but also psychologically, and who preferred the certainty of their existence in slavery to a freedom that they perceive as treacherous. ⁹¹

The epic also refers to the liberal sexual behaviour of women, which seems to be the residual of the remote past and contradicts Draupadī’s Pativratā narratives. Pāṇḍu tells his wife Kuntī,

…in the olden days, so we hear, the women went uncloistered, … they were their own mistresses who took their pleasure where it pleased them. From childhood on they were faithless to their husbands, but yet not lawless, for such was the Law in the olden days … and it still prevails among the Northern Kurus…this is the eternal law that favors women. ⁹²

Pāṇḍu also narrates how this promiscuous behaviour was curtailed and restrictions were imposed upon the man–woman relationship. Once in full view of sage Uddālaka and his son Śvetaketu, Śvetaketu’s mother was dragged by a Brahmin for intercourse. At this, Śvetaketu became indignant and laid down a law, ‘A woman’s faithlessness to her husband shall be sin equal to aborticide, an evil that shall bring on misery’. ⁹³ The responsibility of maintaining the sexual purity also lies with the men, ‘Seducing a chaste and constant wife who is avowed to her husband shall also be sin on the earth’. ⁹⁴ But sexuality to be harnessed for procreation, ‘And a wife who is enjoined by her husband to conceive a child and refuses shall incur the same evil’ ⁹⁵ The episode reflects the society which was moving from promiscuity to more regulated man–woman relationship.

In general, the patriarchy seems to be preaching that it is a woman who is spoiled by sexual intercourse outside the boundaries of marriage. Arjuna, while describing the horrors of the war, says that one of the most heinous results of the war will be that women will be spoiled, ‘And when lawlessness prevails, O Vārṣṇeya (Kṛṣṇa), the women of the family become corrupted and when women are corrupted, confusion of castes arises’. ⁹⁶ There was a possibility of a large number of higher caste men being killed in the war and due to the absence of men (for intercourse and for controlling), women may go astray resulting in Varṇasaṁkaraḥ, that is, miscegenation, which was considered so heinous that it will lead the whole family to hell! Arjuna holds women mainly responsible for maintaining varṇa purity. Cāturvarṇa, the fourfold division was considered sacrosanct, and if higher caste women had intercourse with the lower caste men, it will challenge the bloodline of the upper castes posing a threat to the sexual privilege and domination of the upper caste male. ‘Women are recognized as the repositories of class and family identity. It is only they, through faithful sexual conduct, who can preserve the integrity of the Varṇa system’. ⁹⁷ Narratives are created that, chastity and being faithful, devoted to the husband is supposed to bring great power to the women, ‘This married chastity is a source of great power for women, akin to celibacy in its potency and integrity, and its functions as a field for feminine heroism’. ⁹⁸ Women like Damayantī,Sītā, Draupadī, Sāvitrī were mentioned as possessing extraordinary power due to their chastity. Damayantī could protect herself and kill her rapist by her words, as she never thought of any man other than her husband Nala. ⁹⁹

The text is also used to protect the sexual privileges of the upper caste males. A male from upper three Varṇas can have a wife of his Varṇa as well as of Varṇas lower than his own. ‘A brahmana can have three wives, a Kṣatriya can have two wives. A vaishya can take one from his own Varna’. ¹⁰⁰ The objectification of lower caste women as a ‘plaything’ is more direct, as the text says the upper caste men can also have a Shudra wife for intercourse, but not for procreation. ¹⁰¹ However, the union between lower caste men and higher caste women is a heinous crime, ‘A vrishala ¹⁰² who has intercourse with a brahmana lady is born as worm’. ¹⁰³

If a higher caste woman fornicates with a lower caste man, the punishment prescribed for her is that she should be fed to the dogs in a public place and the man is to be burnt by tying him to a heated iron bed. ¹⁰⁴

Higher caste men seem to be free from the blemish that comes with extramarital affairs,

As with Sītā in Rāmayana, the putative virtue of a woman is crucial for the self-esteem of a man, especially a king. Women—apart from the exceptional Draupadī—must remain true to one husband: for it is as if their emotional impurity might have physiological consequences. The converse, concerning men, does not hold, for male purity, in this sense, has no physiological effect: men—from such a corporeal point of view—cannot become contaminated by sexual admixture. ¹⁰⁵

This had probably arisen since it is a woman who bears the consequences of the sexual act in the form of pregnancy and childbirth. Once she is inseminated, she had to carry it for a long duration and give birth to a child, at least during those days when termination of pregnancy was not easy. Man, apart from possessing a woman’s sexuality, also wants to be the owner of her womb. We have references in the epic, where women are referred to as field and husbands as the owners. ¹⁰⁶ If it is known that women had love interests somewhere, she becomes unacceptable. Bhīṣhma refuses to give Ambā to his brother, ‘What a man who knows the perilous flaws of women would ever allow a woman in love with another man to lodge in his house like a snake?’ ¹⁰⁷

Ambā was in love with king Śālva, but was forcibly carried away by Bhīṣhma to be married to his half-brother Vicitravīrya. As she was won by Bhīṣhma after defeating Śālva, she was called ‘Bhīṣhma’s chattel’ by her former lover, who now refuses to marry her even though she was released by Bhīṣhma. ¹⁰⁸ Does Amba’s plight, her painful life and her frustration due to her inability to take revenge on Bhīṣhma underline the message that women who challenge the patriarchy and show the audacity of falling in love by their own choice and assert it, will face the severe consequences? But she revokes a lot of sympathy in the narration and is finally able to avenge herself by becoming the cause of Bhīṣhma’s death. ¹⁰⁹

When Deviant Behaviour Can Be Tolerated?

There are certain situations where some concessions are given to unconventional sexual behaviour. Ambikā and Ambālika, produced sons through Nīyoga (Levirate) from Vyāsa as the kingdom of Hāstinapur was facing crises of succession. ¹¹⁰ It seems that the need for the survival of the lineage supersedes the morals of sexual chastity. ¹¹¹

And rather strange is the case of Oghavatī, who provides sexual favour to the guest for honouring the householder’s Dharma of her husband. ¹¹² As a reward for this, Oghavatī’s husband goes to the abode of the divine in the physical body. She also does not incur any sin out of the act. So when the Dharma of men is at stake, a sexual transgression of women can be forgiven.

The Mahābhārata’s stand on the sexual transgression by women is not uniform. Some passages indicate that linage was a major concern and if a woman is not conceived through intercourse outside the marriage, she can be considered as purified after her menstrual flow, ‘When there is suspicion about woman’s wicked conduct … she is purified through her menstrual flow, like vessel with ashes’. ¹¹³ Comparing a woman’s body to a vessel is obviously demeaning.

Summing Up

Sexual behaviour and attitude are complex phenomena and are shaped by the narratives we are exposed to, ‘Sexuality is not a somatic fact; it is a cultural effect’. ¹¹⁴ The study of different societies indicates the existence of the promiscuous instinct in human beings,

Human beings are not endowed with any inherently monogamous propensity; but have a natural desire for diversity in their sexuality. Some societies are therefore permissive in matters of sex, while some relax the restraints on extra-marital congress on special occasions; and yet others allow petting and flirtation at their parties. ¹¹⁵

The findings are the result of the 236 societies. If taken as a generalisation, it indicates that both men and women carry promiscuous tendencies. But as the power equations were in favour of the men, the texts like the Mahābhārata are used to secure male privileges. The excessive importance given to virginity/sexual purity puts women at a disadvantage.

Many times, the male honour associated with a woman’s sexuality takes precedence over many things. Rāma, the hero of another Indian epic Rāmayana, wages the long war and kills Rāvaṇa to regain his wife Sītā, but tells her that he had freed her from Rākṣasa’s house, and now she can go anywhere.

What a demeaning comparison! Did Rāma wage the war and free Sītā only for the sake of his masculine honour? Once he had proved himself that he is more macho than Rāvaṇa, Sītā became insignificant and is thus reduced to a passive agency through which men assert their valour over each other.

Men’s honour being associated with the virginity/sexuality of women also became one of the reasons behind child marriages in India. The marriage of a girl before puberty nullified the possibilities of scandal. ¹¹⁸ Though this protected the family from blemish, the system had many drawbacks. The life of a girl becomes a curse if she is widowed early, as patriarchy does not permit remarriage. The young widow’s sexuality creates a potential for licentious relations and as she is perceived as a threat, all attempts are made to desexualise her by putting restrictions on her diet, dress and by shaving her head to make her unattractive.

This notion of sexual purity has many adverse consequences. During the partition of India in 1947 and the communal riots that followed, many Hindu and Sikh women were raped, abducted and forcibly kept by their Muslim captors. The same was also done to many Muslim women by the Sikhs and Hindus. When an attempt was made to reunite these women with their families, many of the Hindus refused to accept their wives when they were brought back from Pakistan. ¹¹⁹ The same attitude was behind Jauhar that was practised by the Rajput women during medieval India. ¹²⁰ They burnt themselves to prevent sexual molestation from the enemy if it was certain that their men are not going to survive the war.

The overbearing idealisation of Pativratā, in Indian tradition, in which a woman leads a secondary existence with the whole focus of her life on her husband with total disregard for herself must be very suffocating. Shalini Shah said that as a reaction to this male hegemony, there emerged a counter-discourse, the dissenting voice in the myth of Pāňcakanyā (the five virgins) about the five women in Indian tradition, that is, Kuntī, Draupadī, Ahalyā, Tārā and Mandodarī. Though all of them had more than one man in their lives; they are referred to as Kanyā, that is, Virgin. ‘The concept of Pāňcakanyā was perhaps a subversive strategy formulated by those who militated against the suffocating hegemony of the Pativratā syndrome’. ¹²¹ This Pāňcakanyā episode is not found in any of the text, but seems to be a part of traditional lore. ¹²²

Obsession with virginity seems to be prevailing across the culture. Jesus is believed to be born to virgin Mary. Modern theologians, however, reject this and believe that this is myth that was added to Christian belief in the late-first century A.D. ¹²³ Muslim society is also plagued with this obsession with virginity. Hirsi Ali, the Somali Muslim woman, who later abandoned her religion, wrote from her own experience that sexual morality in Islam is aimed exclusively at women, and they are always blamed for any lapse. ¹²⁴ Instead of giving healthy information about sexuality, the younger generations are brought up with the thought that it is something sinful, but their hormones give them inclination towards sex and this creates conflict in their mind. ¹²⁵ These confused, frustrated youth are more prone to become violent. The obsession with virginity also leads to some unhealthy practices, like female circumcision. ¹²⁶ The modern societies in the west are also not free from this obsession. The ‘Virginity movement’ in the USA tries to convince women that their only real worth is their virginity. While boys are taught that the things that make them men—good men—are universally accepted ethical ideals, women are led to believe that the most important thing for them is to protect their virginity. ¹²⁷ This halo around virginity has a typical effect on the women’s mind, ‘you can be vapid, stupid and unethical, but so long as you’ve never had sex, you’re a “good” (i.e., “moral”) girl and therefore worthy of praise’. ¹²⁸ It objectifies women, reduces them to their sexuality, and the anxiety to preserve it seriously hampers the growth of other dimensions of their personality. ¹²⁹ This fetish is driving the people to spend millions on virginity restoration surgeries at the risk of serious health hazards, and it further intensifies their identity as sex objects. ¹³⁰

A text like the Mahābhārata is like a palimpsest that carries the impressions of the society through which it had passed, preserved and grown. In general, the lives of the women characters in the epic are shaped according to men’s convenience, justifying Foucault’s postulation that power is essentially what dictates laws related to sex and what is permitted and forbidden. ¹³¹