Humanising the Dehumanised: Kavita Kané’s reconstruction of the Great Epic

Mahabharata, one of the two grand epics of Hinduism exerts immense influence in Indian Culture. They occupy a significant space in cultural epistemology and discourse. However, they have been predominantly handled by male authors, through whose writings we often find women marginalised to a subservient position, which posits them in the lower strata of the Indian socio-cultural hierarchy. Consequently, such women characters are seen being dehumanised through objectification within this narrative. In fact, such treatment often infiltrates itself into stereotypical notions pertaining to gender roles. In recent years, however, there has been a surge of mythological reimagination of these epics, with focus on marginalised female characters who are barely highlighted in the grand narratives established by the said epics. This reimagination provides a new historicist approach to the historically present patriarchy within these narratives. This paper aims to closely investigate instances of such dehumanisation through three books of Kavita Kané: Karna’s Wife: The Outcast Queen (2013), Menaka’s Choice (2015), The Fisher Queen’s Dynasty (2017). Through her work we revisit the epic narrative to study and comprehend their socio-cultural impacts. And examine how Kavita Kané’s re-imagination can act as an effective tool to amend such subjugation and can be a site for a discursive change.