Four Novels on Draupadi

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Four Novels on Draupadi
Draupadi	Draupadi
Song of Draupadi- A Novel	Agony of Draupadi

About The Book

Draupadi: The Woman Unparagoned: Prafulla Kumar Mohanty's "Draupadi" is unhistorical but excels in all feminine virtues. She has no parallel in world literature or myths. Her journey, as the poet presents, is from Fire to Ice. She rises to unimaginable heights in majesty and also falls into unimaginable depths. She is THE WOMAN in Indian Imaginary who gets life, form and energy in this epic poem. Without deviating significantly from the original Vyasa Mahabharata Prafulla Mohanty analyses Draupadi's mind, her lonliness and intense suffering in poetry. The poem moves with rhythmic force compelling the readers admiration.

About the Author

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty (b. 1939) is a prolific bilingual writer, dramatist and translator, and has served the Govt. of Odisha as Professor of English, Principal, Ravenshaw Autonomous College, and Khallikote Autonomous College. Currently, living in Bhubaneswar writing and lecturing on literature and cultural themes, he was a Member, Press Council of India from 1999 to 2001, and a Senior Fellow, Department of Culture, Government of India. His collection of essays Bharatiya Sanskruti O Bhagwadgita won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2004. He is recipient also of the Sarala Samman, Mansingh Samman, Upendra Bhanja Samman and many others.

Acknowledgement

Five years ago, I was invited by Ms Sabita Sahu, an old student of mine, to write for her blog savimuse.com. After a series of essays (Published in book form- Reality Revisited and Shifting Paradigms) I serialized Draupadi in her weekly blog.

I record here my deep gratitude to Ms Sabita Sahu for taking all pains to type out the episodes and publishing them unfailingly for 87 weeks. I thank her for her pains and committed sincerity. She is a poet in her own right and has three volumes of poems to her credit.

I record my sincere and loving thanks to my son Pradyumna, for computer viewing and printouts.

I record my appreciation for Dr. Suman Mohapatra for going through the Manuscript and suggesting changes with sound and sane comments.

Above all I thank my family and my blog followers for their encouraging comments.

Author's Introductory Note

Why Draupadi?

Long years ago when I read George Bernard Shaw's (GBS) Man and Superman, I was struck by one line: "The creation of Woman is the greatest blunder of Nature'. I protested. How and Why? I asked not to anyone in particular. Never to GBS, he would have accosted me with million words which I am sure, he knows are echoes from the great void. How is it that poets, sculptors, painters and musicians have been discovering the perennial beauty, form, symmetry and fragrance in diverse rhythms, pedestalling woman over all nuances of life's celebration? Why then people die, kill, conspire, revolt and do all impossible things just for an amorous glance? O Beatrice, O Helen... Ha Site, O Laila, O Juliet, crying to the world "My Universe for a kiss"? The Universe may be a sandy desert or Tolstoy's six feet of land or Bahadur Shah Jafar's Do gaz ki zameen! (Two yards of land!).

The undulations of my mind searched for a coast of assured certainty. After a long life of teaching and research I was convinced that the great GBS was just cynical, not a misogynist. Woman is Nature's loveliest creation. Woman is Nature herself in her enigmatic profundity. Alphonso, Aditi, Eve and many undiscovered Women in the creation myths of different civilizations, have created and sustained the human race. But woman is not just a body with a different sex organ, capable of reproduction. She is a separate being. She is Prakriti in the Sankhya system of philosophy who modulates the male principle in synthesizing creation and destruction to maintain the harmony of the Universe. Woman gives birth to man, balances irate tempers and romantic indulgences in the cosmological framework.

My purpose here is to present a woman who has no parallel in recorded history or creative myth making. Man's poetic imagination has created many women-angels, deities, sylphs, fairies, nymphs. We have Juno, Minerva, Columbia, Bellona, Aphrodite etc., and in India we have the divine consorts of our Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahadeva-Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati, respectively. We also have Durga, Kali, Yogamaya etc. But the three women which Indian imagination has created are relevant to our cultural life even today. These three women are Sita in the Ramayana, Draupadi in the Mahabharata and Radha appears in Jayadeva's Gita Govinda as a consort of Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu. All these three are three unique feminine forms of the Indian mind which have no comparable parallel in western myths.

**Contents and Sample Pages**

Draupadi (Sahitya Akademi Award- Winning Telugu Novel) About the Book Draupadi, originally written in Telugu, was first serialised in Andhra Jyoti before it came out in book form. The novel presented in a unique style, is not just an account of the different incidients occuring around Draupadi but these incidents have been fused together into a fascinating story. The narrative process and the structural method of description used by Lakshmi Prasad fully engage the reader.

About the Authors Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad (b.1953) is an eminent Telugu and Hindi writer. He has the command in the two great Indian languages of Hindi and Telugu, which is only to a small extent testified by his doctoral degrees in both languages and more appropriately amplified by his original works as well as translated works in these two languages. He has about 30 original and translated works to his credit. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha during 1996-2002 and also the Deputy Chairman of the prestigious Parliamentary Standing Committee on Official Language. He is a regular attendee of World Hindi Conferences and spoken in several national and international seminars on literature. He served as the Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Hindi Academy and Professor and Head of Hindi Department, Andhra University, Vizag. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards and honours including Sahitya Akademi Award, Padma Shri by the President of India, National Award of Ministry of Human Resource Development (twice), Sahitya Akademi's Translation Prize, Pushkin Award and many more.

K.V. Purneswara Rao (b.1936) Former Heard of the Deptt. of English, KVR College, Naudigama, Andhra Pradesh. He is also a free-lance journalist with the Indian Express. He has written six books in English and is author of a novel in English entitled Cave of Wonders.

Foreword This 'Foreword' was not written before the publication of this book. The novel Draupadi has already been published serially in the supplement to the Sunday Andhra Jyothi and won for the writer not only bouquets but also brickbats.

My foreword will in no way benefit those who like or dislike the novel.

Critical commentaries appeared in many languages about the story of the Mahabharata and also on the characters in it. They were, in the past, either criticised or admired. In future, too, the comments for and against them will continue.

Some fifty years ago, Brainnasri Varanasi Subrahmanya Sastry garu wrote, Mahabharata Tatvakathanam and in it one can find the of points criticism that came up till then and the rebuttals to them.

I don't have that much of scholarship to review the literary values in the novel, Draupadi. The writer himself has admitted, 'Writing about mythological characters is like taking the vow of standing on the edge of a knife and the novel was written in full knowledge of this fact'. performing feats on the edge of a knife is a delightful job for Lakshmi Prasad, not only in matters of literature but also in others too!

Prasad explains his intention in writing the novel Draupadi. `In the Mahabharata, it was stated that Draupadi was mainly born to get fulfilment for unfulfilled sensual desires and bodily pleasures of her previous two births.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages

About The Book

The Mahabharal is renowned for its great battles, heroic men, and gods walking the pathways of mortals. However, the beating heart of the epic is often forgotten the stories of its women. Many of these exceptional women appear in Song of Draupadi-the indomitable Satyavati, the otherworldly Ganga, the indestructible Kunti, and the tenacious Gandhari-but the passionate and fiery Draupadi rises above them all to grip the imagination of the reader.

Born of a dangerous sacrifice, Draupadi and her brother Drishtadumna are called forth to avenge Drona's insult to their father. While Drishtadumna is expected to kill Drona on the battlefield, Draupadi's role is not set out, but she dreams of fire and blood. From beloved daughter and princess of Panchala to wife of the brave Pandavas and queen of Indraprastha, Draupadi finds herself exiled to the forest, humiliated and determined on vengeance. The novel is a symphony, in several keys, of her voice and those of the other women around her- arguing, pleading, reasoning, and often raised in righteous anger.

About the Author

IRA MUKHOTY is the author of Akbar: The Great Mughal, Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire and Heroines: Powerful Indian Women in Myth and History. Living in one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, she developed an interest in the evolution of mythology and history, the erasure of women from these histories, and the continuing relevance this has on the status of women in India. She writes rigorously researched narrative histories that are accessible to the lay reader. She lives in Gurgaon with her husband and two daughters. Song of Draupadi is her first novel.

About the Book The specialty of the book, "Agony of Draupodi" is the analysis, by Draupodi, of all the characters of the great epic, Mahabharata. In the book, all the anguish of the Panchapandava's wife are being described. Draupodi was the daughter of king Drupod of Panchal. kingdom and the wife of five great heroes, Panchapandava. In the beginning of the book Draupodi's mental agony was described nicely when she was asked to accept the five husbands at a time, because the Panchapandavas promised their mother, Kunti Devi that whoever receives anything would be enjoyed equally by the five brothers. Although Draupodi was determined not to accept such irreligious and antisocial system even for the sake of her life, yet ultimately she had to accept multiple husbands. In spite of having five great heroes as husband, Draupodi was insulted in the assembly of Hastinapur by her brother-in law, Dushasan in the presence of her spouses. Draupodi was further insulted in the kingdom of king Virat. She was kicked and snubbed in the assembly hall of king Virat by Kishok, the general of the emperor, in front of her eldest husband Yudhisthir. In this novel the grief and heartache of Draupodi has been described when Asasthama, in order to take revenge of the death of his father, killed her five sons when they were in sleep.

Although there are many books on Draupodi/Yajnaseni, but nowhere has the agony, pain and mental sufferings of Draupodi been described. In this book, the author tries to explain the feelings of a woman which are same, whether she is the daughter/wife of a great king, great hero, superman or a woodcutter.

About the Author Dr Malinee (Born 1951-) is the pen name of Dr Neelima Saikia who is a prominent scientist of North-East Institute of Science & Technology, Jorhat, Assam. She has a vast experience in the area of soil microbiology. particularly biophyto remediation, soil manag-ement, plant and soil health. For her bioremediation work she was. awarded B.P Poddar Memorial Award for environment improvement and protection instituted by Bharat Chambers of commerce during 2003 2004. She has developed several technologies for socio-economic improvement. There are more than fifty research paper and six patents to her credit.

In spite of her science background and hectic work schedule, her contribution to the native literary world is immense and enduring. Her works relies mostly on her profound research on Indian epics and mythology. Dr Malinee's literature works have attracted the attention of a wide number of readers. Apart from have written several novels and short stories, she has also written a few popular science books, biographies and has abridged a good number of books. She also writes serial episodes in some popular newspapers and magazines. Some of the stories and novels written by the author are Moroha Phulor Subas (Fragrance of a wilting flower) 1997, Brityar Paridhir Bahirot (Beyond the circumference of a circle) 2001, Natun Yugar Sushana (Beginning of a new era) 2003, Romanthan (Remembrance) 2005, Yajnaseni (2007) and Bideh Nandani (2009).Agony of Sita (2010), English version of Bideh Nandani, Kashi Kanya Amba (2010). She is the recipient of two National Award, instituted by DAE, Ministry of HRD and NCERT, New-Delhi for her book "Adarsha Bowari" and "Sadhur Cholere Bigyan" (Science in the form of stories) respectively. So far there are 23 books to her credit.

Preface From early childhood I was interested in the stories of the two Indian epics. But I was not fortunate enough to read the full Assamese version of the two epics till the early part of 1967. Somewhere I read the small tales like "Sonhotor Vishma", sometimes "Draupadir sayambor" (act of selection of husband by princess from royal members) or "Pandabor Banabas" (forest life). I read the Assamese version of the Mahabharata, written by Chakraborty Raja Gopalacharya and published by the Assam Prakashan Parishad, only towards the later part of 1967. The book was translated by the renowned writer and translator Mahadev Sarma. Although the book was first published in 1960, my parents could not arrange it because the book was then rarely available. In between 1967 and 1970 perhaps I read the late Sarma's book about ten times. But at that time I couldn't perceive the meaning of some myths. When I was able to think over the matters deeply and wanted to analyze each matter properly, I could not find enough answers needed to satisfy my queries. The two parts of the Mahabharata written in Assamese language by the famous writer, translator and critic Dr. Mohendra Borah could provide light to the doubts that arose in my mind.

**Contents and Sample Pages**