Until the Lions

by Karthika Nair

  The living are targeted in other ways. With book bans. Prison. Exile. Fatwa. Smear campaigns. Accusations of sedition…Kamel Daoud. Oleg Sentsov. Perumal Murugan. Atena Farghadani. Fatima Naoot. The 50-odd Indian writers (followed by film-makers and artists) – who had returned awards and honours as protest against the spate of murders of intellectuals and minorities – hounded as anti-nationals by several media houses and right-wing politicians.

  By 2015, it was happening in cities as far-flung as Pune and Peshawar and Paris, Tamazula and Tunis. Closer and closer home. Close enough to turn and touch.

  What does all this have to do with Until the Lions? There’s that old proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child.” To state the obvious, books are like that: the entire world pours into them, in different ways. Not just through the author as s/he fashions it, but the reader too, whether lay person, academic, critic or jury. This book received more love and attention than any of us expected. And the questions came fast and, sometimes, furious.

  How dare you suggest Krishna acted unjustly in the war? Could you write this book in India? Aren’t you projecting feminist aspirations on these characters? And my favourite: Does a modern political sensibility or subaltern/minority narrative have any validity when interpreting a sacralised worldview with a unique epistemology?

  There have been less polite, more, well, rhetorical ones too.

  Here is the thing: this book is the mutant, happily illicit child of many ancestors, with varied provenance. Vyaasa himself, whose Mahabharata contains something as radical as an entire book – the Stree Parva – chronicling the laments and tirades of the grieving mothers and widows of both warring clans in the wake of the final carnage. Ovid, with his millennia-old Heroides, where the women from Greek and Roman mythology own their stories in passionate, eloquent epistles.

  Amir Khusrau, who could sing to his spiritual master in Persian and Braj, alternating languages within the same couplet. Andal of the fierily sensual poetry for her beloved deity, Perumal.

  Bhâsa, who – almost two thousand years ago – adapted plays from the epics, ones where the motives of the gods are openly challenged, ones imagining alternative scenarios, including a pacifist King Duryodhana who loves his enemy’s son as dearly as his own. The 9th century Tamil poet Perunthevanar, whose telling of the Mahabharata, Parata Venpa, highlights the life and ultimate sacrifice of Aravan, Arjuna’s snake-prince son.

  Subaltern narratives? A political sensibility? They are as ancient and new, as valid, as the human imagination which can be ascribed neither to the 21st century nor the First World nor any religion or ideology. All these writers – and innumerable others – told and retold, questioned and changed the stories, the narratives they had inherited. They reshaped the old, they crafted the new, and whatever the environment – often encouraging, often unforgiving, for resistance to invention is just as ancient as the creative act – they continued, however they could. They knew that there were no small freedoms, and that the imagination would be the most priceless gift to give up. For how else can we attempt to understand what it is to be another, god or soldier, woman or wolf? What else can allow us to sense the many ways there are to inhabit the earth? To envision a better reality?

  Until the Lions begins with a proverb Chinua Achebe quoted widely. There is one more that comes to mind now. The world is like a mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.

  *Soutik Biswas reporting for BBC World: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-15363181

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  ABHIMANYU: Heir to the throne of Hastinapur as the oldest ‘royal’ Pandava grandchild, Abhimanyu is the only child of Arjuna and Subhadra, Krishna’s younger sister. On the 13th day of the Kurukshetra war, he is killed in unfair combat by the Kaurava forces, outnumbered and isolated within the padmavyuha, a deadly battle formation – a trap he enters at his uncles’ behest.

  AMBA/SHIKHANDI: The eldest princess of Kashi, Amba is abducted (along with her two sisters) on her wedding day by Bheeshma, regent of the Kuru Kingdom, and offered as bride to his brother, Vichitravirya. The abduction ruins Amba’s life: her betrothed rejects her when she returns to him, and Bheeshma, too, refuses to marry her. Unable to get justice from any mortal, Amba invokes the gods. After many years of austerities, Shiva appears and grants her the power to kill Bheeshma, but only in her next life. Amba kills herself to hasten her retribution and is later reborn as the princess of Panchala, Shikhandi, who finally acquires manhood from a kind-hearted demigod, a yaksha.

  AMBIKA: Amba’s younger sister, Ambika weds Vichitravirya – the Kuru crown prince – after her abduction. Impregnated by Ved Vyaasa after her husband’s death, she gives birth to Dhritarashtra.

  AMBALIKA: The youngest of the Kashi princesses, Ambalika weds Vichitravirya as well. She, too, is made to have a child from Ved Vyaasa, a son named Pandu.

  ARAVAN: Also known as Iravan (in Vyaasa’s Mahabharata), Aravan is the son of the Naga queen Ulupi and Arjuna, conceived during Arjuna’s first exile from Hastinapura. In many Tamil versions of the Mahabharata (particularly those of the Koothandavar cult), Aravan, who joins the Pandava army during the Kurukshetra war, is asked to offer himself as a ritual sacrifice to the goddess Kali – one that will ensure Pandava victory.

  ARJUNA/PARTHA: The third Pandava brother, Kunti’s son from Indra, king of gods. Arjuna spends his entire life perfecting his skills as an archer and bedding beautiful, powerful women in different parts of the planet, often begetting sons he seems to forget all about until the war.

  BHANUMATI: The wife of Duryodhana (the Kaurava crown prince); and princess of Kalinga.

  BHEESHMA: Born to the Kuru king Shantanu and the river-goddess Ganga, Bheeshma – known as Devavrata in his youth – is one of the eight Vasus or elemental gods, cursed by the sage Vashishta to spend a lifetime on earth following the kidnapping of Kamadhenu, a very holy cow. He gets the name Bheeshma – or He of the Terrible Oath – following his vow of celibacy.

  BHEEMA: The second Pandava prince, born to Kunti and Vayu, lord of the winds. Bheema is renowned for both his appetite and his strength. He vows to kill his hundred Kaurava cousins after the game of dice and the disrobing of Draupadi – an oath he upholds during the Kurukshetra war.

  CHITRANGADA: There are at least three Chitrangadas in the Mahabharata. The first is Shantanu and Satyavati’s son, Bheeshma’s half-brother, the Kuru prince who is killed by another Chitrangada – a gandharva or demigod, who cannot bear the thought of a mortal namesake. The third Chitrangada is a beautiful warrior-queen from northeast India who marries Arjuna during one of his many exiles.

  DHRISHTADHYUMNA: Prince of Panchala, and son of King Dhrupad. Dhrupad propitiates the gods to acquire a son who will avenge his defeat at the hands of Drona, childhood friend turned foe. Dhrishtadhyumna, along with his twin sister Draupadi, is born from that yagna or sacrificial fire.

  DHRITARASHTRA: Kuru king, the son that Queen Ambika begets from Ved Vyaasa. Dhritarashtra is born blind. He is denied the throne initially due to his disability, a decision that embitters him and generates much of the later enmity between his sons and nephews.

  DHRUPAD: King of Panchala, father of Shikhandi, Dhrishtadhyumna and Draupadi. His enmity with Drona becomes the driving force of his life after the latter sends his pupils to defeat Dhrupad and annex half of his kingdom. He engineers Draupadi’s marriage to Arjuna, in the hope that he can avenge his humiliation one day with the help of the Pandavas.

  DRONACHARYA: or Drona, the preceptor of the Pandavas and Kauravas, is an invincible warrior, a master of warfare and divine weapons called astras. A childhood playmate of Dhrupad, Drona begins to hate the king after the latter refuses to recognise their friendship, on Drona’s arrival at the Panchala court, impoverished and desperate. Dhrupad’s defeat in war and the annexation of half his kingdom is the guru dakshina or teacher’s fee that Drona demands of his royal pupils.<
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  DRAUPADI (PANCHALI): Princess of Panchala, daughter of Dhrupad, and sister of Dhrishtadhyumna and Shikhandi, Draupadi later weds the five Pandava brothers and becomes the queen of Indraprastha. She suffers great humiliation – an attempted public disrobing – at the hands of the Kauravas when Yuddhishtira stakes her in a game of dice where he loses all his “possessions”, including himself and his brothers.

  DURYODHANA (see SUYODHANA)

  DUSSHALA: The only daughter of Gandhari and Dhritarashtra, youngest sister to the hundred and one Kauravas. Dusshala marries Jayadratha, the king of Sindhu, who joins the Kaurava side during the Kurukshetra War.

  DUSHASANA: The second of the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and Gandhari. Vyaasa represents Dushasana as a thoroughly villainous character, with – unusually – no redeeming feature. His attempted disrobing of Draupadi in the Hastinapur court is one of the triggers to the Kurukshetra war, spurring Bheema’s vow to kill all hundred Kaurava brothers, and specifically, to disembowel Dushasana and wash Draupadi’s tresses in his blood.

  EKALAVYA: A Nishada (tribal) prince who seeks to become the best archer in the world. Spurned by the royal guru, Drona, as an outcast, Ekalavya builds a bust of the man, considers the clay image his teacher and goes on to excel in archery, surpassing even Arjuna, who reigns unbeaten in the kshatriya world. As payment for his symbolic training, Drona demands that Ekalavya cut off the thumb of his right hand, which would effectively prevent him from wielding the bow anymore.

  GANDHARI: The Princess of Gandhar who is made to marry the blind king Dhritarashtra. Gandhari is celebrated for her devotion: according to Vyaasa’s Mahabharata, she blindfolds herself when she learns that her future husband is sightless. She only removes the blindfold once before her death.

  GANGA: The river-goddess, created from waters of the Cosmic Ocean when Vishnu dug a hole in the universe with his toenail. Ganga too has to spend a short while on earth, birthing the Vasus (of whom Bheeshma is one), as punishment for sharing lustful glances with a mortal – Shantanu in an earlier life – while in Indra’s court.

  GHATOTKACHA: A rakshasa prince, son of Hidimbi and Bheema, Ghatotkacha is actually the oldest Pandava grandson, although he is never considered heir to the throne because of his mixed blood. He comes to the Pandavas’ aid during their thirteen-year exile, and also at Kurukshetra, where his army and he wreak havoc on the Kauravas until he is killed by Karna’s divine astra, Shakti, on the fourteenth night of war.

  HIDIMBI: A rakshasi or demoness who later rules the forest Hidimbavana, Hidimbi is the sister of Hidimba, its cruel, man-eating king. She becomes Bheema’s first wife: the Pandavas encounter her while fleeing from Varanavrata where their cousins tried to burn them alive in a lac palace. Hidimbi never tries to meet Bheema once the Pandavas leave Hidimbavana, but she sends her son Ghatotkacha and his men to support the Pandavas during the Kurukshetra war. She is still worshipped as a goddess in parts of Himachal Pradesh.

  INDRA: The king of gods, god of thunder and lightning; a possessive, mercurial ruler who spends much of his long reign cursing nymphs and mortals.

  KARNA: Kunti’s oldest son, born to her and Surya, the sun god. Kunti, then unmarried and very young, casts away the infant. Karna is found and adopted by a charioteer, Adhiratha, and his wife Radha. His life is defined by the caste of his adopted parents, and he meets resistance and humiliation at every turn, especially when he seeks to train as a warrior. Duryodhana, recognising his unusual talent and worth, befriends him and crowns him as the (vassal) king of Anga. Karna swears eternal allegiance in return and stands by Duryodhana, even after secretly learning his parentage on the eve of the war.

  KAURAVA: Technically, all the descendents of Kuru are Kauravas. But the term is used specifically to refer to the hundred (and one – except Yuyutsu was seldom included in the count) sons of Dhritarashtra.

  KIRMIRA: The rakshasa king of Kamyaka forest, Kirmira is a dear friend of Hidimbi and the brother of Baka, another demon to be killed by Bheema. He comes across the Pandavas during their thirteen-year exile following the game of dice, and is killed by Bheema.

  KRISHNA/MOHINI: Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, is a Yadava chieftain and cousin of the Pandavas, considered one of the most powerful gods in the modern Hindu pantheon. Kingmaker nonpareil, he guides most of the actions of the Pandavas, especially during the course of the war. When no woman agrees to marry Aravan before his sacrifice, Krishna transforms into a woman, Mohini the Enchantress, to marry the Naga prince and to mourn his death.

  KUNTI: One of the queens of Hastinapura, widow of Pandu and mother of Karna and the five Pandavas, Kunti hails from the Yadava tribe and is also Krishna’s paternal aunt.

  LAKSHMANA: Duryodhana’s firstborn, heir to the Kaurava throne. Killed by Abhimanyu, his cousin, on the twelfth day of war.

  MADRI: Pandu’s second wife, Madri is the princess of Madra. She dies on Pandu’s funeral pyre, overcome with guilt at having accidentally catalysed his death – coitus being fatal for Pandu.

  NAKULA: The fourth Pandava brother, and Madri’s son from the Ashwin twins, divine physicians.

  PADATI: A name given to foot soldiers, the greatest casualty of the Mahabharata. Padatis are urged to join the war on the pretext that martyrdom on Kurukshetra ensures direct access to heaven, and freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth and caste.

  PANDU: King of the Kurus for a short while, Pandu is Queen Ambalika’s son from Ved Vyaasa. He is also officially – though not biologically – the father of the five Pandava brothers.

  PANDAVA: the term given to Pandu’s five sons.

  PARASHARA: A great seer, author of some of the founding Hindu scriptures, including the Puranas, and, according to Satyavati, an attentive and bountiful lover, who gives her a son, Ved Vyaasa – and some other practical boons.

  POORNA: The dasi or handmaiden who takes Ambika’s place the second time the latter is ordered by Satyavati to sleep with Ved Vyaasa. Poorna gives birth to Vidura, the only healthy child among the sons sired by Vyaasa. In Vyaasa’s Mahabharata, Poorna remains nameless – perhaps because she never divulges her identity to him.

  SAHADEVA: The fifth Pandava brother, and Madri’s second (also twin) son from the Ashwin twins, divine physicians.

  SATYAVATI: The fisher-princess whose beauty and determination change the course of the Kuru destiny; wife of King Shantanu, and mother of Ved Vyaasa, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya.

  SAUVALI: The dasi whom Dhritarashtra chooses as concubine during Gandhari’s pregnancy. Sauvali has a son from this forced liaison, Yuyutsu, who later becomes a key ally of the Pandava brothers.

  SHAKUNI: Prince of Gandhara, brother of Gandhari, and catalyst of the enmity between the Pandavas and Kauravas. Every heinous deed by Duryodhana, every assassination attempt, every bit of chicanery or duplicity is shown as directly influenced or orchestrated by Shakuni. Yet, he, too, has a reason for unleashing so much hatred among the Kuru cousins.

  SHANTANU: Kuru king, descendant of the lunar dynasty and forefather of the Pandavas and Kauravas – in a manner of speaking. His inability to resist dazzling – and purposeful – women, first Ganga and later Satyavati, would appear to be his defining trait.

  SHUNAKA: An independent-minded canine, one of the earliest of the species. Shunaka is wary of the human race, but not more than of gods and seers, and is averse to the idea of unconditional allegiance to any race. She remembers the past and the future and warns her kin against a close association with mankind. NB: Shunaka is the only fully invented character in this collection: while the myths and ancestors she mentions, the incidents that she invokes, are all recorded in Vyaasa’s Mahabharata or in the Vedas and Puranas, Shunaka herself is a figment of this author’s imagination.

  SUYODHANA (also known as DURYODHANA): The eldest of the hundred Kaurava princes, son of Dhritarashtra and Gandhari. Suyodhana’s hatred and distrust of his cousins, the Pandavas, is the ma
in source of conflict in Hastinapura, prompting the partition of the kingdom, and later, the Kurukshetra war between the two sides of the family.

  ULUPI: Queen of the Nagas, and mother of Aravan. It is Ulupi who grants Arjuna the boon of invincibility in water.

  UTTARAA: Princess of Matsya, the kingdom where the Pandavas seek refuge, incognito, during their thirteenth year of exile. She is married off to Abhimanyu, the Pandava crown prince, as part of the pre-war alliance strategy of the Pandavas to garner support from powerful kingdoms.

  VED VYAASA (Krishna Dvaipavana Vyaasa): The son of Parashara and Satyavati, Ved Vyaasa is considered the author of the original Mahabharata, and the man who divided the Vedas into four and compiled and edited them. He fathered Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura in his spare time.

  VICHITRAVIRYA: The second son of Satyavati and Shantanu, and husband of Ambika and Ambalika. He dies quite early in the story, and his greatest contribution to the narrative is to ratchet up the tension by dying childless.

  VIDURA: Ved Vyaasa’s son from Ambika’s maid, who later becomes Prime Minister of the Kuru kingdom. Vidura is considered the epitome of wisdom and statecraft.

  VRISHALI: Karna’s wife, who belongs to the suta – charioteer and storyteller – community, like Karna’s adopted parents. Vrishali loses her husband and eight of her nine sons in the Mahabharata war. She commits sati on Karna’s pyre.