Women in the Mahabharata

Paradigms of Gender
The law of Manu says, A woman is not fit for independence The stages of a womans life are defined by the identity of the man protecting her

Mens roles - Asramas

Brahmachari (student) Grihasta (householder) Vanaprasta (forest dweller or Hermit) Sannyasi (renunciant)

Womens Roles
Girlhood Householder
Marriage Motherhood

Widowhood

Girlhood
The young girl is under her fathers protection Dowries and marriages were and are expensive Her reputation and virginity are all-important to her marriageability Traditionally, girls were married early, even prior to puberty

Marriage
In marriage, the wife is under her husbands protection Following the wedding the bride became part of her husbands family She was expected to defer to her mother-inlaw in all things and is generally treated as a servant

Motherhood
Motherhood was venerated and romanticized The high position of the mother is in contrast to the low position of women in society in general If a woman gave birth to a son, her status was greatly enhanced within the family Daughters were considered economic liabilities because they were married off so young that their labor benefitted the grooms family rather than their own

Widowhood
At the death of her husband, a woman came under the protection of her sons A wife shared her husbands karma and his destiny. His premature death was often regarded as her responsibility Few options for a widow: Sati, self-immolation on the husbands funeral pyre Widows were generally not permitted to remarry, even though women were frequently widowed in their twenties and thirties They were sometimes expected to shave their heads to be unattractive to men, were given the hardest household tasks to perform and forbidden to eat with the rest of the family

Women in Myth
Ramayana:
Sita -wife of Rama Kausalya and Kaikeyi- wives of Dasaratha

Mahabharata:
Kunti -wife of Pandu, mother of most of the Pandava brothers Gandhari Wife of Dhritrashtra, mother of the Pandavas rivals Draupadi -wife of the 5 Pandava brothers

Sita
Considered the ideal wife because of her fidelity and obedience to her husband When Rama is exiled she shares his wanderings She is kidnapped and held captive by a demon. Rama eventually saves her. When Rama is restored to his throne, Sitas virtue is questioned and proved by ordeal When the people begin to doubt her again, Rama, banishes her. Her two sons become Ramas heirs and she is eventually brought back to Rama after the horse sacrifice but she asks to be swallowed up by her mother, the Earth

Kausalya and Kaikeyi

Rama's mother, Kausalya, and stepmother, Kaikeyi, are a good example of rivalry in a polygamous household. They were both wives of Dasaratha, the King of Kosala. Dasaratha chose Rama to succeed him but Kaikeyi, his youngest wife, wanted her son Bharata to be his heir instead. Long ago, she had saved Dasarathas life and he granted her two boons that she has kept for future use. The servant reminds her of this and Kaikeyi threatens to kill herself if Dasaratha does not accede to her. First, she wants her son crowned and second, she wants Rama exiled for 14 years.

Kunti
In her youth, she was given a mantra which would summon any deva to have a child by him without a pregnancy She bore one son, Karna, by the god Surya, before her marriage to Pandu, but abandoned him. She was married to Pandu, who could not father children because of a curse She used the mantra three times with Pandu, first receiving a son, Yudishtira, from the god Yama, then Bhima from the god Vayu, and thirdly Arjuna, from the god Indra Kunti revealed the mantra to Madri, Pandus second wife, who bore twin sons, Nakula and Sahadeva, from the twin gods the Asvins Later, Pandu dies because of the curse, Madri commits Sati, and Kunti spends most of her long life as a widow. She never remarries but is treated as a venerable matriarch

Gandhari
Was a princess, married to Dhritrashtra, who was blind, much older than she was and (because of his blindness) unable to inherit the throne, though he was the eldest. When she learned from her maid that he was blind, Gandhari voluntarily blindfolded herself saying that she decided to deny herself the pleasure of sight that her husband could never relish. Gandhari is portrayed as a model wife because she chose to share her husband's blindness. She was the mother of 100 sons and one daughter

Draupadi
Draupadi is the wife of the 5 Pandava brothers Kunti had promised Madri that all the Pandavas would share all things, so they end up sharing Draupadi too. One of the most important scenes in the Mahabharata is the disrobing of the humiliated Draupadi She is stripped of her sari but she prayed to Krishna who provided her with a never-ending drape. She has one son by each brother, but none of her sons survive the war