Mahabharata – 167

by

Sankar Mukherjee

and

Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                       Aadivamsavatarana Parva

Story of Dirghatama continued

Dirghatama is said to be a very learned and powerful sage. He is famed to have composed quite a few hyms of the Vedas.He was blinded in the mother’s womb itself by the curse of  the great Jupiter or Vrihaspati who was the preceptor of the gods. If we call up the episode we get a glimpse of the status of women in the Mahabharata. Mamata, the mother of Dirghatama was the wife of Utathya. Vrihaspati was the younger brother of Utathya. And he wanted to cohabit with his elder sister in law. This shows that in ancient India younger brothers could have sexual access to their elder sister in law. And the consent of the women are not necessary in that context. Mamata was already carrying. So she was unwilling to mate with Vrihaspati. But Vrihaspati did not pay heed to her. There is no doubt that Bhisma had great prowess. But the way Bhisma forcibly carried away three women from the court of the king of the Kasi does not speak of the liberty of the women in those days. Bhisma at the time of carrying of the women did not take their consent. Swaymvara was an institution where a woman would choose her spouse. But Bhisma’s prowess put the institution out of joints. And Bhisma it is said was widely famous for his wisdom, knowledge and great character. In the light of the Mahabharata Bhisma could do no wrong. Similarly with us men in the world the gods are role models. And Vrihaspati the guru of the gods committed an incest in the light of modern thinking. He defied the wishes of her sister in law. Even the little child in the womb protested. But Vrihaspati, the heartless, cursed the child yet to be born and paid no heed to the child’s entreaties. And ironically enough it has been pointed out in the Mahabharata that Vrihaspati was in control of his desires. So are the sages in the Mahabharata. They were in control of their desires. But ironically enough they did not fail to enjoy any woman who came by them. Thus it seems that free sex was allowed for those who were in power during the Mahabharata days. Whether the woman had consent to that was out of question. The Mahabharata over and over again praises the control of desire for the betterment of the self. In the context of the life style of the sages we wonder whether the control of desire is at all necessary for one’s spiritual uplift. In our perusal of the Mahabharata we have seen women more concerned with the continuation of the lineage of their spouses. So even if one becomes a widow and without a child one had better go to the male of the upper caste for getting a child. And Bhisma tells us how the Kshatriya clan was revived with the seeds of the brahmins. This suggests that sexual union does not necessarily imply love between the participants in the activity of the sexual union. Does it not mean that sexual union could be enacted for a purpose and the question of mutual love does not arise there. If the wife of a person mates with another person the child there of will belong to the husband of the aforesaid wife. In fact begetting a child with the aid of a woman was all that the Mahabharata looked forward to.Even the women were tuned to this outlook. So it mattered little if a woman was abandoned by his mate after she was impregnated.There has been seldom the wife’s  lament for the absence of her husband once she is carrying.Did the poet of the Mahabharata give space to the laments of Manasa when her husband Jaratkaru left her. Curiously enough we have seen children in the womb speak audibly to the common run of men in the Mahabharata days. We have seen Chyavan in the womb coming out untimely to destroy the ogre who sought to carry off his mother. This is not all. The child in the womb as per the Mahabharata could study the Vedas even while in the womb. Well Julia Kristeva posits that a child might develop the potential to learn language even in the womb. Be that as it may, we must read the Mahabharata in the light of the rules set down by the society of the text or by the society forged by the Mahabharata. It matters little whether the society of the Mahabharata saw eye to eye with the then society or not. And hereby it could be pointed out that modern political thought states that earlier one tribe used to fight another and often the victorious among them would own the women that belong to the vanquished tribe. One might find this force theory in some shape in the Mahabharata. When the kshatriyas were killed all over the globe the brahmins mated with the kshatriya women and the latter brought forth children. But the children did not belong to the brahmins.They became kshatriyas as per their mother’s caste. This is a striking point on which we had better deliberate.