This is a book review of 'The Pregnant King' a mythological fiction written by Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik and published by Penguin India. This review was published in Deccan Herald, Bangalore.
Taking us back to the Vedic age, this book explores issues of gender identity and power that continue to remain relevant through time.
Deriving from Mahabharata that contains a plethora of myths, Devdutt Pattanaik, in his latest novel The Pregnant King, weaves an interesting narrative with contemporary relevance.Myths, being rooted in historical contexts are indeed a-historical for their inherent messages. These axiomatic messages are conveyed through dialectic between the symbolic representations of opposites; dilemmas and contradictions. Mahabharata is a meta-text having several subtexts; one of them is the story of Yuvanshava, the king of Vallabhi who drinks a magical potion and becomes pregnant. Pattanaik takes creative liberty to change the chronology that makes sub-stories run parallel to or to coalesce with the central story in order to highlight the moral dilemma of gender and power in the Vedic period, that is relevant even today. The narrative starts with the great war for dharma in Kurukshetra, in which all Kshtriya kings from all the kingdoms in Aryavarta are taking sides. But Yuvanshava, the king of Vallabhi, is forbidden by his mother Shilavati as he has no heir even after 13 years of three marriages. He is not allowed to even rule Vallabhi though he is a consecrated king because, “a king must provide proof of virility before he can rule.” On the other hand, Shilavati, an intelligent woman, rules Vallabhi efficiently but being a widow, cannot sit on the throne. She is a proxy ruler. In Vallabhi, there is a temple of Ileshwara, a God who blesses the childless with children. Ileshwara becomes Ileshwari on new moon night and remains in a female form for a fortnight. Ileshwara and Ileshwari bless men and women separately. This reminds Shiva’s form of ardha-narishwara. This resolves the contradictions between masculinity and feminity; some male characters in this novel have feminine qualities like Shikhandi and Bahugami.Shilavati continues to rule Vallabhi on the plea that she will enter vanprastha when her son fathers a son. Then a yagna is organised in which two Sidhas, Yaja (mind and truth) and Upajaya (heart and destiny), invoke forces of nature and manipulate them by various rituals. During the yagna, there is a ceremony in which Yuvanshava and his first wife have to give cows to newly wed Brahmin couples. Here, the tale takes a twist as a Brahmin boy named Somvat dressed as a woman (Somavati) comes to receive cows with his friend Sumedha. It was a disruption in the ceremony that enrages Vallabhi. Somvat, while waiting in the dark cell for the verdict by the king at dawn, encounters a Yaksha. Sthunakarna takes his manhood thus turning him into a woman. The same Yaksha had saved the reputation of Shikhandi who was born a girl but raised as a boy by donating his manhood to prove his gender. Shikhandi never returned the manhood that he had borrowed from Sthunakarna. It had made Sthunakarna genderless. The rules of dharma are rigid as the lineage and gender are given and hence, both Sumedha and Somavati were burnt alive. They became pisachas because they were not allowed to cross Vaitarni due to ambiguity in their gender and lineage. Though the yagna was disrupted, the two sidhas produced a magical potion and left it in a pot in the king’s mahasabha. By mistake, a tired Yuvanshava drank the potion and became pregnant. He delivers a son Mandhata from his thigh. Myths of Nara and Narayana and of Aruni talk of men delivering babies. Yuvanshava starts having motherly emotions conflicting with his gender and identity. Yuvanshava says, “I am seed and soil. Man and woman. Or perhaps neither. A creature suspended in between, neither here or there?”The Pregnant King is an interesting reading for the simplicity of its language and the lyricism. Devdutt Pattanaik transposes us to the Vedic period and makes us draw parallels across epochs with similar socio-cultural definitions of gender and power.
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