The story of Shikhandin from the epic Mahabharata is particularly intriguing because it highlights his trans-transgender disposition. Born as a girl child to Drupad the king of Panchal, and named Shikhandini, she goes on to live the life of a male archer eventually killing the great teacher Bhishma. In Mahabharata Shikhandin’s trans-gender state is attributed to the story of Amba who takes revenge on Bhishma. Here is another version that explains Shikhandin’s story of gender transformation.

According to the South Indian version of Panchatantra, there was king who was childless for many years. After performing many vows and sacrifices, his wife finally bore him children. But to his disappointment all the children were girls and the King longed for a boy. Frustrated the King decided to abandon his queen and remarry so that he could get a baby boy and the heir to his kingdom. But as the queen was pregnant again with a child, his minister pleaded with him to wait till she delivered, as the astrologer had predicated that the heir to the King would be born this time.The King agreed to wait.

But alas! Once again it was a baby girl. The minister was distraught and worried and he decided to hide the baby girl and sent the astrologer to the King with the news that a baby boy was born, but as the birth was during an inauspicious moment, the father should not see the face his child for the next sixteen years. Else, it would cause grave danger to the King’s life. Thus the baby girl grew up in the palace hidden from the view of everyone.

As soon as the prescribed fifteen years passed, the minister approached the King and said” Oh King! Our prince has grown into a handsome young man and we need to find a suitable girl for him before he turns sixteen. Please allow me to approach the neighbouring King for his eligible daughter.” The minister then marched to the neighbouring kingdom and asked the King to surrender his daughter for the prince, and the neighbouring King gladly agreed.

Meanwhile back at the palace a Brahmarakshasa who happened to see the beautiful hidden princess fell madly in love with her and begged the minister to allow a meeting with her. The cunning minister said “Well ! Brahmarakshasa, I can allow you to meet her but only on the condition that you will exchange your manhood with the princess for the coming six days.” Bhrahmarakshasa agreed and thus Bhrahmarakshasa turned into woman and the princess turned into a man. Minister immediately arranged the wedding of the ‘prince’ with the daughter of the neighbouring King.

The six days of the agreement passed and the ‘prince’ had to return his manhood to Brahmarakshasa and take back the womanhood. The Prince with a heavy heart went to Brahmarakshasa and said “ Oh Brahmarakshasa , here I have come to return your manhood as we had agreed. You can turn me back into a woman again.” But to his surprise Brahmarakshasa begged him to continue as a man. “ Oh prince I beg of you to allow me remain in my current female form. I am now madly in love with another man and pregnant with his child. There is no way I can turn back into a man in this state. So please.”

The Prince returned joyfully to the palace as a man and took the reigns of the country as the new King.

The story goes on to state, it was the same Bramharakshasa who was born as Shikhandin in his next birth.

Story collected by : Vidya Kamat
Source: Tamil Temple Myths By David Dean Shulman
Location : Tamil Nadu
Image Copyright: Vidya Kamat

There are some questions in Ramayana that have remained a mystery. For instance, why the wicked and powerful Ravana, who was known for abducting and sexually assaulting wives of other kings could not force himself upon Sita after abducting her to Lanka?

Valmiki’s Ramayana describes a number of occasions when Ravana tries to threaten Sita and coerce her to surrender to his whim and fancy. But she remains unmoved and unaffected by his threats and cajoling.What could be the reason the mighty Ravana could not subdue gentle Sita’s mind and body?

In the Vanaparva of Mahabharat (280), Sage Vaishampayan narrates the following incident to King Janmejaya, and throws light on the above mystery to reveal why Ravana could not succeed in taking advantage of Sita.

After abducting and carrying off Sita to Lanka, Ravana kept her captive in Ashokavana surrounded by demonesses. The terrifying demonesses threatened Sita in all possible ways demanding Sita, surrender to Ravana as he was the most powerful King. But Sita categorically refused the demands by saying “Besides Rama I would not let any man touch my body”. To break Sita’s will, these demonesses began to torture her mentally and physically. Only demonesses Trijata, was sympathetic to the plight of Sita.

Trijata was not only kind to Sita, but she also assured Sita not to fear Ravana’s threats as he would never be able to touch her without her consent. When Sita, asked the reason why Trijata was so certain about this, Trijata replied, “Oh Sita, You would always be protected by Nalakubar’s curse that is holding back Ravana”. “And why did Nalakubar curse Ravana?” asked Sita, and Trijata replied “Once Ravana violated Rambha, the wife of Nalakubar and the daughter of Kuber, without her consent. When Nalakubar came to know of this he became livid with rage. He cursed Ravana that if he ever touches a woman without her consent, his head would splinter into a thousand pieces.” Ravana was bound by this curse and could no longer force himself upon any woman without her consent. Trijata assured Sita that she would be safe as long as she remains steadfast in her devotion to Ram, who would come and rescue her from Ravana’s captivity.

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Story Collected by: Vidya Kamat
Text Source: Mahabharatachi Shapvani by R. Bhide ( Marathi)
Location: Pan India
Image Copyright: Vidya Kamat

The Oriya poet Sarla Das from 15th C. reveals through his poetic works the not so apparent connection between Jagannath of Puri and Shri Krishna of Dwarka .

Das, a poet born in a farmer’s household wrote the Oriya version of Mahabharata, which is one of the first retellings of Mahabharata in a regional language. Written in dandi meter of bardic poetry, the characters in Oriya Mahabharata speak in the voice of tribal people. Although Sarla Das followed the themes and plots of the original epic, he also added folk stories, colloquialisms and depictions of local Oriya life in his telling of the Mahabharata.

The story of Jagannath is one such tale found in Sarla Das’s work in Maushala Parva of Mahabharata. The narrative begins at the point when the entire Yadava clan has perished in the war and Shri Krishna too has lost his life to the poisonous arrow shot by hunter Jara who mistook the reclining (sleeping) Krishna’s feet for the ears of a grasing deer. Das departs from the original story at this point and inserts the following story indicating Krishna’s association with Sabara tribe , hinting that Krishna as Jagannath could have been originally a tribal deity.

The story proceeds in this manner…

Arjuna while searching for Krishna in the aftermath of the war stumbled upon the dead body of Krishna. Grief stricken and heartbroken at the lose of his dearest friend, Arjuna tried to cremate the body according to the shashtras, but could not. Just then a voice from the heaven told Arjuna to float Krishna’s pinda* in the ocean. Ajruna with heavy heart obeyed the heavenly command and set Krishna’s pinda in the waters. Meanwhile Narayana ( Krishna) hid himself among Sabars** in the forest by incarnating himself as Madhava, and sabaras began worshiping him ( Krishna) in the image of Sabrinarayan. When the Vaishnavite King of Puri came to know that Vishnu/Krishna is living among the sabars, he sent an emissary to locate and retrieve him. The Brahmin Vasu, emissary of the King spend years searching for Madhava and finally succeeded in locating him. But before Vasu could formally request Madhava to accompany him to the King’s palace, Madhava vanished from view after advising Vasu to tell the King to install a stone deity at Puri.

Is chastity a desirable virtue only for a woman? And is chastity all about sexual fidelity? This story from a Tamil version of the Mahabharata illustrates how true friendship between men can be an equally lofty virtue.

One day, in Hastinapura, in a rare moment of relaxation, Karna happened to be playing dice with Duryodhana’s wife, Bhanumathi in her harem. Duryodhana was, however, not present, as he was out attending to the kingdom’s affairs. Meanwhile, Karna and Bhanumati were thoroughly enjoying the game. But as time progressed, Bhanumati slowly started to lose to Karna.

The Aasana tree is a common Indian deciduous tree. The spines on its bark tell the story of a time dating back to the Mahabharata. The story of Bhishma, before he became Bhishma.

Prince Devavrata, the handsome son of King Shantanu of Hastinapura, rides out of the palace gates one morning upon his chariot. Young and restless, perhaps even a tad reckless, Devavrata is not still the wise old Bhishma, who will live on in the collective memory of Indians for centuries.

The golden glow of the morning sun lights up the capital city. Citizens bow before the prince, making way for his speeding chariot as it rides out of the city limits. Charismatic successor of the kingdom, Devavrata rides into the forest with a young vigour and confident flair.

In Mahabharata there are numerous didactic tales advising Kings on the rules of engagement in a political scenario. The tale of Lomasha and Palita from the Shanti Parvan (138) explains why a wise enemy is better than a foolish friend.

Deep inside a thick forest there stood a huge banyan tree. It was home to various species of wild animals and snakes. Inside a hole near the roots of this huge banyan tree lived a rat by name Palita and on one of its branches lived a cat by the name Lomasha. Lomasha subsisted entirely on the birds that would visit the tree. However, Palita always lived in fear of being killed by Lomasha and hardly ventured out his hole.

Vaishampanaya narrates the tale of a remarkable brahmin and minister from Mahabharata whose valuable advice to Dhritarashtra went unheard
The story goes that the worried father and distressed King saw his dream of getting Duryodhana installed as king of Hastinapur fading as he found the Pandavas growing from strength to strength. Their superior skills were particularly evident after they defeated the powerful ruler of Panchal, King Drupada. Dhritrashtra grew suspicious of them and summoned his finest minister Kanika for his advice. Kanika an expert political counsel responded with an animal fable that is reminiscent of the tales from Panchtantra and Hitopadesa.
He addressed the king, “My majesty possessing the strength of thousand elephants, listen to me and do not be angry with me for saying what I am going to say.” A king’s business is to rule and to extend his might and influence; he should not make mistakes himself but profit from other’s mistakes. Rule with a vigilant eye and incapacitate your enemy with conciliation, money, discord and punishment.