More thoughts on After Kurukshetra

Some time ago I published a review of Mahashweta Devi's After Kurukshetra. Two issues have been bugging me for long, since they were to be added to the review but were not. One is about the story of Nishadins and the other about the attitude towards life that was prevalent in India's past. In a book called myth=mithya: A Handbook of Hindu Mythology, (which I will hopefully review soon) I found a story about the origin of the Nishadas. I want to look at this story by putting it beside Devi's story "Kunti and the Nishadin".


The story is called Pruthu and the Earth-Cow and goes like this:

King Vena did not respect dharma. Angry, the earth-goddess refused to bear fruit. When the sages realized what was happening they picked up blades of grass that turned into weapons and killed Vena. The sages then churned his dead body. The polluting elements were cast away. This substance turned into a nasty-looking creature and was driven into the forest. The creature was the forefather of the Nishadas, or forest tribes. From the pure remnants the sages created the perfect king, Prithu, who was given the bow of sovereignty by the gods. Prithu asked the earth to release her wealth. She refused and ran away in the form of a cow. Prithu chased her, raised his bow, subdues her by threatening to shoot her and finally reassured her that he would uphold dharma. He then led all the living beings to milk her by the code of dharma, under his watchful eye. (Bhagavata Purana)


What was nasty and impure in this story is resurrected by Mahashweta Devi in order to demand justice. But this story in itself has its notion of justness, purity etc too and we need to remember that about Indian ethics before setting off on deconstructing everything. I also think that it is indeed possible to say who is good and who is bad, its not all as grey as it is made out to be by Mahashweta Devi. In "Kunti and the Nishadin"...

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