Mahashweta Devi
Topic: Society in Early India: Kinship, Varna-Jati, Women · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Kinship, Caste and Class - Early Societies"
Meaning
Mahashweta Devi was a modern Bengali writer and activist. She is known for speaking out against the exploitation of tribal people and other people on the margins of society. Her retellings show that the Mahabharata is a "living text", one that people keep questioning. She asks what the Sanskrit epic leaves out, especially about poor and forest people.
Example
In her short story "Kunti O Nishadi", Kunti meets a nishada (forest-dwelling) woman in the forest after the war. The woman reminds Kunti of the house of lac. There, to escape, the Pandavas let an innocent nishada woman and her five sons burn to death in their place. The story makes Kunti face a crime the epic barely notices.
Related concepts
- Composition of the Mahabharata
- Sutas
- Vyasa
- Narrative and didactic sections
- Itihasa
- Bhagavad Gita
- Hastinapura
- Draupadi's marriage
- Ramayana