A land of INFINITE MERCY

Book review: Atreyakam, a novel in Malayalam penned by R Rajasree (2024), in its 25th edition now, is the latest entry into the world of contemporary Mahabharata retellings. She discovers that equations of male virility in bed, with manliness in war, make honour a key word around gender identities. Indeed, Rajasree smuggles in love, intimacy, desire and tenderness into a saga ridden with ambition, strife and power struggle.

By Janaky Sreedharan

Ever since the novel as a literary form has grown into a prominent genre in Indian literature, there has been no dearth of novelists who have drawn inspiration from the Indian epic tradition. Unconstrained by the mores and strictures of an epic society, the characters flowered in the world of the novel into entities breathing individuality and reflexivity.

Thus, some of the finest literary classics like Yayati by VS Khandekar, Mrityunjay by Sivaji Sawant,  Randamoozham by MT Vasudevan Nair,  Parva by SL Bhyrappa, Yajnaseni by Prathiba Ray and Ini Njaan Urangatte by PK Balakrishnan (to name but a few), were born in the Indian regional  languages.

The last two or three decades have seen an equal or a more hospitable space in the scenario of Indian  writing in English where the retelling of myths is boosted by a steadily expanding literary marketplace -- both diasporic and Indian.

The Mahabharata and the Ramayana have sustained themselves brilliantly across centuries, testifying to continuities which more than ruptures our narrative sensibilities. Negotiating gaps in the epic with a critical, subversive eye, urges the present reader to spar with the many given truths handed down across generations. Characters and contexts become portals to address our current predicaments and anxieties.

Retelling is most often a reclamation of the narrative by the unheard.

Atreyakam, a novel in Malayalam penned by R Rajasree , is the latest entry into the world of contemporary Mahabharata retellings. Published in 2024, the novel is already into its 25th edition which has been brought out along with an anthology of critical studies on the work.

Widely acclaimed for its conception, execution and powerful language by common readers and scholars alike, it is a passionate indictment of the conventional moral premises of the epic from the perspective of Niramitran -- a crucial presence, though not much talked about by Mahabharata followers. In many versions of the Mahabharata, this son of Drupada is unnamed till he is marked later as Shikhandi in the Kurukshetra war.

Rajasree addresses this silence around Niramitran, demystifies the myths around his identity and delves into the homophobic undercurrents simmering beneath the surface.

The pluralistic tradition of the Mahabharata strengthens Rajasree's narration as she scours  the different versions of the epic to craft a convincing narrative.  Niramitran is the eldest  son of Drupada before the King is blessed with Draupadi (referred to in the novel as Krishnaa) and Dhrishtadyumna. Niramitran is supposedly Amba reborn to take revenge on Bhishma.

Rajasree gives Niramitran a habitation, a name and a journey of his/her own where, like Orlando by Virginia Woolf, he undergoes a complete transformation of his gender identity; or, rather, owns an ambivalent identity much to the dismay of the mainstream society--a society built on valour, chivalry and bravado.

The seed of this story lies deeply buried within the epic itself where Niramitran is supposed to have exchanged his gender with a Yaksha. Rajasree links this suggestion of ‘gender fluidity’ in the epic with the crisis of empire-building in the Panchala Desa where heteronormativity prevails with all its violence. In a language at once charged and piercing, the novel lays bare the ideological service the epic has been pressed into over a vast period of time.

Niramitran's story has a spatial anchoring in Atreyakam -- a  borderland on the outskirts of the Panchala kingdom, where dwell the discarded and despised beings. It is also a space for the maimed and the wounded to heal themselves. It is a home for the deviant, vulnerable creatures  who   find refuge -- to  feel normal once again.

The entire narrative of the Kuru-Pandu rivalry, which is the most popular story among Mahabharata enthusiasts, unfolds through the eyes of the denizens of Atreyakam. The readers are introduced to multiple characters, spaces, rivers, forests, animals and indigenous groups who are otherwise invisibilized in the dominant versions of the epic.

The scene of action shifts from the palace corridors to the dark recesses of the forests and fringes of a kingdom where secretive lives thrive. The writer re-imagines the exchanges between the city and the forest; the cunning strategies of the powerful to manipulate the marginalized for their own ends. The epic begins to sound eerily familiar ---a disquieting legacy of inter-caste conflict, gendered violence and banished voices of several tribes.

In the process, the writer has been able to etch out an unforgettable Niramitran who is a deeply sensitive and introspective human soul. In the slow transition from Niramitran to Shikhandi, we see the pain and trauma of a third gender in a culture fixated on violent masculinity as a symbol of national pride. Sexual and gender politics is knit seamlessly into this narrative of hypocrisy, false pride and disgrace.  

 Rajasree's portrayal of the ‘Queen of Panchala’, who is otherwise a shadowy figure in the Mahabharata is heart-wrenchingly pathetic. Minute attention given to this tragic figure highlights her absence in the popular versions, while unveiling the fiercely male-centred ethos of the Panchala Kingdom. Equations of male virility in bed, with manliness in war, make honour a key word around gender identities -- both masculine and feminine. 

Indeed, Rajasree smuggles in love, intimacy, desire and tenderness into a saga ridden with ambition, strife and power struggle.

The bonding between Niramitran and Ila, the healer, and his tortuous attachment to Visakha, the eunuch , touches you deep down with their incredible tenacity before human suffering and cruelty.

The epic tradition with all its inner contradictions and interpolations enables the writer to play with it, stretch it to dimensions deeply resonant with the energies of a 21st century India. Stories of supernatural interventions are suggested to be official attempts to camouflage certain lacks and stigmas.

It is interesting to see how the leading figures like Krishna and Arjuna fade into the margins, while those in the sidelines are centred to evoke alternative realities. Metafictonal elements are animated to urge us to reflect on the textual history of the epic and the politics of transmission of knowledge.

The book blurs the boundaries between the 'interpolations' and the 'authentic' versions, chipping away at the very foundations of such divisions. Rajasree unpacks the known stories and rearranges the events into intriguing combinations, laying bear the inner workings.

Needless to say, Atreyakam demands to be translated not only into English but into other Indian (and international) languages as well. Because, at its heart, it is a story of infinite mercy and generosity, inviting us to imagine a unique land of boundless compassion and desire.

Surely, the book is a testament to the fascinating possibilities of the epic revealed by queer imagination. A must read for all – especially literature students and teachers.

Atreyakam 

By R Rajasree

Publisher: Mathrubhumi Books, 2024

---

Janaky Sreedharan is Professor, Department of English, University of Calicut, Kerala. She writes on gender and media and culture, in Malayalam and English. She has also translated Jose Saramago’s Cave into Malayalam.