After Kurukshetra: Translated by Anjum Katyal

Mahashweta Devi raises some very pertinent questions in this book - which is a reinterpretation of the Mahabharata. There are some excellent, thought provoking questions that the writer poses in the book, which are as relevant today, as when this book was published. I think this should be a must read for everyone, now especially when our politicians are using religion and caste as key cards to win elections.But the translation in English, while readable, is pretty formal. So you won’t be able to emotionally connect with the characters.If you can read the original language, Bengali, its best to stick to that.

When we talk or hear about Mahabharat, we talk about this huge war, people who played their parts in it and what lead up to it. But what about the people who were left behind and what was like like from the people who were not from the ruling families? This book throws light on those lives that often go unnoticed. A powerful narrative.

A very different perspective about different class of women. Uttara and her 5 helpers, Kunti, Nishdin and Souvali. All have different expereinces, lifestyles and this books shows us that different perspective nicely.

Very thought provoking, must read in current situation.

have read so many POVs and most don't really stand out. They are written just to be published.This had more soul to it. It's short and narrates loss and indifference.The second chapter is hard hitting. I didn't see that tale taking a turn it took, moved. I was amazed.It's a beautiful book and I'll be reading more of the author's translations.

A brilliant book.

A very different perspective and the view that most of us haven't looked at

54 pages, 3 short stories but when it is Mahasweta Devi shifting through the Mahabharat epic, taking readers on a layered discovery of people and their lives which have fallen through the cracks of the popular epic, you read carefully. Written originally in Bengali and translated by Anjum Katyal, the three stories in this book is a sharp calling out of how events are mostly shaped around men and more so, men in the upper social class and caste. The Mahabharat's main crux, the Kuruskshetra war is pegged in popular imagination as the war of righteousness, as one between good and evil but here, Mahasweta Devi puts the focus on the women at the lowest social class and caste whose men did not even have protective gear to wear when they went to battle and to whom it was only greed that was the core of it all that led to untold sufferings.'The Five Women' addresses the social demands and decorum on widows in terms of how they dress or eat or conduct themselves. Belonging to the lowest class and caste, it is them who are the only ones able to help Uttara, a young widow and mother to be of the Pandava clan come to terms with grief through their companionship, their songs, their gentle questions and the searing life lessons they imbibe. Kunti and the Nishadin is on the burden of guilt that Kunti bears on account of having given up her eldest born, how she is trying to atone by living a life of austerity and by serving Gandhari and Dhirtarashtra in the forrest. She observes the Nishadin women and vice versa separated by caste, by social position and power but when one of them talks to her, it is a powerful diatribe against the oppression that women in power can practise.'Souvali' might come across as a more gentle probing of a lowly born woman's position in the backdrop of her duties to the King but it questions patriarchy and power equations by examining her tenuous ties with her son who has never had a name attached as his father. All three stories make you stop and think, in fact they demand that the reader pause to take a hard look at patriarchal notions that holds women back from companionship and solidarity with other women. A must read.

The Book arrived early and in perfect condition. I love the Mahabharata and all the literature that it inspires. This book is no different. The three stories are:1. Kunti after she retires to the forest and comes face to face with a Nishadin against whose family she had sinned a long time ago.2. Uttara and her companions3. Yuyutsu and his motherThere was always another world hidden in the Mahabharata - Nagas, Nishads, Other local tribes that the Aryans had conquered. These stories bring their travails to light. Also the difference in treatment of women in both cultures is striking. Very Interesting.