Namaste,
For me, there’s no kingdom without a queen. Women
had played varied roles over the years. Mahabharata has many queens, some
known, some powerful, and some left unnamed.
Here, I’ll mention three queens from three
generations who set the stage for future events. Of course, queens like
Satyavati (Bhishma’s stepmother), Rukmini (Krishna’s wife), Sudeshna (King
Virata’s wife), Damayanti (King Nala’s wife), etc., also had important roles.
Even Kunti (though she was technically not a queen for most of her life)
contributed to the events.
River Goddess Ganga
As you read in the post about Ashta Vasus, Ganga was destined to give birth to the Vasus. For this, she had to marry King Shantanu (son of Pratipa) of the Kuru dynasty.
Even before the Vasus were cursed, King Mahabhisa of
the Ikshvaku race was cursed by Brahma for staring at Ganga doing an important
ritual. The king was to be born as a human, and Ganga would help break the
curse. Later, the Vasus requested her to give birth to them when they had to be
born as humans.
One day, when King Pratipa was doing tapasya at the
banks of the Ganga, she went to sit on his right leg and asked him to marry
her. The king said the right side was meant for daughters and daughter-in-law,
so he would welcome her as his son’s wife and made a promise. Years later, his
son Shantanu went to the river bank, saw Ganga standing there, and fell in love
with her. She agreed to marry him only if he promised never to question her
actions. He agreed. However, unable to see her drown their children, Shantanu
questioned her. She revealed the truth and left with the eighth child
(Bhishma). Once the child was trained and old enough, she handed him over to
Shantanu as the heir to the throne.
The kingdom of Hastinapura flourished with abundance
and prosperity when Ganga was the queen and lived in the palace with Shantanu.
And why not? She was the source of life, after all!
Queen Gandhari
Gandhari was the princess of Gandhara (present-day
Afghanistan), the daughter of King Subala. Gandhari worshipped Shiva and got a
boon that she would give birth to a hundred sons. When Bhishma got to know of
this, he approached King Subala with a proposal to get Gandhari married to
Dhritarastra. However, the king didn’t agree, as Dhrtarastra was blind. Bhishma
won him over with persistence. When Gandhari heard of this, she showed her acceptance by
wrapping a silk cloth over her eyes. She said she didn’t wish to see his lack
of sight and would continue to keep the blindfold until her last
breath.
Gandhari was shown as a regular flawed human in
Mahabharata. Be it her jealousy when Kunti delivered a child or her desire to
protect her son Dhuryodhana despite knowing his flaws. In Udyoga Parva,
Gandhari was also asked to come to the Sabha to convince Dhuryodhana to make
peace with the Pandavas. Her words were quite ruthless compared to
Dhritarastra, who loved his sons a little too much (and was already jealous of
the Pandavas). She straight out told Dhuryodhana that he was wicked and would
remember their warnings when he faced death in the form of Bhima. She added
that she could see it was too late to change his mind.
While Gandhari’s role as a queen is not explored,
she does come into the limelight with her curse on Krishna. The Curse of Gandhari by Aditi Banerjee presents the
epic from her POV. (I haven’t read the book, but know Aditi is a dharmic
person)
Empress Drapuadi
Draupadi
is the princess of Panchala, the daughter of King Draupada, and the wife of
the five Pandava brothers. Draupadi was born from the yagna fire and is known
as Yagnaseni. She wasn’t born as a child but as a teenager, along with her
brother Dhrstadyumna, who came out of the yagna fire wearing armor and holding
a sword.
Draupadi was the queen of Indraprastha and became an
empress when Yudhistira completed the Rajasuya. However, she had to spend the
next thirteen years of her life in exile when Yudhistira lost the game of dice
to Shakuni. After the war, Draupadi became the queen of Hastinapura and ruled
the kingdom for 36 years.
In Aranyaka Parva, Draupadi and Satyabhama had a
conversation in the forest. Krishna and Satyabhama went to visit the Pandavas
to offer support. Draupadi spoke about her role as a wife, daughter-in-law, and
queen. We learn she was right in the middle of things and had complete control
over the administration and finances.
To quote Draupadi, “It was I who listened to
complaints and laid down rules to be observed. I knew the entire palace system,
from the maidservants and other palace workers to the palace cowherds and
shepherds. I was the one, not the Pandavas, who knew the details of income and
expenditure; I alone knew their total revenue. My husbands went about their
various pursuits, and I managed their treasury, as inexhaustible as Varuna’s
ocean.”
Draupadi was capable, confident, and assertive.
Unlike the modern retellings, she wasn’t presented as an arrogant woman but an
assertive one who spoke her mind when the need arose. She wasn’t proud of her
beauty either. Her beauty was only a part of her but didn’t represent her entire
personality. In a way, some feminist retellings have done more disservice to
Draupadi than elevate her.
I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z.
The AI images are made on Bing.
This is a great set of Queens. Today I talked about my Witch Queens.
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Tim Brannan, The Other Side blog
2024 A to Z of Dungeons & Dragons, Celebrating 50 Years of D&D
Thank you. Oh, witches. :D Love them.
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