Pregnant King Read online

  Author’s Note

  And then it begins

  The search

  For the fifth head of Brahma

  His first gave us words

  His second gave us grammar

  His third gave us meter

  His fourth gave us melody

  The last one is missing

  The fifth

  The head with meaning

  The story of the pregnant king is recounted twice in the Mahabharata. Once by the sage Lomasha during the exile of the Pandavas. And the second time by the poet Vyasa during the war with the Kauravas. The story is also retold in several Puranas, each with its own unique twist. Why does this bizarre tale exist, I have wondered. What function does it serve in the sacred chronicles?

  Typically the tale belongs to an earlier era, pre-dating the battle at Kuru-kshetra by many generations. Not so in my book.

  This book is a deliberate distortion of tales in the epics. History has been folded, geography crumpled. Here, Yuvanashva is a contemporary of the Pandavas who engages Arjuna in a dialogue.

  There are new characters like Yuvanashva’s mother, Mandhata’s brother and Shikhandi’s daughter. None of these have any scriptural basis. They have been churned out of my imagination as I have tried to weave a tapestry of tales that at the very least delights.

  Yes, the classical scriptures do tell the tales of Somvat, Sthunakarna and Shikhandi. Stories of Ayli (called Pramila here), Iravan and Bahuchari (called Bahugami here) are part of the rural and hijra traditions of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. But I have let these only inspire, not limit, me. I have even taken the liberty of coalescing the story of Ila and Bhangashvana into one.

  The book is full of hymns, chants, rituals, spells, speculations, philosophies and ancient codes of conduct. These must not be taken as authentic as my intention is not to recreate reality but to represent thought processes.

  At the end of my yagna, after long deliberations with many gods and demons, I find myself holding a pot: the narrative. Within the pot is a potion: a concoction of ideas, thoughts and feelings.

  My patron, the Yajamana, can admire the pot. Or break it. Drink the potion. Or spit it out. Or she may ask, as I often do, what matters more: the pot or the potion?

  Did the events actually happen? Does it matter? Is it really about Shilavati, Yuvanashva, Shikhandi or Somvati? Or is it about love, law, identity, gender, power and wisdom? The impossibility of universal fairness? Who knows?

  Within infinite myths lies the eternal truth

  Who sees it all?

  Varuna has but a thousand eyes

  Indra a hundred

  And I, only two

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to acknowledge the following who helped in various stages of the book enabling me to shape the story: Partho, Anjan, Harpreet, Sopan, Geetanjali, Denis, Mudra, Sameer, Ravi, Seema, Shami, and Trupti.

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,

  Ontario, M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Appllo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Gauteng 2193, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  www.penguin.co.in

  First published by Penguin Books India 2008

  Copyright © Devdutt Pattanaik 2008

  Illustrations copyright © Devdutt Pattanaik 2008

  Front cover illustration by Shijil Narayanan

  Cover design by Puja Ahuja

  All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction. While some characters are not wholly fictional, situations, incidents and dialogues in this work are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. They are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work.

  ISBN: 978-01-4306-347-6

  This digital edition published in 2012.

  e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-345-5