DEGENERATION VERSUS REGENERATION IN MAHASWETHA DEVI'S AFTER KURUKSHETRA

ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 1 DEGENERATION VERSUS REGENERATION IN MAHASWETHA DEVI’S AFTER KURUKSHETRA Dr. V. Anbarasi Principal ®, GASC, Pappireddipatti, Dharmapuri Dt. [email protected] https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17287438 Abstract War, is the evilest of all the endeavours of man. War paves the cruellest way for destruction, death, decay and inexplicable suffering – both physical and psychological, leaving indelible shock marks on the affected. This article analyses the aftermath of war among the nonparticipants of war, namely the women folks. Women, during the kurukshetra war times were passive lookers on and not active soldiers. The writer Mahaswetha Devi, in her own characteristic way, makes her readers contemplate on the repercussions of war from a different perspective. How does war ruin the life of the innocent family members of the innocent warriors is so authentically substantiated by this great social activist in an inimitable manner. War does not discriminate or spare people of any walk of life. How life in total is pulled into a whirlpool like chaos and what is the possibility of regeneration in this pitiable condition of degeneration are the points studied through analysing Devi’s three stories in this text After Kurukshetra. This article makes use of Margret Atwood’s theory on basic victim positions and the theory of existentialism with its four pillars of existential therapy namely freedom, responsibility, meaning, and isolation to address the ultimate concerns and conditions of human existence in general and that of the characters in the stories in particular, encouraging individuals to take self-directed choices and explore their own existence with openness and curiosity. Keywords: Degeneration, destruction, isolation, responsibility, guilt, trauma, denial, acceptance, resistance, creative non-victim, meaninglessness, regeneration, revival and freedom. “There is but one evil, war. All the other proclaimed evils such as hate, greed, discrimination, and jealousy are only subcategories of it.” – José Barreiro “Wars are not acts of God. They are caused by man, by man-made institutions, by the way in which man has organized his society.” – Vinson “War itself is, of course, a form of madness. It’s hardly a civilized pursuit. It’s amazing how we spend so much time inventing devices to kill each other and so little time working on how to achieve peace.” – Cronkite “War is as outmoded as cannibalism, chattel slavery, blood-feuds, and duelling, an insult to God and humanity, a daily crucifixion of Christ.” – Lester “I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.” –Sherman “There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever.” – Thomas Edison War is certainly never a mandatory inevitable necessity that without which human beings cannot sustain. All the quotations enlisted above very clearly define the reasons for the war and the ultimate outcome of it. No common and sane person would ever advocate the advent of war. Even in the 21st century, proclaimed to be an era of the most impactful and advanced technology, wars are imminent and the globe keeps experiencing the worst sabotage and suffering. While the noblest creation of God has been proving his so called supremacy over the other living species through his unparalleled feats like getting into the space, setting his foot on moon and aspiring to live in mars and so on, he also exposes that his endeavours are not only towards the ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 2 constructive side but that of the destructive too. The worst and cruellest outcome of his sweat and pursuit is the invention of the warfare ammunitions and their potency to swipe away the living identity within a micro second. Though it has been proved from time immemorial that war causes only death, destruction, suffering, pain and irrevocable health hazards, a nation calls itself the strongest only when empowered with possession of all the deadly weapons and gadgets. The advancement in technology has enhanced the quality of war by instigating people to wage instead of a physical war, a bio war. The precious sacrifice of the fighters is glorified in the name of noble patriotism, while it leaves the family of the deceased in the lurch. No compensation offered in the name of medal, award or reward will empower the family with the strength and might that would have nurtured the members. While war literature mostly depicts the causes and consequences of war by delineating in detail the struggles and bravery of the soldiers for the cause of the nation or the ideology which they hold dearer than anything, and sings the glory of patriotism, it hardly brings to limelight the irrevocable setback the war has caused in the lives of the family members of the warriors. War is generally treated as a masculine affair. Only in rarest cases, history documented the heroic participation of women warriors. Whether in the war field or out of it, women are equally or more victimised than their male counterparts. Once a war is declared and soldiers are summoned, it is well known that they should either do or die or do and die. No doubt death is the ultimatum of every living species but through war it is being invited on a massive scale. When people are affected with contagious diseases, they fall a prey to the fatal illness and that is inevitable and cannot be prevented. But war is a man-made cause and without any personal reasons people have to face a barbarous or brutal end which is not for the good of anything. That the dead soldiers happen to face a premature death out of compulsion is the saddest brutal and bitter truth about war. Many talents that would have constructively contributed for the betterment and uplift of humanity faces a meaningless end. The families that depend solely on the male members are miserably dangling in an ambivalent state not deciphering how to proceed further. While the dead rest in peace the living suffers and struggles miserably for sustenance. Existence becomes a great challenge for the survivors of the deceased. The sudden and untimely death makes the members lose faith in the very concept of life. They are highly obsessed with the very validity of meaning of life. They strongly feel that life is meaningless and some, owing to the traumatic state turn into deviant personalities making life a hell on earth for themselves and their kith and kin. So war in total results only in devastation and degeneration. The brutality of the war fare affairs make people lose faith in customs, morals, religious faith and ethical codes. The futility of existence instils in them a barbaric attitude and they degrade into bestiality. Mahaswetha Devi, the most vibrant social activist and a humanistic writer retells the aftermath of the war of Kurukshetra from an unexpected perspective. The three stories in this collection very subtly brings to the light the sensitivity and impact of war on the women of both the royal and common folks. The rajavritta and the janaviritta as put forth by the writer are equally afflicted because of the war. The general conception is that women of the royal family, despite the irrevocable loss of their men will be able to live a peaceful life because of their royal status. The widows of the common soldiers, it is believed, on the other hand will be finding life wretched as their life would be enveloped with poverty and not much of an external support. Devi’s descriptions of the mass cremation of the dead soldiers and the resultant black smoke that hovered around the environment for days together and the scorching hot earth bring to the mind’s eye the goriness of war. That being the fate of the foot soldiers, Devi highlights the ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 3 wretched conditions of the royal widows and the common widows. The five young widows of Gurujungal are the miniature representatives of the widows of the foot soldiers. Their acceptance of the inevitability, their willingness to rejuvenate their lives, the promising scope offered by their community, their aspiration to start life anew, their acquisition of a lot skills, their harmonious life in tune with nature, their resilience, their ability to face challenges, their contributory stature in life, the equal importance attributed to them both in personal and vocational life, the empowerment enjoyed by them and their decisiveness are all very emphatically brought through Devi’s lingual lens. While there is true life and liveliness in the lives of the so called women of the underdogs, the life of the affluence and royalty on the other hand is shrouded with denial, deprival, devastation and frugality. They have to undertake a shadowy existence, absolutely deprived of liveliness, laughter, celebration and lustre. Covered in white, eating the frugal meal offered, undertaking penance and fasting and staying in isolation they have to exist in abstinence. Even while they lived with their husbands, their movements are highly confined within the four walls of the palace and they never are permitted to experience a contributory life. They have to be mere lookers on and could not be participatory. Even in the child rearing or grooming, they have no say and they could not even name the child as per their wish. Attainment of widowed further pushes them into stringent codes of life and conduct. The war resulted in bringing utter disappointment, absolute denial and everlasting damnation in the life of the royal widows. Meekly resigned to their bitter fate, they exist a miserable meaningless life not knowing how to wriggle out of it. The widows of the common lot on the other, though are equally saddened, sorrowful and shocked, know how to fine tune their mere existence into real life. Their sense of purpose of life, meaning of life, responsibilities of life and above all fulfilment of life motivates them to be optimistic. Life being a phenomenon of creation, they move to their native with unfailing hope in revival and rejuvenation. The elders of the clan have completely comprehended the purpose of life and they would ensure that they would not let the life of these young women go astray. This freedom that permeates in the life of the common lot is the greatest boon conferred enabling people to experience the beauty of life and make their existence a meaningful one. Having distinguished the affairs of the common and royal widows in the first story “Five Women” Devi, in her second story “Kunti and Nishadin” brings out the strength and might of the tribal women by measuring that with the qualities of the royal Kunti. All is said to be fair in love and war. The foremost attribute of any war is to emerge victorious. Both the sides engage themselves with utmost vigour to defeat the opponent and attain success. The so called victorious too would have faced a lot of losses despite the final gain. The impact of the war held leaves its own telling indelible marks on the psyche of both the victorious and the victimised. This story analyses the after math of the Kurukshetra war on the woman of rajavirutta especially on Kunti. The theory of existentialism contains concepts like existence precedes essence, existential crises, angst, facticity, courage, absurdism and authenticity. In this story, Devi’s focus is on the mind of Kunti. After the war is over which proved a fatal exploration for all the Gouravas, it provided the much awaited fortune, right and might to the Pandavas. Kunti, being the mother of Pandavas, should have rejoiced in her status of being the Rajamatha – the Royal Mother. Now that her son Yudhistra is the crowned king, she should have attained serene peace and ecstasy. But the revelation of Karna as his first born, his brutal death, the unbearable sight of the young widows in the palace and above all the hapless stature of King Dhritharastra and his queen Kanthari torment her most. Holding her inability to openly admit Karna as her son into the innermost deepest region of her heart, she is unable to withstand the pressure. The decision of ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 4 Dhirtharastra and Kanthari to get into the forest and wait to be succumbed by death further shatters her. She resolves to render her unconditional service to both of them since she feels that the brutal outcome of war is the prime cause for their hapless state. Her sons emerge victorious which led to the victimised condition of the elderly members of the royal family. Kunti feels that it is her responsibility to provide the most conducive ambience for the two elder royal members to embrace the end. She volunteers to desert all the royal cosy comforts in pursuit of atonement to all her hitherto non-admitted self. In the quietest and uninterrupted jungle serenity she musters adequate courage to spell out, lament and acknowledge her concealed dark secrets. Her royal blood always makes her treat herself superior and she is governed with a sense of high self-esteem that even in the thick jungle she feels to be so. Surrounded only with the species of mother Nature, she openly admits her guilt and crime. The presence of birds and animals has not diverted her from her venture. She treats in equal vain the presence of the tribal people. The Nishadhins, their active labour and their harmonious blending with nature does not mean anything to her. She is cocksure that those Nishadhins will not know her language and she just floods out her darkest secrets on the lap of mother nature. One particular Nishadhin keeps watching her. On the day when the jungle was hit with the fatal forest fire, the tribes and the other species that have been living over there flee from that dangerous zone to the safest region. Unable to comprehend the bustling move of the various lives in the forest, Kunti sits quietly and watches their flight wondering why do they all behave thus. The Nishadhin woman comes very close to Kunti and accuses her for being a ruthless schemer. She charges Kunti addressing her by name with the crime of having murdered her mother –in-law, her husband and his four brothers. During the period of their hide out, Kunti in order to make Dhuriyodhana believe that they were all burnt to death in fire, it was schemed to burn six tribes who came down from their hills to sell their cultivated products. This event has been pointed out and the tribal woman dares sending Kunti on a guilt trip. She also pinpoints that she is blindfolded to a greater extent than Dhirtharashtra and Kanthari. An aspect of facticity is that it entails angst. Freedom "produces" angst when limited by facticity and the lack of the possibility of having facticity to "step in" and take responsibility for something one has done also produces angst. The Nishadhin discloses the advent of the forest fire and curses Kunti with her anger and flies away. While the Kurukshetra war makes Kunti be bereft of the comforts of royal life by choice, it also has affected her psychologically depriving her peace, happiness and status. Instead she is shrouded with an irrevocable sense of guilt and indulges in a lot of selfaccusation and added to which is the latest charge of the Nishadhin. Devi has very efficiently and eloquently brought out the anguish, helplessness and the desolated state of the royal lot in this short encounter between a tribe and a Queen. That is the severest bolt from the war invariably on the lives of all and sundry and more sarcastically on the royalty. The above analysed story significantly stresses on the degenerative aspect of the war fare affairs, whereas the first story that analysed the detrimental elements of war that result in degeneration in the royal household but regeneration in that of the common household. Quite contrary to the general notion that wars will result in victimisation, confinement and above all slavery, the third story “Souvali” explores on the most unanticipated concept namely liberation and freedom. Many noted existentialists consider the theme of authentic existence important. Authenticity involves the idea that one has to "create oneself" and live in accordance with this self. For an authentic existence, one should act as oneself, not as "one's acts" or as "one's genes" or as any other essence requires. The authentic act is one in accordance with one's freedom. A component of freedom is facticity, but not to the degree that this facticity determines one's ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 5 transcendent choices (one could then blame one's background for making the choice one made [chosen project, from one's transcendence]). Facticity, in relation to authenticity, involves acting on one's actual values when making a choice (instead of, like Kierkegaard's Aesthete, "choosing" randomly), so that one takes responsibility for the act instead of choosing either-or without allowing the options to have different values. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism) The last story in this series is the best example to authenticate the concept of authenticity as defined and analysed in the above quote. The female protagonist of this story Souvali is one of the maids who served King Dhrithrastra when Kanthari has gone for maternity purpose. Resultantly, she becomes pregnant and begets Yuyutsu. As is the custom with the royal system, even the children of the concerts especially the stepsons should be groomed differently. They will be taken away from the mother and will be taken care of the wet mothers. When they turn into age they will be sent to the Gurugraha – to the abode of the Guru and will be growing well trained in arts and skills. This being the routine, Souvalya – Yuyutsu was also taken away from Souvali and the separation from her baby is unbearable to the devoted mother. Kanthari;s watchful eyeswere always very alert and Souvali could never get the audience of King. Dhiritharastra. Sensing that her status in the place is getting deteriorated from a consort to that of a slave, Souvali could not accept this descend. With remarkable boldness, audacity and courage, she went to Dhruva, the chief caretaker. Having been deprived of her status as the beloved mother to her dearest son and also having nothing to do in the palace, she decides to quit the palace and renounce the tag line of being one of the concerts of the King. She willingly selects to be a common free woman rather than being a slave in the harem of the palace. Souvali’s deep desire to be connected with her son and be happy gets fulfilled after the Kurukshetra war. That Dhirithrastra and Kanthari along with Kunti were burnt in the forest fire was a very heartrending news to all. When it is time to perform the last funeral rites to the departed, Yuyutsu alias Souvali is the only available Gaurava. He is instructed by King Yudistra to undertake the responsibility of performing the last rites. Yuyutsu, though not willing to do the rites as he has never experienced the warmth and strength of fatherly protective love, willingly does his duty so as to enable the souls to attain liberation. Since his biological mother is Souvali, he boldly refuses to do the formal customary funeral rites to Kanthari. This attitude very significantly brings out that Souvalya is a chip of the old block, here his mother. The war, which has actually deprived the privilege of many people of all ranks, it has played a very positive and optimistic role in the lives of these two. Souvalya’s doubt regarding his mother as one who deserted him for her personal gains got ratified and he understands the purity, sanity and sanctity of his mother’s decisions. Souvali’s undying urge and spirit of independence stays intact all through her life. She wants to be as free as air which could never be imprisoned. Though a woman of the Vaishya clan and has been prescribed to be a concubine, she refuses to sustain a shadowy meaningless existence. The value she keeps attaching to herself is so strong and important to her that she is unmindful of the fettering facts. She refuses to be flatly bound by customs and rituals. While her other counterparts in the palace meekly and shamelessly surrendered and submitted them to the will of royalty, she stands firm and achieves her liberation. She is very firm in her stand and the death of her son’s father could not alter her view about either herself or on others. She adamantly refuses to treat herself as the surviving widow of the deceased King. She does not observe any of the customs related to the role. She does not fast but feed herself with a delicious feast of delicacies marking the celebration of her freedom. Margret Atwood's first full-length critical work, Survival (1972), discusses four basic victim positions: denial, fatalistic acceptance, repudiation, and creative nonor ex-victim (36–9). ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 6 Atwood has very succinctly defined the stages of victimhood that are either thrust on or unwittingly women enter into. The first category refers to women who are absolutely ignorant about their status of victimisation. They ignore or are unmindful of the oppressive conditions or circumstances and they continue their existence with the available bare minimum means. In the three stories that are discussed no woman is unaware of her victimhood. The second category is about women who acknowledge that they are victims. They are, unlike the first set, fully aware of their victimised state but unable to fight it out, their stringent survival conditions make them believe that those conditions are inevitable and unchangeable and they meekly surrender to the victimised state. There is a strong sense of resignation and the lack of agency to challenge the living conditions impose on them sense of surrender. In the first story, “The Five Women”, while the common women are endowed with the fighting spirit, the royal women are depicted to be hapless victims. Undoubtedly Kunti can also be brought into this circle. Though, they are fully aware of their victimised state, they become very docile and accept that condition as their fate and continue to exist a lifeless life. The third state is that of “repudiation”, in which the victims actively resist and courageously challenge the oppressive circumstances with an intense intent to overcome them. The common women, who were the wives and now the widows of the foot soldiers, with robust optimism despite the crippling conditions, fight against the oddities and march towards rejuvenation. The final and the fourth of the victim position is called by Atwood as “Creative nonor ex-victim”. These warriors not only combat their crippling conditions but succeed in suppressing the oppressing forces and victoriously win over their victimising factors. Transcending their victimised mentality, they liberate themselves physically, psychologically and in many cases economically too. They adhere to a life of self-reliance and serve as a promising model to defeat the defeat and add meaning and purpose to their existence. They refuse to merely exist and with due regards live a purposeful life. The tribal woman Nishadhin in the second story and Souvali of the third story very staunchly fought against the ruinous and stifling conditions and extricate themselves from their catastrophic fetters and breathe freely and live with contentment, gratification and pride. According to the theories of existentialism, the four pillars of existential therapy are identified to be “freedom, responsibility, meaning, and isolation”. Governed with any one or more of the four given pillars, the characters in these stories design their life structure and face the consequences. Kunti in the second story and Souvali in the third story undoubtedly isolate themselves but the reason for their isolation is entirely different. While Kunti seeks to be separate in order to give vent to her hitherto untold maladies, Souvali stays in solitude to celebrate her liberty. Freedom being the hallmark of life, Souvali’s pursuit is after it. Kuntitoo in a way wants to be free but eventually she attains victimhood and not the much desired sigh of relief. Instead of getting relieved and live with a renewed sense of peace and atonement, she is caught into a crushing web of conflict, dilemma and guilt. The five women in the first story, Godhumi, Gomati, Yamnua, Vitasta and Vipasha and the Nishadhin in the second story and also Souvali of the third story are deeply committed to their sense of responsibility which invigorates them, emboldens them and empowers them to fight and succeed. Mahaswetha Devi, in her own distinct way has scrutinised the effects and impacts of war on the royal household and that of the common household. Whether it is life or death, there are inherent elements of both the dismaying degeneration and that of the invigorating regeneration. Life being a mixture of the lighter and heavier elements, one cannot avoid the darkest side. How does one respond to the call of life is the mark of prudence of an evolved individual. Now is the era of AI and the unforeseen progress in the field of technology have their own telling impact in the battle field too. While living in peace enables the inmates of the globe to try rigorously and ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 7 vigorously to elevate the standard of living and experience life in its multiplicity, the advent of wars, civil wars, revolutions, commotions, chaotic confusions and combats result in the exposure of life at its worst. The scars of the destructive and incurable aftermaths of Hiroshima and Nagasaki till date stand as a crucial warning for the existing lot to be kind, prudent and humanistic. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature. Canada: Read How You Want, 2013. Devi, Mahaswetha. After Kurukshetra. Translated by Anjum Gotwal. Kolcutta: Seagull Publishers, 1987. Cronkite, Walter. by Taylor O’Connor | on 14 July 2023, Edison, Thomas. by Taylor O’Connor | on 14 July 2023 Lester, Muriel. by Taylor O’Connor | on 14 July 2023 Sherman, General William Tecumseh. by Taylor O’Connor | on 14 July 2023 Vinson, Frederick Moore. by Taylor O’Connor | on 14 July 2023 https://everydaypeacebuilding.com/121-quotes-that-analyze-the-nature-of-war-andviolence/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism