Subtle Mutations Within the Kṣatradharma of the King: A Masculinist Analysis of the Śāntiparva of the Mahābhārata

Abstract

The Mahābhārata, a comprehensive epic, showcases the profound richness of ancient Indian culture and literature. It is an epic about the Great War between cousins, the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas, and its futility. The text is highly diverse and deals with issues around theology, ritual lore, law, philosophy, cosmology and astronomy, to name a few. Though it does not claim to be a manual on masculinity, the Mahābhārata provides enough material to develop constructs on masculinities, especially the one steeped in varna. We concentrate on the twelfth book of the Mahābhārata, the Śāntiparva, a remarkable section known not just for its vast expanse but also for a philosophic exchange between Yudhiṣṭhira and Bhīṣma that redefined Kṣātradharma and significant aspects of Kshatriya masculinity. It is worth exploring how Yudhiṣṭhira utilised the power of questions [praśna] to change the course of an implicit debate on ideal attributes of a Kshatriya man, especially a king, from an emphasis on aggression, deceit, violence, expansionism, humiliation and domination to accommodation, self-control, truth, non-violence [ahiṃsā] and non-cruelty [ānṛśṃsya]. This appears to be a historical response to the growing popularity of Buddhist and Jain traditions that spread between the second century bc and the third century ad, a time proposed for the Śāntiparva as well.