The society is not fit for innocents. It is as dark as we can’t even imagine sometimes. It is the land where charities were made out of business money. What forces someone to pay back to society? It is dharma – aram in Tamil. The victory of Mahabharata war is justified based on aram. Duryodhana has his own justifications where as Yudhishthira has his own. The injustice and humiliations of Draupadi made the Yadava chief choose Yudhishthira’s side – accepted aram!
Aram was the theme of Singapore Writer Festival 2017, where writers from different parts of the world persuaded this topic. Everybody has their own interpretation of aram to justify their stand. There comes the deadlock. We believe, the one which benefits the victim, is the right aram or righteousness.
I write about the one of the finest short story collections of Jeyamohan – Stories of the True, as part of #TBRChallenge by Blogchatter. This is the translation of his Tamil collection Aram. It talks about different personalities, who are real persons in the writer’s known circle and their attempts to ensure justice or righteousness.
This collection contains the iconic stories Elephant Doctor and A hundred arm chairs. Many of the stories would disturb the readers as it has a concentrated extract of painful hearts of our society.
I read A hundred arm chairs in Tamil a few years ago and blogged here. Still, I can’t resist reading it once again. I can totally absorb the mental agony of a son, a mother, a society, and the conflict around them. The agony of the mother became paradoxical with her son. The struggle between them pierced the reader inch by inch.
Elephant Doctor is something to be kept as a compulsory school read. Liquor has been made a fast-moving consumer good by the companies and the Government. Having money to travel to forests and waterfalls, consume liquor, break the glasses, create a ruckus is wrongly perceived as a ‘status building’ or ‘socialization’. But the pain created by desperadoes is something no one acknowledges.
I was moved by ‘Aram – The Song of Righteousness‘ and ‘The meal tally‘. Such stories show the gems out of a stereotypical society. ‘One world’ reminds me of Jayakanthan’s Tamil novel ‘oru manithan – oru veedu – oru ulagam‘.
‘Nutcase‘ was so closer to my heart because those who struggled for Indian freedom and those who got benefit out of it are different. The regents of Indian democracy showed an overt act of suppression on the whistle-blowers.
I recommend this book to get the a memorable reading experience. It will help us to reevaluate ourselves.
About the author and the translator:
Apart from what is written in Wikipedia, he is one of the best writers of Tamil literature. Apart from his writings, he engages his readers on a daily basis. He used to take a stand, clearly justifying the reasons behind it. He spent an enormous amount of days writing a full-fledged Mahabharata as a novel series called venmurasu, which was released on a daily basis for free. I was one of the readers who followed this novel till the end.
Translating Jeyamohan’s language is a challenge for any translator. In that way, Priyamvada Ramkumar had done her best.
Name of the book: Stories of the true. Author: Jeyamohan B Translator: Priyamvada Publisher: Juggernaut Publication Genre: Short story collection ISBN: 9393986177 Amazon
Duryodhana was jealous about Pandava‘s wealth. In addition, he got humiliated when he fell down into water at the palace of Indraprastha. By mistake, he thought Draupadi mocked him with derision. He wanted to take revenge for this. Shakuni – his maternal uncle – consoled him. He ensured him that he can win Pandava-s with the Chinese policy of winning without firing a bullet.
Kunti’s son loves to gamble with dice, but does not know how to play. If challenged to play, that Indra among kings will not be able to refuse. I am skilled in gambling with dice, there is no one on earth, or in the three worlds, who is my equal. Challenge Kunti’s son to a game of dice. O king! O bull among men! With my skill in dice?! there is no doubt that I will win for you the kingdom and the blazing prosperity. O Duryodhana! Tell the king?? all this. And if your father permits, there is no doubt that I will vanquish him.
Shakuni to Duryodhana – The Mahabharata Set Of 10 Volumes
Shakuni consoles Duryodhana
Yudhishthira had been invited to play a game of dice, a gambling for fun! It was considered as a “virtual war”. Whatever lost is lost. Yudhishthira – so called dharma – practiced adharma (sin) here. He risked insignificant things at first, later he lost everything one by one. Explaining the way he lost his wealth is not the motive of this post.
Mahabharata dice game
We need to understand the situation of the gambler who lost what he risked. With single game, he wanted to set right everything, he failed miserably again. At one point of time, he risks his brothers, then himself, then his wife Draupadi in the game, even though Vidura advised him to stop the game.
Mahabharata dice game
I like the face of Yudhishthira in the above drawing!
When he lost wife, Duryodhana summoned Pandava‘s wife and the queen of honour, Draupadi. Draupadi was mensurating then. Her question was logical. She asked if he lost him first before he lost her. If he lost him first, did he had any rights over her? Unfortunately, none of Pandava-s and Kaurava-s were logical. Kaurava-s acted out of the their suppressed wrath and Pandava-s acted with utter foolishness.
Draupadi’s humiliation. Image (c) Keshav
Logical questions of Draupadi irritated Duryodhana – ‘the new possessor’ of the lady, as agreed by the son of ‘dharma‘, Yudhishthira. He asked Dushasana to bring her to court. The young Kaurava broke all the rules of women’s court, trespassed there, pulled Draupadi’s hair as hard as he can. Draupadi resisted, but she was no match to him. She tried to make him understand that she is Panchala puthri (daughter of Panchala) and daughter-in-law of their house. It did not change his mind. It was an explosive situation, everybody was in its flow. She has been pulled, dragged in front of public and brought to court with improper attire.
Draupadi’s humiliation
Jeyamohan used to call it as ‘male-evil‘. It worked at its best. Duryodhana abused her to sit on his lap, as she is his slave, then. Kaurava-s told that slaves – Pandava-s and their wife – should not wear royal clothing. They made them undressed, including Draupadi. It was the greatest mistake to allow Dushasana to to disrobe Draupadi and challenged the modest of a woman, who was a queen, who was his own sister-in-law, who was a daughter in law of the greatest family of Bharatakhanda.
Draupadi dragged from her chamberDraupadi’s humiliationDraupadi’s humiliation
I do not believe the story of Krishna to issue the endless saree which made Dushasana to become tired. It was clean violation of modesty of woman in typical Indian way. Jeyamohan handled this piece in a more practical approach in his Mahabharata novel series, Venmurasu. It was Lakshmana – Duryodhana’s daughter – and other females of the royal family cover Draupadi with cloths by chanting the name of Krishna. ) I got into tears with much emotion when I read chapter 87 of Panniru Padaikalam novel of Venmurasu series.
The male evil will not stop its assault on female. We see that everyday. An innocent female get a rude husband and a soft male get an impudent wife. This seems to be naked truth.
I can point out several examples for such behavior from contemporary world as well.
A lady chief of a party was humiliated and disrobed in Tamilnadu assembly hall by the ministers of ruling party.
Lakbima – a popular Sinhalese daily printed vulger cartoon about a prime minister of India and a lady chief minister of Indian state
Acid was thrown at A lady IAS officer for being rough and tough by another political party in Tamilnadu
So, when a woman can not be won, a male will manhandle her habitually.
Except Bhima, every one in Kuru clan – including Bhishma, Dhritarashtra, Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva kept quiet. Even after such grave incident, Yudhishthira accepted to gamble. We can understand how addicted he is. He lost it too. In turn he needs to live in exile for thirteen years. With deep distress in mind, hiding his face from his own people, the great adharmi Yudhishthira, left the city.
Pandavas in exile
Abusing Duryodhana and Dushasana for disrobing Draupadi is not new. But do we have a soft corner for Yudhishthira to escape from this crime?
Did he ever realize his mistake? Never. Even after this incident, he agreed to gamble. He lost that game also, in turn, entire Pandava-s were forced to live in exile for thirteen years.
Did he has any rights over Indraprastha on his own? No. Although he is a king, he can not be a dictator. Kingdom is made of people. A gambler who risks his own people is not a good king. Calling himself as a dharma is inappropriate.
Did he build the city in his own money? No. He is a beggar. The land belongs to his ancestors. Money to build the city came from Hastinapur, Panchala and Dwaraka. He did not give it back. Rather, he lost all of them to his addiction of gambling.
Did he discuss with Draupadi about gambling? No.
Did he love Draupadi, at least? IMHO, he is not a loveable man. He expressed himself as a pure opportunistic through out Mahabharata. He tried to find justifications from veda-s or smriti-s to cover up his selfish behavior. He is not skilled archer or wrestler or he did not excel in any martial arts. Draupadi was wife of Arjuna, by right. Yudhishthira shared among all by quoting so called Dharma. He might have felt inferior because of these reasons. This might have forced him to take extreme decisions during gambling, to prove himself. Alas, he miserably failed.
Mahabharata text shows he used to praise Draupadi during different discussions. They look like a mode of public conduct – nothing else. I doubt if he loved his own wife Devika. No girl will love such a bored creature!
Did he respect advices of Vidura? No. Remember – he is the reason for Pandava-s to return alive from the house of lac.
Did he understand the effort in building Indraprastha? No.
It took many rounds of negotiations to get a land from Hastinapur. Pandava-s could not get it. It was Krishna who lobbied for them.
Khandavaprastha was a dense forest. Krishna and Arjuna put their effort in converting into a habitable land. They need to go on a war with Indra before doing it.
If Yudhishthira put any effort to build it, he might have given a second thought, before risking it on gambling.
If Draupadi married Karna, would he gamble her like Yudhishthira?
Krishna points out (during Pandava-s exile) that she too, reasonable for her own misery. As per his opinion, a great warrior like Karna will never gamble her away. But Draupadi rejected him during his Swayamvara on the basis of caste. Draupadi chose a priest in disguise over a charioteer. Unfortunately Arjuna, the priest in disguise, shared her among his brothers and gambled her. This is convincing for us.
Whom do we worship? Pandava-s or Yudhishthira?
Draupadi is the goddess for our society.
It is not Dushasana to be blamed first, it is Yudhishthira, the gambler!
While we are debating about Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan like never before, I came across an interesting novel Maamalar by Jeyamohan. This fiction work, based on Indian epic Mahabharata, portrays the character of coward Chandravamsa King, Yayati.
We all know about Yayati’s story in our childhood days. He is son of King Nahusha and an angel Asoka sundari.
About Yayati’s Lust
Although he was a kshatriya, he has been personified as a coward and lusty person in Indian puranic stories. Though he was married already, he accepts to marry Asura princes Sharmistha. Later, He marries Devyani, daughter of Shukracharya, the guru of Asuras. Devyani brings Sharmistha as her maid, with whom Yayati fall in ‘love’ and got Druhyu, Anu and Puru as sons.
When Devyani realized that he deceived her, she went back to her father’s ashram. This is an mind-blowing episode in Maamalar. As per this feminism fiction of Jeyamohan – Yayati accepts his fault by saying, he went behind his lust of his uncontrolled senses. Neither he deny as if he is an ideal man, Nor he justify as a kshatriya king. He became totally submissive and accepts being cursed by Shukracharya.
Though he was cursed to be a old man, he gave his curse to his son Puru and gets his adolescence to enjoy more women. His love or lust or whatever it is, is fulfilled with Asrubintumati, another lady, before he took back his curse and died.
Shah Jahan’s love!
Shah Jahan is a great lover – thats what I’ve been taught in Indian schools and stories. His love on his wife Mumtaz is not something we can explain easily. We need to write as beautiful as Taj Mahal, don’t we?
Only when he has enormous love on his wife, he can build such a beautiful monument for his dead wife. Though he was jailed by his son later, he spent his last days by looking at the monument until his soul departed.
But you may know this earlier, as many hinduva guys used to say this. But it was written by some Dr Irfan Zafar in his article It was never Love.
Leave our bed time stories and badly written Indian history text books apart, It is interesting to know that Mumtaz was Shah Jahan’s 4th wife out of his 7 wives. So he was married before he marry Mumtaz, He married even after Mumtaz.
Mumtaz was not Shah Jahan’s bride. He was wife of someone else. Jahan killed him to marry her!
In other words, he was dating Mumtaz for a long time and finally murdered the poor husband to satisfy his hunger (Lust). Ever heard the word morality? Making babies, as we all know, is our favorite sport.
Mumtaz live through the pain for fifteen years, until she died in her 14th delivery. Interestingly Dr Irfan makes a wit by saying, Shah Jahan married Mumtaz’s sister, as a final ending of his wife with Mumtaz!
Love 💕
It is not scarce to hear love stories in our youthful India. We have pairs from Ambikapathi-Amarapathi to Elavarasan-Divya. The number of unaccomplished romantic missions are increasing everyday. Right or wrong – is a different question, but we see people, even commit suicide for their love.
While all these political discussions make a debate cloud all over, I recall about one of our Tamil women of Muthollayiram, who says the following about his lover.
My dear elders, with a garland of blooms in hand! You are saying, ‘It’s morning already. Open your eyes’
Even if I loose my soul, I won’t open my eyes. Maran made my bangles to fall off from my hands. Such a ruthless man, he came in black elephant and entered in my eyes last night. He is inside my eyes. If I open, he will run away. No dears, I won’t open my eyes.
Please bear with my poor translation. Have a good weekend. See you in another interesting post.
Kratham is the 12nd novel in the Venmurasu series, the modern rewriting effort of ancient epic Mahabharata by Tamil writer Jeyamohan. This portrays the spiritual journey of Arjuna, to get mighty weapons and from the directional forces.
This journey has connection with the previous novel Kandeepam. After he lost his one-to-one fight with Krishna, the king of Dwaraka, Arjuna scared to taste the bitter of defeat and vengeance concealed in their invaluable friendship. So he starts his journey to search and equip himself with mighty arms and spiritual wisdom to win Krishna.
The entire novel talks about Arjuna alone. Journey of Arjuna is not new to Venmurasu readers. He had his journey earlier to north eastern states of Modern India. He loved and married Ulupi and Chitrangkatha during the same.
But this journey is of a different kind, as Arjuna is much more matured now. It has been delineated as a journey of wisdom, truth and spiritual thoughts.
The storytellers are few travellers, those who are searching for their own way of spiritual life. Their conversations and controversies are endless – The wit, philosophy, vision are enjoyable, though I couldn’t understand many! Arjuna’s journeys were told as flashbacks, performances of traditional poets. Jymini, Sandan, Vysambayanan and Ukran – every one of these travelers are spinning this novel as a tasteful philosophical feast.
Arjuna tries to win the Gods of all directions to get their mighty arms. He approaches Gupera of the north, Yama of south, Varuna of west and Indra of east. Though it looks simple, Jeyamohan’s fiction brings spectacular visuals in our mind.
Arjuna’s meeting with Gupera is such a tasty laughter for the reader. I was literally smiling during my morning commute.
Varuna is hidden inside a dead sea (salt lake of Jordan?). Arjuna’s travel is so hectic in this desert. While reading this episode, you would be thirsty and long for a rain.
His meeting with Indra is like a dream on top of Indrakila mountain. Indran’s vengeance on Krishnan and his Narayana veda, Bali’s connection with Ramayana are interesting branches of Mahabharata epid, has come out well with Jeyamohan’s fantasy writing.
After getting the weapons and mantra from all directional drivers, Arjuna lost again to Kinnara God aka Krishna in the land of Kinnara Janya. He felt depressed, as all his efforts did not get him what he wanted. As directed by Kinnara Janya priest, he was directed towards Kailaya to get Pasupada.
Arjuna recognises Shiva and surrenders to him. Painting by Raja Ravi Varma, 19th century.
Again, another interesting fiction – Arjuna’s meeting with Kaalan (Lord Shiva) and Kaali (mother parvathi) of Jeyamohan’s fiction. This dalliant and charming episode portrays the love between them, their parenthood towards Arjuna, Komban (Ganapathi) and Kumaran (Murugan). Kailaya episode was so charming. It was beautifully narrated in all it’s kind.
I am helpless to understand the philosophical conversations fully. But that doesn’t force a lazy reader like me to get away from this.
Iravu – an ecstasic fantasy novel by Jeyamohan. I had taken from my Ang Mo Kio library couple of weeks for my reading during my flying in AI 347 & 346. The quality and intensity of Jeyamohan’s writings, doesn’t allow me so fast. Unfortunately, a work week came in between, as a huddle to finish this. At last, I found time to resume and complete this novel yesterday.
As Saravanan, the hero of this novel, I’ve been so inspired by nightlife, fascinated by two yakshi-s, Kamala and Neelima.The way neelima exposed her outright thoughts after some wine and the way disrupted mind of Mukherjee reacts when he was deceived by time made me so ecstasic.
I read Īrār̲ukālkoṇṭel̲um puravi at Sengkang library yesterday. I was able to start reading it yesterday night itself. Though I’m unable to absorb the content fully, I harked and laughted at many places. But it was a sad end. Jeyamohan’s novels are totally unfit to read at night, as you have high chances of experiencing a nightmare.
