This session is devoted to texts and traditions of Mahābhārata performances such as theater, film, and vernacular language textual traditions, with a focus on the religious uses of these traditions. Papers in this session include Tamil performative and religious traditions and Tamil films that reimagine Mahābhārata characters from the Kaurava side of the conflict, and articulate the cultural significance of such retellings. In addition, Kālidāsa’s retelling of the story of Śakuntalā and the king in drama reveals changing social practices and audience expectations over time.
This paper explores the narratives and practices associated with Periyāṇṭacchi ("She, of the big universe") in the Dharmapuri region of Tamilnadu, India, based on ethnographic fieldwork and Tamil chapbooks. Periyāṇṭacchi is the clan deity of numerous families belonging to the Vanniya Kavundar caste group and is identified with both the goddess Pārvatī and Duryodhana's wife Peruntiruvāḷ (also known as Bhānumatī) from different yugas or cosmic ages. The story of "Arjuna's Tapas," which is part of the “Draupadī cult Mahābhārata” (Hiltebeitel 1988) and has been passed down through various oral and performance traditions, has played a crucial role in the identification of Periyāṇṭavar and Periyāṇṭacchi as Śiva and Pārvatī, respectively. Specifically, the encounter between Arjuna and two hunter couples during his journey has contributed to the deification of the Kaurava queen in the Tamil milieu, which I analyze in detail.
This paper examines the character of Karna in two Tamil films: Thalapathi (1991; Dir. Mani Ratnam) and Karnan (2021; Dir. Mari Selvaraj), and explores how vernacular cinematic conventions and Tamil understandings of morality contribute towards a Dravidian rendering of the epic narrative. In Thalapathi, Surya is a henchman of a local don and a man of the masses. Confronted by Arjun, an agent of the state about their illegal activities, Surya must choose between his comrade and as he finds out later, his half-brother. Karnan draws inspiration from a historical event of caste violence against a Dalit community in Tamilnadu, and maps characters from the Mahabharata onto a regional narrative about oppression, resistance, and liberation. In this paper, I analyze how Tamil understandings of ethics and love vernacularize the epic and situate Karna as heroic, allowing for a radical reinterpretation of what can be called a just society.
Kālidāsa tells a story from the Mahābhārata that arguably had a further reach than the original verses. He rewrites the story of Bharata’s birth from Śakuntalā and Duḥṣanta in his drama, Abhijñānaśākuntalam. This paper will examine how Kālidāsa represents the love between these two characters though an analysis of the drama’s aesthetic features in the first act. Kālidāsa’s protagonists, accompanied by a cast of characters, develop a shy romance that is largely communicated through glances, thoughts to themselves, and hushed jokes amongst friends. He departs in many ways from the Mahābhārata’s story, most notably making the King and Śakuntalā into characters that are more amenable to his audience’s contemporary sensibilities. Kālidāsa thereby dramatically transforms, by virtue of his retelling, the social imagination of history through his literary work.