The Moral Values Of Vyasa In The Mahabharata

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INTRODUCTION
Epic literature, with close bearing on the moral values, ethos and beliefs of society is of paramount significance. Epic stories have always been an integral part of any culture and as such are capable of generating interest of the learned as well as of the illiterate. In the recent past there has been a revival of the mythological themes in literature, theatre and television serials inculcating a new interest in the epics and its characters.
On the whole the living literary tradition like the Mahabharata, performs the dual function of recreation and reinterpretation of Indian society. Every period of social transformation tends to dig in this vast storehouse of knowledge for understanding the eras gone by and also for understanding …show more content…

Highlighting her pathetic situation, she laments:
Leave me alone! What will they say? There are elders and learned men in the hall. Look at my condition! To drag me in my period before a crowd of men … It is shameful, where is dharma of Kurus? (Lal 133)
But Dushasana drags her even harder and mercilessly replies: "It matters very little whether you are in menses or having only one cloth or none at all. You have become a bond-slave pledged in dice (Narar 58).
Yajnaseni realizes that all the so called great men, her husbands, other people sitting in the Sabha are cowards and can not defend a helpless woman. She stops praying for help and seeks justice as a living being from king, whose foremost duty is to provide justice to all his subjects. She asserts: “I do not beg anyone for pity, I demand justice. To protect the honour of woman is dharma of king. Then does it befit the Kuru kings to insult the bride of their own clan? (238)
It is Sabha Parva that jolts her completely and she takes control of her life after this traumatic episode in her life. Hereafter she empowers herself and challenges the Kuru …show more content…

In spite of being respectful towards the conservative and traditional roles assigned to her by the long standing mores, she has the courage to question the values that she finds suffocating her very being. The role model of Sita was acceptable in Indian society at one point of time for it represents the cardinal virtues of forbearance and self sacrifice and this role model does not carry currency now. Ray’s Yajnaseni by liberating herself from the Sita role model that she was happily emulating till the Sabha Parva proves the unsuitability of this self sacrificing role model. Yajnaseni exhibits the courage to fight the system to purgate it of the ills, so that no other Draupadi is humiliated in future. She rises to avenge her insult and does not sit quiet till is

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