Author Devdutt Pattanaik to talk about his recently released book "The Pregnant King"
Time : 4.00 pm - 7.00 pm. Venue: Zouk, Hotel Imperial Palace, Telli Galli, Andheri (East); Mumbai 400069. Entry Free Books will be available at 15% discount The Theme of the Book In the Mahabharata, the childless Yuvanashva accidentally drinks the magic potion meant to make his queens pregnant. The child thus conceived in and delivered from his body grows up to be Mandhata, a king of great repute. What does Mandhata call Yuvanashva? Father or mother? Can mothers be kings? Can kings be mothers? In the ancient epic, neither Yuvanashva nor Mandhata raise these uncomfortable questions. They do so in this book. So a new narrative emerges: a fiction fashioned out of mythological and imaginary tales where lines are blurred between fathers and mothers, men and women, husbands and wives. There is Shilavati who cannot be king because she is a woman; Pruthalashva who must be king because he is a man; a Yaksha called Sthunakarna who makes Shikhandi a husband and Somavat a wife; and Brihanalla who loves a princess and is loved by a prince. If biology is destiny, if gender is a cornerstone of dharma, then how does a king make room for such disruptions in order? For a good king must be fair to all: those here, those there and all those in between. WebLink to book coverÂ… http://devdutt.com/web/163
