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Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandavas in the Mahabharata, is a much discussed character who has been interpreted in various ways, for example as a tragic character, the heroine of the epic, and even as a witch who is responsible for causing mass destruction, the Kuruksetra war. With all the associated complexities, Draupadi remains one of the most intriguing of characters, a figure who has baffled readers and critics alike over the ages. The present study seeks to analyse the explications of one of the most haunting episodes of the Mahabharata, the disrobing of Draupadi, as portrayed in contemporary folk art and theatre, which seek to demythologize one of the most controversial characters in the canon of Indian literature and deconstruct the phallocentric ideology that informs the epic. The study takes into consideration Saoli Mitra's play, Nathavati anathavat ("Five Lords, Yet None a Protector"), which is an attempt to view Draupadi through "a pair of woman's eyes," together with Teejan Bai's dramatized rendering of Draupadi cirharan. It seeks to draw comparisons with the original epic as well as between the works of these two theatre artists and their style of narration in order to evaluate how far they have succeeded in providing radically different interpretations of the character while providing the essential message of the episode. These two artists share some striking characteristics as they take up the rural folk tradition and enter the male bastion, using dramatized theatrical techniques, such as live music and dance to act out multiple roles, all the while recontextualizing the episodes, often offering a social critique, demythologizing the myth, and presenting the essential message of the epic that is expressed in mythical terms.
Keywords: demythologization - myth - deconstruction - phallocentric ideology
Introduction
Demythologization, a term adopted by Rudolf Bultmann, is the means by which the veiled truth of the myth can be recontextualized in the modern world, where Gods and supernatural beings cease to exert any influence on the affairs of modern people. Bultmann, a German Lutheran theologian, focuses on the sceptical view of the mythology of the New Testament in his works, in the same way that Euhemerus, the ancient Greek mythographer, facilitated the tradition of providing historical explanations for mythical stories. Demythologization, in his...