Gandhari: The Mother of the Kaurava Princes

by Anant Pai (Story)

Stories of many great women, their achievements and their sufferings, are recounted in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Sita, Kunti and Draupadi are among the better known. These women went through many painful ordeals, but they had one hope to sustain them--they had noble children.

The case of Gandhari, the mother of the Kauravas is different. She was a good woman who gave birth to wicked sons. All around her there was treachery. Her husband was weak and ambitious; her brother, Shakuni, was an arch-villain; and her sons were full of violence. Among them, she alone stood for virtue and truth--a single lotus in a marshy swamp.

Genres: Comics, Mythology

38 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Anant Pai popularly known as Uncle Pai, was an Indian educationalist and creator of Indian comics, in particular the Amar Chitra Katha series in 1967, along with the India Book House publishers, and which retold traditional Indian folk tales, mythological stories, and biographies of historical characters. In 1980, he launched Tinkle, a children's anthology, which was started under Rang Rekha Features, India's first comic and cartoon syndicate, that lasted till 1998, with him as the Managing Director.

Today, Amar Chitra Katha sells about three million comic books a year, in English and more than 20 Indian languages, and has sold about 100 million copies since it inception in 1967 by Anant Pai, and in 2007 was taken over by ACK Media.

Reviews

[Sha]

29 Nov 2020

1. There's a pun in the title! I approve.

2. *cough* Anyway. Gandhari's is yet another multi-faceted character, a woman who's inherently righteous caught between justice and her children's interests. It's pretty interesting to see how, once she finally decided that Duryodhana was overdoing his ego problems with his cousins, she repeatedly criticizes him and counsels against war. But at the end of the day they are still family and she will be on her sons' sides. (Which of course goes against Krishna's Bhagvat Gita speech but that's a whole other thing.) Her story is as filled with pathos as oh- most of the other stories in the Mahabharata.

3. The thing is, Gandhari exemplifies womanly virtues. She consigns herself to eternal blindness because her fiance who she's never met before is blind. She angsts over not having kids while Kunti gives birth to Yudhisthira, claiming her luxuries and privileges as queen are nothing compared to Kunti's happiness at having a child while eking out a living in the forest. It's all pretty stereotypical women do x stuff. However, it also can't be denied that the queen mothers of the Mahabharata- Kunti and Gandhari, are far more strong willed and influential than their husbands. Welcome to the strange dichotomy of depictions of women in Hindu Mythology, which persist as a cultural ideal to this day.

4. I really like the ending, where she sarcastically praises the victors, with their rivers of blood, their new monikers as kinslayers, and their murdered children. It's clear that the Pandavas and Krishna have always held her on high esteem for a reason. Gandhari's vengeance is measured and proportional- Yudhisthira, a demigod bound by his duty from multiple points, gets a mutilated toe. Bhima gets a stinging speech. Krishna, who Gandhari points out could have stopped this entire useless war from happening, gets cursed with the destruction of his kinsmen as they fight among themselves, the same way her family got killed. The fallout of that is not discussed in this book, but it's pretty bad.

5. I always found it fascinating that mortals in Hindu Mythology were able to curse the gods. That mortals and even demons have the power to bend gods to their will in the matter of boons. It adds some interesting elements of conflict, story-wise.

[Pranav]

It is a good book and the illustrations were good but they could have added information on the birth and childhood of Gandhari and what happened to her after the Mahabharata war. It was bad to see that Krishna had been cursed in an unfair manner as he was never at fault and it was Duryodhana who provoked the Pandavas constantly. It showed us that we should never let anyone cross his/her limits and first confirm the news. Because Gandhari loved her son so much, she wouldn't even believe that Duryodhana manhandled a lady in front of everyone. Overall, this is a good book and I recommend it.

[Shinjini]

Gandhari was dealt a real bad hand of cards, first losing her eyesight to feel the pain of her husband, then going through the struggles of a mother who has complete faith on her children, howsoever wicked they may be, and finally living through the death of all her sons. One has got to feel bad for her.

[Malina Shrestha]

I am impressed on the author's incredible ability to bring such the complex and three dimensional character that Gandhari is, into a comic-esque modern interpretation of the Mahabharata's legendary events.

The premise is clear and the artwork transports you deep into the story. The dialogue encaptures the original, with an interpretation that a modern audience understands.

Would definitely recommend to anyone, as the book is short and simple, yet does justice to the fascinating character that Mata Gandhari is.

[Sinch]

Read this to my sister today. To see extremely complicated topics boiled down to the contemporary audience with neat illustrations—kids love it, I love it. This book also gives Gandhari her agency, stripping her away from the 'helpless mum' sort of an archetype that is so often dictated by men around such characters.

[Ravi Kumar Dandapani]

interesting

[Nidhi Chopra]

She wouldn’t have neglected her sons, had her father not given to a blind man. Injustice by father, stupidity.

[adithi]

ACK and tinkle :)))