• CHANDRIKA V N

Sage Vyasa ‘s Mahabharata offers enormous material for innumerable studies from ever so many angles . So many treatise have been written and yet the treatment of women in Mahabharata remains a Pan-Indian scriptures and continues to be the inspiration for new creations in art and literature . There are several retellings of stories of Mahabharata . Among them the ‘Randamoozham ‘ by M.T. Vasudevan Nair , which was translated into English by P.K. Ravindranath tries to paint a vivid and general picture of Indian life . The reading of “Second Turn “ enables one to identify the moods of feeling , perceiving and believing related to one of the worlds oldest and unbroken tradition . M.T.Vasudevan Nair’s Second Turn ( Randamoozham ) is a re- reading of the Mahabharata which presents Bhima’s experience of neglect that leads to seething indignation . Bhima’s character in the Second Turn , presents the feelings against an exploitative system or his yearning for revenge. The language used in has a classical gravity . M.T. has brought Bhima and others down from their epic heights and treats them as characters in a familial set up . Mahabharata story through the eyes of Bhimsen is the Second Turn. ( Randamoozham ) , an epic novel by the legendary writer M.T.Vasudevan Nair , who has won the greatest award for literarture in Indian , the Jnanpith for the year 1997. This was translated into English by P.K. Ravindanath as ‘Second Turn ‘ This was often termed as M.T.’s master piece . It is an excellent instance of Perspective writing in Malayalam of which M.T. is a pioneer , where the essential part of the timeless epic is retold in perspective of Bhima , the second Pandava. Bhima , in this retelling has been endowed with a raging mind and tormented spirit , ultimately re- reading the whole of Mahabharata through his angle of vision . It has won man awards and accolades such as Vaylar Awards , Sahitya Academy Awards among othersand it enjoys a wide readership and is appreciated by peers and critics. It is written ina good quality version of the language , befitting a classic of the highest order. This work of M.T. is neither unique of the first kind as far as retelling of Mahabharata is concerned. Mahabharata is an ocean which we can find a different sea depending on where we enter . M.T. found a perspective to read Bharata and guides his readers to that perspective . Bhima had been a shadow of Yudhishtira and Arjuna . Without Bhima Pandava’s would have never won the Kurukshetra war, where most of the major hurdles before and during the war has been overcome by Bhima . His character and talents were indeed better than both Arjuna and Yudhishtira. Krishna and Arjuna are the heroes of Mahabharata . In Randamoozham it is different .Krishna is no more the hero but a mere king who failed to revenge Jarasandha and uses Bhima to take the revenge . Bhima has killed all the Kourava’s but the glory was given to Arjuna . Arjuna is known only for archery where as Bhima is well versed in archery, wrestling and much more . In this work Bhima is sidelined all along from the days of education . The insult continued to the next generation too. When Abhimanyu , the son of Arjuna is fallen the entire camp was sorrowful and no one Could control the pain . But when Ghatotkacha , son of Bhima , who has no equals , falls there is no pain . Even Krishna says, “ It is good that he has fallen otherwise we would have had to deal with him later. “ The author mocks at Krishna’s siding with both sides , saying India’s non-alignment movement starts from there. The novel shoots an arrow or two at the women characters of Mahabharata Kunti and Droupady . We can see their bias to Arjuna in each and every action. Droupady who sparked the fire of war was imagined as a lady who always happy to hear and see fights which gave her tremendous pleasure . Kunti on the other hand had every opportunity to end this spark with mature intervention but she added fuel to the spark which killed virtually all the boys in the next generation of Pandava’s and made a country of widows. The work is divided into eight sections each of which is further divided into various subsections . Before starting the novel M.T. pens down a sort of dedication offered to various legendary characters that feature in the epic . “ O thou story tellers, o thou citizens of Magadha ………..Also let us praise Vidura , an Embodiment of virtue ……O pals let us extol the glories of the Solar and the Lunar Dynasties .” We may note here that the author is identifying himself with the Suthas or the tradiotional charioteers who are also noted for their remarkable skills in story-telling. The author retells the story eliminating it of all divine elements , where even Krishna is considered a mere mortal Bhima , who plays one of the central role to the victory of the Mahabharata war is always already defeated—by virtue of his birth and parentage, or by virtue of his “ belatedness “, as the second-born who is condemned to wait his turn . This title Second Turn does not imply that a first turn has already taken, it does not presuppose , a first turn at all for Bhima . The novel is set as a retelling of the Indian Epic Mahabharata from the view point of Bhima , the second Pandava . The novel starts with Mahaprasthana , where Pandava’s renounce their kingdom and other worldly Possessions and start the final pilgrimage to the Himalayas to enter the heaven in bodily form . The story deviates from the original Mahabharata story when Bhima , stops to take care of fallen Droupady during this journey . The author avoids divine elements of the epic in an attempt to portray the story as real incident that happened in prehistoric India.

"BHIMA, AN EMASCULATED MALE A CLOSE READING OF SECOND TURN", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.14-26, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907144.pdf

"BHIMA, AN EMASCULATED MALE A CLOSE READING OF SECOND TURN", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp14-26, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907144.pdf