This article proposes to deal with the secret truths of the court life of the kingdom as delineated in the Indian epic, Mahabharata. Mahasweta Devi, the mentor of the marginalized, has re-written some of the episodes of the Mahabharata. The knowledge of Yuyutsu as a dasi-putra has served a rich source of inspiration to Devi. In the story "Sauvali" (collected in "After Kurukshetra") she focuses on the illicit relationship of the king Dhritarashtra with a dasi, Sauvali. Though it is a common phenomenon in the royal ancestry, Devi however makes it ironical by giving her attention to the illegitimate son Yuyutsu, born by the union of Dhritarashtra and Sauvali. Yuyutsu is never recognized as a prince in the kingdom. And when all Kauravas (the hundred sons of the king, Dhritrashtra) were killed in the war, Yuyutsu performs the last rites of his father. In this way, an unrecognized son becomes the liberator of his father's soul and gets salvage from taking rebirth. In a very subtle way, it calls into question the conventions of easy availability of the lower caste poor men and women for serving the desires of the rich.
When the queen Gandhari was pregnant, Sauvali was kept in the service of Dhritarashtra. He used Sauvali for his physical and sexual gratification that caused Yuyutsu's birth. Being a son of a maid, he was always deprived of his position as given to the Kauravas and Pandavas (the five sons of impotent Pandu). Though Yuyutsu was similar to Duryodhana and Bhima in his age, he was subservient to a hundred and five sons. However he is the only son who gets salvation. While showing the relationship between the haves and have-nots of different strata of society, Devi derides the custom of the royal ancestry and its men who are unable to show any emotional bonding towards an illicit son while in folk culture they nurture an orphan as their own.
Souvali, the mother is denied all rights to rear her son, Souvalya in a royal way. Except the name of her son Yuyutsu, she gets nothing and it causes her to be angry if someone addresses Souvalya as Yuyutsu. All her life she craves for giving her son the princely rights as given to a hundred and five sons however her all aspirations are crushed. When she comes to know that Souvalya did the tarpan (the last rites, one of the customs performed according to the Hindu religion) she feels proud because a slave child has been provided a chance so that Dhritrashtra (the late king) could get salvation.
Devi, the mentor of the marginalized, has re-written some of the episodes of the Mahabharata. The knowledge of Yuyutsu as a dasi-putra has served a rich source of inspiration to Devi. In the story "Sauvali" (collected in "After Kurukshetra") she focuses on the illicit relationship of the king Dhritarashtra with a dasi, Sauvali.
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