Krishna goes to Mathura,
kills Kansa, and becomes the crown prince. Devaki forbids him to return to
Gokul. In the story, Yasoda, a fierce silent competition between Devaki and
Yasoda begins to claim Krishna, who becomes a battle field between two mothers;
one who has given him birth and the other who has raised him. Devaki makes
Krishna promise to discard the flute, forget his childhood, the dust, cows and
forest of Gokul. In the process, Krishna is crushed. He leaves Mathura for
Dwaraka, but pines for Gokul, his foster mother, the flute and the Gopis.
Bhadra is an innocent
maiden of Gokul. She believes Krishna in Gokul loves only the married women.
Therefore, she, being unmarried, never gets his attention. She marries to an
unworthy person, only to get Krishna’s love. But she finds Krishna, a changed
person in Mathura. She is no longer the cowherd, the lover of Gopis, but the
crown prince. Krishna spurns her offer. Bhadra returns disheartened, but does
not go back to Gokul. Her dead body was seen floating in the waters of Yamuna.
Devaki is possessive of
Krishna. She takes all care for Krishna to forget his past. She never allows
him to go back to Gokul lest she may loss Krishna to Yasoda. But there is a
chance meeting of Yasoda in Kuruksetra Varuni bath. There, in presence of all; Devaki,
Kunti, Droupadi, Pandav and Kuru queens, a question arises who Krishna
loves most; Devaki who has given him birth or Yasoda who has brought up him.
Krishna does not answer, but says he is hungry. Yasoda offers her breast and
Krishna presses his lips; milk flows into his mouth. The matter is resolved for
all there to see.
Chandrasen leaves the job
of an archer in Kansa’s army to keep vigil on Radha. Still, he hears Radha
roaming in the Kadamba grove with Krishna in moonlit nights. He lives the life
of a helpless and a tortured husband. After twenty-five years of Krishna
leaving Gokul, Chandrasen, without job, has become poor and Radha sick. But
Radha refuses medicine, and dies. Chandrasen sets out towards Dwaraka to
confront Krishna to give the sad news, and ask how Krishna does not find even
an hour to meet Radha during the twenty-five years after he left Gokul for
Mathura.
The Yadav clan is
decimated, Dwaraka is sinking in the sea, Krishna is struck by an arrow of the
hunter and the dying Krishna sends Daruka to Arjun to take his sixteen thousand
one hundred and eight queens to the safety of Hastinapur. On the way, a village
headman challenges Arjun to leave the queens with the villagers. Queens are
given option to go to Hastinapur to leave the life of a widow or remain in the
villagers in dust and forest. All the queens preferred not to be one among the
sixteen thousand to live in a caged palace, but to stay with the villagers as
their wives, except Sukanya. Once her skin is touched by Krishna, Sukanya does
not want to share it to be touched by anyone. She chooses to live the rest of
her life in the memories of Krishna, her loved one.
The Pandavs coronate
Parikshit on the throne and embark upon an unprecedented and almost impossible
journey to heaven in mortal forms. Droupadi follows the five brothers. She
falls ill and cannot move forward in the steep path of boulders and snow. The Pandavs,
for whom she has sacrificed her dignity in the Kuru court, shared pain and
suffering in the jungles and served as a maid servant in the Virat palace with
them in disguise, have deserted her. She dies in isolation and remains buried
in the snow, without any funeral rites performed for her.
Paresh Patnaik’s Sriradha
and Other Stories, translated by Rumi Malik, describes the above six women-Yasoda,
Devaki, Bhadra, Radha, Sukanya and Droupadi- in human light. They do not have
divinity, but are human beings with human weakness, emotions and failings. Written
in lucid style, the stories are readable, and also captivating.
Sriradha and Other
Stories
By Paresh Patnaik
Tr. Rumi Malik
Publisher: Shalandi
Books
Pages-148
Price: Rs. 250
*****
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