THE ELEMENT OF GUILT AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY IN MADHAVI MAHADEVANS THE KAUNTEYAS

As most of the Epics around the world narrate the stories of the heroes and talk about their strength,valour,the wars won,the territories annexed etc,rarely do they focus on the emotional and personal side of the stories.Also,the women characters remain majorly overshadowed by the eccentric male-centricism of these narratives. Keeping this premise in mind, many contemporary Indian English writers sought to revisit, revise, and re-present the story of the ancient epics from sub-altern point of view, which included the womens point of view also. In reference to the contemporary retellings of the Mahabharata, amongst the many writers, Madhavi Mahadevan chose to bring out the perspective of the woman character Kunti in her work. Her novel, the Kaunteyas, is a fictional narrative which revolves around the life of Kunti during the course of the Mahabharata, highlighting her struggles and the choices she made in life. As the novel focuses on a womans point of view, the personal and emotional elements which lay overlooked in Ved Vyasas Mahabharata gain prominence in the modern retelling. To achieve the desired effect, the motifs of guilt and moral responsibility play major role in highlighting the inner conflicts and struggles that many characters, including Kunti, go through in the novel.