Title of Research Proposal: A Historical
Study of Subaltern Perspective of Female
Characters (1200-800 BCE):
Draupadi and Kunti are elite women, but what about lower-class women in the Mahabharata?
Did these powerful women influence the status of other women in the epic?
Under the supervision of
VIKASH RANJAN SINGH
Submitted by:
SWEEKRITI SINGH SIKARWAR
ROLL NO: 22/HIS/59
SEMESTER-6
PAPER: FUNDAMENTALS OF HISTORICAL METHODOLOGY
DATE OF SUBMISSION: 16th APRIL, 2025
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
INDRAPRASTHA COLLEGE FOR WOMEN
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
DELHI-110054
Introduction
The Mahabharata, one of the foundational texts of ancient Indian literature, has long been
revered for its narrative complexity, philosophical depth, and historical influence.
Traditionally, scholarly focus has gravitated towards its elite and divine characters -
particularly male warriors and noblewomen like Draupadī and Kunti- thereby eclipsing the
voices of marginalized groups within the epic. This study aims to explore the Mahabharata
through the lens of subaltern female characters- women who are lower-caste, servant-class,
or otherwise disenfranchised in both textual and societal terms.
While Draupadi and Kunti have been portrayed as formidable women with considerable
moral and social agency, their power is still embedded within a patriarchal and caste-bound
framework. The question then arises: what happens to those women who are not born into
privilege? How are lower-class and lower-caste women represented? Are they granted voice,
agency, or narrative attention? If so, do the actions and choices of women like Draupadī and
Kunti influence them?
This research engages with these questions by drawing from feminist theory, subaltern
studies, and epic literary analysis, examining the extent to which elite women may have
shaped, intentionally or otherwise, the socio-cultural positions of subaltern women. The
overarching aim is to bring visibility to the peripheral characters whose lives, although often
obscured, carry profound implications for the structure of gender, caste, and power in ancient
Indian narratives.
Objectives of the Research
The primary objectives of this research are:
To re-examine the Mahabharata from a subaltern perspective, with a focus on lower-
class female characters, thus broadening the narrative beyond elite figures.
To explore whether the prominence of elite women such as Draupadi and Kunti
creates a paradigm for social change or cultural influence that permeates the lives of
subaltern women.
To bridge the research gap in literary and cultural studies by integrating feminist
theory with subaltern studies, and by challenging the long-held assumption that the
epic’s portrayal of women is uniform across caste and class differences.
To contribute to contemporary debates on intersectionality by situating ancient
narratives within modern frameworks of gender, class, and power dynamics.
Review of Literature
The review of literature will trace the evolution of feminist interpretations in South Asian
studies, particularly regarding representations of women in ancient texts, and will be
presented in a narrative style that reflects both continuity and rupture in scholarly discourse.
In doing so, the review is organized around five critical subtopics that reflect the thematic
nexus of the study.
Elite Women in the Mahabharata:
Elite women like Draupadī and Kunti have been interpreted variously - as tragic heroines,
assertive moral agents, and vehicles of dharma. Scholars such as Mandakranta Bose argue
that the roles of these women were circumscribed by their familial affiliations and their
service to patrilineal continuity1. Draupadi’s humiliation in the Kauravas court, for instance,
is often framed as the moral nadir of the epic - a symbol of womanhood's vulnerability even
when noble-born2. Kunti, though politically savvy and emotionally intelligent, is depicted as
a mother and widow navigating crises in private and public life.
Kavita Kane’s fictional reimagining’s further underscore the humanity and struggles of these
women, highlighting their dilemmas, negotiations, and endurance 3. Yet, these narratives,
while powerful, rarely transcend the boundaries of class and caste.
Lower-Class Women and Subaltern Narratives:
The most striking characteristic of subaltern women in the Mahabharata is their narrative
absence. Servants, nurses, handmaids, and anonymous women make fleeting appearances,
often instrumental to elite women’s stories or male heroism. Their identities are subordinated
to the goals and moral arcs of royal figures.
Uma Chakravarti notes that in classical Hindu epics, gender and caste are mutually
reinforcing systems of exclusion, where upper-caste women are idealized while lower-class
women are rendered voiceless.4 The ritual and moral frameworks of dharma prioritize the
preservation of caste hierarchy, which ensures that subaltern women remain either unnamed
or denied subjectivity.
In her essay “Seeing the Queen from the Servant’s Quarters,” Chakravarti re-reads the
moment where a dasi in the epic is shown weeping quietly in the background of Kunti’s
anguish. The servant knows the family's truth but has no voice in shaping its fate -a metaphor
for the epistemic injustice faced by lower-caste women. 5 These instances, though brief,
expose a crucial silence: the denial of speech as a denial of agency.
The work of Mandakranta Bose also emphasizes that the structural logic of Hindu narrative
restricts moral agency to those within caste-sanctioned roles. Subaltern women are typically
excluded from this privilege.6
1. Mandakranta Bose, Women in the Hindu Tradition: Rules, Roles and Exceptions, Routledge, 2010, pp.
85–90.
2. Uma Chakravarti, “Gender, Caste and the Epic,” in Arindam Chakrabarti and Sibaji Bandyopadhyay
(eds.), Mahabharata Now: Narration, Aesthetics, Ethics, Routledge, 2014, p. 101.
3. Kavita Kané, Karna’s Wife: The Outcast Queen, Rupa Publications, 2013, pp. 47–63.
4. Uma Chakravarti, Gendering Caste through a Feminist Lens, Sage Publications, 2018, pp. 67–72.
5. Uma Chakravarti, “Seeing the Queen from the Servant’s Quarters,” in Arindam Chakrabarti and Sibaji
Bandyopadhyay (eds.), Mahabharata Now: Narration, Aesthetics, Ethics, Routledge, 2014, pp. 97–
105.
6. Mandakranta Bose, Women in the Hindu Tradition: Rules, Roles and Exceptions, Routledge, 2010, p.
99
Influence of Elite Women on Lower-Class Women:
One of the core questions of this study is whether elite women - Draupadi, Kunti - exert any
ideological or cultural influence over lower-class women. Do their struggles resonate
beyond the palace walls? Are they aspirational figures or instruments of reinforcement?
Draupadi’s outcry after her disrobing - “O elders of the court, is this dharma?” - is often seen
as a clarion call for women’s dignity. Yet her audience is entirely male and elite; there is no
evidence that her protest influences or involves non-elite women. 7 Kunti's act of giving
Karna away is driven by royal necessity, not maternal ethics inclusive of lower social orders.
Their choices, while morally complex, remain embedded in upper-caste structures.
In Kane’s Karna’s Wife, the character of Uruvi - another elite woman - acknowledges that
Karna’s lower birth makes him noble in ways her class cannot fathom. 8 However, even this
fictional empathy does not translate into solidarity with subaltern women. Chakravarti
critiques this “performative compassion” -elite women may lament injustice, but they do not
politically or materially engage with caste oppression.9
Narrative Structures and the Production of Gendered Space:
The Mahabharata is a layered narrative - a story within a story - delivered through multiple
voices. But the distribution of narrative space and authority is deeply unequal. Elite men
dominate the dialogue; elite women like Draupadī and Kunti are occasionally granted voice,
though under social constraints. Subaltern women, by contrast, appear without authorial
space - they are seen, rarely heard.
In Mahabharata Now, Arindam Chakrabarti and Sibaji Bandyopadhyay argue that narrative
aesthetics in the epic are not neutral - they are shaped by who is allowed to speak and under
what conditions.10 Speech itself becomes a form of social power. The suta, the dasi, the
entertainer, and the concubine are granted moments of description, but seldom self-narration.
Even when subaltern women perform central duties - like informing, lamenting, or witnessing
events - their speech is not recorded.
This asymmetric narrative voice is not simply stylistic but ideological. According to Sibaji
Bandyopadhyay, the Mahabharata is a text that both replicates and resists hierarchy - but
resistance is embedded within the voice of the narrator, not the characters who are excluded
from that role.11 Subaltern women are thus doubly marginalized - by gender and caste -and
reduced to metaphoric rather than subjective presence.
7. Uma Chakravarti, Gendering Caste through a Feminist Lens, Sage Publications, 2018, pp. 106–107.
8. Kavita Kané, Karna’s Wife: The Outcast Queen, Rupa Publications, 2013, p. 122.
9. Chakravarti, “Seeing the Queen...”, in Mahabharata Now, p. 100.
10. Arindam Chakrabarti and Sibaji Bandyopadhyay (eds.), Mahabharata Now: Narration, Aesthetics,
Ethics, Routledge, 2014, pp. 17–25.
11. Sibaji Bandyopadhyay, Reader: An Anthology of Essays, Worldview Publications, 2011, pp. 142–147.
Subaltern Agency and Resistance in a Hierarchical System:
Despite these exclusions, subaltern women are not passive. Their agency may not manifest in
overt rebellion but in coded acts of resistance, such as silence, endurance, or presence in key
transitional scenes. The weeping nursemaid who recognizes injustice but says nothing; the
unnamed servant who helps but does not judge - these are subtle gestures of critique.
Uma Chakravarti emphasizes that subaltern resistance is often invisible to the dominant
gaze but meaningful in cultural terms. The act of enduring or surviving in oppressive systems
can itself be subversive, especially when accompanied by knowledge or moral clarity.12
In her work on caste and gender, Chakravarti draws parallels with real-world hierarchies,
suggesting that elite narratives frequently obscure the labour and sacrifice of subaltern
women.13 Their bodies are sites of transaction, but their minds are often repositories of
counter-narratives - fragments of resistance that deserve decoding.
Bose also observes that these women are often the ones who carry stories forward - by
birthing, caring, cleaning, and narrating to children - even though they are absent from formal
discourse. Their lived experiences form the invisible spine of the epic. 14
Research Gap:
While extensive scholarship exists on elite female figures in the Mahabharata, the
intersection of caste, class, and gender among lower-class women remains under-explored.
Most existing works, even if sophisticated in their feminist critique, primarily address the
lives of protagonists and overlook the subaltern narratives that are embedded in the margins.
Consequently, the present research intends to address this lacuna by drawing on a range of
theoretical approaches-Marxist feminist theory, subaltern studies, and literary narrative
analysis-to foster a richer understanding of how marginal female identities are produced,
represented, and potentially transformed within the epic tradition.
Significance of Research
The proposed study holds substantial significance in broadening the academic discourse on
gender, caste, and power within ancient Indian texts. By foregrounding the voices of lower-
class women, the research does the following:
Theoretical Contribution: It enriches feminist theory and subaltern studies by providing
new interpretative frameworks that marry textual analysis with socio-historical critique. It
encourages a re-examination of canonical texts and challenges the hegemonic focus on elite
narratives.15
12. Uma Chakravarti, Gendering Caste through a Feminist Lens, Sage Publications, 2018, p. 119.
13. Ibid., pp. 121–123.
14. Mandakranta Bose, Women in the Hindu Tradition: Rules, Roles and Exceptions, Routledge, 2010, pp. 101–
104
15. Chakravarti 2018, p. 110; Bose 2010, p. 97].
Cultural Relevance: Re-assessing the Mahabharata from a subaltern perspective contributes
to contemporary debates on intersectionality, emphasizing the complexities of gender
oppression and empowerment in historical and modern contexts.
Methodological Innovation: Integrating qualitative methodologies with a blend of primary
and secondary textual analysis, the research serves as a template for similar studies in literary
and cultural studies, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue.
Social Implications: By revealing the latent agency of marginalized women, the research
invites modern audiences to reconsider historical narratives and recognize the enduring
legacy of subaltern resistance in contemporary gender discourse. This has implications for
both academic pedagogy and broader sociopolitical conversations around caste, gender, and
power.
Research Question
The core research question guiding this study is-To what extent do lower-class (subaltern)
female characters in the Mahabharata, as represented alongside elite figures such as Draupadi
and Kunti, exhibit agency and influence, and how does this impact the overall gender
dynamics within the epic?
Additional subsidiary questions include:
How do textual strategies and narrative devices in the epic serve either to suppress or
highlight the voices of subaltern women?
In what ways do the lived experiences and representations of lower-caste women
deviate from or align with the models established by elite female figures?
Can the interplay between elite and subaltern female narratives be seen as a site of
potential resistance against the entrenched hierarchies of caste and patriarchy?
Hypothesis
The hypothesis underpinning this research is two-fold:
Thesis (Pro-Proof): The presence of elite female characters such as Draupadi and Kunti in
the Mahabharata, far from being isolated narratives of power and agency, function as
templates that influence and occasionally empower lower-class women. These elite models
generate a counter-hegemonic discourse that allows subaltern women to negotiate their
identities and claim agency, despite the oppressive matrix of caste and patriarchy.
Antithesis (Contra-Proof): Conversely, the narrative privileging of elite women reinforces
hierarchical distinctions that marginalize lower-class voices. In this reading, subaltern women
are relegated to roles that serve to underscore their inferiority by comparison, and the
influence of elite female models is nominal at best-merely symbolic rather than
transformative in altering entrenched social orders.
Theoretical Framework and Methodology
Theoretical Framework: The research synthesizes perspectives from three dominant
theoretical strands:
Classicalism: This perspective draws upon traditional readings of the Mahabharata and
classical Indological methodologies that emphasize canonical interpretations. It is useful for
understanding the epic’s formal narrative construction and the idealized models of virtue and
authority embodied by its elite female characters.
Liberalism: Liberal feminist critiques provide tools for interrogating issues of individual
agency, rights, and the ethics of representation. Applying a liberal framework allows the
research to explore how the narratives offer, or fail to offer, alternatives to patriarchal modes
of governance, while examining the progressive implications of gender justice within the
epic.
Marxism (and Marxist Feminism): Perhaps most crucially, a Marxist feminist analysis serves
to elucidate the intersections of caste, class, and gender oppression. This approach dissects
the material conditions and social relations that produce subaltern identities and examines
how these narratives reflect broader socio-economic structures. The analysis is enriched by
exploring how the exploitation and marginalization of lower-class women parallel economic
and class struggles in ancient society. 16 Inspired by Gayatri Spivak’s question- “Can the
Subaltern Speak?” - this lens critically interrogates who is allowed voice, agency, and
memory.17 It explores how the epic reproduces class and caste dominance by denying
narrative space to subaltern women.
Methodology: The study will employ a combination of qualitative methodologies integrating
textual and contextual analysis. The following components outline the research methodology:
Primary Source Analysis- A close reading of the Mahabharata is central to the study. Key
passages that feature or allude to lower-class or subaltern female characters will be identified
and analysed in detail. This will involve deconstructing narrative techniques, linguistic
choices, and the socio-political subtext of dialogues and descriptions.
Secondary Source Review- Critical engagement with existing scholarship—including works
by Kane, Chakravarti, Bose, and analyses from anthologies such as the Sibaji
Bandyopadhyay Reader—will provide a theoretical and historiographical foundation. This
literature will be used to identify both convergences and divergences in the interpretation of
female characters and their influence on social hierarchies.
Qualitative Data Analysis- The study adopts a qualitative research approach, employing
thematic coding to identify recurring motifs of resistance, empowerment, and marginalization
in both the epic text and its interpretations. Additionally, narrative analysis techniques will be
used to examine how stories of subaltern women emerge in the interstices of the dominant
discourse.
16. Bose 2010, pp. 120–135; Chakravarti 2018, p. 115
17. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” in Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg
(eds.), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, University of Illinois Press, 1988, pp. 271–313.
Comparative Analysis: The research will juxtapose the narrative treatment of elite versus
subaltern female figures in the Mahabharata. Comparisons will be drawn with other epic
traditions, as well as with historical case studies outlined in secondary literature, to
contextualize the findings within broader discourses of gender and power.
Interdisciplinary Synthesis: An integrative approach that combines literary theory, feminist
critique, and subaltern studies will be applied. This interdisciplinary framework helps bridge
the gap between abstract theoretical discourse and concrete textual analysis, thus providing a
multi-dimensional understanding of the issues at hand.
Tentative Chapterization
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Framework and Methodology
3. Elite Women in the Mahabharata: Power within Boundaries
4. The Silenced Subaltern: Caste, Class, and Female Invisibility
5. Draupadī and Kunti: Models of Emulation or Reinforcement?
6. Narrative Techniques and the Ethics of Exclusion
7. Subaltern Agency: Between Resistance and Survival
8. Conclusion: Rereading the Mahabharata through Subaltern Feminism
Bibliography
Bose, M. (2010). Women in the Hindu Tradition: Rules, Roles, and Exceptions. Routledge.
Bandyopadhyay, S. (2011). Reader: An Anthology of Essays. Worldview Publications.
Bose, Mandakranta. Women in the Hindu Tradition: Rules, Roles and Exceptions. Routledge,
2010.
Chakrabarti, Arindam. “Mahabharata and Morality.” In Mahabharata Now, Routledge, 2014.
Chakravarti, U. (2018). Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens (Revised Edition). SAGE
Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
Chakravarti, Uma. Gendering Caste through a Feminist Lens. Sage Publications, 2018.
Dalmiya, Vrinda. “Care Ethics and Epistemic Justice.” In Mahabharata Now, Routledge,
2014.
Kane, K. (2013). Karna’s Wife: The Outcast Queen. Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
Mahabharata. (Trans. various). Critical editions and select translations that include relevant
textual passages.
Mahabharata Now: Narration, Aesthetics, Ethics. Arindam Chakrabarti & Sibaji
Bandyopadhyay (Eds.). (2014). Routledge
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Marxism and the Interpretation
of Culture, University of Illinois Press, 1988.
Selected works on Marxist feminism and subaltern studies from journals and edited volumes
(e.g., texts by Gayatri Spivak, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and others providing theoretical
frameworks on caste and gender).