The Dharma of Unfaithful Wives and Faithful Jackals: Some Moral Tales From The Mahabharata

How did Brahma create alluring women, and for what purpose? Why did

the righteous King Bhangashvana choose womanhood? How did the sage

Markandeya’s pupil prevent his guru’s wife from committing adultery? What

role did Indra play in the births of Vishvamitra and Parashu Rama? How were

death, diseases, desire and anger created? Why and how did the institution

of kingship come about? What can one learn from the mouse who escaped

the cat, the owl, the mongoose and the hunter; or the wise jackal who was

betrayed by the lion king? Why did Shiva swallow Shukra, the guru of the

Asuras?

Embedded within the lengthy discourse on dharma in the Shanti and

Anushasana Parvans of the Mahabharata are answers to a whole range of such

questions-moral lessons from a dying Bhishma to King Yudhishthira, on

life, death and everything in between. The Dharma of Unfaithful Wives and

Faithful Jackals is a highly entertaining selection of these tales-tangled at

times, insightful at others, yet always quirky-about women, both good

and bad, fathers and sons, kings, gods and kings of gods, and fables. The

perceptive translations by Wendy Doniger, hailed as ’the greatest living

mythologist’, are a treat for anyone fascinated by the bewildering complexity

of Hindu myth and lore.