Brushing the history against the grain- Mahasweta Devi's “after KuruKshetra”

Mahasweta Devi's collection of short stories “After Kurukshetra” is a historic reflection of The Mahabharata where the rajavritta and janavritta confront; where the epic turns the veils of the hidden truth which spotlights the subaltern women who are from the fringes of society but no less than the vanquishers of the epic. The three subaltern women in the volume are the true heroes as they forfeit their lives for the sake of elite and conquer the lifelong pain. The paper focuses on the agony and anguishes of the marginal women of the era of the Mahabharata; the unsophisticated women, standing within janavritta confront and conquer imposing rajavritta intrepidly. Being insignificant, they remain isolated and abandoned the whole lives even anonymous in the great epic but their prolonged silence is an incongruous critic to the royal dynasty as well as the established social customs. In the interplay of janavritta and rajavritta, does humanity lose its identity? The paper is a sincere attempt to seek the answer.