Embodied Difference Extraordinary Agency: Re-reading Disability and Power in the Ramayana and Mahabharata

Abstract

This paper, "Embodied Difference, Extraordinary Agency: Re-reading Disability and Power in the Ramayana and Mahabharata", analyses how the concept of disability is expressed in the two great epics of India using the lens of disability studies and literary criticism. Instead of seeing physical or sensory disabilities as symbols of weakness or moral failings, the study examines characters who have embodied impairments who demonstrate wisdom, political power, moral power, and transformative power. Dhritarashtra, Manthara, Ashtavakra and Shakuni illustrate the intricacies of disability, identity, power and social perception. The paper deconstructs ableist readings of these epics and illuminates the complex nature of the disabled characters in the construction of ethical, political and spiritual world narratives through a contemporary critical lens. The study concludes that the Ramayana and Mahabharata not only offer a way to think about the nature of disability as limitation but also as a space of resilience, agency, and other modes of authority that help enrich a variety of discussions on inclusion, embodiment, and cultural representation.

In the Indian epics the characters of Mandara, Trijata, Ashtavakra, Surpanakha, Amba (then Shikhandi) illustrate that being disabled or different in body doesn't have to be a word for limitation, but can be a word for agency and change. In each of these characters, bodily impairment, deformity, old age, disfigurement or bodily and social marginalization is a physical condition, yet it also produces characters who play crucial roles in the course of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Mandara triggers Rama's banishment, Trijata maintains Sita's faith through wisdom and compassion, Ashtavakra overcomes any deformity by intellectual brilliance, Surpanakha's disfigurement is the impetus of the central conflict of the Ramayana and Amba's transformation as Shikhandi allows Bhishma to fall. These characters in their interactions with one another question traditional ideas about disability, suggesting that strength, determination, wisdom, and resilience are essential to the continuity and progression of epic narratives, and are not dependent on physical or social ability.