Trauma, Subalternity, and Postmodern Revision in Ashutosh Nadkar’s Shakuni: Master of the Game

Abstract

Mythological characters frequently move between archetype and reinterpretation across shifting historical and literary contexts. Shakuni, traditionally represented in the Mahabharata as the principal instigator of the Kurukshetra war and the embodiment of strategic malevolence, occupies a morally contested space in contemporary retellings (Hiltebeitel, 2001; Brockington, 1998). This article examines Shakuni: Master of the Game by Ashutosh Nadkar through the frameworks of trauma theory (Caruth, 1996; LaCapra, 2001), subaltern studies (Guha, 1982; Spivak, 1988), and postmodern myth revisionism. It argues that Nadkar’s narrative unsettles inherited moral binaries by reconfiguring Shakuni as politically marginalized, psychologically wounded, and intellectually formidable. Through close analysis of episodes including the imprisonment of the Gandhara royal family, the Lakshagriha conspiracy, and the Game of Dice, the study demonstrates that Shakuni’s villainy emerges as a historically conditioned response to humiliation and dispossession rather than innate depravity. The article situates Nadkar’s work within contemporary revisionist mythography in Indian English literature, where antagonistic figures are granted narrative interiority and ethical complexity. Ultimately, it contends that Shakuni embodies the tragic convergence of agency, memory, and structural violence, thereby challenging readers to reconsider the moral architecture of epic narrative traditions.