Mythology Retold: Exploring the Subjective Realities Told in the Mythological Retellings with Special Emphasis on Kavita Kane’s The Fisher Queen’s Dynasty

Abstract

Reimagining mythology and retelling it afresh is an exceptional creative endeavor that has been undertaken by numerous Indian writers, enormously inspired by the Indian epics and mythological texts. The epics Ramayana and Mahabharata have been revisited by countless authors across the globe down the ages and the result is the availability of a number of retellings of these texts, possessing the unique stamp of the author’s viewpoint. Gupta and Singh while highlighting the prominence of Ramayana and Mahabharata among creative writers assert that both these texts are valued amongst “the most important works of literature in South Asia” (311).  The present study is an endeavor to highlight the prowess of the recent retellings of the ancient Indian mythological texts in expressing the hitherto unheard tales and subjective realities of the mythological characters. The study explores the life of a mythological woman, Satyavati, through the retelling of Mahabharata by Kavita Kane in The Fisher Queen’s Dynasty. It explores Satyavati’s journey from being an unfamiliar fisher girl to an awe-inspiring matriarch of Hastinapur dynasty.