On Krishna’s chariot stands Shikhandi
Shikhandi embodies all queer people – from gays to lesbians
to Hijras to transgendered people to hermaphrodites to bisexuals. Like their
stories, his story remains invisible. But the great author, Vyasa, located this
story between the ninth night and the tenth day, right in the middle of the
war, between the start and the finish. This was surely not accidental. It was a
strategic pointer to things that belong neither here nor there. This is how the
ancients gave voice to the non-heterosexual discourse.
Shikhandi embarrases us today. Sthunakarna who willingly
gave up his manhood frightens us today. But neither Shikhandi nor Shthunkarna
embarrassed or frightened Krishna or Vyas. Both included
Shikhandi in the great narrative. But modern writers have chosen to exclude
him. That is the story of homosexuals in human society. Homosexuals have always
existed in God’s world but more often than not manmade society has chosen to
ignore, suppress, ridicule, label them aberrants, diseased, to be swept under
carpets and gagged by laws such as 377. They have been equated with rapists and
molesters, simply because they can only love differently.
“Bhisma loves us too much to defeat us,” said the Pandavas.
“Yet not enough to let us win,” reminded Krishna .
“He must die, if dharma has to be established.” But Bhisma had been given a
boon by his father that he could choose the time of his death. No one could
therefore kill him. “If we cannot kill him, we must at least immobilize him.”
“But no one can defeat him,” said the Pandavas. “Even the
great Parashurama could not overpower him in a duel. So long as he holds a
weapon in his hand he is invincible.”
“Then we must make him lower his bow,” said Krishna .
“He will never lower his bow before any armed man.”
“What about an armed woman?”
“A woman? On the battlefield?” sneered the Pandavas,
forgetting they themselves worshipped Durga, the goddess of war and victory.
“But it is against dharma to let women hold weapons and step on the
battlefield.”
“Who said so?” asked Krishna .
“Bhisma says so. Dharma says so.”
“Dharma also says that old men should retire and make way
for the next generation so that the earth’s resources are not exploited by too
many generations. But Bhisma did the very opposite. He renounced his right to
marry, so that his old father could resume the householder’s life,” argued Krishna .
“He was being an obedient son.”
“He was indulging his old father at the cost of the earth.
That vow spiraled events that has led to this war. It is time to be rid of him,
by force or cunning, if necessary. We must find someone before whom the old
patriarch will lower his bow. If not a woman, then someone who is not quite a
man.”
“What about Shikhandi!” said Dhristadhyumna. “He is my elder
brother. He was born a woman. But my father, Draupada, was told by the Rishis
that he would one day become a man. Though born with female genital organs,
Shikhandi was raised a son, taught warfare and statecraft. He was even given a
wife. On his wedding night, the wife, daughter of king Hiranyavarna of
Dasharna, was horrified to discover that her husband was actually a woman. My
father tried to explain that actually Shikhandi was a man with a female body
and that Rishis had told him he would someday acquire a male body. The woman
refused to listen. She screamed and ran to her father and her father raised an
army and threatened to destroy our city. A distraught Shikhandi went to the
forest, holding himself responsible for the crisis, intent on killing himself.
There he met a Yaksha called Sthunakarna who took pity on him and gave him his
manhood for one night. With the Yaksha’s manhood, Shikhandi made love to a
concubine sent by his father-in-law and proved he was no woman. The wife was
therefore forced to return. Now, it so happened, that Kubera, king of the
Yakshas, was furious with what Sthunakarna had done and so cursed Sthunakarna
that he would not get his manhood back so long as Shikhandi was alive. As a
result what was supposed to be with him for one night has remained with him
till this moment. My elder brother, Shikhandi, born with a female body, has a
Yaksha’s manhood right now. What is he, Krishna ? Man or
woman?”
“I think, Shikhandi should ride into the battlefield on my
chariot. Let Arjuna stand behind him,” said Krishna . The
tenth day dawned. The chariot rolled out. Behind Krishna
stood the strange creature, neither man nor woman, or perhaps both, or neither,
and behind him, Arjuna.
“You bring a woman into this battlefield, before me,” roared
Bhisma seeing Shikhandi. “This is adharma. I refuse to fight.”
