The Pregnant King

Devdutt Pattanaik

Jul 2014 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

‘I am not sure that I am a man,’ said Yuvanashva. ‘I have created life outside me as men do. But I have also created life inside me, as women do. What does that make me? Will a body such as mine fetter or free me?’ Among the many hundreds of characters who inhabit the Mahabharata, perhaps the world’s greatest epic and certainly one of the oldest, is Yuvanashva, a childless king, who accidentally drinks a magic potion meant to make his queens pregnant and gives birth to a son. This extraordinary novel is his story. It is also the story of his mother Shilavati, who cannot be king because she is a woman; of young Somvat, who surrenders his genitals to become a wife; of Shikhandi, a daughter brought up as a son, who fathers a child with a borrowed penis; of Arjuna, the great warrior with many wives, who is forced to masquerade as a woman after being castrated by a nymph; of Ileshwara, a god on full-moon days and a goddess on new-moon nights; and of Adi-natha, the teacher of teachers, worshipped as a hermit by some and as an enchantress by others. Building on Hinduism’s rich and complex mythology—but driven by a very contemporary sensibility—Devdutt Pattanaik creates a lush and fecund work of fiction in which the lines are continually blurred between men and women, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. Confronted with such fluidity the reader is drawn into Yuvanashva’s struggle to be fair to all—those here, those there and all those in between.

Ratings and reviews

Ultimate question of the universe, who am I? What is my purpose in life? Not revealed but very sensibly touched upon, at first this book revolves only around love making, but slowly gathers pace and reveals its true character. A good read till the end.

'The pregnant king' a very unusual title but a book full of stories and inspiration. As a school student when I used to read this book in my school , my friend used to say me that I am not a girl involved in double meaning things but why am I reading a book like this? The answer was simple that never judge a book from it's name or cover. This book was gifted to me by my Mamu and Mami on my 13th birthday. I enjoyed this book so much that I read it twice and loved it. I suggest everyone to read it and don't judge the book for its cover.. Thank you

The strangeness of it is what kept me going. There are times when you feel that the narrative is kind towards those who are marginalised because they are different.