Book titled “Shikhandi and Other Tales They Don’t Tell You”
by Devdutt Pattanaik is a compilation of 30 stories and incidents from Hindu
scriptures and folk tales which border on the queer. These are stories that
have homosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, cross dressing… undertones.
Many of us must be aware of the story of Shikhandi from the
Mahabharata… who is regarded as eunuch or hijra… and who was responsible for
the death of Bhishma. But there are numerous other characters in Hindu
scriptures whose actions can be termed as queer.
Not all stories in the collection can be termed as dealing
with queerness. Some of them get a homosexual overtone when we are forced to
look at it in that way. For example the story of Chudala, Indra loosing his
manhood due to curse…
Again not all cross dressing is performed to satisfy sexual
desires. Cross dressing has been widely used as a method to overcome enemies.
Some of the cross dressing instances from Hindu stories which was purely used
as a trick have also been included in the book.
So stories that truly come under the category of queer are
far and few in the collection. There are also no stories that can be purely termed as
passionate gay love stories. Majority of stories narrate homosexual incidents
that happen due to certain circumstances and are then ignored or completely
forgotten.
But the book is still a good read as this is perhaps the
first collection of stories from Hindu scriptures that is directly associated
with homosexuality. We have had western scholars doing research on the topic
which lacks readability. Here the stories are narrated in simple language with
additional notes that gives fresh insight to the readers.
Shikhandi and Other Tales They Don’t Tell You
Published by Penguin Books
Author Devdutt Pattanaik
Pages 183
Price – Rupees 299/-