Shikhandi by Devdutt Pattanaik
Patriarchy asserts that men are superior to women, feminism clarifies that women and men are equal, and queerness questions what constitutes male and female. One of the few people to talk frankly and sensitively about queerness and religion, celebrated Indian mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik explains that queerness isn't only modern, Western, or sexual. Rather, by looking at the vast written and oral traditions of Hinduism, he finds many overlooked tales with queerness at their center, some over two thousand years old. There's Shikhandi, who became a man to satisfy her wife; Mahadeva, who became a woman to deliver her devotee's child; Chudala, who became a man to enlighten her husband; Samavan, who became the wife of his male friend-and many, many more.In Shikhandi, and Other Tales They Don't Tell You, Pattanaik recounts these stories and explores the importance of mythologies in understanding the modern Indian mindset. Playful, touching, and sometimes disturbing, when Shikhandi's stories are compared with their Mesopotamian, Greek, Chinese, and Biblical counterparts, they reveal the unique Indian way of making sense of queerness.
"Pattanaik is a master storyteller" -Bibek Debroy, translator of The Bhagavad Gita
Devdutt Pattanaik is a writer, illustrator, and lecturer who focuses on the present significance of mythology. Since 1996, he has published over thirty books and 700 columns on how ancient and current civilizations around the world manufacture subjective truth (myths) using stories, symbols, and rituals. 7 Secrets of Hindu Calendar Art (Westland), Myth=Mithya: A Handbook of Hindu Mythology (Penguin), Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata (Penguin), Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana (Penguin), Olympus: An Indian Retelling of the Greek Myths (Penguin), Devlok with Devdutt Patta (Rupa), Visit devdutt.com for additional information.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9789383074846 |
| ISBN 10 | 9383074841 |
| Title | Shikhandi |
| Author | Devdutt Pattanaik |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Penguin Random House India |
| Year published | 2014-07-15 |
| Number of pages | 192 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |