Krishna had no harem, Professor!

Dear Professor Wendy Doniger[i] ,

Hope you are well. I recently read ‘After the War- The Last Books of the Mahabharata,’ a book in which you have translated Books 15-18 of the epic.

The following is an extract from your translation of Book Sixteen: Mausala Parvan- Chapter 8, Verses 32-39:

“The sixteen thousand women in the harem of Vasudeva's son Krishna went behind Vajra, wise Krishna's great-grandson.” (Italics mine)

In the referred translation, your choice of the words ‘women’ and ‘harem’ is incorrect, inappropriate, and unfortunate. For those women were not just ordinary women, certainly not concubines, war trophies, or pleasure-dolls, but Krishna’s honourable wives. They were not incarcerated or restrained without their consent, but were in Krishna’s secure citadels, not in a harem. Krishna had no harem. Nor did he have any concubines.

Which Sanskrit word did you translate as harem? Uneasy with your translation, I checked the original text in Vyasa’s Mahabharata (Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute’s scholarly, authoritative Critical Edition), and noted that you have translated ‘vasudevavarodhanam’ (Adhyaya 8, Verse-37) as ‘the harem of Vasudeva's son Krishna.’

Vasudevavarodhanam  is a sandhi or combination of two Sanskrit words – Vasudeva, meaning Krishna, the son of Vasudev; and avarodhanam meaning “the inner or women's apartments (in a royal palace).[ii]”

It could also be a combination of three Sanskrit words – Vasudeva+vara+dhanam meaning Krishna’s great riches; vara meaning supreme, great, or pre-eminent; and dhanam meaning riches. Bibek Debroy, an erudite translator adopts this meaning in his translation.

Why did you choose harem, a word of Arabic origin, first used in English in 1634, for avarodhanam?  Harem (ˈhɑː.riːm) in this context would mean  ज़नानख़ाना, महलसरा. The related noun Haram: हरम: •حَرَم  (Arabic) means harem, seraglio, women's enclosures or quarters; or concubine, female slave.[iii]

Harem is most often used for the inner or women's apartments in palaces of Muslim kings. Sanskrit puranas refer to queens’ apartments as antahpuram. Another similar word seraglio - from Italian serraglio which derived from Persian -Turkish saray or serai - are of relatively recent, medieval origin and related to specific cultures.

Surprisingly, in your ‘Introduction’ you have mentioned that harem is an erroneous translation for antahpuram:

"Antahpuram, literally, 'inner citadel', which I translate as 'the inner quarters', is the part of a palace where women, children, and old people are kept safe, often misleadingly translated as 'harem'."[iv] (Italics mine)

Therefore, in place of your translation:

“The sixteen thousand women in the harem of Vasudeva's son Krishna;”

a more appropriate translation is:

“The sixteen thousand wives in the secure citadels of Vasudeva's son Krishna.”

I am also inclined to accept Debroy’s translation as ‘Krishna’s great riches.’

Maybe, the incorrect, culturally insensitive, and highly inappropriate use of harem for the guarded and protected citadel of Krishna’s wives is an authorial slip or an editorial goof-up. I hope you would make the necessary correction.

Translation: A complex, challenging task

The Mahabharata with about three million words is the largest of the world’s epics. Several translators have translated parts of the gigantic epic, and only a few have translated the entire book. So, why have I picked up just two words from your otherwise highly readable and well-researched translation and offered my comments?

I am not a scholar, nor an academic, but a humble student of scriptures, particularly in Sanskrit. I have also occasionally translated from Sanskrit, Odia, Sambalpuri, Urdu, and Punjabi into English.

So, my lengthy discourse on the inappropriate use of ‘harem’ in your translation is not to nitpick, find fault, or show off my understanding of Sanskrit; but to underline the immense difficulty in translating from one language to another which also involves a fine understanding of the culture and religion which produced the epic.

Translating Mahabharata is a huge challenge, requires proficiency in Sanskrit, and a knowledge of the numerous labyrinthine, inter-connected myths, stories, and sub-stories.

Krishna’s wives

"Krishna Rajamannar with His Wives, Rukmini and Satyabhama, and His Mount, Garuda, late 12th-13th century" (Source: Wikimedia)

You would of course be aware that the sixteen thousand wives were all legitimate and honoured wives of Krishna. Bhaumasura (the son of Bhumi) aka Narakasura had abducted these young, unmarried girls, and had incarcerated them against their will. These women prayed to Krishna for his mercy. Krishna rode on Garuda, flew to Pragjyotishapura (the Land of the Morning Sun, the present-day Assam), and after a fierce battle killed Narakasura. The event is still celebrated every year as Naraka Chaturdashi on the eve of Deepavali. The released women prayed to Krishna to marry them since no one else would accept them. Krishna not only married them, but replicated himself into sixteen thousand identical forms to live individually with each queen honourably placed in a palace of her own, a protected citadel.

Once, to test the divinity of the little Krishna, Brahma had stolen the cowherd boys and their calves and put them to sleep in his kamandalu for a whole year. Krishna had created exact replicas of the stolen boys and calves, and no one knew the difference. After a year, Brahma realised his mistake, and sought forgiveness of Krishna, the avatar of Vishnu.

You may also recall that for Raas Leela at Vrindavan, Krishna had similarly replicated into sixteen thousand identical Krishnas to dance individually with each amorous gopi.

A literal mind would reject such feats as impossible. But it may just be a metaphor. The easy and most natural manifestation of the divine in each human, if that human is overwhelmed with love and immersed in faith and devotion.

Best wishes.

Sincerely,

Prasanna Dash, a humble student.

Resources

·      Mahabharata by Vyasa (BORI: Critical Edition)

·      A Sanskrit English Dictionary by M. Monier-Williams

·      Mahabharata – English Translation (1883–1896 ) by K.M. Ganguli

·      Mahabharata – Hindi Translation by S.D. Satwalekar (1929–1930)

·      Mahabharata – English Translation by Bibek Debroy

Shrimad

---

[i] Wendy Doniger is the author of several acclaimed and bestselling works, among them, The Hindus: An Alternative History: Hindu Myths; The Ring of Truth; Dreams, Illusion and Other Realities; Women, Androgynes and Other Mythical Beasts; Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares; and translations of the Rig Veda and the Kamasutra. She is Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago, and has also taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and the University of California, Berkeley.

[ii] A Sanskrit English Dictionary by M. Monier-Williams

[iii] Rekhta Dictionary

[iv] After the War- The Last Books of the Mahabharata – Translated and with an Introduction by Wendy Doniger