To begin with, if you are unfamiliar with Hindu tradition and mythology, the complexity of the names and the fluid manner in which gender and sexuality are interlinked and narrated in The Pregnant King may catch you off guard. If there is one thing that this book is trying to tell you, it’s that anything is possible.

Although a work of fiction, The Pregnant King may be considered educational, not just in terms of relating in a narrative text the ancient Hindu customs and traditions predominantly practiced in olden times, but also in developing a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. The book also questions the perception and the potential of gender exclusivity: how does it exist? Can it be transformed? How important a role does gender play in determining the ability, judgment and overall personality of a person, and whether gender is enough to justify a person’s ‘proper’ place in society among other things.

Characterised by epic battles among extended family members that inevitably cause a shift in the balance between heaven and earth — and how the earth chooses to respond — the story predominantly centres around Yuvanashva, a childless prince waiting to be king. He is waiting for his headstrong albeit wise mother to someday allow him to actively rule. Inherently obedient by nature, it is only after he forcibly assumes power to ‘prove his manhood’ (in Hindu tradition, a man hasn’t really matured till he has married and produced an heir) that he makes his first ever misjudgment in a case presented before him.

The case involves two adolescents, a boy and a girl, who prior to being brought in court were actually both boys. A miracle occurred when they spent the night in the prison cell and one of them physically transforms into a woman. They are charged with attempting to fool the royal wives into believing they were husband and wife.

As an act of rebellion and in an attempt to prove that he is just as capable of ruling as his mother, the king rules that both adolescents be put to death (burnt alive). Needless to say, the gods aren’t happy and to put it somewhat crudely, this act, especially when the ‘earth is not hungry for blood’, messes up the balance in nature. And someone has to pay for it.

Meanwhile Yuvanashva, in his desperation to have at least one heir, resorts to soliciting the services of a pair of hermits, Yaja and Upayaja. They are brothers who practice an art of magic considered to be a taboo and dark in nature — because it resolves to tamper with destiny and carries enormous repercussions for those who chose to use it for their personal gain; which is exactly what Yuvanashva wants to do.

By sheer accident Yuvanashva drinks the potion made by the hermit brothers for his wives. It was meant to make his wives brimming with fertility for him to impregnate with at least one (guaranteed) heir. Instead he ends up impregnating himself and gives birth to a small, palm-sized son via an olden-day C-section.

What is amusing to note is that during and after his pregnancy, he experiences both the emotional and physical conditions of being a woman: an increased emotional state of mind, sore breasts, etc.

In a twist of fate, after the son Yuvanashva gives birth to a son who matures and discovers that his father is also his mother (?) — pretty much the male version of the Virgin Mary, with added help — Yuvanashva is faced with the same prejudice with which he had passed the ruling over the pair of innocent adolescents who ended up dying because of it. They come back into Yuvanashva’s life almost immediately afterwards as ghosts and become, over time, his chosen companions.

Although the novel predominantly centres on him, Yuvanashva’s story isn’t the only one contained within the book. Punctuated by epic battles, anecdotes of other members of his extended royal family dealing with issues of gender (Shikhandi, born into a royal family as a baby girl is brought up as a son and married as one as well, etc) and societies perceptions of gender. It examines the concept of male and female and often fuses it into both, blurring the lines between the two main gender characterisations and making the viewer reconsider his/her perceptions of what makes a person male or female other than their physical manifestation.

The author, Devdutt Pattanaik, teaches mythology and has written fiction extensively on Hindu mythology. Written in beautiful language but by which the story is not overshadowed by flowery prose, the writer has an uncanny ability to write ‘graphically’. His descriptions, along with his narrative, create a series of wonderfully detailed and moving pictures in one’s mind as the both the individual characters and the story line develop.

The Pregnant King
Penguin Books, India
ISBN 0-14-306347-42
350pp. Indian Rs295