“Beneath the sterile or impotent fathers lie angry women,” Wendy Doniger observes of the Mahabharat in her book, The Hindus. Draupadi spits fire at the Pandavas, who watch while her clothes are unravelled at the Kaurava court, and Amba swears to destroy the celibate Bhishma, who had abducted her for his brother. If they are desired, they also desire others. It is the hunger and rage of these women that drive the story of the Mahabharat. Two of the angriest women in the epic give birth to the Pandavas.

Pandu, with characteristic boorishness, once shot a pair of mating deer. This brought down a curse on his head — if he ever tried to make love to his wives again he would die. Desperate for an heir, Pandu pleads with his wife Kunti to beget children with an approved Brahmin. Kunti then reveals that she knows a mantra that can summon the gods. Dharma, Vayu and Indra are invoked, begetting Yudhishtira, Bhima and Arjuna, respectively. Pandu’s second wife, Madri, who is also taught the mantra, calls the Aswins and gives birth to Nakula and Sahadeva. Trouble ensues when Madri, presumably eager for more children, wants to be told the mantra again. Disgruntled at the fact that the younger queen had called two gods at one go, Kunti refuses to do so.

One day, a few years later, an amorous Pandu follows Madri as she goes to bathe. Unable to contain himself, he makes love to her and dies in the throes of passion. As the elder queen, an irate Kunti prepares to immolate herself on the funeral pyre when Madri volunteers to go in her stead. Her desire has not been satisfied, Madri says, she would rather join Pandu in heaven and continue with their interrupted lovemaking. Kunti stays behind to look after both their children.

One detects a sullen defiance in Madri, a rebellion against her role as the meek second wife and against Kunti’s diktat. She is also frank about her sexual appetite. The assertion, “I want”, that is implicit in this, is an articulation of desire as well as of agency. Madri chooses her own death at her husband’s funeral pyre, motivated by lust rather than piety. By doing so, she effectively subverts the ritual of sati. Maternal concerns do not stand in the way of what she wants either.

It is up to Kunti to ensure the survival of the clan. This queen, who could summon the gods, already had a child before she was married. In a spirit of quite cavalier curiosity, she had first tried out the mantra by calling the Sun-god. The result of this torrid encounter was Karna, who grew up to fight on the side of the Kauravas. It is perhaps because of this adventurous curiosity about sex that Kunti thinks it natural for Draupadi to be married to five husbands.

The dangerous power of Kunti’s mantra had been successfully harnessed for the perpetuation of the clan. Kunti identifies herself as a “kshatriya nari” and even maternal instincts must be set aside for the kshatriya code of valour and heroism in battle. Bhima is ruthlessly sent to deal with the bakarakshasa. Yudhishthira, according to her, needs to forget his tiresome preoccupation with dharma and be a more robust warrior-king. Karna, the child she had forsaken, is remembered only when she is afraid he will fight against the Pandavas. Kunti wants a say in things to do with the State and with warfare. Throughout her life, she would seethe with the desire for a voice outside her role as wife and mother.

Pandu’s two queens are not doting mothers or virtuous wives; they enjoy their sex, they want impossible things, they like getting their way. The potent rage that ensues changes the course of their world.