ABSTRACT
The author theorises the incorporation and negotiation of historicity in the Mahābhārata with its ‘eternality’ through a Bakhtinian framework. By positing arguments made by Draupadī and Yudhiṣṭhira in the Vana Parva, on the merit of forgiving their enemies, she underlines the significance of the dialogue mode as an effective instrument for unpacking the meaning/s surrounding agency in the Mahābhārata. This gets able assistance in the literary critical tools/tropes of answerability and chronotopicity supplied by Mikhail Bakhtin. With particular reference to the multiple interpretations of the agency of Draupadī and Kuntī, Bandlamudi states that the chronological modernity of these tools should not prove problematic in understanding the variegated conceptual world of the ancient epic, as the epic itself grows over time into a veritable hall of mirrors. It does not appear to prioritise any single conclusion pertaining to selfhood and agency but leaves the field open for the discerning reader to address emergent social and philosophical concerns. In this interpretative tradition, Bandlamudi argues that the continuing dialogue between the text and generations of readers with their expanding/varying perspectives goes against rendering any definite epistemic category to the epic and recognizes instead the undiminished agency of both the Mahābhārata and its readers.
