Wendy Doniger
How did Brahma create alluring women, and for what purpose? Why didthe righteous King Bhangashvana choose womanhood? How did the sageMarkandeya’s pupil prevent his guru’s wife from committing adultery? Whatrole did Indra play in the births of Vishvamitra and Parashu Rama? How weredeath, diseases, desire and anger created? Why and how did the institutionof kingship come about? What can one learn from the mouse who escapedthe cat, the owl, the mongoose and the hunter; or the wise jackal who wasbetrayed by the lion king? Why did Shiva swallow Shukra, the guru of theAsuras?Embedded within the lengthy discourse on dharma in the Shanti andAnushasana Parvans of the Mahabharata are answers to a whole range of suchquestions-moral lessons from a dying Bhishma to King Yudhishthira, onlife, death and everything in between. The Dharma of Unfaithful Wives andFaithful Jackals is a highly entertaining selection of these tales-tangled attimes, insightful at others, yet always quirky-about women, both goodand bad, fathers and sons, kings, gods and kings of gods, and fables. Theperceptive translations by Wendy Doniger, hailed as ’the greatest livingmythologist’, are a treat for anyone fascinated by the bewildering complexityof Hindu myth and lore.
