Dr Subramania Bharathi

Panchali Sapatham Dr Subramania Bharathi

The story of Panchali Sapatham, written in Tamil by poet laurette Bharati is said be to have been inspired by the Vyasa Bharatha, depicts the dice-playing scene of the Mahabharata, played by the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Yudhishtra loses all his wealth to the scheming Duryodhana and finally ends up betting his wife in a desperate last round. Panchali is tortured by the evil brothers and in the climatic scene is saved by her devotion to Krishna. Bharathi, with his vivid imagination, changed the characters around, portraying Panchali as Bharata Mata or Mother India and the antagonists Kauravas as the British. Much later, researchers on Bharathi's work have observed that the story was written to showcase the liberation of women and break the chains of women's oppression.