The Mahabharata Character Analysis

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the mind and how it works. It outlines and explains the mental characteristics of a person and how it effects that person’s behavior. It’s important to acknowledge the many branches of psychology in order to understand the reasoning behind the actions of the characters within Indian Mythology, in particular cognitive psychology, social psychology and cultural psychology. Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes, while social psychology is the study of how people’s way of thinking and actions are influenced by the presence of others. This essay will focus mostly on the psychology of characters within the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Cultural psychology is the study of how psychological …show more content…
It tells the story of a princess named Draupadi who marries 5 brothers, and is later gambled away by one of the five brothers to become a slave. She refused to accept this fate and spoke against the injustice done toward her, eventually she influences her husbands to wage a war and they reclaim their kingdom and her honor (Narayan, 143-161). Unlike in the story of Valmiki where Rama conforms to the bidding of his society in this story, it’s clear to see the concept of Social psychology as well as cultural psychology from a contrasting view. In this story within the Mahabharata there is an underlying theme of social rebellion. While in the beginning Draupadi followed tradition by marrying all five husbands, eventually she broke tradition by speaking out against the higher authority being the men of the court and her husbands. It raises the question why did the Pandava brothers not help their wife as she was being dragged and nearly shamed? Prasaad writes “It all starts with principles and dharma and a conflict of what to follow, taking into consideration the evolving mindset of people” (Arun Prasaad). The Pandava brothers knew what was happening was principally wrong, that is why some of them wanted to retaliate but were stopped by Yudhistra due to his blind adherence to dharma and tradition. Arun …show more content…
Yayati speaks about the daughter of a guru named Devayani, she got into a fight with the demon princess Sarmishta over the fact that Sarmishta accidently wore Devayani’s clothing as they came out of a pool. Too which Sarmishta pushed Devayani down a well and left. Eventually the prince Yayati found Devayani and saved her, she grew a liking toward him. Devayani told her father that would not return home unless Sarmistha became her maid and eventually her wish was fulfilled, later one she married Yayati. After a while Yayati had an affair with Sarmishta, when Devayani found out she told her father, Sukracharya, who cursed Yayati to old age unless someone was willing to exchange their youth with his. His youngest son was the only one who accepted and eventually after Yayati lived his life to the fullest, he gave his youngest son his youth back (Naryan). Unlike past stories where the character’s behaviors were affected someway but tradition, culture or society, the story of Yayati has none of those attributes. So instead of analyzing the tale using cultural psychology or social psychology, the focus will mostly be on cognitive psychology. To answer a question like Why did the characters behave in such a way? One has to focus on the personality traits of each character. Devayani can be described as a narcissist. “Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental illness where a person develops an inflated sense of