Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part F (2025)

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbinary: Shikhandi and the Politics of Gender in Epic Tradition examines the complex gender identity of Shikhandi in the Mahabharata as a critical lens through which the fluidity, performativity, and contestation of gender norms in ancient Indian narratives can be understood. Traditionally positioned as both warrior and catalyst in Bhishma’s downfall, Shikhandi’s presence destabilizes the rigid binaries that structure dharma, kinship, and heroism in epic literature. This study interrogates how Shikhandi’s transition from Shikhandini to Shikhandi, achieved not biologically but through divine and social negotiation, complicates patriarchal expectations of embodiment and legitimacy. By foregrounding Shikhandi’s role in warfare, lineage, and oath-bound justice, the paper argues that the epic tradition does not merely tolerate gender variance but embeds it as a narrative necessity. Moreover, the text foregrounds how Shikhandi becomes a political site where masculine honour, feminine vulnerability, and non-binary agency intersect, challenging the perception that ancient narratives are wholly restrictive in their framing of identity. Through literary analysis and gender theory, the paper highlights Shikhandi not as an anomaly but as an intentional disruption to binary logic. Ultimately, the study emphasizes that Shikhandi’s unclassifiable identity is not a deviation but a deliberate assertion of multiplicity within the epic imagination, rendering the figure both unbowed by normative constraints, unbent by social prescriptions, and unmistakably unbinary.